Also, I just found out that tonight's game will be in BeIn Sports, a channel I've never gotten despite going through three different cable providers. Reddit Soccer Streams will be critical for be tonight.
I actually have that channel and watch it occasionally.
I am going out shortly for a family function (neglected middle child's birthday), but maybe I'll catch the end of the game. I'm not sure I'll want to (given our history there and our last performance), and my phone will be updating me with the scores while I'm out anyway.
Edit:
Got back in time to watch most of the game. Shouldn't have bothered. ******* ****** ******* sleepwalking defenders.
Welp. I think I've seen enough of Jurgen Klinsmann at this point.
Welp. I think I've seen enough of Jurgen Klinsmann at this point.
Might as well take advantage of the shifting of the political guard and have President-elect Trump fire him personally on live TV.
Fedaykin98 wrote:Welp. I think I've seen enough of Jurgen Klinsmann at this point.
Might as well take advantage of the shifting of the political guard and have President-elect Trump fire him personally on live TV.
To be completely serious, I don't think this can wait until January 20. We have a four-month break between qualifiers; do it today.
Agreed. While they still have a pretty easy path to qualification, but this has been trending downward for a while. Grant Wahl wrote a good piece in Sports Illustrated on it. JK has done a number of good things for the USMNT, particularly attracting the dual citizenship players to play for the US, but there have been enough stories of his tactical and technical acumen both with the US and in Germany that a change needs to be made.
Is it also time to move on from Michael Bradley as the CM focal point? He has fallen off significantly in the past two years as a playmaker and even as a distributor. His passing accuracy has been poor and he does not feel like a threat on the field. It is a drastic departure from the player he was 2-3 years ago.
I'm blinded by my love of Michael Bradley from many, many years ago. I do recognize he hasn't been great lately.
One of the things we need a new coach for is to completely re-evaluate the players. I wouldn't be surprised to see some big changes, if we do get the new leadership we seem to need badly.
I'm blinded by my love of Michael Bradley from many, many years ago. I do recognize he hasn't been great lately.
One of the things we need a new coach for is to completely re-evaluate the players. I wouldn't be surprised to see some big changes, if we do get the new leadership we seem to need badly.
I get it. My 14 year old's middle name is Donovan for a reason that should be obvious from this thread's topic! The key becomes the statement many years ago. Donovan needed a change of roles (maybe not being left off the roster entirely) as I believe Bradley does unless his play improves. A new set of eyes is certainly needed. Pulisic jumps out as their most dynamic player and has for a few matches now. Are there some others youngsters that are deserving of a similar opportunity?
Cross-posting from the general soccer thread:
Well, I'll admit I didn't see this happening yet, but it does seem like he'd lost the dressing room.
It needed to happen, and now was the ideal time. Give the next guy some time to get ready for March, when Qualifiers resume.
Klinsmann improved our player pool but not our results, which suggests to me that he may be a good evaluator but not a great coach, if you will.
Klinsmann improved our player pool but not our results, which suggests to me that he may be a good evaluator but not a great coach, if you will.
Maybe the Cleveland Browns will hire him.
It needed to happen, and now was the ideal time. Give the next guy some time to get ready for March, when Qualifiers resume.
Klinsmann improved our player pool but not our results, which suggests to me that he may be a good evaluator but not a great coach, if you will.
I'd argue he wasn't even a decent coach. He made good subs, and that's about it. He didn't seem to be concerned with informing players of their tactical responsibilities, and couldn't be bothered to take a share of the responsibility for losses.
Pretty much summed up here:
Klinsmann explained away the losses in public. In private, his excuses were even more bold; he told Gulati that he was convinced that the Gold Cup was fixed so Mexico would win, setting up the big-money playoff match against the U.S., a viewpoint that exasperated his boss.
Bruce Arena is back, as I'm sure everyone has heard. His previous tenure was before I started paying attention outside of World Cups and the Olympics. Hopefully he can re-energize the players, because I got the sense they were somewhat checked out before.
A re-tread. NICE.
Okay, I have totally fallen down on the job, but we are back to playing competitive matches! Hopefully everyone knows that the women won their first game of the She Believes tournament against Germany, and are kicking against England in about a minute!
...more updates to come. Go USA!
Rats.
Final game is Tuesday night against France!
Sigh.
I'm getting used to seeing bad results from Red Bull Arena. 
I caught the second half. It felt like the USWNT deserved that loss. Surprised by the poor tactical decisions by veteran players like Lloyd. The lack of field switches by the midfield made me think I was watching one of my 14 year old son's games. They seemed to get very railroaded on one side of the field and made it easy for England to close them down. It was as if the cold slowed their decision-making process as much as it did physically. Also, that was one of the "stickiest" fields I have seen in a while, the ball just died on it. Difficult to establish much flow when everything looked 3/4 speed.
Man, we got our asses handed to us tonight. Didn't medal in the Olympics, now last place in our own four-team tournament.
We came out terrible. So many lazy, intercepted passes. Is Carli Lloyd injured? She had the worst game I can remember.
Man, we got our asses handed to us tonight. Didn't medal in the Olympics, now last place in our own four-team tournament.
We came out terrible. So many lazy, intercepted passes. Is Carli Lloyd injured? She had the worst game I can remember.
They looked like crap, couldn't connect on passes. It was like they spent the whole time looking at their feet and not where everyone was on the field. The announcers said that the US was experimenting with younger players, but that's the worst I have ever seen from them.
Fedaykin98 wrote:Man, we got our asses handed to us tonight. Didn't medal in the Olympics, now last place in our own four-team tournament.
We came out terrible. So many lazy, intercepted passes. Is Carli Lloyd injured? She had the worst game I can remember.
They looked like crap, couldn't connect on passes. It was like they spent the whole time looking at their feet and not where everyone was on the field. The announcers said that the US was experimenting with younger players, but that's the worst I have ever seen from them.
I don't understand this business about experimenting. I realize this isn't the most prestigious tournament in the world, but this was the finals of a competitive event.
Between last place in our own tournament and not medalling in the Olympics, I can't see Jill Ellis keeping her job. And as long as we're making changes, either scrap this tournament or change the horrid, horrid name.
I believe the name is a sponsor- I think there is also a LPGA event they sponsor
I don't mind the tournament, it's just that I would have hoped that we took it a little more seriously since it was on home turf and they need all the good publicity they can get.
I missed it, but apparently they looked good vs. Germany. Did not look good at all in the last two and decision making was the most troubling thing to me.
I finally updated the OP with the next round of games. Obviously, we really, really need a win for the MNT this Friday. And Tuesday.
Also, TheWalt and I (and some other soccer folks) are going to see the WNT in their Houston friendly vs Russia next month. Should be fun! I've seen two MNT games live (one Gold Cup, one Copa America from last summer) but haven't seen the WNT in person before now.
Also, TheWalt and I (and some other soccer folks) are going to see the WNT in their Houston friendly vs Russia next month. Should be fun! I've seen two MNT games live (one Gold Cup, one Copa America from last summer) but haven't seen the WNT in person before now.
Cool, have fun.
I think that the last time I saw the WNT was back at the 1999 WWC (opening match vs Denmark).
Hope you have fun. I saw them destroy someone (Germany) during the Mia Hamm Salad days in old Soldier Field in Chicago back in 99? The year of the big WC in LA.
Men have some work to do. I will be recording and be watching on delay, as my UW Badger Basketball team is tipping off an hour before.
Silly question, but how does the qualifying work this round for the USMNT? The articles I read didn't really go past "need to win" types of information.
I know they lost the first two games, but it's pool play, with five teams in a group? Is is something like the top two teams from each group qualify, and then a certain number of third place teams? So they'd definitely qualify if they finish first or second, might qualify if they finish third, don't qualify if they finish fourth or fifth?
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And have fun at the USWNT game, Fedaykin! I saw them play in Canada in the last World Cup. It was awesome, both as a soccer game and a cultural experience. Such a great crowd.
Silly question, but how does the qualifying work this round for the USMNT? The articles I read didn't really go past "need to win" types of information.
Six teams, home and home round robin format. Top three finishers qualify automatically. Fourth place finisher will have a two leg play-off vs. the fifth place finisher in Asia. Two games in, the USMNT has no points, having lost 1-2 at home to Mexico and 0-4 at Costa Rica. The must win talk is based on the fact that they are already in the hole having dropped a home match. It is pretty difficult to win on the road, so many feel it is critical to get 3 points at home.
Not having Bobby Wood or Yedlin available due to injury (and likely no Jordan Morris) is tough. Hopefully they can get the result tomorrow night. No style points needed in this one.
I'll add that Wikipedia is awesome for soccer stuff (and much more). Check out the 2018 CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying page. Just today I looked up CONMEBOL's page because I wanted to see how things stood going into tonight's awesome Argentina - Chile and Brazil - Uruguay matchups.
Ah, I have become study. Thanks very much. The explanation and the Wikipedia page have cleared things up nicely. So we have eight games left, plenty of time, but the home loss and the Costa Rica drubbing sure have us off to a rough start. Got it.
Glad to see the games are all on channels we have too. I'm watching the last 30 minutes of Uruguay vs. Brazil now.
Exactly the site I used to confirm that #4 CONCACAF plays #5 in AFC.
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