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OT: USMNT Soccer Thread


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2 hours 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. 

I’m generally with you on Tim Ream and have stated that on this board but I’m not sure which game you watched today. 

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2 hours ago, gobillsgo said:

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. 

I’m genuinely curious, would you have felt this same way about an away draw in El Salvador, for the 1st game of qualifying, 6 months ago, before all the success we had in the Nations League and Gold Cup? I certainly wouldn’t. Especially if you told me that Christian Pulisic and John Brooks wouldn’t play a single minute. We had a bunch of guys who had never played in a qualifying match before and ground out a draw in a hostile environment on the road on a sh!tty pitch. Playing concacaf qualifying games is night and day different than playing club in Europe. It’s a learning experience, and that’s fine. But even though Canada is significantly better than they have been in the past, they’re not Mexico. And they still struggled to earn a 1-1 draw, on a penalty, AT HOME to a Honduras team that I’d argue is even worse than El Salvador. If Pulisic plays on Sunday, it quite literally changes everything. It’s like Argentina playing without Messi or Portugal playing without Ronaldo (no, I’m not saying Pulisic is the same caliber player as those 2, but he means just as much to this American team).  Can we play better? Yes. Will we play better? Undoubtedly yes. Sure, it’s a relatively disappointing result, but it’s not awful.

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7 hours 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. 

Ream has started every game for Fulham and played every minute in 4 out of their 5 games in the Championship so far this season.  Supposedly, Ream is 100% healthy for the first time in almost two years.

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I agree the result was not a disaster. Getting points on the road is the path to qualification. However, I am concerned about the uninspiring play. Our play was similar to what we saw in the Gold Cup, and although we won those games, we did so with ugly play and in favorable environments.

I hope Pulisic can play on Sunday to add some creativity to the team. It was clear we missed him. We need 3 points on Sunday to avoid a very nervous road ahead.

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10 hours 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. 

Tactically GGG gave El Salvador entirely too much credit. Never really went after three points until the very end. Love the effort these guys gave, but they were behind the eight ball tactically the entire game. Wide open midfield with not enough creatives to solve it

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17 minutes ago, BilliesBy40 said:

I agree the result was not a disaster. Getting points on the road is the path to qualification. However, I am concerned about the uninspiring play. Our play was similar to what we saw in the Gold Cup, and although we won those games, we did so with ugly play and in favorable environments.

I hope Pulisic can play on Sunday to add some creativity to the team. It was clear we missed him. We need 3 points on Sunday to avoid a very nervous road ahead.

I think uninspired and ugly are two different things. Ugly yes, but I don’t think you’ll ever see uninspired play from this group of young guys. The issue here was there wasn’t exactly an attempt to solve the defense. Just jam it forward and jam it forward. It’s been a GGG problem since the beginning, but I had begun to give him the benefit of the doubt because they won everything this summer. It’s going to be a problem going forward in my mind, as ES is probably the least talented team in the oct... but hell I thought we weren’t going to sniff the GC or Nations League so what do I know?

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9 hours ago, slufanskip said:

I’m generally with you on Tim Ream and have stated that on this board but I’m not sure which game you watched today. 

I agree with everything GBG states above, with two exceptions:

 

1) Ream always scares the heck out me when he suits up for the USMNT. This was not the case last night. He was as solid as I’ve ever seen him back there. The expected faux pas never occurred..

 

2) NO one, and I mean NO one, has a worse first touch than Zardes…

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For me this was a missed opportunity against the 7th ranked team in the CONCACAF 8.  The top three Yanks, for me, were Adams, M. Robinson and Ream. Turner would be included if he didn't give up that inconsequential corner in the first half.   I liked the fight that Adams showed during the game. He won a bunch of duals too.  Acosta brought the same aggresiveness, but wasn't in long enough to change the flow.

Neither Konrad or Aaronson showed much attack mode.  I'm guessing both will be on the bench v Canada.  

No player was in my negative column but we were the second best team out there.

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5 hours ago, Gremio14 said:

I agree with everything GBG states above, with two exceptions:

 

1) Ream always scares the heck out me when he suits up for the USMNT. This was not the case last night. He was as solid as I’ve ever seen him back there. The expected faux pas never occurred..

 

2) NO one, and I mean NO one, has a worse first touch than Zardes…

I agree my only contention was that I felt Tim Ream played better than he did. Was he a superstar? No, but he was good.

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14 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

Wow. McKennie suspended by Coach B for team rule violations. 

Reyna out with hammie. 

At least Pulisic is in. 

Apparently, McKennie snuck a girl into his room. Lol

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Losing Dest is huge. Yelling scares me defensively. 
 

We’ve waited and talked for 2 years about the big 5 Pulisic, Reyna, McKennie, Adams, and Dest and we play the 1st game without Pulisic and now no Reyna or McKennie and we lose Dest before halftime in the 2nd game

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24 minutes ago, slufanskip said:

We’re on a break and it gets called back because Tyler Adams has to commit an obvious foul away from the ball. Stupid Stupid Stupid

We just had no fight after the Canada goal. Which begs the question: why did Berhalter wait so long to make substitutions?

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This was a very disappointing match. 

Disappointed tremendously with McKennie breaking COVID protocol, when your top player is coming off a + and your #1 keeper just tested +.  What was he thinking.  Too much entitlement and not enough responsibility.  Send him back home.

Disappointed in Yedlin getting caught inside letting Davis around him.  Disappointed in Brooks for not marking Larin and watching the ball go right in front of him.  Larin ran right around him.  MARK HIM!

Disappointed in Adams attempt at revenge that stopped our break in the 69th minute. (Other than that huge error, Adams played a fine game.)

Disappointed with the team.  Even without Steffen, McKennie, and Reyna, they should have won on home soil against the 5th ranked team in the CONCACAF 8.

Yes, nice assist by Robinson and perfect finish by Aaronson on our goal.

No, earlier subs would not have change the result.  Canada silenced the crowd and sucked the fight out of the US with their goal. 

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1 hour ago, HoosierPal said:

This was a very disappointing match. 

Disappointed tremendously with McKennie breaking COVID protocol, when your top player is coming off a + and your #1 keeper just tested +.  What was he thinking.  Too much entitlement and not enough responsibility.  Send him back home.

Disappointed in Yedlin getting caught inside letting Davis around him.  Disappointed in Brooks for not marking Larin and watching the ball go right in front of him.  Larin ran right around him.  MARK HIM!

Disappointed in Adams attempt at revenge that stopped our break in the 69th minute. (Other than that huge error, Adams played a fine game.)

Disappointed with the team.  Even without Steffen, McKennie, and Reyna, they should have won on home soil against the 5th ranked team in the CONCACAF 8.

Yes, nice assist by Robinson and perfect finish by Aaronson on our goal.

No, earlier subs would not have change the result.  Canada silenced the crowd and sucked the fight out of the US with their goal. 

100% agree with everything you said here. My only point was that fresh legs might’ve given us a chance to flip the momentum, but you’re absolutely right, the entire stadium was lifeless after the Canada goal.

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On 9/3/2021 at 4:23 PM, slufanskip said:

I agree my only contention was that I felt Tim Ream played better than he did. Was he a superstar? No, but he was good.

Ream definitely better on Friday than Brooks was last night.
 

Yedlin and Dest should not be starting. Yedlin is terrible ( I spent the last couple of seasons watching him get smoked on every opposing team’s highlight reel when they played Newcastle - yes, he’s now in Turkey…). And Dest is completely off form. Cannon, Vines, Robinson, Bello…I would take any of them over Y and D. 
 

And McKinnie…Juventus is trying to get rid of him for basically the same reasons GB benched him. All about himself and influencing…the heck with the team….

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Has anyone heard exactly what McKennie did? It had better be petty bad.

The 2 Robinsons had good games on the back line. Miles is proving he should be written in as a starter in ink every time he steps on the field and Antonee is clearly our best option at LB and imo has improved a great deal the last couple of years.
 

I like what Dest brings to the attack enough that I’m willing to trade his defensive liabilities. Yedlin brings nothing either way. 
 

Aaron son had a much better game last night and not just due to the goal. He did miss another great opportunity when Prefok fought and made the pass across goal on the ball off Pulisic’s shoulder. He was watching and even stepped towards the ball when he should have been going to the far post. No way Prefok pulls the ball back to him, he can’t do anything at the near post. The only opportunity was going to be at the far post and he never attempts to get there. If he does he has a tap in. I know he’s young but plays like this where you simply put yourself in the right place frequently make the difference.
 

The Canada goal was the same thing we’ve seen from this team for years. Get beat from being out of position and then everyone ball watch. Yedlin’s error was terrible but not surprising. Brooks has to be aware of who’s around him. Despite Yedlin if Brooks plays it correctly we probably prevent the goal

Lletget made a really nice savvy play on the turn and pass to Aaronson that lead to Pulisic hitting the post but far to often his first play when winning a ball is to lay it off back. 
 

Adams was good but IMO everything he did well was negated by the one stupid play. 

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1 hour ago, slufanskip said:

Has anyone heard exactly what McKennie did? It had better be petty bad.

The 2 Robinsons had good games on the back line. Miles is proving he should be written in as a starter in ink every time he steps on the field and Antonee is clearly our best option at LB and imo has improved a great deal the last couple of years.
 

I like what Dest brings to the attack enough that I’m willing to trade his defensive liabilities. Yedlin brings nothing either way. 
 

Aaron son had a much better game last night and not just due to the goal. He did miss another great opportunity when Prefok fought and made the pass across goal on the ball off Pulisic’s shoulder. He was watching and even stepped towards the ball when he should have been going to the far post. No way Prefok pulls the ball back to him, he can’t do anything at the near post. The only opportunity was going to be at the far post and he never attempts to get there. If he does he has a tap in. I know he’s young but plays like this where you simply put yourself in the right place frequently make the difference.
 

The Canada goal was the same thing we’ve seen from this team for years. Get beat from being out of position and then everyone ball watch. Yedlin’s error was terrible but not surprising. Brooks has to be aware of who’s around him. Despite Yedlin if Brooks plays it correctly we probably prevent the goal

Lletget made a really nice savvy play on the turn and pass to Aaronson that lead to Pulisic hitting the post but far to often his first play when winning a ball is to lay it off back. 
 

Adams was good but IMO everything he did well was negated by the one stupid play. 

Agree 100% on Brooks’ culpability on the goal. Larin crosses in front of him and then Brooks slowed down and was basically standing and watching as the ball went across him for Larin’s tap in. Mark your man and don’t ball watch. You teach kids this in youth soccer. 
 

I’d like to see Zimmerman get a shot v Honduras. 

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8 hours ago, wgstl said:

Weston walked off the team bus 3 days ago without a mask on and signed some autographs.

 

this was a violation of teams covid protocols 

Word on most other boards is that he had a female visitor in his hotel room.  I can’t confirm obviously, just passing it on. That would make more sense than signing some autographs for some kids. 

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