USMNT Summer 2024: Beauty is in the Eye of the Berhalter

HowBoutDemSox

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Gregg sideline interview going into halftime, saying they just need to wait for the opportunities to cross it into the box. Can’t make it up.
 

HowBoutDemSox

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Building up through the middle, not banging aimless crosses from the wing, and we get that goal. Nicely done.
 

speedracer

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our guys in the back are just getting all the brain farts out of their system, that’s what I’m going to tell myself
 

teddykgb

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I’m just saying we know Pep is in the USA since he was having manic hand conversations with Mazzulla can we just borrow him for a month

Also if he coaches this group he will appreciate what he has at City more and sign an extension it’s like a double win
 

speedracer

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friendly garbage time aside, Ream looked out of game speed (unsurprising since he lost his starting spot at Fulham), Richards doesn’t regularly start at the position anymore, CCV plays on a lesser league, etc etc

it’s not as hopeless as it looks, but we got to get some things sorted out quickly
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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So, I guess being able to make good decisions in the midfield may matter. What an ass kicking that was.
 

67YAZ

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Why does Weah have to do the post-match interview? Send Jedi to explain what the hell he was doing all match.
 

Cellar-Door

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Next level stuff.... no better way to stop complaints that you have no plan to score on decent opposition than to make the defense as bad as possible too!

Edit- let's check in on Bielsa .... oh!
 

OCST

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As someone who just really started following the USMNT and the sport as a whole, I cannot wait for these upcoming friendlies and copa.

Nations league and gold cup was great but i can’t wait to see them up against the elite teams with hopefully a bunch of our next World Cup team playing.

Who do we want to see at LB and who do we think Gregg goes with?
Welcome to footy fandom.
 

Jimy Hendrix

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I’m worried that Tim Ream and Matt Turner have both had the clock run out on their “I am excellent for a few years” eras that solidified our defense last cycle.
 

Jed Zeppelin

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If I thought there was a chance GGG would be sacked over a shit performance at Copa I would be rooting for a shit performance.

I fear I will instead be rooting for glory and get the shit performance anyway. And obviously no sacking.

Sergiño is not our best player but he is among our most essential because of how well he works with Weah and Wes to generate attacking football outside the scheme. We lose a lot of swag with him off the field.
 
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McBride11

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If I thought there was a chance GGG would be sacked over a shit performance at Copa I would be rooting for a shit performance.

I fear I will instead be rooting for glory and get the shit performance anyway. And obviously no sacking.

Sergiño is not our best player but he is among our most essential because of how well he works with Weah and Wes to generate attacking football outside the scheme. We lose a lot of swag with him off the field.
totally forgot about this. Based upon comments and box score. Tmrw may not he a rewatch

We had, a lets say top 14 squad, and got smoked it seems

I hope i am wrong, but Gregg doesnt seem to have the chops. It seems the comments are copy : pasted from all games.

Us mens full throttle and shitty crosses!
 

teddykgb

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One of the things about regularly watching a side that employs positional play is seeing how much a team can struggle in its absence. Tonight the gaps were far too large and it took hero ball most of the time just to get forward at all. Agree with the above that Dest often helps this a lot but they need way more discipline and need to be much better at supporting the ball so there are multiple passes available. Too often tonight there was really only one ball on and 3 Colombia players to 2 US players and that’s just not going to work.

I also am not sure why Weston is a lock to start anymore. I’m not sure they’ll be able to survive in a midfield 2 but if they try to I think Musah might provide more. Weston, like a few others, has had a pretty poor run of transfer moves which hasn’t gotten him the regular playing time to both stay sharp and improve his game. I won’t claim to be watching Serie A every week but while he played a lot of matches this season he seems to kind of float around a lot right now and especially in a 2 you need someone really popping up everywhere in support
 

Jimy Hendrix

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One of the things about regularly watching a side that employs positional play is seeing how much a team can struggle in its absence. Tonight the gaps were far too large and it took hero ball most of the time just to get forward at all. Agree with the above that Dest often helps this a lot but they need way more discipline and need to be much better at supporting the ball so there are multiple passes available. Too often tonight there was really only one ball on and 3 Colombia players to 2 US players and that’s just not going to work.

I also am not sure why Weston is a lock to start anymore. I’m not sure they’ll be able to survive in a midfield 2 but if they try to I think Musah might provide more. Weston, like a few others, has had a pretty poor run of transfer moves which hasn’t gotten him the regular playing time to both stay sharp and improve his game. I won’t claim to be watching Serie A every week but while he played a lot of matches this season he seems to kind of float around a lot right now and especially in a 2 you need someone really popping up everywhere in support
The weird thing about Wes at Juve last season is that he when he’s not actually playing RWB, he plays a very specific oddball midfield role where he’s generally high and to the right and he often rotates with the RWB. It worked at Juve to the tune of leading that squad in assists, but it seemed a bit to me like he was instinctively playing that role yesterday and that’s not what he should be doing in the US setup at all.
 

rguilmar

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I just keep telling myself it was just a friendly. The US had more talent in the field yesterday than Colombia. Diaz is who he is, and James, while passed his prime, still shows up for his country. Most of the other guys have either passed through La Liga or have been linked to La Liga clubs, so I see them pretty regularly, and they’re not spectacular individual players. They play so much better together though, way better than the sum of their parts. The US is exactly the opposite, and has been for quite some time. The players were poor yesterday and deserve some degree of the blame, and it was a friendly.

Scally didn’t get roasted by Diaz, which is something to take out of the game. The CBs were terrible across the board. Jedi had a bad game coming off a great season. Johnny was up and down, and was partially at fault for at least two of the goals. Idk why Gio was playing so deep. On the Spanish broadcast they were calling it a “Kroos” position. GGG did this last window before pushing him up the field in the second half. I’d rather him play a true 10 with Wes, who can really ping a diagonal ball, as a box to box. Gio will have fewer touches in more dangerous positions. I defended GGG in this very thread about his use Gio, and I suppose I learned a lesson. CP didn’t do much, Weah was ok, and Balo will never be used properly by Gregg. I’m concerned about GGG’s halftime comments about wanting more patience for crosses while Balogun is playing the 9. I’m genuinely curious how he expects this to work. @teddykgb I’d really like more of your thoughts about what we’re seeing with the US versus Pep’s positional play at City. It certainly feels like Gregg wants to incorporate many of Pep’s tactics, but for various reasons is unable to do so.

But it was just a friendly…
 

speedracer

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felt to me like a lot of the time the team was caught between two minds about whether to attack quickly or to regroup and recirculate , e.g. I remember our forwards latched onto some long balls, but the support never materialized or showed up too late and we lost the ball going 1v3 in the attacking third a lot.
 

coremiller

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It's also difficult to implement Pep-style positional play attacking patterns in a national team setup. It requires a lot of training to get everyone familiar with the coordinated movements and rotations and that's really hard to do in a national team with limited practice time. Nobody has really done it successfully, even for the countries that use a lot of players from a single club. Most of the best national teams of the past several years (Argentina, France, England, etc.) rely on solid defenses with attacks based around brilliant individuals rather than team attacking cohesion.
 

67YAZ

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Rewatching some clips, I’m reminded how little chemistry Jedi & Pulisic have managed to develop. Haven’t found an instance yet of Jedi springing Pulisic free yesterday or vice versa. Jedi’s best attacking moves were early crosses and CP had one driving dribble. If those two could find a rhythm, we’d have at least one bankable avenue to consistently generate danger.
 

67YAZ

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also, Gregg has to replace Jedi, Ream, & Richards for Brazil. There has to be accountability for performances like that.
 

wonderland

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I was at the match. Agreed about Pulisic and Robinson but Pulisic was also a bystander. I wonder if he’s just worn down having played a full season. Reyna looked off which makes sense since he has hardly played since the last break. Weah scored a goal but otherwise looked blah, which makes sense since he hasn’t played that far advanced.

It’s easy to blame Berhalter but the players are the bigger issue. Key guys either aren’t playing or playing a different position.
 

rguilmar

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I was at the match. Agreed about Pulisic and Robinson but Pulisic was also a bystander. I wonder if he’s just worn down having played a full season. Reyna looked off which makes sense since he has hardly played since the last break. Weah scored a goal but otherwise looked blah, which makes sense since he hasn’t played that far advanced.

It’s easy to blame Berhalter but the players are the bigger issue. Key guys either aren’t playing or playing a different position.
I’m of the opinion that players always deserve blame for poor performances, but when the entire team is awful the coach carries a larger share of the blame. They were not prepared to play, they were poorly set up, they quit after that 3rd goal, they were predictable, they were beat at every phase of the game in every way. This is on the players, sure, but it’s on the coach even more.

We can’t change the player pool, but we can change the coach.
 

wonderland

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I’m of the opinion that players always deserve blame for poor performances, but when the entire team is awful the coach carries a larger share of the blame. They were not prepared to play, they were poorly set up, they quit after that 3rd goal, they were predictable, they were beat at every phase of the game in every way. This is on the players, sure, but it’s on the coach even more.

We can’t change the player pool, but we can change the coach.
That’s fair. A shakeup is definitely needed.