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Berhalter needs to stop selecting center backs with certain strengths and then using them in a way that exposes their weaknesses. Either Berhalter's plan of attack was thwarted by Japan, leaving only crossing as a threat, or Berhalter for some reason elected to play the one guy out of the 5 possible center forwards who is not good at getting on the end of a cross and then enacted an offense dependent on crosses. If his attack isn't meant to be crossing-dependent then he shoukld have learned by now that it's too easy for opposing teams to make it crossing dependent because it's a situation we've seen over and over again. Either way, it really seems by now that Ferreira is the wrong guy to have leading the line. Mckennie looked like he had a few too many beers the night before. Dest needs to learn solid defensively-minded ball-handling techniques instead of relying on tricks in dangerous areas that have too high a chance of turnover. That being said, he may have felt pressure to do too much to break the press himself as Zimmerman and Long seemed overwhelmed. De La Torre didn't look very good. Overall the players were low energy.
Shouldn't the purpose of these friendlies be to mesh the team and build confidence for the World Cup? Why is Berhalter bringing in Morris to provide an offensive boost on the wing, using Vines offensively against a pressing team, or substituting in 2 inexperienced midfielders at the same time? Those are moves I'd expect to see many months out from the Word Cup, not less than 2 months out. Surely none of those things are likely to happen in a World Cup game. I guess the Morris thing is understandable since both Pulisic and Weah were unavailable and Reyna is likely on a minutes limit. But isn't Ariola above Morris on the depth chart? It makes me think Gregg plans to start Ariola against Saudi Arabia.
The way the team looked today I don't expect the US to advance past the group stage of the World Cup. But it's not just today, the team consistently has had various problems. Their main consistency has been inconsistency. These games should be used to shape the team into a solid, ticking machine. But Berhalter seems to be using them to gather some more information for himself. I wouldn't be surprised to see the US quickly draw back into a shell under pressure against England just because they have never built any legitimate confidence as a team although there is certainly enough quality on the team to build that confidence.
Jesus is a fine player, he just shouldn't ever be played as a 9 against international competition. He's best suited as a 10 or a second striker in a two striker formation. I'd rather have him at the 8 or on the wings tbh.
thanks for the content.
you can give japan credit where it may be due but almost every away qualifier looked like this. sloppy, no cohesion, no definitive first 11 looking shit we already knew about for 2 years now. at home, we'd likely dominate japan and squeak out a goal or 3 and win, a la Morocco. playing like this, however, 3 n' out seems like a real possibility
GB is playing the wrong strategy
Jake, if we play like this in November, mark it down. 0 points in Qatar, 1, if Iran has an off day.
Aaron long doesn’t belong on the team
If you are going to play from the back then Ream would be fine
Tyler needs to stay back. Midfield was horrible. Jesus he is not a true forward.
Everything is predictable
This blame falls on Greg
We need to condense the midfied
Ggg’s recycling of failed tactics and players are pure madness unless this was his strategy to mentally befuddle and depress his 3 group stage opponents so they have no idea what to expect. If so, his players carried out his strategy to perfection today. It was completely and thoroughly trash.
This loss really is a smack of reality for us. It looked like men vs boys in this game.
GGG "someone who is less than flexible". Understatement of the year. It's scary how he let's his ego driven attachment to his "system" makes him blind to what is happening in front of our eyes: a train wreck.
Pefok would have buried that Ferriera header. And don’t you dare bring up that Pefok miss vs Mexico, Ferriera has missed much more sitters. Ferriera can only score vs Grenada.
Fraudhalter out
On the positive side this should be enough to convince ggg to not start the Zimmerman and long pairing. Bale will eat them alive.
While I agree the US was horrible, these games are like NFL preseason. Teams don't show a lot and they are making final roster selections. I am keeping out hope that we will see different tactics in WC and I thinknwe will. I expect to see a 4-2-3-1 with usage or Wes next to Adam. Wes was horrible today but I expect t him to play well in WC. Unfortunately, if Gregg dropped all the players with bad performances, there wouldn't be 26 left to choose from. Glass is half full but itight be Hemlock …
You could say it was just one game but it wasn’t. It reminded me of almost all our away qualifiers. We know the team has the technical talent based on what they do for their clubs but they completely failed tactically. They were not prepared. Sad because this is probably the strongest group of players we have ever had.
We should play FC Augsburg for a shot on goal…
If only Miles, Chris R, & even JAB were healthy and even on the NT in general. I have a really bad feeling going into the World Cup …
Yours was my favorite take so far today. That Japan team was EXACTLY what Gregg's team was supposed to be! That press was amazing! They really disorganized us and hit quick, decisive transition passes to get in on our goal. Matt Turner saved it from being a bloodbath.
Nobody is going to be surprised if we look tactically lost and out of our depth in Qatar. That seems to be our fate based on the evolution of the squad over the last 18 months. I almost always feel like Gregg is outcoached by the opposition, and today was no different.
That said, I'm still looking forward to November and will be happy if they surprise me with a good performance or two in the group stage.
I want USA Jersey and USA Scarf so much like You Dear Jake.😊😇🥰😍🤗❤🤍💙💪👍🙏✝☦☮
Really offensive comments about the Japanese who got zero credit for having individual quality all over the field. Instead, they get accused of working together to make up for a lack of quality. The Japanese have great players all over the field. Of course, Walker Zimmerman and Aaron Long get accused of bad passing, when really they had 88% and 87% passing percentage. Long had a stand-out play where a ball was played behind the defense, and he beat the Japanese opponent in a foot race and played the ball to Turner without having to slide or foul.
USMNT actually had a LOT of POSSESSION
But USMNT just keep passing the BALL AROUND 2 each other, the USMNT is NOT really MOVING the Ball FORWARD enough
All the USMNT ball PASSING does is PASSING the ball AROUND 2 (EACH other) instead of REALLY creating REAL OFFENSE chances!
Pefolk is not a magic cure. He would have been just as ineffective as Ferreira and Sargent. Our actual problem is our inability to distribute the ball through midfield and connect with our forwards.
Ima
So fucking pissed!
I bought my ticket for the England game in Qatar and this game really killed my excitement.
GGG is such a shitty coach and has the worst energy ever. He’s like tuchel without any of the talent, tactics or football iq. I swear, I would slap the shit out of him if he were to be in front of me.
How tf you’re going to say this team needed more “personality” when you don’t have any and on top of that! You chose the players, you chose lineup, you chose the CB pairing.
Like all the die hard USMNT fans know! Like, we’ve been known!!!
fuck zimmerman, fuck long, fuck morris, fuck ferirera, fuck cannon, fuck McKenzie and so much more he insists with.
I seriously don’t get how one man can let his pride come on top of the team. And not only that, a guy who hasn’t proved anything ever! Like ever! Oh what we beat Mexico twice and won a nations league and gold cup? Gtfo with that.
3rd in qualifying, can’t win away from home, the team doesn’t play nice attractive football, like ! Damn man this shit triggers me!!!
It's called football!LOL!
Can we plz fire Berhalter already…today was a disgrace.
This stuff is good play in concacaf but not at the world stage level. If the other in US group were watching this, we are in trouble. This was a blueprint of how to crush the USA.
If Gregg has shown no flexibility to change, tweak, or modify in four years, why would he do so now? He's way too stubborn, prideful, and enraptured with his own system to change. The old saying of 'he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword' never seemed more fitting. He simply doesn't have the players among his favorites to play the way he wants. Zimmerman and Long have NEVER shown any ability to play their way out of pressure and they're certainly not asked to play that way for their club teams. Gregg just did England's, Iran's and Wale's coaching staff a huge favor by exposing our major weaknesses. Common sense would dictate that if you decide in favor of a possession based system, you call up and start players who have experience and success playing that way(Brooks, Ream, McKenzie, Richards to name a few). But common sense is a foreign concept to Gregg and in his warped sense of reality, Zimmerman and Long seem to be the Second Coming of Beckenbauer and Maldini. His only 'bright' idea seems to be the occasional switch to this ludicrous, predictable hybrid back 3 with Reggie Cannon(who has 0 playing-making ability) at right center back coughing the ball up left and right. We're all praying that Gregg learns and changes but the track record of his doing so isn't there. Sorry for the rant, but we have a frustrating, feckless individual leading this team. I hope I'm wrong…
Am a Canada fan but was expecting better of the US and would like to see all CONCACAF teams do well in the WC. The good news for the US is that this isn't the WC yet.
actually, am glad i forgot there was a game friday morning so i didn't watch it. If i did, would have totally ruined my day. With the exception of Turner, everybody else played poor. Lucky for Pulisic, Weah, Musah, Jedi and the rest who were injured, at least they get out of the blame. Poor performance, atrocious coach
Anyone worth their weight or a good faith critic has said PLENTY of times you get precious FEW chances vs quality opponents you’ll see at the WC, so we can’t have a 9 that wastes them. Vs CONCACAF it didn’t really hurt us but it almost did, it took a Jedi goal off a half chance vs ES at home to cover Jesus’s misses that game. He’s too small to play the way 3g wants to. To me he’s like Pefok now, a a guy you bring in late as a 2nd forward when chasing the game.
Berhalter makes this team so terrible and bad. Mistakes happens under berhalter.
GGB should manage a high school soccer team
Jesus Ferreira missed a header Peafok would burry that one
GGB is so stubborn to bring players that have no business in the mnt.
The sad part our beloved forward Peafok is not even in camp
GGG needs to take a look at how Heardman took over and built the Canadian team. Fit a system around the players not the reverse. Great to see your take sir. Fingers crossed for Tuesday.
You know I watched both the US game and Canada game. What I took away from both is America’s seemingly lack of natural goal scorers compared to Canada. The Canadian forwards have so much more imagination and that’s something you can’t teach. Or plan. Yes their competition was weaker but they only played their stars in the first half and boy were they creative. Just saying.
Why can’t they play like a team? I feel like they are disconnected.
I think for the WC we will do well our first game, and badly our last two, so 3 points in the group stage. This is based off GGGs inflexibility and bad and slow analytical skills.
Totally agree. It's incredible that we are trying to play a system of play that emphasizes possession out of the back then puts in 4 players, Turner, Zimmerman, Long and Adams who are not known for possession play under pressure. After seeing this game I have gone from reasonably optomistic about our chances of getting out of the group to pretty pessamistic. I am also convinced that GGG whether we get out of the group or not should NOT come back to coach the Nats following the WC.
Your suggestions are great but we are one ONE game away from the World Cup. Isn't this a little late. GGG What are we doing? WHAT ARE WE DOING?🙄😒
If Zimmerman is a starter, they are fucked!!! he's the most un-athletic fuck i've ever seen!! Long never belongs on an international pitch — it's just over. I was adopted from Brasil, so fuck it, there is no nope for the US. They will forever bring B athletes compared to every other country's A+ athletes. You'll never outdo football and basketball for black athletes in this country unless something dramatically changes — and THAT is the ONLY chance. Zimmerman would get torn up by Brasil or anyone who isn't slow/unathletic. Gregg's system is shit — he can't be serious about that system working against anyone good — they are 1-3-2 against WC qualifying teams…what does that tell you? it means they don't have the talent to play a 4-3-3.
We are the only country that never has improved, especially this group of talent. Watched back our lose to Canada and if anyone thinks a full team will matter, it won't