On that choppy field, I hope the stadiums with turf fields can come up with a better solution to switching to grass for these next two tournaments in the US. The ball just bounced all night long.
USMNT Fall 2023 - Spring 2024: Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss
- Thread starter InstaFace
- Start date
The stop the game solution for homophobic chants is counterproductive. There is no incentive for the bad behavior to stop. If anything CONCACAF ends up looking impotent or worse complicit. I don't know how you fix it other than to make a competitive consequence. Next time it happens, we deduct a goal in your next match. Happens again, you forfeit a game. I don't know, maybe that makes it so that opposition fans can game the system. Maybe there just are no good solutions. It's really just disappointing.
Can FIFA step in -- not that they will for a future host -- but at least they won't be as driven by short-term economics as CONCACAF is when trying to find an appropriate consequence for the team in the region that sells the most tickets.
Can FIFA step in -- not that they will for a future host -- but at least they won't be as driven by short-term economics as CONCACAF is when trying to find an appropriate consequence for the team in the region that sells the most tickets.
We'll see how this progresses moving forward but if Gio stays healthy I think it's going to be hard to favor MMA over RAM as the starting unit assuming the same formation and everything. Musah is good for possession and generally a great floor raiser for the midfield but at this time (he is still very young) he just doesn't compare to Gio when it comes to attacking a D. He's a slick player but still a little too reticent.
Gio is plenty comfortable going straight into the teeth of a low block and finding the right pass into the box. And he's got that near-mystical ability to appear that he is moving at half-speed as he leaves defenders in his trail. Tremendous economy of movement. For the B's fans among us it is the same kind of thing that prime David Krejci could do to a defense—just slows time down for everyone else. And the more comfortable everyone gets playing off Gio the better it will be. Pulisic is so good at finding the right runs so if they can get a connection going it will be great.
And while Gio isn't necessarily the defender that the other options are, he can hold his own and if we are generating turnovers in the midfield as we like to do, I certainly trust him to be able to pick out the early ball for the quick counter. Haji's 2nd goal the other night was kind of a picture perfect example—midfield creates chaos, Gio pounces on the ball and finds Haji before the D can get organized.
At full health, having Musah as your top depth option in the MF is pretty damn good, and if in a tournament you need to dip into the 4/5/6 guys you have to feel much better about the options moving forward and our ability to continue playing our game, as opposed to bringing in Acosta and Aaronson and holding our butts for the last 25 minutes.
Empty stadium games or you lose your next homefield game, instead it is played at the opponent's site should have some results, no?
That has been the threat and it seems not to be working. They've had to play games behind closed doors and it doesn't really seem to be affecting anything.
Those games don't have the chanting, do they? Make the next X years' home games be in empty stadiums. Or move them to all road games if the home game empty stadium rule doesn't help
It might work if they do it again. The two games they punished Mexico for in 2022 for the chanting were pretty big games. A world cup berth was on the line. I guess maybe since they qualified, fans forget? But if closing the doors for WC qualification won't work, I'm not sure what you could take away from them that would work. They took 4 points in those two games, so maybe fans felt like it was no big deal.
Unless you can specifically not sell tickets to Mexican-American fans of El Tri then it doesn't really matter if you take away home games. Sure you can mitigate the chant but if the goal is eliminating it, then having matches moved from Azteca to Chicago or wherever isn't going to do the trick.
How does the EPL manage to do that? Reduce the number and location of seats available to fans of El Tri for any games on US soil (or any other countries where Mexican fans do this). Or go the other way, and eliminate any cluster of seats available to fans of El Tri -- divide and conquer, as I imagine this sort of thing is often driven by mob-mentality.
Our midfield depth is fast approaching a strength.
- Gio
- McKennie
- Adams
- Musah
- Johnny
- De La Torre
- Malik
- Brendo
That's a squad you can shrug off an injury or two and still feel great about who we have out there. Wasn't that long ago we were talking ourselves into Aaronson as a starter at CM or winger.
edit: thanks rguilmar.
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Just to emphasize how significant this point is: Mexico almost never plays in Mexico outside of WCQ and Nations League games.
Since the beginning of 2020, they have played two friendlies in Mexico, and one of them was their first game back from the COVID shutdown of soccer.
During that time they played TWENTY friendlies in the US, only one of which was against the USMNT. They also played eight road friendlies in other countries, but six of those were neutral-site games in the immediate post-COVID era and two of them were neutral-site games in Spain just before the 2022 WC.
Mexico's home base is the US. Part of it is that everyone in CONCACAF wants the US to host the Gold Cup and the Nations League finals for $$$ reasons and part of it is things like the 2024 Copa America. But a lot of it is friendlies. All five of their upcoming friendlies in 2024 are in the US.
You forgot about a locked in La Liga starter who missed this camp due to injury…
Given the flexibility of some of the players on the roster, I can see a world where GGG brings only 3 wingers and/or 3 fullbacks, allowing him to take seven midfielders in a 23 man roster.
Good christ, I did. And I LIKE Luca! Eight, count 'em eight midfielders playable at an international level, all of them plying their trade in the Big 5 leagues. Plus we had some forwards at that level who got passed over too, like Pefok.
What a revolution for our pool. The one outfield spot we have depth issues (LB, bless Kris Lund's heart) is the one spot where we have an ironman who can play 90' twice a week and never slow down or break down. And the one spot we have talent-level / future questions (CB) is the one our coach's scheme protects the most from it showing up in the results. Begging pardon of our 2002 and 2010 squads, but our front 6 positions are an embarrassment of riches by comparison to any other period in USMNT history.
I'm starting to wish Mexico could get their shit together and hit on developing a couple talents again. I won't complain about rubbing their noses in it, of course. But much as I enjoy that, we frankly need a competitive rivalry fixture. They even lost to our B-team (Gold Cup 2021), and had a 1-1 draw vs our C team (last April's El Cashico). It's arguably more dire than what our own situation looked like in 2019.
Oddly enough, the US is producing plenty of LB prospects now. Obviously not all will pan out, but between Caleb Wiley, JoGo, John Tolkin, Kevin Paredes (likely a winger but came up as a wing back) and so on, one or two will develop into a starting level player. Then there is always dual nat Christian McFarlane who most likely will be part of England's long term plans, but you never know.
Regarding Mexico, it's shocking how far they've fallen. Sid Lowe, Spain correspondent for ESPN and the Guardian, called Mexico historically the most underperforming nation in world soccer. They have the world's tenth largest population, and in terms of soccer crazy countries, they trail only Brazil in population. Their population is nearly triple that of Spain and Argentina, more than double that of Italy, and nearly double that of France. They have access to more soccer crazed youngsters than Spain, Argentina, and Poland combined, and that does not include the massive diaspora in the United States (equivalent to say, the population of World Cup semifinalists Morocco). It is absolutely shocking that they have such limited international success, and even more shocking that the national team is producing so little talent. They are also looking at arguably even worse batches of youngsters and are desperately looking at the Mexican-American population to fill the enormous developmental gaps that exists in their own programs. They might very well lose out on top prospects like Fidel Barajas, born and raised in Sacramento, which would be devastating for them. One might even start to feel bad for them. Until you hear the chant.
Given that there are fewer and fewer opportunities to play top countries due to continental competitions that did not exist in the past (Nations League etc), a strong Mexico is a good thing for the USMNT. Hopefully they can continue to participate in the Copa America in the future to get games against top level competition.