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1. Meniscus repair? Can’t think of much else requiring surgery but recovery time frame is only weeks not months. My kid had that for a tear, got so bad he couldn’t even pass the ball without pain. Two days after surgery he was dancing down the stairs, running again by 6 weeks, full recovery.

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2. you search for minor knee surgeries and what comes up early and often is getting the knee scoped.

   i think we need to start managing the amount of caps our leading players play. lots of injured players or they look exhausted end of the european season. we talk like they need to be in camp gelling in a scheme but neither the looks nor the results reflect that.

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   • so what does what you’ve seen since Poch took over reflect?

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     • ” neither the looks nor the results reflect that.”

       You guys are trying to judge a pork sausage before it has finished being made.

       I’m not sure they have slaughtered the pig yet.

     • re poch, they are getting the summer off but if you’ve been attentive the starters got called over and over from september-march, save the january camp.

       it also bears noting poch is known for running his teams hard in practice. (“Tim Ream says Mauricio Pochettino’s 2-hour training session was the longest in 14 years for USMNT”; ““At Brighton it was all tactical, just with the ball; tactical, tactical, tactical. And at Chelsea, it was run, run, run and it was very difficult for me.”, (caicedo) etc.)

       and then to connect the dots some of you are fighting very hard — “If you do look at the injury list, I actually looked at it and thought [about] Pochettino’s training methods,” (lennon)

       the solutions are either he backs off a little on demands, or he calls the players less often while maintaining expectations.

       IMO based on the tired sloppy performances of many of our players, they need windows off. they are either flat-tired or having their legs run off in practice.

       i dunno, there used to be a pre world cup phenomenon where, playing pre roster decision friendlies, we would struggle through some ugly friendly and maybe lose. and then we’d hear the players were tired from running for the world cup. which is at least a trade off.

       in our current situation, we just look tired and the pre-event and event product all looks the same. so you need fresher players and/or players used less often. to me the whole idea is have them fresher end of the cycle and ready to ball at the world cup. we care way too much about every crappy friendly.

     • V: i will keep this very simple for you. he’ll have been coach a year in september. are we winning games? no. do we look good/improved but just not get the result? no. if anything this looks like it’s regressing.

       for comparison, when klinsi came in, (a) the roster changed, (b) they pinged the ball around much cleaner and on the ground than under bradley. (c) results took longer, but were foretold in the improved slickness of the team.

       do tell, what about recent years is foretelling this rosy future you’re suggesting awaits? klinsi might have had too many 0-0 or 1-1 ties early on, but he was beating italy at their place, for example. and in 14 he turned out to be tactically and roster flexible.

       where are those hints here? one of my concerns in hiring someone who does the same tactics as GB is maybe we had tapped out those tactics, which weren’t doing much to start with.

       poch’s sole wrinkle seems to be to saddle up jedi in asymmetry, who we/he can’t keep healthy. without that this looks like GB. and GB never looked pretty and only briefly had any success.

     • “V: i will keep this very simple for you. he’ll have been coach a year in september. are we winning games? no. do we look good/improved but just not get the result? no. if anything this looks like it’s regressing.”

       Was the USMNT supposed to be WC ready by June of 2025?

       “for comparison, when klinsi came in, (a) the roster changed, (b) they pinged the ball around much cleaner and on the ground than under bradley. (c) results took longer, but were foretold in the improved slickness of the team. do tell, what about recent years is foretelling this rosy future you’re suggesting awaits?”

       Really? I have written that at the moment it looks like the USMNT will be humiliated in the 2026 World Cup. If they are not that means that Pochettino will have done a hell of a job.

       “klinsi might have had too many 0-0 or 1-1 ties early on, but he was beating italy at their place, for example. and in 14 he turned out to be tactically and roster flexible. where are those hints here? one of my concerns in hiring someone who does the same tactics as GB is maybe we had tapped out those tactics, which weren’t doing much to start with.”

       Like I said, you’re criticizing Pochettino while he is in the middle of re- building the team.

       You want simple?
       Pochettino was hired to build a team for the 2026 World Cup.
       If you think that there is any way at this point that he won’t be managing the team when that tournament starts you need to readjust your medication.

       Think about who you are dealing with here.

       They stuck with Gregg when the forecast was far worse. Gregg was hired with the idea that Qatar would be an orientation tournament and then he would bring the “real ” TEAM USA in 2026.

       The USSF’s faith in Gregg was highly questionable because he had no track record meaning you couldn’t say “Gregg has produced high level teams before he must know what he is doing.”

       In comparison Pochettino has a much more impressive track record meaning it is far more reasonable to assume that Pochettino will get to a good outcome.

       The only way the Gregg experiment made any sense was for Gregg to still be managing the team in the 2026 WC.
       And obviously he just made that impossible.

       And the USSF kind of lucked into getting guy with Pochettino’s credentials to accept a fucked up job with a fucked up timeline.

       He’s not GB, or Bob or JK. Those guys had track records inferior to Pochettino’s. They won’t fuck with him the way they fucked with the others. We’re not talking about a high school, college or select team here.
       This is serious business.

       Barring something unusual, the USSF will stick with Pochettino.

     • IV

       “re poch, they are getting the summer off but if you’ve been attentive the starters got called over and over from september-march, save the january camp……….

       it also bears noting poch is known for running his teams hard in practice…. ”

       Big fucking deal.

       He has to do that initially because he has to know about his US players and had little time to do so. If a guy like Luna can put up with it and show well then what excuse do the others have?

       ” so you need fresher players and/or players used less often. to me the whole idea is have them fresher end of the cycle and ready to ball at the world cup. we care way too much about every crappy friendly.”

       No shit. When did you figure that out? Guess what? Clubs only care about their needs not what the fucking USMNT needs.

       Pochettino’s biggest misconception is that he forgets that clubs have a lot more Argentinian internationals than American internationals to burn out.

       Unfortunately , all of the USMNT players have to play for other teams in their spare time to make their real money and Pochettino can do nothing about that.

       You’re bitching up the wrong tree.
       If the clown car USSF had hired Pochettino or any other manager right after Qatar, then that person would have had the whole cycle, Copa America, NL, Gold Cup, Cupcake etc., etc. to figure out this team.

       As it stands, Pochettino has had probably about half of that time. And we’ve discovered that Gregg poisoned the well, leaving these pampered tattooed millionaires with a BFF culture meaning they all love being here, playing with each other and playing golf but winning? What’s that? And since you refuse to serve as a consultant to Pochettino, he’s going to have to beat the bushes for Big Ball replacements.

       Disaster ensues, but who knows maybe he’ll get lucky?

   • Jedi only had 6 caps in 2023 and 11 in 2024, he’ll have 0 the first 8 months of 2025. Over the ten years from ‘93-‘02 Cobi Jones averaged 15.6 caps per year. During his time in England Dempsey averaged 11 US caps per year. From age 23-27 Landon had 44 caps, Jedi in his same age frame 42. Jozy had 47 caps during same age frame. Beasley had 41 during that same 4 year span. Michael Bradley averaged 11 caps a year for 14 years, avg 12.6 during his main years from ‘07-‘17. If you want to argue guys need more rest that’s valid, but you can’t argue that USSF is doing it any differently than they always have.

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     • “If you want to argue guys need more rest that’s valid, but you can’t argue that USSF is doing it any differently than they always have.”

       Then maybe it’s time for them to re-think their approach. I would say Pochettino already has.

       It’s not how many caps our guys used to average, it’s how much they played for their clubs, how important they were for them.

       Jedi had 35 starts and subbed in once for Fulham one this season. He usually went 90.
       MB90, Michael Bradley, only hit that number once and came close on three other occasions in his 11 seasons in Europe.

       And you could argue that as a wingback Jedi abuses his body a little bit more than MB 90 ever did.

     • V: not sure about that Bradley at least for the NT was always the leader for distance covered each match. Used be a stat that the TV networks loved to share. With the other players I compared their prime years between the ages of 23-27 when Landon, Clint, Cobi, and Beasley were important options for their teams.

     • (a) landon was a freak who probably could have been a d1 level distance runner if he wanted.
       (b) landon did all those offseason loans and every cap he could, yes
       (c) landon then got divorced, went off on his sabbatical, and got cut for his last world cup shot.
       (d) and yeah, looking at landon as fitness freak, i thought he’d play forever.
       (e) result, tim ream has played NT at an older age than landon lasted.

       i don’t think that’s the template you think it is. i see it as a cautionary tale. sometimes the coach needs to be the adult in the room.

       pulisic is not the same player when tired. and a few key others have injury issues.

     • clint at the end was turned into a striker, coming off the bench, and dealing with whatever that heart issue was.

       beasley at the end was a converted wingback.

       i personally think we should be more about finding the next young donovan or beasley (2002) and less about extending players’ careers into diminishing returns O-30 play. (1998, 2006)

       one of you hinted at the real analytical flaw, which is that back in the day only some of our stars were getting tons of top tier european playing time, eg reyna beasley. most were either at lower division clubs, riding a bench, or in MLS, which didn’t use to start until april like baseball. and so we were more about what you did for the NT games, less stuck on form/stats, and we routinely let players have non-injury windows off.

     • JR,

       “V: not sure about that Bradley at least for the NT was always the leader for distance covered each match. Used be a stat that the TV networks loved to share.”

       MB90 did not play wingback.
       Basically, Jedi does and he does that in the EPL where Michael played a game or two.

       I’ve seen most of their USMNT games and a lot of Fulham. I’ll admit this is totally subjective but I think Jedi runs and plays a lot “harder” than MB90 ever did, regardless of how many miles MB90 ran.

     • IV,

       “i personally think we should be more about finding the next young donovan or beasley (2002) and less about extending players’ careers into diminishing returns O-30 play. (1998, 2006)”

       The USMNT senior team is not a developmental team.

       I would be perfectly happy to leave all of our Euros off of the 2026 World Cup Squad. Send in Cupcake.

       However, you’ll find a LOT of sponsors , very big money, very unhappy.
       They have given the USSF money based on the quaint notion, one you do not subscribe to, that the Senior national team should be the best team that they can possibly field.

       Not the best 11 players, but rather the 11 that will play the best together in the 2026 World Cup tournament.

       Once that tournament ends, it’s back to square one.

       Unfortunately for you that means playing ancient guys like Pulisic, Jedi or even Ream. It also might mean playing players like Kochen. If you’re good enough and play well with the core, you’re old enough.

     • V: all due respect but screw “development team.” you know exactly what i mean. this team makes jumps when it brings in the next landon or beasley or pulisic or balogun or reyna. in between it tends to idle in place. and when it gets old it starts to mess up. (98, 06)

       i am not saying this is a U20 team. but i am saying when we quickly integrate the Next Big Thing we tend to prosper and advance. that is a player or two, not the whole darned U20 team.

       i think you know the particular players i am talking about. we have backpedaled away from reyna. we have not aggressively gotten campbell and yow involved.

       that, and on a less age-concerned item, the backline is a mess and we don’t touch the faltering center of it.

       when this team gets stubborn about choices, despite poor results, bad stuff happens. couva is what happens when we refuse to acknowledge the backline is slop. the coach favorite LB keeps getting beat for chances and the scrub CB shanks a clear in his own net.

       my concern is despite blowing copa with a fairly full compliment of players there is somehow a bs narrative that our real problem is sickouts. did our coach never watch copa tape? you could have almost everyone and this is still refried crap. they don’t have a rapport with each other, the tactics do not enhance the team, and we are stuck on status quo rosters.