USMNT: Hold My Beer

dirtynine

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This match reminds me of US-Portugal 2014. Jermaine Jones and Dest had similar goals after going down early. Then the scrappy goal to go ahead (Dempsey, Weah). Hope the ending isn’t similar.
 

Catcher Block

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The attack hasn't really been one-and-done tonight. It's refreshing to see them able to regroup quickly if the initial cross or pass doesn't connect.
 

rguilmar

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Great result. Nice performance too. I think that was closer to what we want to see in terms of performance. More experience and they put in a third goal (or more). Also for the kids to take that punch in the face and fight back was a learning experience. But I liked what I saw tonight.
 

Jimy Hendrix

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Nice to end the game in a good mood. Seeing Busio boss it for 15 tonight after De La Torre did likewise against Jamaica makes the 90s for Lletget and Acosta in Panama more baffling in retrospect.
 

Senator Donut

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2-1 Canada on an amazing Davies individual effort, wow! The Panamanian defender thought there was no chance Davies could play the ball before it crossed the touch line for a Panama throw-in, but Davies kept it in by an inch.
 

DJnVa

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Dec 16, 2010
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They actually played pretty well after the first 10 minutes.

Assuming Canada holds on and Mexico takes care of business you have:

Mexico: 14
US: 11
Canada: 10
Panama: 8
 

67YAZ

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2-1 Canada on an amazing Davies individual effort, wow! The Panamanian defender thought there was no chance Davies could play the ball before it crossed the touch line for a Panama throw-in, but Davies kept it in by an inch.
This is sick.

 

Jed Zeppelin

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Great shift from Busio.

I know they were preserving a lead but every pass or throw back had me holding my breath.
 

wonderland

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Jul 20, 2005
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Great shift from Busio.

I know they were preserving a lead but every pass or throw back had me holding my breath.
I liked what Busio did too especially after a kinda poor summer. After seeing some good ideas but poor execution, it was great to see some perfectly weighted balls into space. Combine with him getting good minutes with his club, I hope he can play a bigger role next window.
 

ThePrideofShiner

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Jul 16, 2005
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Something to perhaps keep an eye on going forward is the return of Jordan Morris. He has been in full training to some degree for a few weeks and was cleared for game action today. I doubt he plays this weekend, but Seattle said they expect him to be starting before the end of the regular season.

He could certainly be a factor down the line for the US.
 

GB5

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Aug 26, 2013
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They seem to be about where they should be in the table. They need to find a way to get 3 points on the road somewhere. In their first two three game cycles, they played what I considered two must have 3 point games in home to Jamaica and home to Costa Rica last night. Way too early to have games that mean this much. Finding three points on the road somewhere will allow for a home tie that doesnt result in armageddon for the program. Things will get real again quickly if they doent at least get a point out of the match in cincy vs. Mexico. Get three points at home against Mexico and you put yourself in a great position where you could lose in Azteca and still be in a good spot. Need to show up on the road. Canada and Mexico have done it, the US has not.
 

tims4wins

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They seem to be about where they should be in the table. They need to find a way to get 3 points on the road somewhere. In their first two three game cycles, they played what I considered two must have 3 point games in home to Jamaica and home to Costa Rica last night. Way too early to have games that mean this much. Finding three points on the road somewhere will allow for a home tie that doesnt result in armageddon for the program. Things will get real again quickly if they doent at least get a point out of the match in cincy vs. Mexico. Get three points at home against Mexico and you put yourself in a great position where you could lose in Azteca and still be in a good spot. Need to show up on the road. Canada and Mexico have done it, the US has not.
They have 4 points in 3 road games, and 7 points in 3 home games. 1-1-1 on the road, 2-0-1 at home. Keep that pace up and they'll be more than fine.

Remaining road games:
@ Jamaica 11/16
@ Canada 1/30
@ Mexico 3/24
@ Costa Rica 3/30

Win in Jamaica, lose in Azteca, and draws in Canada and Costa Rica would put them in pretty good position, I think? We don't have any history here on how many points are generally needed to get through, but the old adage of 3 at home and 1 on the road would equate to 28 points, so the line is probably somewhere beneath that - probably north of 21 but south of 26?
 

EvilEmpire

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Fair to say that they're the kind of young and talented team that on any given day has enough quality to beat a good team or inexperience to lose to a bad one?
 

Zososoxfan

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I only caught the last 30 minutes of this one (shortly after the Weah goal) but they looked very good. However, I'm a bit worried it's more of a reflection on CR than US prowess. IOW, the US looked energetic, organized, and skillful, but they were going up against the equivalent of a 40+ pub squad. Nevertheless, very aggressive with the FBs (at least Robinson) way up high, good pressing, dominating the MF, and patient in possession. Really liked the MF and I'm a big McKinnie fan.
 

ragnarok725

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Fair to say that they're the kind of young and talented team that on any given day has enough quality to beat a good team or inexperience to lose to a bad one?
Except their poorer performances have come when a bunch of the talented youth are riding the pine. They laid an egg with Lleget and Accosta being a black hole in the middle against Panama. Until we see a core 9 or so play consistently in a window it's hard to call them inconsistent, because it's not even the same team game to game.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

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However, I'm a bit worried it's more of a reflection on CR than US prowess. IOW, the US looked energetic, organized, and skillful, but they were going up against the equivalent of a 40+ pub squad.
Yeah, CR looked like me - old and slow. They also looked disinterested.

It was pretty telling that Costa Rica had a breakaway after a US TO but their player only got about 15 yards before he was caught and had the ball taken away.
 

teddykgb

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I’d like to see them play quality opposition with Musah or Busio on the midfield. They need the quality on the ball alongside the 2 way workhorses. Last night was most encouraging because they basically had complete control of the match at all times. Against Canada as an example they were just throwing and receiving punches. When they play these teams with less quality (which may not even be Canada anymore)they need to be able to control the match and wait for their moment to come
 

Cellar-Door

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My general feel on this team is they have some talent, but it's not a very good team or a well coached one, and we've been very lucky in qualifying with opponents having their best players unavailable or injured. Navas plays the whole game last night it's probably a draw. Jamaica would have been a lot tougher if they weren't missing half their squad.
 

tmracht

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Some of that can also be flipped in that we haven't had a healthy squad either, between Pulisic, Reyna, Dest, McKinnie we've had a handful our best players unavailable or injured as well though for quite a few matchups.
 

DJnVa

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Some of that can also be flipped in that we haven't had a healthy squad either, between Pulisic, Reyna, Dest, McKinnie we've had a handful our best players unavailable or injured as well though for quite a few matchups.
Additionally, at some point we should acknowledge that:

--in the last 14 non-friendlies, we've won 11 and drawn 2.
--Berhalter's teams allow fewer goals/game than any USMNT manager in history and his teams score more goals/game than any USMNT manager who was in charge more than 10 games.

All that is being done with the YOUNGEST USMNT ever.

Things are okay folks.
 

ninjacornelius

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Some of that can also be flipped in that we haven't had a healthy squad either, between Pulisic, Reyna, Dest, McKinnie we've had a handful our best players unavailable or injured as well though for quite a few matchups.
Incredibly, Pulisic, Reyna, Adams, Dest, and McKennie have still never all been on the field at the same for the USMNT.
 

ninjacornelius

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So just as a hypothetical, is there a reasonable formation that would get Pulisic, Reyna, and Aaronson all on the field together? Maybe a 4-2-3-1 with Reyna as the 10 and Adams and McKennie in a double pivot?
 

Over Guapo Grande

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So back in the early-mid 90's (in the Bora Milutinovic days), I think it was Soccer America that gave star-rankings (0-5) per match. That was a weekly "must" for me during Friendly/WQC season. Is there something similar now? Where 'experts' give their analysis/recap?
 

ekim colorwaterpit

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So just as a hypothetical, is there a reasonable formation that would get Pulisic, Reyna, and Aaronson all on the field together? Maybe a 4-2-3-1 with Reyna as the 10 and Adams and McKennie in a double pivot?
This is a great question and I would like to expand on it. Assuming full health/form what do people think the optimal lineup is for this US squad. If everyone were healthy going into the Mexico game and we didn't have to worry about a game 4 days later, what lineup would people want to see?
 

Titans Bastard

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Yeah, high variance seems to be the right way to describe them.
In just about every possible way.

Young players are high variance.
The necessity of squad rotation in three-game windows leads to high variance
Berhalter's tendency towards tinkering, bullheaded stubbornness, and general galaxy-braining situations adds even more high variance.
Our own rotating cast of injured players add variance.
The differences between our opponents (significant differences in quality, home/road, rested, not-rested, or rotated, etc) add to the perception of even higher variance.

It's hard to disentangle it all in a way that even feels objective. What is a trend, what is a fluke, what is just noise? The variables are many and the sample size is small.
 

Cellar-Door

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Additionally, at some point we should acknowledge that:

--in the last 14 non-friendlies, we've won 11 and drawn 2.
--Berhalter's teams allow fewer goals/game than any USMNT manager in history and his teams score more goals/game than any USMNT manager who was in charge more than 10 games.

All that is being done with the YOUNGEST USMNT ever.

Things are okay folks.
I mean, I guess. But to me while this is a young team, it's young because this is by far the best and deepest pool of young talent USMNT has ever had, they should dominate CONCACAF (except MAYBE Mexico, who have good talent too despite a bit of a down cycle). There is a big talent gap, and to me, I don't think recent play has really been very good for that talent gap. They ended up with results which is good, but those aren't/shouldn't be real tests.

Edit- to be more clear, that streak involves a lot of 1-0 wins where they weren't clearly the better side and 0-0, 1-1 draws, almost all against significantly inferior opponents. We need to look at more than just "did they get points" if this is supposed to be a team that's goal is more than... "get to the World Cup and get ushered out in the Group Stage". I mean, if the Netherlands had gone 2-0-1 with 3 scored and 1 allowed in the Macedonia/GIbraltar/Montengro stretch, and arguably got outplayed for long stretches...they'd fire their coach. Now we're not on that level, but just getting results without playing well shouldn't be enough.
 
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Mr. Wednesday

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My general feel on this team is they have some talent, but it's not a very good team or a well coached one, and we've been very lucky in qualifying with opponents having their best players unavailable or injured. Navas plays the whole game last night it's probably a draw. Jamaica would have been a lot tougher if they weren't missing half their squad.
"Missing half their squad" Jamaica walked out of San Pedro Sula with a win. They've been better without the European players.
 

Cellar-Door

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"Missing half their squad" Jamaica walked out of San Pedro Sula with a win. They've been better without the European players.
I don't think that's true. Grant has been one of their most important players, and played a key role against Honduras. Also... they haven't had Antonio at all, which is pretty massive considering he's probably the best pure scorer in CONCACAF, he brings something to them that none of their other strikers do.
 

Titans Bastard

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I don't think that's true. Grant has been one of their most important players, and played a key role against Honduras. Also... they haven't had Antonio at all, which is pretty massive considering he's probably the best pure scorer in CONCACAF, he brings something to them that none of their other strikers do.
Their non-Euro guys barely missed out on a draw in the Azteca, and then their Euro-based guys, including Antonio, got wrecked at home by Panama.