US Soccer Catch-All

Top_Shelf wrote:

US v FRA today during the workday. Maybe I can find time for a listen in at lunch. How are others catching the game?

That's tomorrow. Today is England vs. Norway.

Yeah tomorrow and I'm leaving at 230 so I can watch

Answered before I saw the next page with answer to USA v France game.

Damn you guys are fast!

Debating between playing hooky, bringing my 40" TV to work for the day, or just watching on my iPad. I've watched all the games so far at a bar, and that's certainly my preference.

Blitz, you're preaching to the choir talking about how 100% of our USMNT's focus should be building the 2022 squad. I don't care if we win a single game this tournament if we spend it developing a team that will be ready for 2022.

That said, it's nice to win, too. Completely unconvincing win against Panama tonight, although to be fair they're a WC2018 team and we weren't, so I guess celebrate that...

Prederick wrote:
Top_Shelf wrote:

US v FRA today during the workday. Maybe I can find time for a listen in at lunch. How are others catching the game?

That's tomorrow. Today is England vs. Norway.

I'm not good at Interneting.

Friday!

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Blitz, you're preaching to the choir talking about how 100% of our USMNT's focus should be building the 2022 squad. I don't care if we win a single game this tournament if we spend it developing a team that will be ready for 2022.

That said, it's nice to win, too. Completely unconvincing win against Panama tonight, although to be fair they're a WC2018 team and we weren't, so I guess celebrate that...

I'm hopeful they'll get things sorted out. I'm very much in a wait-and-see mode for now. Berhalter deserves a chance.

Having said that, I wouldn't be doing what he's doing if I were him in Football Manager. I have concerns with player selection, long term strategy, and style of play.

Huh, Timmy Weah to Lille. I hope he gets a good run-out there.

The men didn't look great tonight against an opponent they are ranked so much higher than, but a win's a win.

I was about to say the same.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

The men didn't look great tonight against an opponent they are ranked so much higher than, but a win's a win.

I missed the first 30 minutes, which apparently was when we did pretty well.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

The men didn't look great tonight against an opponent they are ranked so much higher than, but a win's a win.

I missed the first 30 minutes, which apparently was when we did pretty well.

Yeah, that was about it.

Jamaica must have liked what they saw for most of this match.

Man, if we get knocked out of another Gold Cup by Jamaica...

I didn't expect to stay up until almost 1 AM watching this game, but here I am...

Good thing we got that early goal. Too many times we play well early and get punished for not capitalizing.

I honestly thought that Arriola was going to be the first US player subbed off, but his shot set up that third goal.

Not a good night for Zardes. He missed a sitter, then gave the ball to Jamaica for their goal.

Pulisic had the nose to be in the right place tonight. Blake's a fine keeper, but the two times he couldn't parry a shot far enough away Pulisic was right there waiting.

Good win, but the thing about CONCACAF is that, for the US, only one game really matters.

Real test is Sunday, we should've expected to beat everyone else.

Haven't watched much of the Gold Cup but excited for two US finals on Sunday.

Go USA! Happy 4th of July!

Well, they're not losing.

We'd look great if we could finish some of these chances. Come on USA!

Fedaykin98 wrote:

We'd look great if we could finish some of these chances.

I too would like to live in a world where Jozy could be counted on to kick the ball into the net consistently against goalkeepers better than whoever is in net for St. Kitts and Nevis.

(I don't hate Jozy, it's just that he has the technical ability of a Rhinoceros)

Prederick wrote:

Well, they're not losing.

WELP

IMAGE(https://media2.giphy.com/media/26tPrgMJOj7Kz2wRa/source.gif)

This Gold Cup shows that there is a chance that we could finish second or third in CONCACAF and at least make it to the finals. Even that is hard to judge given that all the games except the final were played in front of friendly crowds.

The team is going to have to learn a lot from this experience if they expect to beat anyone good, though.

Good to know the choking an opponent is no longer even a common foul, to say nothing of the knee in the back to Jozy.

I'm pretty much convinced that the reason this is the only tournament this summer with no VAR is that CONCACAF wants to be able to turn a blind eye to this sh*t.

The US was much better than I thought we’d be, even considering Mexico was missing a number of good players. We are exceptionally athletic at a number of positions.

We need a better striker, one who isn’t Zardes or Altidore.

Bradley is the main reason Mexico scored. He’s too slow and struggles on defense because of it. His one strength is passing when he has time to find someone. Mexico isolated on him in the second half, and ran right through him on their goal. He needs to go, as he certainly isn’t going to be faster in three years.

I’m hopeful that we’ll shift fully to focusing on the World Cup squad now that the Gold Cup is done.

Hrdina wrote:

The team is going to have to learn a lot from this experience if they expect to beat anyone good, though.

I just wish we were churning out more technically talented players. It remains our biggest flaw, if we're playing a side of any reasonable quality, our ball retention skills are zilch, which generally means we get outshot because we're not that defensively sound either, which means we're relying on our GKs to be magnificent.

Like, Zardes. I saw him play live against Ghana a while ago, and the dude has all the athleticism you could reasonably ask for, and one of the most atrocious touches I've ever seen. Me and my friend were sitting up in the stands, and he'd get the ball on the break and you'd know, immediately, whatever attack/counter-attack he was starting was going to end with him taking a bad touch and squandering possession.

It's part of the reason Pulisic stands out so much. He is head and shoulders... and probably ribcage and stomach above most of the rest of the USMNT technically, which is why we are so desperately reliant on him in attack. It's like we're Argentina, except at a much lower skill level.

EDIT: And yeah, we need to finish our chances when they come.

That's a good article. I found myself agreeing with much of it.

I'd argue that Berhalter should have brought in the younger troops already for this Gold Cup. Even though the World Cup is three years away, the players don't have that much time together, and this Gold Cup was a great opportunity to give the youth some valuable experience.

He came out and publicly stated that he wanted to win the Gold Cup in order to restore some public confidence in the USMNT, and it seems clear that he chose who he felt were the best players available to do that. That's a fine goal, but judging by the reaction on Twitter to the Mexico loss, more casually engaged US fans tuned in, saw Altidore and Bradley lead the team to defeat, and concluded that everything is "same old same old" with the US team. Harsh as that may be, it's the opposite reaction to what Berhalter was aiming for, and he has no one to blame except himself for the reaction. Playing to win this tournament was an unnecessary risk that would have gained little and has wasted valuable development time.

Going forward, it's very much time to clear out the deadwood, bring in the youth, and get this show on the road.

100%, Blitz.