Fear and Loathing (USMNT 2018)

[dunlopp9987]

What a match, though. Maybe the best ever between these two? Had everything you could want in a game. IMO, Brooks is the most important player we have. I think McKennie is vital and will be future captain, and Pulisic and Reyna are important, but Brooks is the best defender we have by a mile. Was huge in both games this tournament. 

Still not totally sold that Berhalter is the answer, but wow do those players play for him. You could see when McKennie ran straight to him on our second goal. Sure I'd love a more tactically proficient coach, but if you have the locker room that committed to the cause, you can go far.

[Ghoat]

Best week of USMNT I can remember in a long time. The 2nd XI looked awfully good for a change, against a weakened side or not! 

[Sibdane]

On 07/06/2021 at 16:34, dunlopp9987 said:

What a match, though. Maybe the best ever between these two? Had everything you could want in a game. IMO, Brooks is the most important player we have. I think McKennie is vital and will be future captain, and Pulisic and Reyna are important, but Brooks is the best defender we have by a mile. Was huge in both games this tournament. 

Still not totally sold that Berhalter is the answer, but wow do those players play for him. You could see when McKennie ran straight to him on our second goal. Sure I'd love a more tactically proficient coach, but if you have the locker room that committed to the cause, you can go far.

When Brooks is healthy we play so much better. 

[dunlopp9987]

15 hours ago, Ghoat said:

Best week of USMNT I can remember in a long time. The 2nd XI looked awfully good for a change, against a weakened side or not! 

Agreed. Hopefully this shuts up all the Berhalter Out crew. Not to say that I think he's the answer, but until results start to go south, why would you fire a guy who's getting results and has what seems to be a really cohesive locker room?

[Ghoat]

On 11/06/2021 at 11:37, dunlopp9987 said:

Agreed. Hopefully this shuts up all the Berhalter Out crew. Not to say that I think he's the answer, but until results start to go south, why would you fire a guy who's getting results and has what seems to be a really cohesive locker room?

Agreed, he is just getting the team he wants playing in his system, would be backasswards to replace him coming into WC qualifiers, especially when the team is playing pretty well and getting results.

[Sibdane]

Watching USA vs. Martinique and have to say I like the look of Hoppe. Yes, the opponent is weak, but he has been everywhere so far in the 1st half. 
 

Dike is on 2 goals. He’s also looking legit. 

[Ghoat]

On 15/07/2021 at 21:46, Sibdane said:

Watching USA vs. Martinique and have to say I like the look of Hoppe. Yes, the opponent is weak, but he has been everywhere so far in the 1st half. 
 

Dike is on 2 goals. He’s also looking legit. 

I missed the game traveling, but from the highlights it appears the last half of Hoppe's season at Schalke wasn't a fluke. Dike I absolutely like, he is a big boy up top

[Sibdane]

3 hours ago, Ghoat said:

I missed the game traveling, but from the highlights it appears the last half of Hoppe's season at Schalke wasn't a fluke. Dike I absolutely like, he is a big boy up top

Dike is going to be a poacher for sure. I liked Hoppe because he showed for the ball constantly. That was our B/C team but some of the positioning was A+. 

[markjazzbassist]

Anyone else doing a double take when they see Rogelio Funes Mori scoring goals for Mexico?  

[Ghoat]

19 hours ago, Sibdane said:

Dike is going to be a poacher for sure. I liked Hoppe because he showed for the ball constantly. That was our B/C team but some of the positioning was A+. 

You look at the ages, it's basically a a team that could have played in the Olympics

[dunlopp9987]

Well we'll be playing either Costa Rica or Jamaica in our next match, depending on tonight's result between those two. Wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if we get knocked out by either of those sides, seeing as we were pretty listless against Canada yesterday.

Agree with all of the above in regards to Hoppe and Dike. It's gonna be a real shame if both Hoppe and Sargent can't get moves away from their respective clubs and spend this next season in Bundesliga 2.

[Sibdane]

21 hours ago, dunlopp9987 said:

Well we'll be playing either Costa Rica or Jamaica in our next match, depending on tonight's result between those two. Wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if we get knocked out by either of those sides, seeing as we were pretty listless against Canada yesterday.

Agree with all of the above in regards to Hoppe and Dike. It's gonna be a real shame if both Hoppe and Sargent can't get moves away from their respective clubs and spend this next season in Bundesliga 2.

More worried about Costa Rica, but I agree. I could see either knocking us out, though if they do it would be a major disappointment as we should be beating them.

[Ghoat]

While I would love to see us win it, I think any further wins are somewhat of a bonus. 

 

Outside of a few names, half of this team I had to look up and wasn't familiar with since almost all of the European players returned to their clubs after the Confederation Cup for a short rest before their preseason starts. 

This is actually a good opportunity for some of the smaller nations to win it, as they have most of the regular team. Not saying that we shouldn't be competing to win it, but we have an awful lot of young players playing together for the first time and some in difderent positions and while they are promising, they are just mostly very green internationally. This team is far closer to what our Olympic team should have looked like IMO, but there seems to be some pretty good young talent that could provide some good depth in the coming WC qualifiers. 

[Sibdane]

2 hours ago, Ghoat said:

While I would love to see us win it, I think any further wins are somewhat of a bonus. 

 

Outside of a few names, half of this team I had to look up and wasn't familiar with since almost all of the European players returned to their clubs after the Confederation Cup for a short rest before their preseason starts. 

This is actually a good opportunity for some of the smaller nations to win it, as they have most of the regular team. Not saying that we shouldn't be competing to win it, but we have an awful lot of young players playing together for the first time and some in difderent positions and while they are promising, they are just mostly very green internationally. This team is far closer to what our Olympic team should have looked like IMO, but there seems to be some pretty good young talent that could provide some good depth in the coming WC qualifiers. 

A good sign for our future would be for us to win it all. I'll actually find it pretty ridiculous if we don't win given how much money is spent on youth soccer here in the US. 

[Ghoat]

1 hour ago, Sibdane said:

A good sign for our future would be for us to win it all. I'll actually find it pretty ridiculous if we don't win given how much money is spent on youth soccer here in the US. 

Yes, but you know as well as I do that youth soccer in this country is more of a suburban babysitter then a path towards development. It's getting better, but miles to go. 

[Sibdane]

1 hour ago, Ghoat said:

Yes, but you know as well as I do that youth soccer in this country is more of a suburban babysitter then a path towards development. It's getting better, but miles to go. 

Very true -- which is a shame because so much talent falls through the cracks. 

[markjazzbassist]

3 hours ago, Ghoat said:

Yes, but you know as well as I do that youth soccer in this country is more of a suburban babysitter then a path towards development. It's getting better, but miles to go. 

Suburban babysitter wow lol.  Texas seems to be where it’s at.  They are consistently putting out top talent

[Ghoat]

3 hours ago, markjazzbassist said:

Suburban babysitter wow lol.  Texas seems to be where it’s at.  They are consistently putting out top talent

Nationwide all in all, yeah - but you are spot on about Texas. Chris Richards is an example, the CB who is at Bayren Munich is actually from B'Ham, AL but moved to Texas and got in with FC Dallas before BM came calling.

[markjazzbassist]

I wonder if it’s like baseball where due to weather they can play year round unlike up north here.  Or the prevalence of Latino Americans who revere the game, probably both.

[Ghoat]

1 hour ago, markjazzbassist said:

I wonder if it’s like baseball where due to weather they can play year round unlike up north here.  Or the prevalence of Latino Americans who revere the game, probably both.

Could certainly be a factor. You would think it should apply somewhat to SoCal, AZ and SoFla as well? I believe there is a good bit of talent coming from/being developed in FL, but the current path does seem to routed through Texas to Europe.

[markjazzbassist]

8 hours ago, Ghoat said:

Could certainly be a factor. You would think it should apply somewhat to SoCal, AZ and SoFla as well? I believe there is a good bit of talent coming from/being developed in FL, but the current path does seem to routed through Texas to Europe.

it is strange, dempsey was from texas maybe he got all those kids excited.

[Ghoat]

15 hours ago, markjazzbassist said:

it is strange, dempsey was from texas maybe he got all those kids excited.

Pulisic and Zack Steffen are both from PA, so if we can get those Philly kids dribbling the proper kind of ball 

[Sibdane]

38 minutes ago, Ghoat said:

Pulisic and Zack Steffen are both from PA, so if we can get those Philly kids dribbling the proper kind of ball 

Aaronson as well. He’s been doing well at RB Salzburg. 

[markjazzbassist]

Well we won the gold cup.  You got to give berhalter credit, he has been dogged in the press since he got the job but he is producing.  I’m excited for WQ qualifying now.

[Ghoat]

3 hours ago, markjazzbassist said:

Well we won the gold cup.  You got to give berhalter credit, he has been dogged in the press since he got the job but he is producing.  I’m excited for WQ qualifying now.

That was a pretty big win, seeing what the squad was during the Gold Cup. I don't think anyone on that roster would make the starting Xi, and maybe only a few would make the bench. But that was a great tourny for that group, and Berhalter. They had to just grind out results in almost every match. Really good experience and looks promising for depth. 

I think it was a big loss for Mexico, rough summer for their homophobic chanters, losing cup finals  to both the USA 1st and 2nd teams. Hate it for em. Tata may be in the hot seat, he is something like 30-3-4 but 2 of those loses are to us in Cup finals this summer. I'd love it if they ran Tata off, because I think he is a great manager.

[markjazzbassist]

4 hours ago, Ghoat said:

That was a pretty big win, seeing what the squad was during the Gold Cup. I don't think anyone on that roster would make the starting Xi, and maybe only a few would make the bench. But that was a great tourny for that group, and Berhalter. They had to just grind out results in almost every match. Really good experience and looks promising for depth. 

I think it was a big loss for Mexico, rough summer for their homophobic chanters, losing cup finals  to both the USA 1st and 2nd teams. Hate it for em. Tata may be in the hot seat, he is something like 30-3-4 but 2 of those loses are to us in Cup finals this summer. I'd love it if they ran Tata off, because I think he is a great manager.

i think Tata is excellent as well, i really like his style and tactics.  I think for the time being we just have the stronger player pool, they have a lot of aging players and too young players, they are where we were during the last WQ qualifying.  It's looking good for us, we need a strong WQ qualifying campaign, hopefully the Hex is forgiving this time around.

[Ghoat]

5 hours ago, markjazzbassist said:

i think Tata is excellent as well, i really like his style and tactics.  I think for the time being we just have the stronger player pool, they have a lot of aging players and too young players, they are where we were during the last WQ qualifying.  It's looking good for us, we need a strong WQ qualifying campaign, hopefully the Hex is forgiving this time around.

It's gonna be fairly rough, 3 games in 7 days on the international break in September and October. That's why that depth coming from the Gold Cup was so welcome. But I certainly like where we are heading in. 

[markjazzbassist]

11 hours ago, Ghoat said:

It's gonna be fairly rough, 3 games in 7 days on the international break in September and October. That's why that depth coming from the Gold Cup was so welcome. But I certainly like where we are heading in. 

looking at qualifying now i didn't realize they expanded it.  it's no longer the Hex.  It's now the Octogon.  8 teams.  but still same amount advances (top 3, 4 goes to playoff).  i guess it gives you a couple more minnows to pound on and gain points and you hope others slip up.  

 

Canada, Honduras, El Salvador, USA, Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico, Jamaica.  It's what it usually is, really the only team that should give us trouble is Mexico, but we all know some hot night in the jungle in El Salvador with gnarly fans will be difficult.  Ditto for Honduras.  

[dunlopp9987]

19 hours ago, Ghoat said:

It's gonna be fairly rough, 3 games in 7 days on the international break in September and October. That's why that depth coming from the Gold Cup was so welcome. But I certainly like where we are heading in. 

This. I think what this gold cup victory showed is that, if and when our first choice squad players might be out with injury or fatigue due to the grueling schedule, we have guys ready to step up who now have this experience under their belts. 

Essentially winning a tournament final on Sunday at an away stadium, as I heard something that it was probably 85/15 Mexico support. You can't quantify how important that experience is, especially since it benefits the guys who might have to step up in a pinch.

I too am looking forward to qualification now. I love seeing Berhalter succeed, mostly because it pisses off all the euro-snob USMNT supporters who think they know everything. I was positively giddy when Zardes scored the winner in the semifinal

[markjazzbassist]

3 hours ago, dunlopp9987 said:

This. I think what this gold cup victory showed is that, if and when our first choice squad players might be out with injury or fatigue due to the grueling schedule, we have guys ready to step up who now have this experience under their belts. 

Essentially winning a tournament final on Sunday at an away stadium, as I heard something that it was probably 85/15 Mexico support. You can't quantify how important that experience is, especially since it benefits the guys who might have to step up in a pinch.

I too am looking forward to qualification now. I love seeing Berhalter succeed, mostly because it pisses off all the euro-snob USMNT supporters who think they know everything. I was positively giddy when Zardes scored the winner in the semifinal

I am a euro snob supporter but I like berhalter.  He was a former USMNT player and he was excellent in MLS with teams that weren’t marquee.  Also he has a good football philosophy which is important.  I liked bob bradley for that era, loved Juergen just because he threw the establishment and concept of how we could play out the door.  Arena was a massive fail and I wasn’t a fan of that, he was a has been.  
 

I still believe our best players play in Europe, surprise surprise, they do!  Not rocket science there.  
 

to @Ghoat earlier point on Tata, I would have loved to get him as manager as well.  Hell if it all goes south I would still take him.  He knows how to get attacking football and has managed some big clubs and national teams.