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US Men's National Team (10 Viewers)

Nobody loves three in the back more than me, but this isn't the staff I want tinkering with systems in the middle of a major tournament.
I read a couple days ago that the lineup he used against Colombia was a first - had never started that 11 before.  Understanding that a totally difference concept like a 3 - X - X lineup could never be implemented on the fly, its still kind of odd how unprepared the team is. I've got no eye for tactics, but even for me the shape was noticeably haphazard, especially when they tried to press. I saw individuals charging in and out with no relationship to their teammates.

 
I read a couple days ago that the lineup he used against Colombia was a first - had never started that 11 before.  Understanding that a totally difference concept like a 3 - X - X lineup could never be implemented on the fly, its still kind of odd how unprepared the team is. I've got no eye for tactics, but even for me the shape was noticeably haphazard, especially when they tried to press. I saw individuals charging in and out with no relationship to their teammates.
I think they prepared the 4-3-3 for the last two games of the group.  I think they intended to do something different for Columbia and the decent friendly results probably convinced JK to stay with the 4-3-3 and not use Beckerman as he had hinted.  But Jones' comments suggest that he did so while still changing the way they had prepared it so that Jones could cover Johnson. 

I didn't think the 4-3-3 fared all that poorly, but the inconsistent pressing was frustrating.  Particularly since Colombia's backline wasn't exactly immaculate on the ball. 

 
The USA-Colombia game averaged 1,536,000 viewers, making it the second most-watched men's national team game on Fox Sports 1. Only the USA-Mexico game for the Concacaf Cup in October 2015 drew more viewers on FS1 (1,561,000).

By comparison, the USA-Honduras game on FS1 to open the 2015 Gold Cup averaged 986,000 viewers.

National viewing figures for USA-Colombia on Univision, UniMas and UDN were not yet available. Univision did report that the USA-Colombia was the most-watched network program during its time frame in eight key markets, including New York and Los Angeles.

2016 U.S. Men's English-Language Viewers:
AVERAGE GAME (NETWORK)
1,536,000 USA-Colombia (FS1, June 2016)
954,000 USA-Guatemala (ESPN2, March 2016)
531,000 USA-Iceland (ESPN2, January 2016)
454,000 USA-Bolivia (FS1, May 2016)
429,000 USA-Ecuador (ESPN2, May 2016)
304,000 Puerto Rico-USA (FS1, May 2016)
294,000 USA-Canada (FS1, February 2016)
162,000 Guatemala-USA (BeIN Sports, March 2016)
Univision averaged 3.9 million viewers across its networks.

Including the FS1 numbers, the game drew a combined 5.4 million viewers, very solid for a Friday night.

 
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I am strangely not worried about tonight.

I don't know if that is due to confidence or numbness though. 

The team recently had its back up against the wall against Guat in qualifying and they responded well so I am hoping/expecting the same tonight.

 
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I am strangely not worried about tonight.

I don't know if that is due to confidence or numbness though. 

The team recently had its back up against the wall against Guat on qualifying and they responded well so I am hoping/expecting the same tonight.
How are they historically against Costa Rica?

 
Ned said:
How are they historically against Costa Rica?
13-5-14 (w-d-l)

13-4-5 at home (yes, the road record is attrocious).

The US has amounted 1 point in 10 matches in CR.  The one point came back in 1985.

 
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I wasn't willing to put my Pollyanna hat on in public, but this is almost exactly what I thought after the game as well.

If they play like that minus the especially egregious unforced errors (which they were punished harshly for) they'll be fine.  Especially if there's a bit more spark from the two forward mids.
My biggest problem with the team's play was because they were down early and yet there was nothing on the offensive end.  There was so little urgency or imagination.  It was a fairly competent defensive performance, but its not like Colombia was pressing.  Just a completely uninspired effort.

 
My biggest problem with the team's play was because they were down early and yet there was nothing on the offensive end.  There was so little urgency or imagination.  It was a fairly competent defensive performance, but its not like Colombia was pressing.  Just a completely uninspired effort.
Colombia really did not play well at all IMO.  Both goals came off of bad mistakes the US made and they rarely bothered the US after that outside of the last break away where they hit the cross bar on the counter.

Hopefully it was because of how the US played that forced Colombia to look kind of meh, but as another poster said, once they go up 2-0, they really did not have to press much going forward and could simply sit back.

I can live with the US lacking imagination(which comes down to our skill level).

I can not live with lack of urgency or lack of energy.   The only way teams like the US make up for the gap in talent is to work harder than the opponent.  Many times during the JK era it feels like the team wants to be something it is not and we get stuck in the dead space between being a skillful team and a hard working team and that is not a good spot to be since it gives no identity for the players to strive towards.

I think how Bradley has been playing really speaks to this.  JK seems to think of him as a skilled player, but he is not (at least at this level).  What he is a solid old fashioned box to box midfielder but we have never really had a system under JK which can utilize this strength.   To be fair to JK, Mikey is simply not good enough to build a system around so I can understand this happening.

 
The loss to Colombia marked JK's 81st game in charge.  That puts him one ahead of Bradley who was fired after his 80th game.

JK now trails only Bora at 96 games and Arena at 130 games.

The PPG's of the last 3 coaches are amazingly close

JK: 1.96

Bradley: 1.93

Arena: 1.87

 
Goff tweeted that he is expecting around 35k at the game tonight.  I don't know if that is just a guess or he knows the presale numbers.

 
Are you guys expecting any changes to the starting lineup tonight? 

JK was very strong in his press conference that he was pleased with how the players performed which could indicate no changes, but he has said that before in games and still made changes.

I would not be surprised to see 1-2 changes in the line up tonight.

 
I think there's about a 50/50 chance of seeing Nagbe for either Bedoya or Jones.  I think there's a 25% chance or so of seeing Pulisic for Zardes.  No other change seems plausible to me. 

 
Gulati with some pretty pointed comments re: Klinsmann today.  Said that performances in competitive tournaments have not been good enough and that while Klinsmann has implemented some good reforms as technical director, "we need to win games."  Also said that JK's performance would be evaluated after the Copa. 

 
Gulati with some pretty pointed comments re: Klinsmann today.  Said that performances in competitive tournaments have not been good enough and that while Klinsmann has implemented some good reforms as technical director, "we need to win games."  Also said that JK's performance would be evaluated after the Copa. 
wow, Gulati typically says nothing.  This is an odd time to say something......

 
Gulati with some pretty pointed comments re: Klinsmann today.  Said that performances in competitive tournaments have not been good enough and that while Klinsmann has implemented some good reforms as technical director, "we need to win games."  Also said that JK's performance would be evaluated after the Copa. 
Sounds like he's a goner if performance doesn't improve quickly. 

 
Yea those comments are pretty to the point  have to think Jurgen is on his last legs here. 
So lets play this out to one possible conclusion (and a likely one imo).

Lets assume the US goes 1-1-1, makes the quarters and then loses a close game where the score does not indicate how badly they have been outplayed.   Does JK keep his job with path?

I still am scratching my head why the normal turtle like Gulati has come out to the press now....Why play any cards before you have to?  Does he have sponsorship backing to financially pull it off or does he already have an exact target in mind that would fit financially as the next coach?

 
So lets play this out to one possible conclusion (and a likely one imo).

Lets assume the US goes 1-1-1, makes the quarters and then loses a close game where the score does not indicate how badly they have been outplayed.   Does JK keep his job with path?

I still am scratching my head why the normal turtle like Gulati has come out to the press now....Why play any cards before you have to?  Does he have sponsorship backing to financially pull it off or does he already have an exact target in mind that would fit financially as the next coach?
Somebody somewhere is his boss or paying the bills. And they're tired of it. 

 
I'm ready for new blood...really hoping Gulati has a ringer in the waiting...Pep anyone??
Unless there is a ton of money hidden some where (or significant sponsor support), I don't think you are going to see an enormous name come, especially in the middle of a cycle.

It will either be one of the normal international mercenaries who want the job since the path to the WC seems clear, or they will take a flyer on one of the MLS coaches (Vermes, Porter etc).

 
Gulati's the one who chased out the perfectly fine Bradley and hired a German.  To pop up now with that is strike two.  Leaning towards show pony at this point.

 
Although I think we'd be better off if Klinsmann were replaced, I don't want to talk about that now. Rather than criticizing the manager or players, I'd rather look in the mirror and ask myself whether I've really done all I can to support this team, and the fact is, I've failed them. I've failed us all. Tonight, I gave up my tickets because its a 2 hour drive on a school night. On Friday, I feigned commitment by pulling a 2012 Hoppin Frog Sweet Evil BBW Barleywine from the cellar, but didn't even finish the bomber over the 2 hours of gametime. As I dumped half a glass out before stumbling off to bed, I realized I had half-assed the game, and felt a wave of shame come over me. I didn't give my all, and I think we all paid for it. I ask each of you to look yourselves in the eyes and ask yourselves whether you are really giving 110%, leaving everything out there on the couch tonight. As Jurgen was hired in 2011 and has given 5 years to this team, I'm only drinking stuff that's been in my cellar for 5 years - no more or less. I've just pulled a wide assortment of huge stouts, barleywines and sours - all 100% American - Central Waters, Bigfoot, Bruery, Bell's. Nothing will be squandered, nothing left on the table. When I pass out tonight, win or lose, I'll know I've given everything I've got. 

America, #### Yeah!

 
Gulati's the one who chased out the perfectly fine Bradley and hired a German.  To pop up now with that is strike two.  Leaning towards show pony at this point.
meh, Bradley was limited...great tactician but JK certainly brought something to the table that Bradley didn't have...I wish we could morph the two of them.

 
now that the US is finally playing in a formation that has shown me that they can actually dictate their own play against Conmebol teams... it's time to dump JK? no gracias.

 
Here is Sunils full statement.  Not quite as harsh as it first sounded from the twitter bits:

“Results are what matter and everyone understands that. Results of the last 18 months overall haven’t been what we would have hoped for, especially in the official competitions. We had some good results last spring that were friendlies, we had some wins coming into this event, but it’s the official competitions that matter the most and we haven’t been up to where we would like to be. We will look at everything after this competition. I don’t get too high or too low based on one game, especially in this tournament against a very good team [Colombia]. So we will wait and see how the next two games go and hopefully some additional games after that before we assess where things are again. As human nature, we do an assessment after every game, after every half, after every sequence of plays, but we try not to get too up or down.”“There are short-term goals and long-term goals. The reality is the business we’re in, and specifically the business the coaches are in, you don’t get to see through too many long-term goals if you don’t hit the long-term goals. There are some things in his role as technical director that we think we’ve made good advances in, but we need to win games, and we need to win games in competitive play. The first few years we obviously did that [Gold Cup, World Cup], but last summer in particular with the Gold Cup and the reprieve we had [CONCACAF Cup], we didn’t get it done.”On assessing Klinsmann in the near future:“Whenever we look at important competitions like that, it’s thorough analysis and evaluation. We are a break point after a big competition and before the next set of important competitions [World Cup qualifying this fall]. So we look at all of those things. … The Gold Cup matters, Copa America matters, the CONCACAF Cup matters if you qualify. If you are ranking all of those things, playing in the World Cup is singularly the most important thing, but all of those competitions matter not only because they get you to another competition like the Confederations Cup, but they give you an assessment of where you are.”Is there are scenario of splitting of the role of head coach and technical director?“Sure. We have done that in the past rarely because it’s been a long time since we had someone specifically as a technical director for a lot of different reasons. On the women’s side, we have that now with April Heinrichs and Jill [Ellis]. If we thought we had a better division of labor, then we could certainly look at that, sure.”When you look at where the national team is after almost five years of Klinsmann, are you disappointed?“There are areas where I would have hoped for more progress and other areas where we have done well. That, in many ways, reflects recent results. If you ask me the question after the Gold Cup 2 1/2 years ago, it’s a different answer — human nature. But as I often say, in terms of the results, this isn’t a linear path.”What are you expectations?“It’s to win tonight and it’s to win Saturday to get through the group and then see what’s possible.”On Klinsmann’s job security ...“We need to win a few games, whether it’s now or September, October, November. We have to win games. Beating Bolivia is a good result; it’s not as important as losing to Colombia in this tournament. … No one has ironclad job security.”Can you justify keeping him if he doesn’t get out of this group?“I don’t want to get into hypotheticals like that. We are a few hours from kickoff; let’s win this game and get to Philadelphia” for the group finale.

 
Sunil's tongue has been on JK's balloon knot so long that saying something like "No one has ironclad job security." is a big departure.

 
I still feel fairly confident tonight.  Maybe that is misplaced.

I like that the weather is going to be cooler (50s tonight at game time).  That should allow the US to hopefully play with more energy and press the CR's.

 
No changes to the starting XI from Friday.

i mean hey, if it ain't broke right?  Sigh

#USMNT lineup: Guzan; Yedlin, Cameron, Brooks, Johnson; Jones, Bradley, Bedoya; Zardes, Dempsey, Wood. #USAvCRC

No changes. #MyCopaColors

 
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