USMNT: Hold My Beer

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
There are quite a few teams better than the US, but it turns out that Cuba is not one of them.
 

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
McKennie and Morris are both out at HT. It's fair to say both have been more than active and it's wise to rest them for Canada.

Arriola and Boyd are on. I guess Pulisic will be nominally more central now? This could be a good game for Boyd to get his mojo back after a fairly disastrous fall for club and country.
 

67YAZ

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 1, 2000
8,730
Watching the replay now. As a footballing nation, Cuba sure has a great baseball team.
 

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
Pulisic — Sargent — Morris
McKennie — Bradley — Roldan
Lovitz — Ream (c) — Long — Yedlin
Steffen​

Long and Yedlin in for Miazga and Cannon. Bradley in for Yueill. Steffen in for Guzan.

Sargent keeps his place with Zardes on the bench again.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
SoSH Member
Dec 16, 2010
53,847
Canada trying to gin up a rivalry here, but the fans didn't seem to buy in based on those empty seats.
 

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
Hamstring for Kaye. That's a big loss for Canada — and for LAFC, who possibly lost Zimmerman for a while too.
 

67YAZ

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 1, 2000
8,730
The USMNT does not have enough players who are calm & decisive with the ball under pressure to play Berhalter’s preferred way. I feel the temptation to say, well once Adams and Brooks and Pomykal and so-and-so are in the side...but I don’t know. You can’t run a successful national team with a system that only works when your beast XI are healthy and in form - there’s always injuries and individual situations to deal with.

Maybe Berhalter is still feeling this squad out, has some changes in mind. He hasn’t let on as much, but hopefully? I’d like to see the CBs asked to do less and a double pivot to take on distribution duties, more of which should go wide to circumvent midfield traffic. That is killing us.
 
Last edited:

Jimy Hendrix

Member
SoSH Member
Jun 15, 2002
5,846
When about 6 of the players are playing like dogshit, substituting the best by a mile is a weird, weird choice.
 

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
This won't be the only bad performance the USMNT will have in the next year or two. There's talent in the pipeline but it takes time to matriculate and the cohort of guys in their late 20s is very weak.
 

Jimy Hendrix

Member
SoSH Member
Jun 15, 2002
5,846
This won't be the only bad performance the USMNT will have in the next year or two. There's talent in the pipeline but it takes time to matriculate and the cohort of guys in their late 20s is very weak.
It‘a a bad pool, but Berhalter’s coaching seems to be minimizing its effectiveness rather than maximizing it.
 

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
It‘a a bad pool, but Berhalter’s coaching seems to be minimizing its effectiveness rather than maximizing it.
Could be. I am agnostic on Berhalter right now. When Adams is back and we have some actual steel in the midfield, I want to see how that affects the whole team dynamic.
 

Jed Zeppelin

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 23, 2008
51,291
Could be. I am agnostic on Berhalter right now. When Adams is back and we have some actual steel in the midfield, I want to see how that affects the whole team dynamic.
Cannot be helping matters to still be asking so much of Bradley in terms of ball control. They just totally lack the means to relieve any kind of pressure.
 

Jimy Hendrix

Member
SoSH Member
Jun 15, 2002
5,846
Could be. I am agnostic on Berhalter right now. When Adams is back and we have some actual steel in the midfield, I want to see how that affects the whole team dynamic.
They just instantly fall apart when any pressure is applied. Adams can help win some of these 50/50s, but I dunno how much he can help with this suicidal playing from the back.
 

caseumsd

New Member
May 28, 2008
25
This is really the best the US have to offer? I don’t think there is a chance this team qualifies for the World Cup
 

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
SoSH Member
Jan 10, 2004
24,483
The 718
This is the exact same game that Everton dropped to Villa earlier this year, down to the exact same second goal in stoppage time given up from the exact same spot.

Everton's currently 18th.
 

Jed Zeppelin

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 23, 2008
51,291
Most of the guys I saw tonight look barely worth being depth pieces on a decent national side.

Where do they even find all these jumpy pluggers?
 

Jed Zeppelin

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 23, 2008
51,291
It’s long past time to get Bradley the fuck out of the pool. I don’t care who is behind him, he is all downside at this point.
 

Cellar-Door

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 1, 2006
34,461
Could be. I am agnostic on Berhalter right now. When Adams is back and we have some actual steel in the midfield, I want to see how that affects the whole team dynamic.
I guess, but the pool isn't that shallow that missing a single player leads to performances like this. The pool is deep enough that a B ro even C team should easily handle Canada.
 

Jimy Hendrix

Member
SoSH Member
Jun 15, 2002
5,846
It’s also alarming that it’s been across four or five years, three coaches and multiple generations of players that at any given point at least half of them look like they don’t give a shit.

I know that as a point of analysis this is the last refuge of the frustrated fan when you’re out of smarter things to say, but goddamn.
 

Titans Bastard

has sunil gulati in his sights
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 15, 2002
14,446
I think this is going to be a crucial stage for Berhalter. He is a capable coach, but he is also an ideologue. His plans are not working with the existing player pool, a problem that is especially acute because the existing pool is weak and desperately needs to be somewhat better than the sum of its parts instead of somewhat worse.

How much flex does he have? How stubborn will he be in his tactical plan?
 

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
SoSH Member
Jan 10, 2004
24,483
The 718
It’s also alarming that it’s been across four or five years, three coaches and multiple generations of players that at any given point at least half of them look like they don’t give a shit.

I know that as a point of analysis this is the last refuge of the frustrated fan when you’re out of smarter things to say, but goddamn.
No, you are right.

In all of sports watching, there is nothing worse than watching a football team that has "downed tools," as the English say.
 

Jimy Hendrix

Member
SoSH Member
Jun 15, 2002
5,846
Another image that sticks with me is how many clearances were just limp 15 - 25 foot passes right back to Canada in dangerous areas. There was trouble playing out the back, sure, but these were so far from US players that I’m not even sure they qualified as failed attempts to play out.

Just weird, deer in headlights botched clearances.
 

Cellar-Door

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 1, 2006
34,461
Berhalter is gonna have a long leash considering his boss is about to get a new boss of his own.... Jay Berhalter
 

tmracht

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 19, 2009
3,070
It’s also alarming that it’s been across four or five years, three coaches and multiple generations of players that at any given point at least half of them look like they don’t give a shit.

I know that as a point of analysis this is the last refuge of the frustrated fan when you’re out of smarter things to say, but goddamn.
@_Susaeta had a pretty good comment thread on twitter. Some highlights I really strongly agree with are that kind of hang with what you said.

  • Putting Bradley as the 6 has made four coaches look really bad. Time to move on.
  • There are people who watched “the Bradley at the 6” for the past 4 years, and believe he’s done okay in isolation. Then there are those of us who watched and see that every other player is burdened by trying to cover for what he can’t do, and the net impact is a candy ass MF.
The problem in these big games is that we just crap our pants in midfield for a while I couldn't quite figure it out since there has been so much Wil Trapp mixed in lately. But we really just don't hold the midfield against good teams. Even against Cuba most of the damage early was be really fast on the wing and draw their poor LB out and then expose the space. But when was the last time we actually owned the midfield against a quality opponent. Michael Bradley circa Roma days was a facilitator, now he's a liability, Trapp is a liability. Sure I think Berhalter isn't great, I hated the hiring from the moment it took 12 months for his brother to let him play out the string in Columbus instead of really looking for a coach. But it comes down to we just don't have the proper midfield players in the pool to play "EUROPEAN" style possession based free flow attacking. And yet we keep trying to do it, lose possession in bad places get our defensive shape all messed up and we get shredded. Roldan's back pass should have been a goal, Bradley's whatever that was, was a goal.

Should we convert to a route one hoof and run team? No I don't think we have a target man to do that anyways, but the fact we need Tyler Adams and or Pomykal to save us is scary. Pulisic for all the skill he has does not belong isolated. I'm not sure if LW is his best spot or not, but Roldan is not a central midfielder at this level. I'm not sure there is an easy answer when our pool is in between generations, even the best nations miss cycles and go through droughts in the pool, but I'm also pretty sure Berhalter is not the one who will magically find the answer either. Much like JK, Gregg deflects any blame from himself and dumps it on the players last night calling them out on desire, sloppiness and not winning 50/50 battles. Meanwhile during the game you could see guys like Sargeant dropping so deep into midfield the midfielders were ahead of him to even get a touch on the ball.

This is a mess and it's frustrating. And for the first time in a long time I'm not looking forward to the next round of Nations League games. I'm so much more excited for the U17 WC than the USMNT which may say more about me than the state of US Soccer. But that's where I'm at.
 

McBride11

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
22,109
Durham, NC
@_Susaeta had a pretty good comment thread on twitter. Some highlights I really strongly agree with are that kind of hang with what you said.

  • Putting Bradley as the 6 has made four coaches look really bad. Time to move on.
  • There are people who watched “the Bradley at the 6” for the past 4 years, and believe he’s done okay in isolation. Then there are those of us who watched and see that every other player is burdened by trying to cover for what he can’t do, and the net impact is a candy ass MF.
The problem in these big games is that we just crap our pants in midfield for a while I couldn't quite figure it out since there has been so much Wil Trapp mixed in lately. But we really just don't hold the midfield against good teams. Even against Cuba most of the damage early was be really fast on the wing and draw their poor LB out and then expose the space. But when was the last time we actually owned the midfield against a quality opponent. Michael Bradley circa Roma days was a facilitator, now he's a liability, Trapp is a liability. Sure I think Berhalter isn't great, I hated the hiring from the moment it took 12 months for his brother to let him play out the string in Columbus instead of really looking for a coach. But it comes down to we just don't have the proper midfield players in the pool to play "EUROPEAN" style possession based free flow attacking. And yet we keep trying to do it, lose possession in bad places get our defensive shape all messed up and we get shredded. Roldan's back pass should have been a goal, Bradley's whatever that was, was a goal.

Should we convert to a route one hoof and run team? No I don't think we have a target man to do that anyways, but the fact we need Tyler Adams and or Pomykal to save us is scary. Pulisic for all the skill he has does not belong isolated. I'm not sure if LW is his best spot or not, but Roldan is not a central midfielder at this level. I'm not sure there is an easy answer when our pool is in between generations, even the best nations miss cycles and go through droughts in the pool, but I'm also pretty sure Berhalter is not the one who will magically find the answer either. Much like JK, Gregg deflects any blame from himself and dumps it on the players last night calling them out on desire, sloppiness and not winning 50/50 battles. Meanwhile during the game you could see guys like Sargeant dropping so deep into midfield the midfielders were ahead of him to even get a touch on the ball.

This is a mess and it's frustrating. And for the first time in a long time I'm not looking forward to the next round of Nations League games. I'm so much more excited for the U17 WC than the USMNT which may say more about me than the state of US Soccer. But that's where I'm at.
Honestly going back to the long ball counter attack method may be preferable at the moment. Dont have the skill for the intricate passing.
We do have speed and size. The games will be a slog and not pretty but until this next gen matures some more and the Bradleys and Trapps are gone, may at least allow some Ws. Which seem each match to be a large question.