OT: USMNT Soccer Thread

[BilliesBy40]

1 hour ago, cgeldmacher said:

Just looked it up and found out for the first time that Gio Reyna is Claudio Reyna's son.  Guess I was late to the game on that information.

And his mom is Danielle Egan. She had a brief stint on the USWNT.

[slufanskip]

5 hours ago, cgeldmacher said:

Just looked it up and found out for the first time that Gio Reyna is Claudio Reyna's son.  Guess I was late to the game on that information.

Way late lol. Imo Claudio Reyna is the best USA field player I’ve seen. Better than Donovan and Dempsey. 

[BilliesBy40]

Pulisic will not play tomorrow. Hopefully he will play against Canada in Nashville.

It will be interesting to see our line-up without Pulisic. I would start Konrad de la Fuente out left in place of Pulisic. 

[HoosierPal]

3 minutes ago, BilliesBy40 said:

Pulisic will not play tomorrow. Hopefully he will play against Canada in Nashville.

It will be interesting to see our line-up without Pulisic. I would start Konrad de la Fuente out left in place of Pulisic. 

Aaronson is the other likely option. Coach B likes him on the wing. 

[BilliesBy40]

3 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

Aaronson is the other likely option. Coach B likes him on the wing. 

Yes...Aaronson has been in great form, and I expect him to start. I would put him out right with Reyna in the middle. We will see whether GGG is willing to shift Reyna inside like he has been this season at Dortmund.

[Littlebill]

7 minutes ago, BilliesBy40 said:

Pulisic will not play tomorrow. Hopefully he will play against Canada in Nashville.

It will be interesting to see our line-up without Pulisic. I would start Konrad de la Fuente out left in place of Pulisic. 

Not sure GGG would even use Pulisic in the least difficult of the three matches

[gobillsgo]

56 minutes ago, Littlebill said:

Not sure GGG would even use Pulisic in the least difficult of the three matches

I know this isn’t what you’re saying, but we can’t take any matches for granted in this qualifying cycle.  We won exactly zero road matches in final round qualifying for Russia 2018. And we saw how that worked out. 
 

El Salvador is probably the most winnable road game we will get this cycle. Need to capitalize. For this window, 9 points is great, 7 is fine, 5 is the minimum acceptable, any less should (but probably won’t) get Gregg fired. 

[Littlebill]

31 minutes ago, gobillsgo said:

I know this isn’t what you’re saying, but we can’t take any matches for granted in this qualifying cycle.  We won exactly zero road matches in final round qualifying for Russia 2018. And we saw how that worked out. 
 

El Salvador is probably the most winnable road game we will get this cycle. Need to capitalize. For this window, 9 points is great, 7 is fine, 5 is the minimum acceptable, any less should (but probably won’t) get Gregg fired. 

Three games each window (in one week!) is new and a difference maker. Fatigue has to be managed. Pulisic hasn't played in a hot minute due to having covid. Roster/load management is going to be key this cycle.

 

And I think you're giving ES too much credit imo

[Reinert310]

Does anybody know if Canada’s 2 big guys who missed the Gold Cup, Davies and David, are healthy..and if so, are they match fit? I know the Canada game is at home, but if those 2 are fit, it’s easily the most interesting game of this cycle. 

[Littlebill]

1 hour ago, Reinert310 said:

Does anybody know if Canada’s 2 big guys who missed the Gold Cup, Davies and David, are healthy..and if so, are they match fit? I know the Canada game is at home, but if those 2 are fit, it’s easily the most interesting game of this cycle. 

They are both on the original roster Canada released last week. 
 

interesting, maybe. But as always (or as it always should be) ... it’s the US, then Mexico, then a space, then everyone else. 
 

the US during the gold cup showed it is far and away the best team in the region when their C team won a competition where everyone else (sans Canada) brought their A team 

[Reinert310]

34 minutes ago, Littlebill said:

They are both on the original roster Canada released last week. 
 

interesting, maybe. But as always (or as it always should be) ... it’s the US, then Mexico, then a space, then everyone else. 
 

the US during the gold cup showed it is far and away the best team in the region when their C team won a competition where everyone else (sans Canada) brought their A team 

I said cycle, I meant this current window of 3 games. My bad. I didn’t mean the most interesting game qualifying as a whole. Obviously, every USA-Mexico game is on another level. Sorry, I know I wasn’t clear there.

[BilliesBy40]

6 minutes ago, Reinert310 said:

I said cycle, I meant this current window of 3 games. My bad. I didn’t mean the most interesting game qualifying as a whole. Obviously, every USA-Mexico game is on another level. Sorry, I know I wasn’t clear there.

Davies played 90 minutes in Bayern’s game on Sunday, so he seems to be fully back.

David played 82 minutes for Lille on Sunday and scored a goal.

[Reinert310]

5 minutes ago, BilliesBy40 said:

Davies played 90 minutes in Bayern’s game on Sunday, so he seems to be fully back.

David played 82 minutes for Lille on Sunday and scored a goal.

Thanks @BilliesBy40. I know we didn’t have our best guys at the Gold Cup either, but I honestly thought Canada was a more dangerous team than Mexico in that tournament. I’m really interested in that game. I know anything can happen in qualifying, but I’d have Canada as the 3rd team to qualify if I was betting on it right now. 

[HoosierPal]

Steffan apparently is out for tomorrow.  He has back spasms.  At least we have a solid backup in Turner.....maybe he should be starting anyway.

[Reinert310]

59 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

Steffan apparently is out for tomorrow.  He has back spasms.  At least we have a solid backup in Turner.....maybe he should be starting anyway.

Turner is solid. He’ll be just fine. Honestly, I’d feel pretty confident with any of the 3 of Steffan, Turner or Horvath starting in goal at this point. Good problem to have.

[gobillsgo]

On 9/1/2021 at 3:49 PM, Littlebill said:

Three games each window (in one week!) is new and a difference maker. Fatigue has to be managed. Pulisic hasn't played in a hot minute due to having covid. Roster/load management is going to be key this cycle.

 

And I think you're giving ES too much credit imo

Still feel like I’m giving ES too much credit?  No doubt we are more talented, but they’re a passionate, well coached team, and they have a raucous crowd behind them. They could easily be up 1 or 2 - nothing right now. 

[Reinert310]

34 minutes ago, gobillsgo said:

Still feel like I’m giving ES too much credit?  No doubt we are more talented, but they’re a passionate, well coached team, and they have a raucous crowd behind them. They could easily be up 1 or 2 - nothing right now. 

I dunno about that. They had a couple close headers that looked like Turner had handled if they would’ve been on net and Turner made 1 save. We’ve had just as many dangerous chances.

[slufanskip]

1 hour ago, gobillsgo said:

Still feel like I’m giving ES too much credit?  No doubt we are more talented, but they’re a passionate, well coached team, and they have a raucous crowd behind them. They could easily be up 1 or 2 - nothing right now. 

Agreed but the same could be said for us

[Reinert310]

This match was fine, if uninspiring. An away point is an away point. Tonight was the qualifying debut for a lot of guys. I thought we were solid defensively, but very disorganized going forward. These guys are learning that taking extra touches is going to lead to hard tackles, especially on the road, in concacaf. Getting Pulisic back will help immensely. This result puts a lot more pressure on us to win on Sunday, but it was fine.

[slufanskip]

I can’t believe any fan who has followed concacaf World Cup qualifying thought this would be an easy game especially without our best player and most consistent and probably best center back. 
 

Kudos to Tim Ream who I think had one of the best games of anyone on our team. 

[Reinert310]

1 minute ago, slufanskip said:

I can’t believe any fan who has followed concacaf World Cup qualifying thought this would be an easy game especially without our best player and most consistent and probably best center back. 
 

Kudos to Tim Ream who I think had one of the best games of anyone on our team. 

Ream was great, and I’m a huge Ream critic. But we beat ourselves to an extent, just too sloppy in the attack. I think some of that is a learning curve for the young guys that will get better as qualifying goes on, but we still probably should’ve gone home with 3 points. On to Sunday.

[gobillsgo]

 

2 minutes ago, slufanskip said:

I can’t believe any fan who has followed concacaf World Cup qualifying thought this would be an easy game especially without our best player and most consistent and probably best center back. 
 

Kudos to Tim Ream who I think had one of the best games of anyone on our team. 

I didn’t see the same from Ream… too slow, his passing is always putting his teammates under immediate pressure…. I don’t get how someone who isn’t good enough to play for Fulham in the championship warrants a call up to the USMNT. And this is from a St Dominic and SLU grad… ream will always be a STL soccer great, but it’s time to move on. 
 

as far as berhalter goes, I don’t feel like retyping all of this, so I’m gonna copy and paste my post from big soccer boards… 

“Gregg certainly doesn’t make the players play bad… but he makes some tactical decisions that are truly baffling. He refuses to play Reyna in the middle, where he plays for one of the best teams in the world. He refuses to play Dest at RB, where he plays for one of the best teams in the world. He shifts Dest to the left for Yedlin, the second choice right back at a mediocre Turkish side, and arguably our 4th or 5th best right back. His substitutes consist of Pefok (who just isn’t the answer at ST— worse first touch than Zardes), Lletget (minnow killer, flops against good teams), Acosta (most inconsistent player in our pool), and Roldan (wouldn’t be a top 5 player on El Salvador). I’m not putting this all in Gregg, and I’m trying not to overreact. But his talent evaluation and tactical decisions are just so baffling. I’m sure I’ll get roasted for this post, but some of these things are VERY concerning, and Gregg should not get a pass because of his successes in less important summer tournaments.

I’m willing to see how the next two games go, but any less than 4 points from them, and we should make a managerial change. We won’t, but we should. The last thing we need is to wait until it’s too late, like last cycle.

If you want to be one of the best teams in the world, you beat El Salvador, plain and simple.”

 

All this game did was remove all breathing room from the next two games. We need four points from them plain and simple… drop points vs Canada (who will be VERY motivated against us after dropping points in their opener) and we and in serious qualification trouble again. 

[Reinert310]

3 minutes ago, gobillsgo said:

 

I didn’t see the same from Ream… too slow, his passing is always putting his teammates under immediate pressure…. I don’t get how someone who isn’t good enough to play for Fulham in the championship warrants a call up to the USMNT. And this is from a St Dominic and SLU grad… ream will always be a STL soccer great, but it’s time to move on. 
 

as far as berhalter goes, I don’t feel like retyping all of this, so I’m gonna copy and paste my post from big soccer boards… 

“Gregg certainly doesn’t make the players play bad… but he makes some tactical decisions that are truly baffling. He refuses to play Reyna in the middle, where he plays for one of the best teams in the world. He refuses to play Dest at RB, where he plays for one of the best teams in the world. He shifts Dest to the left for Yedlin, the second choice right back at a mediocre Turkish side, and arguably our 4th or 5th best right back. His substitutes consist of Pefok (who just isn’t the answer at ST— worse first touch than Zardes), Lletget (minnow killer, flops against good teams), Acosta (most inconsistent player in our pool), and Roldan (wouldn’t be a top 5 player on El Salvador). I’m not putting this all in Gregg, and I’m trying not to overreact. But his talent evaluation and tactical decisions are just so baffling. I’m sure I’ll get roasted for this post, but some of these things are VERY concerning, and Gregg should not get a pass because of his successes in less important summer tournaments.

I’m willing to see how the next two games go, but any less than 4 points from them, and we should make a managerial change. We won’t, but we should. The last thing we need is to wait until it’s too late, like last cycle.

If you want to be one of the best teams in the world, you beat El Salvador, plain and simple.”

 

All this game did was remove all breathing room from the next two games. We need four points from them plain and simple… drop points vs Canada (who will be VERY motivated against us after dropping points in their opener) and we and in serious qualification trouble again. 

It’s an away draw, in the 1st game, without our best attacker, and probably out best defender. We are nowhere near in serious trouble for qualification.

[Reinert310]

3 minutes ago, Reinert310 said:

It’s an away draw, in the 1st game, without our best attacker, and probably out best defender. We are nowhere near in serious trouble for qualification.

The last cycle for 2018 qualifying, we started by losing at home 2-1 to Mexico and at Costs Rica 4-0, and we still only needed a draw against T&T to qualify. A draw at El Salvador is far from a disaster.

[gobillsgo]

38 minutes ago, Reinert310 said:

The last cycle for 2018 qualifying, we started by losing at home 2-1 to Mexico and at Costs Rica 4-0, and we still only needed a draw against T&T to qualify. A draw at El Salvador is far from a disaster.

I didn’t say it’s a disaster. But lose to Canada, and we are facing disaster without a win in Honduras, which again, we just don’t do.  We can admit that it was an awful result without saying it was disastrous yet for qualification. Out of curiosity, do you expect better results away vs Costa Rica and home vs Mexico in this cycle?  Because at this point we will need better results to qualify.