US Men's National Team (7 Viewers)

[prefontaine]

Pukstas starting for the first time in forever for Hajduk. He is playing in the base two alongside Rakitic. They won against another top of the table side 4-0 and he had the most tackles (4), most duels won (17!!).

Not sure what's gone on between he and the club after his transfer fell through, but he and Rakitic are an interesting pair. Rakitic had zero tackles and 1 duel won for the match.

 

[NewlyRetired]

Yet another goal for our Ginger

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[NewlyRetired]

Yet another goal for our Ginger

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And now a brace

 

[NewlyRetired]

Yet another goal for our Ginger

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And now a brace

What a nice goal for the second

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[NewlyRetired]

I believe that is 7 goals in his last 6 games

 

[gianmarco]

Gio starting at the #10!!!!

 

[NewlyRetired]

Gio starting at the #10!!!!

Well that came out of no where. I was just reading an article yesterday that speculated the team is all but done with him.

 

[El Floppo]

Yet another goal for our Ginger

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And now a brace

What a nice goal for the second

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Yeah sure. But can he do it on a blustery February day at Stoke.

 

[El Floppo]

I'm not watching, but damn Milan are a poor team to have to cheer for. Down 0-1 to might Torino in the 1st half

At least Musah is getting tons of minutes.

 

[NewlyRetired]

I'm not watching, but damn Milan are a poor team to have to cheer for. Down 0-1 to might Torino in the 1st half

At least Musah is getting tons of minutes.

Pulisic’s first missed PK of his pro career

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

Off foot, top corner, outside the box is not something I expected to see from any US striker. Beauty of a strike.

Been on the "start Sargent" bandwagon for awhile, but feel like I may have dumb lucked into that call since I was, apparently, underrating him.

 

[NewlyRetired]

Norwich has been around for 122 years. Sargent is already tied for 8th most goals scored for the club.

Getting to 6th place all time is reachable by the end of the season even if his blistering scoring pace slows quite a bit.

 

[NewlyRetired]

Since we have no obvious strikers to roster in March besides Sargent, we need to watch how Jesus, Vazquez and Agyemang all start the MLS season.

 

[NewlyRetired]

Since we have no obvious strikers to roster in March besides Sargent, we need to watch how Jesus, Vazquez and Agyemang all start the MLS season.

Ebobisse says "don't forget about me!!"

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[NewlyRetired]

Philly news:

Cavan dresses tonight and is available as a sub for Philly's opening game.

There seemed to be a chance that Neil Pierre was going to get a start tonight at CB but is on bench.

 

[NewlyRetired]

I wonder how this will play out in terms of the national team. If this happens will a group of Americans stay with Poch for a couple months while the long break happens on the switch? I assume there will be a ton of loans that winter….

IMO, if they intend to make this colossal move, 2026 is the absolute perfect time to do it.

==========

Doug Roberson
‪@dougrobersonajc.bsky.social‬

Follow
.@MLS commissioner Don Garber said there are a lot of intense conversations ongoing about league switching to international schedule (fall to spring) in 2026

 

[NewlyRetired]

I wonder how this will play out in terms of the national team. If this happens will a group of Americans stay with Poch for a couple months while the long break happens on the switch? I assume there will be a ton of loans that winter….

IMO, if they intend to make this colossal move, 2026 is the absolute perfect time to do it.

==========

Doug Roberson
‪@dougrobersonajc.bsky.social‬

Follow
.@MLS commissioner Don Garber said there are a lot of intense conversations ongoing about league switching to international schedule (fall to spring) in 2026

I have done a good bit of reading on social media about this on different platforms.

It appears the vast (and I mean VAST) majority of current MLS fans would be against this move. Weather being the #1 reason.

 

[El Floppo]

I wonder how this will play out in terms of the national team. If this happens will a group of Americans stay with Poch for a couple months while the long break happens on the switch? I assume there will be a ton of loans that winter….

IMO, if they intend to make this colossal move, 2026 is the absolute perfect time to do it.

==========

Doug Roberson
‪@dougrobersonajc.bsky.social‬

Follow
.@MLS commissioner Don Garber said there are a lot of intense conversations ongoing about league switching to international schedule (fall to spring) in 2026

I have done a good bit of reading on social media about this on different platforms.

It appears the vast (and I mean VAST) majority of current MLS fans would be against this move. Weather being the #1 reason.

Or at least the vast majority of vocal fans. Like yelp.

 

[El Floppo]

Timmy and Swag starting.

Hopefully they don't **** the bed the way Milan has been doing.

 

[El Floppo]

Timmy and Swag starting.

Hopefully they don't **** the bed the way Milan has been doing.

Swag has been busy at the 10, but unfortunately every quick one touch pass he's made has turned the ball over instead of splitting open the defense. Fantastic work in there on both sides of the ball.

Timmy has looked solid as RB- defending well, and with very happy feet going forward.

But this is a game where Juve are dominating at the half up 1-0 (instead of the 3or4-0 their chances have dictated) and will likely give up a late goal to draw 1-1.

 

[El Floppo]

Timmy and Swag starting.

Hopefully they don't **** the bed the way Milan has been doing.

Swag has been busy at the 10, but unfortunately every quick one touch pass he's made has turned the ball over instead of splitting open the defense. Fantastic work in there on both sides of the ball.

Timmy has looked solid as RB- defending well, and with very happy feet going forward.

But this is a game where Juve are dominating at the half up 1-0 (instead of the 3or4-0 their chances have dictated) and will likely give up a late goal to draw 1-1.

And on cue, the game flipped in the 2nd half, wit Juve looking adrift. Timmy exposed a couple times 1v1. But they held on for their 4th league win in a row, both Timmy and swag went the distance.

Fwiw, swag lost the armband this game.

 

[El Floppo]

No mention that Tony Meola had a heart attack over the weekend at 55. Recovering.

I thought he was older than me... Used to come to our college games my Sr year (good pals with our GK from HS who played at GK while tony played CF.

 

[prefontaine]

No mention that Tony Meola had a heart attack over the weekend at 55. Recovering.

I thought he was older than me... Used to come to our college games my Sr year (good pals with our GK from HS who played at GK while tony played CF.

Andy mentioned it yesterday

 

[prefontaine]

Tanner Tessmann went the full 90 again but this time in a 2-3 loss for Lyon to PSG. That's his 3rd start in a row and he looks to be taking the role as his own.

 

[NewlyRetired]

Another 90 for Johnny today in a 2-1 win that moves Betis into a virtual tie for 6th in La Liga.

 

[The Z Machine]

Off foot, top corner, outside the box is not something I expected to see from any US striker. Beauty of a strike.

Been on the "start Sargent" bandwagon for awhile, but feel like I may have dumb lucked into that call since I was, apparently, underrating him.

He'll be great for the US until he doesn't score and can't generate any offense against a bunkered team.

 

[El Floppo]

Off foot, top corner, outside the box is not something I expected to see from any US striker. Beauty of a strike.

Been on the "start Sargent" bandwagon for awhile, but feel like I may have dumb lucked into that call since I was, apparently, underrating him.

He'll be great for the US until he doesn't score and can't generate any offense against a bunkered team.

So he's every forward for the US... I'll take it

 

[TLEF316]

Preliminary roster dropped a couple of hours ago....

GOALKEEPERS: Drake Callender, Matt Freese, Ethan Horvath, Diego Kochen, Patrick Schulte, Zack Steffen, Matt Turner.


DEFENDERS: Noahkai Banks, George Campbell, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Marlon Fossey, Nathan Harriel, Dejuan Jones, Mark McKenzie, Shaq Moore, Jackson Ragen, Tim Ream, Chris Richards, Antonee Robinson, Miles Robinson, Joe Scally, John Tolkin, Auston Trusty, Walker Zimmerman.


MIDFIELDERS: Paxten Aaronson, Brenden Aaronson, Tyler Adams, Max Arfsten, Gianluca Busio, Johnny Cardoso, Caden Clark, Luca De La Torre, Maximilian Dietz, Emeka Eneli, Diego Luna, Jack McGlynn, Weston McKennie, Djordje Mihailovic, Matko Miljevic, Aidan Morris, Yunus Musah, Tanner Tessmann, Timothy Tillman, Indiana Vassilev.


FORWARDS: Patrick Agyemang, Cole Campbell, Cade Cowell, Ben Cremaschi, Damion Downs, Jesus Ferreira, Brian Gutierrez, Jordan Morris, Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna, Josh Sargent, Brandon Vazquez, Tim Weah, Brian White, Griffin Yow, Alex Zendejas.


No Nathaniel Brown and surprisingly no Ledesma(rumors he might be leaning El Tri but he's not on their roster either) . But good ole Shaq Moore gets the nod again

 

[NewlyRetired]

No Nathaniel Brown and surprisingly no Ledesma(rumors he might be leaning El Tri but he's not on their roster either) . But good ole Shaq Moore gets the nod again

The Richie news is odd especially with him not on either roster. He is, I believe, the only US Mexican eligible player left as a starter in Champions League.

 

[El Floppo]

Jordan Morris?

 

[BassNBrew]

Jordan Morris?

Slower than Sargent.

 

[El Floppo]

Jordan Morris?

Slower than Sargent.

if you're comparing him to Sargent, he must be banging in goals by the boat-load.

 

[NewlyRetired]

Jordan Morris?

It is a 60 man roster with our top 2 strikers missing so some strange names were bound to make it on.

To be fair to Poch though, Morris was the second highest US scorer in all of MLS last season, behind only Brian White who is also on this roster. Morris also scored in the season opener this year for Seattle.

 

[El Floppo]

No Nathaniel Brown and surprisingly no Ledesma(rumors he might be leaning El Tri but he's not on their roster either) . But good ole Shaq Moore gets the nod again

The Richie news is odd especially with him not on either roster. He is, I believe, the only US Mexican eligible player left as a starter in Champions League.

it's odd. especially since, as TLEF says, we're still rolling out Shaq.

But happy to see Kochen, Banks and Campbell in there.

I'm not familiar with Ragen or Eneli.

 

[NewlyRetired]

Does anyone know if it will be a 26 or 23 man roster?

 

[NewlyRetired]

No Nathaniel Brown and surprisingly no Ledesma(rumors he might be leaning El Tri but he's not on their roster either) . But good ole Shaq Moore gets the nod again

The Richie news is odd especially with him not on either roster. He is, I believe, the only US Mexican eligible player left as a starter in Champions League.

it's odd. especially since, as TLEF says, we're still rolling out Shaq.

But happy to see Kochen, Banks and Campbell in there.

I'm not familiar with Ragen or Eneli.

From what I can tell they likely called Richie, Richie said no hoping to get called by Mexico, who also did not call him.

I assume that Moore was called once Richie said no.

 

[El Floppo]

Jordan Morris?

It is a 60 man roster with our top 2 strikers missing so some strange names were bound to make it on.

To be fair to Poch though, Morris was the second highest US scored in all of MLS last season, behind only Brian White who is also on this roster. Morris also scored in the season opener this year for Seattle.

Fair enough- no Pepi, Balo, Haji available or Prefok (who I guess might be done in terms of US callups)

 

[NewlyRetired]

If it is 23 man roster, I fear Banks is going to get left off given how many CB vets made the 60 man roster. I really hope Poch can find some room for him. No one else has his upside at a position of need come 2026.

 

[El Floppo]

No Nathaniel Brown and surprisingly no Ledesma(rumors he might be leaning El Tri but he's not on their roster either) . But good ole Shaq Moore gets the nod again

The Richie news is odd especially with him not on either roster. He is, I believe, the only US Mexican eligible player left as a starter in Champions League.

it's odd. especially since, as TLEF says, we're still rolling out Shaq.

But happy to see Kochen, Banks and Campbell in there.

I'm not familiar with Ragen or Eneli.

From what I can tell they likely called Richie, Richie said no hoping to get called by Mexico, who also did not call him.

I assume that Moore was called once Richie said no.

considering I'd much rather have Weah play the "not really a defender, but good going forward RB role" (better than Richie), it's not the end of the world I guess.... other than having to keep trotting these other guys out.

 

[El Floppo]

If it is 23 man roster, I fear Banks is going to get left off given how many CB vets made the 60 man roster. I really hope Poch can find some room for him. No one else has his upside at a position of need come 2026.

I still know nothing about him outside of what you guys have said in here.

That said- do we need both Zimm and Ream? Hopefully Banks is above Zimm at least...hopefully Miles too.

 

[zoobird]

Hard to complain too much about anyone bad being ON this roster, given that it's 60 players...but would have liked to see Bryan Reynolds above a bunch of these guys.

Also suspect that Luca de la Torre is better than few of the guys who were included.

But it's not like either of them belong in the final 23/26, so probably not a big deal.

 

[BassNBrew]

Jordan Morris?

Slower than Sargent.

if you're comparing him to Sargent, he must be banging in goals by the boat-load.

I was actually complimenting Sargent.

Also looking forward to eating crow.

 

[TLEF316]

Hard to complain too much about anyone bad being ON this roster, given that it's 60 players...but would have liked to see Bryan Reynolds above a bunch of these guys.

Also suspect that Luca de la Torre is better than few of the guys who were included.

But it's not like either of them belong in the final 23/26, so probably not a big deal.

Luca is on there.

Agreed that Reynolds behind guys like Moore and Dejuan Jones (plus MLS guys like Tolkein and Harriel) makes no sense.

 

[El Floppo]

MLS guys like Tolkein

Bundisliga guy like Tolkin?

 

[El Floppo]

Forgot about Reynalds... Agree he should be in there.

 

[TLEF316]

MLS guys like Tolkein

Bundisliga guy like Tolkin?

Ah, forgot he'd moved there and played a few games already. Fair

 

[NewlyRetired]

MLS guys like Tolkein

Bundisliga guy like Tolkin?

Ah, forgot he'd moved there and played a few games already. Fair

I think the higher point is that Tolkin did not suddenly get better just because he switched leagues.

I am not pointing at you but a common issue some US fans have is assuming everyone in MLS is not good enough for the National team but then the micro second they land in Europe they all of a sudden magically become USMNT worthy.

It never really made any sense to me.

 

[NewlyRetired]

I still can’t get over the Richie situation. Something is not adding up.

Without more info, I bet he has to be smashing his head against the wall wondering how 120 players got picked before the only starter left standing in Champions League who could represent either US or Mexico…..

 

[NewlyRetired]

Oh dear, I just saw the Richie news.

I am on phone so I can’t really cut and paste it all. basically what it sounds like is that it came down to was that Poch told him that they don’t view him as a right back, that they only view them as a central midfielder and he’s not gonna be able to break into the team as a central midfielder. From the tweet that Bogert wrote, Richie was supposedly extremely disappointed about this, but it looks like Mexico did not take advantage of it for some reason.

I have to say I don’t necessarily agree with Poch here. We are clearly dealing with some right back depth issues. if Richie has proven that he can play right back, even if it’s not his normal position, that should not hurt his ability to be put on a prelim roster in my opinion.

 

[NewlyRetired]

I feel pretty safe with saying Shaq Moore would not be starting for PSV at RB.