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Colombia attack overwhelms, spoils USMNT rally for friendly win

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TAMPA, Fla. — The U.S. Men’s National Team flipped the script on star-studded Colombia, erasing a deficit and coming from behind to take the lead in the second half.

Unfortunately for the Americans, Colombia did the exact same thing.

The U.S. was unable to hold onto a lead at a wet Raymond James Stadium on Thursday night, as an impressive comeback effort shortly after halftime was spoiled by an ensuing Colombian rally. The U.S. had made it 2-1 via a pair of goals that came three minutes apart early in the second half, but Colombia’s high-powered attack proved too much and pushed three goals past the hosts to prevail, 4-2.

Down 1-0 after James Rodriguez scored an exquisite goal before the break, the Americans responded with strikes from Kellyn Acosta and Bobby Wood. Acosta equalized in the 50th minute with a trailing run and impressive side-footed finish, and Wood punctuated a great counterattack, that included a perfectly-weighted though ball from Tim Weah, by slotting the ball home in the 53rd.

The joy for the U.S. fans in the record Tampa crowd of 38,631 was short-lived, however. Colombia’s potent attack, dangerous throughout the night, pulled level three minutes after the Americans took the lead.

On the play, Santiago Arias rounded U.S. left back Antonee Robinson on the flank and teed up a low ball to Carlos Bacca, who broke away from Matt Miazga’s marking and shot clinically past goalkeeper Zack Steffen.

Things went from bad to worse for the U.S., as the Colombians continued exploiting space against a defense that could not slow them down. Radamel Falcao found the winner in the 74th minute on a through ball from Juan Quintero, and substitute Miguel Borja put the game out of reach 11 minutes from time with a scissor kick golazo following a great lofted pass from Rodriguez.

The U.S. returns to the field on Tuesday, playing Peru in a friendly at Pratt & Whitney Stadium in East Hartford, Connecticut.

Comments

  1. I don’t know guys, i’m just not seeing what a lot of others are regarding Saief. He is definitely not a winger when you consider his lack of foot speed and the inability to help out whatsoever defensively. However, when he got in the middle of the field and was able to get more on the ball he looked much better. So the question is where do you play him? I would think CAM, but that’s Pulisic position for me on this team, so i guess when we have everyone available he’d be a back up for CP.

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  2. As much as people want to avoid the issue by blaming Coach Sriracha, Michael Bradley or Arnie Stuart the fact still remains, MLS produces not talent whatsoever. USSF’s idea of player development consists of trolling the German lower divisions looking for anybody whose mom hit it and quit it with an American serviceman on leave and can kick a soccer ball the right direction regularly;
    At some point MLS is going to have to produce more than shady rules, embarrassing headlines and retirement options for former stars looking for one las big paycheck.
    Until then…..

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    • I could not agree more with you. If you look at the top goal scorers and assist leaders in MLS none are American. Furthermore, MLS is not doing enough of getting young American talent into the starting lineup, nor producing enough talent overall. This right here is what is hurting the national team. That, and the fact that Americans still do not possesses that technical ability and soccer acumen to compete with the top nations. It hurts me to say it since I am big supporter of MLS, and the men’s national team, but soccer in the USA still has a long long way to go before we can be considered an elite soccer country.

      When the USSF and MLS care more about player development, and winning tournaments then making money, maybe, just maybe, we might start to make more noise internationally. Until then, expect more result like last night.

      Oh yeah, I almost forgot, hire a g-d dam coach already. It’s a joke. The USSF reminds of the Redskins, all hype, and nothing to show for it.

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  3. The first 10-15 minutes looked well as the U.S. pressed and kept Colombia pinned back. But good gosh, Robinson still has a steep learning curve. Colombia must’ve watched video of the USA’s previous friendlies as they immediately picked him out as the weak point of that defense. He was out of position more times than I can remember. You could see the frustration in Saief as he had to keep hauling it back to take over Robinson’s lack of awareness. The marking on the crosses was also abismal. Colombia never crossed across the face of the goal, but kept crossing back into the middle of the box. The USA defenders kept looking for the cross across the face of the goal. Just mark your man and trust your goalie! Stick to them like freaking glue! Just hats off to Colombia for the constant movement and fluidity on the counter or when in the offensive half. The U.S. players still need to learn that. Too many times it looked like isolation type ball with too many players just watching and not running into space to keep the defense honest.

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  4. Someone mentioned Arsenal: Wenger would send both his outside backs into the final third with the front line. Exactly what we did tonight, and we paid for it on counter attacks. But it’s hard to play through the middle against Columbia – esp with the players we had, but the backs were simply too ambitious.But even when we were “organized” Columbia found seams at will. Lots of work to do before next World Cup. Starts with a coach. That said, it was a friendly and the US scored two goals that were pretty cool. Weah’s through ball was great.

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    • One thing that shouldn’t be overlooked is Colombia. As a football fan, you have to enjoy watching them. In addition to individual skill, they play together so well, almost flawlessly at times. Their passing and interchanges are almost things of beauty. I hope that some day the US will have a team that plays like Colombia does now.

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  5. Still wondering why G Cameron isn’t the captain for this cycle or even being called in. Best defender in the pool and our defense is terrible right now.

    Oh that’s right, he pissed off Bruce Arena and Co…..that’s why…

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    • I’m a Cameron fan but……. he’s far from the panacea and he is now well past his prime. Happens quick! At some point, you have to take your medicine and move on. Let young players learn and yes make mistakes and horror of horror lose to much better teams, It is quite literally exactly what friendlies are for and if it is possible for there to be a positive having missed a WC- unblurring the lines/getting an early start on that process is it.

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  6. The more I see of Wood the more i understand why we keep saying hes “starved of service” and thats why he doesnt score more. He doesnt make good runs. He seems to make his mind up about where hes going to go and if the ball doesnt find him, no service. Rather than making runs to open space. There were 2 balls in from the left (one from saief and another from robinson where the front post was begging for a run and both times he went to the backpost allowing defenders to intercept. Acosta was terrible. The only positive was the goal. Green was too passive too often. Back passes when he had 20 yards of space in front to dribble at someone. Side passes when thwre were corner outlets. Not brave enough for a 10. Robinsons positioning is terible time and time again and looks a lot like yedlin from a couple years ago relying on his pace to make up for bad positioning. Yedlin has made zero improvement on the offensive side. He cant beat anyone off the dribble and im pretty sure (havent checked) robinson has more assists than him in the national team already. Bradley was actually ok, but i still dont want to see him in any role other than a backup. Brooks game reminded of his effort in the 4-0 costa rica game. Gave james too much time and space on the goal and his later assist. I dont fault steffan much for any of the goals really. Sargeant showed more in his 1 or 2 opportunities than wood did with his 70+ minutes. Weah looked good but i still think his best role might be up top rather than the wing. He runs at people and makes good runs to get behind. Saief needs to get a run in the 10 role. Hes confident on the ball going forward and doesnt do as much defensively. Picault looked out of place. Columbia is good and full of world class talent so the result doesnt surprise me, at this point im looking for pieces to move forward with. I still think that back 4 is our best right now. Pulisic, adams and mckennie would have helped but i want to see someone other than wood up top to start on tuesday. Novakovich needs more looks. We know ehat we have in wood and if hes out backup striker we are in good shape but if hes truly our number 1 striker we can expect more of the same. Hes a clinical finisher if he gets the ball exactly where he wants it.

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    • Agree about your assessment of Wood this game but… wasn’t always the case. Few years ago- I was thrilled w/ the constant energy and movement he brought and the contrast to Jozy with his runs. I really do think years of poor service can suck that sort of optimism/industriousness out of someone. He really needs to bring it back because ultimately, why you do not make runs doesn’t matter a bit.

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    • Regarding Yedlin, if you watch him at Newcastle, he has been improving going forward. This season he scored against Man City in a league game and I think he has one or two assists also in 7 games..

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  7. At this point I don’t even know what to say. Why do we have friendlies? To test our capabilities and limitations against stronger, better, faster opposition. These are the games we need our young player to be a part of, to be exposed to and to know what they are made of.

    Capabilities – is the extent of someone’s or something’s ability. How are these young players going to improve to the status we are looking for if they don’t know what their “ALL” looks like or if they don’t get touched on the field? Antonee Robinson and all the young players just got a wealth of information to process about the level of their abilities and what it takes to just be on the field and hold your own with a team like Columbia. They will be better players because of it, because now they know (especially Robinson) their limitations, and that to go up and defend against players like James Rodríguez or Carlos Bacca or Juan Cuadrado you need to be a certain level, physically and mentally.

    Michael Bradley should not have been on the field simply because, unlike the young players (at the rate he is going) he will not be relevant in a year or two from now, and he just stole valuable experience from players like Trapp or Roldan etc. At this point we are trying to develop a system – which is Any activity or set of activities that involve input (which we get from expose to tough games), processing (going back to the drawing board and reassess our limitations) and output (come out with something different technical or tactically or both). With him in the line-up and with the respect he carries, its like bring a bad idea to a great concept….

    Just waiting for November 1…smh

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    • Funny, how the only person that did not get subbed out was the worst player the last 30 minutes MB90. Im sure the old guy posters are gearing up to write how proud they are that they still support Bradley because they are old and proud .

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      • Dude, all any of us “old guys” are doing is having a minor laugh about how triggered you get every time you so much think of the words “Michael Bradley”. We get it — You don’t like him! Probably you won’t have to deal with much more. Talk about something else already…..

    • You are way too optimistic. Colombia dominated about 75 to 80% of the game. It was only slightly better in the first half. Colombia could have easily scored 3 times in the first half. The left side of the US defense was continually shredded. To say that Robinson was horrible would be an understatement.

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    • Have not watched the match yet…Had we had our real first team with Pulisic, McKennie & Adams (now THAT’s a law firm!), we might have gotten a result. It probably meant no King of the Backpass, Jogging MB 90. Robinson might not have been exposed, especially after Weah was on the left side (which is where he probably plays with CP 10). I like what I’ve seen of Adams, both with RBNY and the MNT. He’s fierce and you need guys like him and McKennie against an aggressive team like Colombia. Robinson needs more experience. Maybe next year (don’t see him making the bench yet for Everton) he gets a loan to either an EPL club or to a decent European first division league with lots of PT.

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    • Haha, I appreciate the optimism. The reality however is that we were completely dominated from start to finish. To be fair, Colombia is an elite, top-ten international side when they field their first team like they did last night. Most national teams would have been beaten badly by them. For 75% of the game, we were “chasing shadows” as the commentator said. They ruthlessly attacked our weak left side until they broke through. It was a nice moment when we came out in the second half and scored two really clinical counterattacking goals, but even those were against the run of play. Then Colombia turned it up a notch, and the gulf in talent was obvious. And I’m sorry, but Pulisic, McKennie, and co. would not have made a difference in the result. We have years before we have the talent and depth to truly compete with a team like that. If US Soccer truly cares about us having a winning team (and I’m not sure that they do), the best thing they could do is encourage more young players to go abroad early like Pulisic, McKennie, and Sargent. Then get MLS to loosen rules about its young talent making moves overseas and accept being a feeder league. Then hope in 3-4 years there is enough elite talent to pick from and build a 20 player roster. It will be a long haul, and that’s only if USSF gets it right now.

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  8. Pretty sure we plucked Antonee Robinson out of the oven before he was quite done. I still rate his upside reasonably well (and he did offer quality going forward a few times today), but I’d take issue with the idea that he is our clear, first choice LB. He’ll be the focus of any half-credible attacking team we face at this point…. hopefully he learned the lesson that great recovery speed won’t be good enough against top international sides. Experience should help. But I don’t see him as a starter right now, frankly. Too much liability.

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      • More than anything, it’s simply a position that I’d consider “up for grabs”, probably more than any other slot on the field. Against potent attacking teams, Robinson is a stone cold liability as a defender right now. Easily drawn out of position and lost at sea once it happens. It will be punished in more meaningful games than this.
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        If your question is different — i.e. “who would I want to see at left back if we had a must-win World Cup qualifier against Mexico tomorrow?” I’d probably rate Villafana in front of Robinson, as well as other veterans such as F. Johnson (who knows where he stands), and even Lichaj or a semi-converted option like Ream. But this is a different question entirely. Heck, Beasley would most certainly have been better out there today from a defensive perspective. Probably, we are going to have some band-aid solutions at this position…. veterans and better help from midfield. And hey, there are teams in CONCACAF that offer a lesser threat, where I would not worry so much about Robinson. But he’s a work in progress, to be polite.

      • I wonder if 3 CBs is the better option as well, then you still get Robinson’s attacking qualities but his liability at the back is lessened. The good news is we don’t have a meaningful match for eleven months (I don’t count the GC because typically the European guys are not available).

      • Hmmmm…. is that true re: Gold Cup? Historically, the 2019 Gold Cup would be the “on cycle” edition where the top nations have brought their A-teams (or something close) as an assessment of where their best sides stand early in the cycle. Admittedly 2015 was a bit of a disappointment in this regard (though the view at the time was that this was down to the Copa Centenario taking place the following summer). But 2011 and 2007 both involved the full “A” teams. Great tournaments, too. I was hoping for a good tournament this time, but admittedly times are changing.

      • GP: You might be on to something ’07 and ’11 were played in June (ending the 24th and 25th), the others since then have been in July. This year it runs from June 15 to July 7 so there is a chance but anyone fighting for a position would have to miss to keep a club spot.

      • You don’t play the who else game when someone gets roasted, not if you have a brain. You go try out replacements. This is multiple times now.

      • The USMNT is still searching for that player. at left wing who can button things down. Maybe the U-20 player Danillo Acosta currently with rsl can grow into it. Or looking younger. John Nelson currently at UNC.

    • It was like Robinson forgot everything about how to play defense. Continually out of position, beaten time and again on simple plays where he had poor position. Unless he improves considerably I agree that even Villafana is a better choice. He may not have the pace, but at least he knows how to play the position.Robinson was better playing against Costa and Brazil than tonight. I think we can forget Robinson for a couple of years, after which, hopefully he improves.

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      • Robinson is very raw and the more I think about it the stuff we were all excited about in the early powder puff games like Bolivia and Paraguay was if you think about it him hustling back to make some hard tackle to fix a screw up he had already made. I think I was glad someone was making those tackles for a change. I now see against a good team he is simply over his head.

        I think some rawness, but with defensive instincts, you can fix. But he is overrunning plays, or not stepping to the crosser, or flinching at fake crosses, like a high school player. This is well beyond the coaching up even Yedlin needed.

        I think they need to consider trying him as a left wing mid, cut the crap that he can defend, use the crossing, like FJ before him. But we should be rounding up 3 or so LBs and trying people out now because he can’t defend a decent team. This will not fly in CONCACAF.

      • Gomer: the thing is that the “youth movement focus” you are giving me crap on — my idea we should keep trying people out this fall — is basically taking seriously that a large set of individual players like Robinson haven’t really had to win from repeated good showings the starting positions they got handed. They often had 1 good game and then got handed the keys. If we’re pretending 1 good game is enough then how are they any better than the next guy.

        To me it’s a list of people, not just Robinson, the CBs, some of the mids, Novakovich. Players who played well once (or never) then haven’t showed much else. They should all be challenged for their positions, even if the result of the challenge is, hmm, Miazga isn’t great, but are the other CBs better. But at least that happens from knowledge and not omission.

        I also think it is risky to settle on starters, good or not, including the ones like Steffen we like, because you always need Plan B and Plan C. To me we are on about this backwards, first, you find 3 guys who can defend at LB. You don’t privilege one over the others or you don’t find all 3. Then, when you find a few people who can play the spot, ok, now I can decide which one starts. We have jumped the gun and now it’s who the heck plays LB. Right back where we started because it was all the eggs in one basket.

      • IV– I am not giving you crap about having a youth movement. I think pretty much everyone here wants to see that. I just think you have to have a prolonged look at guys in certain spots in order to know what they are (or are not) capable of. Giving a guy a couple of 30 minute cameos ain’t enough to get real data. If we did that, we’d probably think we a finished product right now in Robinson. That’s where I disagree with you (and apparently still do). But yes, I absolutely agree that handing out starting spots at this point is a lame idea.

      • Gomer: what you’re missing is Robinson’s extended runouts have basically single handedly crowded out any possible other choice. And he does this all over the field. Giving other people time than the obvious gives the others the chance to make a case, and then when you figure out someone fooled you, you have other options bedded in and at hand. As it is we basically drop back 15 and punt on LB and start from the beginning. So to me sharing the time out to various prospects at this stage pairs up with making sure the starter should start. It’s like tryout camps for club or HS teams. You don’t decide who starts now. You decide who gets cut. Later on we sort out which ones screw up too much and should go back in the pool with the culls. But if you cull down to one guy and figure out he’s a mistake there is no plan B and you wasted half a dozen friendlies on them.

    • The young man was left on his own a number of times without help from his midfield teammates. Colombia decided early on to attack by putting the ball out wide.

      This is much a coaching problem as Robinson’s. Sarachan should have seen this and adjusted the team to assist him. Robinson has been burned by Brazil and Colombia when he has been confronted by a pretty good offensive player and left on his own.

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      • I’ll give you that, I completely buy that if a player needs work, Sarachan is not the one to fix him. That he’s made basically the same mistakes over and over in a couple different games now sounds like as much of a coaching failure as a player problem. Usually if a player costs his team by making basic errors he is yanked. If he won’t or can’t correct he disappears. Robinson is rewarded by starting.

      • Ok don Lamb— I see you need this point to be addressed! Sure, Acosta might be a solution at LB. Definitely wouldn’t mind giving him a look vs Peru. After all, he has played LB at the U20 level and for much of his FCD time. But saying he’s definitely our best left back when he has never played LB against elite senior opposition….. isn’t that the same mistake we just made with Robinson?

      • Thank you, Gomer! Finally, someone willing to consider the conversation!! Acosta has proven to be a much better defender than Robinson even though he has done it from a different position. He doesn’t provide the service the Robinson provides, but he would be better in the build up and in possession.

      • If you want to try Acosta at LB, fine, this is the time in the cycle to try things.

        However, realistically, he needs to be playing the same spot in club, IMO, to handle it internationally.

      • Gomer: According to Transfermkt Acosta played LB twice for FC Dallas and not since 2015 and RB 11 times all in 2013. He was pretty awful there against Colombia in the U23 playoff as well. I’m ok giving it a try, but he hasn’t really had much success there.

  9. Colombia is better than us, I think most people knew that. Even with Pulisic, Adams, and McKennie they are better, but we might have had a chance. Sarachan tried a more offensive formation and we did score more, but we also gave up more chances. Robinson showed why he was loaned out by Everton. It was entertaining, James is just so good when he wants to be. Bring on Peru, should be a little more even of a match.

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    • Yes, Colombia is better. They were better in the Copa Sudamerica. they were better in the playoff for the Olympics. That being said, we played much better defense against Brazil and France. It was just a bad game all around on defense and that can’t all be blamed on the lack of Adams, Pulisic and McKennie.

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    • Agreed. They are a legitimate elite national team with James, Vacca, Quadrado, Mina, etc. They’re probably No. 2 in SA behind Brazil now that Argentina will be Messi-less going forward. I guess Chile and Uruguay are 3 & 4.

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  10. Can we put the “Robinson is the answer at left back” narrative to bed yet? Kellyn Acosta is the best left back we have available.

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    • Based on what? He has played there less than 10 times in his adult life and several of them were pretty unsuccessful. If it is like hey FJ is one of our 11 best so he needs a spot, sure but he rarely if ever starts there.

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    • Yeah that was kinda odd, huh? Seems like our guys were all gassed after 30 min mark in each half. Certainly the conditions were demanding, but most of these guys are in parts of the season where they are at or near peak fitness. Definitely noticeable, though hardly the only issue.

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  11. my two cents: overall, i think like this: what is the purpose of these games? to play the kids. to give as many kids minutes in a big as possible. A) this game didn’t matter. (okay, usa-mexico, pride is at stake. i didn’t fault sarachan for trying to win that one. do you guys? but this game clearly we did not need to win, yeah?) B) even with the injuries to cp and adams and mckennie, you still could have started other kids like nova or sargent. why start wood again? why start the same back four again? why not let horvath put in a shift in goal in a big game? if i were the coach AND I’M NOT i would have put all kids out today, and different kids and spread the minutes around. we’re not forming our gold cup team today, are we?

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  12. my notes:
    10 saief – big body, plays positive, dangerous, smart, skilled. thumbs up.
    23 acosta: [-] happy feet, nervous, gives ball away. [+] he’s young, he tries like hell. he needs time to develop. but not at colorado, though. he needs a euro club move in january, maybe?
    17 – i like this kid. works hard, tries like hell. did see him get burned by his columbian marker once or twice. he needs more time to develop.
    6 brooks – solid
    3 miazga – not sure. some emergency defending, but maybe that’s a team thing and not his fault? guys, what do you think?
    2 yedlin – i think he tried to go forward a few times and i think that’s good.
    12 steffen – solid i think
    16 green – good
    11 weah – good
    4 bradley – keep in mind that i am biased against this player today. because i didn’t want him here. so am i being objective? i thought bradley was just so-so. A) there was nothing special about his game today. everything he did a kid could have done and probably better. just short easy passes. B) as someone said here, who is bradley marking? i saw columbia dribble and play RIGHT PAST BRADLEY several times. he didn’t tackle today, did he? in fact, i saw at least once that another player possibly weah ran up from behind and made the tackle that bradley didn’t make. C) in the second half, which i thought was clearly the usa’s better half, bradley kind of disappeared. why and how? i will tell you. his usmnt teammates just stopped passing bradley the ball. all of those delicious sequences in the second half had nary a bradley touch on them. we got glimpses today of how great this team can and WILL be once a kid replaces bradley (no offense). okay, enough ripping on bradley. on the positive side, it looked like his behavior was better today. he didn’t appear to be ordering the kids around. that’s a little better. but i still don’t want him on the team.
    subs:
    sweat – making runs down the wing, asking for the ball. good.
    picault – crashing into area/late runner, trying to score. good.
    sargent – beating his man on the wing, laying ball in to picault. on the next play, tracked ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE BOX and blocked a columbia shot. thumbs way up.
    nova – not sure.

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    • sweat and picault were not….sweat is not facing the same quality winger in mls and will not be able to go to europe to get better, he’s too old…picault looked overwhelmed…out of his element, he lost the ball and did no work to get the ball back…..

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  13. Brazil, Ireland, etc. should already have done it but hopefully this game punctures any Sarachan/roster complacency. Obviously a lot more work to do on tactics, selection, the defense is a mess.

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    • Yes, we should have called in that guy that starts for Arsenal, the guy who comes off the bench for Atletico, and the guy who plays for Chelsea. Oh, wait they don’t exist. Yes, if Sarachan was leaving off guys that were making starts in top leagues for quality teams (sorry Alfredo, Dusseldorf is a bad squad) you’d have a point. The guys left off are average MLS players and guys who are on reserve clubs in Europe. The guys that killed us for Colombia, play for Monaco, Bayern, Juventus, and Villareal, we don’t have that kind of talent, especially with Pulisic and McKennie out. Bacca had 15 goals in La Liga last year and 31 the two previous years in Serie A. Falcao had 39 goals the past two seasons in Ligue 1, Tim Weah has 1. Colombia won because they have more talented players, they destroyed our LB who plays in the Championship. Did you want to play our 16-year-old MLSer with 2 professional starts, that’s your solution or the guy that couldn’t make it in Liga Mx?

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      • It’s more simple than the goofiness you’re trying to make it sound like. We turned Robinson into a starter even after Brazil. We have built around Miazga and Brooks despite demonstrated screw ups. Bradley just played 90. It doesn’t have to be playing for Arsenal. It just has to be better than THAT. The problem is getting way too complacent about underproven players way too fast. Someone I know mentioned Chandler. Chandler was awesome for like one game. We have forgotten it works that way and started settling on kids not just as roster players but incumbent starters way too fast.

      • It doesn’t matter if Dusseldorf is a bad squad, Morales is playing against top competition every week and it’s not like they’re getting destroyed every game (just the last one). Just by watching him you can see that he has more quality than most of our CMs and should be at least given a look.

      • Shaggie: see my issue is performance on the field should be winning out and it shouldn’t be about the name on your club jersey and paycheck, which is a weak proxy when I can run you out there for real and see for myself.

        To me we started up with this snobbery BS under Klinsi where team name matters too much. To me it’s lazy. Call in the player and watch. Our best keeper may be on the Crew. Our best forward might be in Germany. Assuming one league makes you better than the other just confuses things.

  14. What’s embarrassing is that noone comes to this site anymore. Two – three years ago the live commentary was quality and the comments section was full of good stuff. Goal hiring Ives ruined this site. I am sure Ives is making more so good for him but i miss the old days

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    • Yeah it’s definitely a different and less vibrant place, no doubt. Seems like it’s down to about 10-15 regulars in the comments section (with others occasionally chiming in and disappearing), and it this point everybody knows where everybody stands on pretty much any topic. Feels more toxic than entertaining or stimulating. I retain hope that this is due to a very long spell of minimal to zero competitive action, and an obvious downturn in the fortunes of the team.
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      Not sure I agree entirely that the decline in activity on the site is simply down to Ives focusing his attentions elsewhere. Technology and information consumption trends are sadly leaving sites like this further and further behind. Unfortunately there are other forums that where US fans express their geeked out opinions that are more efficiently structured and (for better or worse) more appealing to new/young fans of the game (reddit, etc). Much as I enjoy it, it’s becoming clear that “comments sections” of specialized websites are not going to have much of a place in forum-based discussion in the future. Perhaps we are dinosaurs.
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      Anyway I’m not planning on abandoning this place just yet. But I do with it was less toxic and negative.

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    • the good ones have gone and so have the bad ones. like the usmnt, we have a chance to have our own “reboot” of sorts here at sbi. more focused on mls and soccer in the usa. more friendly to canada and mexico. the old sbi site was hard core euro fans and hated mexico and disrespected canada. so in summary i like the new sbi we’re creating here every day with our participation. i think the new sbi generation of commenters is going to be by far the best one!

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    • Byrdman nailed it. Same (usually negative) perspectives shared by the same posters over and over. Generally seems like a competition to pick apart the players, coaches, and/or federation — as if a critical perspective has to focus on criticism.

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  15. Michael Bradley completely lost his man really bad on the 3rd goal and multiple other plays. Like a 99- year old. Is this a send- off game for him? because he sucks so bad its embarrassing.

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    • Bradley definitely fell asleep on that play, but only because he was so astounded at how badly Robinson was manhandled. Other than that one play, Bradley was very good. Any other take on his performance is clearly clouded with an unhealthy distaste for Bradley.

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      • I thought Bradley played well in the first half, allowing Acosta to go forward, interrupting Colombia passes, etc. Bradley faded badly in the second half, and looked completely disinterested in closing down the winger on the third goal; and didn’t do anything to raise his level at the end of the friendly.

        I think Bradley has too many miles on his legs. He played hard, often and ran a lot of miles in his day. I just don’t think anyone (us, USMNT, Toronto) should count on Bradley having the same motor as he did 4-5 years ago.

      • Well, he let Falcao (32 years old with bad knees) fly past him to score the 3rd goal, and then a few minutes later let Quintero dance around him and bang one off the post. On Falcao’s goal, Brooks was caught upfield; Bradley should have been covering for Brooks. Instead, Falcao sprinted past Bradley into the center of our defense, which was wide open. I don’t have a distaste for Bradley, I just don’t think he should be an automatic starter or a guy who never gets subbed off.
        I’d like to know what Sarachan would have done if Adams and McKennie were available; that’s 5 players for 3 central midfield spots.

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