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US Men's National Team (9 Viewers)

Is it me or does it seem Turner is attacking the far edges of the box more tonight? He is controlling A LOT of crosses and such by being aggressive coming out.
 
The US was set up to fail tonight. Sending young players against an an attack made up of players from England's top 2 leagues. and then trying to play finesse against a physical team. Good for giving the young players a taste of international soccer, bad for trying to win the game.
 
I really wish players would just kick it as hard as they can point blank into a guy when guys try to obstruct a breakaway or a quick free kick.
 
Positive: we can clearly see an a/b situation. We are getting a clearer picture of 1st team/subs

Negative: even our b team shouldnt look so sloppy against jamiaca.

B team plays too slow. And when they play fast (or try) it just looks bad.
 
J. Morris should never be called for international duty again. Fererria can a like-for-like replacement.

Still a Miazga fan, but it's clear he's also out of his depth at this level. He had a couple of good moments but his bad moments were worse.

Wasn't impressed with Booth and his Brek Shea haircut.

Liked Jalen Neal; he was at least as competent and more mobile than Long.

Liked what little I saw again of Mihalovic.

Why isn't Vasquez a nailed in starter on this team?
SpurrierisisGod said:
B team plays too slow. And when they play fast (or try) it just looks bad.
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This x1000. I hope it was a wake up call for these kids that they have to find another gear.

Except for their CONCACAFing the last few minutes of regulation, I like this Jamaica team.
 
SpurrierisisGod said:
Positive: we can clearly see an a/b situation. We are getting a clearer picture of 1st team/subs

Negative: even our b team shouldnt look so sloppy against jamiaca.

B team plays too slow. And when they play fast (or try) it just looks bad.
Click to expand...

Jamaica is better than their name suggests with that many players playing for top england teams.

Mahailovic and Cowell were the MVPs.

not sure of the love for tolkin. antonio was dominating him.
 
Fortunate to escape with a point. Jamaica has a lot more talent than this group, so can't be all that upset

Turner- Not much he could have done on the goal. Nice stop on the PK. Still looks shaky with his feet again

Miazga/Long- They're MLS lifer talents and not even at the level of someone like Zimmerman. Just bad.

Yedlin- there was a time when his near world class speed was enough to get him a spot on this team.(despite all his other flaws) That time has passed. Lets see Reynolds please.

Tolkin- didn't do much wrong but I dont see a lot there. In the desperate search for a backup LB, I'm willing to give him more chances. Is he a higher level talent than guys like Bello and Vines? Hard for me to tell.

Sands- Willing to stick his nose in there. Positioning usually seems fine. Don't see much as a destroyer or a deep lying playmaker.He's just kinda there. Meh

A. Morris- I dont watch much MLS and watch precisely zero Columbus games, but what is this kid supposed to be good at? Still young, but I dont get it. I'm cool for giving him a few chances, given the dire situation behind Adams. But I dont see a big time talent here.

Sonora- Horrendous . How can you be an attacking MF'er and not have a left foot? And how does a player like that get a shot to play for us? No more caps for him after this tournament please.

J. Morris- we know what he is. No more please

Zendejas- Had a couple brief flashes early but overall not very good, IMO. I think he's good enough to fit in with the A team but not good enough carry the C team on his own (especially with what he was working with up front)

Jesus- Obviously hit the ball that led to the goal.....which was something. But he's not a CF. No team with capable athletes has to worry about him. He's small and not that fast and a bad finisher. He'll probably score 2 goals on Wed but I'd much rather have many different players in that spot.

subs....

Cowell- Looked infinitely more dangerous that Morris. Obviously far from perfect, but his speed and tight area burst demands respect.

Neal- his passing range is impressive. Looked fairly poised most of the night. There's something there.

Roldan- Yeah, he's still around. Got into some ok spots but he's just not any good. it is what it is.

Djordje- nothing spectacular but he's clearly better than Sonora. Should have started and hope he does the rest of the way. Need to see what we have here.

Vazquez- got a chance....put it in. Should be playing over Jesus, especially with this group (since they dont have a lot of creativity in the middle and will likely have to keep attacking with crosses). Unfortunately for him, he's basically now just relegated to fighting for the 3rd/4th spot at forward. Can't imagine he ever gets a first team call unless there are multiple injuries. You do wonder if he would have committed to us if he knew that Balogun was coming. Probably needs to get to Europe to try and stake his claim ahead of Sargent as the 3rd option.

IMO, the Wed lineup should be Turner, Reynolds, Neal, Miles (if he's healthy, otherwise Miazga), D. Jones, Aiden, Sands, Djordje, Zendejas, Cade and Vazquez
 
There were some positives. The US usually gives up some chances over the top to Jamaica. That didn’t happen today. And while Antonio and Bailey had their moments, I’ve seen US teams struggle more with Shemar Nicholson and Darren Mattocks.

The US certainly lacked dynamism in midfield (until Djorge came in), but they did keep the ball and limited chances in the run of play. They were playing their 6th, 7th, and 8th choice CBs.
 
A lot of disappointment for a US team that was clearly our B-/C+ team at best playing the best Jamaican team(on paper) that I've ever seen. Thought we did some things very well for the talent we had on the field. Felt we did some things very poorly. Pretty much an expected result given the two roster sheets.

J. Morris is past it. He offers nothing anymore. Get him off the USMNT team because he isn't even quick anymore. Still has the first touch of a rhino, but now he can't seem to read the field and time his runs correctly either. That goes for Long too. No reason for him to ever feature unless he can pull a Ream and learn to read the field like a world class defender. His speed/athleticism isn't what it used to be and he was in the wrong place all night. Roldan was better, but another old guy that should be ceding minutes to higher upside young kids. Yedlin too.

Aidan Morris isn't a 6. He looked terrible until they moved him up to the 8. He was better there, but still not outstanding. Not sure what to think about him. Young kid, so obviously deserves some more looks, but hard to see what he does well given tonight's game.

Jesus was ok tonight. Played more like his Dallas system. Didn't result in anything, but looked decent. Miazga was poor. Zendejas was poor.

Tolkin, Cowell, Vazquez, and Sands were the highlights tonight. Turner too, but that's to be expected of him by now. Those 4 earned more minutes. Everyone else was meh at best.
 
I feel like people here are getting ahead of themselves. In a normal cycle Jamaica is a tough match for our A team. This time around with maybe Jamaica's best team ever our C+ squad played with them. And realistically, we created more chances than them. We score on a few chances we had a 75% chance of scoring on and things look very different.

People like to hate Jesus and I don't want him anywhere near the A team, but he set up 2 great chances in the first half that should have resulted in goals (cross to Sonora, and dropoff to Morris which Blake made a world class save on). And then of course he was involved in the actual goal. I'm not a fan overall, but he played well tonight.

The weakest part of our C-squad is the back line. Yedlin is the only one with the mental confidence with the ball but he doesn't have the skill to back it up. The other guys are just looking to get the ball off their feet as soon as possible and play with a "just don't screw up" mentality that leads to slow sloppy meaningless passes.

It's clear that there are certain guys on the C-squad like Cowell/Zendejas that have potential to be meaningful to the A-squad and certain guys that don't. But it's okay to mix and match a bit for some stability around those guys.
 
encaitar said:
Aidan Morris isn't a 6. He looked terrible until they moved him up to the 8. He was better there, but still not outstanding. Not sure what to think about him. Young kid, so obviously deserves some more looks, but hard to see what he does well given tonight's game.
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TLEF316 said:
A. Morris- I dont watch much MLS and watch precisely zero Columbus games, but what is this kid supposed to be good at? Still young, but I dont get it. I'm cool for giving him a few chances, given the dire situation behind Adams. But I dont see a big time talent here.
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Morris plays in a double pivot 352 for Columbus but he plays more like a box to box. He had a better 2nd half but overall was obviously very shaky.

His best qualities are those that make teammates look good - he covers a lot of ground, cycles the ball quickly, and wins it back. He didn't have his best game but I think he'll grow into it for the NT.
 
I agree with almost all the comments on the players themselves.

However, I don't think I agree with the high level thoughts on the game from many.

Jamaica historically has given our top squads good games. When you consider that this is arguably the best Jamaican team ever assembled and that it is clearly a US B team (and in some spots like CB, they were C or lower levels as we are so far down the depth chart here), no one should be surprised by the result.

Like others I hope Cade and Djordie (and maybe Reynolds) get more minutes going forward.
 
Good for Turner. I know the season is really long and they guys need some breaks but for some one like Turner who did not play much this is great

===================================


USMNT Only

@usmntonly

Matt Turner told BJ Callaghan & the USMNT coaching staff that he wanted to play in both the CONCACAF Nations League and the Gold Cup. His commitment and dedication to the team is part of why he was the USMNT captain against Jamaica last night.
 
I don't know if any one mentioned it last night but there was one play worse than the Sonora whiff. After the pk was saved, that shot off the rebound was ridiculously poor by Bailey (who similar to Sonora clearly has no off foot).

As an aside, the worst part of the Sonora whiff is that he did not even need to try it. The defender slipped. He easily could have settled the ball and got a shot off with his left foot.
 
There's always things to be learned from games but I also would say that sometimes the issues of the whole often make individuals look bad. Jamaica's gameplan looked very similar to Japan's. They boxed the midfield and did not pressure our centerbacks on the ball, forcing them to make a pass, which they just couldn't execute.

I find it exceptionally weird we chose to play this way with a Miazga/Long pairing after choosing not to play out of the back in the NL.
 
My biggest pet peeve with professional soccer players is the guys who can't at least be competent with their off foot. I'm just some podunk ex-college player here in KC who is right footed and I can honestly say my left foot is equally as strong.

When I was 6 years old I had a coach who told me I would never be a good soccer player unless I could kick the same with my left foot. I spent an entire summer in our backyard by myself ONLY kicking left footed. And every practice, every outing, every game I made a conscious effort to take the ball to the left as much as my right. Did this my whole life.

So if some wank like me can do it, these kids getting PAID should be able to do it.
 
If we come in second in the group, the path looks like Canada in the quarter finals and Mexico in the semi finals and then possibly Jamaica again in the finals.

Obviously goals in the next two games are going to be massive as this will come down to a tie breaker that will almost certainly decide the group winner.
 
NewlyRetired said:
I agree with almost all the comments on the players themselves.

However, I don't think I agree with the high level thoughts on the game from many.

Jamaica historically has given our top squads good games. When you consider that this is arguably the best Jamaican team ever assembled and that it is clearly a US B team (and in some spots like CB, they were C or lower levels as we are so far down the depth chart here), no one should be surprised by the result.

Like others I hope Cade and Djordie (and maybe Reynolds) get more minutes going forward.
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This is all fair. The guys that are there did about as expected from an individual standpoint. So the team played about as I expected. Jamaica, for all their talent up front dont have similar level players in the MF, so they can't really boss the game (even when they have a talent advantage overall)

I think the frustration is more about who is there and why. Obviously we weren't getting the A team, but it seems like there are a few other guys that could have been there that would have been upgrades/more interesting to watch for the future.

At the end the match, one of the announcers said something like "the kings of Concacaf were humbled a bit tonight" (or something along those lines). I didn't feel that way at all. I fully expected a loss last night going in. A draw where we had the lion's share of possesion was a pleasant surprise. It was just boring to watch and frustarting to see certain guys still getting undeserved opportunities.

If this team (as an example) had Paxton Aaronson, Diego Luna, Kevin Paredes and Brendan Craig instead of Sonora, Roldan, J. Morris and Long (and maybe a better European based defender like McKenzie or EPB instead of Miazga) I'd be a lot more excited to watch the games.

I get the thought process about bringing a few veteran guys just so you dont have a team full of 21 year olds. But as someone who is more concerned about the real long term level of the program (as opposed to winning a relatively unimportant trophy to get a few extra fans on board the bandwagon) I just dont want to see those guys anymore.
 
TLEF316 said:



If this team (as an example) had Paxton Aaronson, Diego Luna, Kevin Paredes and Brendan Craig instead of Sonora, Roldan, J. Morris and Long (and maybe a better European based defender like McKenzie or EPB instead of Miazga) I'd be a lot more excited to watch the games.
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I don't get the McKenzie exclusion at all from the entire summer. It makes no sense. And from what little we know, McKenzie did not ask to excluded for personal reasons, this was a tactical choice to leave him out of both squads.
 
gianmarco said:
I really wish players would just kick it as hard as they can point blank into a guy when guys try to obstruct a breakaway or a quick free kick.
Click to expand...
Marco Etcheverry used to do this several times a season for DC United. It was fantastic. Cathartic for the fans, the other guy took one in the nethers, and often picked up a yellow card for delaying a restart. Have never figured out why more players don't do it.
 
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TLEF316 said:
Fortunate to escape with a point.
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Reading, I assumed we'd lost 3-0 -- no one mentioned the score in the whole thread.

FWIW, this is clearly a "C/D" team IMO. A/B are the first and second elevens (almost all in the 23 for the Nations League).
 
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Ramsay Hunt Experience said:
I will never understand how Blake has never gone to Europe.
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I am more convinced than ever that we as fans look at things so much differently than the scouts do.

The Revs got a great price for Turner and the guy who stepped in for Turner for the Revs is getting so many rumors attached to him it sounds like he could be sold for twice as much as Turner. I think Blake is better than both of them.

And Blake is just one example. None of us have too much bias about our players abilities and we are very free with hammering our players weaknesses. But when you look at a player like Miles Robinson, the talk is almost always positive. How does a player like him not get good offers when so many others worse than him are moving to Europe? There has to be things in his game that the scouts have to feel won't translate.
 
L'equipe reported that Lyon have made Pulisic a "priority signing" this summer. OL is owned by American John Textor - the FUBO TV guy who also owns all or part of OL Reign, Botafogo, Crystal Palace and a couple other clubs. This might be not be a terrible landing spot for him. Several Italian clubs also reportedly still in the mix.
 
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