Well said, both you and Zomp.Great post Zomp.
I don't follow USMNT nearly as closely as some others in this forum but this is the best team I've seen and I include the 2002 team in that. The technical level has just really gone up throughout most of the first XI and I think the game has also evolved in ways that are actually pretty friendly to the US and its historical strength in terms of having a pretty athletic squad. That Musah, McKennie, Adams midfield may not match others in terms of technical quality but they all clearly understand how to play modern midfield tactics and I don't think you'll find many midfields out there that can match them for athleticism. Now that we have players who also have the quality and composure to keep and use the ball once they win it (which didnt use to be the case), having an uber-athletic midfield really can be a way to control and even boss other sides that are supposedly better than us on paper.
The biggest remaining issue for the team IMO is that we still lack a quality in attack. We really struggle to convert control over the match into chances and then into goals. But its a huge accomplishment just to get to the point where we can control matches against good sides, dictating the flow of the match while preventing them from doing what they want to do. I've never really seen a US team capable of that before.
How many of the 2002 team start for this team? I think:
- Friedel in goal (and Keller backing him up)
- McBride at striker (fits really well with our current team)
- C. Reyna in for a less-than-100% McKennie
- John O'Brien at LB (he was too good for us to play him at LB so we put him in midfield, but he played LB for Ajax)
- Eddie Pope at CB for Zimmerman
I think 2002 Donovan has a seat next to Reyna fils on the bench. But still, if you buy that, that's nearly half the starters.