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US Men's National Team (13 Viewers)

I'm surprised we didn't get Aaronson on when Reyna went out. He's always willing to run and facilitate between levels...has he fallen off completely? I haven't tracked his club performance this season.
 
Those turnovers (all day) are just atrocious play. Why are they staying on the ball so long? Dribble directly into a defender, lose the ball, repeat. Horrible.
 
“The United States men's national team suffered its heaviest loss in Gregg Berhalter's time as coach”

It was the heaviest loss suffered so far…


Admittedly I was not able to catch the 2nd half, but I thought the first half had a few promising signs.
 
TennesseeJed said:
“The United States men's national team suffered its heaviest loss in Gregg Berhalter's time as coach”

It was the heaviest loss suffered so far…


Admittedly I was not able to catch the 2nd half, but I thought the first half had a few promising signs.
Click to expand...

It was a respectable showing until they completely fell apart in the last 20 minutes. I think more than anything they need to spend more time together. As bad as it seemed it’s still not nearly as embarrassing as England losing to Iceland in their last tuneup game before the Euros. Colombia is undefeated going back 20+ games including wins over Germany, Brazil and Spain.
 
CletiusMaximus said:
TennesseeJed said:
“The United States men's national team suffered its heaviest loss in Gregg Berhalter's time as coach”

It was the heaviest loss suffered so far…


Admittedly I was not able to catch the 2nd half, but I thought the first half had a few promising signs.
Click to expand...

It was a respectable showing until they completely fell apart in the last 20 minutes. I think more than anything they need to spend more time together. As bad as it seemed it’s still not nearly as embarrassing as England losing to Iceland in their last tuneup game before the Euros. Colombia is undefeated going back 20+ games including wins over Germany, Brazil and Spain.
Click to expand...
The wheels and shape came off with the subs. Some ghastly turnovers and not much between the sticks to bail them out. I thought CCV and Musah in particular were poor, but nobody exactly shined.

That said, the 2md half had their two best flowing moves forward, showing a glimpse of maybe. They were the better of the 2 teams in the 2jd half for the first 15 until the subs.
 
And I thought Balo had some moments of promise. I hope to hell they figure out how to unlock his strengths, because so far all we've seen is the occasional glimpse and then he's starved.
 
El Floppo said:
And I thought Balo had some moments of promise. I hope to hell they figure out how to unlock his strengths, because so far all we've seen is the occasional glimpse and then he's starved.
Click to expand...
Honestly I don't think it's going to happen in GGG's system. It doesn't seem to matter who the #9 is up top, they always seem starved of service. I truly think it's a tactical issue that stems from the formation and roles that are established.
 
* Everyone has constantly said that as long as GGG keeps rostering and playing all these MLS players, this is what happens......................whoops

* We speculated that when GGG was rehired, that the only way he was going to lose his job would be a face plant at Copa. I think for US Soccer to seriously consider replacing him, he would need to lose both friendlies and some how find a way to not get out of the group. I personally would also consider it even if we get out of the group but show some signs of struggle in the group stage and lose in the quarters.

* Any hopes of an extended run certainly seem diminished now, as we are getting Colombia or Brazil in the quarters even if we get out of the group.

* I thought Musah had his worst game as a Nat yesterday. I think we all knew he was going to lose the ball in possession on the dribble eventually, I just did not expect it to happen multiple times in such a short period.
 
Had a golf match and forgot to dvr. Got home and caught a little of the ending. Barf.

This team will be less than the sum of its parts as long as Greg is the coach. Other than the England game, it has bare minimum results nearly every single time.

Greg should be thanking his lucky stars we don't have to qualify for 2026. Otherwise we'd get multiple additional examples of him taking a vastly superior roster on the road and losing/drawing/squeeking out a late lucky 1-0 win.

Obviously the players take blame based on the individual mistakes yesterday....but we all know what the main problem is.

I hope they get trounced in this tournament and force the federations hand.
 
Trying to put my thoughts together on yesterday's loss, but here are some things that are running around my mind...

#1. It's a friendly. Yes, it still hurts, but there's a reason we play these games and that's to see what we need to work on. I'll be more worried if we look just as defensively unsound against Brazil. GGG and his staff need to fix the leaks quickly.

#2. GGG is an adequate coach. That's all he is IMO. He reminds me of Mark Jackson in the NBA. Jackson was a decent coach. He beat the teams he should've beaten. He lost to the teams he should've lost to, but was mostly on the losing side of teams he was even with. There was a huge number of Warrior fans that were angry when Jackson was fired because "he was doing a good job!' Then they hired a great coach in his place and we know how that turned out. I think the same thing here. GGG is a decent coach and it might be a disservice to can him, but I don't think we reach the next level with him.

#3. I watched a fair amount of Milan this year and Pulisic was excellent and I hoped for this summer to be a bit of a break out for him(as a recognized top player worldwide). I thought Colombia neutralized him pretty effectively last night. I think he(and this team) needs another star to really step up and be a constant threat opposite of him(like Rafa Leao does in Milan) if he's going to be the best version of himself. I don't know who that is for us.... Gio?

#4. Ream struggled a bit last night... When he left the field our defense fell apart. I'm terrified by this. He's 36.
 
These numbers are pretty scary, especially when you remove Mexico

======

USMNT Only

@usmntonly


The USMNT are now 5-7-6 (WDL) under Gregg Berhalter against teams ranked in the top 20 of FIFA’s World Rankings.Four of those wins are against Mexico.

The USMNT’s only win under Berhalter against a top 20 team excluding Mexico is Iran, a 7.1% win percentage in those matches.
 
Another big fear is that "this is it"......

What I mean by that is that we can no longer be considered a young team. While still far from old, the team is experienced both at club and international level. We also do not have any prospects that are on the cusp. This is the group we ride or die with through 2026. The next generation is too far away to effect this cycle. And while some arguments could be made whether certain players should have been chosen over others, I think all could agree no changes to the roster are going to make a big difference.

So outside of changing the coach, should the team face plant this Copa, I don't know what else we can look at for hope. I am starting to give a tiny bit more weight to the old farts who keep saying this group of players is missing something intangible.

Reyna, Weah, Musah and Balogun all having their club development slowed or even fully stopped has hurt the ceiling of the team.
 
encaitar said:
#4. Ream struggled a bit last night... When he left the field our defense fell apart. I'm terrified by this. He's 36.
Click to expand...
He stood out to me in the first half as being below his usual self on the ball... So slow. Colombia did a solid job pressing high making the entire back line really uncomfortable. Even without pressure, his ball movement was strangely slow... Which probably means COL was all over the MF too, denying outlets
 
The inability/Trainwreck dealing with that press... That's the most troubling thing to me. The US had stretches where they played well and controlled things on both sides of the ball, but then crumbled to the press over and over.

And also, it's funny- as the subs rolled in I actually thought to myself that there's never been this amount of quality guys available behind the starting 11. And then they proceeded to **** the bed.
 
El Floppo said:
encaitar said:
#4. Ream struggled a bit last night... When he left the field our defense fell apart. I'm terrified by this. He's 36.
Click to expand...
He stood out to me in the first half as being below his usual self on the ball... So slow. Colombia did a solid job pressing high making the entire back line really uncomfortable. Even without pressure, his ball movement was strangely slow... Which probably means COL was all over the MF too, denying outlets
Click to expand...
Father Time catches up with everyone. Probably explains why he lost his starting job mid season as well. I don't think we should be counting on him much longer.
 
NewlyRetired said:
Men in Blazers
@MenInBlazers


BRENDEN AARONSON SET TO PLAY FOR LEEDS next season, per @GrahamSmyth, who reports positive talks with manager Daniel Farke have Medford Messi poised to help in promotion push
Click to expand...
It’s no secret that club feels very hard done by American players and managers.
If he ends up there and has successful stint it will show great strength of character from a player I’ve always thought was a little soft.
 
encaitar said:
#3. I watched a fair amount of Milan this year and Pulisic was excellent and I hoped for this summer to be a bit of a break out for him(as a recognized top player worldwide). I thought Colombia neutralized him pretty effectively last night. I think he(and this team) needs another star to really step up and be a constant threat opposite of him(like Rafa Leao does in Milan) if he's going to be the best version of himself. I don't know who that is for us.... Gio?
Click to expand...
When CP gets to the US team, he constantly looks like he is trying to do it all. Live up to the Captain American and carry this team. I've felt that if he actually played within the team he could elevate the rest and it would be better for him and everyone else. Pass and move instead of trying to dribble everyone.

I didn't watch much of Milan, do you feel he plays more as part of the team there?
 
B Maverick said:
encaitar said:
#3. I watched a fair amount of Milan this year and Pulisic was excellent and I hoped for this summer to be a bit of a break out for him(as a recognized top player worldwide). I thought Colombia neutralized him pretty effectively last night. I think he(and this team) needs another star to really step up and be a constant threat opposite of him(like Rafa Leao does in Milan) if he's going to be the best version of himself. I don't know who that is for us.... Gio?
Click to expand...
When CP gets to the US team, he constantly looks like he is trying to do it all. Live up to the Captain American and carry this team. I've felt that if he actually played within the team he could elevate the rest and it would be better for him and everyone else. Pass and move instead of trying to dribble everyone.

I didn't watch much of Milan, do you feel he plays more as part of the team there?
Click to expand...
Yes.... Not really? It's hard to say. I didn't feel like Milan had a defined attacking system in place to be honest. It felt very much like it was "get the ball to your playmakers and go fast". The thing is... CP is really good at that. Especially when he has talented players around him that are in sync with him. Some of his give and go play with Giroud, RLC, etc. this year was incredible.

The thing that really made the difference is that defenses couldn't "key" on him. If you doubled CP, he quickly switched the ball to the middle, where it usually went very quickly to the left and to Leao or Theo Hernandez and immediately the defense was on their heels. Just that threat kept Christian in mostly 1 on 1 defensive situations and opened up a lot of give and go play which he took full advantage of.

I think him as an iso guy only works if there's the threat of a quick switch to another guy or two that can beat you just as easily. That keeps the defense honest and it's why I was saying we need another star to step up and be that constant threat. Weah's speed is dangerous. He's capable to beating his guy at times in iso situations, but his final cross/pass/shot is miles behind Pulisic's, so he doesn't scare defenses the same way. Gio was maybe supposed to be that guy, but his career has been temporarily(hopefully) derailed and he hasn't taken that leap yet, although he feels like the guy with that ability. Balogun gets lost in the middle just as much as our other #9s, making me think it's the system letting them down, but he's clearly not to the level yet of being a guy that forces the play whether it's set up for him or not. Not sure I see any other candidates for this potential need ATM.
 
encaitar said:
I think him as an iso guy only works if there's the threat of a quick switch to another guy or two that can beat you just as easily. That keeps the defense honest and it's why I was saying we need another star to step up and be that constant threat. Weah's speed is dangerous. He's capable to beating his guy at times in iso situations, but his final cross/pass/shot is miles behind Pulisic's, so he doesn't scare defenses the same way. Gio was maybe supposed to be that guy, but his career has been temporarily(hopefully) derailed and he hasn't taken that leap yet, although he feels like the guy with that ability. Balogun gets lost in the middle just as much as our other #9s, making me think it's the system letting them down, but he's clearly not to the level yet of being a guy that forces the play whether it's set up for him or not. Not sure I see any other candidates for this potential need ATM.
Click to expand...
This is basically what I was getting at: Is it that no one on the US has stepped up or shows as a threat, or is it that CP doesn't bring them in and play them into positions to threaten?

I often feel its the latter unfortunately.
 
B Maverick said:
encaitar said:
I think him as an iso guy only works if there's the threat of a quick switch to another guy or two that can beat you just as easily. That keeps the defense honest and it's why I was saying we need another star to step up and be that constant threat. Weah's speed is dangerous. He's capable to beating his guy at times in iso situations, but his final cross/pass/shot is miles behind Pulisic's, so he doesn't scare defenses the same way. Gio was maybe supposed to be that guy, but his career has been temporarily(hopefully) derailed and he hasn't taken that leap yet, although he feels like the guy with that ability. Balogun gets lost in the middle just as much as our other #9s, making me think it's the system letting them down, but he's clearly not to the level yet of being a guy that forces the play whether it's set up for him or not. Not sure I see any other candidates for this potential need ATM.
Click to expand...
This is basically what I was getting at: Is it that no one on the US has stepped up or shows as a threat, or is it that CP doesn't bring them in and play them into positions to threaten?

I often feel its the latter unfortunately.
Click to expand...

I feel like the US attack is almost entire pass driven. The ball is always played after 2-3 touches, either successfully or not, and it becomes relatively easy to defend with organized blocks.

I love CP or ANYBODY breaking those blocks down off the dribble... It's the best way to unlock defenses. Weve seen it from Weah and Gio at times, but mostly from Dest- who's absence really hurt the US in general v COL, but also crushed Swags game.

I watched CP do exactly that at Milan... Over and over. But what was good about it was he'd quickly find the next option, either shot, cross or pass to quickly continue breaking down the defense. I saw some of that v COL and hope to see more of it moving forward.

That said, I do agree he's tried to do too much stuff solo in the last couple years, but am hoping his season at Milan has helped him turn that corner.
 
El Floppo said:
B Maverick said:
encaitar said:
I think him as an iso guy only works if there's the threat of a quick switch to another guy or two that can beat you just as easily. That keeps the defense honest and it's why I was saying we need another star to step up and be that constant threat. Weah's speed is dangerous. He's capable to beating his guy at times in iso situations, but his final cross/pass/shot is miles behind Pulisic's, so he doesn't scare defenses the same way. Gio was maybe supposed to be that guy, but his career has been temporarily(hopefully) derailed and he hasn't taken that leap yet, although he feels like the guy with that ability. Balogun gets lost in the middle just as much as our other #9s, making me think it's the system letting them down, but he's clearly not to the level yet of being a guy that forces the play whether it's set up for him or not. Not sure I see any other candidates for this potential need ATM.
Click to expand...
This is basically what I was getting at: Is it that no one on the US has stepped up or shows as a threat, or is it that CP doesn't bring them in and play them into positions to threaten?

I often feel its the latter unfortunately.
Click to expand...

I feel like the US attack is almost entire pass driven. The ball is always played after 2-3 touches, either successfully or not, and it becomes relatively easy to defend with organized blocks.

I love CP or ANYBODY breaking those blocks down off the dribble... It's the best way to unlock defenses. Weve seen it from Weah and Gio at times, but mostly from Dest- who's absence really hurt the US in general v COL, but also crushed Swags game.

I watched CP do exactly that at Milan... Over and over. But what was good about it was he'd quickly find the next option, either shot, cross or pass to quickly continue breaking down the defense. I saw some of that v COL and hope to see more of it moving forward.

That said, I do agree he's tried to do too much stuff solo in the last couple years, but am hoping his season at Milan has helped him turn that corner.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Don't get me wrong, we do need CP to run at people and get the def on their heals. But this is also what I am hoping to see more of as well. If he can do that, with Gio's creativity, and they both can serve the 9, the US has the potential to be dangerous.
 
B Maverick said:
El Floppo said:
B Maverick said:
encaitar said:
I think him as an iso guy only works if there's the threat of a quick switch to another guy or two that can beat you just as easily. That keeps the defense honest and it's why I was saying we need another star to step up and be that constant threat. Weah's speed is dangerous. He's capable to beating his guy at times in iso situations, but his final cross/pass/shot is miles behind Pulisic's, so he doesn't scare defenses the same way. Gio was maybe supposed to be that guy, but his career has been temporarily(hopefully) derailed and he hasn't taken that leap yet, although he feels like the guy with that ability. Balogun gets lost in the middle just as much as our other #9s, making me think it's the system letting them down, but he's clearly not to the level yet of being a guy that forces the play whether it's set up for him or not. Not sure I see any other candidates for this potential need ATM.
Click to expand...
This is basically what I was getting at: Is it that no one on the US has stepped up or shows as a threat, or is it that CP doesn't bring them in and play them into positions to threaten?

I often feel its the latter unfortunately.
Click to expand...

I feel like the US attack is almost entire pass driven. The ball is always played after 2-3 touches, either successfully or not, and it becomes relatively easy to defend with organized blocks.

I love CP or ANYBODY breaking those blocks down off the dribble... It's the best way to unlock defenses. Weve seen it from Weah and Gio at times, but mostly from Dest- who's absence really hurt the US in general v COL, but also crushed Swags game.

I watched CP do exactly that at Milan... Over and over. But what was good about it was he'd quickly find the next option, either shot, cross or pass to quickly continue breaking down the defense. I saw some of that v COL and hope to see more of it moving forward.

That said, I do agree he's tried to do too much stuff solo in the last couple years, but am hoping his season at Milan has helped him turn that corner.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Don't get me wrong, we do need CP to run at people and get the def on their heals. But this is also what I am hoping to see more of as well. If he can do that, with Gio's creativity, and they both can serve the 9, the US has the potential to be dangerous.
Click to expand...
Re Gio... Was watching him "defend" and it wasn't pretty. Just kind of floated around, no head on pivot with guys and space opening around and behind him.

We all love what he can do going forward, and we've seen him chase back to defend in transition, but that he was doing out there for the position he was playing... No. Can't happen. Reading into one nights work- might be part of why his career has stagnated: he's a quality niche attacking player, but there are better guys out there for that. So either he learns how to defend in a block, or becomes all-world going forward, or this is all we'll get from him.
 
El Floppo said:
Re Gio... Was watching him "defend" and it wasn't pretty. Just kind of floated around, no head on pivot with guys and space opening around and behind him.

We all love what he can do going forward, and we've seen him chase back to defend in transition, but that he was doing out there for the position he was playing... No. Can't happen. Reading into one nights work- might be part of why his career has stagnated: he's a quality niche attacking player, but there are better guys out there for that. So either he learns how to defend in a block, or becomes all-world going forward, or this is all we'll get from him.
Click to expand...
I don't think I've really ever seen him truly defend. But I also don't know what the team (US or Club) expect from him. For the US I guess it all depends on the tactics and formation GGG wants to play. I see him as a 10 in a 4-2-3-1 for the US. Limited defensive duties. If GGG wants to go more 4-3-3 with a single holding, then Gio probably doesn't fit. As potentially our most creative player, I feel like they need to find a spot for him though. To me our best center mf is Adams, McKinnie and Gio.
 
Lets go! Former US Youth National Team player

======

Fabrizio Romano

@FabrizioRomano

Brighton will complete the appointment of Fabian Hürzeler as new head coach this week, talks with St. Pauli are proceeding very well. The agreement is considered close, with all parties keen on getting it done very soon for the youngest manager ever in Premier League (31).
 
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