Comments

1. Well some good performances and some bad performances this past weekend. That’s just hownit goes sometimes.

   Musah is just in a bad cycle right now. Still very young. I think he may need a move to a lesser team in Serie A. Sometimes a player needs to a move like that to fully realize his potential. Many players have done this and gone on to have great careers.

   On a positive note it’s good to see Paredes back.in the 18. Still think he has a high ceiling as a wing option. And will be a player looking to be a core player after 2026.

   Reply

2. I only watched the highlights from the AC Milan game. First, Musah was part of a double defensive midfield against a full 5 man midfield so he was outnumbered from the start.

   Second, while he gave away the ball on the first goal, the remaining squad did nothing to help get the ball back or defend the goal. I will concede that the team was out of position, but the right back played some weak defense and was juked with a first fake before the cross. Numerous chances for the defense to bail out Musah.

   Third, I read some American reports that said that Musah was also responsible of the second goal. I didn’t see how as he was not in the play. Maybe that answers the question, but I think his removal was as much a concession of a bad line up then Musah’s individual play.

   Reply

   • Agree with much of this. His giveaway deep in midfield happened in a really bad place, and did directly lead to the first goal, but as you say, you expect top level centerbacks to stop or at least slow down that play. I didn’t rewatch but don’t recall Musah being involved in the second either. Not trying to let him off the hook completely, he definitely looked off from the start, but not sure he deserves all the blame he’s getting either. Milan has been giving up cheap goals all season long and it doesn’t seem to matter who is playing CB or the 6.

     Reply

3. Yunus Musah…..playing “laxy Daisy” at AC Milan and subbed off EARLY

   “Yunus Musah headed straight down the tunnel after a humiliating substitution against Fiorentina, forcing his AC Milan teammates Alessandro Florenzi and Strahinja Pavlovic to intervene. ”

   “Musah played yesterday’s game from start but after making a fatal mistake on Fiorentina’s first goal, he was subbed off in the 23rd minute. Sergio Conceicao brought on Luka Jovic instead and while the sub worked to recover a point, the situation was far from ideal.”

   “The American midfielder headed straight down the tunnel to avoid hearing the boos of the San Siro, feeling ‘humiliated’ by the early substitution as told by Calciomercato.com. Strahinja Pavlovic and Alessandro Florenzi intervened, bringing the player back to the bench and apologising to the coach for the disrespect.”

   ……. Its performance is like this that help us understand why a “no-star” team like Panama can beat the US men’s National Team.

   Reply

   • “Its performance is like this that help us understand why a “no-star” team like Panama can beat the US men’s National Team.”

     bizzy,

     Not really. Relating this game to that NL game is nonsense.
     Of 31 possible games for Milan, Musah has played 25. Everyone eventually has a shit game.
     Obviously he plays more good games than bad ones or they wouldn’t keep running him out there.

     There’s simpler explanation for why Panama beats us..

     The USMNT have better players but Panama are a better TEAM.
     Just because you have, ON PAPER , better players, it does not make you a better team.

     In the last five competitive games that the USMNT have played Panama;

     WC qualifier
     WC qualifier
     Gold Cup semi
     Copa America
     Nations League

     The USMNT has lost four and won one (the WC qualifier).

     That is not Musah’s fault. And it is not an accident.

     And it’s not because Musah, a regular starter for the USMNT and Milan, had one awful game for a Milan team in total turmoil.
     When are USMNT fans going to realize that it is not just about individual players but rather the entire team? There’s a lot of blame to go around.
     Mostly it tells you that Christiansen has the USMNT’s number.
     Until the USMNT beats Panama in a competitive game, Panama are the better team, no question.

     Reply

     • Vac, not sure I agree with that analysis. A team that has only 33% possession and is out shot 12-3 with 1 shot on goal to 5 and conceding 9 corner kicks to 3 usually loses and needs luck to win, as Christiansen said after the game. The first step in Panama beating the US is understanding that the US has better players and setting their tactics accordingly. If Panama plays an open game with the US they would probably lose 10 out of 10 games. Teams defending and hoping for a little luck to win against a team with better players is nothing new and is pretty well proven to be the best tactic in those circumstances and happens at every competitive level all the way down to the crappy rec leagues for old farts. Any US fan that was watching prior to 2010 should be very familiar with thise tactics. The best national teams and club treams in the world lose games this way because it is hard to score when the other team has 8 guys plus a goalie in the box. The US players’ inability to know how to effectively break down a bunker is why they lost to Panama and why they could lose to any CONCACAF team of note now and going forward. They were much more effective at creating chances against Panama than they had been under Gregg, but Gregg had a four leaf clover so he utlimately got the results (still think Greggg wasn’t lucky?). It is arrogance of fans to think that game was going to be a cakewalk and that games against even El Salvador will be a cakewalk. If they turn out to be a cakewalk it is a good day but on a bad day, they could be losses.

     • Panama has clearly figured out how to bunker against the USMNT. I didn’t realize the USMNT was 1-4 in the last five against Panama until Vacqui’s statement, but that sounds right.

       Remember that Sargent hit the post and had a goal denied for offside. Now, other than those two attempts, I’m not going to say the USMNT looked great in the last game.

       I wonder if the USMNT almost needs two teams: (1) to beat the CONCACAF park the bus and foul and (2) a real team to compete on a true international level. I know that this is not a new or unique issue, but I don’t think that GGG got to that point and played formation over players and Poch is probably too Euro and new to the CONCACAF scrapes to understand.

       Either way, much like Big 10 basketball in the NCAA’s, the USMNT is not easy to watch right now.

     • I see this often here where some commenter doesn’t like a particular player so they pick out one thing and emphasize it as if it is symptomatic of their whole career. Also, a club team sees a lot more of a player, not just in games, but in practice, than the national team does and often with better competition than CONCACAF. Thus, one bad game in a club season of 35 or more games, or even 2 or 3 bad games, IMO, is not that big a deal. Remember that a club manager sees a lot more of a player, not just in games, but at practice and game competition that is often better than CONCACAF than a national team manager sees. As for Panama vs. US in the NL, I remember a game, I think it was a WC warm up, between Costa Rica and Belgium in 2018. Costa Rica was was much better then than Panama is now, but Belgium carved them up with a lot of give and go plays and excellent interior passing in the box (won something like 4-1). A really good team can beat a team bunkered in. Failure by the US falls at least in part, on the coach who didn’t have the team ready, although it was kind of bad luck that the US didn’t at least draw the game. It would also help if we had a player good in the air, like Wright should be, given his size.

     • Gary, a really good team can beat a bunker badly but they can also lose a game the same way the US did. It has happened many times. Having a lot of players that are good playing in tight spaces helps a lot. Who on the US do you consider to be really good at playing in tight spaces? I would say Reyna and Dest. Luna can play in tight spaces but usually gives the ball away; he does much better when he has time (based on US performances as that as all I have seen). The coaches can only do so much to help the players. They can’t make the decisions on the field. I can understand critism for not putting Reyna but the bulk of the fault lies with the players. It isn’t like the NFL where coaches can call set plays – the players have to figure it out on the field in real time.

     • Gary,
       Fun fact since Haji joined Coventry last season he has scored only 2g off headers, in that same time period Josh has 7g off headers. Pefok continues to be our best striker off his head % wise with 44% but he doesn’t score much. Vazquez scored a ton of headers in 2022 but had none since in MLS and just 2 in his time in Mexico. Wes is actually our best with his head 8 of his 15 pro goals coming off headers. Not saying make Wes a striker but perhaps get him making back post runs if we’re sending in crosses.

     • Tele 57

       “Vac, not sure I agree with that analysis. “

       What analysis? I barely did any.
       You don’t agree that Panama is 4-1 in the last 5 competitive games with the USMNT?
       I’m not IV. You can look it up. That’s not analysis.

       I agree with your description of how Panama went about beating the USMNT. And?
       You’re interested in the nuts and bolts of HOW Panama won. I am not interested. What is concerning is they did it repeatedly and consistently over a period of time and against two managers.

       This suggests it is not a fluke.

       Luck? The winning team is ALWAYS luckier than the losing team.

       Do we have better players? Yes, but better players don’t always mean you are a better team.

       Define “better team?”

       The one that wins. Or gets the result it needs. And then repeats the action successfully when necessary.

       Panama’s recent 4-1 record against us is a good example of a better TEAM knocking off a team with better individual players. There are many other good examples in any knockout tournament or competition (March Madness, Champions League, FA cup, ad nauseum)
       you have ever seen.

       If this was the World Series, 4-1 would have been a convincing series win by Panama.

       Better players means that you have a chance to correct this situation. And it also means that every once in a while, one of your guys might make some magic and win a game all by his lonesome self. But otherwise, it guarantees you nothing.

       I’m sure you would agree that Panama beats the USMNT because they know the USMNT very well, have a good plan and have the players who are able and willing to stick to it.
       The hardest part there is sticking to it. The best way for us to beat Panama is to make sure a richer team lures Christiansen away, though it may be too late.
       Once you lose that aura of invincibility it can be hard to get it back.

       Panama are a better soccer team than the UMNT when it matters the most, in games where they play each other.

       “The US players’ inability to know how to effectively break down a bunker is why they lost to Panama and why they could lose to any CONCACAF team of note now and going forward.”

       ?? Not exactly. First, the USMNT lost because Panama scored one more goal than they did.

       You can throw a wet heavy blanket over the USMNT attack and keep them from scoring until
       the cows spill milk under the bridge; BUT if you don’t score a goal yourself it’s at best a tie or a move to penalties.

       And right now Panama usually scores more goals against the USMNT than the USMNT scores against Panama in games where they play each other. Until that changes, they will keep on beating us. The formula is score one more goal than they do.

       The USMNT are very far from being the only team who are not great at breaking down a bunker and its numerous variations. Bunkering has been around for at least 65 years because it WORKS at all levels.

       I have always said that the USMNT has better talent than everyone else in CONCACAF (except El Tri some years) and SHOULD beat everyone else.

       I don’t think I ever said the talent differential GUARANTEES anything or that the games would be easy because they frequently have not been going back years and years. For a variety of reasons talent levels across the board have gotten better in CONCACAF so beating our CONCACAF partners is getting harder all the time.

       Still, the talent differential is such that we remain significantly more talented than every other team in CONCACAF and we still should beat any of them.

       “They were much more effective at creating chances against Panama than they had been under Gregg, but Gregg had a four leaf clover so he ultimately got the results (still think Greggg wasn’t lucky?).”

       More chances mean it is usually more fun to watch. Otherwise, in the cold hard cruel world of results, which is all I care about, the only chances that matter are the ones you convert into goals.

       “he utlimately got the results (still think Greggg wasn’t lucky?).”

       Gregg got the results? I don’t think so, not in the end.
       When Panama beat Gregg in that World Cup qualifier they made him look stupid and feckless.
       They beat his team with BJ as interim in the 2023 Gold Cup.

       And in the Copa America it was against Panama where Gregg was “lucky” enough to have Timo get a red card. And it was that game that got Gregg shit canned. I don’t think Gregg was lucky. Years from now if Pochettino fails to get something out of them, this so called golden
       generation may be seen as an overpaid parasites.

       But that won’t take Gregg off the hook. The USSF deserves the lion’s share of the blame for our creampuff team.
       They farted around re-hiring Gregg when they might have hired Pochettino or someone like him and given that manager a real shot at making something out of this bunch of eclairs before 2026.

       Instead Gregg, very predictably, shit the bed at Copa America, forced them to fire him and then left the new guy the unenviable job of trying to make something out of this mess with very little time or margin of error.
       It’s not over yet but it does not look good.

       Or better yet, they should have hired Pochettino or someone like him a few months after Couva. Instead, they jerked off for a year and then hired some guy. Instead of having a clean rebuild after the Couva debacle we’ve had five or six years of farting around with a manager learning on the job leading a bunch of kids who were also learning on the job.

       The blind leading the blind. He may have been an innocent bystander at the beginning of this cluster but after 5-6 years Gregg was pretty much a co-conspirator and an accessory to the crime.

       If Pochettino was a professor, Gregg was a TA. He was hired even though he had never coached a national team before and was not notably outstanding as a club manager.
       Can you think of even one credible person who, at the time, thought this was a great hire and said so?

       Justifiably or not Gregg’s reputation is forever stained by this cluster fuck which has his fingerprints all over it. If you’re a friend of his you can tell him that the good thing is he got a lot of great experience you can’t get anywhere else, and he got paid pretty good. And he can always blame the USSF.

       Gregg’s not lucky. He’s just not a very good manager.

       “It is arrogance of fans to think that game was going to be a cakewalk and that games against even El Salvador will be a cakewalk.”

       It doesn’t matter if the fans are arrogant. The question is are the players and the manager, the team, are they arrogant going into CONCACAF games?

   • Vac, a better team doesn’t play the way Panama did against the US and count in winning 1-0 with one shot on goal the whole game and basically never having the ball. Sometimes in soccer, the better team doesn’t win (at all levels including the highest level which is club ball not international ball) just like every other sport. If results are all that matter to you, you should have been a fan of Gregg. Under his tenure, they won three Nations League titles, which is the most prestigious tournament for the confederation. Under Poch, they are 0-2, losing to two teams with lesser collective talent. You should be advocating for Poch to be fired if results are all that matter. Of Panama’s 3 wins, one was against a C or D team in the Gold Cup where Panama collectivly had better players and should have won, one was when the US got a red card in the first 10 minutes which completely changes a game – again a game Panama should have won. As far as the qualifier, winning an individual game in an 18 game tournament doesn’t make you a better team. The US qualified for Qatar and Panama didn’t. Panama has no Gold Cup championships and no Nations League championships. If I was from Panama, i would be happy for the teams recent successes and that is great for their fans. Beating the US in Nations League was overacheiving and it is fun to watch your team overachieve. Hats off to Panama. In 1987, DC won the Super Bowl in a complete rout but were nowhere near the best team. As a fan, I was happy for the success but i certainly wasn’t fooled into thinking they were the best team that year. 1992 – they were the best team.

     Reply

     • Tele 57

       “Vac, a better team doesn’t play the way Panama did against the US and count in winning 1-0 with one shot on goal the whole game and basically never having the ball.”

       You are a USMNT fan. What you wrote is what fans are supposed to write when their team loses. For example, a lot of people thought that Mark Rypien or Joe Flacco did not look or play like a Super Bowl winning QB should but guess what?

       If I’m Panama, I’m happy to have you do that. It means they won and you lost.

       “Sometimes in soccer, the better team doesn’t win (at all levels including the highest level which is club ball not international ball) just like every other sport.”

       Of course. The concern with Panama is that losing to them is becoming a habit.

       “If results are all that matter to you, you should have been a fan of Gregg.”

       I should have clarified my stance better. I’m interested in results that improve the team. Gregg’s results were misleading. You like to think all those wins are building up to something but winning all those games did not seem to “take”. They got to a certain level and then stuck there. They were a talented group and won the games they should have , drew the games they should have and lost the games they should have . When things got tough, there was no there there. Frankly, any of the usual suspect managers could probably have done that with these guys.
       I give them and Gregg credit for having a decent World Cup where they played their best four games of the era. But it think it was pretty clear that Gregg had gotten as much out of these guys as he was going to get.

       “Under his tenure, they won three Nations League titles, which is the most prestigious tournament for the confederation.”

       Sure. Right. Good for them.

       “ Under Poch, they are 0-2, losing to two teams with lesser collective talent. You should be advocating for Poch to be fired if results are all that matter.”

       The difference between Pochettino and Gregg is:

       Under Gregg, however the process was going, I could always point to his record of success and say ”Well, it’s all part of the plan. We have faith in Gregg because he’s shown it before.”
       Except he hadn’t.
       I can’t think of any prior managerial accomplishment of Gregg’s that I could point to and say “ There, that’s where he’s taking us.” Gregg wasn’t one to inspire confidence. His first tournament was the 2019 Gold Cup and he demonstrated his brain fart tendencies in that final. He got better but you always worried about that brain fart coming back.

       In comparison, Pochettino is in the middle of his project and he has a track record of success. So, if one is so inclined, they can say they have faith that Pochettino will the Panama express get back on track and come good. You couldn’t say that about Gregg, at least not with a great deal of confidence. Pochettino will be judged by his World Cup performance .

       “Of Panama’s 3 wins, one was against a C or D team in the Gold Cup where Panama collectivly had better players and should have won, one was when the US got a red card in the first 10 minutes which completely changes a game – again a game Panama should have won. As far as the qualifier, winning an individual game in an 18 game tournament doesn’t make you a better team. The US qualified for Qatar and Panama didn’t. Panama has no Gold Cup championships and no Nations League championships. If I was from Panama, i would be happy for the teams recent successes and that is great for their fans. Beating the US in Nations League was overacheiving and it is fun to watch your team overachieve. Hats off to Panama. In 1987, DC won the Super Bowl in a complete rout but were nowhere near the best team. As a fan, I was happy for the success but i certainly wasn’t fooled into thinking they were the best team that year. 1992 – they were the best team.bad day, they could be losses.”

       In competitive games, a win is a win. Again, you are a USMNT fan and are expected to make these kind of lame excuses for dropping the ball. That you feel the need to make them at all is a huge win for Panama whose entire roster may well be worth less that our Italian foursome.

       At this point it looks like the World Cup is going to be a disaster. But I don’t if it will do Gregg or his reputation any good.

4. Did anyone hear about Dest? Is it serious or are they just taking it slow with his comeback?

   Reply