Got it, thanks. Just trying to calibrate who all to be mad at and to what degree.
USMNT Summer 2024: Beauty is in the Eye of the Berhalter
- Thread starter rguilmar
- Start date
I don’t think making it harder for yourselves qualifies as a reason that the group wasn’t actually easy to advance from.
Guy wanted nothing more than to earn a gritty 0-0 tie to advance. A real leader of men he is.
I guess it's a matter of whose perspective you're looking at. Do we think Berhalter coached Weah to clock the guy?
He was an ok defender on teams that didn’t win.. he doesn’t know what success looks like and pretends he knows what success looks like.
He’s been a shitty manager for far longer than that one decision.. and that’s not the only time a player has made a horrible decision under HIS watch.. he’s been horrible for years.
It’s the trajectory this squad is on over the past year - needing PKs to get to the Gold Cup semis and then going out to Panama, a limp display against Germany that should have been a chance to take a run at a traditional power, another limp display against Slovenia (maybe more forgivable given Slovenia’s showing today), getting throttled by Colombia, and now not getting out of the group.
The home WC is too big a deal to see if Gregg can right the ship.
Much as i dislike him... he was a key player on the most success Copa America squad the USMNT has ever had and arguably the most successful WC team the USMNT has ever had. He's an asshole and a talking head, but by US Soccer standards.... he's had a lot of success.
No other country brings back Gregg after the WC.. there was zero reason to bring him back.
I think this is one of the least talented teams I’ve seen the US field.. OR.. Gregg is a fucking horrific manager and doesn’t deserve another game.
thought we might have some success after seeing Pulisic and others get behind their FBs in the first half, but then Uruguay stopped high-pressing so much and settled into a low-to-mid block, and all of a sudden it’s guys dribbling into 4 defenders head down with nobody offering support, possession after possession.
He was already fired and fought to get this job back.. he has been given no reason to think he should quit by USMNT
This is some 2002 World Cup erasure which I won’t stand for because that one’s the reason I am in the position today to be annoyed by this result.
2002 is the other one for the arguably. both round of 16 close losses to excellent teams.
What an unserious lightweight. Big-timing his way back to the boonies of Peruvian club football.
lol — the lengthier version of that clip is out, and Pulisic was urging the ref to go celebrate with Uruguay. Good bantz from Christian.
View: https://twitter.com/dreyesceron/status/1807990324301586777?s=46&t=fhEMEQP52Qn_rSr09ZbR6Q
View: https://twitter.com/dreyesceron/status/1807990324301586777?s=46&t=fhEMEQP52Qn_rSr09ZbR6Q
Gio is a true pro with the media these days.
View: https://twitter.com/ByDougMcIntyre/status/1807991326165676336
View: https://twitter.com/ByDougMcIntyre/status/1807991326165676336
Here is our fearless leader distracting his team into shit set piece defense and giddily preparing to bunker for 30 minutes upon learning Bolivia had scored.
It’s a shame he didn’t have enough time to bring in a bunch of defenders again. I can’t believe serious people thought we couldn’t do better than this clown.
It’s a shame he didn’t have enough time to bring in a bunch of defenders again. I can’t believe serious people thought we couldn’t do better than this clown.
Last edited:
Yeah, Pulisic is a great talent, he's also an enormous whiny baby with no composure. Him getting into it with the ref, is just more of the same from him, he lacks maturity.
It really is amazing how different USSF is than basically every federation.
Most of the world you suffer a humilating loss at home after months of mediocrity and the manager is fired and his boss resigns right after.
USSF will have 3 weeks of meetings and pay 350k to consultants before they make a decision, then if they fire Gregg they'll have another 6 weeks of meetings to try and find the new guy.
This Copa was our last high quality, high intensity soccer before the WC. After this, the rest of the world turns its attention to qualifying while we schedule friendlies against Canada, Mexico, and the national that bomb out of their continental competitions early.
If Gregg stays, of course performances will improve. The US will be significantly more talented than almost all its opponents until 2026. But that will be fool’s gold.
For a new manager, it will be tricky coming in and reshaping things on the fly without any meaningful, high pressure matches for 2 years…and then jumping straight into the deep end. There’s going to be a segment of the fan base yelling, “we should be beat Turkmenistan by more than 3 goals!”
True but let’s not pretend that we were advancing if not for that.
This has been a crap tournament.
If you hypothesize a draw with Panama instead of a loss, then yeah, we were advancing if not for that (though who knows what happens if Panama know they need another goal against Bolivia).
As noted above, fire Greg.
Now with that said, 3 games is a very small sample, and it's not like Canada's group was a murders row. They were able to find a way through while scoring 1 goal, which shows they had a solid plan and were able to execute it.
It’s easy to under why this bureaucracy loves Gregg, they all speak the same dumb MBA language.
We have lost players to red cards in tournaments 4 times in the last year. Pulisic is lucky not to have taken another against Panama. That’s unacceptable. If the players aren’t mentally prepared to deal with the difficulties of a CONCACAF match, a lot of that falls on the manager.
Last edited:
Italy in the Euros. The U.S. in the Copa.
It hasn't been a very fun couple of days for me as a soccer fan. (Oh and the Revs got obliterated by Columbus a few days ago as well...)
It hasn't been a very fun couple of days for me as a soccer fan. (Oh and the Revs got obliterated by Columbus a few days ago as well...)
I was glad to see the intensity last night, but the team lacked the ability to actually create anything close to goal scoring chances. That was a game that Uruguay likes to play and will win more often than not.
I’ve registered my complaints about GGG often enough. I do hope that they look to bring someone in who understands how chances are created in today’s game. Under Gregg, the US seemed to allow other teams to get chances too easily, whether through bad giveaways or momentarily losing focus. We never looked able to create much in the way of chances in transition, where most goal scoring chances come from, and were overly reliant on ineffective crosses (there are ways to effectively create chances with crosses, like Spain has been doing in the Euros, but the US hasn’t done that). One hallmark of the USMNT pre-GGG was goals from set pieces, and those really dried up. I do think that the US looked better on set pieces and corners lately, but for too long it’s felt like the coaching staff has been more concerned stroking the ego of our top player at the expense of better chance creation from set pieces. Not saying that CP demanded to take free kicks and corners, just that the coaching staff went to the high school coach mentality of “well, he’s our best player so we should let me do it.”
Goals come from transitions/turnovers and set pieces. The US has been poor at these on both sides of the ball for too long under Gregg. Time to move on.
I’ve registered my complaints about GGG often enough. I do hope that they look to bring someone in who understands how chances are created in today’s game. Under Gregg, the US seemed to allow other teams to get chances too easily, whether through bad giveaways or momentarily losing focus. We never looked able to create much in the way of chances in transition, where most goal scoring chances come from, and were overly reliant on ineffective crosses (there are ways to effectively create chances with crosses, like Spain has been doing in the Euros, but the US hasn’t done that). One hallmark of the USMNT pre-GGG was goals from set pieces, and those really dried up. I do think that the US looked better on set pieces and corners lately, but for too long it’s felt like the coaching staff has been more concerned stroking the ego of our top player at the expense of better chance creation from set pieces. Not saying that CP demanded to take free kicks and corners, just that the coaching staff went to the high school coach mentality of “well, he’s our best player so we should let me do it.”
Goals come from transitions/turnovers and set pieces. The US has been poor at these on both sides of the ball for too long under Gregg. Time to move on.
That’s the alpha and omega for me and why I’m done with Greg. Whatever credit I gave him for getting this young team to play for each other and with a consistent (if limited) approach, it’s all done now.
They have regressed in discipline and quality, and if anything have gotten worse not better playing out of the back.
Don’t know the answer but it’s not Berhalter.
Fine, take away the goal for Uruguay. A 0-0 draw ain't doing it. Three goals in 3 games, 1 in the last 2, is the issue.
I don't absolve the players, but it seems they're not in the right places. And they wanted Berhalter back. They got him. And they disappointed.
I don't know the solution, but I'm pretty sure I know that Berhalter isn't it.
If most "smart" folks think the way forward, even before this tournament, was not with Berhalter, then this, as ugly as it was, had to happen this way. Advancing, and losing 2-1 to Brazil in the quarters and Berhalter is cemented through the WC.
The calls are too loud now.
The calls are too loud now.
Second cycle, offense seems about the same, defense worse, focus and discipline also worse.
Set pieces better, but also there’s a literal different guy responsible for those, we know his name and everything and can probably just keep him on staff if he still wants to be there.
Set pieces better, but also there’s a literal different guy responsible for those, we know his name and everything and can probably just keep him on staff if he still wants to be there.