The Official US Soccer thread

Lorenzo

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Not a serious football country.
No not at all. I actually thought this group of players were different in the way they could play with the ball, but they really looked like armatures against Colombia yesterday, especially after multiple subs were made by both sides. that is troubling. they have no depth to speak of and their back line only has 3 players that are capable of playing at a global level. one of those 3 is out for a year with an ACL, the other is Tim Ream who is pushing 40 years old.
 

cardpa

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I tuned in around the 60 minute mark and suffered through the last 30 minutes. Never Have I ever seen so many players get stripped clean of the ball like the US did last night. I'm not sure I have ever witnessed an uglier 30 minutes of soccer in my life. Thank God the ref decided to end this debacle at the 90 minute mark. Absolutely no depth in the back line. This team is so ill prepared to play in any tournament at this point.
 

Yuma

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I tuned in around the 60 minute mark and suffered through the last 30 minutes. Never Have I ever seen so many players get stripped clean of the ball like the US did last night. I'm not sure I have ever witnessed an uglier 30 minutes of soccer in my life. Thank God the ref decided to end this debacle at the 90 minute mark. Absolutely no depth in the back line. This team is so ill prepared to play in any tournament at this point.
When I had referee training, it was from a gentleman who grew up in England. He talked bout referee discretion, and one of the scenarios was this, a team getting killed by the other, so no extra time needed at the end of the game.
 

cardpa

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When I had referee training, it was from a gentleman who grew up in England. He talked bout referee discretion, and one of the scenarios was this, a team getting killed by the other, so no extra time needed at the end of the game.
Totally agree with this.
 

Lorenzo

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When I had referee training, it was from a gentleman who grew up in England. He talked bout referee discretion, and one of the scenarios was this, a team getting killed by the other, so no extra time needed at the end of the game.
am i wrong for saying (as a prank) i would have put up 10 mins, just to piss off berhalter....

I mean whatever we can do to get him fired at this point....
 

Lorenzo

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I just don't see the progress with this team. They were running on all cylinders when they beat Mexico 3-0 at allegiant stadium, the night that they awkwardly announced the rehire of berhalter. I still think that is arguably the best attacking US Soccer performance that I have ever seen. it wasn't just the score-sheet, it was the way they played with the ball from start to finish. the way they made mexico look completely irrelevant for 90 mins. since Greg has come back they look like they are in a holding pattern waiting to lose in Copa America and the World Cup. And there is no qualification build up to hold them accountable for being average. Greg called yesterday's game a wake up call. Idk how you aren't up to play a team like Colombia who have world class talent and are on a 21 game unbeaten streak. If they lose like that to Brazil he needs to be fired.
 

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I just don't see the progress with this team. They were running on all cylinders when they beat Mexico 3-0 at allegiant stadium, the night that they awkwardly announced the rehire of berhalter. I still think that is arguably the best attacking US Soccer performance that I have ever seen. it wasn't just the score-sheet, it was the way they played with the ball from start to finish. the way they made mexico look completely irrelevant for 90 mins. since Greg has come back they look like they are in a holding pattern waiting to lose in Copa America and the World Cup. And there is no qualification build up to hold them accountable for being average. Greg called yesterday's game a wake up call. Idk how you aren't up to play a team like Colombia who have world class talent and are on a 21 game unbeaten streak. If they lose like that to Brazil he needs to be fired.
The contrast is evident when compared to our women's team. The women's team was struggling. They brought in a new coach and it paid dividends almost immediately.
 

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The contrast is evident when compared to our women's team. The women's team was struggling. They brought in a new coach and it paid dividends almost immediately.
yeah, I'm not a fan of keeping a manager beyond one WC cycle. the players get too comfortable. they need to have pressure on them to perform. the longer greg stays there, the more it becomes a good ol boy club. USMNT has always had that problem with trying to hire and retain managers and players that make them comfortable.
 

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yeah, I'm not a fan of keeping a manager beyond one WC cycle. the players get too comfortable. they need to have pressure on them to perform. the longer greg stays there, the more it becomes a good ol boy club. USMNT has always had that problem with trying to hire and retain managers and players that make them comfortable.
That's what happened with Klinsmann. Those players knew their jobs were safe and became lazy. Bradley really pissed me off.
 

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When I had referee training, it was from a gentleman who grew up in England. He talked bout referee discretion, and one of the scenarios was this, a team getting killed by the other, so no extra time needed at the end of the game.
Absolutely. The only time I wouldn't be for this is in a tourney where goal difference might matter.
 

Lorenzo

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That's what happened with Klinsmann. Those players knew their jobs were safe and became lazy. Bradley really pissed me off.
Perfect example. For all the good things that JK did in his first few years, it all went to crap after the WC.
 

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Still waiting for a signature win under the idiot Berhalter. USSF doubling down and keeping him for a second cycle was ridiculous.

Did you know he was paid more than coaches like Luis Enrique and Roberto Martinez at the WC? So it isn’t about the federation being cheap, they just want a yes man in charge. The players share blame too as they lobbied for him to come back.
 

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Brazil are exposing them on the counter. you can see how quickly they can score from a turnover anywhere on the pitch. USA have been decent on the ball and a good effort by pulisic to lead to the set piece goal. 1-1 at 33 mins. both goals came off of sloppy plays for each side's defense and goalkeeping.
 

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I'll take 1-1 against Brazil no matter the circumstance.
Yeah, defense is still a little shaky and we were definitely not the best team on the pitch (nor will we ever will be against Brazil), but we had several chances and were right in the game the whole time. Definitely takes a lot of the sour taste from Colombia out in advance of when the games really matter.

I'm hoping for a Brazil/USA rematch in the quarterfinal (if Brazil wins their group and USA finishes second in theirs), which is aligned to the betting odds and happens to be the game I am going to.
 

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I hate to admit it because I want greg to be fired. but it was a hell of a response. with that said Brazil missed a lot of chances to score. USA gave up some menacing counter attacks in a few instances where they turned it over. but generally they did a lot better stopping the ball when Brazil turned them over. and I was impressed with their playing out of the back. Tim Ream is a savior right now. he is arguably their best or perhaps most valuable player IMO. and his partner I think miles Robinson... made a hell of a tackle in a one on one situation that VAR rightfully overturned.

I am disappointed that USA didn't score more than the goal. Pulisic had the best scoring chance in the game and he hit Allison with what should have been a tap in. there were also a couple of occasions where they have the ball in brazil's goal box and did nothing with it. one was a horrible turnover by Brazil that should have led to a chance.
 

cardpa

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I found this a couple of days ago and found the analysis interesting. It's a review of the Columbia game.

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Yuma

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I found this a couple of days ago and found the analysis interesting. It's a review of the Columbia game.

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Watching this, I had the thought, we are exporting players from the USA to the best soccer leagues in the world now. That took a long time to get out talent to be able to do this. The coaches are behind the players at this point, imho. We need to have coaches get into the best leagues in the world in much greater numbers and develop their coaching acumen at the top levels. Either that, or just get a coach from outside like many other nations do.

Also watching that, I think of Coach Shula in American football. He had great running backs in the early seventies, so he ran the ball. Then he had a great QB, so he threw the ball. He played to the talent he had. Not the other way around. That was a great point made in the video.
 

Lorenzo

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I found this a couple of days ago and found the analysis interesting. It's a review of the Columbia game.

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He made good points, but a lot of this is hindsight being 20/20. the team improved in a lot of these areas that he complained about in the next game and there was less experimenting vs. brazil. greg kept his best lineup out there for the entire match.

I do worry about the depth of this team. I trust the top 15 guys, but from there I don't know much about the up and coming players. and a team needs depth to advance far into a tournament. hopefully some of those guys learned some lessons in the friendly vs. Columbia. I would hope that in a high leverage match vs. Columbia the score would be closer. Let's not discount Columbia's football abilty either. they could be in the copa america final.

I think we can all agree they need a fresh voice that can build off some of the momentum that the team created in the early 2020's. this team is not trending in the right direction as they were before. I guess we will see in copa america. if they don't contend for the trophy greg should be sacked. I think this team should be scoring more than they do under greg. that's my biggest critique of him. they don't score enough goals. they remind me of mexico teams of the past that would play keep away with the ball, but a lot of empty possession that never yields more than 1 or 2 goals in a game. As we saw in Greg's absence, this team has the ability to score a lot more than they do with Greg out there.
 
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