I liked LDLT, Scally, Morris, and Lund. Everyone else seemed meh to me. Can’t wait for some new leadership.
I can't be the only one thinking that Pochettino might be trying to find a way out of his USMNT contract after that team display.
His teammates were the ones not bringing any energy. How about he shows some leadership and starts with them?
The black and white of that (whether true or not) was not my point. Bombito is not that great of a passer so I wouldn't even call him a world-elite CB... at least not yet. What is concerning is that we don't have any CBs in the pipeline that project to be even close to what Bombito is from an athletic perspective. France produces them in bunches so they are out there. Moreover... if that kind of athlete in soccer is so rare then why does Canada have two of them? Davies may be a LB but he is also one of the fastest soccer players alive. For the most part, I think those kinds of athletes tend to pick different sports in the US.... but if Canada can have two athletic freaks on the pitch on D why don't we have one elite defender? It's pretty bad IMO. AAR, on to the lineup... I like it other than Musah at RW. I would probably give Cowell a shot to start and put Musah next to Morris in place of LDLT. I would also be in favor of trying a 2-striker formation... something like a 4-4-2 diamond: CP - Sargent Tillman LDLT - Musah Morris Lund - McKenzie - Richards - Fossey or even go to 3 in the back (3-4-3 diamond): Cowell - Sargent - CP Tillman Wiley - Musah Morris Trusty - Richards - McKenzie Edit... Wiley isn't there yet but athletically he is very gifted so the more I think on this match the more I want to see him out there even though Lund did well.
I’m afraid Aaronson offers little for the national team on the typical day. He’s not influential enough at this level.
I am sure he has been around long enough to realize a friendly isn't an actual competitive match. I am sure he understands it was an interim coach and missing many starters. So yeah, you were probably the only one thinking that!! HaHa!
No. His fastest time from MLS would be tops in Ligue 1. There's a basic lack of comprehension of how fast this guy is. He is in rarefied air and will be headed for bigger clubs in the manner of Davies. No NFL.
Teams have up and down periods. We have won several trophies and had a decent showing at the world cup while he has been a part of the team. I doubt he is going to quit over a loss to Canada in a friendly. Yes Copa was bad, I think we get out of the group if not for weah's foolish red card. These things happen, only a pussy quits when the going gets tough. Things will turn back around.
if we are going to be a team that builds out of the back we have to use players that can do that- and frankly we dont have them. ream (and brooks) are old, slow, defensive liabilities. richards (possibly mckenzie) could, in theory, partner a guy like that and do well but again- we dont have it. so we have to overcompensate covering for ream, with adams being the only reliable midfielder who can actually cover a backline (pending maloney). johnny and yunus cant/wont/some combination of the two even play as a passable defensive pair. and while johnny can play the ball around given a ton of time and space, at this point neither are close to acceptable passers. not even close. before going an inch farther im done. it doesnt work. we dont work. we sacrifice so much to get ream onto the pitch, where hes surrounded by guys who cant pass (or receive, or turn with the ball) so what the hell is the point? we have to take a big step back before we can take even the smallest step forward. we need to play defenders who stop the damn ball. we have to move that focus on passing to the midfield, and that means guys who arent as proven, at the level of or as sexy. i would play tesserman and morris today before i would play johnny and musah as that "double pivot"/line of two. we are not only incapable of building up, we intentionally build back. the most consistent, not panicked, repeatable "pattern" we have is somehow ending up 10-30 yards into the opponents half before stringing 3-5 quick short passes together to play the ball back to the keeper/a cbs foot where we once again have no idea, or ability, of what to do next. discussing our front 3/4 has been a waste of time for 6 years now. nancy, poch or the love child of pep and klopp arent going to change that. but they might change what we are doing- using defenders, playing shot to ball playing cms, to attacking fbs. this endless parade of greggs idiot stepchildren/sycophant interims simply arent going to change that. we are in the freaking mud, and the fed is rotten from the top down; that we let mikey varas manage even a window as meaningless as this tells me all i need to know about how disconnecting from reality they are that they think we are just a few adjustments away from being this sexy, modern team they think we have any chance of being. this "style" is untenable. musah is unplayable- i dont care about milan. we arent missing one thing he can bring to a complete, functional team- pressing, carrying that ball, etc. he wont commit (or is being told hes too special to limit himself) to defending and his passing is abhorrent. luca looked like freaking maradona by comparison, but give him more than 20 minutes and theyre going to realize a stiff breeze will knock him off the ball. and the collective mindset- the vibes, the chemistry people have been rallying behind for years has either always been, or certainly is now, rotten and spoiled and toxic. we play with negative levels of fight, commitment, heart, etc. we are (mentally) soft, and timid, and entitled. i honestly dont know if we are getting poch or not. i think we eventually will- this is maybe the most extreme example of pot committed i can think of- but he can really only do two things. first is make us the "best" version of this team- which is going to be bad. the second is break us all the way down, take us as far back on the us soccer evolutionary scale as is needed- which could possibly be a little better. but its the only way we have a chance of course correcting post-26 (i think getting out of the group before going out even with the extra round is looking more and more "hopeful"). we dont have cbs who can play the ball. theres no central midfield with even 2 of mma that can even allow for a functional offense. so it has to be some big ass, 90s throwback cbs. it has to be very recent mlser/boro over burning up la liga. not to sound crazy but if we cant find a single striker who can work with any combination of players around them maybe its not about the strikers. theres a reason we used to use two. this window sucks. we should start schulte, fossey,< richards or mckenzie>, trusty and scally (i didnt make this garbage roster). morris, luca and tillman just so malik knows what getting the ball feels like. i know thats not at all stout enough, but its a friendly against nz- exactly how much do we need to see musah and/or cardoso embarrassed here? and make no mistake- we should be embarrassed. up top who knows what the problems are? we only attack for up to 20 minutes after multiple changes. cowell, sarge and wright i guess (with wiley getting a runout at some point). honestly im at the end of my rope. i dont know that i can take "needing" ream for his "leadership" in a manager-less friendly anymore. look, this window is a waste- we knew that coming in. but if we keep dicking around and dont hire a manager before the next window, and and just find some shriveled up twig from the berhalter coaching scrub to interim through another of these? there is no joy is us soccer for me right now. i really like most of our players and enjoy watching them in clubs and leagues, and in numbers, i didnt know id ever experience back in the early 90s when i first started following. the rise there has been met by a fall in the national team, and i dont know how many more times i can get pumped about barely qualifying. its patently stupid to say our pool hasnt outpaced those 90s and 00s teams by leaps and bounds, and im caring less and less whos fault it is that collectively, as a nt, weve regressed to a degree that our trajectory is exactly the same, 30-some years later. like i said, if the fed cares so little theyll hand the team over to mikey freaking varas 20 months before a home world cup why should i?
I've read a lot of ridiculous and ignorant comments on here over the years but this is one of the biggest. Players are the ones on the field, not the USSF, Parlow, Jay Berhalter, or Mikey. The players laid an egg today. It's absolutely pathological how some of you trip over yourselves to find excuses for the players failings. We have decent players in the most competitive sport in the world. Decent players don't win WCs or even come close to winning them. We have 1 player, Pulisic who is playing well for a top team. 1, that's it. No one else is playing at a level high enough for us to realistically believe we belong with the top teams in the world. And it's not like Pulisic is All World or anything. AC Milan is NOT the Milan of 20 years ago and he's not their talisman. He's one of their better players. Not their best. And it's so stupid to talk about the culture of the program and what not when the women just won Gold at the Olympics. You just show how ill-informed you are when you say stuff like that. Our men are decent, that's it. And that's not good enough to win anything.
Border line. If you need someone to run back and forth for 60 minutes annoying opponents he might be helpful. Let's say he is anti Pefok or Balogun who are luxury players.
He’s clearly NOT a RB. He created nothing in the Copa, nothing today, nothing before. We need our CBs to create chances. If he’s not a CB he’s not on the team. Play Reynolds.
I continue to think that there's something wrong with the team's pregame routine. They come out flat so often that there must be some issue. It's not just that Berhalter was bad at pregame speeches or whatever.
just a few, not very insightful comments: I haven't liked Lund and was very prepared to continue with that opinion today. The first part of the game validated those feelings....then he grew into the game and settled down. He played well I thought. I am now taking him off the list I would like to see cut and putting him on the "who knows, maybe?" list. He may or may not be our best GK, but for now at least, start Schulte in the next game and make him the number one until someone takes his spot. I felt that Tillman had some very good moments but was a bit invisible at times. An improvement over some of his past appearances. Not so sure that I share the same exuberance over LDLT's performance that some do. Like Tillman, I think he had some good moments but not enough to elevate his standing in my eyes. Also, it was difficult to tell for certain but it looked like his goal was offside. I liked Aiden Morris. I wasn't impressed with Cowell. I think he still has a lot of potential but it wasn't there today. Here's my roster for NZ: Sargent Balo Pepi Cardoso Tillman Morris Wiley Trusty Richards Scally Schulte We already know enough about Pulisic...give him a rest. Start Sargent or Wright. My choice is Sargent because, rightly or wrongly, I think both he and Pepi are probably better passers than Wright. I really don't know Fossey at all...other than the little I have read. I wouldn't be against giving him at least some time at right back. If you want to start Lund (as a reward) and sub in Wiley at the half, I'm fine with that. Also, I'm not that hung up on Tillman over LDLT. I think their performances were similar in impact (other than the goal that I think was offsides), the key difference imo is that LDLT has been with the team longer, is more of a known commodity and at 26 is less likely to improve at a greater rate than Tillman who is 22 between now and 2026. I think a 24 yr old Tillman will be better than a 28yr old LDLT. Hopefully they both exceed my expectations but whatever....
CB pair from MLS? Who? With the CB situation what's also concerning is the dearth of talented youth CBs. So, for example, we can point to some promising attacking players on a good U17 team that's playing up a year at the Jezek tournament. Of course we won't know if any of them.will make a big jump to the USMNT in the next 5-8 years. But the buzz is there. I'm not hearing any buzz on any CBs on that team or other YNTs.
I don't have a problem with Varas being given the reins in this window. Somebody has to manage the team, and were still waiting for the real manager to sign on. From your lips to God's ears re: the CB situation. I'm tired of pretending that we have the personnel to play out of the back, or that we get bonus points for doing so.
the white Jordan morris you say? In homage to the black drogba, I’ll allow it (I think I remember your screen name from back in the day so you’ll get this)
This might not be a popular opinion here but I firmly believe that I have seen enough of Richards play for the USMNT and club ball to conclusively say he appears to be a VERY average player. His distribution is fairly limited, he lacks much positional awareness, is slow to react and he is physically slow. What am I missing?
I think the youth team CBs (Neal, Wynder, Banks, Akinmboni, etc.) Is more promising than the current crop are good. But they're too young to rely on.
After that performance Poch might be running for the hills… So many players that are light in the britches and can't ride a tackle or get stuck in. Or fight back after they've been fouled. Tissue paper soft! Our vaunted death is a joke, how many times do Cardoso and Tillman have to show us they are not national team quality? And what the Hell has happened to Musah? There was a time after his debut that I thought he might be our best player by 2026. He was invisible, and seems like his ability to carry the ball out of midfield has been coached out of him or something. It's clearly going to require some cracking the whip by the new coach to get some intensity to start a game out of this bunch of players. And it's a dumb teamtoo, with a dumb interim coach, who decides when they actually have a little bit of a grip on the game late, to attack Alfonso Davies' side of the field... Also, this team got the crowd they deserved for this performance!
Did anyone else notice when Richards almost kicked the ball into his own net? Every time I see him play for the USMNT I can't believe he's a starting defender in the EPL.
1. Get the new manager in now - Cone - get it done! 2. Team looked disinterested .. 3. Every player needs to re earn their position - some of our players are mailing it in. Unacceptable. 4. We have become soft. 5. Ream WAS great - but I think his sell by date is here. Richards is average.