The U.S. Men’s Olympic squad had its chances against tournament hosts France in Wednesday’s group stage opener, but a pair of long-range efforts condemned the Americans to defeat.
Alexandre Lacazette and Michael Olise scored eight minutes apart in the second half before Loic Bade added a third goal, leading Les Bleus to a 3-0 opening night victory. Guillaume Restes was kept busy by the USMNT, but made a trio of key saves to register the clean sheet.
“I don’t think it was a fair result,” Mitrovic told reporters postmatch. “We didn’t deserve to lose this way, but we have to learn our lesson.”
After a goal-less first half, things started opening up for both teams. Djordje Mihailovic’s long-range effort rattled the crossbar in the 59th minute.
Lacazette delivered the breakthrough goal for Thierry Henry’s men only one minute later, giving France a 1-0 lead. Olise set up the veteran forward, who beat Patrick Schulte into the bottom-left corner.
Paxten Aaronson’s point-blank header off the ensuing restart was denied by Restes before left back John Tolkin hit the left post with a header attempt of his own.
Olise doubled France’s lead in the 69th minute, curling a left-footed shot into the far corner of Schulte’s net. The Bayern Munich summer signing made no mistake, adding to his productive performance.
France added an insurance goal five minutes from time as Joris Chotard’s corner kick was powered home by Bade. Miles Robinson was covering Bade on the set piece, but fell down in the box, allowing Bade to find the back of the net.
The Americans will aim for a bounce-back performance and result on Saturday against New Zealand.
Can someone explain to me how “threatening” to call up a player during an international window in September would scare a club into releasing a player in July? If I’m a club wouldn’t I rather have a player gone in September than in the last two weeks before the season begins when we’re trying to get our roster and tactics in place?
you didn’t read my post correctly. you could threaten to call them to copa and/or the fall games. not just the fall ones. you then horsetrade that for calling them for the olympics.
you’re pretending they have to have all our players for all these preseason games. they don’t absolutely need them now. some of the guys we’re talking about are literally transfer bait they want out of town. i think we’d be doing those teams a favor by taking the player away from camp and showcasing them for transfer.
this strategy i am primarily talking about some of the age group types who couldn’t get released, not so much the NT regulars. them i would just call bs on the guys like weston or reyna that these teams don’t actually want around. you can tell us no but there is a whole set of these guys where showing up for camp is really just a formality and to prompt the transfer situation.
really i am going to call bs on your little theory we must have called everyone possible and been told no. i don’t buy it. you keep framing it as “not released” except that could mean not just “said no” but also “we never asked.” you never actually say that USSF made a play and was turned down for the whole wish list, eg, scally lund musah reyna malik tillman pepi aaronson balogun esmir cowell pukstas.
i assume what actually happened is they’re messing up esmir, and several off that list were never asked after because they were at copa atop playing NL, which with the benefit of hindsight now looks dumb.
that’s not even getting into going after A guys like weston in weird club situations as the overage, as opposed to the B teamers they chased.
i’ve explained before that winning senior competitions might involve personnel risks/changes, and doing better at something like olympics involves making that a priority, gunning for everyone you want, and then netting out who gets released.
dude, it’s a little too obvious this is a senior B team of mostly guys we see in january, and it plays like it. and we know from watching them in january how “good” they are, ie, meh. if you wanted better than meh you needed to take risks. if you wanted better than meh you needed to twist arms.
IV,
What a load of shit.
How many American players are so valuable to their clubs that they would make a stink about releasing them for a couple of games?
Which means you also have to consider how many of the guys we could not get, either for Copa or the Olympics, said no to the USMNT?
“you’re pretending they have to have all our players for all these preseason games.”
Maybe it is the other way around. Maybe some of our guys are aware that they need “all these preseason games” to make a good run at winning or keeping a spot on the first team. International duty detracts from that.
“they don’t absolutely need them now.”
What do you know about what that team believes they need? You can’t read minds.
” i think we’d be doing those teams a favor by taking the player away from camp and showcasing them for transfer.”
Ever hear the term” injured on international duty”? If a club is seriously is shopping for example ,Weston or Reyna , then they want them close by somewhere under control. Besides, for all the rumors that both are guaranteed gone, they said the same thing about Weston last season.
You can’t read minds and you never know.
i think you’re assuming they are pleased as punch when called for summer tournaments or windows. they aren’t. so i do think you can play let’s make a deal and negotiate back in may that if you release him for olympics that’ll be it.
i don’t know if americans realize it but the clubs keep practicing during the windows. we have players decline some calls to “bed in with their team.” i think you lectured me once about richards on this. ok, so same diff here but we make the deal with the team.
i was going to call him in september and i could call him to copa and you will get a more tired player and less practices, if you’re not going to let me have them for the olympics. or you deal with the 2-week preseason absence, drop the flex, and we will leave him alone all fall and not rush a copa call either.
but we’re not gonna do this with the routine low risk senior call sheets, the B team olympic squad, and ironically the coach doing that botches copa and gets fired. so maybe some fresh faces should have been called this summer. so there.
to me it’s laughable the way you defended the lousy GB or continue to back the passive way this regime/era has “fought” (or not really) for dual nationals and players at snobby teams.
i mean, news flash but we routinely have guys in september saying leave me with my club. so that means it’s not just they withhold the non-windows, it’s they want us to beg off some windows too. guy is then on loan 5 seconds later. ok, yeah, sure, that really needed to happen.
i do think we should work with teams and players but that’s a 2 way street. if they are like, no olympics, no copa, no gold cup, ok, he’s here in september. otherwise you’re just getting bossed around the park.
i am just saying simulate hardball to get the call you really want. threaten to call for other stuff. do a deal for less, for the olympics.
-I still don’t think many clubs are going to be all that pressured by “we’ll take him for a week in September or for anywhere from 3 to 4 weeks.”
-Literally no country would have sacrificed Copa or Euros for the Olympics, so your idea we should have withheld regulars for Olympics would be unprecedented.
-Everyone’s club is different, Palace doesn’t have many international player so they might train pretty normally during windows. Considering Richards had been injured leading up to the window you’re referencing and that both starting CBs ahead of him were on international duty. Yes, it was beneficial for him to stay. If you’re Weah at Juve or Pulisic at Milan a ton of your starters are gone during windows anyway.
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Pukstas: club publicly said they refused a call up
Pepi and Tillman: manager said a call up was refused
Esmir: I believe was cut, he dropped the US flag off his Instagram right after camp
Cowell: I think was cut as well
Balogun: may not have been eligible because he participated in England’s attempt to qualify for the Olympics
Wright and Vazquez: media reports they were not released
——————-
Every youth team manger always says the worst part is getting players released. Maybe they’re all liars, but how many coaches that you’ve ever know aren’t trying get the best players possible for their team?
I thought the US did well to chose to defend first and it worked, until in the 2nd half, they tried to get more attack oriented. There is no way this team can trade shots with this France team and come out on top. Bad coaching choice, stay with what worked and defend. This tournament play, trying to be what you are not at the cost of giving up goals is not what is needed.
All 3 goals came because of a failure of 1v1 defending. (I thought the third, a US defender fouled a French player knocking him down and into the US defender who should have been marking the scorer, but was knocked to the ground leaving the shooter with a free header.). The other two goals were defenders who simply allowed the shooters to get a step on them just outside the box. You could see the goals coming as soon as the defenders were a step behind the play and the French players did not miss.
What to do? Defend with numbers so a defender’s 1v1 mistake does not lead to a goal, the first goal in particular was so slow coming that I think most of us saw it coming well before the shot. On corners be strong, stay upright and challenge for the header.
look at those goals…where is the pressure D? reminds me of the USA vs. Slovenia under Bradley, conceding space above the 18 for guys to line up their shots and fire away. these guys don’t flail it into the stands, you know? if we don’t fix that stat, going to concede more just by being out of position and not executing the basics of pressure cover balance. I’m off to coach my boys on just that concept this morning…wtf is pressure in pressure cover balance…and I will use this game as evidence of why it’s vital and why as a country we still don’t get it way too often. GB had plenty of faults, but his group was not guilty of this type of error
i thought they were better deep block first half and what you’re seeing is they came out of the bunker second half and got stretched where goals could be had in the gap above the backline.
I know what I’m seeing, thank you IV.
What you said is accurate, as is what I said, unfortunately
i did think they were more stuck in, in the first half. the second half they did seem more passive, but my thing would be if you have 11 people way back, the formation and bunker themselves provide protection in bulk. on all the goals we’re either way up high for silly reasons or stretched out. there is then space to operate, turn, shoot.
example, both goals, which are top of the box really — not that distant as being portrayed (compare adams’ goal this year) — they are turning in the space above the backs. thing being, if we’re still bunkered back, that formational space does not exist. the mids are almost on top of the backs. those midfield shots become 35 yards out or getting on a loose ball ricochet.
i’m not normally a bunker fan but you can slice this game in 2 and see what actually worked, and it was the unpretty regressive half. when we came out of the shell and played for a winner, we instead gave up 3.
if people want to go end to end with the best olympic teams you need to get all the “graduates” and better U23 on board for this.
for some reason 433 has become de rigeur in US soccer. it is a ridiculous defensive formation. i think it took until about the gold cup 23 panama game, or some of the games this year, for the average US fan to catch on that sometimes we just have a “shape”/formation problem.
i commented on the U20 game thread where i thought the way they press is different and less silly. like get back into shape only then step to the ball.
people are always critical of the US mid transition defense without getting into, ummmm, that’s 3 guys to cover a ton of ground. the one year we played 433 in select was fun but we had 3 future college mids and still couldn’t hold some leads. US fans tend not to think about such things as give the players formational help. you don’t even have to bunker, just more bodies back.
Busio offers absolutely nothing…..
Club officials often collide with their international counterparts over the use or overuse of players, who find their loyalties split as a resu
Representing one’s country in the global arena remains one of the highest honours for most footballers,
but stand-offs between international team bosses and club managers over the availability of players for games are commonplace, but FIFA has rules in place to minimise the arguments.
Can football clubs stop their players from accepting international call-ups?
Not strictly. The regulations are explicit in stating that clubs are obliged to release any of their registered players to a national representative team if they are called up to a squad.
Annexe 1 of the ‘Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players’ lays out 11 principles for managing the issue of national team call-ups.
Principle 1.1. says: “Clubs are obliged to release their registered players to the representative teams of the country for which the player is eligible to play on the basis of his nationality if they are called up by the association concerned. Any agreement between a player and a club to the contrary is prohibited.”
It is not compulsory, however, for clubs to release players outside of specified international windows and clubs do not have to release players for more than one major senior international tournament in a year.
Yet, France, Spain, Argentina, England, Germany .etc somehow always have their best / top U23 players in camp, as a bunch of these players played in COPA / EURO Cup…..but US players on the other hand, are somehow refused release. Absolutely mind-blowing…..it’s almost like they’d be on a short-list or their spot would be in jeopardy if they left for international duty.
So why US players / USSoccer?
Spain doesn’t have Yamal or Nico Williams. France tried to get Mbappe. They couldn’t even get PSG to release Barcola and Zaire-Emery and the Olympics are in Paris. That Ukraine and Israel are two of Uefa’s qualifiers should show you that European nations didn’t get everyone they wanted for qualifying either. It just feels like it’s just the US because you know all the players and are reading all the reports.
I call BS again
France have opted not to select key men such as Mbappé (25) and Antoine Griezmann (33) for the Olympics, even though several hinted they would be interested in taking part, especially with it taking place in their own country…….FRANCE OPTED NOT TO. Again BS
Bizzy I had another post with links but it’s not here. Just search why isn’t Mbappe and Griezman at the Olympics you’ll find multiple articles that tell you they weren’t going to be released by their Madrid clubs.
” key men such as Mbappé (25) and Antoine Griezmann (33)”
“key” ???
A little context here. This is the Olympics, a very weak U-23 tournament. Even with out Mbopp and Grizz, France are still very loaded. They have more than few overage players who may not equal Mb and Gr but still put France as the top team here.
Annex 1 also clearly states that those regulations only apply to “A” level competitions.
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According to “Commentary on the Rules and Eligibility to Play for Representative Teams” Commentary #71 (p34) ““A” international levels refers to the highest level of representative team football, colloquially known as the senior national team.”
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So long story short clubs are under no obligation to release players for the Olympics. I’m sure some do to keep their players happy, some do out of a sense of nationalistic pride, some to attract buyers for their players. But many clubs don’t release their players. I mean Westerlo released Yow but refused Reynolds.
MLS all stars got blasted by Liga MX all stars 4-1. Didn’t watch the game, because I think all star games in any sport is pointless.
Just announced matches in U20 tournament being moved out of Celaya after a “security incident”. Match with CR will be moved back a day to allow travel to Leon. Unofficial report was police officer was killed outside CR and Cuba’s team hotel, not far from US team hotel.
That’s not good. The final was supposed to be in Celaya as well.
All matches scheduled in Celaya will now be in Leon, including the knockout stages.
Hasn’t been updated on US soccer. Which is weird. Still showing the gane will take place.
I’m guessing they didn’t want to pay the web guy overtime. Already changed on Concacaf and Wikipedia
Prominent retires players are saying that if a player really wanted to be e releases most clubs will accommodate. Has to make you wonder why we couldn’t get even one of our top rated players? Did they all prioritize preseason or were they convinced not to even ask their clubs to get a release?
Considering it’s been 16 years since any US player has had any experience with that, they may not actually know what they are talking about. Especially since prominent retired US star Earnie Stewart was the club guy that blocked two of them.
Yeah, when clubs have a multi-million dollar investment in a fella, they tend to not like it so much when they go haring off to go play in a non-FIFA event, especially one that’s a grueling summer tournament with a short roster where there is no such thing as managing the guy’s minutes. I’ve lost track of how many US players I’ve seen get hurt – sometimes significantly – on International duty with the USMNT, so you can more than kind of understand it. I’d be reluctant to let my guys go too.
In the olden days, though, not a whole lot of US players had multi-million dollar investments in them.
Short roster or no, our guys still had a good chance of winning this game, but two goalazos made it look a whole lot more lopsided than it really was. I do feel like if we see the French again, they’re not a lead-pipe lock to beat us. Not that that’s a ton of consolation when you get blanked 3-0 to open the Olympics.
Didn’t say prominent US players.
I don’t know but something doesn’t add up. The US couldn’t get one top rated player? Now we find out Dortmund didn’t add Reyna to their preseason tour? I think it’s a combo of things. Maybe none or our players really pushed it with their clubs.
Earnie saying no to both Pepi and Tillman does rub me the wrong way. Neither had a lot of minutes in the Copa.
I do think there will be a push from players in 2028 with it being on home soil
2tone: BvB had Reyna on all their official released tour roster. He was going to join them in Japan according to their official press release. Not that that made a lot of sense because they said he’d join on July 22 and the tour ended on the 24th. I do wonder if it was Gio’s side or BvB that decided not for him to go to Japan.
don’t buy it. if you run up a list of all the U23s we could call, including senior players, minus the U20s, plus 3 actually good overage players — not B teamers or O-30s — sorry, i think it would be a lot better than this. i am sure there would be a few release issues. but this is like senior B basically. like a january camp team.
also, as i pointed out earlier in the summer, one way of trying to make this work would have been to shuffle guys from copa to olympics, make copa more experimental. maybe if guys are doing olympics and not copa also, they get released. and GB might now be thinking if copa is an experiment, he still has a job.
to me the copa roster seemed conservative for a team that did meh in NL, the U23 roster soft with weak overage, like U20 felt like the only one really trying. and they were picking guys as young as 17 looking down the road.
and guess which one will work out well.
related point but i feel like this regime has been unusually weak on dual nationals and fighting clubs. bluntly — if they deny us a U23 now — you call their butt in copa, you call them in september. we match the cooperativeness of the team. they do us favors, we do them favors. they jerk us around on non-window stuff, ok, your kid is getting a long awaited senior look you cannot refuse. that is how you are not to be trifled with.
personally i think it’s obnoxious a former US GM refusing our players. i understand he has his own interests now. but i think (a) he’s also american and has many of our guys showing up for him and (b) also think he would have unusual understanding of how we handle our guys. some random team might not know what resources we offer players. stewart should know it firsthand.
“i feel like this regime has been unusually weak on dual nationals and fighting clubs. bluntly — if they deny us a U23 now — you call their butt in copa, you call them in september. we match the cooperativeness of the team. they do us favors, we do them favors. they jerk us around on non-window stuff, ok, your kid is getting a long awaited senior look you cannot refuse. that is how you are not to be trifled with.”
At which point the club says, fuck this kid, sell him since the USMNT are such dicks to deal with.
IV, you don’t understand where the real power is . That’s why national teams don’t play hardball with this stuff. They CAN’T, unless you are Mbappe, Cristiano or Leo. We are not Argentina, France, Brazil, Spain, Portugal etc. The vast majority of our players do not have that kind of pull.
Follow your prescription and soon no one will sign Americans in the first place.
“personally i think it’s obnoxious a former US GM refusing our players. i understand he has his own interests now. but i think (a) he’s also american and has many of our guys showing up for him and (b) also think he would have unusual understanding of how we handle our guys. some random team might not know what resources we offer players. stewart should know it firsthand.”
He does have an “unusual understanding”. So what? He’s supposed to put the US before PSV? Get out of here with that malarkey.
Earnie already has gifted the USMNT by signing so many Americans, giving Pepi and Malik a great place to learn their craft, giving Dest a place to weather the storm when he couldn’t get arrested and now he’s got Richie in the mix.
So if he “owes” the USMNT anything, and he doesn’t, he’s already paid them back. And if he is acting like this think how much harder other GM’s are to deal with.
V: what do you mean, “the power?” there’s a rule says regional championships and any window i want, i can have them on request, unless they are hurt. that is the default “power.” it is in our favor unless they are injured.
anything else is a courtesy.
i am fine with us giving courtesies to clubs that work well with us. limited games, limited minutes, call him this time but not next time. i actually think we used to be better about this and not call every one every time.
but if you want to talk power, the power is a rule says you release them if i ask for them, and if you don’t obey, i can probably get FIFA to come down with a penalty. no european play, no transfers, something fun.
y’all just back anything berhalter did like it’s normal even if it’s a dramatic change from past process or what the rules allow us. the rules used to be the clubs had power and we had to beg and plead. the rules are now in our favor. if a team doesn’t cooperate, you use the rules.
kind of like, the US used to call more dual nationals to cap tie, and used to demand more of a commitment from them. it’s GB that has departed from that with “try us, try them,” and he’s probably lost the most contested dual nationals i can remember.
i don’t get why the man’s soccer sense is worthy of firing but somehow the way we have been going about other processes is somehow now sacrosanct. that was also the same silly man. i would be rethinking any ideas the silly man put in place, including our weird approach of allowing ourselves to be bullied on club conflicts, while calling players like adams who are hurt and then end up medically out for months.
or is this just more of anything i say is black someone has to say is white.
also, all due respect, but if a team is going to be difficult with our NT, and then if the NT pushes back, punish our player, (a) that is not a situation our players should want and (b) we should be wanting to expose that not hide it from the player. why should we play along with the bully if the illusion is the bully is the player’s friend?
nah, the correct “play” here is horsetrade. you give me him now for olympics, i will hold off on the senior NT call i was thinking of doing in the fall. or if they are a regular, he will get a break for september.
unless they are MLS, this is preseason anyway, lest i remind some of you. like we are either not calling or accepting refusals on people who then don’t even go on preseason tour with the team that so supposedly badly needed them. that is rubbish and you know it. c’mon dude.
IV,
“what do you mean, “the power?” there’s a rule says regional championships and any window i want, i can have them on request, unless they are hurt. that is the default “power.” it is in our favor unless they are injured. anything else is a courtesy.”
So your solution to this is that you show them that you have a bigger dick than they do?
It’s not that big and the clubs know it. There are buyers ( clubs) and sellers (players). Play hardball when you really don’t have to, try to out dick them and they don’t have to buy what you are selling. And your players will suffer.
Go down that path and see how well that works and how long that lasts.
We all know what the rules say. They are written down.
You knows who knows them really well, even better than you?
Any club that has internationals.
You know what country you never hear too often about trouble getting players released for international duty barring injury? Most of the big boys.
Most of them have internationals who they would rather not alienate. Also they have a lot more depth, from the seniors on down, than we do so they are sometimes spoilt for choice.
I don’t know why we allegedly didn’t get most of our “top choices”, though given the age of these players and the short time together it’s a crap shoot as to what would really make for the “best team” .
I am fairly certain that FIFA say clubs don’t have to release players for the Olympics because since 1992 it has been a youth tournament. This is part of a long standing difficulties between FIFA and the IOC. They don’t want competition for their 4-year tournament, the World Cup. Overall , FIFA would very likely love it if the Olympic Men’s tournament died out.
Overall, my take on Gregg’s trouble this time around says good things about our developing young players. It is good that their clubs think enough of them to hold them out. You want your employer, the people who pay to put food on your table, to value you.
hahaha……
USMNT U23 and USSF are not really serious about winning a medal in the Olympics as a whole. The United States fielding the best possible under -23 players we have should’ve included:
Ricardo Pepi – 21 yrs
Giovanni Reyna – 21 yrs
Malik Tillman – 22 yrs
Johnny Cardoso – 22 yrs
Joe Scally – 21 yrs
Diego Luna – 20 yrs
…..to even have a solid chance, and that’s with a very good coach. We would still be struggling against teams like France and Spain .etc, even if we put OUR VERY BEST FOOT FORWARD, let alone not having our best U23 on the field. We still just seem to be sending basic “representation” (to get participation points lol) rather than willfully planning, structuring and executing a game-plan to win. Who in their right mind would think we had a chance against a star studded French U23 with Thierry Henry as their Coach (and we have Marko Mitrović…..who the hell is Marko Mitrović lol)????
Group A: France, United States, Guinea, New Zealand
GK Lucas Chevalier Lille
GK Guillaime Restes Toulouse
GK Obed Nkambadio Paris FC
GK Robin Risser Strasbourg
DF Bafode Diakite Lille
DF Kiliann Sildillia SC Freiburg
DF Adrien Truffert Rennes
DF Maxime Esteve Burnley
DF Bradley Locko Brest
DF Castello Lukeba RB Leipzig
DF Leny Yoro Lille
MF Desire Doue Rennes
MF Maghnes Akilouche Monaco
MF Manu Kone Borussia Monchengladbach
MF Khephren Thuram Nice
MF Andy Diouf Lens
MF Enzo Millot VfB Stuttgart
MF Joris Chotard Montpellier
MF Lesley Ugochukwu Chelsea
MF Warren Zaire-Emery Paris Saint-Germain
FW Amaud Kalimuendo Rennes
FW Bradley Barcola Paris Saint-Germain
FW Alexandre Lacazette* Lyon
FW Jean-Philippe Mateta* Crystal Palace
FW Michael Olise Crustal Palace
FW Mathys Tel Bayern Munich
Absolutely no visual growth. The miracle we are waiting for is not coming. USSF talks about the importance of the exposure and showcasing of US talent during the cycle involving the U23 Olympics……and yet they limit the talent they put on the field, play bunker-bob-ball for 90 mins, have a coach with no accomplishment to lead the team , somehow expect positive results…….and act “surprised” when we get slapped in the face by France lol
With the exception of Luna, those guys were not released by their clubs. It’s also pretty likely a lot of those French players wouldn’t have been if the Olympics were not in France. As for Henry, if this isn’t in France I don’t think there’s anyway he does it, but the reason he was even available was some pretty mediocre results with Montreal and Monaco. You just aren’t going to get big time coaches coaching the U23s. Mascherano the other big name couldn’t get Argentina’s U20s through qualifying, then when they got gifted the hosting job they got knocked out in first knockout round.
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In a match with so much talent disparity you need the bounces to go your way. That’s what happened in March when we drew 2-2. Schulte made some huge saves, we got a deflection to bounce in. Today Schulte didn’t play out of his mind, the woodwork twice bounced it out instead of in and Olise skimmed the ball off Tolkin. France was better and deserved to win, for the US team to win a medal they need to get lucky. France put themselves in position to take advantage of its skill, the US put itself in position to get lucky but the luck wasn’t on their side this time. Now what does the US do when the talent gap is on its side?
Sorry I somehow answered below lol
Transfermkt assed values of each roster:
France 393 million euros
US 82 million euros
France’s lowest valued player Magassa 8 million euros (their alternate keeper is 100,000 euros)
US’s highest valued player
Paredes 7.5 million euros
Would have been worse if you used Lacazette’s career high mark of 70 million not his current 9 million.
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New Zealand’s roster
7.53 million euros (yeah whole roster less than Paredes). Their highest valued overage DM Joe Bell 1.2 million euros. Plays in Norwegian league. Second highest is Ben Waine 2g 1a last year for Plymouth in The Championship.
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Guinea’s roster valued at 14.3 million euros. Almost half of that their 3 overage players at 6.5 million. Highest player Ilaix Moriba 3 million. Came up thru Barca system, sold to RB Leipzig, but only play 100 minutes for them in 3 seasons. Loans to Valencia and Getafe mostly used as substitute for both.
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Argentina 247 million
Morocco 165 million
150 of that 412 million just Alvarez and Hakimi.
I call BS
A star studded group of French players playing / starting for big teams in Europe were released by there respective teams. Spain has Man City players that were released and Midfielders Fermin Lopez and Alex Baena, who are both at Euro 2024 with Spain
France got Henry, Spain got coach Santi Denia, this is his Managerial career
2009 Atlético Madrid (assistant)
2009 Atlético Madrid (caretaker)
2010–2018 Spain U17
2018–2022 Spain U19
2022– Spain U21
ARGENTINA NAMED FOUR WORLD CUP WINNERS TO THEIR 18-MAN OLYMPIC FOOTBALL SQUAD by coach Javier Mascherano. Every player is being released playing in multiple tournaments but US players
This is his (Mascherano) International career
2001–2002 Argentina U17[4] 12 (1)
2003–2004 Argentina U20 22 (1)
2005 Argentina U21[4] 5 (1)
2004–2008 Argentina Olympic 20 (0)
2003–2018 Argentina 147 (3)
Managerial career
2021– Argentina U20
So there is a better way to plan both technically and tactically…..as far as players being released and selecting coaches
I would play Paxten at the false 9 spot. Start Yow on the left and play Booth at the 10. That way Pax and Booth can combine and reverse roles in attack. Get the defense off balance. Yow and Paredes on the wing.
I’m actually encouraged after watching us today. The result looks bad but we played them even for the first 65 minutes or so. And even after they scored, if tolkin puts away a wide open header from the six, we tie the game up snd the last 15 minutes becomes very tight. France is ridiculous talented and the gold medal fave, no shame in losing to them. If we keep our heads, should win the next two, and then just need one more win to get into the medal games.
I agre with you as I am as well.
Poor goalkeeping on two of the goals. Very poor…
You can’t give Lacazette and Olise that much space and time at the top of the box. Olise’s comes off Tolkin’s back giving it incredibly spin. Nor can you give a La Liga player a free header from the six. Could have done better, maybe. But very poor come on.
i think i have saved that first one in men’s league before. one is more placement than power. it’s a tricky skipper, getting the footwork and timing/correct hand of the parry right, but i think a good keeper should have that. and to me in this era U23 is basically mid-career professional starters now, not college kids anymore.
two can be done if the keeper is world class but that’s a heck of a bender. three i don’t see many keepers getting that.
to me this felt like a NT B team — which is how i feel like we increasingly use U23 these days — and i wanted to see more NT level playmakers. there’s a reason i was like call up some different overage, call some of the “graduates” or U20s, act like you really want to win this.
but personally the dumbest part for advancement was the decisions today, the tactical schizophrenia, letting the numbers balloon up in tournament soccer. to me if we’re gonna park the bus, stay parked and go for 0-0 or 1-0. i know we clanged the bar twice and forced a save or two but in practical terms that didn’t work, and to me resonates as the berhalter-germany mentality of cheap talk about how close we were.
Very disappionted with the goalkeeping but other than that I thought the boys did ok.
The only one anyone would have gotten to was the first one.
goal 1 when you have spent most of the game pancaked back in almost one line why do i see 5 guys standing around top of their box, not getting back, when we give up the free kick on their end? i don’t think we were “pressing” but our error was not falling back immediately and getting stretched out, akin to the dangers of pressing in terms of getting all out of shape. first pass on the free kick half of our team is behind the ball chasing, 30 yards from their end. rookie stuff. U14 kids get yelled at to get back.
second, people are pretending the defense is not at fault, but we have 5 guys back in a line plus busio to mark 4 people AND NOT A DARNED PERSON TRACKS THE GOALSCORING FORWARD AS HE DROPS IN THE ZONE HOLE. busio is wrong side of the ball and gets turned in circles, and behind him we have 5 guys standing in a line marking 3 people. i say “marking” loosely because the wings have a ton of space, the other forward is running free for a rebound if there was one, and only busio is trying and failing to get goal side.
last, people mocked saying this was berhalter’s last call sheet, but then noted how the lineup had his twin 8s, etc. to me the midfield per usual was out of its depth, constructed seemingly to play defense, but as one sees on this play, not effectively doing so.
on goal 2 tessmann is inexplicably standing by the ref wrong side of the ball and makes no effort to help walker shut down the switch. all first half we have bodies back and yet again we’re getting caught wrong side of the play here. they work the ball to the far side and since aaronson was slow to get back and asleep on the far guy, and tolkin lets his man go, when the wing comes flying up at the last minute it seems to freeze aaronson on which of the 2 to watch, as he’s concerned on the overlap he’s just figuring out is happening. the goalscorer uses the momentary hesitation to shoot. we’re kind of caught short a guy sliding and sliding with the ball.
more zonal damnation.
goal 3 down 2-0 after bunkering the first half we’re stretched way upfield and only half the players are back when we concede the corner. people said the defense had nothing to do with it but miles lets his man push him off and he scores with the space.
a corner kick goal isn’t in and of itself tactical error, but i’m confused whether we were bunkering or not. you did one thing the first half, 0-0. you did another thing that stretched the team out the second half, 3-0. no goals to show for it and arguably dumb tournament soccer to be pushing bodies up as your GA inflates and your GD plummets. the schizophrenia itself is strange.
and then big picture a team that seemed chosen for defense, that can’t pitch shutouts. the first half we were stuck in. the second half we would let them pass all day even until they had numbers on a switch.
and people were suggesting this guy for NT head?
and if you’re gonna go end to end one half then bunker the other, common sense is you play end to end fresh then bunker tired second half. we played cautious for an energetic half then all of a sudden took dumb risks and got stretched out routinely second half. backwards.
No one would say a midfield of Busio, Mihailovic, and Tessmann was constructed to play defense.
i would. you keep confusing formations with personnel. that’s 2 guys to defend and djordje to play offense. just like weston musah adams is not trying as hard to play offense as you seem to think, with results reflecting as much.
we continue to massively overrate the value of “two way 8s.”
compare them to, say, the U20 pair.
Berhalter out
Questioned some decisions by Mitrovic about the roster. Don’t really have attacking fire power off the bench. No need to bring two LB’s. Could have added another attacker be it Luna,Lund or Cowell. Mihailovich just doesn’t really do a good enough job as a CAM. Doesn’t have the ability to take guys on and drive forward. Busio was doing that not Mihalovich. They did have some chances, I will be happy if they get out of the group.
-Lund is literally another LB.
-I only saw first half, but it did seem more like Berhalter’s double 8s than using a #10. Mihailovic was not very good in first half.
-France has the best on paper squad in the tournament. The 2nd and 3rd group stage matches were always going to be the important ones.
Yeah didn’t mean Lund. It auto filled that in. I don’t know for me it was clear Mihailobich was more forward of the two.
Anyone that has watched Mahailovich for the past 5 years knows he isn’t very good on the dribble and driving the ball forward.
New Zealand won’t be a cake walk as some think.
Also if we go with dual 8’s I would rather see Cremaschi in that role.
2tone: can’t take anything for granted for sure but New Zealand is no where near the talent of France. Their overage players are Boxall (MLS) a guy in Norway and a guy who was a backup in 2Bundesliga and is out of contract. There players are a fewer lower England and Australian league. Pack it in and counter that will be there plan. Frances front four had 57g 22a in Top 5 leagues just last season!
Not only does France have a very good team, they are playing at home. A difficult combination to beat.
True. I think New Zealand will play for a tie. I think they will pack it in and counter. Why I think Pax should start at the 9 with Booth underneath, so they can combine and interchange.
Could have used Diego Luna