This reminds me, I was rereading Halberstam's book about Belichick the other day and saw his family's name was originally Belicic. In what world is Belichick easier to spell or pronounce?
I've heard European commentators, both british and german, pronounce it Poo-li-sich (particularly in Bundesliga games earlier last season), which is certainly understandable in places that have plenty of people with Slavic names and traditional Slavic pronunciations. But those who become more familiar with him have generally switched to his preferred, Americanized pronunciation.
I'm sure they'd do the same to Bill Belicic if he were around.
Beckerman is one of those guys who isn't fully appreciated until he's gone. He was a boring, unsexy player, but many individuals on the team "magically" played better when he was on the field. At DM, Bradley doesn't have the best agility and he also sometimes neglects to show for the ball consistently and/or slows the game down too much. It's a shame he's been forced into AM and DM roles for much of his NT career because he's a box-to-box player at heart.But boy they need someone in that N'golo Kante role badly. I guess that used to be Beckerman, and there's no one to step in there. Bradley didn't make me angry as much last night, but I wasn't quite sure what he was doing out there.
Jozy is a very good passer in the final 3rd, our best since Donovan retired. Jozy hasn't really been able to showcase it much over his career. His physique and the tactical orthodoxies of the past decade have slotted him as a lone-striker type, lots of hold up play and back to the goal. And Jozy is good at that, but getting to play off a second striker gives him the space and opportunities to flash his passing chops.Jozy did a nice job of distributing in front of goal, I thought, which isn't one of his strengths.
Villafana was strong up the left, although as others have said he wasn't that great tracking back.
What are your thoughts on Acosta in this role? I thought I remember you being high on him a few years ago and wondering if you think he's progressed well enough to have a shot. I also didn't realize he's a great long free kick taker until the announcers last night hyped him up then he almost snuck one in.https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2017-06-08-us-mens-national-team-vs-trinidad-and-tobago/boxscore
US soccer is pumping out box-to-box guys right now, but we just don't have a lot of real DMs to work with, unfortunately. There are a few interesting guys in the pipeline and maybe some #8s like Cristian Roldan will eventually shift deeper at some point in their careers, but I don't see any obvious solutions for 2018.
First you make me think you have me on ignore, then you post this, now I don't know WHAT to think!I did not see this post and just mentioned BB below( or above? This is paradoxical)
I still like Acosta, but he's developed into a box-to-box midfielder rather than a DM. I don't think he is or ever will be a #10, but he's shown increased inventiveness, flair, and attacking instincts for Dallas and has helped them navigate through the first third of the season without Mauro Diaz, their primary creator. Acosta has scored six goals across all competitions in 2017 so far - FKs, late runs in the box, some nifty 1v1 work on the edge of the box, a couple of opportunistic goals born out of good off-the-ball movement.What are your thoughts on Acosta in this role? I thought I remember you being high on him a few years ago and wondering if you think he's progressed well enough to have a shot. I also didn't realize he's a great long free kick taker until the announcers last night hyped him up then he almost snuck one in.
There's some definite virtues to that formation. My immediate concern is if there is enough passing in the midfield to build up play. With the only width coming from the wing backs, I fear that the US would spend long stretches playing too narrow and get all blocked up.I don't know if this would work even in theory, setting aside the lack of time to get familiar with it outside of critical WCQs. But this 3-5-2 would allow the US to (a) make use of the fact that we have better forward depth than wing depth, (b) give Pulisic a free role, (c) avoid having to miscast someone as DM by a collective effort between two box-to-box mids + Cameron having leeway to step liberally step up into the defense/midfield gap. We would have a little wingback depth with Chandler, Villafaña and potentially Kenny Saeif if he works out at the Gold Cup. One downside is that it doesn't provide an obvious role for Nagbe. I dunno.
Yes, I think it's too late. My lineup was more of a thought experiment than an actual recommendation. The non-WCQ experimentation time we have is this summer's Gold Cup and then friendlies after WCQ concludes in October. As we know from the provisional roster, the Gold Cup will largely be a B squad, so experimenting with tactics won't benefit the full NT.Edit: With the 3 in the back, is it too late in the cycle to make that big of a switch? I remember Klinsmann tried it a few times right after the last world cup but now it seems like we should focus on qualifying (though that looks better than it did a week ago) and then getting a steady lineup familiar with each other.
I have never seen Jozy used any other way so this is a revelation. Thanks.First you make me think you have me on ignore, then you post this, now I don't know WHAT to think!
edit: and yeah, Jozy is a passer who's been told that he needs to be a finisher because he's built like a brick shithouse. Somehow Hulk talked his way into being a winger, you'd think Jozy would have done the same over the course of his career...
Can that talk!!!Tecatito is out of this game and the Confederations Cup for personal reasons, too. That's another significant loss for El Tri.
(We're still going to lose.)
The original thought was that if he went 90 minutes the other night he wouldn't be available tonight. Since he didn't, I think they're hoping he can come in late if they're chasing a goal.Why no Dempsey????
It'd be a silly argument, though, as Chicharito, Herrera and Giovani dos Santos are likely to take the field. Carlos Vela might mean he's not even the best winger on the field. When he was Pulisic's age, dos Santos had worked his way through La Masia and was starting for Barcelona. Seriously, you can argue the current Mexico team plays as less than the sum of its parts, but the parts are really fuckin' good.Well, one thing we usually don't have going for us is that you can argue the best player on the pitch tonight will be an American..
Hi, welcome to SoSHIt'd be a silly argument.
I'm trying to think if I did something bad over the last three days to warrant punishment and Guzan is the punishment.
Guzan over Howard is a head-scratcher to me, though.
Oh come on guys. I don't like our odds any more than the rest of ya's, but Guzan was starting in the EPL only a few weeks ago. Nobody would confuse him for David De Gea, and I prefer Howard in a vacuum too, but he's really not a liability. We've got two #1 keepers, Bruce needs to keep them in rotation.The field players, eh ok, let's see, but Guzan?? Wow
For a team that got relegated. Just like the team he played for last year.Oh come on guys. I don't like our odds any more than the rest of ya's, but Guzan was starting in the EPL only a few weeks ago.