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England cruises past USMNT in Rooney’s farewell

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England overwhelmed the U.S. Men’s National Team in the first half at Wembley Stadium to take a 3-0 friendly victory on Thursday.

Jesse Lingard and Trent Alexander-Arnold scored during a three-minute stint in the first half and Three Lions debutante Calum Wilson added a third in the second half on a night in which Wayne Rooney was honored in his last international appearance.

Gareth Southgate’s men looked like the better side from the opening whistle, as the USMNT failed to keep up with the talent of the Three Lions and also struggled to put together a string of passes in the build up into the England half.

Lingard’s opener was a piece of individual brilliance, as he sent the ball into the right side of the net from wide-open space on the left side of the penalty area in the 25th minute.

Two minutes later, Alexander-Arnold scored his first international goal on an overlapping run into the right side of the penalty area.

The USMNT looked better in spurts during the second half, but it was never good enough to deal with the challenges presented by the English side stocked with Premier League talent.

In the 77th minute, Wilson added to England’s tally with his first goal in a Three Lions shirt, as he headed home past USMNT goalkeeper Brad Guzan.

The USMNT returns to the field for the final time in 2018 on Tuesday to play Italy at a neutral site in Belgium.

Comments

  1. Yikes that’s the best team we can put together? Hope the new guy does a better job than the “holding” manager or maybe Ernie is considering him for the job. Who knows? Just awful, no possession ,no finishing ,no passion.

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    • system: hire a coach. players: do what i have suggested and run the games more like tryouts. we’re still spinning in the same negative cycle of “playing to win” with people who can’t win the last game we approached in a results driven fashion. maybe instead of thinking games will flower players, keep going out looking for more of them. i don’t get the complacency. i think it’s a team used to winning that can’t change its mentality to a rebuilding phase. we didn’t just miss out, we ran off 3/4 of that team for age, retirement, or quality.

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  2. Im just pissed at the team and am blaming Sarachan and Ernie. We are not that bad but if we don’t get Sarachan out of there FAST, we can’t start progressing. Green, Trapp, Guzan, Wood….over and over and there is no reason.

    I am beginning to think the coach will be Tab. If it was Berhalter, why is he waiting??

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    • think it’s quite fair to blame sarachan since we routinely run out lousy for a half of scheme and players and then fix it at halftime. once happens. regularly is poor coaching. i also think we are “playing to win” — and not really doing it — when the emphasis should be on talent scouting.

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  3. What Im most upset about is that Sarachan is STILL bungling these games. Wrong players picked, wrong players playing and time goes on. Friggin Ernie…. If you’re not going to announce the new coach …QUIT! We’re wasting time while you diddle around. Send that clown and his staff of minor league players packing NOW

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    • What players should have been picked of those who are available who weren’t? The fact is, we’re a couple of years away from this new stable of players really being ready. Let’s hope that they (or at least most) are in good places that will push them and challenge them in good first team situations.

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      • the performance level of this bunch self-refutes your argument. i think if you pay attention the backs are routinely poor and when we do play well they don’t come back. i think if you pay attention we tend to improve when certain mid subs hit the field. i think there are obvious names like amon who showed well then disappeared again. i think the fact amon exists suggests we might be missing others. i have provided a list. the depressives don’t like these players but don’t like my list either.

    • i had this crazy idea that if we are going to take this long we should be letting the candidates tell sarachan who to field and how to formation them up. give them each a half. if the team looks much better with one coach’s ideas, hire him.

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      • a normal team wouldn’t do this because they would take 3 weeks to hire someone. but if we’re going to take, depending on your timeframe, 3-1/2 months (GM) or 13 months (post Arena), hell, get creative. in 3-1/2 months we could have tested 6-12 coaches’ ideas objectively by having our own team try them. instead of having coaches bs us we see what works.

  4. Biggest disappointments were Brooks and Green. The USA looked much better and more energized once Green left the game. Brooks looked exposed for much of the game and a bit disinterested. Villafana was outclassed, but he has already reached his ceiling anyway.

    Trapp played better than I expected considering the level of competition. His distribution skills are his strength, but it was good to see him win a few challenges and tackles. Although it was a short period of time, it was good to see the dynamic building up with Pulisic and the other young midfielders. There is a lot to build on in 2019.

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  5. I guess no one looked at Miazga’s horrendous first half. He needs to be closer on his man especially when in the penalty box. He does this all the time game after game. It is as if some coach told him to play this way. That first goal is his fault more than anyone else. He retreated when he should have stepped up and marked closer to stop or block the shot from Lingard.

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    • i keep pointing out how bad the backs are, as a former defender, and i get shushed by people telling me how pretty they pass or cross, or that they need time to gel, or the like. to me you either have the knack for the job or not. no one we played last night could defend on an island to save their life.

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  6. Don’t understand how anyone can think that Green can play at this level much less start. Excuses can be made for the kids but he is not anymore and simply doesn’t have the pace.

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  7. Let’s face it… this team needs Carleton asap. It needs Sargent. It needs players like Scally, Bello, Soto, Pomykal, Llanez, Busio, Reyna, de la Fuente, Durkin, Weah, Amon, etc. to be just a couple of years away from being top notch pros and ready to take the step to the national team like Pulisic, McKennie, and Adams have done. It needs guys like Akale, Gall, and Wright to continue developing. And you’re damn right, it needs Bradley, Altidore, and Nagbe too.

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      • They are not only necessary, they are needed — especially in the short term. Almost all of the players that I mentioned are still not even first team regulars. I think they will all get there, but then it is a matter of excelling and continuing to develop.

        Bradley, Altidore, and Nagbe are some of the best we have at the moment. You could pretty easily argue that Bradley is dispensable now thanks to others who have emerged, but Nagbe and Altidore are still unquestionably in the 18.

    • i would agree with you and have supplied my own lists on here before. i think this is going to be an iterative process of a few U20 classes and i think people thinking this is the end game lineup are clueless. since it’s not the end game we should have everyone under selection pressure and demand performance. if not, maybe not now, but maybe in a year or two, the new crop gets to try out for their jobs. i think over about 5 years it will be an accumulation of the best of the U20 classes. it may surprise some people which particular ones stick or disappear and one of the biggest dangers right now would be turning this team into some veteran incumbent proxy that has long term dibs without results or performance. some of them may grow into better players. but the message of the last half dozen games in terms of present performance should be crystal.

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  8. Why was an old, Premier League has-been starting in goal? Give the younger guys some experience. We already know Guzman is really good at giving the ball right back to the opposition.

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  9. I guess you have to keep the circle jerk going somehow but he played like somebody that knows his position on the field is safe for the rest of his life.
    Bradly-Altidore Mode.

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  10. Pathetic is the only word that keeps coming to me. We made England look like they were from another planet. Tyler Adams was kept out except for 30 minutes at the end. He and Pulisic were the only players that looked like they belonged in the pitch with the likes of England.

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  11. Little good to like about this game. The best I can come up with is that the second half wasn’t as bad as the first. Besides the points I made during the in-game commentary, another thing that struck me is that the US players should be tougher. What Klinsmann said several years ago is even more true now. They need to get a little nasty. How many fouls did the US give up? How many times did an England player end up on his backside? The English players probably are treated much rougher in an intra squad scrimmage. They had lots of time to pick out passes, run off the b all and get open and pretty much do whatever they wanted. Additionally, I have suggested that Alvarado needs to get another opportunity. This game only strengthens my belief. I think John Brooks may be the most over rated US player we have. While he did well at times and had a couple of good interventions, too many times he gets beat. Too many times he puts his teammates in bad situations because he doesn’t hustle. Sometimes he just looks lazy. On one long ball he got beat and then he just gave up on the play and left Miazga to deal with the situation. A pretty poor performance all around.

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  12. It drives me nuts how far off the opponents the US players stand. It’s one thing to try and close off the passing lanes, but it doesn’t matter if you are giving the guy on the ball time to pick out his pass. I’m sick of our guys standing 10′ off the man with the ball as they dribble up field unchallenged and our players just back up even more.

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    • my impression the interior mids are not athletic enough to cover ground or close down fast enough. so you watch a halfhearted game of chase like lazy players playing 5 on 1 before a game.

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  13. Not suprising. Some of my takeaways:

    -Trapp is growing into the holding mid role. Yes- he’s not that good yet at international level, but he is and will be a decent upgrade to 2014+ Bradley (not saying much).
    -Villafana is a good passer, but should not be on the field against quality opponents like England. Too slow and unathletic to keep up.
    -Pulisic has the quality to produce some magic moments mainly with his passes, but none of the other attacking players look dangerous. Green is also capable. Thats it.
    -Weah is overhyped. Not the best decision making and looks clearly inferior when playing against quality players.

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    • In a game like this with Weah not getting the ball that much and when he did it was in terrible spots with no space what do u expect he is 18. CP was good but feel for the dude he tried a lil to much and gave away the ball a few times. Mckennie I thought was a bright spot and Green wasn’t bad but Trapp other than one tackle and villafana were wasteful.

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