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USMNT 2021


Napoleon

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1 hour ago, Ted Lange said:

Yunus Musah out 3-6 weeks, which means its seems likely he misses the 1st 3 WCQ matches.   UGH.


He was having second thoughts about which national team to commit to back in March. Then “It’s Coming Home” mania swept England. Don’t know where Musah spent the first month+ of summer, but I hope that it wasn’t back in England. 

He’s still not cap-tied and England’s midfielders are early-mid 20s compared to the US’ top midfielders being late teens to early 20s.

if he’s out 3-6 weeks, he’ll just be coming back for the first window, so that’s a non-starter. October may be too soon for his club to release him for national team duty as well

I don’t think that Musah is ready to make a final decision. I’m thinking that November or early 2022 will be the soonest that he makes up his mind and allows himself to be cap-tied. (Excuses will be made for his absences in the meantime.)

But also, I don’t think that he is ready for either national team in an important match. If he weren’t a multi-national, there wouldn’t be a rush to cap him, because he’s not ready. I would say that Cade & Caden are more polished than he is right now, and they are younger. The two CCs aren’t the physical specimen that Musah is and they will likely play on the wings or as forwards/strikers where as Musah will hopefully be part of a 8/6/8 triple pivot in the future.

 

#my2cents

 

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55 minutes ago, Napoleon said:


He was having second thoughts about which national team to commit to back in March. Then “It’s Coming Home” mania swept England. Don’t know where Musah spent the first month+ of summer, but I hope that it wasn’t back in England. 

He’s still not cap-tied and England’s midfielders are early-mid 20s compared to the US’ top midfielders being late teens to early 20s.

if he’s out 3-6 weeks, he’ll just be coming back for the first window, so that’s a non-starter. October may be too soon for his club to release him for national team duty as well

I don’t think that Musah is ready to make a final decision. I’m thinking that November or early 2022 will be the soonest that he makes up his mind and allows himself to be cap-tied. (Excuses will be made for his absences in the meantime.)

But also, I don’t think that he is ready for either national team in an important match. If he weren’t a multi-national, there wouldn’t be a rush to cap him, because he’s not ready. I would say that Cade & Caden are more polished than he is right now, and they are younger. The two CCs aren’t the physical specimen that Musah is and they will likely play on the wings or as forwards/strikers where as Musah will hopefully be part of a 8/6/8 triple pivot in the future.

 

#my2cents

 

Regardless, Berhalter fucked up by not getting Musah ANY time in the Nations League and then offering some bullshit excuse that he wasn't in form at Valencia. In fact, he was the only person on the roster that failed to see the pitch (IIRC because Dike was traveling with the team but not a member of the official playing roster). Fuck you 3G Beerholder!

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1 hour ago, UDontKnow said:

Regardless, Berhalter fucked up by not getting Musah ANY time in the Nations League and then offering some bullshit excuse that he wasn't in form at Valencia. In fact, he was the only person on the roster that failed to see the pitch (IIRC because Dike was traveling with the team but not a member of the official playing roster). Fuck you 3G Beerholder!


My guess is that he chose not to play. 

He was willing to come in and train, but he's not ready to commit yet. Berhalter probably wanted him around all of the guys after he had mentioned that he wasn't sure. It's not like Berhalter has been bad at snagging desirable multi-nationals. (We have no business having Dest on our side.)

My guess is that the "He's not in form." bullshit is for people who would be pissed that he didn't play him when calling him in was just to keep him away from being a training opponent for the English national team in the lead up to the EUROs.

I'm not always right, but I'm right more than many. It's not that different from college football recruiting. Even if you don't get a commitment, it's better to have a guy in on a big weekend with your top commits than at home or on another team's campus.

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11 minutes ago, Napoleon said:


My guess is that he chose not to play. 

He was willing to come in and train, but he's not ready to commit yet. Berhalter probably wanted him around all of the guys after he had mentioned that he wasn't sure. It's not like Berhalter has been bad at snagging desirable multi-nationals. (We have no business having Dest on our side.)

My guess is that the "He's not in form." bullshit is for people who would be pissed that he didn't play him when calling him in was just to keep him away from being a training opponent for the English national team in the lead up to the EUROs.

I'm not always right, but I'm right more than many. It's not that different from college football recruiting. Even if you don't get a commitment, it's better to have a guy in on a big weekend with your top commits than at home or on another team's campus.

The only reason I disagree with your assessment was because the look on Musah's face and his body language during the Nations League award ceremony flies in the face of what you're suggesting. It was readily evident that he was unhappy while walking up the stage to accept the 1st place medal.

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5 minutes ago, UDontKnow said:

The only reason I disagree with your assessment was because the look on Musah's face and his body language during the Nations League award ceremony flies in the face of what you're suggesting. It was readily evident that he was unhappy while walking up the stage to accept the 1st place medal.


I don't believe that I watched that.

I hope that he becomes a US Nat and I hope that he improves significantly, because he's got a Pogba/Vieira vibe for me. He's the massive, yet graceful footballer who can play the 6-8-10(?) and be the back brace to the spine of a great soccer team.

 

...but he's not anywhere close to reaching his potential. (But then again, he's only 18 years old.)

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Does anyone feel that Acosta's play against Jamaica maybe changes our midfield/defense calculus? If he can be relied upon going forward then maybe it lets TA play up a bit more and give us some better service than we would get running out one of the MLSers. 

I don’t think it's a long term solution but it might be an interesting look. Not sure Gerg would ever do it, though. 

Or maybe Acosta just had one good game and he still can't be counted on. 

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2 hours ago, ztejas said:

Does anyone feel that Acosta's play against Jamaica maybe changes our midfield/defense calculus? If he can be relied upon going forward then maybe it lets TA play up a bit more and give us some better service than we would get running out one of the MLSers. 

I don’t think it's a long term solution but it might be an interesting look. Not sure Gerg would ever do it, though. 

Or maybe Acosta just had one good game and he still can't be counted on. 


I don't think that Acosta & Adams will play together much.

I think that Adams will get the toughest matches and Acosta will be used against the weaker opponents.

I would think that the goal is for no player to start more than 75% of the matches, except for maybe the keeper. (or no more than 10 matches out of 14... 71.43%)

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11 minutes ago, Napoleon said:


I don't think that Acosta & Adams will play together much.

I think that Adams will get the toughest matches and Acosta will be used against the weaker opponents.

I would think that the goal is for no player to start more than 75% of the matches, except for maybe the keeper. (or no more than 10 matches out of 14... 71.43%)

I mean... yeah. I don't really expect Gerg to play them together - but I think it would be interesting. Even if it's out of position for him TA has to be one of our best 8s in theory. And it might free up McKennie to be somewhat of a CAM.

It will be interesting to see how Hoppe might slot in with our 1s. 

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1 minute ago, Ted Lange said:

If Acosta played like he did vs Jamaica in 70% of his matches, he’d be in Europe.  He plays like that about 1/4 matches.  

Yeah - and I was kind of alluding to that. 

He's not super young but sometimes guys do turn a corner. I'd at least like to see him get a little run with our 1s - against some of the dogshit qualifying teams. He's probably a lock for the 23 this fall at least. 

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1 minute ago, Ted Lange said:

That being said, he is going to likely play a fair amount in WCQ.  I’d def use him in the Jamaica games, he has had back to back stellar performances vs them.   I hope we see Sands at the 6 some too. 

Right. I think we're on the same page. 

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Just now, Firemans4Horn said:

He's got such a lack of defensive awareness

He's 20. I think the finer points of that will come along. He might best be suited as a wingback but I still think he has great potential at RB.

The fact that so many clubs want him probably speaks for itself. 

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His ability going forward is without question. And is worth a lot of money. Soccer and hockey are similar in that an "offensive defensemen" is worth about 8x what a "defensive defenseman" is worth. But I haven't seen enough from Dest to believe he is a RB defensively. Barca played him at RWB/RM exclusively the last few months of the season.

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7 minutes ago, Ted Lange said:

 

7 minutes ago, Ted Lange said:


Transfermarkt has a different interpretation

 

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1 minute ago, ztejas said:

I'd trust fbref. RM just seems like a different way of writing RWB

Which is what I said earlier.
 

They didn’t trust him playing traditional RB down the stretch of the season.
 

He’s 20. He could end up being the greatest RB of all time, but from what I saw at Barca and the USMNT, his defensive positional sense currently at RB is terrible. 

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2 minutes ago, Firemans4Horn said:

Which is what I said earlier.
 

They didn’t trust him playing traditional RB down the stretch of the season.
 

He’s 20. He could end up being the greatest RB of all time, but from what I saw at Barca and the USMNT, his defensive positional sense currently at RB is terrible. 

I'll trust your assessment. I don't really watch Barca play at all. 

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12 hours ago, Firemans4Horn said:

He’s 20. He could end up being the greatest RB of all time, but from what I saw at Barca and the USMNT, his defensive positional sense currently at RB is terrible. 

for the USMNT, Dest wouldn't need to play RB.  that's a spot where we're actually somewhat deep.  Reggie Cannon, Bryan Reynolds, and Chris Richards all play (or can play) RB.

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45 minutes ago, Jive Turkey said:

for the USMNT, Dest wouldn't need to play RB.  that's a spot where we're actually somewhat deep.  Reggie Cannon, Bryan Reynolds, and Chris Richards all play (or can play) RB.

This seems like an appropriate reply.

Image

I am not sure why they decided to include Steffen. Was there not another RB available?

USMNT only has two pure LBs in Antonee Robinson and Sam Vines. We need more of them. I don't think switching Dest to LB is the solution.

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