USMNT: Hold My Beer
- Thread starter Titans Bastard
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Seriously guys you’re not going to do anything with a 45 yard switch to a marked man against a back 5
Also, I'll invite the hatred for this comment but how exactly is Pulisic the greatest American ever? Not saying this draw is on him, but it wasn't like he did much.
He's allegedly better than Donovan and Dempsey, but I'm not seeing it.
He's allegedly better than Donovan and Dempsey, but I'm not seeing it.
Didn’t even use all his fucking subs. I like the culture Berhalter has been building, but he’s a bad coach tactically.
I just don’t think they have the people to make a 4-3-3 work. It takes a lot of positional play and positional discipline and they don’t have much of either. They need real box to box guys who can play in tight spaces and it just isn’t coming off at all
Bring back the MLS guys!
Is it Gregg’s system?Just good players but lack of cohesion for roles? This is not looking good so far
Is it Gregg’s system?Just good players but lack of cohesion for roles? This is not looking good so far
We better hope that the issue is McKennie and Reyna controlling the midfield. Because there wasn’t much else going on offensively.
Nope. Nobody with any strength to anchor midfield.
Seemed like the offense all started with Brooks waddling up to the center stripe and then lofting not quite precisely enough while a Canadian defender closed in.
No love for Claudio? CP has some impressive wcq stats. But I agree that Landy and Clint seemed to ‘make things happen’.
If he’s coached a game where the USMNT looked truly dangerous from open play against a team that was not an absolute minnow, it is not springing to mind easily right now.
Extremely different players. Hard to compare. Donovan and Dempsey made stuff happen. Pulisic works best as part of an interconnection.
Pulisic story isn’t complete Donovan and Dempsey had their share of bad results. Pulisic has the talent to be better but that can only be determined with time.
Do the MLS guys play better tonight? I don’t know much about soccer but they looked pretty good in the Gold Cup tournament.
If those subs come on 10 minutes earlier, it may have ended differently. They needed the energy and Sargent and Roldon gave them something.
They don’t, most likely. A whole bunch of them were in this game and didn’t particularly distinguish themselves.
Bummer that they still could have gotten the result though. The play leading to the Pulisic post was pretty slick.
The defending on the goal they allowed was really as bad as I think I can remember at home in qualifying. Just absolutely shocking. I have no idea how Brooks was so far in no man’s land there. What an awful let down after a big goal.
The defending on the goal they allowed was really as bad as I think I can remember at home in qualifying. Just absolutely shocking. I have no idea how Brooks was so far in no man’s land there. What an awful let down after a big goal.
With or without McKennie and Gio they are clearly missing a guy in the mf who is comfortable on the ball. Musah.
And the strategy where someone gets the ball in the midfield and everyone runs in different directions away from him is so fucking bad.
Berhalter wilted. Don’t know if he was scared to push too hard too soon and lose the point but he whiffed badly here.
And the strategy where someone gets the ball in the midfield and everyone runs in different directions away from him is so fucking bad.
Berhalter wilted. Don’t know if he was scared to push too hard too soon and lose the point but he whiffed badly here.
Theres no support for the ball. Everyone just darts looking for through balls like it’s Fifa. The spacing between Adams, who is often too deep, and the attack is way way way off. They’re doing the polar opposite of letting the ball do all the work. Simple triangles to gain territory and push the other team back are what they need but they aren’t capable of playing that one touch pass and support style. If they intend to be a counter attacking team then they need to probably partner Adams with someone and leave 4 forward in a Mourinho style 4222 or 4231. What they’re doing right now is just hopeless
Lotta swaggering talk coming into the window that looks really stupid now. If they get the win in Honduras it can still be upgraded from disaster to reasonable salvage job, but I don’t know what you take from this window to so far to give you confidence they will do that.
Ok. I just remember people talking about us essentially rolling out our C squad for COCACAF and I thought these were supposed to be largely better players.
I think after he saw Canada almost go up he sure did start to play scared and for the point. That’s what it looked like. You see that a lot though. It’s not losing the point that is the problem as much as also giving another competitor for qualification three. Win at home and draw on the road is the path for success but it is also true that losses at home hurt way worse than draws.
Need all three now on Wednesday and things are still ok but once again they start the final round leaving very little room for error after two match days.
The fundamental problem is that the USMNT showed a lot of grit and defensive toughness in grinding out wins over the summer, but the hope was that when the full team came back together that they'd be able to combine that defensive strength with more chance creation. The defensive structure is indeed very strong up the spine with guys like Adams, Robinson, and Turner and the USMNT does not concede many chances or goals.
But it feels like every game is going to be 0-0, 1-0, or 1-1 now and that means the margin for error is small if you miss a few chance (vs. El Salvador) or have to go up against arguably the best player in CONCACAF (vs. Canada) who can burn you.
it was tongue in cheek. But the gold cup, mostly mls, guys looked more like a ‘team.’
This crew clearly is more talented. But the final product leaves a lot to be desired
To put it in perspective, they started the last Hex with a home loss to Mexico and got absolutely trounced in CR the following match, and it still took some atrocious results late for them not to qualify. Need three on Wednesday, and a convincing three at that, but it’s early.
If Pep wants to coach a NT next and wants to live like Bielsa and silence the bald fraud criticisms I know a team he could slum it with
Thanks. What happens if they don’t get a W on Wednesday? Say they tie again?
What’s sad is before opening the spoiler I found myself saying “Gyasi Zardes?” And then upon reflection realized I was dead serious. Genuinely missing that energy and around-the-ball-all-the-time chaos.
Low still honestly, but trending in the wrong direction.
The conventional wisdom is if you win at home and draw away you’re pretty much good to go. US have failed to do that after tonight, but a road win in Honduras brings the 3-match window to the proper point total for that standard (by no means will that be easy, particularly given these initial slogs as evidence).
No matter what, they’ve blown the opportunity to back up their summer and lay down a marker that this is an improved USMNT.
Get that win, and we’re at least hitting the old marks, albeit in the most tense way we could have done.
We come out of this window with 3 or fewer points and there will be bad times ahead without some really nice salvage work.
Way too early to think about that.
The thing about CONCACAF is that you put yourself in a bad position when you need results on the road. That is really why winning at home matters. Between shenanigans and travel and pulled fire alarms and fields with rocks, it is never very easy. Last match days USA looked fantastic against Panama but then missed the World Cup because they couldn’t get a point at T&T. Well, now they have already lost some margin for error.
The thing to remember though is that every draw is also two points that your opponent can never get either. The real impact of tonight’s game is that USA is very likely to need to get at least a point away to Canada now.
It’s a 14 game cycle, so they are not in jeopardy of missing the WC..yet.. 5-6 points out of the first 3 games is fine, if you win in Honduras on Wednesday you will be in the top 3. However that is a big big if. There will be an elevated level of panic if they only get 1 point on Wednesday. There will be a public revolt with the soccerites if they don’t get a result on Wednesday.
in most countries with the expectations that the US has, it would be 50/50 on the HC keeping his job. Greg was apparently hired by family members so I would assume he is safe.
The bigger issue is this team doesn’t look hungry. They seem like they expect to be given a win just by showing up. The WC qualifiers in these third world countries are well beneath them apparently. All these pampered club players have no interest in taking a flight into San Salvador and the like and playing on a cow pasture. It sucks, because after the last cycle, and granted a lot of these players weren’t involved, but the players wearing the red white and blue should be lining up to make amends for past transgressions.
in most countries with the expectations that the US has, it would be 50/50 on the HC keeping his job. Greg was apparently hired by family members so I would assume he is safe.
The bigger issue is this team doesn’t look hungry. They seem like they expect to be given a win just by showing up. The WC qualifiers in these third world countries are well beneath them apparently. All these pampered club players have no interest in taking a flight into San Salvador and the like and playing on a cow pasture. It sucks, because after the last cycle, and granted a lot of these players weren’t involved, but the players wearing the red white and blue should be lining up to make amends for past transgressions.
A tie on Wednesday would be a fine result, as it would be two home points lost for Honduras. At that point in the cycle, we'd be looking at two points down at home for us, two down for Canada, two down for Honduras, and three down for Costa Rica. We'd obviously rather be still square, but being level or ahead of the most likely competition for the second and third spots isn't the end of the world.
Against Canada in the Gold Cup, we scored 20 seconds into the game and then hung on for dear life. I'd argue they outplayed us, they certainly overran our midfield.
I thought we looked a lot better in this game.
Disagree completely about hunger. The one thing I will credit them for is that Berhalter has them playing exceptionally hard, at times to their detriment. It doesn’t have to be this physically demanding but I think they’ve had a superb effort with absolutely scant execution thus far
Here is a little bit of a cheat sheet if you focus just on results and want to look at it objectively. Going into these three games I think:
7 or 9 points — fantastic and we all could have relaxed for the first time in nearly 8 years for a month
5 or 6 — good and well on track, if they didn’t look good getting those points then some concern but still right on track
3 — worried but not yet a full panic
2 or fewer — very concerned
So, still a lot to play for Wednesday.
Not sure how it looked on TV, but the crowd was really frustrated.
And, man, in person that ref didn't appear to have a good game, but I acknowledge we didn't get some replays on the big board. That said, only 3 minutes of stoppage time was criminal--he rewarded Canada's time-wasting.
And, man, in person that ref didn't appear to have a good game, but I acknowledge we didn't get some replays on the big board. That said, only 3 minutes of stoppage time was criminal--he rewarded Canada's time-wasting.
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I tried to read through the past few pages, so excuse me if I'm repeating some points already made. The team tonight lacked skill on the ball and any sort of understanding of how to move in a pass and go system. When Dest went out, any beneficial movement of the ball forward from the defense basically disappeared. Our goal was a nice play by Aaronson, but it was a counter that started with him dispossessing the Canadian player in midfield and making a nice run after a quick ball movement to the wing. Almost every other offensive movement originated from the defense and resulted in the ball being stopped as soon as it moved to the outside back or closest mid (at least after Dest went out). I can't blame Pulisic for looking mediocre because there wasn't anybody else that could move the ball past defenders on his side of the field and there was very little movement off the ball to move Canada's defense around. I agree with Jed that Musah was the way to go in that game because he does have skill going forward and, outside of Adams being a solid CDM, the rest of the MF brought nothing to attack or defense.
I really think that with the personnel on the roster, the starting front of the midfield needed to be Roldan and Lletget. Acosta's fine as a 6 backing up Adams (or as an emergency fill in at outside back), but he's not good enough on the ball to break down a bunker. This isn't the first time he's been virtually invisible playing as an 8.
By the way, Honduras rotated basically their entire squad: only one field player has started both of their games. They will be pretty fresh.