Comments

1. Tim Ream and Anthony Robinson were on fire against Manchester United. They completely shut down the right side of the pitch, not to mention:
   1) Ream almost scored if it wasn’t for the reflex heroics of David de Gea
   2) Jedi stole the ball from Fernandez, passed the ball up the wing that lead to the goal.
   If only GB could incorporate the EPL and youth level partnerships as the main core of the team against England (in a 4-2-3-1 system!!!!!)
   –
   —————————Wright——————————-
   –
   Weah——————-Aaronson*—————–Pulisic***
   –
   ———–McKennie***——————-Adams*————-
   –
   Jedi**————-Ream**———–Zimmerman——-Dest
   –
   ——————————Turner——————————
   –
   McKennie: CM / DM /RM
   Pulisic: RW / ACM / LW
   Haji Wright: CF / RW / LW
   Reyna: AM / RW / LW
   Aaronson: AM / CM / LM
   Aaronson and Adams gave Tottenham a really really REALLY hard Time
   Jedi and Ream more than held their own against Manchester United
   Pulisic, Wright and McKennie played together extensively at youth level
   –
   So there it is problem solved ……USMNT 2 vs England 1…….lol

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   • Would rather see CCV and Ream CB pairing starting against England, maybe sub Zimmerman on later in the match. I want Zimmerman rested for that Iran game, so he can start. I wished our CB’s had more chemistry being use to playing with one another.

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   • that’s a fib. they lost the game and ream got “back doored” by eriksen on the first goal. can you folks quit pretending being in EPL and playing ManU or the like every week means they games go right and they play well?

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   • Hahahaha…..can some people stop acting like it’s easy to get REGULAR PLAYING TIME in the EPL and that in the league if YOU are not good enough or you are not doing your job day in day out YOU DONT PLAY….

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     • sorry but i am not elevating the level of play at which one screws up over the fact i watched them screw up, put differently, england will definitely be a bunch of EPL and to hear GB so will wales. so if you have a run of bad days against EPL not sure how the fact you are EPL yourself sells you are the giant killer we need.

       for that matter, miazga is CFC property, long had his tires kicked by west ham, we don’t have a ton of big club stars, some of who is there and who is here or in some second tier european league is closer to a choice or luck rather than the hierarchical sorting mechanism some snobs seem to think exists. eddie johnson was once at fulham and cardiff, let that one sink in.

2. No more injuries, it was a good weekend.
   (Though Dest didn’t make the 18)

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   • Big left toe fatigue. Should heal fine on the plane to Qatar.

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3. For the “only Berhalter would bring too few players” crowd. Iran only is bringing 25 including 4 GKs.

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   • Iran doesn’t have as big a player pool as the USA.

     There are 23 outfield players and 10 + 5 available for every game. depending on rotation practices, injuries, cards, lousy play, that means it’s possible as many as 8 outfield players may not get even one minute in Qatar.

     Try this, go through every country’s roster that you are familiar with and figure out the three players who would NOT have made it had it been 23 instead of 26.

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     • Can you imagine if Gregg had brought only 21 field players? Iran doesn’t have one 18-21 yr old to bring along for the experience? I’m poking at the “only the US” would do this crowd, but you can’t tell me there wasn’t one more guy Iran couldn’t have brought along.

     • So Johnnyrazor we are comparing ourselves to Iran now…..is that what I smell you stepping in lol??? Please tell me WE ALL have higher expectations and aspirations than Iran and what they are doing….(like we should only worry about what Germany, England, Belgium, Hungary, France etc. are up to) lol. Just checking……

     • JR,

       “you can’t tell me there wasn’t one more guy Iran couldn’t have brought along.”

       Sure I can.

       Before they brought Quieroz back. there was a pretty serious rift in that team. I’m not sure, but it’s possible Quieroz left the Cameron-esque “bad eggs” back home. The USMNT is not the only team with perceived “bad eggs” that must be culled from the roster. This matters because there happens to be this tense little political situation going on in Iran. Lots of people getting killed. I’m guessing they are trying to keep a real low profile.

       Queiroz is a very good, very experienced manager and if he’s comfortable with one less guy who might not have played anyway, I’d trust his judgement. On a 26 man roster there could be as many as 6 outfield players who might never see one minute.

       Also we don’t know how much money these guys have. This is Iran not the big pockets USMNT who can fly Lletget over to Europe to play the fake 9 position at the last minute almost on a lark.

       In 2018 Croatian manager Dalic sent backup striker Kalinic home after the FIRST group game vs Nigeria. He refused to come on as a late sub. So Croatia played most of the World Cup with a 22 man roster and made it all the way to the final where they lost to France.

       Dalic and Quieroz are very experienced managers who managed experienced settled teams. They have the advantage over Gregg of probably knowing their respective rosters much better than he knows his.

       Also not everyone thinks like American fans do and believes that there is some good to be had by taking some wonder kid ( do they have one?) and letting him rot on the bench in Qatar.

       If they have such a kid they are more likely to let him develop normally and play him in the Under 20’s.

       Or better yet, if he was a budding superstar like Messi, Paxton Aaronson, CR7 or Caden Clark, they would bring him to Qatar and PLAY him.

       Australia just picked 18 year old Garang Kuol, who has yet to start a single professional league game but apparently is going to be used as instant offense off the bench. He’ll be with Newcastle in January.

       In the World Cup, if you are good enough , you are old enough.

   • you’re confusing my argument. my complaint is the depth of players called into camp to get ready, test, and populate the roster, not that in this case he would literally call too few. my argument was clear — that his error was not giving himself injury contingencies or choices. as it stands he rostered a few players with knocks, and his roster process tended to reflect decisions already made, as opposed to a camp with competition. which to me is odd for mr. form — to not have people in camp and compare form — but his history says he prefers abstracted club game spreadsheets to watching what happens in camp or his NT games. to me if i like x and y and they seem similar quality camp is the place to decide that. not the statisticians’ or accountants’ offices.

     btw you seem to be pretending the roster attrition in WCQ didn’t happen but he’d start out fewer in the traveling party than other teams and end up down to 23 or so and sometimes not do a thing about it. i am not imagining things. can we debate in terms of reality?

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4. Tim Ream needs to start. Showed again today with his good performance against Man U. Robinson shut down his side pretty well too.

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   • Ream looked excellent today and only an excellent stop from de Gea stopped ream from scoring.

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   • did y’all watch a different game on a special TV? they lost 2-1 and he was part of the reason for at least goal 1. this is why the UCL fanboys should not be within shouting range of roster decisions.

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     • After reading your comments, I looked at the Eriksen goal. It’s hard to blame Ream for that one. Yes, Eriksen got free on the far post, but there were two other Man U players in front of goal who were unmarked. Ream went to them, leaving Eriksen free. Had he backed up to cover Eriksen, the two guys in a more dangerous position would have been wide open, and if one of them had scored, you’d be killing Ream for not covering them.

       It’s easy to say this in retrospect, but if you want to hand out fault on that goal, it should probably go to the 3 Fulham players who tried to pressure the ball, leaving Ream with the impossible job of trying to cover 3 Man U attackers.

     • sorry but yes it is easy to blame ream for this. defending 101 is stay with your man and stay goal side. defending 201 is watch your blind spot. he didn’t stay with his man or goal side. he got beat in his blind spot by ball watching. yedlin has historically had the same problem and it has cost us about 3 results, eg peru.

       to me this is about how attackers think vs how defenders are taught. i played defense. letting your man sneak behind you weak side is a no no.

5. Weah at RB for Lille the past two games. He has actually looked pretty good there.

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   • I heard he was actually not very good today. Would have been responsible for a goal if another player involved in the play had stayed on side.

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     • I watched the game. He was pretty decent. Not that I am saying he will be a RB in the future, but clearly Lille are experimenting with him.

   • I think the USMNT has enough RBs (Dest, Scally, Yedlin, Moore) that we don’t need to consider Weah. If you’re still considering Weah as a RB than clearly Gregg made poor choices in his roster selections.

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     • Don’t think I was calling for Weah to be considered as a RB. I still think Weah needs to be on the Wing or in a two striker system. I think Lille is either experimenting with him or there RB depth is lacking.

     • i don’t think we have very many excellent backs at all. right now it’s a bit ramshackle beyond miles who is out and god knows how he comes back. if some good backs broke in or some of these guys like scally matured i wouldn’t lose a wink of sleep if this backline got churned. and that includes this whole bunch of euro based backs who can’t mark but people like their offense.

       i think weah would be an excellent wingback but it would badly weaken one key part of the offense that’s working so i wouldn’t mess with it now.

       bigger picture i am concerned that for a team with very mediocre results the US fans act like this is one of the old round of 16 teams in terms of lineup inertia. nothing about our current results says we have found a lineup for a decade. if a better player shows up tomorrow…….and we’re one of those teams with U20s always coming up……

     • IV-

       Just speaking out loud, if you play Weah as a right back that lets you start Aaronson at right wing, and use Dest as a sub at both right and left back.

       You’d still have one of Pulisic/Gio to bring off the bench on the wing depending on which one of them you wanted to start.

       Aaronson’s tendency is to drift inside anyhow, which would open up a ton of space for Weah to get forward.

       My thing is, I just do not want to waste Aaronson on the bench, period. He has to be in your 11. He’s extremely technical and tenacious, and has arguably the best set of iron lungs on the team. Aaronson’s a guy you have to get on the field for as many minutes as he has legs…which is going to be a lot. Similarly, I really don’t want to lose the stress that Weah’s raw speed puts on defenders, or his willingness to shoot from distance with either foot, and he can still do all that from right back. This gets you both.

       I’d personally try it against Wales and see how it’s working. Weah would not exactly be replacing a defensive stalwart at RB anyhow. Dest certainly isn’t one.

     • i don’t view things independent of tactics. i think we need players who pose a matchup advantage in a system and who are good 90′ types. if we want off our end we need wide speed. i see that as weah. i also think he was one of the few players who could break down a defense as WCQ progressed. i feel like aaronson is somewhat technical but not exceptionally so which will make it harder for him to be effective in the world cup proper. i think he is good and sneaky and productive but that to me is a sub resume. i think about every other start he just disappears. so i am not shipping weah back to get him on the field. i want brenden as the supersub. personally i’d give that role to him and weston — who is sloppy but scores. i don’t see this regime having the guts. they either haven’t figured out the central mids are the reason we can’t possess or have decided to overlook it.

       hmmmm. that’s what my eyes see. now if you look at the numbers, minutes per WCQ goal (which i see as the closest US proxy for world cup level competition), it’s pulisic reyna aaronson weah morris, in that order. the problem with that is when i’ve seen us try that in games i don’t see us escape our own end very easily.

     • “I think the USMNT has enough RBs”

       I remember hearing that about the CB position, about the #6 position, etc.,etc..

       For this time if you think we have too many RB’s just wait a minute.

       You can never have enough.

     • quozzel,

       “My thing is, I just do not want to waste Aaronson on the bench, period. He has to be in your 11.”

       If Brenden is as good as you think then why are you worried about Weah possibly being a right back? If Timo blossoms there he could make Brenden’s job easier.

       Right now the USMNT does not have one single top of the line defender.

       Potential is one thing, actually being worth a fuck is another thing

       Dest was not considered that by Barca and was thus moved on to Milan where if you notice, he hasn’t exactly made right back his very own.

       We already know how mediocre our center back pool is .

       Jedi is the most established of our defenders but he’s not top of the line just yet and we have nothing behind him. Scally is just okay and Cannon is a very nice person. DeAndre is an experienced World Cup vet.

       And Gregg is not what I would call an organizer of solid defenses. So is it the manager or is it the players?

       Regardless, if Timo becomes a great right back, all the better. some one else can play the wing