US Men's National Team (11 Viewers)

[NewlyRetired]

if FIFA changes offside to be feet only, we are 2-0 at half

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FiwZopSWAAI13sd?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

 

[CletiusMaximus]

if FIFA changes offside to be feet only, we are 2-0 at half

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FiwZopSWAAI13sd?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

Im still not seeing it. He’s 100% onside for me in every photo and replay I’ve seen.

 

[AAABatteries]

if FIFA changes offside to be feet only, we are 2-0 at half

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FiwZopSWAAI13sd?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

Im still not seeing it. He’s 100% onside for me in every photo and replay I’ve seen.

I think that angle makes it look like Weah's knee is behind that grass line that the defenders foot is next to but the view down that line shows his knee is beyond it.

ETA - also, it could be that the still shot was taken a fraction of a second "early" - the ball is still on Weston's foot and Weah's knee from his stride goes offside.

 

[AAABatteries]

I think Sammy has altered my thinking a bit about GGG and how they look when they play well. for me, it's all about MMA and then the attacking players combining. is that something GGG brings or helps establish, or is something they just do because they're really good and know how to play in spite of GGG.

I don't want to diminish Berhalter's coaching but right now you have 3 mids playing at a high level. I'm not sure how much coaching is necessary. These guys are all doing it at a club level too (yes, Weston has been hurt and not particularly effective for Juve this year but he has shown it when healthy in the past).

We saw this in qualifying too. When those guys are on, we dominate. But when they are not all starting or are really off we are not good. It's hard to give Berhalter a ton of credit outside of picking the, imo obvious, lineup choice. Part of that is as many of us have complained, just put the best players on the pitch. But when we haven't gone MMA, the guys we have fill in (Acosta, Lletget, Busio, Tillman, Johnny) are just such huge dropoffs. Only LDT has shown to be anywhere near their level.

I just don't buy this thinking - I'm not singling you out but it feels like there's a good segment of the fanbase who thinks if the USMNT does poorly it's all on GGG and if we do well then it has nothing to do with him but is all due to the players. I'm fine calling him out for things like not developing a better plan for the 9, playing Morris and god help us Shaq Moore. But how about we give the guy at least a little credit for qualifying and for being what now looks like the only CONCACAF side to advance to the knockout. We all remember Wet & Bumpy and here we are 4 years later waiting for one of the biggest matches in USMNT history this Saturday. GGG deserves some level of credit because I know for damn sure people would be grilling him if we got knocked out yesterday.

 

[bagger]

I think Sammy has altered my thinking a bit about GGG and how they look when they play well. for me, it's all about MMA and then the attacking players combining. is that something GGG brings or helps establish, or is something they just do because they're really good and know how to play in spite of GGG.

I don't want to diminish Berhalter's coaching but right now you have 3 mids playing at a high level. I'm not sure how much coaching is necessary. These guys are all doing it at a club level too (yes, Weston has been hurt and not particularly effective for Juve this year but he has shown it when healthy in the past).

We saw this in qualifying too. When those guys are on, we dominate. But when they are not all starting or are really off we are not good. It's hard to give Berhalter a ton of credit outside of picking the, imo obvious, lineup choice. Part of that is as many of us have complained, just put the best players on the pitch. But when we haven't gone MMA, the guys we have fill in (Acosta, Lletget, Busio, Tillman, Johnny) are just such huge dropoffs. Only LDT has shown to be anywhere near their level.

I just don't buy this thinking - I'm not singling you out but it feels like there's a good segment of the fanbase who thinks if the USMNT does poorly it's all on GGG and if we do well then it has nothing to do with him but is all due to the players. I'm fine calling him out for things like not developing a better plan for the 9, playing Morris and god help us Shaq Moore. But how about we give the guy at least a little credit for qualifying and for being what now looks like the only CONCACAF side to advance to the knockout. We all remember Wet & Bumpy and here we are 4 years later waiting for one of the biggest matches in USMNT history this Saturday. GGG deserves some level of credit because I know for damn sure people would be grilling him if we got knocked out yesterday.

I try not to be so result based thinking as I prefer to examine the process. His process has been BAD. We almost did not qualify and that was due to his mismanagement of multiple games. Some of the players do deserve criticism for not being able to finish but he has made many tactical errors (like continually running out poor strikers and not even trying a creative lineup to address it).

 

[Ted Lange as your Bartender]

I think Sammy has altered my thinking a bit about GGG and how they look when they play well. for me, it's all about MMA and then the attacking players combining. is that something GGG brings or helps establish, or is something they just do because they're really good and know how to play in spite of GGG.

I don't want to diminish Berhalter's coaching but right now you have 3 mids playing at a high level. I'm not sure how much coaching is necessary. These guys are all doing it at a club level too (yes, Weston has been hurt and not particularly effective for Juve this year but he has shown it when healthy in the past).

We saw this in qualifying too. When those guys are on, we dominate. But when they are not all starting or are really off we are not good. It's hard to give Berhalter a ton of credit outside of picking the, imo obvious, lineup choice. Part of that is as many of us have complained, just put the best players on the pitch. But when we haven't gone MMA, the guys we have fill in (Acosta, Lletget, Busio, Tillman, Johnny) are just such huge dropoffs. Only LDT has shown to be anywhere near their level.

I just don't buy this thinking - I'm not singling you out but it feels like there's a good segment of the fanbase who thinks if the USMNT does poorly it's all on GGG and if we do well then it has nothing to do with him but is all due to the players. I'm fine calling him out for things like not developing a better plan for the 9, playing Morris and god help us Shaq Moore. But how about we give the guy at least a little credit for qualifying and for being what now looks like the only CONCACAF side to advance to the knockout. We all remember Wet & Bumpy and here we are 4 years later waiting for one of the biggest matches in USMNT history this Saturday. GGG deserves some level of credit because I know for damn sure people would be grilling him if we got knocked out yesterday.

And specifically how it relates to the midfield, he should also get some credit for bringing Musah into the program in the first place.

 

[TripleThreat]

How are you guys feeling?

feeling loose like we're playing with house money. I like our chances

excitement for Sat hasn't built up yet... but starting wondering about house vs breakfast beers at the supporters bar

 

[AAABatteries]

I think Sammy has altered my thinking a bit about GGG and how they look when they play well. for me, it's all about MMA and then the attacking players combining. is that something GGG brings or helps establish, or is something they just do because they're really good and know how to play in spite of GGG.

I don't want to diminish Berhalter's coaching but right now you have 3 mids playing at a high level. I'm not sure how much coaching is necessary. These guys are all doing it at a club level too (yes, Weston has been hurt and not particularly effective for Juve this year but he has shown it when healthy in the past).

We saw this in qualifying too. When those guys are on, we dominate. But when they are not all starting or are really off we are not good. It's hard to give Berhalter a ton of credit outside of picking the, imo obvious, lineup choice. Part of that is as many of us have complained, just put the best players on the pitch. But when we haven't gone MMA, the guys we have fill in (Acosta, Lletget, Busio, Tillman, Johnny) are just such huge dropoffs. Only LDT has shown to be anywhere near their level.

I just don't buy this thinking - I'm not singling you out but it feels like there's a good segment of the fanbase who thinks if the USMNT does poorly it's all on GGG and if we do well then it has nothing to do with him but is all due to the players. I'm fine calling him out for things like not developing a better plan for the 9, playing Morris and god help us Shaq Moore. But how about we give the guy at least a little credit for qualifying and for being what now looks like the only CONCACAF side to advance to the knockout. We all remember Wet & Bumpy and here we are 4 years later waiting for one of the biggest matches in USMNT history this Saturday. GGG deserves some level of credit because I know for damn sure people would be grilling him if we got knocked out yesterday.

I try not to be so result based thinking as I prefer to examine the process. His process has been BAD. We almost did not qualify and that was due to his mismanagement of multiple games. Some of the players do deserve criticism for not being able to finish but he has made many tactical errors (like continually running out poor strikers and not even trying a creative lineup to address it).

We can just disagree - dude has basically the best stats of essentially any USMNT coach ever - do I think he’s the best, no. Do I complain about Shaq Moore and Gio not playing, yes. But he has the best goals against average of any US coach in history. Nothing you can say will convince me that he doesn’t get credit for that - especially when you consider the defensive players he’s had at his disposal. Could we or should we be banging in more goals, absolutely with the talent we have and he deserves criticism for not putting them in better spots to get goals but how about a little credit for preventing the other team from scoring?

 

[TripleThreat]

Sarge may not be the finisher we want but he held point better than anyone else in a good while.

Adams tracked back so well to get some of those ~13k

 

[zoobird]

I try not to be so result based thinking as I prefer to examine the process.

Really important point here.

I think a lot of the problems we've had boil down to how he thinks about things. My impression is that rather than thinking about the full range of possibilities and how likely each are, he simply focused on the most likely outcome and is very rigid in optimizing for that. This results in bad decisions, such as:

• Consistently not inviting extra players into camp in case of injury
• Not being aggressive enough trying out and integrating young/emerging talent
• Giving too many of our top players games off during qualifying windows
• Never once trying a false 9 formation that gets as many of our best players into the lineup as possible

The other thing that bugs me is some of the inconsistency in his decision making...being in form matters, except when it doesn't. Being integrated into the team matters, except when it doesn't.

Overall, I think he could be a lot worse, but also think we should be able to do better...and need to try, given our hopes for next cycle. My opinion on that wouldn't change much, regardless of how deep we go this year.

 

[AAABatteries]

I try not to be so result based thinking as I prefer to examine the process.

Really important point here.

I think a lot of the problems we've had boil down to how he thinks about things. My impression is that rather than thinking about the full range of possibilities and how likely each are, he simply focused on the most likely outcome and is very rigid in optimizing for that. This results in bad decisions, such as:

• Consistently not inviting extra players into camp in case of injury
• Not being aggressive enough trying out and integrating young/emerging talent
• Giving too many of our top players games off during qualifying windows
• Never once trying a false 9 formation that gets as many of our best players into the lineup as possible

The other thing that bugs me is some of the inconsistency in his decision making...being in form matters, except when it doesn't. Being integrated into the team matters, except when it doesn't.

Overall, I think he could be a lot worse, but also think we should be able to do better...and need to try, given our hopes for next cycle. My opinion on that wouldn't change much, regardless of how deep we go this year.

Agree with point #1 and #4 - I would have preferred something different there and I've been on the bandwagon to move Weah or CP to the 9 for months - he just isn't going to do it. I don't get #2 - is that about Scally? Maybe I'm missing a couple other guys but we have basically the youngest team at the tournament. On #3 - as Andy pointed out we had a ton of injuries - I don't really remember too many games off he gave guys that either needed a rest or had a knock.

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

he held point better

He's also pretty useful defensively. And he's scoring goals against teams the quality of Iran as well. He's just not proven he can do it on a rainy night in Stoke against top competition yet.

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

Berhalter awards the match ball.

:goosebumps:

 

[zoobird]

Agree with point #1 and #4 - I would have preferred something different there and I've been on the bandwagon to move Weah or CP to the 9 for months - he just isn't going to do it. I don't get #2 - is that about Scally? Maybe I'm missing a couple other guys but we have basically the youngest team at the tournament. On #3 - as Andy pointed out we had a ton of injuries - I don't really remember too many games off he gave guys that either needed a rest or had a knock.

Scally was definitely the best example. Not on the roster when everyone began clamoring for him to be included, and then consistently underutilized because he never had the chance to earn GGG's trust. Direct result of that was Shaq Moore somehow getting playing time as our primary RB backup. I think similar situations played out with other players along the way, although many of them in retrospect probably wouldn't have impacted the WC roster.

For the games off, I don't remember specifics, but almost sure that we had multiple situations of healthy starters only starting 2 out of 3 games in a single qualifying window. Typically, the assumption was that they were being saved for the games that we "had" to win...but that meant that we were to some extent sacrificing the games that were tougher.

 

[[icon]]

In the Gold Cup and the World Cup, Matt Turner has kept clean sheets in 7 of 9 matches.

He's yet to allow a non-PK goal.
(PK vs Martinique, PK vs Wales)

This just occurred to me. Impressive testament to his skill and our back line.

 

[AAABatteries]

Agree with point #1 and #4 - I would have preferred something different there and I've been on the bandwagon to move Weah or CP to the 9 for months - he just isn't going to do it. I don't get #2 - is that about Scally? Maybe I'm missing a couple other guys but we have basically the youngest team at the tournament. On #3 - as Andy pointed out we had a ton of injuries - I don't really remember too many games off he gave guys that either needed a rest or had a knock.

Scally was definitely the best example. Not on the roster when everyone began clamoring for him to be included, and then consistently underutilized because he never had the chance to earn GGG's trust. Direct result of that was Shaq Moore somehow getting playing time as our primary RB backup. I think similar situations played out with other players along the way, although many of them in retrospect probably wouldn't have impacted the WC roster.

For the games off, I don't remember specifics, but almost sure that we had multiple situations of healthy starters only starting 2 out of 3 games in a single qualifying window. Typically, the assumption was that they were being saved for the games that we "had" to win...but that meant that we were to some extent sacrificing the games that were tougher.

I think ultimately a minor point but I imagine Yedlin would have played over Scally yesterday even if Scally had been given a little more time in qualifying. I think GGG had to balance development of the youth with trying to qualify - he definitely wasn't perfect but given these guys are tasked with both the now and the future I was pleased enough with how he handled it. From a "credit" standpoint is there anybody who thinks we aren't setup well for 2026? If so, I think the guy leading things the last four years has to get a little credit for it.

Look, no coach is perfect but as others have pointed out there's a list of teams that have not qualified for the round of 16 and we have - Italy (not in the tournament), Germany, Canada, Belgium, Mexico and a couple others that need results that are expected. The meme YOU HAD ONE JOB! comes to mind - so far GGG gets to check the boxes even if we don't like some of the process to get it done.

 

[encaitar]

My thoughts on Berhalter:

He did the job. We had one goal with this young team and that was to make the World Cup. Mission accomplished.
Our secondary goal was to find a way out of group stage. Mission accomplished.
Finally the third big goal was to get key dual nationals to commit. Mission accomplished.

If his time is over, he's been a successful US coach.

Are there areas I wish he's have made different choices this WC? Sure.
There's no reason I'll accept for not bringing on a healthy Gio instead of Morris when chasing a goal against Wales.
There's no reason I can see for taking Moore over Cannon, much less playing him instead of Yedlin.
There's no reason I can see for leaving Pepi at home for Jesus, or Pefok at home for Haji.

Ultimately these were small things that didn't affect us getting out of group stage. Remains to be seen if they affect us in the knockout rounds.

I hope we'll get a true world class coach interested in coaching this young team for the next cycle, but if not, there's definitely worse than Gregg out there. He's more than done what was asked from him and he still has this team playing it's *** off. I'll be disappointed if he gets resigned, but won't think it's a terrible tragedy.

 

[bagger]

I try not to be so result based thinking as I prefer to examine the process.

Really important point here.

I think a lot of the problems we've had boil down to how he thinks about things. My impression is that rather than thinking about the full range of possibilities and how likely each are, he simply focused on the most likely outcome and is very rigid in optimizing for that. This results in bad decisions, such as:

• Consistently not inviting extra players into camp in case of injury
• Not being aggressive enough trying out and integrating young/emerging talent
• Giving too many of our top players games off during qualifying windows
• Never once trying a false 9 formation that gets as many of our best players into the lineup as possible

The other thing that bugs me is some of the inconsistency in his decision making...being in form matters, except when it doesn't. Being integrated into the team matters, except when it doesn't.

Overall, I think he could be a lot worse, but also think we should be able to do better...and need to try, given our hopes for next cycle. My opinion on that wouldn't change much, regardless of how deep we go this year.

Let’s also be clear he didn’t have Ream playing with our team for a lot of qualifying and he is one of our best defenders. He has time and time again made the wrong player choices initially, gets some credit for changing eventually and slowly but we took what should have been an easier qualifying cycle and really made it as difficult as possible. But hey I am happy where we are and I will forever be thankful for his bounce passes as those being me an inordinate amount of joy more than it should.

 

[AAABatteries]

I try not to be so result based thinking as I prefer to examine the process.

Really important point here.

I think a lot of the problems we've had boil down to how he thinks about things. My impression is that rather than thinking about the full range of possibilities and how likely each are, he simply focused on the most likely outcome and is very rigid in optimizing for that. This results in bad decisions, such as:

• Consistently not inviting extra players into camp in case of injury
• Not being aggressive enough trying out and integrating young/emerging talent
• Giving too many of our top players games off during qualifying windows
• Never once trying a false 9 formation that gets as many of our best players into the lineup as possible

The other thing that bugs me is some of the inconsistency in his decision making...being in form matters, except when it doesn't. Being integrated into the team matters, except when it doesn't.

Overall, I think he could be a lot worse, but also think we should be able to do better...and need to try, given our hopes for next cycle. My opinion on that wouldn't change much, regardless of how deep we go this year.

Let’s also be clear he didn’t have Ream playing with our team for a lot of qualifying and he is one of our best defenders. He has time and time again made the wrong player choices initially, gets some credit for changing eventually and slowly but we took what should have been an easier qualifying cycle and really made it as difficult as possible. But hey I am happy where we are and I will forever be thankful for his bounce passes as those being me an inordinate amount of joy more than it should.

There's almost literally no one who was begging for Ream during qualifying. Ream has almost reinvented himself at Fulham and it's fairly amazing. I heard much more about Brooks than Ream.

 

[AAABatteries]

My thoughts on Berhalter:

He did the job. We had one goal with this young team and that was to make the World Cup. Mission accomplished.
Our secondary goal was to find a way out of group stage. Mission accomplished.
Finally the third big goal was to get key dual nationals to commit. Mission accomplished.

If his time is over, he's been a successful US coach.

Are there areas I wish he's have made different choices this WC? Sure.
There's no reason I'll accept for not bringing on a healthy Gio instead of Morris when chasing a goal against Wales.
There's no reason I can see for taking Moore over Cannon, much less playing him instead of Yedlin.
There's no reason I can see for leaving Pepi at home for Jesus, or Pefok at home for Haji.

Ultimately these were small things that didn't affect us getting out of group stage. Remains to be seen if they affect us in the knockout rounds.

I hope we'll get a true world class coach interested in coaching this young team for the next cycle, but if not, there's definitely worse than Gregg out there. He's more than done what was asked from him and he still has this team playing it's *** off. I'll be disappointed if he gets resigned, but won't think it's a terrible tragedy.

I think that's a good point - go ask KDB what he thinks of Roberto right now.

 

[encaitar]

Group B attacking stats

There's been a lot of talk about how good Adams and Turner have been, but there hasn't been enough credit given to Christian. His final ball hasn't been exactly what we'd hoped it would be, but he's absolutely been the driving attacking force for the team. And he's been the most dangerous in group B according to the stats and it's not close.

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

But when was the last time the US started a game with no current MLS players?

Apparently it happened one other time, in a 2011 Gold Cup game. No idea where I saw that yesterday, but I think that was it.

 

[NewlyRetired]

But when was the last time the US started a game with no current MLS players?

Apparently it happened one other time, in a 2011 Gold Cup game. No idea where I saw that yesterday, but I think that was it.

That actually makes some sense timing wise. I remember reading the 2010 WC team had very few MLS players on it so that may have been when we had most of our best players already in Europe.

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

Group B attacking stats

CP, Musah, Weah, McKennie, Dest

(not too shabby!)

 

[Ned]

Group B attacking stats

There's been a lot of talk about how good Adams and Turner have been, but there hasn't been enough credit given to Christian. His final ball hasn't been exactly what we'd hoped it would be, but he's absolutely been the driving attacking force for the team. And he's been the most dangerous in group B according to the stats and it's not close.

The more glaring thing for me is that Dest, at RB, is ahead of Saka.

 

[encaitar]

Group B attacking stats

There's been a lot of talk about how good Adams and Turner have been, but there hasn't been enough credit given to Christian. His final ball hasn't been exactly what we'd hoped it would be, but he's absolutely been the driving attacking force for the team. And he's been the most dangerous in group B according to the stats and it's not close.

The more glaring thing for me is that Dest, at RB, is ahead of Saka.

Dest has been nothing short of spectacular this tourney IMO. As good as we could've hoped for.

 

[NewlyRetired]

Substitute literally any coach in the world of your choice and then restart the cycle in your mind.

The probability of doing better than entering a winnable knock out round game with any other coach does not appear to be worth the risk of how many times the US would have ultimately done worse.

There are a TON of quality coaches who would have face planted due to the historic injuries and historic youth on the team during the cycle.

That being said, I am still hoping US Soccer does a good and relatively quick job getting the next coach in place.

As I mentioned elsewhere, the better the US do the more high profile coaches will be interested but it also helps GGG if he wants another run.


Maybe this all works out in the end. Maybe GGG has raised his profile enough to land a good club gig and won't even want another national team run. Hard to know.

 

[AAABatteries]

Substitute literally any coach in the world of your choice and then restart the cycle in your mind.

The probability of doing better than entering a winnable knock out round game with any other coach does not appear to be worth the risk of how many times the US would have ultimately done worse.

There are a TON of quality coaches who would have face planted due to the historic injuries and historic youth on the team during the cycle.

That being said, I am still hoping US Soccer does a good and relatively quick job getting the next coach in place.

As I mentioned elsewhere, the better the US do the more high profile coaches will be interested but it also helps GGG if he wants another run.


Maybe this all works out in the end. Maybe GGG has raised his profile enough to land a good club gig and won't even want another national team run. Hard to know.

I know it's almost impossible to predict but do you have any sense of who they may target other than Marsch? Should we look International? Honestly country is so different than club I'm not even sure who they should target.

 

[ChiefD]

Substitute literally any coach in the world of your choice and then restart the cycle in your mind.

The probability of doing better than entering a winnable knock out round game with any other coach does not appear to be worth the risk of how many times the US would have ultimately done worse.

There are a TON of quality coaches who would have face planted due to the historic injuries and historic youth on the team during the cycle.

That being said, I am still hoping US Soccer does a good and relatively quick job getting the next coach in place.

As I mentioned elsewhere, the better the US do the more high profile coaches will be interested but it also helps GGG if he wants another run.


Maybe this all works out in the end. Maybe GGG has raised his profile enough to land a good club gig and won't even want another national team run. Hard to know.

I know it's almost impossible to predict but do you have any sense of who they may target other than Marsch? Should we look International? Honestly country is so different than club I'm not even sure who they should target.

I may be an idiot here but I think I'd rather have Berhalter than Marsch.

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

I still think there's not a lot wrong with this team, its setup, and its execution that better crossing and a true finisher wouldn't fix. We're a rock defensively and are creating a lot of dangerous situations. That's really just about all a coach can do.

Oh, and we're not deep enough yet at a lot of positions to sub without a dropoff.

Having said... Gio/Morris and Scally/Moore are headscratchers. That's admittedly high-profile, but less than 1% of the overall job in the cycle IMO. YMMV.

 

[NewlyRetired]

I just saw the USMNT post.

Turner is the first US keeper with 2 shut outs in a WC since the ancient times (the other was a dude named Jimmy Douglas, I assume from the 30's)

Even cooler from a team aspect is that he has not had to do anything close to standing on his head.

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

I may be an idiot here but I think I'd rather have Berhalter than Marsch.

Said that before the tournament started. I want nothing to do with Marsch. I just don't think elite teams play the way his teams play. And he's a reactive hothead -- which typically doesn't wear very well over a long period of time.

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

he has not had to do anything

 

[NewlyRetired]

Substitute literally any coach in the world of your choice and then restart the cycle in your mind.

The probability of doing better than entering a winnable knock out round game with any other coach does not appear to be worth the risk of how many times the US would have ultimately done worse.

There are a TON of quality coaches who would have face planted due to the historic injuries and historic youth on the team during the cycle.

That being said, I am still hoping US Soccer does a good and relatively quick job getting the next coach in place.

As I mentioned elsewhere, the better the US do the more high profile coaches will be interested but it also helps GGG if he wants another run.


Maybe this all works out in the end. Maybe GGG has raised his profile enough to land a good club gig and won't even want another national team run. Hard to know.

I know it's almost impossible to predict but do you have any sense of who they may target other than Marsch? Should we look International? Honestly country is so different than club I'm not even sure who they should target.

I do not. I have always felt like Marsch would like to interview for the spot but other than him, I assume there will be a ton of candidates for the following reasons:

1) US Soccer pays well
2) Hosting WC will give new coach huge exposure
3) No qualifying significantly reduces any chances of getting sacked before getting to the WC

 

[zoobird]

Substitute literally any coach in the world of your choice and then restart the cycle in your mind.

The probability of doing better than entering a winnable knock out round game with any other coach does not appear to be worth the risk of how many times the US would have ultimately done worse.

There are a TON of quality coaches who would have face planted due to the historic injuries and historic youth on the team during the cycle.

That being said, I am still hoping US Soccer does a good and relatively quick job getting the next coach in place.

As I mentioned elsewhere, the better the US do the more high profile coaches will be interested but it also helps GGG if he wants another run.


Maybe this all works out in the end. Maybe GGG has raised his profile enough to land a good club gig and won't even want another national team run. Hard to know.

I think you're being too results-oriented here. Things could have played out very differently. If we replayed everything 100 times with GGG making all the same decisions, I think the distribution of outcomes would be something like:
Fail to qualify for WC: 15%
Qualify but eliminated in group play: 45%
Qualify and make it to knockout rounds: 40%

That's not bad, but I think there are coaches who might have had a better distribution of outcomes. Obviously we'll never know though, and certainly getting Musah and Dest to commit to the US was a huge win that would be hard to overcome.

 

[NewlyRetired]

Substitute literally any coach in the world of your choice and then restart the cycle in your mind.

The probability of doing better than entering a winnable knock out round game with any other coach does not appear to be worth the risk of how many times the US would have ultimately done worse.

There are a TON of quality coaches who would have face planted due to the historic injuries and historic youth on the team during the cycle.

That being said, I am still hoping US Soccer does a good and relatively quick job getting the next coach in place.

As I mentioned elsewhere, the better the US do the more high profile coaches will be interested but it also helps GGG if he wants another run.


Maybe this all works out in the end. Maybe GGG has raised his profile enough to land a good club gig and won't even want another national team run. Hard to know.

I think you're being too results-oriented here. Things could have played out very differently. If we replayed everything 100 times with GGG making all the same decisions, I think the distribution of outcomes would be something like:
Fail to qualify for WC: 15%
Qualify but eliminated in group play: 45%
Qualify and make it to knockout rounds: 40%

That's not bad, but I think there are coaches who might have had a better distribution of outcomes. Obviously we'll never know though, and certainly getting Musah and Dest to commit to the US was a huge win that would be hard to overcome.

You are right, I am absolutely being too results oriented and I think your break down is fair.

But I struggle with these type of evaluations because eventually end results do matter and I think they need to be weighed fairly heavily.

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

Agreed. 3-1-0 vs Mexico in four legit games. Two trophies we don't always win. Outplayed the other team in all three group stage matches (we've never come close to doing that before). Advanced to the R16 and we have a clear pattern of play and identity, with players in roles they can perform well.

ETA: even if you want to forget the results, what do your eyes tell you? Mine say that the last three games are easily as good a run as the team has had. People forget that we got tonked by Poland and were fortunate to get draw vs Korea in-between the Portugal and Mexico games in 2002. And while we beat Egypt 3-0 and Spain 2-0 in 2009 we were terrible in the first two games. The Costa Rica--Paraguay--Ecuador trio in the 2016 Copa is up there as well, until the Johnson(?) red card. But we'd already been beaten by Colombia at that point.

I think England--Wales--Iran is a better trio of teams overall and for my money these last three games are probably the most complete, high-level run the US has ever had. And we advanced even though we probably didn't get the overall results we deserved.

 

[NewlyRetired]

he has not had to do anything

To be fair we need to consider how many keepers in the WC have screwed up their distribution and given scoring chances to opponent. Turner has been so good with both his feet and throws that he has not caused any bad give aways.

 

[NewlyRetired]

Andy's Keys to Advancement
============

1) Don't give away easy goals when playing out of the back. Make the opponents earn the goals. And I am not just talking about Turner either. That goes for the defenders as well as Adams and Musah's dangerous dribbing in the defensive 3rd.

2) We need the best form of Pulisic to play. He is 24 right now, with his health issues and playing style he may not get a ton more chances on the world stage. He has played in the biggest club games in the world so nothing in the group stage should effect him. I would prefer a more aggressive Pulisic, even if it means losing the ball on the dribble, than a passive one trying to integrate with his team.

3) Score more set pieces than the US gives up. I think this is going to function almost as a giveaway/takeaway stat in the NFL.

4) Every WC one promising young international makes the jump to really good international. Musah and Reyna seem the most likely to do this. One of them would be great.

I think if we hit 3 or more of these, we advance.


What are your keys to advancing?

I wrote this before the WC. I think we achieved 1, 2 and 4. Since the PK is technically a set piece, we did not achieve #2.

 

[NewlyRetired]

Get hyped

https://twitter.com/burnerusmnt/status/1593654146640379905?s=42&t=ZnEVEOElc5xh6_De1cIOJw

I mentioned this when that was first made. That fan made hype video was so much better than any of the drek hype videos US Soccer likely paid a small fortune for.

 

[NewlyRetired]

for those that have the hopes for a deep US run, you want to root for KSA or Poland today (a Poland draw preferably).

The winner of the US Netherlands game may have a winnable quarter finals game if Argentina does not win the group. The US-Neth winner could be looking at the winner of Aussi/Poland or Aussie/KSA, which is pretty much the best case possible for a quarter final game.

If Argie tops group with a win today, they will play Aussie and then be the likely quarterfinal team the US-Neth winner meets

 

[NewlyRetired]

OptaJack

@OptaJack

The eleven passes leading to Christian Pulisic's goal against Iran was the longest buildup to a USMNT goal at the World Cup in the modern era.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

https://twitter.com/bigactionbill/status/1597686257865621504?s=46&t=bgUw52O4EwgysQy-LJC_aQ

I’m not sure how we’ll known Mike Francesca is nationally but he’s huge in NYC area.
He’s a blowhard dope and his analysis on “sock rrrr” is hysterically bad here.

 

[TLEF316]

https://twitter.com/bigactionbill/status/1597686257865621504?s=46&t=bgUw52O4EwgysQy-LJC_aQ

I’m not sure how we’ll known Mike Francesca is nationally but he’s huge in NYC area.
He’s a blowhard dope and his analysis on “sock rrrr” is hysterically bad here.

That's not actually Francesa. But it is funny

 

[El Floppo]

https://twitter.com/bigactionbill/status/1597686257865621504?s=46&t=bgUw52O4EwgysQy-LJC_aQ

I’m not sure how we’ll known Mike Francesca is nationally but he’s huge in NYC area.
He’s a blowhard dope and his analysis on “sock rrrr” is hysterically bad here.

It's a spoof.

 

[ChiefD]

https://twitter.com/bigactionbill/status/1597686257865621504?s=46&t=bgUw52O4EwgysQy-LJC_aQ

I’m not sure how we’ll known Mike Francesca is nationally but he’s huge in NYC area.
He’s a blowhard dope and his analysis on “sock rrrr” is hysterically bad here.

Here in KC we also consider him a big wank.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

https://twitter.com/bigactionbill/status/1597686257865621504?s=46&t=bgUw52O4EwgysQy-LJC_aQ

I’m not sure how we’ll known Mike Francesca is nationally but he’s huge in NYC area.
He’s a blowhard dope and his analysis on “sock rrrr” is hysterically bad here.

That's not actually Francesa. But it is funny

Yeah even he couldn’t be that dumb.

 

[SWC]

i like beating iran a lot that was cool take that to the bank brohans

 

[AAABatteries]

I may be an idiot here but I think I'd rather have Berhalter than Marsch.

Way to go out on a limb.

 

[AAABatteries]

I'll add.....

#1. Don't play Long a lot of minutes - this is somewhat tongue in cheek, but I think the main point is, don't play our weak links a lot of minutes
#2. No injuries to key players where we have no depth (kind of goes with #1 as injuries will force us to play guys we don't necessarily want to)
#3. We are really young - don't get caught up in the moment - play within yourself and be patient
#4. I want us to play aggressive from the start - kind of sounds the opposite of #3 but especially against Wales and Iran I want us to try and dictate the match as much as possible.

I'd say we accomplished my 4 keys pending Captain America's nuts healing. Mine were kind of generic but I can't stress enough how big it was to sit Long and play Ream all those minutes.