Comments

1. IV,

   “also, i am more concerned with trying to get it right then what you or anyone else on here thinks of me.”

   Then you should be really worried because you don’t get a lot of what you say right.

   Also you’re lying about not caring what anyone thinks of you since you react so violently to perceived slights.

   ” you slam the door hard and act like i am an idiot, on people who turn out to be EPL and B.1 players who start for the NT. or guys who have scored on france and belgium that you somehow think are worse than LDLT or malik-kicks-in-stands.”

   With you if someone does not agree 100% with your take then they are an idiot or a fanboy. The reality is the USMNT situation is just full of nuance. Vasquez for example, is doing well in Mexico. But what would happen if you put Pefok in his spot? I’d rather go for Pefok if you need a big guy, box space eater off the bench.

   As for the reyna thing, sure with the good ones you know right away and Gio is a good one, but all of them , even the great ones, have to keep playing to keep that “thing” going. What Gio has is special so I would not fuck around with it and assume it can stand a long period of not playing esp. when he is still quite young. The current direction is good but if he gets to the January window and still is not getting significant time, Gio is going to have some hard thinking to do. For me, ( Pochettino hasn’t said anything to me) Gio will always play for the USMNT because, for all his flaws, the USMNT simply don’t have enough good players that they can let him sit. But Gio isn’t really a worry, he’ll figure it out or he won’t.

   Reply

2. IV,

   “JR: if you have been in professional environments, training with first teams and the NT and then playing games with both, since you were a teenager, yeah, sorry, but 16-22 is uphill, 22-28 is peaking, 28-up is usually downhill…………..”

   Yeah? Everyone knows this boilerplate stuff. What ‘s your point?

   Reply

   • read the thread, which i know you do, or at least want to appear to do, because you literally quote our posts before responding every time. i said we give too many mid-career players too many chances like they are youth prospects. eg zendejas, trapp, yeuill. as though with a few more caps they get better. i think when you call a 22-26 year old player in, most of the time, you get what you’re gonna get. the 8th try on zendejas will be much like the 1st. they aren’t like some teenager that works on their game, trains harder, settles down in their life, and improves. many have been in pro environments since their teens. they are what they’re gonna be, more or less. it’s either good enough or not. if not, try someone else out.

     the basic thrust of the back and forth is on several “regular” but frustrating guys in the pool, we either need to see the payoff, now, or we need to open the competition for their jobs. they are in the 22-28 part of their career where you don’t make excuses and teach, you make decisions and use players who learned their lessons already. they are no longer 18 year olds with uncertain futures and endless upside. at some point they need to be accountable to do they pass the ball to the correct color shirt, do they help create goals, and do they play good defense or give up goals.

     i see it as mirroring The System, which doesn’t fit the players, and which is always on some neverending journey to us figuring it out. so we can be bad because eventually the system will sort. that’s not science. science is this is either winning games and looking smooth or not. and most coaches can make something work or not in about a year tops. if it then doesn’t work, you fire the coach and try something else.

     you don’t keep trying the same stuff and players over and over telling yourself it will work next time. these are increasingly adult players playing a system we have had more than half a decade. start making choices and decisions.

     Reply

     • “read the thread, which i know you do, or at least want to appear to do, because you literally quote our posts before responding every time. “

       I did. I always read the posts. Long story short you are not a consistently “clear “ writer. If you wrote instructions on how to defuse bombs, a lot of bomb disposal experts would be blowed up.

       The World Cup has been won by only eight countries: Argentina, Brazil, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, England, Uruguay. Why so few?
       My theory is that the game became a big deal in their countries faster than in other places so they got the jump on developing a deep player pool. Look at the USWNT for example for how that works.

       There are no guarantees of course and all the adult teams have their ups and downs . But mostly, they tend to have too many good players to stay down for long.

       But other countries have had deep talent pools ( Belgium, Portugal and the Netherlands) also. And one day chances are one of them may well win it, but it hasn’t happened yet. Why?

       Because even if you have everything I listed, it is really, really hard for any team to do. The proof is in the pudding. Because of how everything is structured, how little time there is for any national team to work together, it’s more about becoming a tough team to score on but with enough magic to steal a goal or two.

       Translation? Watch the last Copa America final and see how Argentina’s bench is full of star hot shit players willing to do whatever it takes even if it means just cheerleading.

       Formula: A very good manager , Scaloni along with lots of good to great intelligent , committed players who need little in the way of instruction on what to do because, and you will hate this, they play at clubs that teach them what winning is all about.

       Every once in a while you get a barn burner but mostly the way you win is with defense. and if you are a good manger and have the kind of players I talk about, that can come together fairly quickly. And with Messi no more need be said.
       Watch just about any final of the World Cup, Copa America or the Euros the last 10-20 years or so. Lots of really talented, hard bitten tough guys and at least one or two with enough “magic” to pull your shit out of the fire. And everyone totally and completely committed to the “cause”. That means you need a really good manager.
       The manager does not have to be a tactical genius like you claim to be.
       He just has to be someone who can pull all this together and keep it going. Southgate, as much as y’all hate his fucking guts got England further than anyone since Sir Bobby Robson. Before Southgate, as incredibly talented as the English player pool was, England were lunch meat. Fuck them. They were wussies before him. and might well be after him. Pochettino made the right call to come here, if in fact he does.

       “i said we give too many mid-career players too many chances like they are youth prospects. eg zendejas, trapp, yeuill. as though with a few more caps they get better. i think when you call a 22-26 year old player in, most of the time, you get what you’re gonna get. the 8th try on zendejas will be much like the 1st. they aren’t like some teenager that works on their game, trains harder, settles down in their life, and improves. many have been in pro environments since their teens. they are what they’re gonna be, more or less. it’s either good enough or not. if not, try someone else out.
       the basic thrust of the back and forth is on several “regular” but frustrating guys in the pool, we either need to see the payoff, now, or we need to open the competition for their jobs. they are in the 22-28 part of their career where you don’t make excuses and teach, you make decisions and use players who learned their lessons already. they are no longer 18 year olds with uncertain futures and endless upside. at some point they need to be accountable to do they pass the ball to the correct color shirt, do they help create goals, and do they play good defense or give up goals.”

       Your criticism is besides the point. You are talking about “filler” guys. The problem we have is not the filler guys, it is that our “stars” are not that good. For the most part they are part timers, journeymen or injury prone. We need more Patrick Mahomes and instead we’re getting Gardner Minshew.

       “i see it as mirroring The System, which doesn’t fit the players, and which is always on some neverending journey to us figuring it out. so we can be bad because eventually the system will sort. that’s not science. science is this is either winning games and looking smooth or not. and most coaches can make something work or not in about a year tops. if it then doesn’t work, you fire the coach and try something else.
       you don’t keep trying the same stuff and players over and over telling yourself it will work next time. these are increasingly adult players playing a system we have had more than half a decade. start making choices and decisions.”

       That ship spilled its milk under the bridge a long time ago.

       Gregg proved a long time ago before Qatar, that , barring a miracle, his system and the players and he, were at best, going to be a mediocre mix. I have said elsewhere that you are a club guy in how you think, you and Gregg are twins that way. The trouble is the national team game cannot support what you want to do. The things you want to do take too long. Wholesale changes? As bad as some of the players you are talking about are, believe me, there are worse out there. You can afford to traffic in the ideal; a manager like Gregg cannot. Ironically, Gregg more than anyone , was practically given carte blanche to rip this team apart, root and branch and build a new foundation for Club USMNT FC. We had just missed the World Cup and much of the fanbase were expecting something like that. Instead the USSF pissed away almost a year “searching “ for Gregg. Then he wasted a significant amount of time just learning how to coach these kids. And then he eventually came up with a half decent performance at Qatar.

       For those of you who say, at the end of the day, he did a good job, sure he did, when you consider he was looking at a ground up rebuild. His abilities were not great so even though what he produced was half assed, he over achieved.
       But just imagine what it might have been like had they installed someone like Pochettino, someone who clearly knows how to build a top 5 team from ground up, back in 2018. Gregg had the opportunity but at a certain point, he ran out of time That was before Qatar and I stopped complaining about it because it was obvious the USSF were going to give their frankenstein manager a shot at Qatar and you what you got, which is a half a loaf job.
       After Couva, the new USMNT could have turned out better or it could have turned out worse but I suppose half of a loaf is better than none.

       By the way your criticisms? They should be directed at the people who manage the team and make the decisions you loathe; Gregg , his staff and I suppose, the USSF, not your beloved fanboys.
       There is no fanboy deep state, no Hydra, no Mckinley high school Glee club, making the decision to keep trying on Zendejas, capping Ream or employing Varas.

       There is only Gregg and his staff. Direct your violent rhetoric towards him.

3. there is one guy I’d like to see get a look, Brandon Vasquez, with a defined role off the bench. he’s scored like that 3 times in his 8 caps, all vs. CONCACAF. I’d like to see him get more opportunities in that role and see if he can deliver again. I expect many thumbs down responses 🙂

   Reply

   • horses for courses, if we’re gonna have jedi hit lofted crosses in the box, you need mcbride lite to finish them. this vazquez can do.

     some point fanboys need to get it’s not just abstract club numbers and wishing that translates, it’s how do they fit existing schemes and tendencies, and do they get on the ball and produce. example when sargent plays he cannot be found by the rest of the team, and thus last goal was 2021, even though he played half the world cup as 9. dude to me needs to either fill out where he’s less gawky where he can do hold up play, or strap on a jetpack.

     to me US fandom and coaching has regressed. do people think mcbride or dempsey were actually the top club scorers of their day? nah, we had guys who did better in club in both their eras. but they played a style that worked for our pool and were productive when called. and so they were the dominant NT strikers of their day regardless what the club numbers were. there is plenty of history of lassiters and twellmans and wondos who couldn’t translate or had games that were less successful in international ball. donovan is almost exceptional in cashing in his club dominance. and even when he started, MLS wanted him, leverkusen didn’t.

     anyways, to me good coaching is varied player types on the bench, useful tactical options. i think it might be a symptom of the single scheme obsession, and the fanboy analytics sense, where we’re not thinking, ok, what type of player can finish the service we do? or that you might want bench guys to play slightly different and not the same. we have historically had a target guy on the bench for when we just need to whack balls into the box and chase a game late. either that or sheer speed, some sort of mismatch or package ready to use.

     we run our team like some local ODP concerned with who people play for and their reputations more than whether they can play together.

     Reply

     • oh IV, your fanboy stuff is kind of mean spirited man, even if this time we’re agreeing

       anyway, Vasquez fits what we do but more than that, it’s the late game bull in the box that could pay dividends. Lots of impactful examples of this type of player

       a powerful presence in the box late in games when balls are being hammered into the box is incredibly normal, and used by the best coaches, and a huge reason teams need commanding presences in the air defensively, even if those players aren’t the best at other things

       Vasquez has shown he can actually do this, and for this team…I wonder if he could do it again, you know? 3 times in 8 games is pretty good

       re. Donovan, 17 when at Leverkusen…at Everton, Neville called him the best right mid he’d played with; his first stint, Everton had the 2nd best record in England against a good schedule, look it up. Dempsey was older when he went, the others too. LD went to early imho, and thankfully for me, played with the Galaxy where I saw him live 35-40 times over the years with Beckham, Keane, Sarvas and Juninho, Gonzo before the knee, lots of fun stuff, and USMNT games too of course. much cheaper back then to do all of that!!

     • IV: you’re comparing apples and oranges. You’re saying Dempsey and McBride weren’t the top club scorers. Comparing those two in the Premier League to early 2000s MLS obviously there’s a huge difference in quality. Today you’re comparing The Championship, Eredivisie, France, Bundesliga so form matters because they are playing at similar levels. Vazquez probably is going to have to be on great form to get call up because his level is well below Sarge, Balo, Pepi, Wright. Vazquez has been rather quiet going 12 matches without a goal until last weekend. When 3 of those other 4 are hot it’s hard to say well he scored on the Canada B team in the Gold Cup 12 months ago.

     • bb: to me, fanboys drool over box scores, don’t discount for what league it’s in, and ignore whether that player is compatible with what we have and are trying to do with it. people who played pay attention to those details. people who just kind of like soccer and flexing about how much they watch, point out stat lines.

       the US cannot seem to decide if it’s a reyna-driven goal scoring machine, or a grind it out machine led by adams. instead, like TV-watching fanboys, we pick an all star team of guys at big clubs, then wedge them into a tactical concept. we pay no attention to the details, like, if reyna plays 10, and adams is healthy, who gets dropped? does a musah/weston MF actually work or is it just an exercise in “he starts in serie A?” what should the MF shape look like? and next thing i know i am watching reyna back in the 6 hole bringing the ball up from the backs, while crappy mids are upfield.

       and, yeah, same diff on wings and strikers. pepi and balogun, to me, fit an offense with weah speed wide feeding them behind a defense. or ground balls to turn and shoot. if the service is instead jedi whacking in aerial crosses, you need a target guy. basic soccer.

       to me we better understood basic soccer in the pre-2015 era when we were lucky to get anyone on a big club, and thought about the game more like a soccer team. we now are starting to break into big clubs, and we have regressed in mentality. throw a bunch of reputations on the field and see what happens. if anyone with a clue says, wait, but he doesn’t fit the scheme, or he doesn’t work well with his teammates, you shout them down with, “but how can you bench a serie A guy.” which proves my point.

       the irony is, for all the fanboy chatter about big clubs, coaches at actual big clubs routinely have to make such decisions. they might get in 20 guys who can really play. and they have to figure out which 11 work best. and the coach who sorts that out best wins the league.

       we have a midtable, fanboy mentality, where we feel duty bound to play the reputation guys, even if it loses u games, for fear of looking silly, as though losing games isn’t already doing that a little. good coaches are more concerned with what win games and is compatible. we are content to win sometimes and then tout all the big clubs we play at when we lose.

       look, i can think of approaches to soccer where ferreira or sargent become useful strikers for us. but we have to actually play soccer that way for it to work. but there is a breed of fan who doesn’t care and is like “why aren’t you calling the guy with x goals for norwich.” because he doesn’t fit scheme. because he disappears in games. because he got to start half the world cup and nothing happened. this is how real soccer teams operate but to me in this era of inundating europe, it’s overflowing with fanboy mentality. of just call the guys at the european teams i like with stats i like. even if they can’t play together or seem made to generate 1-1 game scores as a unit.

     • JR: first off, dempsey was The Guy despite efforts to squeeze a 30 goal Jozy in. but dempsey fit what we were trying to do, is clutch, and put balls in net corners. jozy could never convert that eredivisie no-defense production into more contested environments. he was also more of a facing-goal guy when what we wanted was back to goal. so dempsey was solid but not great in EPL , but ahead of jozy who could score 20-30. one guy translated, other didn’t. and to pre-empt where you’re headed, it’s not like jozy didn’t get abundant EPL and spanish chances.

       there is a long history of guys not translating. you run out a list of club form favorites — and i saw you touting dike in another thread — and ignore half of them don’t do it on the NT. sargent, dike. the idea isn’t to endlessly reward club form like an all star team, it’s to give guys with that form a shot, see who fits the scheme and with the other players, and then keep the ones who produce for the Nats.

       vazquez has 3 G in 8 caps, which is almost as many as sargent in 25 caps, and analytically a much better goal rate. he also fits hand in glove with jedi and others hitting lofted crosses. you can mock where he plays but we actually have plenty of history of lower division or MLS target guys whose virtue was fitting the scheme more so than lighting up their league at the top of the leaderboard, eg, casey, ching, gordon, mcbride.

       the players careers is “progress.” picking players based on career progress rather than do they fit the scheme is “regression.”

       example: i am an astros fan. setting aside garbage-can-gate, we had more success under our prior GM because he insisted on signing vets with low strikeout rates, who made contact and put the ball in play. the more recent signings usually can also hit some homers, but the team now leaves a lot more runners on base and is more streaky.

       we are so flattered or hyped we have all these players at big clubs, and so eager on this scheme project, that we have abandoned basic coaching sense about how to set up a roster or lineup, and how to win soccer games. as such the US team barely looks like it has ever seen each other when it plays a game, and the results are middling. but the fed can put out press releases and social media talking up what all clubs we play for…….before that happens…..

       it used to be common sense the best paper players did not make the best soccer team. i’m not even necessarily saying they can’t play well in some other context. but the deal is do they help this team with these players playing a particular scheme. and largely forgotten in recent years is any sense that players A B C perhaps have some special rapport, the ability to quickly trick and flick off each other as though they ever saw each other before. we are very predictable in part because we slowly play the ball around laboriously as though we have no secret idea what our teammate will do. after 6-7 years we should know by now. there should be some guys who just get each other.

       no, we are what happens when you force a system onto a pool, and pick guys off stat lines and club locations instead of do they have a knack for playing scheme and playing off each other.

     • IV: we’re not comparing Dempsey to Altidore, we’re trying to compare Dempsey to Wondo. Truly we never really worried about comparing Clint to anyone other than who was better Clint or Landon, but if both were available they played. Jozy no matter his club form was going to play because his low numbers in England or Spain were still better than big numbers by Buddle in MLS. Their talent was that much better. Balo, Pepi, Sarge are better than Vazquez. If we want to hit high crosses into the box (we shouldn’t that’s a horribly inefficient way to score) then fine, but Brandon hasn’t been scoring much with his head since 2022.
       ——————
       Go back to 2021 I’ve been saying Jedi and Pulisic on the same side isn’t great. That being said I’m not sure any of our LB candidates combine well with Puli. It’s fine to say it’s not an all-star team, but there has to be a lower league player with the qualities needed.
       —————-
       I don’t believe the our players can’t play possession style soccer. I believe Berhalter couldn’t teach it. I don’t think you need an all-star team, but when France, Spain, and Argentina are playing their all-star teams, you better have better people than journeyman second division guys because over the course of 4 or 5 knockout rounds it’s not enough. Morocco didn’t have 15 world class players but pretty much everyone had or was playing in a top 5 league. The US can have a guy or two in MLS or LigaMx but they better be a top player in the league their in or they aren’t going to stack up.
       —————
       I wasn’t touting Dike, just giving people info that he’s recovering. He’s a poster child for your player fits the system. Barnsley played the perfect style for him.

4. Recent update on Matt Turner situation at Forest.

   Forest reject Turner loan offers, want full transfer – sources

   Nottingham Forest have turned down multiple loan offers for United States international goalkeeper Matt Turner, with the Premier League club preferring him to exit on a permanent transfer, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle.

   Turner, 30, has endured a difficult time at Forest since joining them last year on a transfer worth $9m with add-ons. He claimed the starting goalkeeping spot during the first half of the season, but he eventually lost his place in the starting lineup to Matz Sels.

   Turner’s fortunes haven’t improved since. He played in all three matches for the U.S. at the 2024 Copa América, a tournament that saw the USMNT fail to make it past the group stage.

   Reply

   • fanboys tend to want to read negative feedback into player decisions, but what i get from what you’re saying is he’s been frozen out and pushed to transfer instead of loan.

     i do think we need competition but the recent idea of competition isn’t several battle for a job, each getting a chance, decided on performance, what we do of late is just hand the job to someone else then get disappointed later on. so maybe have more eligible players and let a winner just emerge over time. quit picking winners before running the races.

     Reply

5. Kristian Fletcher is about to sign with Nottingham Forest, hope he does well, Nice to see USA men prospects get potential EPL minutes.

   Reply

6. I will say Jordan Morris looks reborn playing CF for Seattle. Not saying he should be called up, but he is scoring a variety of goals and his tally is at 11 so far this season, and still has that blistering pace. Clocked in at 22.6 MPH in the last game.

   Reply

   • Also it’s time to bring Jalen Neal back. I do think he has a very high ceiling at CB.

     Reply

7. Poch is going to push his FBs high just like Berhalter so he’s unlikely to move a CB to RB or LB.

   Reply

8. No way Schulte isn’t called up. Added another trophy to his young career.

   Reply

9. That keeper lineup fills me with confidence.

   Reply

10. While a lot of people expect Pochettino to come in and clean house, I doubt that many changes, certainly not major ones, will be made. My changes are 1. No more Ream. These are 2 friendlies. It’s time to9 cut the cord. Needing the mature guy around just doesn’t cut it. It applies if you have a bunch of newbies in an important tournament, but this isn’t the case. I would much prefer Trusty. He started a whole lot of games in the EPL and it wasn’t his fault they went down. I’d rate him ahead of McKenzie. 2. Paxten Aaronson doesn’t impress me yet. I would prefer Tessman over him. I know he is just getting settled in at Lyon and maybe we can’t get him, but he certainly should be called in for the October friendlies. With no Tessman, I would move Reyna to midfield and replace Reyna up top with Jordan Morris. Morris had a really good season last year and is continuing it this season. I think he is worth another look. He is 29, soon to be 30 and would be 31 during the next WC, so I don’t think he is too old.

    Reply

    • Hearing Mikey Varas will take over SDFC once Poch is in place.

      Reply

11. Ledezma:
    I love Richie Ledezma but he’s not a RB. PSV has played terrible teams so he hasn’t hadn’t anything to do defensively. I’ve watched the matches. I’d be fine bringing him for MF or RW. Preferred replacement Reynolds.
    Cowell:
    Not enough consistency for me yet. Preferred replacement: Luna. I’d be okay taking a chance on Campbell. He’s playing with BvB II in 3Bundesliga. Koleosho if he’s ready for a switch.
    Horvath: too many errors preferred replacement Schulte
    CCV: was generally pretty bad this summer. He had a worse game against Panama than Tim Weah. Preferred replacement Trusty
    —————————-
    No to injured guys like Sandler and EPB. Ferreira has missed most of summer injured and isn’t back to full fitness. Thomkinson and Carrera are playing for youth teams and weren’t good for U23s. Holmes doesn’t play for a mid table Championship team.

    Reply

12. horvath is just running the roster xerox machine. he played the second half of panama that we lost this summer, gave up the winner the guy basically shot right through him near post. he since then has shipped >2 G/g (8 goals in 3 league games), including another gaffe goal. oh, but let’s talk him up as turner’s replacement.

    gaga, while not as xeroxed, is similarly shallow. so gaga plays for a couple lousy teams with lousy pro numbers, mediocre numbers for CFC U21, gets demoted to U23 backup behind schulte, gets loaned to the 3rd division, has a 1.5 GAA in league games there……and voila, put him on the full NT?

    this underlines my sense that “club form” is fairly malleable and can amount to having some buzz. the destination is unimpressive, his numbers unexceptional, and he wasn’t even viewed as our first choice age group keeper this summer by the folks manning the pipeline.

    nah, if we were going by cold hard facts, it should be turner, schulte (who was ahead of gaga for U23 and has club numbers <1 GAA for the best defensive team in a top 15 first division league), celentano, and frei. and that's not the lazy "look this week" box score version of "form," you look at the numbers and it's the same guys year after year.

    Reply

    • pick 2/3 of wright balogun pepi (i have them ordered by preference, wright and balogun score for the nats lately, pepi doesn’t, the “club form” isn’t translating), call vazquez as 3rd striker for aerial tactical variety as he fits our penchant for lazy crossing (can we think like coaches instead of all star team voters). drop sargent — why do i need four 9s for 2 games.

      push reyna to 10. push jedi to wing. call yow and campbell to replace the deleted strikers, since the numbers tilt to central too much. drop cowell.

      Reply

      • Sargent might be our best striker at this time. I’d bring him. I’d also bring Wright as a striker/left wing, so we could look at Pulisic in the center as a 10.

      • sargent made an excellent career move for him, but in national colors dude got to start half the whole world cup and the last time he scored was 2021. this is part of my issue with “club form” is if you don’t cash it in internationally who cares. it basically allows fans of specific players to eternally argue a case contrary to their NT output.

        at minimum, if you want sargent to get a tryout — and i am open to competition — leave someone off. this theoretical roster is overloaded central again at the expense of wide. and i don’t think reyna should be wide, he should be stirring the drink, and without him or weah we have a shortage wide. so that’s what we need to call 2-3 more of.

    • reyna pulisic ferreira green 10 musah maloney holmes johnny twin-6s.

      Reply

      • You can’t routinely call people “fanboys” and then call for Duane Holmes in the starting lineup.

    • CB– keep CCV, drop ream mckenzie, trial some mix of trusty EPB dietz sands (who could also play 6) mckennie sandler tomkinson carrera.

      fullbacks — push jedi up. push richards to RB. keep lund ledezma. trial some mix of wiley brown mckennie.

      Reply

13. IV You may have noticed – if you read my very short comment – that I did not advocate Ream playing necessarily. Just that there was value in veteran presence in camp from a guy started in the EPL for multiple years. I think that’s especially true in a transitional window.

    Do I think Ream gets called in once Pochettino gets the reins? No. But that won’t be until later in the fall (at best).

    Reply

    • the usual excuse for going too long on older veterans is the team is winning. we aren’t. for some reason people forget that ream had been dumped mid last cycle for performance and is basically back to playing that way.

      we have finite games this team gets together and plays, and any game ream plays takes away from fixing the defense and moving towards the future, and in defense of, what, mediocrity? fear of the unknown? i’ve run the numbers before and it’s not like we win more often when he plays. he was like 5th or 6th best and behind even dubious guys like mckenzie.

      we have hit rock bottom. act like it. figure out some fresh faces where we start winning again. there will be some duds, but also some good picks.

      Reply

14. Big no on McKennie for me – even though he’s one of my favorite USMNT players. I’m so disappointed in his Copa performance – in every single game. And now he’s not playing. You’d think he hit rock bottom last year but I think this year has been even lower since all his talk about his enlightenment of how to be a professional seemed to have waned by the end of club season evidenced by his fitness.

    Let’s really think about the prevailing narrative surrounding Gregg Berhalter’s last months as coach, namely, that some players had become complacent and thinking they were entitled to call ins and starting spots. This has been espoused by pundits as well as players. I can’t think of anyone else who this could point to or at least who exemplifies this. There’s no better time than right now to show him his place is not a given.

    Maybe start addressing all that “discipline” talk here. It will certainly send the message to the rest of the team.

    Reply

    • i suggested above maybe try him in some spots across the back. him and richards. we really need to find a defense that holds.

      to me the deal on mckennie, dating back to schalke, is he’s a physical talent but what “position” does he play? i mean like, well. we have a better 10. we have 6s who play more consistent defense. he hasn’t really been tried wide up top or in the back.

      he produces enough it’s figure out some role, 12th man, played someplace new, something. it’s not play him and musah at 8 and call that a midfield or a functioning possession offense. weston needs to be at the end of plays, not the genesis.

      Reply

15. Pass on Giovanni Reyna (AM/RW/LW). Hard Pass. Go find a stable club or start getting regular minutes. STOP REWARDING HIM FOR MEDIOCRITY. Thats one of the reasons he’s content barely riding pine at Dortmund.

    Paxten Aaronson is a watered-down Brenden Aaronson……another Hard Pass

    FW Luca Koleosho (LW/RW/ST) – Burnley. Hasn’t picked a country to represent yet!!!!
    MF Tanner Tessmann (CM/DM) – Help showcase his talent. Lots of interests from La Liga clubs.
    MF Djordje Mihailovic (AM/CM) – Starting for Colorado (good goal /Assist stats)
    FW Brandon Vazquez (CF) – Playing regularly for Monterrey
    FW Jordan Pefok (CF) – Starting for Union Berlin
    MF Diego Luna (LM/AM/CM) – Starting for RSL (good assist stats)
    Just to name a few

    Mauricio Pochettino can’t take over this team fast enough……… so he can show USSoccer how it’s really done, and break-up this “good old boys” club mentality…….WITHOUT THIS STUPID FAVORITISM. There are players working hard, day in day out, starting for their clubs…..only to be shadowed and overlooked by mediocrity and spineless players with absolutely no grit.

    Reply

    • All coaches have favoritism. They may not align with your favorites though. What we will be getting is an exchange from Gregg’s favorites to Pochettino’s eventual favorites. Berhalter went into games with the players he thought would get the best results. If that is favoritism then how do you separate that from line ups any coach across every single competition in the world selects. Favoritism is such a weird negative accusation leveled against coaches (of any sport). I mean what if – gasp – Pochettino concludes the same players are the best chances for the US to win games? That is a possibility, right?

      Reply

      • True…..scary but absolutely possible / true

      • the difference is GB was not even in the ballpark of a best lineup or tactics. part of my reaction here is the theoretical pecking order felt like it was still dwelling in that same awkward place. i think the 9 gang is solid. i think reyna and/or pulisic should be 10 or twin 8s. if adams is healthy, 6. but not a lot else of this should be settled. some of that is personnel competition/experiment and some of it is that GB’s mix/concept just never worked, not offensive enough and also not leakproof in the back.

        i grant coaches have their odd favorites, bruce had ben, bradley had bornstein, but GB was significantly skewed and the problem is like klinsi a whole set of fans have just bought into what he was selling, implicitly, even as they hate on his coaching. because he picked a fanboy all star team of big club guys. to me if this was The Lineup it would look smoother together. in particular, if the MF is unchanged, then the coaching moves aren’t working.

        US fans need to figure out it’s not about all star teams, it’s a unit who works together and fits some scheme to score goals or defend. better soccer teams are willing to bench or cut top talent who just doesn’t fit the NT scheme. or they adjust the scheme to make them fit.

    • “There are players working hard, day in day out, starting for their clubs…..only to be shadowed and overlooked by mediocrity and spineless players with absolutely no grit”

      It’s the old “backup QB is the best player in the building” syndrome. Yeah we’ll never know if your “working hard” guys are as mediocre and spineless as the “favorites” if your guys never play. IV bitches, whines and moans because Gregg did not play Julian Green and Duane Holmes.

      These days most national teams are going to get to the point where they will play one keeper and sixteen outfield players pretty consistently.

      That’s because most teams don’t have a lot of time together and all that implies.
      The manager does not have a lot of time to choose. So they better choose right.

      If you think highly of the manager and trust them, then those “regulars” are the “trusted vets” .

      If you don’t like the manager then the “regulars” are his dickless “favorites.”

      When the day comes that a USMNT manager consistently ignores a legit Balon D’or candidate then I’ll believe that the manager ignores our best players.

      It seems to me USMNT managers have usually tried to bring in the best available players. It’s just that the manager and the players are not that good. So you get what you get.

      Reply

      • oh, spare me
        1) rumor is, koleosho is going to play for italy (is anyone going to take back their dismissiveness)
        2) fact is, richardson is going to play for morocco
        3) long list of guys like richards and reyna i pushed for, before it was popular, who are now regulars
        4) your inability to separate out handing guys their jobs early in cycle without competition vs. say alternating keller and friedel and picking someone at the end
        5) the utter crap like LDLT that some of you seem to think belongs on a NT
        6) my prospects only need to be better than LDLT or equivalent to deserve a shot — the last guy making these rosters — they don’t have to be pulisic or reyna
        7) the basic fact that in a tournament situation it’s not a couple stars, or 5 favorites — that’s never how soccer works — or even the starting 11 — it’s finding 15-18 guys you can rely on to help produce wins, so that you can finish games off, win close ones, come back in rough ones, rest people, rotate
        8) that soccer is never just a stats competition, it’s a team game in part about how do the parts work together as a whole. whatever you think of your all stars, they compose a crappy unit that doesn’t win enough or look that good trying to do it.
        9) that applying your own pontification terms, a unit that got the results we have lately, is mis-chosen “favorites” rather than wisely-picked “regulars.” at least when bradley or arena had favorites, they might go a whole year not losing. this concept has been used and reused since roughly wales 2020 friendly. that game ended 0-0. 2 years later we tied wales again with money on the table. so perhaps this specific bunch is “played out.”
        10) that you’re echoing since 2015 this has gotten more risk averse while delivering modest results, which when they come are usually regional and inconsistent. to me, if i win the whole thing or make the semis, i limit my tinkering. if i barely escape a group then get thrashed, the feedback tells me without taking risk this isn’t going to be good enough.
        11) i think you folks are too scared to lose a friendly or baby tournament — which we still do too much — that you have lost sight the idea is to use these prep games to figure out a unit to take you deepest in the world cup. those — to me — are the ones you should actually be afraid of losing. you have it precisely backwards worrying about every exhibition then blowing off what the world cup said.

      • IV,

        More malarkey.

        ” i think you folks are too scared to lose a friendly or baby tournament — which we still do too much — that you have lost sight the idea is to use these prep games to figure out a unit to take you deepest in the world cup. those — to me — are the ones you should actually be afraid of losing. you have it precisely backwards worrying about every exhibition then blowing off what the world cup said.”

        I hate to break this to you but the USMNT has not been managed for the last 20 years or so by any of us here at SBI. Unless you are really Steve Sampson. So trying to blame anyone here, as you are doing, for the various foibles that the USMNT has displayed over the years is just so 2020.

        “that applying your own pontification terms, a unit that got the results we have lately, is mis-chosen “favorites” rather than wisely-picked “regulars.” at least when bradley or arena had favorites, they might go a whole year not losing. this concept has been used and reused since roughly wales 2020 friendly. that game ended 0-0. 2 years later we tied wales again with money on the table. so perhaps this specific bunch is “played out.”

        By then it was a little late for Gregg to find new “wisely picked” regulars.

        What part of this do you not understand? :

        “If you think highly of the manager and trust them, then those “regulars” are the “trusted vets” .

        If you don’t like the manager then the “regulars” are his dickless” “favorites.”

        Let me clarify it for you.

        If a team does well and you like the manager then his regulars are ” wisely-picked “regulars.”

        If the team is not doing great and you dislike the manager then his regulars are “mis-chosen “favorites” .

        None of us did not invented this and you can’t take credit for it as is your wont. This is pretty standard stuff because with the notable exceptions that I cited below ( Spain, Germany and a few others) basically all national teams are put together this way, especially these days.

        You claim to know exactly what these managers are thinking and why they do the things they do. I don’t know any of these people personally and I don’t stand on the side lines or in the locker rooms so I don’t know what you claim to know . But you can go back as far in history as you want and you’ll find for better or worse, every decent national team eventually settled on a set of regulars who, in some corners could be called wisely picked regulars or mis-chosen favorites.

        Sometimes that worked out well, notably with Spain and Germany where at times in their history, they were basically calling in mashups of Barca/Real Madrid or Bayern Munich/ Borussia Moenchengladbach.

        Sometimes not so well.

      • V: i don’t “claim to know” anything. i was pimping richards and reyna before people were admitting they were anything. there is a status quo bias on here where the last people the coach picked must be the best guys we have. but if you have watched us sandbag big prospect players you know better. a whole chunk of the lineup got its first caps under sarachan, got busted down to U23 by GB when he took over in 2019, and then amusingly was brought back in 2021 when the meaty part of WCQ arrived. we could have saved them 2 years.

        i think part of it is i had a good select coach who explained to me why he was doing what he did, very educational, where i don’t assume every idiot handed a paycheck, whistle, and clipboard knows what they are doing equally well.

        i think klinsi had more actual clue what he was trying to accomplish. when he was trying to knock it around — one personnel setup. when he was trying to defend and counter — another set. if you’re confused, it was the difference between mixx/gringo type guys early on and jones/beckermann later on. he had horses for courses. when the scheme changed, the personnel did.

        GB never seemed to grasp what he was trying to do with his scheme, lots of offense or tight defense, or to tune the roster to that end.

        the fanboys who act like they dislike GB but then xerox his rosters have effectively been indoctrinated by GB without realizing it. like i said, status quo bias. and a very pushy version. i mean i have people calling me an idiot or fanboy myself for wanting them to call, say, someone who when used has scored on france and belgium. that kind of exaggerated certitude. oh, but malik or LDLT have to be “better than that.” sure. and let’s ignore whether this team badly needs someone other guy or 2 with a reyna-type 10 mentality and game, as opposed to more two-way 8 mush neither amazing at offense nor airtight on defense.

        nope, horses for courses is basically lost on many US fans so excited we have players all over europe, no one cares if the team actually plays together well, and for all the losing they seem t certain we can do no better. so, yes, status quo bias tied in a bow.

16. Hard pass on Ream. The goal is to prepare for 2026 and Ream would be 38. Time to give others some experience.

    Reply

    • Veteran leadership is important, though. Tim’s work ethic and attitude are a positive for any group and especially with a relatively inexperienced back line. Not saying he should start, but having him in camp would be valuable.

      Reply

      • people made roughly the same excuse for GB bringing back mike bradley 5 years ago. it’s a standard excuse for including dessicated veterans. i think half the reason it gets made is even if they play badly — which he did — the exercise is justified as “education” for the teammates. who often are the same ones as before. who often play the same after as before.

        did our DMs play better or smarter after bradley was dropped? nah, it turned the corner when adams took over. youth and talent.

        it’s not even that ream or the team have played that well, it’s an urge to resist change. our CB play has been poor, including ream’s. we need competition for the job among the best options with tread on them. we don’t need the same old stuff. and this veteran-helping-kids stuff hasn’t worked the other years ream was around.

        if he wants to teach, retire and coach. otherwise, we have coaches to coach and zero sense of an ongoing ream mentorship program.

      • When does the core of this roster become veterans? After how many World Cups and Copas? After playing in Champions League how many times? After playing is big European derbies how many times? When does an athlete move into the term “veteran”. Many of us still think the core of this roster is young. But experience level shows them to have already been playing at a high level for multiple seasons. Just thinking out loud….

      • Moo: this has been a general issue with the USMNT for years. i remember when GB was first getting started trapp and yeuill, in their mid 20s, were treated like youth project prospects instead of players who at their ages either needed to put up or shut up. ditto zendejas who looks young and “feels” like an emerging player but is 26. like if you are poor-to-inconsistent on the NT now, you’re nguyen, you’re done.

        no, i think it’s we “met” them as late teens, 20, and seem stuck back there. a lot of the guys are mid-20s and should have been treated like veterans who either produce or get dropped, as early as end of the qatar cycle.

        this is also part of my problem with “tactics against type” where we are trying to “teach a new way of playing soccer.” it fights against natural tendencies or strengths. but worse, it’s like an ongoing accountability dodge. just give it more time and we’ll finish the project. most teams they give you a few months, maybe a year, your ideas are made to work or not. one thing i am worried about poch on, is are we just persisting down the same path with a better teacher, or is it different enough and he has some nuances that work with our pool.

        but anyhow, to me, yeah, we’re coming at this question from different places, my deal is, judge NT performance, and that’s along the lines of, treat them like veterans and quit making excuses like you are drilling a YNT age group team into some project scheme. we blow this world cup and next one some core guys will be 30 or over. careers last about a decade. you start with them in 2018-20, by 2030 it’s who else is coming up because they will be getting old. and that feels harsh in 2024 but this should be their peak years. at some point this has to transition to the usual way a NT is run, which is do your job well or lose it.

      • Yueill was 22 when he made his first cap and had his last cap when he was 24.

      • i mentioned 2 guys who got mid 20s caps and you moaned about 1 who wasn’t exactly 18 when he broke in.

        my point is for some of these late bloomers or college kids, getting first caps mid-20s, that’s gonna be as good as it gets and acting like they are a project is fake. to that end, you mentioned yeuill’s age as though to correct me, but my point is, at that age there isn’t some other yeuill he’s gonna grow into.

        my grander point is that it feels like parallel of the broader eternal “project” that we can’t seem to be decisive about poor NT players. the way this has historically worked is some guys like nguyen, who people thought might become a big deal, just don’t. they get a cap or 2, we move on to the next one. maybe they get called 2-3 years from now.

        to me it’s like childishly naive how often we seem to second guess player eval just because they hit a career streak.

        the check on this is qualitative as opposed to quantitative. usually there is a “book” on guys and we know their failings. have they been fixed or not? otherwise i don’t care if sargent, zendejas, etc. are on a hot streak.

      • If you consider 22 your mid twenties, your point was absolutely correct. If you have every seen a number line you were 50/50.

      • IV,

        “i mentioned 2 guys who got mid 20s caps and you moaned about 1 who wasn’t exactly 18 when he broke in.”

        You’re wrong about one guy out of two. That’s 50% of your sample size. . You’re making this a black and white issue with you as the arbiter of the “truth” when the truth is it is a lot more grey that you say it is.

        You’re making up stuff to fit your narrative again. More of your malarkey.

        Evaluating players is about a lot more than their chronological age.

      • JR: if you have been in professional environments, training with first teams and the NT and then playing games with both, since you were a teenager, yeah, sorry, but 16-22 is uphill, 22-28 is peaking, 28-up is usually downhill.

        if you notice, that is usually precisely how your big clubs operate. if you aren’t brought in right around 18 you are not there to play age groups and be tutored, you are there to show up ready to start for the first team. if you are an academician, by about 21-22 they make up their mind and either go with you, or move on to some transfer or other academy kid. there aren’t a lot of 22-25 year old loan warrior signings who return to the first team and accelerate. they squeeze the asset orange and then they let you leave.

        you can nitpick in the abstract about is it numerically mid-20s in some out of context sense, but if you look at where the soccer age cutoffs are, it’s usually right where i am talking about. 23 — olympics. 22 — MLS youth initiative. 21/19 — english or german youth groups/reserves. and that’s right about where most big clubs start either integrating or writing off their academy kids. you get signed there at that age it’s to be an adult first teamer and not to go to soccer school. no, at that age you’ve been pro for years and for that team’s purposes, it’s either happening or not. unless we’re talking college kids coming out age 22 or 23 — who sometimes peak later because they are first hitting professional situations later on — i am lost what your soccer point is here quibbling.

      • IV,

        “JR: if you have been in professional environments, training with first teams and the NT and then playing games with both, since you were a teenager, yeah, sorry, but 16-22 is uphill, 22-28 is peaking, 28-up is usually downhill…………..”

        Yeah? Everyone knows this boilerplate stuff. What ‘s your point?

      • IV: classic narcissistic personality , you think you know all and are better than everyone else here. So to prop yourself up you’ve created this belief that players top out at 18-22 because that’s when you topped out. Facts don’t actually have to be true because you alone know the way so if misremember or make up a stat who cares you’re always right. Make grand statements like “I alone discovered Gio Reyna.” Try to bully people into submission by calling them names so they’ll stay quiet. Gaslight people by repeating falsehoods over and over until they think things like “Duane Holmes is a great scorer from distance” or “Italy played a whole different roster in one window”, fun fact both are false for those playing at home. Blame things and guys everyone hates so that people will agree with you “Gregg this, Gregg that, Wil Trapp, Michael Bradley”. Seriously seek some help or run for President being a narcissist looked highly upon by certain factions.

      • take all the personal potshots you want. there is a reason oly cuts off at U23, that a lot of these reserve leagues cut off at U21. it’s because roughly that age group is where these big clubs think you have either turned out or not. yes, once in a while some keeper or college kid peaks late 20s.

        your ad hominems are fake. my point is any idiot knew the difference between reyna and trapp by about age 20 or earlier. you are trying over-hard to defend the way we do things in recent years, under a lousy coach, who gave 30+ caps to someone like roldan, or several to trapp and yeuill, or other mediocrities, as though the next cap they magically will turn the corner.

        we knew reyna had it cap 1. we knew pulisic had it camp 1. the good ones you know. it’s fake fake fake to pretend otherwise. it may take some players a little longer, but it’s usually 22-23 max. you can pretend this is my personal view but my guess is 100% of SBI posters would not be confused that trapp or roldan was ever going to be reyna’s level, that i am somehow being overharsh by saying the distinctions become obvious fairly early on, and at latest by the end of college age.

        i get it amuses you 2 to bash me but you’re wrong. 95% of the US roster you could probably sort out where they were going to stack by exactly when i said it happens. exceptions being the occasional turner or long by way of college.

      • and JR, dude, if you’re gonna throw around narcissism, your routine if he says black i have to post white, conventional-wisdom-following posts, seem to assume you are just as right. i don’t see much grey when you wrongly say reyna isn’t ready. no, it’s this weird thing where you are gonna wait on someone else to pronounce. but you want for the club to do it. to make them first team.

        amusingly as soon as the club starts to hint first team, you catch up to me on reyna or campbell. but that’s because some club coach at dortmund has stamped approval and you don’t have to be seen agreeing with me by my lonesome evaluating.

        when did US fans become a bunch of followers. it is possible for US soccer to be smarter than europe. we have been plenty of times, mcbride, donovan, there was a whole generation of german discards who ironically did a victory lap back over there mid-career.

      • and to be crystal clear, the reason you get repeated reminders who i got right before is not narcissism, it’s how hard you insist each time i suggest someone new, that my new suggestion must be wrong, even after some history of getting some right and you even later bandwagoning the player. if you 2 are gonna pretend i must be clueless each time, then i get to remind you how often i have been right.

        because it’s not like you say maybe, maybe not, grey area, wait a sec, you slam the door hard and act like i am an idiot, on people who turn out to be EPL and B.1 players who start for the NT. or guys who have scored on france and belgium that you somehow think are worse than LDLT or malik-kicks-in-stands.

        also, i am more concerned with trying to get it right then what you or anyone else on here thinks of me.