USMNT: Watching From Outside The Arena

Titans Bastard

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Good for him, but is there any reason to be excited as a fan regarding a 25 year old getting his first USMNT call up? Is he a late bloomer? Or is he just depth, and won't really be needed once games that matter roll around?
He's definitely a late bloomer with a somewhat interesting career path. He was drafted by the Timbers in 2014, but was cut. He signed with the Sounders who loaned him out to their USL team, but was cut after the season. Then NYRB signed him to a USL deal in 2016, he won USL defender of the year, and has been a mainstay for their MLS defense ever since.

I have a hard time seeing him ever being one of our top two CBs, but we do need to build out the depth chart because of potential injuries, suspensions, and also we'll need a bigger CB depth chart if we decide to use a three-man backline.

Long is definitely a quality MLS center back at a time when those are hard to find — it feels like the investment in attackers has outpaced the investment in defenders over the last couple of years. For me, he's the exact sort of player where you can't get mad if he's called up, but you also can't get mad if he's not.

One last thought: I've become a bit suspicious of the NT viability of MLS CBs who are paired with another above-average MLS CB. For example, at NYRB both Tim Parker and Aaron Long are good; possibly "on-the-US-depth-chart" good. But sometimes being a solid player paired with another solid player makes both look a little better than they actually are and neither makes it at the NT level. Let's call this the "Hedges-Zimmerman Effect".
 

DJnVa

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Gotcha--I like the late bloomer thing. If he's on the roster and wouldn't kill the team in games where he has to fill in from time to time, that's valuable.
 

InstaFace

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if it gets him to butt out of everything pertaining to 2026 and/or the USMNT, it'll be well worth the self-debasement. Cordeiro's used to it, he used to be at Goldman Sachs.
 

Titans Bastard

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if it gets him to butt out of everything pertaining to 2026 and/or the USMNT, it'll be well worth the self-debasement. Cordeiro's used to it, he used to be at Goldman Sachs.
You have to play nice for the photo op, sure, but Cordeiro's joke is really cringeworthy and totally unnecessary to accomplishing anything yesterday.
 

Jed Zeppelin

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Very on brand from an organization that probably believes that about 99% of its problems stem from the press being unfairly critical of their work.
 
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OCST

Sunny von Bulow
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I'm considering going to the Brazil game at MetLife, but having an international break for friendlies at this stage is dumb. The WC just ended six weeks ago. There's no international tournament qualifying of any kind that's important. Players who went deep into the WC aren't even fit for their clubs yet, and the club leagues are in full swing. Now the clubs have to worry about players getting hurt.

Dumb.
 

wonderland

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It’s part of a regular calendar though. This break next year will be Matchday 5 and 6 for Euros 2020 qualifying.
 

Titans Bastard

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OCST obviously doesn't have respect for deeply traditional tournaments like the UEFA Nations League or CONCACAF Nations League qualifiers.
 

Titans Bastard

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The roster for the Brazil and Mexico friendlies is out.

GK
Alex Bono (Toronto FC)
Ethan Horvath (Club Brugge)
Zack Steffen (Columbus Crew)

DF
John Brooks (Wolfsburg)
Cameron Carter-Vickers (Swansea City)
Eric Lichaj (Hull City)
Aaron Long (New York Red Bulls)
Matt Miazga (Nantes)
Shaq Moore (Reus)
Tim Parker (New York Red Bulls)
Antonee Robinson (Wigan Athletic)
DeAndre Yedlin (Newcastle United)

MF
Kellyn Acosta (Colorado Rapids)
Tyler Adams (New York Red Bulls)
Paul Arriola (DC United)
Julian Green (Greuther Fürth)
Sebastian Lletget (LA Galaxy)
Weston McKennie (Schalke)
Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders)
Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew)
Tim Weah (Paris Saint-Germain)

FW
Andrija Novakovich (Fortuna Sittard)
Bobby Wood (Hannover 96)
Gyasi Zardes (Columbus Crew)


Pulisic is out with a minor injury.

Boy, we are weak at GK. I like Steffen, but Bono has been really shaky over the last two months and just lost his starting job. Horvath was shaky enough last season that his club went out and bought a new, younger GK to start over him.

Although there's going to be plenty of experimentation, I'd like to see some partnerships down the spine start to develop. Miazga-Brooks makes sense as the starting point at CB, until/unless others prove they are better.

Among the various types of attacking mids, the cupboard is painfully bare after CP.
 

Titans Bastard

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Toronto's Marky Delgado has been added to the roster. I'm not sure why that needed a separate, late announcement.
 

Titans Bastard

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Forgive me if this is a stupid question. Any chance we might take a shot at Osorio, now that he’s out?
Looping back to this conversation, Osorio was just announced as Paraguay's new manager.
 

Jimy Hendrix

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The utter radio silence on a coaching hire seems weird and concerning to me.

Best case scenario would be I guess buying the party line where it's Earnie Stewart's decision fully, and he only started relatively recently given his commitments to the Union.

It sure smells like waiting until the MLS season is over to pick between Berhalter & Vermes without inconveniencing anyone though.
 

Cellar-Door

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My assumption is that we will pick someone who ticks the key boxes
1. MLS ties
2. Not looking to rock the boat
3. Perfectly happy without a scouting system
4. Somewhere between a shitty and a barely competent tactician
 

Titans Bastard

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The US U20 and U19 teams have both convened for a four-team tournament that also includes youth teams from Jamaica and Venezuela. The CONCACAF U20 tournament begins in less than two months, so it is crunch time for U20 players to solidify their places and the U19s to impress enough to make the jump.

U20 Roster
GK C.J. dos Santos [2000], Benfica U19
GK Brady Scott [1999], Köln II
RB Sergino Dest [2000], Ajax U19
RB Jaylin Lindsey [2000], Sporting Kansas City
RB Manny Perez [1999], NC State
CB Lennard Maloney [1999], Union Berlin
CB Mark McKenzie [1999], Philadelphia Union
CB Chris Richards [2000], Bayern Munich U19, on loan from FC Dallas
CB Sam Rogers [1999], Seattle Sounders 2
LB Chris Gloster [2000], Hannover II
LB Sam Vines [1999], Charlotte Independence, on loan from Colorado Rapids
CM Christian Cappis [1999], free agent
CM Andres Jimenez [2000], Envigado FC (Colombia)
CM Alex Mendez [2000], LA Galaxy academy
CM Brandon Servania [1999], FC Dallas
CM Juan Pablo Torres [1999], Lokeren (Belgium)
AM Frankie Amaya [2000], UCLA
AM Andrew Carleton [2000], Atlanta United
AM Paxton Pomykal [1999], FC Dallas
FW Ayo Akinola [2000], Toronto FC
FW Shaft Brewer [1999], LAFC
FW Griffin Dorsey [1999], Indiana University
FW Sebastian Soto [2000], Hannover U19

U19 Roster
GK Sam Fowler [2000], Seattle Sounders academy
GK Johan Penaranda [2000], University of Pittsburgh
DF Julian Araujo [2001], LA Galaxy academy
DF Khai Brisco [2000], Seattle Sounders academy
DF Jean-Julien Foe Nuphaus [2000], Cal, Berkeley
DF Nathan Harriel [2001], Chargers SC academy
DF Carlo Ritaccio [2000], University of Akron
DF Akil Watts [2000], free agent
MF Isaac Angking [2000], New England Revolution
MF Taylor Booth [2001], free agent
MF Blaine Ferri [2000], free agent
MF Chris Goslin [2000], Atlanta United
MF Declan McGlynn [2000], Seattle University
FW George Acosta [2000], Boca Juniors
FW Ulysses Llanez [2001], LA Galaxy academy
FW Josh Penn [2000], Sockers FC academy
FW Jacobo Reyes [2000], Monterrey U-20
FW Bryan Reynolds [2001], FC Dallas
FW Manuel Terrazas [2000], Santos Laguna U-20


That U20 squad looks close to what I could see happening in November. The big hitters like Tyler Adams, Timothy Weah, and Josh Sargent likely won't be there. Chris Durkin would be a good get, though it could depend on DCU's playoff status. Another guy who Tab really seems to like but isn't at camp is Richie Ledezma, who is about to turn 18 and sign abroad somewhere.
 

Titans Bastard

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This is dumb. Youth national team positions aren't super amazing jobs and mostly consist of attending camps around the US and the world now and then. I don't see why the USSF should require potential managers to move to Chicago when there isn't all that much of the job in Chicago. All this will accomplish is to make these jobs less attractive and potentially turn away decent domestic managerial talent.

BTW, I've heard so many bad things about Nico Romeijn, who seems to be calling the shots on this and other YNT issues lately. The YNTs are badly understaffed right now after a variety of departures that have yet to be replaced and I think it may get worse.
 

Titans Bastard

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Game day vs. Brazil. I can't watch but am hoping to catch a replay of the match first thing tomorrow morning.
 

speedracer

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We looked ok trying to string passes together, and there's no shame in giving up a couple goals to Brazil, but man we are toothless in the final 1/3 without Pulisic.
 

Dummy Hoy

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I missed minutes 45-66 putting the kids down for bed, but I was very pleased with what I saw from the US. Miazga was MOTM for me, but I thought Tyler Adams looked like he more than belongs at this level too. I was very pleased with what I saw tonight, but @speedracer is correct- there was no real shot at scoring from open play. Having Pulisic and maybe Weah for 90 (although he didn’t do much tonight) might help.
 

Jimy Hendrix

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I like how the defense is shaping up, but the combination of no good striker and no creative midfielders is pretty jarring. Leaves us very reliant on crosses and set pieces.

Pulisic and a formation change will help with the first part (a midfield of 3 defensive midfielders is not that creative, who knew?).

As for the second part, we need to hope like hell that Sargent and Weah develop in the longer term, but shorter term we probably need Jozy back because he obnoxiously remains the best striker in the pool.
 

Titans Bastard

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Just finished watching this one. The attack was bad, which was totally expected once Pulisic had to withdraw and because Sarachan can't resist playing at least three defensive-oriented CMs at any given time.

The big highlight for me was how good the Miazga/Brooks partnership was. They were rarely out of position and cut out a zillion potentially very dangerous Brazil attacks. Neither of Brazil's goals were on them. Even though the US didn't score, the US actually looked dangerous on almost every set piece, which is heartening. The US has been disappointingly bad at set pieces since the Boca/Onyewu era.

The Miazga/Brooks pairing is something to build on.

I'm very bullish on McKennie and Adams, though of course they need to grow into their games before they can truly go toe-to-toe with a top-quality opponent. Trapp does some things well, but I've never been sold on his ball-winning ability. That's a problem for him because the Trapp/McKennie/Adams trio is too conservative and are you really going to bench one of the latter two?

Green doesn't have enough combination of athleticism and skill to compete at this level. He did serve in a few nice crosses, but mostly he had no chance going 1v1 against anyone and couldn't get penetration. The best he could do was spin backwards to look for a supporting player and hope that he could draw a foul at that moment.

Arriola — it's hard to dislike him with his lung-busting, heart-on-sleeve style of play, but he has obvious limitations offensively. With a very conservative midfield 3, you need a ton from your front three to have a good attack and he & Green were never going to be able to come close to that against Brazil. I continue to think that he'd be an intriguing option on the depth chart at RWB if we were ever to play a 3-5-2.

Wood didn't do much, which is no surprise. He's not a big passer / chance creator, so he needs service and he wasn't going to get much from that midfield + Green & Arriola. Plus, he's been out of form for over a year.

Steffen had a solid game, I thought.

Robinson had a "welcome to the big time" sort of game. He definitely had good moments, but for defenders it's less about having "high highs" and more about preventing "low lows" and he made some key mistakes, especially the vector he took to pressure Douglas Costa in the lead up to the first goal. Obviously, we have few other options who are natural LBs so he'll get a long leash and there's no need to junk an inexperienced player for having a tough game against such a good team anyway.
 

Dummy Hoy

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Yeah, I was very impressed with the defense overall...Robinson had a tough time in spots with Costa, but so do some of the best LB in the world. I thought he kept his head and had a positive game.
 

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
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Agree re: Robinson. I watched most of the Everton pre-season games. He gets forward and back very well. He can put crosses into the box. When attackers have the ball out wide, he does a good job of keeping them in front of him. With all that: I've seen him make dumb mistakes. Most of them, I think you can chalk up to youth. He has the physical skills and the attitude to be an effective player.

Yes, he got schooled by Costa, but agree 100% with both of you - elite players do that to everyone. There was a very nice moment late in the game when one of the Brazil forwards was in alone, close, just to the left of goal, and Robinson tracked back and took the ball off the guy's foot.

He will improve. He'll be good enough to start at LB for the USMNT.
 

Titans Bastard

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Yes, he got schooled by Costa, but agree 100% with both of you - elite players do that to everyone. There was a very nice moment late in the game when one of the Brazil forwards was in alone, close, just to the left of goal, and Robinson tracked back and took the ball off the guy's foot.
That was Firmino. Robinson is really fast and snuffed out what had looked to be a sure-fire clear-cut chance for Brazil. But man — as fast as Robinson is, once he had to chase Costa on the first goal, he couldn't make up even an inch of ground. Costa is a beast.

On an unrelated note, this is pretty great from Yedlin:

 

Dummy Hoy

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That's hilarious.

And good call regarding the goal TB- the initial angle he played Costa to pass inside was brutal. I'm sure he was thinking that if he gave Costa the outside he could catch him and angle him before it got too deep and dangerous and it was a good spot to try to jump the middle lane and make a play. Hopefully lesson learned.
 

Titans Bastard

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Brooks and Arriola have been released back to their clubs. Sarachan says to expect 4-6 changes to the lineup for Mexico.

The only attackers of any stripe left on the roster are Wood, Zardes, Novakovich, Green, and Weah. Just start a 3-5-2 and be done with it. It won't be pretty because Sarachan's midfields are always uber-conservative and because the squad isn't familiar with the formation, but I think it should be established as an option for this player pool. Acosta probably has to play at the top of the midfield, even though he's a #8 who can get forward rather than a real #10.

The other option is to roll out the World's Most Boring Formation (4-1-4-1) again with somewhere between 3-5 central midfielders.
 

Titans Bastard

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Addendum: I saw this on Twitter and hadn't previously thought about a 4-4-2 skinny diamond. This is probably what Sarachan will do, as it allows him to put four CMs on the field without even putting anyone drastically out of position! I'd rather see Parker get the start than CCV, but whatever. I'd also guess that Sarachan would start Roldan over Delgado.

 

Titans Bastard

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We are going to get the pleasure of having four CMs on the field, but it will be in the form of a 4-1-4-1 again. There are two real attackers on the field.

 

speedracer

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Jesus Christ. Lichaj and Adams knock each other off a ball, leading to a dangerous counter
 

Jimy Hendrix

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I dunno if I’ve just reached my breaking point with Sarachan, but this is the most miserable thing I’ve seen in a while.
 

Jimy Hendrix

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Who on this roster is even creative?

We talk about the striker pool being thin (and it is), but I’m more worried about creative attacking midfielders. That cupboard seems to get very bare very fast after Pulisic.