RAYYAN, Qatar — To beat the Netherlands, the U.S. men’s national team was going to have to put together its best performance of the World Cup.
The Americans fell short of their best, far too short, and the Dutch made them pay, scoring a pair of first-half goals before thwarting a late USMNT rally on the way to a 3-1 victory at Khalifa Stadium on Saturday.
Inter Milan wingback Denzel Dumfries led the way for the Dutch, setting up first-half goals by Memphis Depay and Daley Blind before sealing the victory with a goal of his own in the 81st minute. A finish that halted building American momentum after a Haji Wright goal in the 76th minute gave the USMNT some brief hope of a comeback.
The Netherlands will move on to the World Cup quarterfinals, where they will face the winner of Argentina-Australia on Friday. The Americans are heading home after the end of a promising tournament that ended in disappointing fashion.
The USMNT had a chance to start the game in dream fashion when Christian Pulisic slipped in behind the Dutch defense with a clear look at goal, but his shot was saved well by Dutch goalkeeper Andries Noppert in the third minute.
That fleeting moment of hope was quickly replaced by frustration and a lackluster rest of the half, as the Americans showed the fatigue of a team with nine players making their fourth World Cup start in 13 days. The Dutch were content to let the USMNT have the ball, picking their moments to hit the Americans on the counter when they were sloppy with the ball.
The Dutch broke through in the 10th minute with a beautiful passing sequence that culminated with Dumfries picking out Depay’s late run into the penalty. area, and the Barcelona forward made no mistake, beating Turner with a hard shot to open the scoring.
The USMNT rarely troubled the Dutch the rest of the half, but did have a golden look in the 44th minute when Tim Weah hit a hard shot that forced another good save from Noppert.
The Americans looked like they would go into halftime down a goal, which would have been a manageable scoreline, but the Dutch pounced just before the break, with Dumfries playing provider again, picking out Daley Blind’s back-post run as Blind caught Sergiño Dest napping and scored to make it 2-0 at halftime.
The introduction of Gio Reyna for Jesus Ferreira at halftime helped give the Americans a bit of life, but a goal didn’t come until the 76th minute, when a recycled corner kick made it to Pulisic, whose cross was clipped up and over Noppert by Haji Wright to give the Americans some hope.
That hope lasted just five minutes, when Dumfries played the hero again, slipping in behind the unsuspecting U.S. defense to collect a long pass and convert unmarked to make the final score 3-1.
Now that it is quite obvious the US MNT from youth to senior level is producing quality to elite talent it’s time for the mentality to shift to a quality elite level mindset from youth to senior levels. No longer should the thinking be to get out of the group and then let’s see how we do in the knockout rounds. The mentality should be to win all games regardless who we play. When you foster an elite mindset then you foster a winning mentality. Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Netherlands all have this mindset. Yes these teams will lose games, but they all have an elite mentality.
I believe some of our players have this elite mindset, but I don’t know if the program as a whole has this mindset.
all due respect dude but the U20s routinely qualify top of the region and make their world championship quarters. you should be asking how are you consistently best regionally and top 8 globally at the last “full availability” youth age group (U23 is always begging and pleading) and then drop back to round of 16 or worse as adults. you have it precisely backwards.
i think this generation has great promise — shown by those 3 U20 successes in a row, which contain many of the senior players now — but the defense was poor, while the attack was suboptimal and attacking tactics naive.
personally i think they need to drop the current tactics, trial a bunch of players for a year or two, and figure out what the best 25 or so players now are (after the current old players retire, and the young players re-compete for their jobs). only then gel some tactics around the best players. it is absurd for reyna to be watching. i don’t think we had our best team on the field. i thought the tournament tactics were erratic with the final game reverting back to the completely dysfunctional BerhalterSystem TM. the tactics need to leverage the team and pick whether this is going to be a high scoring team or a team built on defense. i kind of feel like right now it’s an attempt at balance that compromises quality both ends of the field.
European teams don’t usually send their best to the U20s, just as our best Euro based U20s often miss out.
that isn’t my experience at all. U20 is usually a summer worlds tournament out of season for most of europe. there are no release issues usually. the only real issues are usually a mix of “graduation” — the US doesn’t send senior guys like pulisic back down to play with their age cohort — and issues with release for qualifying. but we have qualified a few times in a row, and i don’t think that explains why you do or don’t win full strength the following year at worlds.
Should be interesting to see if Pulisic does move on from Chelsea in January. A lot of talk Inter Milan are pursuing Musah and McKennie off to the EPL in January too. Will Destvget more playing time at AC Milan?
Will Balugon make a switch to the US?
Will Pepi be brought back in for the March nations league. Will Ledezma and Booth start getting call ups? How will Mihailovich fare at AZ? Will he be getting looks again? Can Kevin Paredes get back healthy and start getting call ups?
Will Dortmund continue to use Reyna on the wing or will they start deputizing him in that Marco Reus role under a striker?
Can Richards get healthy and start making game day starting 11’s?
Will EPB continue to captain and play well for Troyes?
Could we see a Bryan Reynolds come back in for the USMNT at RB?
Will Dike stay healthy?
And most intriguing can Paxten Aaronson break into Frankfurts first team the second half of the season? From reports Frankfurt want him training with the first team immediately.
have you considered maybe pulisic should try a “howard” or “dempsey” and be the star who plays every week at a second tier EPL type team. y’all keep pushing this “which big team will he join next” and then after a couple years he’s a rotation player. i am sure he can find another big club to pay a big fee. i am sure he and his agent will make bank off it. i am not sure if that creates his best career situation where he plays every week and is looked to to constantly produce.
if he does stay big club he needs to sit down and figure out a team where he fits well and will play all the time. y’all keep pushing he can “compete for time.” i kind of want a team that recognizes what i do the first day i show up.
short version of my tactical beef: we spent a week and a half avoiding stepping into counter “bear traps” by either changing formations or how we played. long balls, focus on wide play, kick it backwards to the backs and keeper. only, final game, reverted to a 433 and tried to naively tiki taka the ball through the heart of the defense. it vaguely reminds of how we lost to Japan 2-0 two months ago. and it makes even less sense if you consider that this is a much harder opponent than iran who wanted to counter us a half week ago.
we got fed into the woodchipper.
If people are looking for a tactical analysis of what happened look for Football Made Simple on YouTube.
—————————
Although similar results how they went about it was very different. Netherlands did it with positioning and not giving CBs anyone to pass to denying the ball to the FBs and man marking the CMs. Whereas Japan did it by not giving CBs time to pass and pressing the FBs and CMs as soon as they got it. Japan was far more effective limiting the US to just 4 shots but they had to expend a lot more energy.
nonsense. you don’t get it. your you tuber doesn’t get it. you are confusing their chess move with our chess response. i don’t have to play along with your press and keep short passing. we insisted. that plays right into the teeth of their defense. early in the game we played wide or long which goes around the clog in the middle. it also eliminates their ability to get on the break if the ball is able to get deep on their end. we actually did this in some group games.
you’re fighting me on this because you want for us to stick with our third rate baby barca scheme. it is incredibly easy to defend a sideways passing predictable short passing team, and we are not unusually gifted on the ball as a team. we have some stars but this is not barcelona. scheme like it.
what’s funny is you act like i am clueless then backtrack to saying the result of the chess match is “similar” to what i conveyed after all. it’s very simple, we tried to short pass through a team designed to win passes and rapidly wing counterattack. i don’t get why we treated that one way last week and another this weekend.
2+2=4. Go
I don’t know why but here it is. England let us move the ball up the flank. Netherlands took that away. The long ball wasn’t there because they had 3 CBs and sat deep.
“We did a different way of pressing. We know obviously that their strength is in the midfield,” star Dutch center back Virgil dan Dijk told reporters postgame. “So we let them have the ball a little bit longer in the back four, especially the two center halves. And overall, we did very good.”
is literally what holland said they did. they were happy to let us fart around in the back. as many teams have. they were treating the players further upfield — particularly central — as the beartrap. they didn’t have the manpower to cover the wings this way. a 352 simply doesn’t. we nonetheless chose to play in a style constantly criss-crossing and playing in tight spaces right through the beartrap.
“We know they like to attack, they have a lot of good players in midfield, up front,” explained Netherlands defender Nathan Aké. “And today we maybe sat in a little bit more than we used to the last games, to make sure when we recover the ball, there’s maybe more space for us to do on the counterattack.”
they sat back, waited for us to come to them, and as opposed to pressing, swarmed the MF. then hit wide counters. that is a perfect use of a 352. the appropriate tactical response is avoid the bear trap, wide play, or over the top. avoid the trap spring.
make fun of me all you want, that seems to be your goal more than accuracy. my analysis adds up and follows what the dutch themselves say. you’re leaning heavily on some youtuber who seems to be saying something else than what the dutch themselves said they were doing. i think the whole point is they weren’t doing anything much to ream and Z, they were content to let them fart around. acting like that was the tactical pivot is a joke. this was not the england game, we were not being confused by the CBs being man marked.
I wasn’t making any commentary on your assessment of what happened was just sharing with people an opportunity to see what the Dutch did to force the US to play differently than English or Iranians had. What everyone can see if you go to any of the tactical analysis on the web is that long balls where also not there. Now it might have provided 1 on 1 aerial duals but given our fitness level not sure how effective we would have been getting to the second ball leaving Zim and Ream 2 on 2 with DePay and Gakpo. Changing formation to nullify their advantage in midfield would have benefited either strategy IMHO.
how is a team sitting back “forcing” you to do anything. nonsense. i watched us about 3 times in the first 20′ play down the wings early or hit it over the top and we didn’t immediately lose the ball. they then reverted to what the coach wanted.
i also think it’s nonsense that the long ball of some form wasn’t on. there is usually some variation of a chipped ball to feet, diagonal, header, or over the top, is on. based on what i saw they had fairly slow backs and they were sitting behind the forward line.
personally i thought we did them a favor with the 3 man frontline. it should have been 2 + 2 wings. that also gives you 2 layers of defense if they want to counter down the wings.
Potential lineups for March for potential managers formations.
Curtin
——Weah—-Sargent——
————Reyna——————
Pulisic ——————Aaronson
————-Adams—————
Jedi—-McKenzie-Robinson-Dest
—————-Turner————-
////////////////////
Dolo: same as Berhalter uses 4-3-3
///////////////////
Marsch
————Weah————-
—Pulisic———Aaronson
————Reyna————-
——-Adams—Musah—
Jedi-Long-Richards-Dest
////////////////////
Martinez (loves old CBs)
————-Pefok————
———Puli—Reyna——
Jedi—Ty—-Wes—-Dest
——Zim-Ream-Long—-
As I think about it and as mentioned below in a comment not having to go thru the grinder of cow pastures, horribly biased refs, 4am fire alarms, plastics objects being thrown on corner takers, and the rest of what is typical of Concacaf qualifying FREEs us, our manager and players next cycle to focus on building on our ability to actually play soccer rather than slough thru the Concacaf meat grinder.
—
If GB moves on and we hired a manager with zero Concacaf experience I’d normally be worried about that but in this situation we can pick our friendlies worldwide play big teams in each confederation and focus on advancing our style and concepts instead of fighting a cage fight that happens to be on grass with a soccer ball somewhere.
—
Normally I’d be apprehensive of hiring a Concacaf niave manager but I think splashing for a Pottechino or Bielsa or Martinez would suit us without the qualifying of Concacaf to worry about. It frees us actually play real soccer.
“Berhalter over worked his player pool.” hold my beer says Marcelo Bielsa.
here’s the deal. i understand in 2017 there was at least some movement in FIFA, though i am not sure if it is final, towards a 48 team world cup, 16 groups. this mirrors the 16 cities selected to host. story goes for 2026 concacaf would have 3 host slots — the whole automatic qualifier quota from before — plus 6 qualifiers — 9 teams. one assumes in the future we would remain somewhere between 6 and 9 teams. if this is true concacaf qualifying will dramatically change. think about it like the whole “2022 ocho” +1 would have gotten out.
regions will have more teams before, changing ideas of how easy it is to qualify. so even if we have to qualify it won”t be as hard.
also, you may have to win a world cup group to advance. if you remember how nations league went, winning a 3 team group can be one feet on a banana peel of an exercise if you lose the wrong game.
personally i want the best possible coach and think a high quality coach could figure out concacaf for himself. we could hire him a recent coach as a consultant on the regional quirks and nastinesses. i think this tournament should already have underlined that at the key stage we need a coach who can compete across regions. if qualifying becomes easier then you should shift primary focus to the tournament itself.
i also don’t think strength of schedule matters unless you learn from it. we can scout teams watching games off TV or live. but we played a pretty hard schedule in 2018 and then again 2022 and didn’t seem to learn a ton from them. i tend to think there’s a little bit of unearned ego and arrogance in demanding some harsh schedule. when we played tough teams in 2018 we went into the woodchipper with limited exceptions. it wasn’t much better at the world cup where we beat iran and that’s it. we should maybe focus on beating canada and wales before demanding the heavyweight champs.
None of what you wrote makes much sense.
The USMNT does not have to qualify for 2026
How do you propose to build a World Cup competitive team without facing any real competition for 3-4 years?
That’s 4 years of practice.
V: I was saying even other side of the 2026 in 2030 and beyond qualifying may be significantly watered won. I was saying that for the near future 2022 was the last of a type. If 2026 and the next few cycles are either no quali or easy quali — and the World Cup watered down on entries but also more Darwinian in how many advance — then focus HAS to shift to the global level. Even if they switch back to 4 team groups at World Cups, if qualifying is easier, we need to be looking ahead to changing the 1W 2D 1L we got this time.
I think the landscape is changing, for a decade or more, period. It’s not just one “liberating” host cycle.
I also spelled out that one can get an international elite coach then hire a recent coach or player as an assistant or consultant to talk them through all the various concacaf specifics. the argument we need a domestic or regional coach to deal with concacaf means a lot less if qualifying is easy or automatic, and doesn’t have to necessarily dictate who gets head coach. you can hire translators for coaches who don’t speak english or spanish perfectly. you can hire secondary folks for specific knowledge. the head coach doesn’t have to contain all knowledge. i’d prefer them knowing great soccer ideas to picking based on concacaf experience or which languages they know.
How many coaches or managers stay at a professional team for 8 year’s anymore? 5 coaches in the NFL, 3 in the NBA, 2 in MLS. Out of those how many players were there for 8 years. The core of this group (health willing) is going to be here 4 more years, 8 years of player coach relationship is a long time. I think Gregg will be heading elsewhere. However, I’m not sure how interested big name managers will be. There would be some that would put out feelers looking for Klinsmann money but the coffers have been emptied somewhat by lawsuits and paying Bradley and Klinsmann not to coach. I could see them naming Varas interim through January since that camp is likely for the U20 and Olympic teams anyway since it’s not an international window.
Absolutely this will be a job coaches would love to take. Doesn’t matter that there is no WC qualification process. A host nation with a team that has a real opportunity to make a deep run on home soil. Coaches were lining up before Berhalter was appointed. Foreign coaches were calling the US soccer house and Earnie to be considered for the head coaching gig 3 years ago. You bet your booty it will happen again if Berhalter steps down.
Money isn’t there anymore though. Wasn’t there in 2018 either which was probably why none of them were interviewed. Paid buyouts to JK and Bob, lawyer fees from WNT litigation. Remember they shut down the development league because it was too costly. Even if someone like Scaloni or Deschamps was interested I don’t think we can afford them.
you keep saying USSF is broke. USSF is a 501 (c)(3) charity that files publicly available financials with the government. USSF as of 2021 had ~$150m in assets, ~$110m in investments, and ~$20m money in the bank. and net assets over debts of ~$120m. any money you think they owe the old coaches would be under that debt column. they have agreed to pay the women more and to pass through more bonuses, but that passes through the numbers above. and it bears reminding those are “pandemic” numbers and not USSF back operating with full stadia and participation again.
GB makes $1.3m/yr. we are not paying our coach peanuts. we are overpaying for a midtable MLS coach who got what i consider to be midtable qualifying and finals results.
Mr. V.
“GB makes $1.3m/yr. we are not paying our coach peanuts. we are overpaying for a midtable MLS coach who got what i consider to be midtable qualifying and finals results.”
It’s not peanuts to a guy like Gregg but a guy like Conte makes about 25 million base salary. He’s probably going to double that soon.
The important thing is Gregg’s salary is at the bottom end of that. Presumably, if the USSF brought in a furriner who would allegedly be better, that person would want more than Gregg.
The categories of National team managers break down, very roughly, along these lines:
Bridge the gap job for failed club guy:
Ex. Southgate. England Martinez, Belgium
Retirement job for your country after long and varied career:
Ex. Tite. Brazil, Van Gaal. Netherlands
Affordable guy in the system. Promoted assistant:
Ex. Page. Wales
Former star player looking to make a splash and break into a big time managing career.
Ex Song. Cameroon, Scaloni Argentina
The mercenary gunslinger
Ex. Guus Hiddink, Bora Milutinovic
The point is, National team manager it is usually either a starting point , a stepping stone or a retirement gig,
The reason you don’t see many stay really long (the fabled 2 cycle managers) is that:
1. They fail and get fired
2. They do well and used that success to land a club job
3. They do whatever they do and then retire or die
If you are a furriner and a reasonably hot young prospect the USMNT job doesn’t seem very desirable
• The USSF are pretty thrifty.
• They won’t give a Conte or someone like that the control he wants. The USSF remains an Old Boys Club.
• The 4 year commitment is too long. The hot young genius wants to make a splash and then get the big job, like replacing Pep at City
• If the USMNT job will lead to a lucrative “big club job” then why hasn’t it happened for any of the previous USMNT managers? I will take that back when Bayern fires Nagelsmann and replaces him with Gregg.
If they don’t retain Gregg or if he decides to do something else my best guess is the next person comes from MLS, the USSF system or is an American abroad. Names that come to mind are Curtin, Pellegrino Matarazzo, Wagner, Marsch Dolo, Hugo Perez or to make sure Gio is utilized, Eric Wynalda. Or there are always those blasts from the past like Jason Kreis and Caleb Porter.
Marsch is the obvious leader but that means he would have to be fired by Leeds and on balance, it’s better for “American Soccer” if he has a long, successful run at Leeds.
“Foreign coaches were calling the US soccer house and Earnie to be considered for the head coaching gig 3 years ago.”
2tone. Applying for a job is one thing. actually taking it is another.
“A host nation with a team that has a real opportunity to make a deep run on home soil.”
2tone That’s how USMNT fans see it. That’s not necessarily how foreign managers see it.
One additional thing I would say…. anyone who thinks the USMNT coaching job (should it become immediately available) is somehow “sexy” is in for a surprise.
Four years in the relative wilderness of North American international soccer, with nothing to feed on besides Nations League games and Gold Cups, is not going to attract mega interest from anyone, save perhaps semi-retired Euro coaches (van Gaal anyone?) and down-on-their-luck retreads. I’m good to move on from GB if that’s what’s in the cards, but this won’t be much easier than last time. Best we can hope for is a better process.
you would be handed an underperforming young round of 16 team and the spotlight of being joint-host. a country that is attractive to dual nationals if you are aware of some. i think the focus on our schedule is a sideshow, that kind of “copa america” or “we need a tough schedule” talk. i think most coaches would be more attracted by the endgame — coaching a host team with a lot of potential that already feels like a knockout team for next time. short of coaching brazil or france that is a decent size golden goose. i don’t think coaches care as much about the schedule as some fanboys seem to think. it’s a tool. since the response to tournaments like this or copa america is often circling wagons around the very tactics and personnel who just lost, i don’t think we treat it as educational as you think. cause education would tend to mean change. which is why most good coaches want their team tested, is to find out before this point who is going to crack. i’ve been telling anyone who would listen the wingbacks would crack, did so in some big games. we went with pedigree anyway. so who cares if they have schedule control or not.
ironically not having to qualify might be seen by the right coach as liberating. they would not be as trapped as GB was within so many regional games. if they want to go play japan, italy, england, argentina, sort out when they can. i actually tend to think the danger there is more availability and do we get away testing than do we have absolute control and can we schedule whoever we want. we will always be with the americas teams. we aren’t escaping that even if we merge with some other region. they will come with us.
Mr. V.
“. i think most coaches would be more attracted by the endgame — coaching a host team with a lot of potential that already feels like a knockout team for next time. short of coaching brazil or france that is a decent size golden goos”
If any coach really bought into that vision I would say he had bought into a steaming pile of horse manure combined with unalloyed arrogance on the part of the night soil pilers.
What’s this new person going to do in 2026 open a wormhole reach back to 2022 and import this team to 2026?
Poppycock.
Teams either get worse or they get better.
They don’t stay the same. Especially national teams.
If it’s not Gregg or even if it is, the 2022 cycle is dead and gone.
The 2026 cycle starts now. It’s harder and it’s very different. A lot of people will expect the new boss to win the World Cup. Especially if England win this one. We tied them and should have beaten them which means we are good enough to have won the World Cup right? It only makes perfect sense right? That ought to make Van Gaal fell better since they were the only team to beat us.
The biggest thing wrong with the USMNT is the lack of quality depth. It currently has about 8 players who might be good enough to be starters in 2026. Maybe less. Of those 8 only Adams, Aaronson, Turner, Musah, Jedi, return to bright stable club futures. Pulisic,, Weston and Dest have questionable club futures.
Watch England or France in these later rounds now. They have found a second wind. It’s as if the Group games knocked off the rust and now the real team has emerged. That’s because these teams have real quality and lots of it. If we had beaten the Netherlands I can’t see us looking as good as England does now. An England I felt we should have beaten.
We need 18 new players to get to the 26 (if that is still in place).
And that won’t be solved by the USMNT manager.
It will be solved by our young players going out and winning jobs at the highest level they can.
And getting the next Harry Kane to commit to the USMNT.
Gregg said he wanted to change how the world viewed us. But he can’t take credit for that. It wasn’t the USMNT alone who did that .
It was Christian, Weston Tyler, Brenden Gio, Richards. and others who convinced the clubs in Europe to sign our other kids and to actively consider the US as a place to look for more than just kids to sell shirts.
The USMNT has gone further and pulled bigger upsets in the World Cup before. The world noticed then but it didn’t last because the USMNT outfield player was still an odd duck in Europe. Now you’ve got Tyler and Brenden being arguably the leaders of Leeds and Christian being an important player for Chelsea, briefly and every once in a while. Nowadays the euros don’t think a good American outfield player is an oddity. And that was in progress before Gregg.
And it needs to continue at a greater pace so that whoever the USMNT manager is , they will have the depth they need to build a stronger USMNT. If they really want to do something great in 2026, they are going to need to upgrade that depth and the starters dramatically.
We need more of everything.
Very naive of Gregg to run sane lineup out four games in a row. Fatigue certainly had a huge part in their loss taking nothing away from the Dutch who were extremely clinical and took advantage of the opportunities whereas the US wasted theirs. Being tired you can see it on the third and final goal Dumphries looks like he had time to eat a sandwich while awaiting that cross. Nobody notice his back door run nobody communicated to pick up the runner. They looked statuesque. Greg had a chance to rest quite a few starters versus England in a game that we honestly didn’t need it was always going to be Iran the game that would put us into the second round yet he gives them no rest. This after in qualification we had consistent lineup changes which were maddening and drove many of us insane. As well he decided to continue running out the 433 which was easy for a world class coach like Van Gaal to exploit. Give them a different look but Gregg is not adaptable. Look I appreciate what he’s done he’s definitely a players coach the guys will play hard for him but I just question his choice of players and tactics from time to time especially on a big stage like the World Cup I think we could do better in the future and the USSF needs to assess this with someone from the outside who’s not drinking the Kool-Aid . Keeping Greg would not be a horrible choice but I also think there could very well be a better choice out there to get more out of this team and someone with tactics that play to our players strengths. Great effort but honestly when you saw this world cup draw did you not expect this team to at the minimum get out of the group?
i agree. i advocated rotating at the time. you have to look at the big picture, are they rested for game 3 that was the decider, and then beyond. the fact is that game, while a nice showpiece, was unnecessary. and personally i’d be curious if we could do it just the same with aaronson, reyna, etc.
i think this is a bigger blind spot than just GB. american coaches in general seem to have a win at all costs attitude where you don’t rest people and you chase max results and you don’t treat games that don’t matter — like they in fact don’t. we put a lot of energy into panama when trinidad was the decider last time. i’d see it as a mix of a little too hard core a meritocratic streak — like these 11 earned the right to start and must be rewarded — crossed with insecurity about how we fit in the soccer community.
and i am not even saying lose on purpose. it’s more like trust 5-10 more players to try and go chase results in rotational games. which we even occasionally did in qualifying. but it’s like we’re scared of how it might make us look or that it would be something akin to socialism to run aaronson, yedlin, acosta, reyna, etc. out there. i think plenty of other coaches wouldn’t blink. but for reasons that strike me as self defeating we’re more concerned how england looks than how holland goes. kind of seem to think holland will just have to take care of itself. reality is for elite teams they know exactly who they can trust to rotate to get through games like today. and that has to start group round.
to me it’s akin to an elite track runner coasting at the end of his or her heat. you do what it takes to make the round. you shut down. you point further down the road when you need a fuller tank of gas and full speed to stay in the event. the winners are often from among the runners who can save some energy in the heats.
I agree, players cannot go hard for 90 minutes every 4 days indefinitely. It showed in game 3 and even more so in the last game. The decision-making of tired players is poor as is their attention spans. That killed the US in the last game. You have to trust your 2nd tier players or what happened against the Dutch will happen when the players begin to get tired. We did not Scally at all and Yedlin (or Moore) only briefly despite the heavy workload placed on the fullbacks. It was inevitable that Dest and Robinson would falter. Similarly Adams works so hard, he was also off a bit in the 4th game. Acosta is not as good, but using him to get Adams some rest would have been smart.
Of course, there are reasons one player starts over another, but you can’t exhaust the #1 and not expect that there would be a cost to pay, you simply have to trust #2 (or use him when it does not matter so much).
Imperative Voice noted former RB Cherundolo as option of Gregg is not back. I would say yes as he has extensive background at Kaiserslautern, USMNT and just won MLS Cup. But I would definitely look at foreign coaches as well. I think we have evolved enough that some good foreign coaches would be interested whereas Klinsmann was a cast off having failed with Germany and well we gave him a second chance. I think we certainly could fair better this time around.
failed with germany is relative. i want to say he got fired by germany for losing in the semi. i wish we were that aspirational. likewise i think he was fired for having bayern in 3rd. that being said i foresaw leipzig being harsh for marsch as he came into a UCL squad and would have to maintain that, which he didn’t. it is much more forgiving to be coaching leeds under american owners and just have to survive relegation.
to be real, you could argue finishing semis at home with germany is failure, but if we’re rating relative success and failure our current coach’s claim to fame is finishing 2nd one season in MLS Cup. personally i’d prefer we get someone who either won things or failed a lot higher of a level than we’ve got now. i kind of want the flynn rule back. we toss the resume unless you won something as a coach. i am uncomfortable just naively trusting some otherwise unsuccessful midtable coach is secretly value for money. i prefer betting on a horse who’s already won some races. i don’t do hope without some basis for it.
Naive?
Hard to say. Gregg had little choice.
Lack of depth really hurt the USMNT
Weah, Gio, Weston, Josh, Dest, Musah, were recovering from recent injury just before the Word Cup and none of them arrived in Qatar as full fit as we would all have liked. The World Cup is short and brutal. One reason the big boys monopolize winning it is because they have the quality depth and can rotate w/o losing too much effectiveness.
Gregg had no option but to start his recently recovered players . That took away some of our advantage in being so young and lively. Don’t get me wrong, he made some questionable calls.
He shot himself in the pelvic region by not making more rotational use of Gio , Brenden and Scally earlier. Dest and Jedi really needed a break. And he gambled and lost on bringing in LDLT instead of a guy like Djorde who might have been able to contribute to the rotation and give guys a break but I wonder if their contributions would have been enough.
Gregg has been on learning on the job and I think he missed the modules on “Substitutions” and “Rotation: how to keep them fresh”
We could have beaten Holland but then we would have had to face Argentina who are now using their younger stars more than they did before.
Decent showing, but as others have said, lack of depth, fatigue, and an off day by a few key defenders did us in against a superior opponent. Hats off to the Dutch, who barely broke a sweat. I’m proud overall. USA! USA!
—
I don’t think a coach will matter much for 2026. I’m fine with Vermes or Curtin, or maybe an interim from GGG’s staff for a year or two until someone better comes along. Brace yourselves for this to happen… Some of you may want to stockpile blood pressure medication.
—
What matters most for 2026 is: (1) Adding more young players to the pool at CB and No. 9. Managers can do only so much with a 13/14-man roster; (2) Understanding that we aren’t getting out of the round of 16 (or its equivalent) in 2026 either. We are a few cycles of consistent development away from being a surefire quarterfinalist; and (3) Make sure the development is smart and sustainable. We don’t need a “Golden” Generation. We need to avoid another lost one.
Word is Berhalter is open to pursuing club opportunities, likely overseas. His exposure to clubs in Europe will never be higher, and he revamped basically the whole US roster and got to the knockout round. Being the Nat coach can be a serious grind with compressed prep time, and it involves a lot of travel.
Given the large pool of young talent in the pipeline, and the next WC is here, I’d think there would be no shortage of applicants.
I have to respectfully disagree on the pool of applicants. This job is not coveted. We may get another snake oil motivator like Klinsmann, or a “reliable” name (like Bielsa or Quiroz, who aren’t actually a good fit). Pep isn’t lining up for this job. Then there’s the protectionist tendencies of the USSF.
—
There will probably be an interim en route to an internally hand-picked MLS coach. It’ll be a revolving door between USMNT and MLS coaching/assistant coaching ranks for the foreseeable future.
i thought adams and turner played well for the tournament. i thought the system failed pulisic but he was involved in a couple tough goals in key games. particularly since this is gonna be ream’s sunset ride, and i was skeptical, i give him credit for generally playing well. a lot of O-30 americans exit their last tournament with some sort of goal/game costing gaffe. musah was alright.
weah didn’t do a ton. weston didn’t do a ton. the backs all had gaffes save ream. the 9s were generally anonymous.
aaronson and reyna were criminally underused.
the coach blew the second half of wales and this holland game. he managed a cagey england game neither team tried too hard to win, and an iran game that was more gladiatorial than a soccer skill demonstration.
Wow I’m so proud of my team……we are eliminated but we can leave this tournament with our heads held high….as we came to the world cup TO COMPETE and that we did, against one of the best teams in the competition.
–
———————————–USMNT——————-Netherlands—————
SHOTS ON GOAL ————–8——————————-6————————
POSSESSION——————–59%—————————-41%———————
PASSES————————–569—————————–414———————-
PASS ACCURACY————–83%—————————76%———————
–
Berhalter played his part well as coach, as we looked good both offensively and defensively. IMO he everything he could have logically done at coach but we just got OUT CLASSED by a better opponent. We do not have Neymar’s, Benzema’s, Robert Lewandowski’s, Kylian Mbappe’s, Cristiano Ronaldo’s or a Lionel Messi’s on our team to make something out of nothing. GB accomplished a lot against England and Netherlands with limited quality up top…….very limited. If the USMNT had a good finisher like some of these elite countries, we would be one of the most feared teams in the World Cup. We created the opportunities, we had the chances, we had the possession, we defended well for the most part……but we didn’t have a finisher or dynamic goal scorer.
At then end of the day hard work means nothing without goals but MAN am I proud of my team (including GB) and the heart they played with
you don’t get to sell “i am the coach to help you beat good teams” then excuse that we didn’t get the result “because they are a good team.” along those lines, this detour into half baked baby barcelona was justified as we’re gonna improve past the plateau using his ideas, ie, “helping beat good teams.” we then land right back at the plateau and maybe look less competitive doing so than before. like germany 2002 was close. ghana and belgium turned on individual plays. today we got our butt kicked.
i think it’s an achievement to get this far but if you kind of barely get anything done can we have a new coach next time. i thought it would be better on this talent pool.
“you don’t get to sell “i am the coach to help you beat good teams” then excuse that we didn’t get the result”
Says who? It is one thing to have high expectations and it is another to be absolutely Irrational. We competed against England (with far inferior quality players) and we held our own / created even chances against the Netherlands (with inferior quality players). GB’s job is to put players in the position to succeed not to score the goals himself. If you couldn’t see the improved level of play for the USMNT I don’t know what to tell you.
Sometimes you have to have reasonable hopes and expectations, and take the little “wins” and improvements as they come. We played better than many TOP 10 teams and went TOE TO TOE with every team we played.
When you have the quality and don’t perform then that’s a problem (Germany, Italy, Belgium etc.), but like I said over and over again, we do not have a red hot consistent goal scorer and goals wins games.
———————————–USMNT——————-Netherlands—————
SHOTS ON GOAL ————–8——————————-6————————
POSSESSION——————–59%—————————-41%———————
Can we blame him for not bringing certain players? Maybe (like Ferreira instead of Pefok???……lol), but he put the team in a position to succeed, and due to the limited goal scoring ability up top, they just couldn’t bury the chances
Blame GB when we play and lose to inferior CONCACAF opposition as the quality is on our side, but not when he’s fighting to punch way above his weight class and RESPECTFULLY loses to a SUPERIOR team.
bizzy: half my point is whether we have to play naive attacking soccer or could be more subtle. like i thought some of the group round games were. the coach reverted to his old naive malfunctioning tactics for the most important game and got crushed. my concern is that seems to be his comfortable place. if his comfortable place is attempting to go toe to toe and getting destroyed, that is silly. i am not favoring style over substance. and most elite world cup teams aren’t style over substance either. which is why they REALLY go so far. we seem to want to emulate spain (eliminated) and previous holland teams, who have one world cup trophy all time, total. i want to emulate teams like italy, germany, france that are more consistently excellent. their default systems do not treat defense as an afterthought, and they are usually more direct on offense (except germany this time).
cut the crap, folks, you are high on the players, not on the coach. the coach shouldn’t be cut slack because the players will make him look good. if anything it should be the opposite — they deserve someone more like what holland had.
nothing about 3rd in WCQ, 2nd in group, or this exit screams he will lead this team to dominate next time any more than this one, at home. now some of you will say the players will be even better next time, but that’s again confusing the trajectory of the player pool with who should get to coach it.
GB has been excused for being mediocre by this being a project. i don’t consider the objective milestones i just listed as a sign of a project in takeoff mode. below a goal a game for. more than a goal a game against. 1 win.
I’m hearing Gregg wants to coach at club level again anyway and he hasn’t been real happy with the distance imposed by being a national team coach. What I’m gathering is there’s a strong feeling Gregg and US Soccer may both move on by mutual consent.
The next International window isn’t until March. I suspect the coaching landscape will have shifted drastically by then.
That’s the word is Berhalter is looking to go back to club ball.
Not many options out there as of right now. Martinez is looking to take time off and go back to club ball again.
Marsch isn’t leaving Leeds anytime soon.
Don’t think a Bielsa fits into what Earnie is looking for.
Juan Carlos Osorio wouldn’t be a bad shout out.
I could see Tab Ramos get consideration. Who I think fits a national team coach.
I think Hugo Perez would be an interesting hire.
David Wagner could be considered.
Do you look at an Italian coach like a Fabio Capello?
Do you look at a Gus Hiddink?
I think Earnie has specific traits he is looking for.
Also American Pelegrino Matarazzo is available.
What’s wrong with hiring an interim for a year and hiring a coach after that? Not like we have to win qualifiers.
2tone: as a Dynamo fan i want you to run, flee, sprint away from Tab Ramos. Tab’s HD was a GB clone, nothing but wide crossing, few GF, then played defense like a bottom table eredivisie team. Completely passive and positional, jogging in lines.
Like the softest MLS defense I have ever witnessed. I am not sure he’s ready to coach MLS much less be handed a NT, and his approach cloned GB minus any defense.
If I was feeling really punchy, while people tout TR’s 2019 U20 run, I thought losing in the quarters with a good chunk of this NT was actually tepid stuff. They had a good offense but not enough defense.
Not really a fan of hiring an interim. Let the next coach be the coach the entire cycle. Still have competitions to play for and win in 2023. Then potentially Copa America in 2024 and the Olympics. A coaching staff should be appointed before March if Berhalter and USSF part ways.
personally i thought the mistake was waiving the flynn rule. you should have to be a proven winner to coach this team.
i think y’all are shooting low. we are the upcoming world cup host. we have young talent. we just went out round of 16 and should have gone deeper than that. we are a hot item that needs a good coach for added value. Rafa, Pocchetino, Zidane, Martinez, Dunga, Bielsa, Villas-Boas.
hugo made ES decent but that’s more like making a bad thing look slicker as opposed to actually winning. i think we have already turned the corner from bunker battlers to passing team.
people talk up wagner but he’s a lot like berhalter in the sense he’s touted more for being abroad than for his teams actually winning. ditto mattarazzo, who lost more than he won. i even think similar thoughts on marsch at leeds, who gets credit for beating the drop more than winning there. really, more for keeping a job more than a year. which says more about the EPL attitude to americans than anything else.
to me if there was a domestic dark horse it would be someone new and winning like dolo. dolo has been to world cups, started, and excelled. and lifted actual domestic silverware. i kind of wouldn’t go that direction because we have no idea if it was a fluke.
i will be curious if supposed club interest is real or is seeking contract leverage for the second cycle. he did enough to get a decent domestic club job if he wanted it. but he may just be trying to squeeze more cash out of us.
2tone: Understood… but who is in the pool? Caleb Porter… or Tab Ramos… or Jason Kreis… and do we want any of them? I think we need an interim to get it right.
—
We aren’t winning any of these tournaments. They should be used to run guys out and blood the youth. Manager doesn’t matter until late 2024 to June 2026.
Who is calling for Berhalter to stay? Who is saying he got everything right? But someone saying those things would be just as inaccurate as you are saying everything is wrong. Did Berhalter tell Tyler to not track that runner, or Jedi to forget about his man on the back post? Did he tell Haji to push the ball 5 yards wider than he needed too? Score differential means nothing in a knockout round, we could have told our FBs to sit back after we got a goal back and let Netherlands run out the clock, would 2-1 have made you feel better? No you’d be whining why didn’t we push for a goal.
the players made some mistakes but i thought the coach fed them into the tactical woodchipper second half wales, second half iran, and this whole game. holland wanted you to try and play passing soccer up the middle. then counterattacked. he walked right into the beartrap. he also started his 3rd striker for a knockout which is even dumber than bradley/rico in 2010. we just weren’t even close enough for it to even matter. that pulisic misses a shot in a 3-1 game he should make doesn’t excuse the coach setting the whole team up to fail today, 433, Berhalter Ball, playing right into the hands of holland. and i mean predictably. i watched holland before and this was not new stuff. we just walked harder into the trap than even senegal did.
oh, i am not talking out of my hat. they have already scheduled friendlies and i’d swear he had already talked the future of the team. the general pattern is we keep coaches who make it out of group. the general pattern is also 2018 aside we have plateaued, which may reflect that very complacency once we achieve this level. at this point the rosters tend to get consistent, the tactics stale, the coaches protected.
IV, wow dude, you need a hash pipe or something
you cut the crap…GB and the boys didn’t do it how you said they had to…and still made the 16s.
good grief. BG was imperfect, yes, and I think it’s time for a change, but all these managers are imperfect. Tata Martino? incredibly imperfect. Roberto Martinez? the definition of the word. Herdman? LOL!
How many of them have you touted as better managers than GB? Better at what…crashing out in the group stages? Losing the NL and Gold Cup to GB’s men?
get a grip. your lack of respect looks bad on you man, you’re better than that
like i said, stepping back, this is the 4th best USMNT performance this century after 2002, 2010, and even 2014. it’s better than not qualifying or the 2006 suckage. but i think YOU folks are blowing barely advancing then getting destroyed out of proportion, to try and protect the coach and his ideas. if his ideas are what went 1-3 yesterday i don’t want them. i want the coach who wins that game.
to be blunt, the sales pitch wasn’t just we are changing our style. it’s we would go deeper. we didn’t. the sales pitch failed. try something else. i think it’s precisely the complacency right at this moment is why we never take the next steps forward. if you want to actually compete now is when you need to keep pushing.
Remember when IV bashed Gregg for saying that 2022 was about gaining experience for 2026. Berhalter never talked about winning this or making a deep run and IV whined for days because he wasn’t trying to win.
A lot of agreement here. I am also super proud. Our American fight is back.
Here’s a take I haven’t seen yet: we’re getting more and more guys playing at the top club level – but so is everyone else!!!
Holy smoke the Asian teams have looked sharper than anyone expected and the European teams have looked more vulnerable than ever.
Nice to see things leveling out a little – then again I might have to take that back after the round of 16. But no time to rest for US Soccer!
the asian teams are highly organized, good at defense, and get to goal in a hurry — concepts the “frat rush” USMNT is not sure if it wants as it tries to beg its way in The Club. The Club isn’t taking them based on that trash today. as with my Houston Dynamo they miss that what The Club really respects is winning. only jealous folks, snobs, and pedants complain that other teams’ soccer is too negative, and usually after they already got eliminated, which should give one pause about how seriously to take such opinions.
the reality if anyone has watched this tournament is we are ages beyond 2010 spanish tiki taka. i think our coaching concepts are about half a decade or more stale. you need to be figuring out how to stop the teams that will be good in 4 more years — whatever systems will be used in the future — and not the ones who were good 12 years ago. for all the obsession with possession as end and 433 what i have seen is more 352 or 442, more direct, willing to go long, fast up the wings, counter soccer. but that’s not even necessarily where soccer will be 4 years from now. but you definitely won’t get there fetishizing a coach who peaked in 2015 and is stuck back there tactically.
Haha Dynamo can’t even qualify let alone get out of the group. 1 playoff appearance in 9 seasons. You should compare your Dynamo with Trinidad they’ve qualified once in their last nine tries.
Very proud of the team. Today didn’t go the way we wanted. We were undone by inexperience and a modest but material gulf in talent. Berhalter acquitted himself well during this tournament and cycle, but certainly clear he was second-best for tactics today. Nothing else to add right now — hope you all enjoyed it as well!
you must be trolling. 1W 2T 1L for the tournament with 2T 1L vs european sides. -1 GD. at the key moment of the tournament he runs out his 3rd striker and brings back his malfunctioning system. let’s cross all day on a tall keeper and defense. he went with the “get forward wingbacks” and today turned into the dumfries and blind show.
bare minimum either BerhalterBall goes or the coach does, if we have a brain cell left in USSF. not sure how you see that as a building block. his sales pitch was this would go further than ever before. i think that’s the worst knockout performance i have seen by a US team ever, with a talented team. my wife termed it embarrassing but apparently expectations are being rebooted and lowered.
i don’t buy “young” has to equal struggle. landon and beasley’s break out world cup 2002 they were like 20. bradley and jozy were fairly young in 2010. the failure here is not talent or age, it’s perhaps somewhat the defense and then a failure to gel some grand concept. BerhalterBall itself doesn’t work and every game was different. anyhow, i expect he keeps his job but i also expect until he’s fired we have no idea what this team could actually do. you can have the coach or the golden generation dreams — not both.
Apparently you’ve never actually seen us play a knockout match before. Played a half up a man in 1994 and never even came close to scoring or even maintaining possession. 2010 gave up goal 5 minutes in, our only goal came on a penalty, and then immediately in extra time give up a goal. 2014 gave up 39 shots, 39, 39 no that’s not a typo 39. Completely outplayed from the first minute to the last except for one of the greatest performances by a player ever by Tim Howard. Still had a chance to steal it but we missed a wide open net from 3 yards out. I get your a schtick is scream the sky is falling all the time and then when you hit right once every 30 times you think you’re a genius, but come on. We had more shots, more shots on goal, better passing accuracy, they won 4 more ground duels than us but we were even in aerial duels. They won because their stars finished their chances when they had an opportunity. Yes Van Gaal gloated about how great his plan was to exploit the wings, yet they created less offensive chances than the US. He crowed about his X’s and O’s but it was his Jimmy’s to our Joe’s, or Jedi’s I guess. Berhalter deserves criticism for roster selection and lineups but we lost because Dumfries was better than anyone we rolled out there.
I am not his biggest fan either, but the GGG reductionism is pretty laughable.
—
What will some of you guys do when GGG is gone? A certain meme comes to mind… some guy in a sweater at the bottom of an empty pool.
IV. What is it? If anyone dares suggest that Berhalter was not not terrible, you jump in with a lengthy post saying Berhalter stinks, can’t coach, doesn’t understand tactics and that if it weren’t for the players’ talent the US would lose every game badly; or some version of that. It is getting pretty tiresome reading such posts and I have started mostly just skipping what you have to say.
You are a very strange person. I didn’t come here to defend Berhalter’s tactics at all. As I said, he was outclassed today. Personally I have no opinion about whether he stays or goes. Stop being so angry.
dude i’ve watched every world cup game they played back to 1990. you might think little of the soccer quality or tactics used in previous knockout rounds, but games would be closer, go to OT. we played more open as he advocated. we got our tookus handed to us. i don’t see how opening up to lose 3-1 is progress when we were playing one goal games before. that sounds like style over substance. i’d rather be in the game at the end where we can even talk berhalter or wondo than this trash today. i thought we were more competitive — but also more cagey — in group. swing it back that way. idea is to win games or at least be in them than to score style points.
We were down 1 with 10 minutes to play “rather be in it at the end”. We were far more in it than 1994 or after the 93 minute in 2010 or 2014. Let’s not forget being destroyed by Poland 2002 3-1 after going down 2-0 in the first 5 minutes needing hosts SKorea to benefit from Portugal playing down 2 men to even get out of the group. 2010 needing a stoppage time victory to get out. 1994 finishing 3rd which wouldn’t even get you out now.
1994:1-1-2 -1GD
2002: 2-1-2 0GD
2010: 1-2-1 0GD
2014: 1-1-2 -1GD
2022: 1-2-1 0GD
The Dutch didn’t care how they played. They only cared about winning. That’s what needs to be instilled in our players. Sometimes ugly winning is beautiful.
The USMNT showed the world that they can soccer. Now they need to show the world that they can win.
I thought that Reyna never really found the game and spent too much time jogging around aimlessly, much like he has played for Dortmund recently. When you are perhaps the most talented player on the team you must find ways to be involved, even if you are in a snit over olaying tome. He didn’t find a way to make a difference.
i generally agree he wasn’t impactful today but i think it’s silly to run your show on ostracizing one of your best players and not getting your best 11 out there in some leveraging concept.
He was t ostracized lol. He was coming off multiple recurring injuries, was a little slow, and has looked the same for Dortmund, for whom he hadn’t scored in quite a while until a few weeks ago. All hail the Backup QB who gets game time while being “ostracized.” Ultimately, he and the whole team were 2nd best today.
I think that as a matter of course that Coaches should hold NT roles for only one cycle. For example. Arena. Bradley and Klinsmann were all less effective after their first WC s as coach. There is a connection between coach and player that almost requires a personal bond. That bond can cloud a coach’s judgement regarding roster and starting decisions. If that bond is not formed with enough players, the team can start to mistrust the coach and that generally leads to poor performance as much as being seen as favoring some players can.
i don’t think we ever arrived at personnel optimality and he basically tinkered with system at the tournament itself. i agree in general coaches over time can become clouded. he started clouded and spent the cycle trying to fly out of the cloud. today is a perfect example. back to the day 1 system and he has his 3rd string striker on for a knockout. setting aside i wouldn’t start who he starts.
There’s no reason a manager cannot be successful over two cycles or even more. It depends on the relationship between the manager and their bosses. It helps to be the right person.
There’s this manager named Jill Ellis. Look her up sometime.
Or if you insist on a male coach, Fernando Santos of Portugal has been on the job since 2014 and hasn’t been an abysmal failure.
Arena’s second cycle was ruined because his 2002 squad aged out or got hurt. At the time we did not have enough quality players to replace the best of the 2002 squad. So 2006 was about guys who were just too much over the hill. Again, we’re talking depth.
Bob was never a popular guy with the USSF and Sunil spent most of Bob’s reign looking for reasons to fire him so he could bring in JK. Bob saved him self with a great 2009 Confederations Cup but Sunil always was gunning for him.
JK was never going to last two cycles because, never mind the players, many of whom say great things about him, he spent the first cycle alienating everyone in the USSF Good Old Boys club ( as well as MLS) imaginable. Gregg is a far superior Company Man.
“There is a connection between coach and player that almost requires a personal bond. That bond can cloud a coach’s judgement regarding roster and starting decisions. If that bond is not formed with enough players, the team can start to mistrust the coach and that generally leads to poor performance as much as being seen as favoring some players can.”
You know how to solve that ?
Play more meaningful tournaments (Copa America) more frequently so you can prove to the team that you actually know what you’re doing. That also gives players more chances to weed themselves out, like Ferreira did today.
The USMNT is on a 4 year cycle.
Many of the big boys are on 2 year cycles ( WC, Euros, WC, Euros or WC, Copa, WC , Copa). The Gold Cup is small beer compared to the Euros or Copa America.
That 2 year cycle keeps the teams fresh and sharp and gives them another trophy to aim for.
The point is even best managers would be challenged trying to stay relevant with the players for 4 years with nothing to shoot for. Note that the USWNT uses the Olympics the same way as the big boys in the men’s game use the Euros or Copa America.
It works. The USMNT should try it and sign up with Copa America.
And get used to Gregg being around. His major flaw is that he’s not a very good game day manager, is poor with the media and is a very bad liar. I’m not on the training ground so I couldn’t tell you how good he is at actually coaching players.
Otherwise he excels in the other aspects of being a USMNT manager.
V: you have your finger on it. i agree people see a vague pattern of second cycle struggle. i think it has to do with resistance to change. tactics move forward. teams adapt to you or put a target on your back. the players you relied on get old. US teams have a tendency to respond to success by freezing in time, ok, these are the tactics, these are the guys. if jones, beckerman, and bradley all get old, what do you do? we had a developmental issue and the coach tried to go with the old guys another cycle, then dropped them but had no new ideas. he also got stuck on his 4321. 2018 wasn’t going to be 2014 and i think success in this country tends to encourage stasis.
even if this coach stays i hope he rethinks everything and opens the roster back up. we aren’t holding the trophy, you aren’t perfect, keep tinkering.
A couple observations from the game:
1) Netherlands tactical approach was a gamble (concede possession, punish the US Mistakes) but it worked well. They knew we struggled to finish so they invited us to get out of shape, make a poor pass, or a player to turn off for a minute….than were clinical in punishing us for those moments.
2) In the first half every time Dest was involved they double & Trippel teamed him, knowing that he was the 1 player on the field who could really cause problems on the dribble in the final 3rd.
Overall Gregg got his starting XI right, and the players did well. Before the 1st game I was worried about the defense, but they came through and impressed. Where I think Gregg struggled was (again) in his substitutions. Poor selections and poor timing.
Looking forwards there are a few things area’s that the USMNT has to address.
1) CB: We need to be refreshed. Ream should retire. Long shouldn’t have been there. Zimmerman may have a year or 2 left…but not much more.
2) Striker: We either need our current pool (Sargent, Pepi, Ferreira, Dike) to become a consistent threat or we need to A) address this with New Players (Balogun), 2) different tactics (move Weah to the 9). Either way we need to improve our finishing.
3) It’s time to turn the page on some players who fail to contribute to any of the ON FIELD product. There is absolutely ZERO reason to ever see Roldan, Long, Arriola, & Morris again. The USMNT is beyond their ability. Yedlin & Ream should retire. Zimmerman, Acosta, & Moore are on notice, and should be replaced with more capable players sooner than later.
4) I’d like to see a NEW coach/manager, but I am almost 100% certain that Gregg will have his contract extended.
I am of the ilk that Earnie needs to take a hard look at this. The next games for the US aren’t until the end of March. A decision does not need to be made about Berhalter right away. But Earnie should have a decision made by January 1. If you hire a new coach by 1 Jan this allows the new coach to see enough of the player pool by March.
USSF have already announced 2 opponents/friendlies as part of a January Camp. The first competitive match may be in March, but the sooner a decision is made the better.
historically you could get this done in a week if we drop the pretense of deliberation and just sign precisely who we really want, money no object. i giggle at the idea the year long hiring process last time arrived at anyone close to the best choice.
not unlike my dynamo the executives need to stuff their ideas of what works and hire a winner of a coach to tell them that.
January camp isn’t in an international window, Serbia will be sending a domestic based side as well, as will Colombia so no matter who is in charge it won’t be especially meaningful. IV you could do it in a week only if your looking to hire someone who isn’t still playing. (Not sure any still in WC would be all that interested, please no Southgate)
i get frustrated when i hear people act like we got the lineup or the tactics right when we got clobbered like that. ferreira, reyna, zimmermann, the wingbacks, weston didn’t have much impact all tournament. no consistent system and today in particular just sucked. but anyway, when you get beat 3-1 you do yourself a disservice to not at least question why. i think half the reason this team supposedly “plateaus” is right about “now” is instead of pushing the team to fix why they lost at this round, they pat themselves on the back and tell themselves they are hot stuff.
it wasn’t bad but it was just ok. people keep talking how this is the golden generation and we’re gonna push beyond where we always end. ok, ask the questions.
I am not surprised they lost to the Netherlands in the round of 16. Basically what I thought coming into the tournament. The play on the field was good in all four games, the midfield was great. They play unlike any US team before. But this team just doesn’t score enough. They are dangerous, but not deadly.
Berhalter was fine, but I think there should always be a change in coaches for every cycle. The players need to earn their spots again and the team needs new ideas, especially attacking ideas. Future is bright.
100% agree, but I think USSF will extend Gregg’s contract.
they will figure out they have wasted this generation and the 2026 hosting after their careers are done and not a darned thing can be changed. personally i’d like to give the players something different and better before they are 30 and headed downhill.
i think they have some ball winning ideas though i personally favor counter soccer over naive pressing. they then have some players they get the ball to. they then have not been given any clue how to get the ball in the actual net. that part seems improvised.
Do we think the injury was bothering Pulisic? Didn’t have much power in his shot all day or was it just coincidence that he didn’t hit them clean?
I don’t think it was. Pulisic has never been known to have a powerful shot.
Unfortunately today just wasn’t the day. Quite clearly fatigue played a huge role. And that absolutely is on the coach. Aaronson should have got more minutes. Reyna clearly should have got more minutes.
Also these players need to work on their fitness and gym time going forward.
Musah was based in every game. Adams finally looked gassed against Holland, and McKennie was struggling in all of the games.
Weah was gassed, Dest never completed a 90. With physical fatigue comes mental fatigue. Adams not recognizing Depay as a danger man on the first goal was very uncharacteristic for him. He looked physically fatigued in the first half, and not switched on.
Defensively they just weren’t switched on.
Dest, Pulisic, Reyna, Weah and McKennie didn’t come in with regular 90 minute appearances for their clubs.
Fatigue was clearly a factor. I contribute some of that to the injuries we had in Key Players before the WC and some to Gregg’s tactics.
1) McKennie, Dest, & Reyna all were recently recoveries before the 1st match. They were never going to be fully match fit for 90 minute games with the very compressed camp/lead into the WC. Pulisic while fit, hasn’t seen enough of Club minutes to claim match fitness.
2) The tie against Wales forced us to use our starters more minutes than we should have had to. If we’d one against Wales we’d have been better positioned to rest some players against Iran, which would have had them fresher for the game against Netherlands.
What do ya’all think about the striker selections in retrospect? Jesus F. looked apathetic. H. Wright was awful and only scored by accident. Would things have turned out differently with Pefok and Pepi????
I think Wright could have been justified based on club form. But for sure we were missing some power that I think Pefok could have provided. The Sargent injury was most unfortunate, but since Wright was really bad vs Iran I would have hoped GB would have gone with an extra attacking mid like aaronaon or reyna from the start and no ferreira.
Roldan and Morris were definite roster wasted spots though and that was not so hard to see from before the WC.
all due respect dude but what about this tournament says that club form is predictive at all? the snobs want it to be true that it matters where you play or how many goals you got the past month. history says go with the ones who have goals in the shirt. sargent hadn’t scored for 3 years and he still hasn’t, so what about norwich. wright had scored in a recent friendly and he managed 1 here, however goofy.
i get needing to learn the finer points of international soccer coaching, anticipating what teams will be playing in 2026, but the assumption that “he’ll do fine because wondo scored 25 this season” was disproved a decade ago. soccer coaching 101.
Pepi should have been added. There was no need for 3 RB. And probably no need for Roldan to be added. For a coach to not bring another striker in Pepi who was clearly back in form needs to be scrutinized.
i would like to have seen pulisic play striker. when you can’t decide among frustrating specialists pick a landon/dempsey. the US has developed a bad habit of cycling among bad choices instead of going out of the box (eg center back in 2017).
The strikers were dire, though Sargent was excellent vs Iran. Ferreira looked like what he was…. an out-of-season MLS player who was a step and a half too slow. He might come good in the future if he gets some better experience… he is only 20. Haji Wright is just some guy. Add him to our tally of weird meme World Cup goals.
Now I look forward to seeing how the U20’s do this up coming summer and what the USMNT looks like in the Gold Cup. There will be player turnover especially at striker and defense. Actually the Nations league starts up in the spring. Should be interesting to see what the team looks like for those games.
The guy who really intrigues me in the U20 group is Diego Luna. I really like what he brings and I think he could well develop into an answer for us at CM. He brings that lockpicking dimension the MMA trio just doesn’t have.
He’s pretty wasted at RSL, Pablo sets them up so defensively not sure how much he is going to develop under Mastroeni.
I agree that the MMA midfield doesn’t have that creativeness, but Mihailovich does and Taylor Booth does and Ledezma. Which I would put over Luna.
Luna still has a ways to go. But he is promising.
Also looking forward to Kevin Paredes getting looks at RW. We desperately need a left foot presence in attack.
@2 tone – seems to me Reyna would be our best creative midfielder in a #10’ish role. I think his skillset is mostly wasted on the wings and he should play more centrally moving forward. Build the midfield around Admas-Musah-Mckennie-Reyna. Pulisic-Weah-Aaronson will provide plenty from the wings and would be viable for next cycle. Dest, Robinson and Scally provide good RB/LB cover – by the way how does Shaq Moore get more min then Scally at this WC?!! Our biggest homework for 2026 is finding a dependable #9 and dominant central defenders – I thought CCV was good vs Iran and was surprised not to see him in there vsHolland.
they have to turn over the defense based on age, rehabbing injured players, poor play. i am sure everyone sees that and it will be true regardless of the coach. but striker will be up to who is coaching. if it’s GB you will get a different look-see at whether change is needed than if we start fresh.
Plenty to not pick here but I’ll try to keep this positive. As someone who’s watched USMNT for decades what struck me this game is that we out possessed a top 8 team in a knockout round at the WC, I believe that is a first for us.
—
What’s bad about that is that was by design by Van Gaal. It was savy to give us so much possession in the first half and wait for us to make an errand pass and punish our mistakes in the opened space. Van Gaal MoM really and brilliant.
—
But, big big but… he gambled. He hit but it was a big gamble. We had many many chances we failed to finish. Some clean some ugly some lucky. The gamble works. Will he or another manage make that same gamble on a more seasoned group in 26?
—
These are growing pains as we evolve into a more possession based NT rather than sitting back and run a lot or old route 1 soccer. Van Gaal used our growing pains against us. Kudos to him we need to learn.
—
We a dominate 9 to emerge between now and 26 who is an auto starter type like Pulisic or Adams. Richards and Miles will be back and hopefully one of the CBs who barely missed this roster can emerge as dominate as well for depth.
—
Van Gaal gambled he won that gamble. That mis early by Pulisic and a few other clean misses say this could have been different.
Also we completely failed to exploit their lack of pace on the right wing. We should have been giving Dest space to attack that LB. Yes it’s Blind but Dest would’ve ran past him and that’s have been a tilt we should have taken.
He was it just didn’t amount to much. I think my biggest complaint was Weah on the right side. He just didn’t take players on enough and create chaos. Also I think the ball movement wasn’t quick enough at times. To many times we allowed the Dutch to just set up in their defensive blocks.
A side note too.
—
I think this site would have melted down had anyone told us three years back that Ream and Zimmerman would be our starting CBs in 3/4 matches this WC.
If you think about how much they had to do the last three games, Weah and Dest ( and frankly just about all of them) were clearly tired.
I believe the cliche is “go to the well once too often”.
Being younger only takes you so far.
Completely agree. Excellent review.
Couldn’t agree more on the personnel we still need: a lock/dependable CF and an anti-counter attack CB.
I’m not sure where you think Van Gaal gambled.
The USMNT prefers a high tempo, chaotic jailbreak style game.
Van Gaal figured he would rather play his game meaning a more controlled tempo. They prefer to cede possession and hit on the counter.
They are older and more experienced. They have more depth.
The USMNT have much less depth. Note the necessity to start Ferreira, who proved to be a warm body, anonymous at this level.
Van Gaal knew that by Game 4 in the World Cup, Holland were fresher than the USMNT.
Basically, he rope a doped them, which lines up perfectly with how Holland likes to play anyway. Even worse, they scored the first goal opening the USMNT up even more to the Dutch counter.
But it could have been a very different story if Pulisic hits that early chance.
So for me the biggest story is depth. Especially given the USMNT high tempo style.
Isn’t that kind of how Van Gaal always wants his teams to play. I recall his ManU teams being pretty dull. What if coulda shouldas but if Pulisic buried that chance in the 5th minute it changes the game a lot.
Even the Dutch find Van Gaal boring. But his teams are effective and he knows his stuff. Note that they did not look tired. And so far he’s winning. Gakpo was his big #9 but we shut him down and who was the man today? Memphis.
Depth.
And we’re at the stage where a lot of that youthful upset energy is getting weeded out. Everyone is tired. Now the savvy teams with depth and experience take over the grind.
From a soccer purist standpoint a lot of these later stage WC matches are dreadful but no one cares. The pretty World Cup games tend to come earlier. At this point people just want their team advancing, by however that works. It’s like Hadji’s goal ( did they credit him?), weird and ugly but did any of us care? Shit no.
If Pulisic scores ( the keeper didn’t save that so much as it hit his leg) then I think we get energized and if we score a second then who knows?
Very thoughtful as always Joe Dirt. Good takes. You excited for Brazil?
Vai Brasil
—
The family back there is a little diss appointed so far in lack of scoring and getting sick of Neymar’s antics and just wish he stop crying all the time
At some point you figured our somewhat makeshift back line was going to have an off day, and here ya go. Except for the times they scored the Dutch never looked particularly dangerous but they just execute so well…and Whoo Boy did we give them some help. Two of those were defensive busts…Dest got caught ball-watching two seconds before halftime and Blind (of all people) jumped him…Dumb Kid mistake and it only reinforces the biggest critique of Dest, he switches off sometimes. Not sure what the deal with that Antonee Robinson bust was…obviously Robinson marked the wrong guy, left another dude wide open at the back, clear miscommunication. Both punished, clinically.
We can clearly compete. We were 58% possession to the Dutch’s 42%, and generated more chances and shots on goal. I haven’t seen the xG stats but I’d expect we were higher. They were just so incredibly clinical and clockwork precise on the counter and it allowed them to grab a lead and play their game.
The good news is, we’ve got some really talented players to build around…and they’re more than young enough to learn from this. I would personally look around to see who else might be available to replace Gregg…I wouldn’t take just anybody and I do think we could do worse than Gregg but I also think we can do better, too. The gulf between he and van Gaal was glaring.
Agree with those who think our lack of squad depth also hurt us bigly. Counting Gio and Aaronson, we basically have 13 guys who can play at that top level and after that it’s a big drop to subs, and one of them (Ream) is obviously gone. But there’s still a heck of a young core to build around and the kids can now pretty clearly see where the level to the elite is…and they do have the talent to get there. I think Jesus Ferreira could easily be another in the future but he needs to find his permanent position (it isn’t striker) and he needs to get to Europe pronto.
I definitely am high of this team’s potential, but I was left wanting just a sliver more, too. In terms of growing our program, though, this was immense. We definitely showed we can go toe-to-toe with the truly big boys, but we’ve got a ways to go to be truly big boys ourselves, too…though that gap seems a mile more attainable than it did before the World Cup began, too.
This was a definite step forward for us. I’m reminding myself we’ve gotten out of Group before; we’ve never shown the quality to genuinely aspire to more than that before and now we definitely have.
quozzel,
“I’m reminding myself we’ve gotten out of Group before; we’ve never shown the quality to genuinely aspire to more than that before and now we definitely have.”
Not exactly true. In 2002 the USMNT got the quarters and realistically could have made the semis.
There is a talent gulf but you’re not taking into account just how debilitating fatigue is. And how our lack of depth and our high tempo style of play contribute to that fatigue.
This team has little depth and basically played the same 11 for all 4 games. France and Brazil, for example, can afford to rotate all their subs in their game 3’s ( and lose the game) in order to rest their starters. We can’t do that. I don’t know how much Holland rotated but they play a less frantic more controlled game anyway and have, in Van Gaal, have a manager who knew exactly how to handle the USMNT and had the tools to do it.
Your accounts of the defensive failures is accurate but I think they were caused more by fatigue rather than a lack of quality or brains.
In other words, if Holland plays the same USMNT that played England two games ago, I don’t see those same errors happening.
But by game 4 Robinson and Dest, who have been ridden hard and put away wet, were simply not as effective. Our fullbacks have a very high workload the way this team plays. I don’t doubt their commitment and desire but being young only goes so far.
Mostly yes Vacqui. We’re concacaf deep. Not World Cup deep. Which may mean we aren’t deep at all. We can build on these outside backs with the up and comers. But even there, we aren’t exactly Germany 2006. Reasons to be proud, and reasons to expect progress, but we’re still 12-20 years of consistent progress away from being real contenders.
Mr. Otis,
Gregg ran out of time.
In the end, Gregg had them playing the way they do best, that high tempo stuff etc.
But, for whatever reason, that’s as far as he got.
You can’t contend in the World Cup unless you can make the other team play how you want them to play and take advantage of it.
That’s what Van Gaal did.
So either Gregg is going to have to finish the job and get the USMNT to where it can impose it’s will on the other team in the World Cup or we need someone who can.
#9 will get better. I firmly believe Pepi should have been in this team. He is looking really good in the Eredivisie. Eventually Dike will be healthy and he can absolutely be a force going into 2026. Brandon Vazquez has qualities that the USMNT can use. Sargent looks to be getting much better.
Possible we see a Balugon make the switch to the USA.
Don’t know why a starting Bundesliga RB in Joe Scally wasn’t used at all.
CB will get better.
CM will get more talented depth, so as to not run three players into the ground.
Changes for 2026:
Refresh the CB – Richards, Trusty, M. Robinson, CCV, EPB, Pierie, Sands, Tomkinson
Depth @ CM – Booth, Busio,
Depth @ CDM – Cardoso, Tessmann
–
Should also be noted that our current crop of CM’s (Adams, Weston, Musah) will be in their prime. Experienced enough to know when/how to best play the game while also having the strength & endurance required to play effectively. Weah, Reyna, Pulisic & Aaronson will be at their peak as well…knowing how to break down low blocks, which runs to make when, etc… Defensively Dest, Scally, & Jedi will be more mature and hopefully more focused.
There are a lot of positives and a strong/talented pool of players to build on for a Manager who knows how. There is talent in the pipeline to add depth, and talent at almost every position. The focus for the new manager will be to rebuild the Center Defense and find a CF who can be a consistent threat.
What we saw today is there is a great gulf between teams 11-25 in the world and teams 1-10. Netherlands were better, maybe De Jong and De Roon weren’t better than MMA but they made fewer mistakes. Memphis and Gakpo weren’t dominate but when he had a sliver of an opportunity Memphis was inch perfect either shooting or passing every time. Akee and Timber never lost a man over 90 minutes. They were just better. They are plenty of questions to be answered about roster Selection and how Reyna was/ was not used but tactics didn’t beat us execution of basic soccer skills beat us. Had Berhalter set us up to sit back and try to counter? Who on our team showed the clinical finishing of Memphis or De Jong? Do you really think giving them more of the ball that more shots and opportunities from the Dutch would have led to less goals from them? We lost to a better team. We need our guys to go get bet better and the next generations to get better. Doesn’t matter who the manager is if the individuals don’t get better in their 9-10 months with their clubs.
How many US players do you think would start for Holland? I think maybe 2 or 3. If US didn’t make it out of group I would ay disappointing and under achieved; losing to Holland as expected; beating Holland greatest modern Era victory. I seem to have lost interest in WC now; not surprising but maybe I will get excited again in a few days. No qualifying next round, Nations League prevents freindlies against European teams – probably a pretty dull 4 years coming.
Not dull at all. It is expected USA will be invited for Copa America and we have the Olympics in 2024. We will get friendlies.
US Soccer needs to do whatever it takes to ensure we get to Copa America. We desperately need those level of games if this group is going to progress.
Maybe 1 or 2. Tyler over de Roon and maybe Pulisic over Gakpo before the tournament. Marsch said on Men in Blazers they had the deal for Gakpo 99% done in August and it fell through. Said now they can’t afford him. I’d imagine he’ll go for more in January than Christian does.
Hindsight is 20/20 but starting Ferreira was a waste. A sub-par striker who hasn’t played all tournament starts against one of the World Cup favorites in an elimination game. That was just Berhalter overthinking it. I know Sergeant was injured but GB team’s selection could have also included more real strikers. Predictably Ferreira was out of his league and not in game rhythm and we had to waste a sub at half time for him.
Overall a decent tourney but a bitter taste.
I think this needs to be end of line for GB and get someone with a new perspective for the next cycle.
I’m actually reasonably high on Ferreira…but he needs to find his permanent position (it isn’t striker), and he needs to get his butt to Europe pronto. Whether he ends up being a CM or a winger he needs to find his spot and settle in.
Keep in mind Ferreira is still just 21. I do think he’s got a ton of talent but he’s also only going to get so good playing in MLS and the gap between MLS guys and top Euro League guys was glaring this World Cup. But I think he can make it. He’s highly technical, he works his butt off, and people genuinely do not realize how fast Ferreira is – Second Spectrum says only Cade Cowell is faster in MLS – and I think Ferreira could well find a home in Europe as a wing player.
Transfermarkt has Ferriera’s value at $8 million. He ain’t nothin’, for sure.
You could see the thinking Jesus would drag Virgil out and it did do that at times but Ake and Timber were so solid and we were pretty slow to try to exploit it when it happened.
JR-
The way the Dutch dissected us with their midfield passing on the counter made me wince in envy. So slick. And then they only needed a couple of looks to pretty much ice the game.
I love MMA, but there’s some weaknesses to their game when you play them all together. We need at least one of them to be a #10…and we need all of them to really work on their shooting from distance over the next cycle. I think McKennie, for all his positives, could end up losing his starting gig to somebody like Taylor Booth and be a super-sub.
I think Jesus ran out his legs in MLS. He played 87% of the available minutes for FCD, plus number of minutes for US. He looked tired the last month of MLS and his production dropped. As you say hindsight, but an in form Pepi may have been a better inclusion than exhausted Ferreira.
JR,
If Jesus ran out his legs in MLS why did Gregg bring him? Surely Gregg knew. He already had Gio and LDLT on the “rehab in tournament” list.
By 2026 the USMNT needs to do better than Pepi , Pefok, Wright, Josh, Dike or Ferreira.
Pepi and maybe Josh have a chance but the others are superfluous.
This team did well but, whether we like it or not a new rebuild will occur. 4 years is a long ways away and represents a different, bigger challenge.
1. Expectations are higher. After Couva, just qualifying was a big improvement. Now, arguably, the semis if not the final are a minimum. There will be a lot of people who will expect us to win it. .
2. Depth must be improved. Of the 26, Pulisic, Gio, Adams, Aaronson, Dest, Jedi, Weah, Turner are the only ones I expect to be on the 26 player roster. Gregg will give Long, Roldan and Ariolla lifetime achievement spots on the roster. That leaves 16 spots to contested.
I’m assuming 26 with 5 subs is permanent.
3. No qualifying tournament. Which means 4 years of friendlies and orange slices stuff like Nations League and the Gold Cup. They really ought to pull out all the stops and play Copa America. Getting an invite is easy enough but the USSF often chooses not to play in it.
JR,
I forgot to include Yunus as a holdover for 2026.
That is a very good question Vacqui. Also if he knew Roldan and Long were unlikely to play as guys 25 and 26 why not take a flyer on Mihailovic or bring a 4th striker.
US was just not sharp enough today, physically or mentally. Which I think comes from having to play 270 minutes in group stage at 100% intensity. Dutch team had the opportunity to play large parts of the group stage on cruise control. And they looked completely unruffled today.
Ultimately, 3 goals in 4 games isn’t enough to get it done, and the team needs to improve in the final third. Thank you Berhalter for getting the team to this level but I hope they bring in a coach who can help unlock some of the attacking talent.
Thank you Berhalter for getting the team to this level.” What level is that? HHAA. The guy sucks. Thank you for your service GB; now get out!
indeed, like the team has no pre 2017 history. out of the 6 cycles this century this ranks roughly 4th, behind 2002, 2010, 2014. it ranks ahead of the pitiful 2006 and not making it in 2018. i am not backpatting a dude over the team looking awful today, playing no consistent scheme all tournament, making odd personnel choices like reyna and ferreira, and ultimately putting up the most abject knockout performance i’ve ever seen from a US team. we usually go down close margins and fighting. this looked like the last game in 1998 or the opener in 2006.
you have to toss out 2018 like it never happened and ask, with this much talent, is this helping, is this ok. my answer, no. they looked out of sync again, and they dropped a real stinker of a result. and it’s not like we rattled off 3 wins in group on the way here. we made it out a close second and then got creamed. i am not big on vague optimism. i am big on show-me. he didn’t show me.
i mean at some point people need to acknowledge we used to be able to compete with and beat european teams and that for all the snob gibberish and bad tactical ideas, we are losing gap to the elite, not closing it. i also think our coach’s tactical ideas have proven behind rather than ahead of the curve.
We all want the team to win, but it didn’t. The sun will rise and the players will continue to get better. There is a lot of young players still coming up. This team will still be a very special team in 2026.
A agree 100%
Does Berhalter keep his job? I have always felt a coaching staff should only get one cycle. Will be interesting to see what US soccer does.
Does Berhalter keep his job? I sure hope not Stone. You need the right manger to put in the right tactics. The only ones who want GB to stay have to be Mexican fans. We need some who is capable to take us to the next level.
his tactics in the knockouts got us out and into the 16s
got CP that opening lookin a big game
and also failed today
he deserves criticisms like all coaches do, but accurate ones are most effective
Beachbum, a cereal box could have gotten us out of the round of 16. His tactics and substations in the second half almost cost us. Better tactics in the second half might have had us winning the group. He is just a poor coach all the way around from his roster picks, to not being transparent to the fans, to not being able to manage and make proper adjustments during games. I do give him credit for never starting Long, and not starting Ferreira for the first three games and his starting line-ups ere fine; but not staring or playing Gio more is just crazy. Then, he expects him to save the team down 2-0.
I expect Gregg to be back.
The USSF is an old boys club and he’s one of the old boys.
He got us qualified and he got us out of the Group. so his backers have a strong case. He’s learned on the job and gotten better.
The important question is does that mean he is the best person to take this team to the next level? How many of you believe that he is?
This business is not about what you’ve done but about what you will do for us.
The reality is the expectations for 2026 will be much higher and there will need to be a lot of changes.
We’re not going to be surprising anyone and we’ll be at home.
You’re not going to take the team that played these four games, make a few tweaks and go into the 2026 WC.
Oh well. It was an exciting game to me and I still had hope until after the 3rd goal. Actually, being a Homer I still had hope. IMO, realistically they lost to a better team. Holland won almost every single duel and I think that was a huge difference and Holland’s defender are pretty good.
This team was never ready. They made it out of the group stage with 2 goals. 2 FREAKING GOALS? They were gassed by Iran. GASSED BY IRAN? This team is great at passing the ball around, but the attacking third was terrible. The finishing was terrible. The ability to create attacking plays was terrible and the goals we did give up. Several were from laziness. Berhalter should have been fired long ago.
Proud of how they played for the most part. Excited to see this team grow and get better. Just need a ruthlessness to our play. While it’s commendable to be nice guys on the field you need those players who will absolutely just tears opponents apart when given the chance. Pulisic had the chance to put that ball in the back of the net in the second minute which would have absolutely changed the way the Dutch played in the first half. But he didn’t dispatch it with ruthlessness.