AL RAYYAN, Qatar — The U.S. men’s national team went into the halftime break of Monday’s World Cup opener with Wales feeling confident after an impressive first-half performance, but ultimately paid the price for not doing more with that 45 minutes of control.
Gareth Bale converted a second-half penalty kick drawn by a Walker Zimmerman foul, negating an excellent Tim Weah goal in the first half of an eventual 1-1 draw in the Group B opener for both teams.
The Americans came into the match as the lesser-experienced team, but didn’t show it, dominating possession and keeping the Welsh on their heels for much of the first half.
That control failed to yield dividends until the 36th minute, when Christian Pulisic sprang Weah with a perfect pass that the Lille winger finished expertly with a right-footed finish.
Wales enjoyed a better second half thanks in part to the introduction of Kieffer Moore, who replaced Daniel James at halftime and helped give the Welsh more of a presence in the attack.
The Americans never did regain control of the match as Wales pressed for an equalizer. Matt Turner stepped up with an excellent save on the first dangerous Welsh chance, in the 64th minute.
The USMNT made a triple substitution in the 74th minute in an attempt to hold on to the lead, with Haji Wright, DeAndre Yedlin and Kellyn Acosta replacing Yunus Musah, Josh Sargent and Sergino Dest, joining Brenden Aaronson, who came on for Weston McKennie in the 66th minute.
Wales finally broke though in the 82nd minute when Zimmerman fouled Bale in the penalty area to draw a penalty foul. The LAFC star blasted home the penalty attempt to tie the match and give Wales control of the proceedings.
The Americans held on for the point, but not without some drama as nine minutes of second-half stoppage time extended the match, and Bale nearly had a chance to play the late hero when Matt Turner was caught far off his line with Bale gaining possession near the midfield stripe. Kellyn Acosta thwarted the threat by fouling his LAFC teammate in what wound up being the final play of the match.
The Americans will now turn their attention to facing England on Friday, with the English having posted a dominant 6-2 win over Iran. Wales will take on Iran with a chance to put up a win that puts pressure on the USMNT, which finishes group play next week against Iran.
since i feel like people need a corrective how a US roster is actually populated:
MLS 9
EPL 6
C’Ship 2
La Liga 2
Serie A 2
B.1 2
SPL 1
Super Lig (Turkey) 1
Ligue 1 1
England in the Brexit era is “European” only in some sort of vague UEFA sense. You only get to Euro-roster dominance in an aggregate, no one country is matching what MLS contributes. As long as there are number limits or work permits that will either not change or lag us turning so much into Brazil everyone wants an American.
So that’s 17 from the US or England, 18 from US or UK if you add in SPL. Given some of the cuts one could actually debate if we were harsh on Holland and Germany. Some of the strikers people wanted were MLS. Did Cohen being in Israel hurt him?
The arguments on this are oversimplified and generally involve aggregating various leagues across thousands of miles against a single American league. They also ignore that for every Roldan people think didn’t deserve it, Zimmermann was going to make this roster. That and this analysis ignores people who “graduated” from MLS, which is 2/3 of the EPL. Most of them were being capped before their move which is how they even got the permits in the first place. Or do people consider how hard it is to get in England for soccer.
IV,
do you just copy and paste something from somewhere AND HOPE it fits the topic? Like, sometimes I really don’t get your posts, or where you are going with your logic.
the breakdown is my work. and there are people in the Guardian newspaper and this thread below complaining a MLS player gave up the kick ignoring a MLS player won and took the kick. our captain is former MLS. i feel like klinsi uncorked this stupid club snobbery and it needs back in the bottle. this team will get good when tactics aren’t picked to make the fashion police happy and selections aren’t made based on your address but how you handle your caps. zimmermann is MLS’ reigning defender of the year, could transfer over tomorrow, and pretending his dumb tackle has anything to do with MLS is silly.
this is already too much like the coach picked a fanboy all star team and ripping on any MLS mistake doesn’t make that any better. brooks or miazga wouldn’t have been in that forward’s zip code with their marking approaches.
In the UK we have to get a work permit that generally thins our contingent out to established stars (who meet the NT cap % quota) and UK/EU second passports/dual nationals. Can you imagine how many Americans would be all across England’s lower divisions — and not just Gooch –if it was either no restrictions or even a number limit. Wrexham would go sign a couple.
MX, Germany, Italy, and Spain have numerical limits and you may be expected to know the language. Germany seems to appreciate our players but then the NT under GB seems skeptical of low B.1 production (Green, Pefok) or being in their second or third division (despite our affection for C’ship players). So it’s not without peril. Outside American owned Venezia and our very best (Bradley, Weston) we seem to struggle to get jobs in Italy, or to play in Spain. Not sure what our deal is in Ligue 1 but their interest in our coaches and players is intermittent and only dual nationals seem to hold down long term jobs there.
I’d argue most of Portugal, Holland, Denmark, Scandi, SPL, Belgium, or Turkey are actually weaker than MLS.
Also, the soap operas on multiple positions typically involved players making the team after struggling to play in an elite country, either doing a loan down a division, moving someplace easier, or moving to MLS to get playing time. Pefok in the B.1 loses out to Sargent who goes from B.1 to the English second, and Wright who went from B.1 to Holland to Turkey.
Everyone knows by now we don’t have a Plan B when we’re chasing a goal after Wales equalized. A guy like Pefok with NFL size and speed sure looks useful at the end of those crosses.
Was anyone expecting Pulisic to beat anyone in the air on those crosses?
England is going to be interesting, to say the least, after what Wales showed in the 2nd half. Everybody on this board already knew what would happen if Plan A wasn’t working. Told you.
as i said on the other article the lineup was so built to chase and run that christian was his only kick choice short of letting dest or robinson take them. i think there is a UCL snob type that pretends musah and weston are slick players because of their addresses, but they are athletes. like i look down the lineup and am like who else could take these? since we had twin 8s those options were either on the bench or at home. reyna, green, ledezma, mendez, aaronson. to me the inability to find our color from the mids from about 35′ in or so speaks to the lineup was a little too sloppy. it’s ironic because in terms of hot air all the talk from this coach was how we would possess and pass and create. when in reality it looks like a bradley and klinsi team out there hustling and playing for the odd break where they do string some passes.
“Was anyone expecting Pulisic to beat anyone in the air?” I don’t know maybe you should ask “the man in the mirror.”
pulisic has a header goal or two in the shirt. would i look for him on purpose? perhaps not.
my deal is more like what are we trying to do on offense by design and how do the personnel fit that. if we’re gonna whack crosses in why not pefok or pepi.
USA 1st half was good, not sure what Wales was doing though. A goal is good, but with all of the possession only one shot on goal? Moving the ball around is fine, but more shots were needed. I don’t see Pulisic taking set pieces, he clearly is not good at it and this is not new. He is good at other things and should do those. The Zimmerman penalty was silly, no need to go through Bale in the box. If he beats you fine, but make him earn it. Subbing McKennie earlier might have been better. Overall a draw is a fair result, but this could have been 3 points.
Some thoughts about this 8 year wait:
1. Pulisic shouldn’t be taking our free kicks and corners!
That’s on GB because if you go back to qualifying he did the same stuff, a lot… it’s just not his thing
2. Am I the only one who noticed several times when they could have been more aggressive on recycling balls towards the attack when they were in the attacking third but it seems like instinct took over and we just automatically drop the ball deeper so we could keep possession and completely start over… Xavi and Iniesta don’t play for us.
3. Pulisic was guilty of this but he wasn’t the only one waiting too long to get the ball out quicker from under their feet..
I swear it seems like they’re too afraid to not lose possession rather than press the issue.
4. In the 2nd half they did something a few times that was an issue early in qualifying but they fixed it.. When Turner decides hes not gonna play the ball short, get your CBs up the field first. We lost every second ball because there’s these big spaces between the lines.
All of these little things add up to a group of young guys playing afraid to make a mistake and playing not to lose.
If we’re looking at a 98 or 2006 type repeat then please just put me back in my bottle of Jack Daniels and open it in a few years please
Well we’ve already beaten 1998 by earning a point and at worst equaling 2006. At least we weren’t down in the first 5 minutes as we were in 2006.
thought-grenade — people don’t acknowledge it but berhalter, for all the futurism sales pitch, was an arena assistant, fired from his first head job not for teaching them a new way into the future but for being ungodly boring. that goal could have been a 2010 or 2014 goal. those midfield defensive tactics could have been beckerman bradley jones in 2014. our most skilled virtuoso dribbler and passer didn’t even see the field, probably because the coach was worried about him tracking back. i realize what gives this coach his endless tenure is selling this as a project to change things but i thought i was watching landon/algeria on the goal or klinsmann’s brazil team. this is not that new. this is not different from how US teams have played, it is more on the ground these days but it already was in 2014. they were already getting skilled by about 2002. can you call me when the actual novelty shows up? cause what i saw wasn’t radical and should be judged on face value and not like we need years to integrate the new ideas and see where he can take this. far as i am concerned we got outcoached within a fairly standard US soccer game of the past 15-20 years.
thought grenade 2–if they are possibly going to give 10 minutes (or more, england game) injury time a half that might make it harder to execute game plans that involve running around like a chicken then trying to hold onto a slight margin. that’s almost like playing overtime on top.
Continued glaring stat is the US only managed 6 shots total with 1 shot on goal. This is the stat that has been plaguing this team under Berhalter from the start of his tenure. Yes we had 59 percent possession but possession in the attacking half and with purpose is sorely lacking.
I won’t dispute that but it was certainly an improvement over the two games against Canada in qualifying. Little victories.
how many years the coach in charge where we are talking about tiny improvements over 3 years? this is not the talent shy 2018 cycle it shouldn’t be that hard to extract better.
btw wales was in their first world cup since 1958. given our history and the talent level of this team the way people talk about how we matched up with a second tier uefa side resonates as low expectations as spin or media management. we used to beat italy, germany,, holland, brazil. we had a lead on brazil in a confed cup final. we didn’t just crawl out of the crib. we weren’t playing some routine world cup finalist. this has a history with a single exception in 30 years. if you can’t match that history you are taking this back to 1990. with this history it shouldn’t be wow we took a world cup point from somebody.
SOG reflects aimless crossing when we have no target striker called. there is no mcbride on the other end to get the header and put it on net, and personally i’m not sold if we had one that robinson/ dest/ pulisic deliver amazing crosses in with any consistency.
i also feel like we don’t have a real concept to get goals, which most teams have. what the geeks these days would call patterns of play. we just kind of pass around the perimeter, then when someone has a little separation, whack it in.
the goal we finally went straight to net, isolated their centerbacks, ran at them, played a ball behind and used our speed.
personally i think a lot of the nerds throw around terms like “breaking lines” but have no clue how reality works. most teams are trying to get the ball to certain players in certain spots, and if they don’t have a target man it’s cut in and pass to feet not take it to the flag and hope they get on the end.
as i said below, i though we had one half of ball win concept but any goals were just to be improvised or from sheer crossing volume. deadballs were also crap bc pulisic couldn’t get the ball over the first man,
I swear you just ramble, without actually saying anything of substance.
Ronnie: i had a point and it’s not hard to follow. i think we are far more concerned with winning the ball than any plan on how to finish it. with the exception of the goal , which was more like a sit-back pure counter, our offense was generally whack a cross in and hope. this is a low percentage offense and as with the previous wales game netted nothing. and then when they did some half time adjustments we weren’t even winning the ball the same.
vs you watch wales and the idea clearly is hoof it to moore or get it to bale in the box. their mistake was sitting moore the first half. but they had some sort of plan.
Agreed it’s more of the same from this team in this type of game. We struggle to create goal scoring chances and are mistake prone at the back.
Lots of over reaction to the first half where we played well but only created 1-2 chances. We very rarely get the ball into dangerous areas. Plenty of talent on this team but jot sure it really fits well together.
i thought a lot of what happened early was sheer defensive effort and not some plan to set our attackers up over a game. we got the one goal but once the effort tired out the offense from it dried up. i don’t think we can play that hard much more than a half. i thought the game kind of came back to us at the end but we looked tired and bereft of ideas. that’s when it would help to not just be winging it so much. most teams it’s like let’s get the ball to x players at y spot in the field and then they pass it to z or turn and take a shot. it’s not whack it in and hope.
Six shots is pathetic given our rosters offensive talent
not that hard to surmise why we left a lot to be desired, especially in the second half…..when you have players who are constantly injured, and not playing consistently at their clubs via said injuries or otherwise, it’s not hard to understand why we ran out of gas and aren’t very fluid in attack. McKennie should have never started, he was frustrating to watch as was Dest, 2 players clearly not in game shape. The first WC game is always a nervy one, and considering our youth and inexperience at this level it’s not surprising we hit a wall after coming out buzzing around in the first half. Berhalter made the subs too late, something he’s done before, but honestly the game was still pretty comfortable for us as Wales couldn’t produce more than a header that Turner tipped over the goal post late. Zimmerman panicked badly on the penalty, but I don’t think we can crucify him for it as he’s been good to really good for us…..teachable moment for sure, but the hope is we learn from it and grow into the tourney starting with England! I predict we upset England, or at minimum get a draw
Ronnie: oh, come off it with the excuses. the deal is we have no goal scoring game plan and as such it becomes ad hoc improvisation by certain important players. as such there is no “Reyna Jr.” who does something similar. we just miss what he offers. what we’re trying to do varies depending who is on the field. that’s not coached. that’s roll out the ball. that then matters a lot who is healthy to roll out the ball for.
At the end of the day I come back to one thing: Gregg Berhalter inherited just three guys from the Klinsmann era: Pulisic, Tim Ream, and DeAndre Yedlin. It’s profoundly telling that Pulisic is 24 and Ream 35…and in between that generation produced so few players who could help the USA. (Berhalter was the one who found Acosta, Zimmerman, and Turner, who are also in that group but never featured for Klinsmann.) We had no core and it was almost a near-total rebuild.
We had a giant donut hole in our development in the years after Bradenton shuttered and the MLS academies actually started churning out quality players, and MLS actually rose to a standard that it was a sufficient launch pad to get our best young players into the best European leagues.
We had just one guy – one! – with any kind of big-tournament experience: Yedlin. None of the others had been through a World Cup or Copa America.
We still need better service into the box. We still need a better target striker, though I do wonder if in four years Josh Sargent makes that header he doinked off the bar. We especially need a better pure 10 who can pick a lock and operate in tight areas. (I’ve got my eye on RSL’s Diego Luna, I think he could be the missing piece there, and I think he’d really activate our forwards who really are starved of meaningful service and are expected to make do with scraps.)
But this team has a ton of talent and that first half really showed our potential. Now we need to sustain that…and build on it. It wasn’t a mirage, we really did play that well…and I’ve never seen that level of skill out of a USA team before, ever.
“Now we need to sustain that…and build on it. It wasn’t a mirage, we really did play that well…and I’ve never seen that level of skill out of a USA team before, ever.”
+1
Your statement that “Berhalter inherited just three guys from the Klinsmann era: Pulisic, Tim Ream, and DeAndre Yedlin.” is false. Acosta had 17 career Caps in 2017, Adams received his 1st Cap in 2017, CCV received his first Cap in 2017, Morris had 24 career caps in 2017, Horvath had 2 Caps in 2017, Roldan received his first cap in 2017, Zimmerman had his first cap in 2017, Weston McKennie had his first cap in 2017…that’s 11 players inherited by Gregg who made this WC Roster. There was also Lletget, Arriola, & Brooks who were inherited and played a fair number of Caps under Gregg. In 2018 (before Gregg took over…) Cannon received his first Caps, Luca DLT received his first Cap, Long received his first Caps, Moore received his first Caps, EPB received his first Caps, Jedi received his first Caps, Sargent received his first Caps, Weah received his first Caps.
So it wasn’t like the cupboard was bare when Gregg took over the management of the team. Were most of these guys inexperienced in big Tournaments…YES. We’d just missed a WC and we weren’t invited to the Copa America. But instead of building on what the Interim US coach had started, Gregg went backwards in 2019 and called up retreads Bradley, Omar, Zardes, Jozy, & Guzan while also leaning on some MLS dead-end favorites Lovitz, Trapp, & Yuell. We lost 2020 due to Covid….and still Gregg refused in 2021 to move away from players who were incapable of contributing to this team on the field.
“We especially need a better pure 10 who can pick a lock and operate in tight areas.” we have one of those (Reyna) but once again Gregg choses to not play him or when he does sticks him out on the touchline instead of centrally where he can facilitate & create for the others. Some of his is Gregg’s favored formation & his desire to focus on Box to Box CMs. Gregg has failed this team once again.
we tied france and portugal in 2017-18 beginning to incorporate a lot of this team’s new core. they had italy to almost the 90′ scoreless. you don’t get to take this literally backwards, select it horribly wrong for a year or so, awkward tactics, get it halfway fixed, and pretend like it’s uncapable nobodies you’re just now making something out of. the results of the kids out of the box at the very beginning of the cycle preordained they could play, day 1.
Lost – Sorry, didn’t realize that Acosta had already capped 17 times by then. Sure, there were plenty of others who may have been called in a time or two like so many fringe players Gregg called in this cycle but they assuredly never “featured” for Klinsmann, which was my point. Excepting Zimmerman that group was just waaaaaaay too young at that point to be more than intriguing prospects.
What my argument was that there was an enormous donut hole between Donovan/Dempsey/Howard’s generation and the generation we now have, where Bradenton had been supplanted by MLS but the academies really weren’t producing any kind of player pool yet. There was. Granted, Gregg has been gifted a vastly deeper, more talented crop of young players than any of his predecessors enjoyed at any point but he was still starting almost entirely over with young guys, or new older guys like Turner who hadn’t appeared on the radar yet.
IV-
I wasn’t real happy with Gregg’s tactics in the second half yesterday and he was just way too slow on the trigger to realize a lot of the guys who weren’t in game shape yet were gassed – something Gregg’s been guilty of a lot, actually. He tends to just sit there like a lump and just sit there cluelessly while his team takes it in the teeth and won’t switch up even while plenty of guys who can help him rot helplessly on the bench.
He’s gotten his tactics wrong a fair bit, sure, and he definitely didn’t cover himself with glory yesterday either. But still. This is a very, very young group with very limited big-tournament experience, and it also showed up big in the second half yesterday too, which I thought was more on them than on Gregg. He was distinctly hollering at them to keep their foot on the gas but as a group they didn’t.
Hopefully they learn from that. Quickly.
Q: i think this is an inexperienced and overrated coach out there basically (to be charitable) “learning” international soccer along with his charges. “learning” in quotes because his obsession with stuff like club form suggests he still doesn’t get — or is resisting — basic lessons like club form doesn’t always translate.
personally i see an overwhelmed team making subs instead of a formation change as an average to poor coach and not an international level guy. it wasn’t just a fitness competition, it was wales shifted the xs and os and we didn’t respond. they effectively had an extra body or two up. you need an extra body or two back to match it, or, in my theory, to recreate the effect of the first half where they were getting swarmed.
personally i have always thought this coach when he does have success usually “frontruns” and has maybe one good idea a game. he doesn’t adjust. he either lands 1′ on something they see on tape or it doesn’t happen. and if they recognize what they/we are doing and adjust…..
Acosta actually played under Jurgen during that failed qualification cycle for the 2018 WC but I agree with everything else though
Quozzel – We all knew/know that the Lost Generation, or to use your phrase “there was an enormous donut hole between Donovan/Dempsey/Howard’s generation and the generation we now have”, was going to cause growing pains due to lack of international experience.
This gap (donut hole) could have been mitigated in a couple of ways:
1) USSF could have hired a coach shortly after the failed 2018 qualification. Instead they waited a full year to name Gregg the coach.
2) USSF could have hired an experienced coach. someone who had previous coaching experience at the International & WC levels. Again USSF chose to hire Gregg….someone with very limited coaching experience.
3) A smart coach would have called a couple extensive (over large) camps at the start of their tenure to evaluate the talent in the Player Pool. Play a couple inter squad scrimmages and started ranking the depth at each position.
4) After the first 2-3 caps the manager ID’s the 4-5 lowest on-field performers each camp and calls in someone else at their position the next camp. You keep doing that until you’ve separated the wheat from the chaff. Over time if poor performers merit a re-call due to club performances….fine. But at least you’ve developed a core group of players and have really challenged the players.
5) A manager selects a formation & tactics that play to the strengths of the player pool. Not select players how fit a specific formation/tactic.
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Overall the USSF failed to hire the right manager and the Manager has failed to properly prepare the player pool for what to expect at the WC.
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Against Wales in the 2nd half we were in desperate need of someone who could help create opportunities and maintain possession. What we got was Acosta, Morris, & Wright….None of which are good at holding possession. Would have been better to have seen Reyna for Weah/Pulisic at the 75th minute instead of Morris @ the 87th minute. Not a fan of Ferreira’s, but he does hold possession better than Wright and he was brought ahead of Pefok or Pepi.
Gregg’s poor player selections and misunderstanding of what was needed in the game and therefore poor substitutions once again let down a team that had a promising start.
Two more games. Still think this team can get it done. But I do worry about McKennie and Musah who were both hobbling a bit. McKennie kept grabbing his grown area and Musah looked really gassed. Maybe perhaps we see Reyna in that midfield need a bit more skill and passing skill to open defenses. Musah still hasn’t got that side of his game going yet.
i was worried about the amount of cramps and limping i saw, as well as the card situation. the smart play would be rotate for england but one thing is GD and GF are the first tiebreaks and so there is a tension between keeping that england game close and chasing GF in the last game while running out a second unit friday. this is where i think a roldan selection is wasted. you really need people who either score or shut people down. a mediocre hustle player doesn’t really help keep england close or iran not close at all.
i also think there may be some naivete hoping to run up the score on iran. i think england is head and shoulders above the group. i also think if iran cares at all — and maybe they don’t — the one game they care about, as in 1998, is probably our group finish game. england may also be through as of this next game and rotate for wales.
Wow…wow…wow…. The USMNT actually played EXTREMELY well against Wales. After a horrible showing against Japan, a poor showing against Saudi Arabia, no friendlies after the fact to better fine tune the team and some players coming back from injuries……….AND WE PLAYED LIKE THIS?????
I’m satisfied with the heart, passion and urgency the USMNT played with. We need a scorer for sure but overall, we showed well (EXCEPTIALLY after the Japan and Saudi showing). Yes, Zimmerman caused the penalty, yes, the USMNT have to do better as far as game management…… you can call it what you want but GB’s 1st selection on the pitch was SOLID AND DYNAMTIC to say the least. This team played with heart, were tenacious in closing down Wales quickly and were just relentless.
I actually though we were going to win even up to the last whistle. This is the World Cup and things happen……the sad thing is it “happened” to us, but overall we did well (in my opinion).
Bizzy, I think GGG wanted to attack in the 2nd half but half the players wanted to defend so there was a lack of cohesiveness. The Aaronson sub was an offensive sub IMO; if he was trying g to defend probably would have seen Roldan. I personally would have defended and put in a 3rd centerback but that isn’t GGG philosophy. I don’t like Aaronson as an 8. I don’t think he is very good in that role as displayed twice against El Salvador IMO and again today. Other than Musah and McKennie, I don’t see any real good 8s on the roster so if even of them is out, need at least 4 in the midfield. I think they both had to come out though as they were both gassed. Reyna I think can do it, but he really prefers not to defend as far as I can tell. Cheers!!
+1
GB had a good starting line-up, but I would have started Aaronson and Scally. Other than that, the starting line-up was fine; however, GB just does not know how to adjust and seems to make the worst subs. The federation needs to get serious and get a quality coach. GB is awful. I have no idea why Sargent was subbed off when he was doing fine and will never understand why Gio was not subbed in around the 60th minute, unless Gio had some sort of tightness. However, GB said after the game that he is ready to go against England. The Morris sub was baffling; he has no speed or technical ability and should have never been on the team. I didn’t like the Acosta sub but at least he had a very important professional foul near the end.
I just hope Zimmerman can handle it at this level without giving up stupid penalties. He is a good MLSer but at the international level, I don’t know. Brooks should have been not only on this team but a starter next to Ream. Brooks already knew that he wasn’t going to be selected and that’s why he went to Portugal. I don’t blame him. The only thing I give GB credit for is not starting Long and Ferreira.
Despite the disappointment, there is a path to advance but this result has made it more difficult. The good news is that the other two teams are on the same boat: Iran with zero points and down -4 on goal difference and Wales with one point. It could very well be USA, Wales, and Iran with 1 point in the third and final game. The best scenario for the US would obviously be to get any kind of result against England, because that would force England to play their best players and not their scrubs against Wales. Also, probably, a 1-1 draw in the Wales vs Iran would be good.
brooks + ream would have shipped 2-3 goals or did you watch the swiss game. i think there is a false narrative here where europe would have won it. i think the real issue is the position was weakened when richards and robinson went out. one of each. zimmerman is then competing for bench with long and EPB.
Who cares about the Swiss game? That was in 2001. Ream played great and with Brooks at his side, the US would have been in way better shape to win.
Peter: my theory dating back to select as a kid is it’s the big games that tell you whether you have the right players and tactics, not some blowout against a weak team. mexico is a real game every time we play. the swiss were a real game. some of the 2018 games were serious opponents. you’re saying ignore what a good game teaches you.
this is the thing. the eurosnobs always say we need to play the best. i think it’s masochism unless you actually LEARN FROM WHAT HAPPENS. the swiss game said brooks and ream couldn’t defend a good team on the break. you want to relearn that? have at it.
Correction: mathematically, USA, Wales and Iran cannot have all 1 point after two games.
Imperative: that’s nonsense.
what’s nonsense? the swiss are a good team and they rank ahead of us in the FIFA rankings. if you want to join the elite your jamaica and honduras wins don’t matter. what matters is can you beat the top teams in the world. if you can’t figure out how to beat them or at least learn from why you didn’t last time, don’t expect that to change.
kind of like when i was select and the other good team in our big city and us traded league and state titles. what mattered was not how many goals we trashed some bad team by. what mattered was who won our rivalry game, who finished first, who got their stuff together that year. your personnel and other choices only really mattered if they changed that outcome. you can think you’re hot stuff but that game told the truth.
kind of like we tied wales 2 years ago and tied them now. not a lot changed. so i’m not going to pretend we’re in takeoff mode. wales ranks 19 in the world. sounds like we still need to figure out how to beat wales, who is in their second ever world cup and first since 1958.
When Wales chose to sit back and counter in the first half, it made the US look better than they are. But it was mostly pass the ball around the back, get close to the 18 and drop the ball back to the fullbacks and repeat. When the US did get the goal, it was on a counter attack in one of the rare occasions Wales pushed up.
The goal changed the game! Wales started pushing forward immediately and did not wait for coach’s instructions at half-time. The US did not respond well and panicked a bit. Especially McKennie starting trying to pull off passes he could not complete (he may have simply been tiring but i thought he was trying to do something clever when faced with pressure.). They turned over the ball needlessly after the goal, something they did not often do in the first 30 minutes.
Half-time, Wales made a sub with an impactful striker and no longer simply waited deep for the US attack. Instead, they pressured the US midfield and started getting into the US box where their big bodies seemed to offer the US more fear and trembling.
Overall, I think Wales was not afraid of the US (in)ability to make crosses into the box and head home goals. So they simply clogged the middle; no matter which US dribbler attempted to get through he was met with 3 (or more) defenders and no space to either shoot or pass. That tactic worked until Wales made the mistake of pushing up a little and the US scored. When Wales pushed up even more and put the us midfield under more pressure the US attack basically collapsed with only a few forward runs to put on even a bit of pressure. Things did get better when the US subs came on, but it was too little, too late. McKennie, probably Dest and Sargent should all have come off at half-time. Eventually the defensive blunder came in the box and Bale capitalized.
+1
sorry but i think this comes out different if we have more technical of mids dribbling and passing at them. i buy they weren’t scared of the AMs we started. they sat back and picked off the passes. if those balls go to attacker feet near the box, they start having to defend a dribbler and not just ballhawk passes they can intercept.
“sorry but i think this comes out different if we have more technical of mids dribbling and passing at them.”
Well, we didn’t. So no one will ever know if you are right or wrong.
“i buy they weren’t scared of the AMs we started. they sat back and picked off the passes. if those balls go to attacker feet near the box, they start having to defend a dribbler and not just ballhawk passes they can intercept.”
You’re nitpicking.
Wales aren’t afraid of anyone. They are a veteran team, more tournament tested than the USMNT and know who they are.
Everyone is forgetting that this is the first game of the World Cup for both teams.
Lots of jitters for both team, lots of adrenalin rushes.
Wales opened conservative and the USMNT let it all hang out. And for their trouble the USMNT got a first half moral victory. They were excellent.
Wales were smart and reverted to what they were comfortable with and let the USMNT take the initiative. It’s what they do. Take your best shot, let the storm blow over and hopefully keep a clean sheet. They rope- a- doped the USMNT because as soon as the USMNT scored, Wales came after them. It’s not what they do best but they had little choice. And obviously they have enough to do what they did.
And we all saw what happened . Bale did nothing until he did. Which is what always happens with that guy.
The USMNT had no answer.
Gregg had no answer.
A veteran Wales team did what they had to do and took the much needed point.
A young USMNT played the best first half of the Gregg reign. Then, once Wales scored, as usual, they reverted to the poorly coached , disorganized team that hasn’t had much competitive time together, that we all know and love.
That first half was mind-blowingly impressive. But it does point out how raw and naive both Gregg and his players are.
I’m very curious to see how they intend to beat England.
V: Wales hasn’t been to a World Cup since 1958. veterans my tookus. on this stage they were as green or greener than we were. they made tactical adjustments and we didn’t. period. we couldn’t even find our attackers to get off our own end most of the second half.
“V: Wales hasn’t been to a World Cup since 1958. veterans my tookus. on this stage they were as green or greener than we were. they made tactical adjustments and we didn’t. period. we couldn’t even find our attackers to get off our own end most of the second half. ”
Mr. V,
Your example is flawed.
In 2016 Wales went to the semis of the Euros and lost to the eventual winners Portugal .
1n 2020 Wales got out of their group in the Euros and advanced to the Round of 16 where they fell to Denmark.
In the current Nations League, their group( where they are in last place) has Netherlands, Belgium and Poland in it.
The Euros are not the World Cup but there are people smarter than me who will tell you the Euros are tougher than the World Cup because they tend to have fewer Qatars or Saudi Arabias. Plus, everybody usually knows everybody else so there are few surprises.
Portugal, Denmark, Poland, Netherlands, Belgium, teams, that Wales has played in recent tournaments?
They are all better than our CONCACAF patsies. They are much tougher than the worst El Tri team I have seen since 2013.
As you pointed out Wales are a very savvy, tough, tournament-wise team. They are that way because of the tough tournaments and competition they have faced recently. They don’t do intramural stuff like the Gold Cup or our bogus Nations League. The USMNT would be wise to play in the 2024 Copa America if they can swing that.
Cliche warning. You saw boys vs men out there. And it was encouraging because our kids had that great first half.
But when you get down to the nitty gritty? It was never going to be a contest. The USMNT has little cohesion. They have limited teamwork. They are NOT well organized. I don’t know much about Gregg’s staff but I’m beginning to wonder about them. There is no playing identity because when it hits the fan no one knows what to do next. This has been true for at least a year and has been obvious to anyone with half a brain.,
But Americans are so conditioned to buying into lies and fantasy that they soaked up the fiction that this was a good team.
They are talented and promising, but they are also a bunch of kids thrown together at the last minute, in soccer terms. Most everything wrong with them can be explained by the fact that most of them aren’t really sure ( not at this level sure) what their team mates are going to do next.
Good team work is instinctual, muscle memory based on hundreds
to thousands of reps. Reps that this team, as a unit, does not have.
Watch a guy like Lletget trying to play with Gio if you want to see what I mean.
And when that is the case it doesn’t matter what your tactical approach is. You’re always going to be a day late and a dollar short. More cliches.
They needed an adult in the room (cliche) and Gregg who has done a passable job at getting this batch together simply isn’t adult enough.
And he’s going to lead this team into 2026.
A lot of talent being cancelled out by boneheaded plays and inexperience. Zimmerman… good gaawwwd man. GGG not bad with his selections, but, as usual, pretty slow to adapt. This team, and management, have yet to put together a complete 90 minutes.
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Our attacking players too often fail to pass the ball along when advancing. Aaronson, Musah, and Pulisic do this consistently, even for their club teams. It’s a serious flaw with most of our players that kills attacks and coughs up the ball. Mental speed appears to be an issue, and that’s without GGG involved. I don’t blame GGG for that problem at all.
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Positives to take away though. We did look good in the first half… even if Wales did cede possession. Turner is reliable. Tyler Adams is good. Weah is good with support.
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Our fate rests in the hands of Wales and Iran now. They have to collectively suck en route to a low scoring draw, and Wales needs to lose by 3 goals to England. Otherwise, sorry to say, we’re not making it out of the group. Don’t see us even drawing with England. Sure, we may put in a solid 60-70 minutes… but we need 95+ to get a draw. And it’s far more likely that England score 3 on this defense of ours.
What?? US has two more games. They control their own destiny just like Wales and Iran. If Iran wins their next two games, they will advance, dame with Wales, and US.
I don’t believe in this team. They have never played a full 90, and now they have to do that in the two biggest games of their lives. Therefore, we need help to get out. Happy to be wrong… But they couldn’t close this game out, even after a half of their opponent giving the field to them. That shows me these youngns just don’t have “it.”
Quaker, even if they beat Wales they would get eliminated with 2 losses. The likelihood of advancing with only 3 points is pretty small. I think it has happened but is pretty rare. It is a 3 game tournament and they have to show up for the next games. I get not being confident but did this game really sway you in that direction?
No. I haven’t been confident in this group, ever, because they have never shown the mental abilities to match their purported talent. There’s always something missing with this team. USMNT vastly overrate this team and incorrectly lay all it’s inherent shortcomings onto GGG. Also, GGG is not a good coach.
And beating Wales gives more than just 3 points. With a win, the odds of advancing increase, along with confidence and focus. A win also puts pressure non Wales and forces Wales to come out for points in subsequent games, leaving them more vulnerable to an Iran win or an England blowout. Now, we don’t get those benefits. Now, Wales can draw or nab narrow win against Iran and then sit back against an already-qualified England in the final match. The US, on the other hand, has to hold England to a draw, or keep England from scoring too much against us (which I think we will fail to do. I think we lose 3-0.). Then there’s Iran, who will be out by game 3, will have no pressure, but will be playing for pride against a mentally weak team on the ropes. This isn’t a crystal ball, but this is the weather I see on the horizon. And no, American optimism and a plucky attitude aren’t going to overcome that. This was better than a loss… but we’re not so likely to finish higher than 3rd in the group.
Quaker: i think the UCL fanboys tend to get status quo bias. i don’t think this is anywhere close to the endgame of this generation. this is not the right selection for this pool and one hopes we have some more U20s coming up. i personally felt like the backline was weakened by injuries then made worse by selection. i am not sold anyone but adams and weah are where they belong in an endgame concept. some players might be useful but in different spots. some don’t belong starting.
Mls defender gives away penalty that’s on the beer holder. He trusted his MLS defenders it cost him and us today. It’s in him. Plain and simple. MLS that’s a no call a lot of the time at the WC that’s fing penalty all days you gotta know. Beer holder shoulda known better. MLS hacks don’t work at WC with WC refs. This ain’t MLS or Concacaf bro.
MLS player had their goal hmmmmm
Come on. Bale has only been in MLS for a season. Bale was not a factor until Zimmerman failed miserably with that penalty.
So Zimmerman did a good job on Bale until that play?
Tele57,
“So Zimmerman did a good job on Bale until that play?”
The last few years what you saw of Bale in this game has been SOP for him.
He does nothing until he does.
How much Zimmerman or any defender has to do with that is debatable. Bale has 18 medals for a reason.
The penalty was a brain fart but Zimmerman was excellent otherwise. Where would the USMNT have been if Zimmerman hadn’t played? Maybe they lose 2-1 instead tieing 1-1.
John Brooks is not walking into that locker room so tell me this, are you advocating that Walker not play another minute going forward?
Vacqua, that wasn’t what I was advocating. Maybe go back and read the thread more closely. I will give you a hint – my question had to with responses to someone pointing out that the person who scored for Wales plays in the MLS.
Tele57,
You should know that IV likes to throw stuff up on the wall. Bale played 369 minutes ( a little over4 games worth) across all competitions for LAFC. I’d be surprised if he knows who Kellyn Acosta is. Gareth is no more an MLS player than Michael Bradley was after 4-5 MLS games.
who should be out there? miazga? brooks? ream? i can show you numbers where they correlate to our high GA losses and ties. i wouldn’t have started ream but i don’t think zimmerman is worse than any of those 3 at actual defending. the reality is it should be miles and richards — one of each — and they just aren’t healthy.
side point, you and i both know the reason for the intense pressing gimmick of the first half was to try and win the ball high upfield without it ever becoming our backs against their offense. we were going to have to do something, either push up or sit way back, to give them help. personally i thought the real mistake was not pushing numbers back second half once they started pushing up. what was working for us was chaos. for some reason we didn’t consider pushing the formation back to make their players wind their way through our whole team.
IV, while I don’t agree, I think Gregg would rather lose being aggressive than being passive. I understand that logic but I think their odds of winning was greater defending than trying for the 2nd goal. Either way, I think you sell out with roster he has (and the other players he didn’t bring in). He has attackers and defenders but very few two way players available in my opinion. I think the mistake was he had to bring Acosta on due to lack of options and McKennie and Musah were both gassed, but he is defensive and then he put Aaronson on who is an attacking player (Aaronson is not an effective 8 IMO) so I agree with you – he didn’t pick one or the other. Took me a long time to get there, didn’t it?
offense usually links up to defense. the goal was a counter play where for a change we had green space to run into and could be more direct. i don’t see how it’s a bad idea to take “swarming the mids on their end” and turn it into “swarming the mids on our end” and then counter into the space behind them some more.
way i see it our choices were either (a) “cut in” more and go to goal when we got it their end or (b) once they started pushing numbers forward, drop ours back. reality is we were struggling to string passes to build second half so i would have gone vertical for a kill shot. if they want to push way up chasing a tie, throw some speed up top and counter when they turn it over. and simplify the darned offense where one ball does it instead of 20.
i mean what we were taking advantage of first half is their backs and mids were a bit sloppy and not elusive on the dribble. i don’t think wales would have been that much less sloppy if you reinstated swarming chaos from a tilted back formation. have the chaos follow their numbers. we stayed in a 433 and basically couldn’t find an outlet with any support help for it to be any value.
MLS has the 6th most players from all teams at the world cup behind the big 5 (EPL, La Liga, B.1, Serie A, Ligue Un), and ahead of the C’ ship and MX. 4 of our starters — including the captain — have played here — and a 5th was in FCD Academy. 4 of our used subs also have played here.
And just to express common sense,MLS has players on 12 of the 32 teams — who seem to think we’re good enough — and literally no team in the tournament ignores its domestic league completely. I think the idea that we can rely on the rest of the world to do our development work for us — and hire our players — is crazed. Most leagues, particularly the EPL, have league or immigration rules to limit how many of us can join or what your resume has to look like to be allowed.
Rumor is Messi and maybe Cristiano Ronaldo are coming. I think your theories are about a decade old and a decade ago most of the big leagues were biased against accepting our players. How many goalkeepers did we send to big clubs only for them to get dumped down to Villa and Everton, only for them to then win EPL Keeper of the Year when finally given a steady job.
“How many goalkeepers did we send to big clubs only for them to get dumped down to Villa and Everton, only for them to then win EPL Keeper of the Year when finally given a steady job.”
Really?
Guzan got dumped to Villa by “big club” Chivas USA.
He took a while to win the #1 job because he was behind an all time great keeper, some guy named Brad Friedel. Obviously, Guzan had to contend with the fact that Villa hates American players. He had a nice run there for a few years, almost single handedly saving them from relegation at one point. Eventually, the shooting gallery that was the Villa defense, I believe , ruined Guzan’s nerves. After a short spell at Middlesbrough he joined Atlanta FC.
Howard started at Man U. for a while, going back and forth with Roy Carroll but eventually made a Steffen-esque error in the Champions League that knocked Man U. out of the tournament. After some more back and forth, United eventually signed Edwin Van Der Sar, an all time great keeper, and shipped out Tim on loan to Everton. I would think Howard would argue with your description of him being ” dumped” to Everton but then Howard always did think a lot of himself.
However there’s no shame in losing your job to an all time great like Van de Sar
V: what you’re overlooking is when I win GK of the year for the whole league that means the broad press assessment is i am better not worse than van der sar. the general pattern continues to be that americans keep starting jobs in elite europe only after they are some world cup type star. which means they are offering lagging acknowledgment as opposed to seeing the talent beforehand. in short, they can be as bad of fanboys as us, and only correct their bias when we get dominant on a world stage or at a second tier team.
they’ll sign us now but even CP and weah struggle for time. i throw this out because the snob’s answer to everything, career decisions, world cup results, is move there. the 9 and GK soap opera paints a more complicated picture.
put differently, i don’t buy turner isn’t in the 20 best keepers in the EPL. if he moves someplace they play him he magically gets discovered. that doesn’t read like the big club position battles are an even playing field. that reads like they lag reputation a little. which is more about rep and experience than quality.
“whole league that means the broad press assessment is i am better not worse than van der sar. ”
I can just see Timmy going to SAF and telling him that he has to take him back because the media judgement is more consequential than that of the manager, in this case Sir Alex Ferguson.
“the general pattern continues to be that americans keep starting jobs in elite europe only after they are some world cup type star.”
That’s how it should be.
“in short, they can be as bad of fanboys as us, and only correct their bias when we get dominant on a world stage or at a second tier team.”
And this is news to you? In American sports we have a college draft. Perhaps you’ve heard of high draft choices that proved to be busts? Johnny Manziel? Baker Mayfield?
“put differently, i don’t buy turner isn’t in the 20 best keepers in the EPL. if he moves someplace they play him he magically gets discovered. that doesn’t read like the big club position battles are an even playing field. that reads like they lag reputation a little. which is more about rep and experience than quality.”
Like this only happens to Americans? Bullshit. Turner will eventually beat out Ramsdale. But even if he doesn’t the EPL is full of #2 keepers who are just as good as the #1 but never will get a chance. That’s the nature of “there can be only one”.
If you don’t like it you move on.
I’ve said it many times that this 4-3-3 does not suit our player pool. Lack attacking nous in it.
Getting out of the group may well come down to who beats Iran and by how many goals.
i disagree with the folks who think musah and weston are as good as we can do in the MF. a dutch 433 trying to emphasize offense would usually be more emphasis on skill players and give half a care how many goals they allowed. eredivisie ball, go for 4-3. reyna, pulisic, green, aaronson. better service to the forwards in the aggressive formation. i personally favor defense and thought the mids were picked to harass but who defends from a 433? what their coach did was push the RB up and a second striker and we got overwhelmed by numbers. our response should have been push a body or two back to recreate clutter and chaos, but we’re 433 obsessed.
to me GB needs to sell out more one end or the other. are we trying to win games 1-0 or 4-3? modest scoring without pitching a shutout is an early exit recipe.
I will say Weah did Dest no favors with that in the second half. He didn’t come back to help Dest much at all when Wales advanced their RB. We all know Dest is not a lock down RB. And the other teams know that as well. To many times Weah just left Dest on Island. Also quite clear Weah is not fully match fit. Weah usually is up and down more than he was today.
Also Pulisic and Weah need to be more direct, and actually take the defenders on 1v1. I don’t think Weah went at his defender once on the dribble. And Pulisic is a transition merchant. Much better when space opens up for him.
2: dude IMO if you are asking forwards to track back then something is goofy in your formation in the circumstances. sitting on a goal lead with the game turning on you, the response should have been to push the formation back to 442 or 451 where the formation itself sits a wing mid 10 yards or so in front of the wingbacks. it’s a lot to ask a wing forward to run back 20-30 yards to give the backs help. it sounds cute on paper but it also sounds like something my dynamo believe right up to giving up 56 goals in a season. if you constantly need unusual help the formation and tactics should be changed to give easier help that is natural to that alignment. 3 CB, 4-5 mids, we should have done something.
2tone.
All this talk of formations.
The best formations mean nothing if your players aren’t fit.
Gregg’s real problem is fitness.
Pulisic hasn’t gone 90 in a long time
Weah, Sargent, Dest, Weston, Gio, Yunus, are all coming back from various injuries, some worse than others.
Six starters and one super sub, all of questionable fitness
That’s a lot on a World Cup schedule. And now we have quite a number of yellows.
Remember those 6-8 players that people like me said might not see a minute? That’s probably out the window. They’ll all probably have to play vs Iran.
Sick of the MLS/Sum bias in selection and subs. It’s cost us too much. Last cycle and now. This is our golden generation wtf Morris subbed over Reyna.
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Zimmerman. Great for Concacaf. Oops WC that’s a penalty bro you fing hack. That was on our manager too.
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We’ll be shot till we seperate our NT from MLS/SUM
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F u Don Garber
where does bale play
That is such a ridiculous response. Twice.
If you are such a soccer intellectual, address the guy’s point, which is that guys with *exclusively* MLS experience like Zimmerman are at a disadvantage playing with international refs. And that the coach left a champions league starter on the bench in favor of an MLS guy with two ACL tears.
“Where does Bale play” – My God. Well, he plays at Real Madrid and a retirement league.
You write so much to gain credibility and then lose it all in one line this way.
zimmermann is a better back than miazga, brooks, or ream. give me a break. what we really needed is miles and richards. if you argued for EPB or long i might buy it. but the trio most euro fanboys want are even worse marking backs than the people they criticize. have you forgotten miazga being burned by ireland or italy? brooks vs several teams including swiss, colombia, england. ream vs the swiss? like being on some bizarro planet of what i saw this cycle.
last point, be real, zimmermann made an error of aggression marked up. CCV would do the same. brooks, ream, and miazga wouldn’t even be in the neighborhood of their guy to foul the man.
“zimmermann is a better back than miazga, brooks, or ream. give me a break.”
Not ream.
In the biggest and most important game of the Berhalter regime, Ream was a far better CB than Zimmerman.
He, Tyler and Turner were the USMNT’s best players
Timmy is a flawed CB as I have pointed out many times but how you play when it really , really matters counts more than anything with me.
Yeeeaahhh, Gio is injured, and I think the Morris sub is defensible in a fast, physical contest. Even if Gio weren’t injured, it’s unclear he adds much in a physical game that is more likely to see him injured than score.
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MLS is not a top-quality league, but the emotional MLS scapegoating is past its sell-by date. Face it, most of our Euro guys are also young, inexperienced, and mentally weak. Reality bites: we aren’t a top-level nation, and it showed when we failed to close out this match.
i didn’t get morris over reyna but i don’t think this coach foresaw what i thought i saw towards the end. i think he wanted someone to chase back as well. i don’t think he considered we might have a chance to get one our way at the very end. but at the end when it was end to end stuff everyone getting the ball seemed klutzy or tired. that’s where reyna would have helped.
Correction: Reyna not injured, just held back, GGG says “tactical” reasons. I agree with him based on the way the match was going. Firing squad in 3…2…
i think first half he would have supplied the missiing precision element. i think he would have been perfect last 20 when that started going tired end to end soccer, and a little class maybe gets you a second. i also don’t think he should be pigeonholed as just a RF. pulisic was having a bad night. the AMs got sloppy. plenty of places he could have helped without yanking weah.
And so it came to pass that once more Our Berhalter has the fans checking tiebreaker scenarios just to get out of a group round.
😂 GGG gotta go give us Martinez who use to coach Everton. I want Marsch to be coach 2030 window.
Give me a coach who can pick a system that fits his players
Give me a coach who can make in game adjustments
Give me a coach who picks the best players without getting too cute.
Not his fault that Robinson and Richardson were out ..but even had they been available have a feeling he woulda started Zimmerman
I’ll take the hotdog vender right now.
side point, knowing iran already not just lost but imploded this morning on GD, i would have gone all in on that second half. you have to know after this morning it’s us and wales for the other slot. wales was the one who responded like this might be the group round right here.
It was an emotional match to watch as a US fan. So much hope for the US in the 1st, but Wales played well in the 2nd. EVERY GAME IS GOING TO BE A GRIND. US World Cup games are always difficult. It feels like a missed opportunity becaue of how well it was going in the beginning. Still everything to play for. Keep going boys.
Is Reyna injured again?
Pulisc fans don’t read! He was awful this game 🤦♂️ his behavior was very disgusting being a diva cry baby all game won’t give us 3 points. Your in Qatar not Columbus OH or Carson CA. Pulisic gotta leave Chelsea the eurosnob mentality has gotten to him. Smh🤦♂️
I see why CP is not the captain, awful crybaby entiled attitude! -_-
I think at times Pulisic tried to play some hero ball, and he should have made that professional foul instead of leaving it up to Ream. If Ream gets another Yellow, this time against England, he is out vs Iran, and we will probably say “Hello” to Long. Other than that, he had a beautiful assist and did decent I thought.
not sure why he was taking deadballs. he struggled to find white but to be fair he had the assist. but there was not enough of that direct play. i am always amazed the snobs don’t throw more of a fit about the lack of taking people on or combining through the box. the barca concept we are supposedly xeroxing is not all that build and possession only to whack in a cross like sargent is mcbride and not in witness protection after the first few minutes.
Agree to extent. Didn’t see anything special. The more you cry the more likely the refs aren’t going to help u. You catch more flies with honey
despite decades of yelling at refs thinking that helps in general, my sense in hindsight what works is not yelling but either showing cleat damage or “priming.” priming as in, he’s doing x to me. if the guy does x to you shortly after, the ref is primed to see it. benefit of hindsight calling someone an idiot doesn’t tend to help a thing.
disappointing, we were the better team and blew it on a PK. At least we got the result but still we should have came out of this with 3 points. Also, for all the Jordan Morris will never see the field are all wrong. He played key minutes and did nothing
i never said that. to me you pick the whole roster like they might see the field. i thought the real problem was they were too content to whack crosses in just like last time they met. needed to go to net.
Should this result surprise us? Look at our track record under Berhalter when playing any team in the FIFA top 50. How many SOG do we average in those games? 1? 2? Seems today was right on form.
to me the deal is his tactics result in us neither being airtight nor an attacking machine.
Pretty much thought this would happen.
Sad truth is that this team doesn’t have the goal scoring prowess to score multiple goals and really doesn’t have a lock down defense for 1-0 wins.
to me they had one half of ball winning concept, which wales pushed their formation up to get out of, and not really any halves’ worth of idea how to score goals. the counter-move was shift the formation backwards to re-create the midfield trap we were winning. play 442 or 451 and go back to wales being unable to move the ball through the MF, or to have the MF support the strikers they started hoofing it to. but this coach is in love with the 433 and pressing. and they have with very little exception had no attacking plan over his whole tenure, and just kind of played keepaway and improvised. largely just taken balls to the flag and whacked them in.
and not getting reyna on is just nonsense. that, to me, it’s like he has pigeonholed him as swapping with weah, and weah is the productive star at this point. he needed to be on the field at the end.
AMEN! I so much wanted a US win today but it could have been worse. Wales could have easily won the game if they had not sat back the first half. We lack skill in too many positions. Bad passes, lack of ball control and hardly any field awareness where open players are not spotted in time.
re bad passes, i thought the late first half showed why i criticize the musah/weston MF concept. like they couldn’t find a dude in white. snobs will never admit it but that was pretty close to what klinsi tried in 2014. bunch of mids in to harass for a half like made then try and hold on to the whistle. but our project leader couldn’t possibly be leading us on an uroboros in the guise of changing how we play.
Mario, that is not necessarily true. Wales is an old team with little depth. Had they pressed in the first half would they have been gassed in the 2nd? We will never really know but you have to play 3 games in 10 days. It will be interesting to see how this game impacts Wales., if it in fact does. I think their coach took a calculated risk essentially not playing in the first half but he probably doesn’t have much choice with the age and depth of his roster and having to play 3 games in 10 days. Incidentally, IMO US has zero depth at the 8 so I hope not to see them play with one if either Musah or McKennie is off the field. One looks I Jared and the other seems to have a stamina problem.