The U.S. men’s national team were tested by a feisty Haiti side in Sunday’s CONCACAF Gold Cup group stage finale but walked away with a third-straight victory in the competition.
Malik Tillman and Patrick Agyemang both scored for Mauricio Pochettino’s squad as the USMNT defeated Haiti 2-1 in Arlington, Texas. The result sealed a first place finish for the Americans in Group D play, setting up a quarterfinal showdown with Costa Rica on June 29.
The USMNT struck first in the 10th minute through Tillman’s third goal of the tournament.
Brenden Aaronson retained possession in the Haiti box before delivering a pin-point cross to the back post. Tillman headed back across goalkeeper Johny Placide and into the bottom-left corner.
However, the lead would only last nine minutes as Haiti equalized through Louicius Don Deedson’s curling finish. USMNT goalkeeper Matt Freese played an errant pass to the feet of Deedson before watching the Odense winger celebrate after a confident strike.
Agyemang had a golden chance to propel the USMNT back in front after racing in on a breakaway.Placide dove to his left though to punch away the Charlotte FC forward’s low effort.
Quinn Sullivan came close to netting his first international goal after volleying a shot off of the crossbar in the 30th minute. Sullivan also forced Placide into a diving save on the ensuing corner kick before also having a cross poked away from Chris Richards at Placide’s back post.
Matt Freese was called into action in the 52nd minute as the veteran goalkeeper dove to his right to punch away Leverton Pierre’s free kick was sneaking in at the near post.
The USMNT thought they had a go-ahead goal in the 63rd minute when Haiti defender Ricardo Ade cleared a loose ball off of Tillman and into the back of the net, but referee Katia Garcia whistled for an offensive handball.
Although it looked like things would stay level, the USMNT reclaimed their lead in the 75th minute through Agyemang. John Tolkin’s upfield pass allowed Agyemang to round Placide before slotting into an empty net.
It was Agyemang’s fifth international goal in his ninth USMNT cap.
The USMNT would hang on to stay perfect in the competition and also extend their current unbeaten run over Haiti to 10 matches.
IV,
More unadulterated bullshit.
This Gold Cup team has played a couple of games together at most. Not only are they new to each other and new to the international game, many are new professionals playing for a new manager .
Pochettino has had 16 games but they are spread out over months. You’re expecting a level of cohesion that is unrealistic.
You’re judging their performance by comparing them to a team like for example a top five league team in mid season form.
Pochettino could stop your whining, crying and panty twisting instantly
if acknowledges your genius and caps Campbell, Gio and cuts Ream.
We’ll see.
out of that game, freeman richards tillman agyemang.
adams kind of disappeared. not sure if the early card unnerved him.
the subs including luna were anonymous.
in terms of tactics, some people are throwing around a 3421 theory, well, when ream is off in that corner making that backpass, then no one covers the “rebound,” well, tolkin’s yards upfield. you’re overrating the ability of us to effectively run a 3 man line. you’re trusting ream to mop up wing messes or run around the endline to make himself available.
i will be curious whether this evolves into a more optimal MF set as knockouts arrive, eg seb and adams with tillman. i found the group round MF groupings underwhelming. LDLT hasn’t done much all tourney. he’s just kind of there. when you’re playing 2-1 haiti, 1-0 saudi, and then this upcoming knockout gauntlet, kind of there is insufficient and like driving with the parking brake on.
tactically, it should be obvious that when we play in an aggressive, more direct fashion, send agyemang or the wings into space, or run mcglynn at them to shoot, stuff happens. our default tactics are everything that frustrates you watching us. so why bother.
keepaway is a 3-0 lead strategy.
we are absurdly more risk averse at the scoring half than passing out of our own goal mouth. it’s backwards.
This game gave me so much anxiety how are we going to beat Costa Rica and Mexico playing sluggish out the back and giving corners away.
Well both Costa Rica and Mexico looked pretty sluggish beating the Dominican Republic and Suriname. In 2021, 5 out of 6 matches were 1-0 wins, survive and advance. Costa Rica scares me because if Navas has a game it’s tough to get one by him.
Yeah, but they didn’t give the ball to the other team like bone head Ream and Freese did for them to score at point blank range.
2nd goal against Suriname CR CB basically handed to the winger who started 3 on 2 which led to goal. 40 yds out but equally stupid. To me a mental mistake like “just boot that into the seats” are easier to fix than a lack of skill. We are more passionate about US mistakes because we are fans of them. Canadian, Mexican, and Costa Rican fans are complaining just much as we are about their own teams “problems”. Currently Panama’s fans are probably the only ones feeling good but that 2nd half against Guatemala might even have them sweating Jamaica tonight.
This is primarily our ‘B’ team that is not starting to show potential after the friendlies and the group stage. Mexico, by contrast, has brought primarily its ‘A’ team and has not been overwhelming.
Coming off of 4 straight losses, the three wins feel good regardless of the strength of the opponent, especially since this team is missing some of the “A” players. This team may not beat Costa Rica in the quarterfinal, but they did what was expected in the group stage.
Tillman, Richards and I’d say Luna have all pushed their way into our best 23 man roster, with Richards a lock starter and Tillman a likely starter. Poor Gio Reyna, he’s stuck in Dortmund hell. Not released to play for the USMNT, only to not get on the field so far in the CWC. And now Tillman may have leapt past him as the starting attacking midfielder.
I wonder if Poch may not be so deferential to Pulisic going forward as he and Berhalter have been in the past. Could Pulisic lose his status as the first name on the team sheet, and a guaranteed 90 minute guy? We all wondered why Tillman never looked as good for the national team as he has for PSV; maybe the reason has something to do with the team revolving around Pulisic too much. Poch famously talked about only wanting players that want to play for the national team. Pulisic opting out couldn’t have sat well with him. Tillman, on the other hand, was also coming off of a long Euro season during which he missed time with an injury, and has pretty much been our best player in the Gold Cup.
And here’s a shout out to Quinn Sullivan with the rabona cross. Maybe the kid’s got a little bit of Clint Mathis in him.
This team is growing game after game.
Opportunities came knocking from “OVER THE TOP” plays, especially since Haiti seemed to stuff their midfield defensively. We need to work on the timing of the long ball pass, especially between our Defenders and forwards when teams decide to sit deep in defensive formations (which is most teams we play). Time and time again our forwards held the line to make runs towards goal, but the ball never came…….and players decided to pass side to side instead.
Almost every play that came over the top from defenders (or our mids sitting deep) during our attacking, was a problem for a fast-paced team like Haiti.
There were a whole bunch of offsides (which means we need to work on our timing!!!), but our long passing was indeed a threat and gave our forwards solid looks on goal…..with Richards to Agyemang (63 min, he slips), Adams to Tillman (73 min, offsides) and Tolkin to Agyemang (74 min, Goal).
This team is starting to look like a group with a structured plan as the tournament goes on……..now all we need a confident, sharp and decisive Agyemang to show up game after game (Oh, and work on those legs kid…..too much slipping and falling lol).
Seemed like so many times our guys were afraid to pull the trigger on those long balls, by the time a few were sent im not surprised there was bad timing
bac,
“Seemed like so many times our guys were afraid to pull the trigger on those long balls”
There is a reason they are cautious.
That play is at it’s very best is a 50/50 ball, usually less.
Even with a lot of practice it is always going to be a low percentage play.
Most of the time it is a turnover.
Depending on how your team is set up at that moment, you also risk catching your own defense vulnerable to a counter.
That long ball can come back on you real fast.
These are all things you want your Captain Jack to think about before he launches one of those Hollywood 40 yarders.
Will it keep the defense honest and on their toes?
Sure but it is not without risk.
Vaq, agreed and I know route 1 ball is like a members only jacket..
But there was a number of times guys had space in the channels that looked worth the risk.
Now that we’ve had 5 games to mull over, a few thoughts (without a lot of passion)
As I think about how these young-uns potentially vibe with a complete squad, I think all the way back to circa 2010ish and a lot of us old timers would come here and talk about speed of thought (as opposed to speed of play) and how there would usually be 1 or 2 guys that took advantage of the B team to get in the mix with the full squad, and that was kinda an overlooked factor.
Tillman has been behind that curve when with the full squad but to me he looks like he’s found his rhythm nicely… he seems much more confident and his speed of thought is catching up with his raw skill… and in multiple spots which is nice.
Conversely, De La Torre to me has been the opposite.. IMHO he may be playing himself out of contention next summer.
I think the jury is still out on Jonny C if he’s on the same track.
Big Pat is an enigma, he’s actually pretty good at getting the ball at his feet, holding onto it, using his arms effectively to keep his man behind him, turning well at times, but his touch in more open spaces and finishing is too raw, and don’t know how he’d look with the full crew (he’s like an Anti-Altidore)
And still don’t know what to think of BA (in terms of how or where he fits with the full crew) He’s like this generation’s Bedoya who plays multiple spots but doesn’t end up with much to show for it- but with more hustle.. I think he still gets in the team next year as a jack of all trades sub. Thinking in terms of the WC spots I think he’s behind Tillman now for sure but may be on the roster, but Luca and Jonny are becoming an either/or in my opinion… or Berhalter may get a shot, he doesn’t seem to play as scared.
Nervous about who should be next to Richards, and who should be between the pipes…
I’m assuming most of you guys think McGlynn and Luna are on there way…
I don’t see anyone beating out Dest/Scally on the right or ARob/googly eyes on the left..
Enough pre elimination round banter for tonight
Maybe they covered this on the broadcast but people were talking about Deedson for the USYT like 5 years ago. He was part of the American youth pipeline at Hobro with Sabbi, Cappis, Yosef Samual, and his brother Jacob Samnik. Samnik is obscenely tall for a soccer player 6’8 or maybe taller.
For the life of me I still don’t understand why the US team let’s off the gas after scoring a goal. This has been a constant with multiple US teams no matter which players since 2018.
Really liked what Quinn brought during this game. Good to see Agye finally get a goal for the amount of work he has put in. And of course Tillman continues to grow in influence. Still need more from the outside backs. But I do think Tolkin provides more than Arfston.
Hopefully Downs will be good for the quarterfinals.
2tone,
“For the life of me I still don’t understand why the US team let’s off the gas after scoring a goal. This has been a constant with multiple US teams no matter which players since 2018.”
?? Even before 2018, a lot of teams let off the gas after scoring, not just the USMNT. I’m sure the weather being in the 80’s does not help , though it could have been worse. The simplest solution is to blame it all on Gregg.
“Really liked what Quinn brought during this game.”
Maybe after another game or two Quinn will tighten things up. Right now he reminds me of the Zardes or Ariolla in terms of his ball control.
” Good to see Agye finally get a goal for the amount of work he has put in. And of course Tillman continues to grow in influence. Still need more from the outside backs. But I do think Tolkin provides more than Arfston.
Hopefully Downs will be good for the quarterfinals.”
All these guys are very raw. On the other hand they are all very clearly killing themselves in training. Pochettino is keeping the rotation manageable. and if you look carefully you can see, little by little, it appears to working . Freeman, for example, had a much better game on defense today.
I still think Pochettino runs out of time but this game was encouraging.
i think our standard tactic set is keepaway which is designed to be “foot off the gas” farting around. but we do it when it’s 0-0 or 1-0. which is why we struggle. thus i think your finger is on the issue but the explanation is slightly different.
i think what’s befuddling is you do see time periods where there is more directness and aggression. initial 15 or so. then after the subs. and that’s when we score. we do not score within the default tactics much.
keepaway is acceptable tactics. my club team would play keepaway. but we wouldn’t do it until we were up 2-0 or 3-0 — where one mistake isn’t a tie — and we made more of an effort to keep the ball moving quicker tempo where you have to chase. which then tires the opponent.
that and if you go back to the “source material,” cruyff type teams don’t do all this possession work only to whack a cross in. but then i think half the point to that is in a 0-0 game you’re like, are we ever going to score, or even try and create a chance.
there are clusters of ways we score.
1) play the striker or weah behind the backs, either breakaway or a ground cross and back post tap in
2) dest/mcglynn inverts and far post banger
3) pepi fed the ball at the spot and turns and puts it in a net corner a la dempsey (been a while)
4) deadballs and crosses (mckennie, richards)
if you notice little or none of this is a natural outcome of the default offensive scheme.
that’s your problem, right there. we lose to good teams, and then we leave teams like haiti in games far longer than they belong.
we did show up trinidad but they are on a plane home. so what.
to underline 2 basic contradictions–
we become more tentative and unconfident the better the opponent gets;
we are foolishly aggressive on our end — racking up giveaway goals — but tentative on the scoring end — making most games too much work.
IV,
More unadulterated bullshit.
This Gold Cup team has played a couple of games together at most. Not only are they new to each other and new to the international game, many are new professionals playing for a new manager .
Pochettino has had 16 games but they are spread out over months. You’re expecting a level of cohesion that is unrealistic.
You’re judging their performance by comparing them to a team like for example a top five league team in mid season form.
Pochettino could stop your whining, crying and panty twisting instantly
if acknowledges your genius and caps Campbell, Gio and cuts Ream.
We’ll see.
We started picking it up around the 65th minutes. Why we waited so long is hard to understand. Once we picked it up and started moving forward we dominated. Agyemang does so many things well, but then he broke in alone on goal and didn’t score. He didn’t necessarily know he was off sides and you have to score on that play if you want to be a striker. Then he did so well to score and other times he fought so well to win the ball, you think he could be world class if he were more consistent. The players who came in such as Aaronson, Tolkin, Sullivan would look good at times and not so good at other times. Freese maight have played himself off the team; that was a terrible mistake. They won, but haven’t put together a full game since they beat T&T. The potential is there, but sometimes the intensity isn’t.
re the roster, we do not learn. this is about the 3rd keeper we have just annointed and given the 1 jersey to for several consecutive games before discovering they are imperfect. there is no competition. it’s steffen. and then it’s not, it’s turner. and then it’s not turner, it’s freese. freese doesn’t have to outplay either turner or a set of fresh keepers, to get a string of games.
i mean, let’s say you’re disappointed with freese. your choices are now turner — who we seem to want contested — or brady, whose selection i find inexplicable. IMO it’s like we wanted to hand this to freese. and then per usual figure out the mis-scouted keepers we pick are just ok.
plus, nature of this first round group, he had to do very little actual shotstopping. and then still glitched.
i don’t get why keller vs. friedel was a competition — when either one was high quality and one could have been “annointed” — but this nonsense gets serially handed around with like a 3-4 year starting role attached.
IV,
“this nonsense gets serially handed around with like a 3-4 year starting role attached.”
It started with Bruce. He anointed Brad over Kasey for the WC 2002 and he responded.
It was a non issue because Brad retired from the USMNT after the 2002 World Cup.
Kasey assumed the mantle until handing it off to Timmy after the 2006 World Cup , who was developing at Man U, got fired and then moved to Everton. Kasey handed it off to Timmy pretty much after the 2006 WC.
Timmy had his debut WC in 2010 where he was shaky at best but he eventually came good in 2014 when he was competent.
A lot of managers prefer stability and will not rotate the keeper. The USMNT certainly followed that model. Brad and Kasey battled it out for the 2002 WC but otherwise there was no competition.
There was some competition, most notably from Brad Guzan challenging Timmy, but none of the managers involved seem interested in a keeper competition.
There is so much uncertainty with a national team, if you can anoint a keeper, you do that and have one less headache to worry about.
Based on what I’ve seen so far the difference between the best of Turner, Freese or Schulte isn’t worth losing sleep over, Steffen might get to another level but he would have to be able to leave the hospital and get to the stadium and so far he can’t do that.
They are all perfectly mediocre keepers. With a national team you’ve got way too much shit to worry about so if the keeper is locked down, that is one less thing to worry about.
we favor style over substance, period. we would rather pick off paper and express abstract, perhaps arrogantly foolish confidence in a guy now, than ensure we have the absolute best, proven lineup at the end.
y’all discuss gelling but gelling is overrated. it’s icing on the cake. you cook the cake wrong icing can’t save it.
that and our tactics suck and we lack enough anticipation and rapport, so i’d hardly say that we are “gelling” much. gelling in a broad sense means the whole thing works smooth. buzz, no.
and IMO we overlook that some players just “combine” better. like we’re looking at it like, throw several guys on a field and actively work on rapport. i am telling you that some guys just naturally combine better, or have ideas how to work with someone, or have the emotional IQ to talk out the “you go here, i go there, i move there” type choreography.
Let’s be real, best case is Brady is the 5th keeper. Probably a lot lower than that given Schulte, Steffen, Callender, are injured. Slonina might still be injured was ahead of him last summer (really their entire career). Kochen has been to camp a couple times. So maybe even 8th keeper. Does he need to see the field?
JR: first off, whether you’re 10th string doesn’t matter if you’re 3rd on the depth chart for this event, unless we are literally carrying the dude to hold a clipboard or bag of balls, and be there if disaster strikes.
in order to foster actual position competition you have to actually call and play people. our historical problem is we just annoint the keeper then find out the warts later, then try to ignore the warts.
how about a genuine competition? which means we have to give a few people a shot. to be real, that should have taken place more group round than now. we instead gave freese the whole group round only to be a little unnerved by game 3. do you see where this process is creating its own problems?
like, he’s making similar passing mistakes to the others, and hasn’t had to actually keep much. i do like his long distribution.
we can’t be scared of the backups. this isn’t the world cup. whole point to this exercise, outside of how we handled CB, is trying people.
i kind of want to know if he has luis robles issues before he makes a world cup roster as the 3rd guy, or the 2nd, or the starter. robles was a hype keeper c. 2009 who made so many gaffes we were losing to haiti until holden scored a late equalizer. he didn’t see another US team for 7 years. but that was back when NT performance and bad nights stuck to you like a sticker. we would now argue with that bad night based on club stats and hype.
“unless we are literally carrying the dude to hold a clipboard or bag of balls, and be there if disaster strikes.” That is the definition of the 3rd goal keeper, especially if he’s an injury replacement because the two guys in front of him got hurt the week before camp and during the first week of camp respectively.
IV,
You are like Alexi Lalas or our elected officials.
You throw a lot of shit on the wall. That shit is clothed in jargon so neutrals think you know what you are talking about when the truth is you don’t.
“in order to foster actual position competition you have to actually call and play people. our historical problem is we just annoint the keeper then find out the warts later, then try to ignore the warts.
how about a genuine competition? which means we have to give a few people a shot. to be real, that should have taken place more group round than now. we instead gave freese the whole group round only to be a little unnerved by game 3. do you see where this process is creating its own problems?”
Are you crazy? Genuine competition? With a national team? What a load of bullshit.
Goalkeepers are not outfield players.
They are evaluated differently.
That’s not my idea. Follow any keeper in any top five league team in Europe If you re an American then follow QBs in the NFL. The cliche is if you have a QB competition, you don’t have a QB.
Well, if you don’t have a #1 keeper for the whole season you are Nottingham Forest (pre-Henderson) and you collect backup keepers not worthy of #1 like Matt Turner and Ethan Horvath.
Given the variety of competitions they participate in, club teams do have many more games available than the USMNT so their backups have a chance to make some noise and make a case for another club to sign them as a #1.
So in fact they do use a form of “genuine competition” but changes generally happen between seasons. But that does not matter to you because in your universe club results don’t matter. So the entire “genuine competition” concept is hypocritical for you to consider. Your entire USMNT system of values is based on USMNT performance only.
Pochettino has been here for thirteen games. And as we all see, every single game has been critical. Unfortunately, he inherited a bullpen with no clear dominant bull.
When does he have time to fuck around with a “genuine competition”?
Pochettino starting Freese was said to be about Pochettino knowing all about Turner and Freese was being given a chance to show his stuff.
Define what a “chance “ is or what a “shot” is? One game, two, three, four games?
A keeper can go for 20 games , the team can win them all and yet the keeper might actually do nothing in those 20 games. Is that a fair shot? Then a new guy might take over the keeper job for the next 20 games and, through no fault of his own, have all kinds of hell break loose and go 12-8.
That’s why managers tend to give keepers a long time and that’s why club form is so important, because you’re not getting 20 games internationally as an evaluation period. And, in your case club form is meaningless anyway so you have no sane, credible way to evaluate keepers.
Do you play three games pretty okay like Freese then as soon as you fuck up, are you out?
Is Turner going to step in for the knockouts and was that predetermined?
Or is this a result of Freese’s Tim Ream orchestrated fuckup? Everything wrong is Timmy’s fault.
I dunno but would stick with Freese till the end. To me he’s either #1 or #2 so he needs to be tested. Turner used to have an aura but the shine has come off of him lately and now he’s just another guy.
I would send Matt Turner home or rather to Lyon and tell him to get his chops back up. Develop an “aura”.
If Turner really tears it up at Lyon then I would bring him back install hm as a starter, Freese as backup and find out which of the other candidates is the best penalty stopper specialist and install him as the #3 ( the new Nicky Rimando).
You can’t do that though because no matter what Turner does at Lyon, it is all club form and meaningless in your universe.
Not directly related…
I really miss when you guys used to do the play by play commentary here and let us comment too during US games. That was really fun and always an interesting read.
Agreed
I think it’s because they then need to moderate it live because “we” don’t always behave with decorum. With Ives usually working for CBS/Golazo during the matches and Larry working on the stories they don’t have time to handle/participate in live watch alongs. I do wish Ives would do a question and answer or something. A couple years ago Ives had readers submit questions then a week or so later posted his answers in a story. Maybe he can’t contractually???
JR,
The live watch-alongs that I have seen are great in theory but in reality they can get out of hand quickly.
As much as we all like to dump on commentators and pundits, it takes a fair amount of experience and expertise to keep something like that running “smoothly”.
These things are basically you tube low rent DIY versions of the actual broadcasts we watch on FS1 or whatever.
If they were limited to just you and 25 of your closest friends then it might be akin to watching the game at your local bar but SBI would be dealing with a lot more than 25 people.
The bigger tests await. We’ll see what fight they have then. Horrible pass from Ream to set up the Haiti goal. Freeze could have done better but he shouldn’t have been put in that position. Freeze should have intercepted the long ball in the first place I guess. Hopefully they learn from it.
JFP
“Horrible pass from Ream to set up the Haiti goal. Freeze could have done better but he shouldn’t have been put in that position. ”
The goal was on Freeze. Freeze got the ball from Timmy with enough space and time to do a number of things. Even if Timmy put him in a bad spot and “hospital balled” him he still had plenty of time to blast the ball into the empty seats.
When Ream got that ball he had the following options:
1. Put it out for a corner
2. Push the ball to his right and try to work the ball out that way.
3. Pass it to Freese
Freeze was wide open.
Richards was between Freeze and the nearest Haitian attacker when Ream hit that pass to Freeze.
At that moment Ream was turned looking at Freeze while Freeze was looking at Ream , the entire field and right at the goal scorer. Freeze appeared to be looking right at the goal scorer when he passed him the ball.
There was no one “on” Freeze when he made that pass.
Freeze could have sent that ball into the mezzanine or completely up the field.
Instead he had a brain fart and did what Johnny did the other night, he gave a weak pass to the opposing player.
Why? Probably for the same reason Johnny did. Unless he has criminal connections and did it intentionally I don’t think either of them will ever be able to adequately explain it.
Does Freeze lose his job over this? I don’t think he should but you’ll have to ask Pochettino. Over these three games, I have not thought about the keeper and that is a good sign. But maybe Mauricio has issues that I am unaware of. Starting Turner vs Costa Rica is a lateral move and not an upgrade. And it may have been preplanned anyway.
Then again a lot of you want blood for every mistake to put fear into all these spoiled kids so maybe they could kick him off the team can send him home right now. Maybe have post a big picture of him carrying his stuff out of the locker room in a brown cardboard box accompanied by security. And make him pay for his own flight home.
oh come off it, dude. that’s an almost-no-angle backpass from the side of the 18 about 2-3 yards off the endline. the keeper is flat footed because who expects a backpass from the corner flag. if you watch the video the two attackers start running in to immediately close the keeper down, one of whom gets the shanked pass. and the pass has turned freese sideways.
while freese’s pass is lousy, he has about a second to react to the ball and do something, in front of the net, under pressure. under that pressure what we have taught our backline players to do is try to thread passes. this is twice in 5 games we’ve shipped a goal trying to get cute. you keep saying the player made a mistake but they’ve clearly been lectured to ground pass their way out or i wouldn’t watch the same mistake 20 times.
ream needs to just put that ball over a line. or, yes, freese needs to clear it to row Z.
re your “want blood for every mistake,” ream seems to make plenty of glitches against quality opposition, and yet he’s the leading candidate for richards’ running buddy.
Like a workplace accident, there are many causes and subcauses for the goal.
First, GK could have come out and intercepted ball played in by Haiti
Second, it was not a great pass from Ream – lots of heat and not offset in any way to a GK to allow him to “get his foot around it”
Third, bad decision on GK not to put it into Row Z
It was a return of sorts to form by Ream for the USMNT who used to be good for one really bad play per game.
I don’t think this one play means Freeze is out or that Ream should be put out to pasture.
IV: “if you watch the video the two attackers start running in to immediately close the keeper down” perhaps you didn’t watch the video. The CF is half heartedly jogging towards Freese but I’ll give you he’s running. Lucious is not running at Freese at all. He’s just standing which is why the ball comes to him. I think Freese expected his momentum to carry the winger out of play but when he looks up as he’s about to strike the ball he sees Lucious standing right there and that’s why he flubbed it. Had he realized he was there he would have just booted it out. Wasn’t the greatest pass from Ream but Freese is a professional it’s a pretty routine play for any keeper in today’s game.
JR: sorry, it is utter crap to suggest defenders routinely make no-angled back passes from out by the flag, across their body, towards the keeper’s near post, under advancing pressure. bull. bull. bull. i don’t remember doing such a thing in decades of playing. i go shield that ball out by the line, wait for the cavalry, or kick it out. i am not putting my keeper in that position. for starters, it’s a little too close to playing a ball across the goal face.
i think it’s the tactics unteach about 10 valuable lessons to try and be clever.
i do think players include the keeper in goal kicks and build from back teams might try it, but they do it facing forward, with at least the required 12 yards of room to start, and with the opponent at a dead stop. and we give up goals trying that, too.
i am going to point out that ball is on freese’s wrong foot. there are backpass subtleties. you feed the good foot if you can help it. you angle it outside the bars where if they whiff it’s a kick and not a goal. the keeper can then take a swing and doesn’t have to defend a quasi-shot.
you couldn’t have played much if your only concern is whether freese is literally marked already. any player worth his starch would be assessing whether the runner in the middle could either intercept or place immediate pressure. the whole reason the pass has pace is ream “gets” that he is making a risky pass. if i roll this across, haiti might get it.
but having put starch on it to near post, the keeper is as much saving a OG shot as he is trying to receive and pass. with his off foot. with a no angle pass that twists freese towards the flag. and they’ve been taught to try and be clever and pass it out.
yeah, freese glitched, but he was done zero favors.
last point but MWF, that ball is way out by the box edge, and ream is on the job and gets there. given runners in the middle and such, i am not running out there for a ball where there isn’t a ton of “lead” — ball is played dozens of yards ahead and i can win the footrace — if i have multiple attackers up, a CB on it, and would be leaving my net open to take a risk. ream’s job is then to minimize the risk and either shield out by the flag or play it out. he hot-potatoed his responsibility and turned it into a goal.
last last, if you watch how ream handles the play completion, having hospital balled it back, he doesn’t follow the ball back to give his keeper an option, he peels off wide like his job is done, takes out a coke to reward himself, and allows his man yards inside him.
and to be fair, if i hit a backpass, i might peel off wide to give a pass option, but that’s a softer pass back from the middle. he pings the ball in then runs to the flag away from his keeper. of what use that was supposed to be, i have no idea. maybe the keeper was going to perfectly delicately chip him to the flag down the endline, pfffft
you want what i really think, we aren’t good enough to be trying to be this clever. so do the crude but safe thing.
and i say this as someone whose youth coach detested defenders who just roll the ball over the sideline.
Ream’s pass wasn’t a hospital pass, as I think about that term. I always thought a hospital pass was hit too softly and doesn’t get to its intended recipient and the intended recipient (a GK) has to rush out to try to get there before a defender or to set himself up to defend a one v. one.
Ream’s pass had some heat on it and got to Freese before he could sort his feet out.
Ream went outside to get set up for a return pass or to get out of the way. I don’t see anything wrong with that. He doesn’t want to run right at Freese, get hit by the clearance and score an own goal.
What I didn’t like about Ream was his reaction to yell at Freese. Now, I have never been a national team center back, but I was surprised by Ream’s reaction to go after Freese.
IV – my comment about Freese coming to take the ball instead of Ream passing it back was an option discussed by at least 3 different commentators who get paid to announce and pod. Maybe you know better than Deuce, Lalas and Jimmy Conrad, but, as much as I like your writing, I probably side with them.
So IV now it’s not the intense pressure that Freese was under but it was both a “hospital ball” and also hit with too much pace. Ok, so like MWF you seem to have a different definition of hospital ball. Think under hit like Richards pass to Freese early in the Saudi Arabia game. It was not a soft roller but not hit a pace again that a professional GK can’t handle especially one used to playing out of the back in the tight confines of Yankee Stadium.
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Over the last 2 seasons for NYCFC Freese has completed 306 out of 308 passes 5-15 yds, and 924 of 934 passes 15-30 yds. 1230 of 1242. 99% of his passes under 30 yds. He knows how to receive a ball and make a pass.
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Do you know why your coaches taught you their way? Because you and your keeper were not professionals!
IV,
Obviously Timmy ran over your dog or something.
Put on your glasses. The replay shows Freese looking at Ream before Timmy ever gets to the ball. In addition, Freese also has chest turned towards the sideline during that entire sequence. It seems he was waiting to see what Ream was going to do with the ball.
If you are trying to say Ream’s pass was a surprise to Freese, then Freese is not very alert in a situation where his sensor array should be fully up at 100%.
“while freese’s pass is lousy, he has about a second to react to the ball and do something, in front of the net, under pressure. under that pressure what we have taught our backline players to do is try to thread passes.”
A “second to react”. That is not enough time for a professional soccer player to kick a ball somewhere safe?
A second to react? How much time do your select team or high school guys need to react positively to a ball? Two seconds? Three?
Are you saying it was too much to ask from a professional USMNT level goalkeeper who was already squared to the ball to blast a ball out of the stadium??
Everyone can go round and round on this but even if Ream being 38 was too old to do the right thing, Freese was the last USMNT guy with a realistic shot at preventing that sequence from becoming a turnover in front of our goal.
That makes him responsible.
” this is twice in 5 games we’ve shipped a goal trying to get cute. you keep saying the player made a mistake but they’ve clearly been lectured to ground pass their way out or i wouldn’t watch the same mistake 20 times.”
So you’re blaming this fuck up on the Lecturers?
I guess your select team guys had many games where you made no mistakes. Do you expect international players to be unable to think for themselves, lectures notwithstanding?
Forget Freese, if Gio, Tolkin, Patrick, Jedi, Dest, Luna or Turner had been standing where Freese was, would they have blasted the ball out of the stadium?
I bet they would have.
WHY?
Because a decent soccer player knows where he is and I expect a decent player getting a so called hospital ball in front of their own goal to not think but instead, instantly clear it.
The way you write it’s as if Freese is a moron and an incompetent player and he’s not. Like Johnny he just fucked up, is all.
.
“ream needs to just put that ball over a line. or, yes, freese needs to clear it to row Z.
re your “want blood for every mistake,” ream seems to make plenty of glitches against quality opposition, and yet he’s the leading candidate for richards’ running buddy.”
Beggars cannot be choosers. You got a better candidate? Name him. McKenzie? I saw him make a howler for the USMNT about two years ago. I know you don’t think players learn from mistakes so he and Johnny are out. Banks is mistake free because he hasn’t played yet so he should do nicely.
And yes this is the blood for every mistake phase. When players can’t learn or get better, you start running out of options real fast when mistakes happen.
“he doesn’t follow the ball back to give his keeper an option, he peels off wide like his job is done, takes out a coke to reward himself, and allows his man yards inside him.”
He peels off, heads out on the wing to give Freese an option to play the ball to him in case Freese kept the ball and wasn’t going to blast the ball into the mezzanine. Watch the replay.