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Posted
1 minute ago, ztejas said:

A bunch of dudes just got outclassed tonight. 

Some decent performances out there but our crappy roster finally bit us in the ass. 

This.

In the end this roster wasn't the one that was going to win this tournament.

 

I'll say this - the tournament showed us a few guys that are ready to contribute, it also showed us some guys that can fuck right off.

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Posted
Just now, ztejas said:

A bunch of dudes just got outclassed tonight. 

Some decent performances out there but our crappy roster finally bit us in the ass. 

Agreed.  Mexico was the better team on that field.

 

Although being this game with this crew is actually kind of encouraging.  
 

Tillman was beyond done by the 80th minute.  Agyemang was nearly worthless the last two matches.  

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Posted
3 minutes ago, VinyVango said:

Richards was good … can’t think of another USA guy who made an argument this game to be on the squad besides maybe berhalter as a backup

Tillman, Luna, Adams left it all out there.

Posted
Just now, LTtxfan said:

Not impressed by either team... ugly futbol

I will say this - this isn't a very good Mexico team. They barely beat this team we ran out there. Our A squad is a better team, does that equal a win? Gotta earn it, but in the end I think man for man we match up a hell of a lot better if we run our #1s out there against them.

 

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Posted

Great crowd tonight. Opening goal had the US fans loud as hell. But credit to Mexico thoroughly outplaying the US from that moment on. US had no answers for the Mexican press. Luna was taken out of the game damn near completely other than the shot he should have put on target at the end of the first half. Handball non call was pretty damn surprising, even if we didn't get replays at the stadium.

 

Better team won. Post mortem for Poch will, and should, be ugly. Yeah it's not the 11 best guys, but from top to bottom USA (mens) soccer is nowhere near ready for next summer. 1994 led to a revolution in this country. I currently fear that 2026 won't do anything at all other than line FIFA's pockets. 

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Posted (edited)

It was everyone but the euro guys and coaches fault. Just not good and this place will suck off Poch even though the team got shut down technically 

Edited by Zepol87
Posted

Technical disparity was so glaring. I can't remember many decent moves in the attacking third from the US. They kept giving the ball away. If they played route 1 l, Mexico would always be on the second touch even if the US won the header. If they tried to build from the back things would stagnate at midfield and back the ball went. Ream is a warrior center back, but man I was frustrated with how passive he was when he got the ball.

Posted

On the squad next year: Adams, Tillman, Luna, Richards 

I’m intrigued: Berhalter, McGlynn, Downs, Freese

I could see it just because we don’t have anyone else: Ream, Agyemang 

GTFO: LDLT, Aaronsons, Turner, Arfsten, Freeman

Posted

Overall, this is about what I expected. Missing 5-6 guys against mexico is just not a recipe for a good night. I will say, those guys fought their asses off, so I tip my hat to them. If you had told me before the tournament that we were going to make it farther than Canada and Panama, I would have laughed at you. 
 

There are 5 guys from this team I’d like to see in September. Luna, Tillman, Richards, Ream, and Adams. 
 

I do think there are some guys who could be culture guys who should stick around. Berhalter, Freeman, Agyemang, and Freese. 
 

Everyone else is a big meh for me. But I think you have to have those other guys there to help push the full squad. 
 

 

 

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Posted
40 minutes ago, LurkingHorn said:

Overall, this is about what I expected. Missing 5-6 guys against mexico is just not a recipe for a good night. I will say, those guys fought their asses off, so I tip my hat to them. If you had told me before the tournament that we were going to make it farther than Canada and Panama, I would have laughed at you. 
 

There are 5 guys from this team I’d like to see in September. Luna, Tillman, Richards, Ream, and Adams. 
 

I do think there are some guys who could be culture guys who should stick around. Berhalter, Freeman, Agyemang, and Freese. 
 

Everyone else is a big meh for me. But I think you have to have those other guys there to help push the full squad. 
 

 

 

I think your final paragraph is where I am with the guys who were not on the squad.  I think they should have been there. Not for 90 minutes a game but, to play some, and lead by example and start building the squad for the World Cup.

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Posted

I can’t Imagine Donovan or Dempsey back in the day choosing to not play for the USMNT because they were tired or  wanted to stick with their club team. The new crop of players don’t seem as invested in 🇺🇸 as the guys in the early 2000s

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Posted
1 minute ago, perfectchaos007 said:

I can’t Imagine Donovan or Dempsey back in the day choosing to not play for the USMNT because they were tired or  wanted to stick with their club team. The new crop of players don’t seem as invested in 🇺🇸 as the guys in the early 2000s

And this is the reason why the 2002 team will continue to be the gold standard despite the fact that they had half the talent. They had 3x the heart and grit. They were out to prove something about American soccer. The teams these days just dont care enough. 

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Posted (edited)
54 minutes ago, perfectchaos007 said:

I can’t Imagine Donovan or Dempsey back in the day choosing to not play for the USMNT because they were tired or  wanted to stick with their club team. The new crop of players don’t seem as invested in 🇺🇸 as the guys in the early 2000s

image.thumb.jpeg.af76c27b089805ca45543f7d46586a86.jpeg
 

Landon Donovan literally took a sabbatical  from the national team.

That said the club players didn’t have a choice, the Club WC is an official FIFA event and if the teams don’t release them, they can’t play in the gold cup.

The only player in question is CP, I’ve said my piece there.

I would say IMHO it’s not the investment, it’s the mindset. I think all the guys that play for the US respect it, I just don’t know that the players have the chip on their shoulders that the past teams’ players had. Well not on the A squad. I think we are seeing it with the B squad slowly. 

Edited by Captain Ron
Posted

Brenden Aaronson can play a role on the World Cup squad.

CB and GK are concerns but this tournament was useful to fill out the roster.  Luna played himself on. Tillman probably starts at the 10 now.  I’m still praying that Cardoso can do something for this team.  Dude has done well in La Liga.

Im actually feeling better about going into next year but I was at a nadir.

Mexico’s A team didn’t impress me.  I was expecting more.

 

 

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Posted

He's our best player, and I even kinda get the rest thing given the our history of treating the Gold Cup as a second rate tournament. But Poch seems old school enough to take the armband away from Pulisic even if he was the previous first choice.

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Posted
26 minutes ago, alincoln said:

Brenden Aaronson can play a role on the World Cup squad.

CB and GK are concerns but this tournament was useful to fill out the roster.  Luna played himself on. Tillman probably starts at the 10 now.  I’m still praying that Cardoso can do something for this team.  Dude has done well in La Liga.

Im actually feeling better about going into next year but I was at a nadir.

Mexico’s A team didn’t impress me.  I was expecting more.

Agree with everything here except Aaronson. I'm not convinced that either Aaronson is good at anything other than running around a lot with minimal impact.

Posted
1 hour ago, APMP said:

He's our best player, and I even kinda get the rest thing given the our history of treating the Gold Cup as a second rate tournament. But Poch seems old school enough to take the armband away from Pulisic even if he was the previous first choice.

Pulisic has close to zero leadership qualities. That’s why he was NOT the captain in the past.

He has worn the armband in his USMNT career, but only when several were missing.

Christian can be a hell of a player, but he isn’t a leader.

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Posted
10 hours ago, alincoln said:

Mexico’s A team didn’t impress me.  I was expecting more

Mexico is in a down cycle, but they completely dominated that game. I understand that was our B team or whatever, but we got dismantled. It really wasn’t close.

Posted
16 minutes ago, BrickHorn said:

Mexico is in a down cycle, but they completely dominated that game. I understand that was our B team or whatever, but we got dismantled. It really wasn’t close.

I don't know that Mexico is in a down cycle. They were in a down cycle in the Berhalter years, which is part of the reason he had so much success against them. I would say they are coming out of that at this point. 

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Posted
1 hour ago, LurkingHorn said:

I don't know that Mexico is in a down cycle. They were in a down cycle in the Berhalter years, which is part of the reason he had so much success against them. I would say they are coming out of that at this point. 

Based on what? This is basically the same team they have been running with for the last 5-7 years. Their core is in their late 20s. Jimenez is 34. The only youth they are really running out there is Mora, who's 16 and very impressive. But this team, AS ASSEMBLED, isn't going to improve that much. They need an infusion of youth and outside of Mora, I don't see an obvious next generation.

Does this mean they don't have that youth ready to go? No, but it isn't obvious next generation ready to take over. 

Posted

That was absolutely a handled ball in the area that should have been a PK. No excuse for brushing that away.

Saying that, Mexico controlled the game. The US back line just gives away possession. Tim Ream was the only decent passer. Everyone else simply had no idea where to go with the ball once they won a defensive battle. Just booting the ball upfield would have been annoying, but less dangerous than simply fumbling it back to Mexico in their attacking 3rd. Several times, I saw clearing passes that were lazily aimed into the middle to no one in particular. Mexico happily collected these and recycled their attack. For the 2nd game in a row, I saw an opponent dribble around 3 stationary defenders - each of whom made no attempt whatsoever to stop the goal.

Conversely, the US attack needs to purge themselves of the Berhalter ball safety and stop trying to pass the ball into the net. The other team just isn't going to move out of the way and let them do it. The USA defused their own dangerous chances by quickly cycling the ball back out and retreating into their half to slowly begin to switch fields. Losing possession in a feckless attempt is bad soccer, but never pressing the issue won't lead to goals.

The 2-1 result was fair given the totality of play.

The USMNT got some options for roster building. Nobody declared themselves as absolutely the starter, but several should be 1a options that, over the course of a tournament, will help manage the workload. A competent manager should be able to mix and match these skill sets, combined with the missing first teamers, to game plan against opponents.

Posted
55 minutes ago, Captain Ron said:

Based on what? This is basically the same team they have been running with for the last 5-7 years. Their core is in their late 20s. Jimenez is 34. The only youth they are really running out there is Mora, who's 16 and very impressive. But this team, AS ASSEMBLED, isn't going to improve that much. They need an infusion of youth and outside of Mora, I don't see an obvious next generation.

Does this mean they don't have that youth ready to go? No, but it isn't obvious next generation ready to take over. 

Mexico was putting out an ancient team last cycle. Jimenez is definitely old, but the rest of their lineup is at least in their 20s now. 

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Posted
10 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

Some of the bigger names skipped playing. What did we send out? Our B- / C team? What did Mexico send out?

Something like a B team. It was a grab bag roster featuring everything from 1st to 5th+ stringers. 

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Posted

So any post-tournament predictions on what the starting 11 looks like next summer if everyone is healthy?

----------Balogun------

----Puli---Tillman---Weah----

-----Adams---McKennie-----

Jedi--Richards--Ream--Dest

-----------Schulte-----------

 

Not sure on Ream, but Pochettino seems to trust him and the rest of the options are nothing special. Schulte is a wild guess.

Posted
5 minutes ago, tokamak said:

So any post-tournament predictions on what the starting 11 looks like next summer if everyone is healthy?

----------Balogun------

----Puli---Tillman---Weah----

-----Adams---McKennie-----

Jedi--Richards--Ream--Dest

-----------Schulte-----------

 

Not sure on Ream, but Pochettino seems to trust him and the rest of the options are nothing special. Schulte is a wild guess.

I think this is pretty close except I think Pepi is going to have a big year and will take the striker spot. Honestly, that is a pretty damn good lineup if they all actually play hard. Then you have Luna, Johnny (if he ever gets his shit together for the USMNT), Balo, and Musah on the bench. 

Posted
10 minutes ago, tokamak said:

So any post-tournament predictions on what the starting 11 looks like next summer if everyone is healthy?

----------Balogun------

----Puli---Tillman---Weah----

-----Adams---McKennie-----

Jedi--Richards--Ream--Dest

-----------Schulte-----------

 

Not sure on Ream, but Pochettino seems to trust him and the rest of the options are nothing special. Schulte is a wild guess.

Yea, the team which played in this cup looked nothing like this lineup. That's why I'm not losing sleep over losing to Mexico. There were the better team yesterday.

If the above lineup lost to Mexico yesterday, I'd be worried.

Posted
26 minutes ago, LurkingHorn said:

I think this is pretty close except I think Pepi is going to have a big year and will take the striker spot. Honestly, that is a pretty damn good lineup if they all actually play hard. Then you have Luna, Johnny (if he ever gets his shit together for the USMNT), Balo, and Musah on the bench. 

Yeah as I was typing it out I was thinking to myself, "you know, this ain't half bad". The emergence of Tillman is a big positive. I'm a big Pepi fan as well. Having a choice between who is most in-form between him, Balo, Sargent, and Wright is a far cry from where we used to be at FW. I kind of like Downs as well and could see him developing this year into a guy that can give you a good spark off the bench next summer.

Biggest issues IMO are finding a #1 GK, someone to pair with Richards at CB, and depth behind our top two FBs. MF is probably where we're best and deepest, but getting the right combination of guys on the field in the right formation will be key.

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Posted

I'd almost be tempted to shelve Ream and throw someone like Musah out there as an extra defensive mid. 

It's just such a bummer that we only have one CB worth a shit and - as much as anyone likes Richards - he isn't exactly a shutdown defender. Hopefully he keeps getting better going into next summer.

Posted
2 hours ago, crash_davis said:

Some of the bigger names skipped playing. What did we send out? Our B- / C team? What did Mexico send out?

Just for clarification, the only ones that skipped were Pulisic and Musah.  Weston/Weah/Pepi/Balogun/Robinson/Dest were all either stuck with their club team for Club World Cup or injured.   Then there were guys, who for whatever reason Poch didn't call in, Scally, Sargent, Tessman to name a few...

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