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Pulisic, Bradley won’t play vs. Venezuela

Christian Pulisic and Michael Bradley will not play any part in the U.S. Men’s National Team’s friendly against Venezuela.

Gregg Berhalter confirmed the decision at training on Saturday as the team headed through its final session before the match.

Pulisic arrived in camp on Friday for his only training session with the team so far, while Bradley has been nursing a hamstring injury. Although the injury, Bradley has trained with the team this camp.

“With Christian, it’s that he just got into camp,” Berhalter said. “We’re building him up in the same way that we built up Weston [McKennie] and other guys that arrived at a later date into camp.”

Berhalter also confirmed that striker Jozy Altidore will play a role in the match, but wouldn’t go the full 90 minutes. Defender Aaron Long is also available after dealing with injury and newcomer Tyler Boyd will see limited minutes.

“We’re going to continue to progress this group,” Berhalter said. “You will see a more representative [team] of what could be a potential lineup. We know we’re still missing some players, and that’s fine. The whole idea of these two games was to build the team.”

“We came in with an Olympic/national team group. We transitioned into more of a national team group, and now we’re getting more of the Gold Cup group prepared. It’s not going to be our end lineup, but you have to deal with these things as they come.”

Venezuela comes into this friendly following a 3-1 loss to Mexico in Atlanta. The Conmebol side is also preparing for a summer tournament of their own, the 2019 Copa America.

Like Jamaica, Venezuela will provide a good test for the USMNT ahead of the Gold Cup. La Vinotinto has the likes of Salomon Rondon and Josef Martinez to choose from in attack.

“Whereas Jamaica gave us the physicality and the counterattacking, Venezuela has a very good striker, good wingers as well, so they do have transition and they’ll high press at times,” Berhalter said. “So it’s another good challenge, something to prepare us for the Gold Cup.”

The match kicks off on Sunday at 2 p.m. EST.

Comments

  1. I know, this article is about CP, but I think this speaks on the bigger picture. USSF election happens(February ‘18), then the GM position was created, which took awhile to fill. GM mentioned the coaching search would start in August. Berhalter hired @ the end of MLS season (December). If he’s hired in August, GB has more time with European/Liga MX players & January camp can be used (like always) for the integration of US based players. March friendlys can be used for the whole team. This is collateral damage from a late coaching hire. #Uughh!

    Reply
    • I agree.
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      I’m gonna avoid commenting on the match, but there’s something that’s been eating at me for a bit here.
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      How does anyone think prepping for a tournament, where you are up against the clock trying to implement a system, can be done by not having guys in camp as early as possible and available to play?
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      What should have happened here is that they should have scheduled a third friendly (just before the FIFA Window circa 6/1) and used that as the “litmus test” for fringe guys, then played two more matches with as close to the full expected starting 11 as possible. At some point we have to build chemistry here if GB’s system is even gonna have a shot to work.
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      Instead, your two most important players are late arrivals (I get CP has some transfer business to attend to, but he still didn’t arrive until the 6th), and given the position he’s expected to play, Tyler Adams inexplicably not arriving until the 11th has put this team way behind the 8-Ball. Now, they have to use the group stage of the tournament to come together…and, oh, btw, with no third-place teams advancing there is no margin for error.
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      The long-term effects of choosing to make money with some big-name friendlies instead of hiring a coach and getting down to brass tacks in the aftermath of WC 2018 continue to fester. The USSF is something else.
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      Heaven help us as fans. Hope you have patience, you’re gonna need it.

      Reply
  2. Take a step back and think about this: It’s been 2 years since IT happened. If you wrote down Pros and Cons on a piece of paper, of where we are after 2 years, what does your result look like? Despite the rise of some young talented players, I’m not at all optimistic about what I see… And I don’t see enough that jumps out at me on the Pros side to overcompensate for the longer list of Cons..

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    • I totally agree. If anything, we have regressed. Nothing excites me about this team and we continue to experiment and aren’t developing any sort of consistency in playstyle, lineup, or tactics and we are not far from WCQ. Steffen is the only talented individual that gets consistent playtime. I know Adams, McKennie, Brooks, Yedlin, and Pulisic all have had their injuries, but it feels like we have not improved at all….

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  3. I’m getting a little tired of how much we “baby” Pulisic. He is a young player aspiring to be a great USMNT player. He ain’t done shit yet (yeah yeah, he was our best player in a failed qualification effort…. whoop dee doo. He also lost his chair at Dortmund and has little excuse to be “tired”). Is he very talented? Yes of course, I think we’ve all seen enough to say that.
    But let’s cut the crap. This kid needs to man up and play 90 consistently at some point, like all the players he is trying to emulate (Donovan, Dempsey, etc.) did. His resume remains heavy on potential, light on achievement. TIme to clock in, kid.

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    • Gomer he has clocked in its Berhalter who is holding him back. He needs to integrate with the team according to Gregg yet Boyd who is a complete newcomer will at least see minutes. Getting tired of Berhalter already. Klinnsmann was irritating with constant lineup changes and here we are with a coach who is still gingerly shuffling players trying to find the right combo. Start a group and give it some time. At least run out the best players ahead of the tournament how else will the get used to playing with each other. Sara Chan at least had the tugging balls to field a young squad and let them grow. Maybe Gregg could look to Tab for some ideas. The 20’s today looked good and played attractive soccer even though they lost they easily could have won. Hope Berhalter makes it work but if the Gold Cup is a failure I hope Cordeiro will serve notice that Gregg must obtain results. Feels like the Nats are still spinning wheels.

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  4. It is odd that Bradley’s injury dictated the inclusion of Trapp and thus the exclusion of Sargent (it is a game of numbers). Also Long’s injury means that Gonzales, Miazga and Ream are all possible CBs. Without either of those injuries, I suspect Sargent would be on the squad.

    Reply
  5. Well, it’s a good thing that our first couple of GC games are against a couple of weak teams. I can understand where Berhalter is coming from, but in another setting, building this slowly wouldn’t be good enough.

    Reply

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