Had work I couldn't get out of tonight, so had to watch the game late. Was able to avoid spoilers, so happy about that... AND we won, so happy about that.... Not happy about much else.
If Yueill or Lletget start against Mexico, it should be a job costing offense by GGG. They have no business being on that field as starters. Honduras.... not even a top 50 team in the world, controlled the midfield tonight. That's just unacceptable. Even worse. I was sitting at about 70 minutes in thinking, man Pulisic has been quiet tonight. About a minute later he gets the ball and the announcer says... "Pulisic needs to get more involved, that's only his 32nd touch tonight." WTF. That's on Lletget, Yueill and Robinson(and CP too yea, but we want him getting touches in dangerous areas, not at midfield and that's where those three come in.)
Speaking of Pulisic and his limited touches... Why in the gosh darn #### is Lletget taking set pieces? You have a star player that is being man marked out of the game that is an excellent crosser and passer, then you better gosh darn well have him putting in corners and free kicks hoping it helps bring him into the flow. If Lletget starts again(which would already show how much of an idiot GGG is), then he'd better be watching Pulisic take free kicks, because he was ####### awful at it. I remember only 1 dangerous ball all game. Unacceptable.
Another thing I did notice with Pulisic... When he got the ball on the left he was immediately closed down by their LB or CB AND their CDM. Literally two guys every time CP touched the ball, yet no one was making a run in behind that CB or LB. If teams played Pulisic at Chelsea like they did tonight, Werner would have 13 missed shots because of all the open runs he'd be getting. GGG better be on the ### of Sargent on making that run(and Reyna making the matching one behind in case the other CB goes with Sarge. There was WAY too much ball watching when Pulisic touched it. It was like everyone expected him to Messi through the D and leave them a sitter.
The defense wasn't bad. Brooks had a couple of iffy one on ones, but otherwise was solid. He also put in two of the best passes into the box we had all night, one which led to the score. I love seeing that talent, but it says a lot about our midfield if we need our CB to be putting those balls in. McKenzie was great. I thought he played tough. Didn't make any obvious errors and played rather clean, which is tough against a team diving at all contact.
Sarge had some good moments. Had a couple of good chances that I'd like to see our striker burying. That D clearance was money. Still, felt like he was just ok. OK isn't good enough for the USA, or at least shouldn't be. Pefok(which I'm calling Siab forever from now on) was more involved in his 15 minutes than Sarge was in the previous 30. I think he deserves a look up front against Mexico. Plus his size gives us a little more fear factor on crosses.
Gio was our best attacker tonight. He should've scored, but that was a beautiful little dribble to get him that chance. He definitely got the taste of CONCACAF tonight with how many times he was tackled. I like that he didn't get too frustrated by it and kept pushing.
Moving Forward:
I know it's pretty much already been set in stone to be MLSers at the Gold Cup, but I think that's a mistake. Clearly this team is a talented group of individuals. They're not a team yet and it shows. I think the best thing we could do would be to give them the entire gold cup to try and find chemistry. I think we're crippling ourselves for qualifying by not doing it.
I've been critical of GGG in the past. I stopped being so critical based on his work with the dual nats. He's been great at getting top dual nationals to commit to us. That's a huge plus for him and I love him for it. Tactically.... he's lost. We're 10 times better than Honduras. Yes, I know they CONCACAFed the #### out of the game tonight and the ref keeping his cards pocketed until late didn't help, but we're not better than the sum of our parts with GGG on the bench and that worries me. Maybe it's just lack of chemistry and it will come, but I can't help but feel like a real, true, top talent coach would already have us clicking on close to all cylinders. I am officially worried about qualifying.
Final Thought:
HOW IN THE #### DID WE NOT HAVE EVEN ONE PLAYER STRETCHERED OFF IN EXTRA TIME??!!!??? LEARN TO PLAY THE GAME BOYS(and I'm not talking soccer)!!
Edit: GD is automatically switched to gosh darn now?