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1. Weah started at LB for Lille against PSG…….and was amazing. Lille really pushed them to the limits as PSG’s goals ONLY came from individual brilliance from Messi, Neymar and Mbappe. Weah had several shots on goal, set up Jonathan David time and time again, and participated deep in the Lille overlapping attack on the wing.
   Absolutely awesome today…

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   • Lille had opportunity after opportunity but just couldn’t finish. They looked really good though:
     16 shots on goal
     7 shots on target (that says it all)
     54% possession
     88% passing accuracy (better than PSG)

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc2khqqm_aI

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   • “Lille really pushed them to the limits as PSG’s goals ONLY came from individual brilliance from Messi, Neymar and Mbappe.”

     That’s the thing about PSG. They’d be nothing if they didn’t have those
     great players who also score when it matters.

     Well they have them and they score when it matters.

     Pushing PSG to their limits and compiling impressive stats vs. PSG is nice but that sounds like what Jesse was saying about Leeds as they lost close game after close game. This is not Olympic figure skating where style points get awarded. Score one more goal than they do ( or at least the same number of goals ), that’s the game.

     What I want our USMNT players in Europe to learn is that playing regularly is nice and looking good is nice but what matters is helping your team win. Teams pay attention when they know you’re a player who can help them win.

     Tim Ream has always been a solid regular but he and all those Fulham regulars are looked at differently because they are winning a lot more than they ever have.

     That was my issue with Gregg. He did a good job at giving the USMNT some form of a structure, having started with a formless mass. But actually winning tough competitions ?

     He never got to that powerpoint.

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     • I’m with you until you got to Gregg. What tough competition did he not get to? If you are saying the WC is the expectation, then all but 1 coach fails at that. He won the GC and Nations League. They’re not as tough of course but they’re not gimmies.
       And no, I’m not a Greg homer. Just what is that supposed to mean?

     • “He won the GC and Nations League. They’re not as tough of course but they’re not gimmies.”

       Actually they were. The Gold Cup and now the Nations League are as close to gimmies as there is.

       Arena won the Gold Cup in 2017 before he crashed out at Couva with what we know now was a very flawed team. Do you know anyone who gives them credit for that?

       There’s only one team in CONCACAF that losing to would not necessarily be a huge upset and the Martino edition of Mexico was pure crap, the most impotent El Tri I’ve seen since 2013 when they had to qualify through the playoff to get to Brazil.

       This El Tri as a whole were awful.

       Gregg can only play who he can play so I don’t blame him for not being able to at any point, play any serious competition who would have tested the team.

       So as far as I’m concerned he showed up in Qatar with a team chock full of very serious question marks about both him and his players.

       “If you are saying the WC is the expectation, then all but 1 coach fails at that. ”

       Fair point but do you think Gregg got the most out of this team?

       Do you think another person could have done the same with this group? In terms of results he did the same as Bob and JK.

       Gregg’s not known as a “winner”. He was given a chance to show his chops early on when he lost the 2019 Gold Cup final, a winnable game where he threw away his chance of victory in the second half.

       Now if you put him in charge of the 2026 cycle and get us into Copa America 2024,that would certainly be a test on par with Bob getting to the 2009 Confederations Cup final.

       Perhaps he could prove to all that he can get this team to the next level . Or they could get massacred. Copa America is not for the faint of heart.

       And theoretically that could still happen.

       In his heart of hearts, Gregg is a club guy. He’s stubborn, inflexible and he needs more time to get to where things are just the way he wants them. And unfortunately, you don’t get that kind of time with any National team. Compared to the time a good coach gets with a club it’s pretty much just ready, fire , aim.

     • Vacqui, you’ve set the bar at an unattainable height. You’re saying that Gregg with a team of bench warmers he was supposed to beat one of the top ten nations in the world full of starters at big time clubs. Clubs similar to what our supposed stars can’t find regulars minutes for. Oh but he didn’t win the GC in 2019. Mexico in 2019 went 16-1, their only loss was to Argentina. If you go from January 2019 to the NL final El Tri’s record was 20-1-2. A draw to Algeria and losses to Wales and Argentina. Not beating them in the 2019 GC was not this huge misstep, just as beating them three times in 2021 wasn’t some walk in the park. Their roster aged out and had some key injuries to attacking players, and they lost their mystique (in large part to USA beating them twice in 2021). Our squad no matter what 26 you chose wasn’t a WC quarter finalist group. Look at the teams that made the quarterfinals their rosters are better. The only one that’s even a debate is Morocco, but when you actually look at their roster. GK-M, CBs-M (even with Brooks or CCV), RB-M, LB-M, CM-US, RW-M (Ziyech today is far more accomplished than Reyna or Weah) LW-US, CF-M. Basically the only players better than their Moroccan counterpart is Pulisic, Adams, and McKennie. Yes, the US pool is better than it was in 2010 but so are the other countries. The question isn’t could someone else have done as well, it’s could anyone have done better. The talent on the roster says no. We aren’t a quarter final roster especially considering injuries to Weah, DLT, Reyna, McKennie, Pulisic, and Robinson in the fall in the lead up greatly limited the form and fitness.

     • JR,

       “You’re saying that Gregg with a team of bench warmers he was supposed to beat one of the top ten nations in the world full of starters at big time clubs. ”

       You’re putting words in my mouth. I’ve never said that.

       I’m saying we went into the WC with a team that was untested. Read my posts before Qatar.

       I said the WC is all about upsets. You might recall that Saudi Arabia beat Argentina.
       I said we could go 3-0 in the group or 0-3, neither result would have surprised me.
       I said we would beat England and we could have. Yet you don’t think we belonged on the field with Holland? How’s that work?
       I said Iran would beat us and they could have.
       Gregg arrived at Qatar with his work unfinished and only one scheme that worked. He hadn’t worked out a way to score. His top players played very well but there weren’t enough of them.
       Consequently, he had to play them 90 minutes or so all three games. And by the Netherlands game they were worn down. Remember, a lot of our players came into camp not 100% fully fit. Pulisic had played intermittently all season long. Weah, Dest and Weston had only recently come back from an assortment of injuries. Only Ream and Jedi had been regular 90-minute men all season leading up to Qatar.

       Anyone who says that Adams and Dest were not missing their legs vs. Netherlands is not paying attention. I think Dest still hasn’t recovered. And no one talks about Brenden. What the hell happened to him? And is still happening?
       I did not think they would beat Holland but they could have. CP puts that early chance in and the world might have been different.
       I’m saying Gregg did the minimum, advance and lose a knockout game.
       Do I think Gregg got the most out of the pool? No, I don’t.
       Do I think someone else could have done worse? Yes
       Do I think someone else could have done better? Yes
       Everything you wrote? I don’t have a problem with it but what you’re doing is making excuses for why Gregg and the players didn’t do better.

       That’s all the USMNT is, a bunch of excuses.

       Until the USMNT player pool resembles France’s or Brazil’s, and all this happy talk notwithstanding, we’re not remotely close, we will always need to punch above our weight class.

       For fuck’s sake, people are excited because Pepi is tearing it up for Groningen, who struggle to stay in a League that USMNT fans look down on because Jozy scored 16 and then 23 goals for AZ back in 2011, and 2012. Which means any idiot ( USMNT fans despised Jozy) can score in Holland. When Pepi starts scoring 30 + a season maybe then people should pay attention.

       In the Netherlands game we probably did not have the players or the manager to get that result.

       However, if you want to fix that and you believe in math, finding one manager who is more suitable than Gregg is going to be simpler than trying to get enough players to make up for Gregg’s idiosyncrasies. I’m of the opinion that the USSF has yet to give up on recalling Uncle Gregg simply because the USMNT job is not, as many here seem to believe, a job that is likely to draw the best managers.

       USMNT fans are eternally miss sunshine when it comes to confusing potential with productivity.
       As Bill Parcells said “Potential means you can do it but haven’t yet” and “Potential will get you fired”.

     • So having less talent than the opposition is making excuses? We lost because the Netherlands has better players.

     • JR,

       “We lost because the Netherlands has better players.”

       England were at least equal if not better than the Netherlands.
       England has better players than the USMNT.
       We didn’t lose to them did we? And we might have beaten them.

       Again, the Netherlands should have beaten the USMNT.

       But the USMNT upsetting Holland would hardly have been an unimaginable result.

       Saudi Arabia beating Argentina? That was unimaginable but it happened.

       The point is , for the foreseeable future going into 2026, the USMNT is pretty much always going to be the underdog against any serious World Cup contender like England or the Netherlands.

       If anyone expects the USMNT to make noise in 2026, asking them to occasionally pull off that kind of upset, is hardly an unreasonably high bar for the USMNT.

2. Since WC, Gio Reyna 134 mins over 5 app, 3 not used coaches decision. 3g in first 3 app, since only 67 mins and to DNPs? To put than some perspective Pulisic has played 191 mins since WC.

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   • Yep. I see Reyna as Reus’ backup at CAM. With Reus healthy it’s going to be hard for Reyna to get in. But I imagine he will get more minutes as the season winds down.

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     • That’s nice, but when Reus isn’t available or needs rest they still have chosen the all CM/DM of Bellingham, Can, and Ozcan. He’s only being used if they need a goal or the game is over (Freiburg and Bochum).

     • Hey that’s his role right now. It’s hard to argue he should be a starter for this Dortmund team right now. Dortmund have a plethora of attacking options and all are performing pretty well at the moment. He is going to continue to make the most of his opportunities when called upon.

     • “With Reus healthy it’s going to be hard for Reyna to get in.”

       Then it’s good thing that Marco keeps getting hurt isn’t it?
       The way I look at that is Gio is 20, Marco is 33 and if anything is at least as, injury prone as the entire USMNT trio of Pulisic, Tyler and Gio. BVB has been grooming Gio to succeed Marco for a while now. I don’t think they are happy that he is copying Marco’s tendency to get hurt.

       Gio lost nearly a season and a half to that injury so BVB are going to be very careful about bringing him along and more to the point, they can afford to be. Jude Bellingham runs that midfield now and Brandt, 26, is having a killer year.

       But Jude will probably be sold for stupid money in the near future and BVB need to make sure they have keep their pipeline loaded
       BVB have no need to rush Gio back.

       If I’m Gio, or any of our best players, the USMNT are the furthest thing from my mind for a couple of years , especially if Uncle Gregg comes back.

   • Reyna’s parents will be calling the Dortmund coach.

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     • And? He’ll ignore them.

3. Both Marlon Fossey and Bryan Reynolds are playing really well at RB for their respective Belgian teams. Fossey with Standard Liege and Reynolds with Westerlo. Both of their teams are in the top 7. Wouldn’t be surprised 1 if not both get called up. RB is now not a settled position.

   I expect we will see Booth and Mihailovich, and El Tren called up. Paredes could be an option, Tillman, Cowell seem logical.

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   • Probably too soon for Fossey (as I pointed out not much time to acclimate this window). I could see Reynolds with Dest (no Yedlin, Cannon, Moore if Serge is fit). I didn’t even think about Pepi as he wouldn’t be a surprise either way. Tillman is nursing an injury so we’ll see how that goes USMNT hasn’t had good luck with hamstring injuries (Zendajas in same boat). Cowell needs to be with U20s, ahead of U20 WC. I would think from Jan camp Newbies, Vazquez is the best chance and maybe Morris (not counting Arriola and Zim who are regulars). Trusty might be an option at CB.

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     • Generally speaking I agree. We’re not going to see a drastic influx of new faces, but I do think we’ll see some new guys and return of some others that were on the outside of Gregg’s roster.
       Personally I’m hoping to see Booth, Trusty, & Vazquez as the new faces. The return of Pepi & Reyna would be good as well. Most importantly IMO is that we don’t see Roldan, Long, J. Morris, or Arriola….it’s time for us to move away from that level of player.

   • Cowell is a buff Arriola, but without the willingness to defend.

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4. Good to see El Tren back among the score sheet.

   But most of our attackers are either injured, not playing in attack, or riding the pine in Europe. Not a good time for our attackers in Europe. Should be interesting to see how this effects the March window.

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   • Honestly Will Bruin and CJ Sapong should be able to do the job in March against ES at home and at Grenada. With Hudson still in charge don’t expect a lot of sweeping changes. Hopefully Paredes, Booth, and Mihailovic get opportunities and Dike get a chance after being injured the last year of the 2022 WC cycle. I wouldn’t expect a lot of newcomers given the limited training time with travel to and from Grenada using a good portion of the week. Wonder if Miles Robinson will be available any ATL fans know if he’s been in preseason?

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     • Yeah he has been in preseason.