Wednesday’s U.S. men’s national team defeat served as another example of how far the squad is from competing with some of the world’s best.
The Americans suffered a 4-0 hammering at the hands of Switzerland in Nashville, raising pressure on the squad and USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino. Not only did the USMNT get blanked on home soil, but they never responded after getting punched early in the mouth by the Swiss.
Pochettino took the blame for Wednesday’s defeat, and for overall calling in a very youthful squad for the June window.
“That was my decision, and it was my fault,” Pochettino said in his postgame press conference. “The first half, all the critics should be, or could be for me because I think that was my decision. But at the same time, it was the good intention to provide all the players the possibility to play and try to compete for a place at the World Cup.”
Walker Zimmerman, Matt Turner and Brenden Aaronson were among the experienced starters in Wednesday’s match while several young players featured with hopes of earning valuable experience against the No. 20-ranked Swiss.
However, the inexperience of several starters was clear, with Max Arfsten, Quinn Sullivan, and Nathan Harriel all being among the defensive errors during the first-half onslaught.
Tim Ream, who entered the match after halftime, admitted that simple mistakes will be punished by experienced teams but that Wednesday’s loss can also serve as a learning lesson.
“I think there’s some individual errors that we make, and we get punished for them at this level, and you see it all around the world,” Ream said during TNT’s postgame coverage.
“And that’s a learning process for a lot of guys who are earning very, very few caps, very first caps,” he added. “And again, it’s a learning experience. We have to be calm; we have to keep our head on right, analyze what the first half especially, and even things in the second half that we can do better. And if we do that, we will be all right.”
The good thing for the USMNT is that they don’t have to wait until the fall window to get back on track. Sunday’s CONCACAF Gold Cup opener against Trinidad & Tobago will be a much different test in comparison to the previous matches against Turkey and Switzerland.
The Soca Warriors are coming into the match fresh off of World Cup Qualifying, and will be itching to get after a wounded USMNT squad. Pochettino knows the fanbase’s current frustration with the squad after four-consecutive losses, but admits the support for the program will remain very high.
“The fans are going to be there for sure in the Gold Cup and the World Cup,” Pochettino said. “I have no worries about that. The fans are going to be with the team.”
another thing I think we’ve learned, again, is the importance of Adams to this group; he covers for a lot of stuff, organizes well and on the fly, plays with a focused aggressiveness, he’s a leader.
@jb, agree about we all have favorites, coaches too, no doubt about it. Tyler is one of mine. his style of play and fitness history hopefully will have him fit for next summer, we’ll have to see
i get it but we need some more 6s — so we can run double 6s if we want. and so if adams needs a sub or can’t stay healthy there is Someone Else. cardoso isn’t up to the job and we didn’t really call anyone else.
i’d consider playing luna there. based on what i’ve seen he has some motor and tenacity. and he would then be a quite useful 6 in the attack.
i mean, adams just played 45 out of 180′ in the friendlies. so there basically has to be a Plan B ready even if it’s just to rotate him sometime, and it needs to work.
i don’t think learning what we already know adds much. personally if what we learn is adams and jedi can play and we can’t win without them, then the coaching is trash, and talent is all that’s carrying the day when we win.
I remember reading an article before the world cup, I think it was from Max Bretos, where he said Pulisic may be our best player, but Tyler Adams is by far our most important player.
I couldn’t agree more.
I’ve advocated for a 4231 specifically to get Reyna on the field at the #10, (and I really don’t care that he’s been below par for dortmund, there was plenty of times he was our most dangerous player)
But if they weren’t so married to the predictible Berhalter ball and had more cohesion there wouldn’t be a need, because Tyler is a perfect #6.
It’s a shitty situation that Poch has yet to have a full crew 1-11 plus subs, because as a unit they couldn’t press together, couldn’t close the lines together, played like there was huge gaps in the middle of the field because of a fear of not playing Berhalball. I mean shit, there was times Mckennie was everywhere at once, and 2 years ago Musah was a man in boys clothing… yet the regression is so frustrating.
Where JK “under” emphasized a tactical cohesion and just expected it to happen, GB was the opposite and overdid it….
Point being I think Adams could, and should play the 6 without a double pivot if the other mids played more as a unit.
USSF really screwed the pooch renewing GB, because that group had maxed out under him but needed someone who could get them more cohesive..
Never improved playing between the lines, never effective pressing as a unit, huge gaps of space in the middle of the field with guys not knowing what to do, zero entry passes to the middle of the attack because our strikers were in 30 yards of open space by themselves, terrible movement off the ball, so predictable that every team started just man marking Adams when we tried to play out of the back that we’d shit our shorts not knowing what to do…
So frustrating losing those 2 years because that group regressed like my ding dong in a frozen pond…
Ugh… I had a feeling that without qualifying games this would happen, if this crew can put it together between now and the start of the Cup it will be because Tyler willed them together.. I really believe that.
Rant OVER
Our most important player is clearly Jedi, and it’s not eve close. We have zero chance of beating any quality opponent without him
nice rant. rehiring GB was a mistake, agree and said so at the time. and for Adams, he’s also a true leader, not just a player.
This team won the GC in 2021:
USA: 1-Matt Turner; 2-Reggie Cannon (20-Shaq Moore, 65), 16-James Sands, 12-Miles Robinson, 21-George Bello (3-Sam Vines, 65); 19-Eryk Williamson (6-Gianluca Busio, 87), 23-Kellyn Acosta, 17-Sebastian Lletget (10-Cristian Roldan, 66); 7-Paul Arriola (Capt.) (8-Nicholas Gioacchini, 87), 9-Gyasi Zardes, 13-Matthew Hoppe (24-Henry Kessler, 120+1)
Substitutes not used: 18-Sean Johnson, 22-Brad Guzan, 4-Donovan Pines, 11-Daryl Dike, 14-Jackson Yueill, 15-Jonathan Lewis
Is this team better or worse? Which players would you rather have on this team?
Hey MofO, that is a cool comparison.
so, based off of current performances? and also GB and staff for Poch and staff
MotO,
Want another comparison?
Try this:
GK Tim Howard
RB Graham Zusi
CB Omar Gonzalez
CB Matt Besler
LB Jorge Villafaña
DM Kellyn Acosta
CM Michael Bradley (c)
CM Darlington Nagbe
RF Paul Arriola
CF Jozy Altidore
LF Jordan Morris
Substitutions:
MF Clint Dempsey
FW Gyasi Zardes
MF Dax McCarty
Manager:
Bruce Arena
2017 Gold Cup champions, note that the veterans like Clint,Jozy and Howard were on their last legs and that most of the euros listed were playing in MLS and were at Couva later in the year..
the 17 team was a fluke. back then the second GC of the cycle was easier. and what you’re missing on that comparison is they could field at the same time bradley morris jozy dempsey zardes. we have a bunch of strikers who can’t all play at once……and then what? and a not much better defense except adams.
i dunno, these posts are weird. i don’t think you seem to realize that some of these older 2017 players are quite good proven attackers in a way few of ours are, or the 2021 team was just a better pure defense. you obviously think high of the noobs but with few exceptions none are proven at even a zardes or morris level.
IV,
“i dunno, these posts are weird. i don’t think you seem to realize that some of these older 2017 players are quite good proven attackers in a way few of ours are, or the 2021 team was just a better pure defense. you obviously think high of the noobs but with few exceptions none are proven at even a zardes or morris level.”
You don’t know what you are talking about. This team won the 2017 Gold Cup but failed to even qualify for Russia in 2018.
Anyone who tells you that the Gold Cup is or has ever been any kind of decent predictor of future results, especially as it relates to the World Cup is full of shit.
“some of these older 2017 players are quite good proven attackers in a way few of ours are, ”
Yeah, they were so fucking good that they couldn’t get the ONE goal they needed to tie a terrible TNT team and get the ONE point they needed to qualify
I mean this Switzerland team and Turkey probably win the 2017, 2021 GC. The US team in 2021 were pretty outplayed by Mexico in the final and won with vibes, hopes, prayers, and a Miles header. Both of those also had veteran tested CMs, we didn’t have that last night. I’d also say the FBs were better at least the RBs were stronger.
nonsense, did you see the mexico-turkey result?
people forget we qualified 3rd last time on a tiebreaker after shellacking panama. i think that is a truer indication where this sat in 2022 than 2021’s summer run. because we had to play everyone. as shown by the tournaments since. i know we’re world cup hosts and field size was increased. but if we had to qualify top 3 from a hex again, we’d probably be fighting to barely make it again. we might even be destined for the playoff because panama owns us which would be a 3rd team.
and i think you are underestimating the degree to which this thing has actually regressed and eroded. as i spelled out, canada and mexico that we were briefly starting to beat are turning back into hard to win games. we have close games with secondary regional sides eg panama jamaica tnt, some of whom beat us. the overall results patten is fading back towards 2018.
to me what has changed is we started with a team that could barely manage world cup goals. for what i believe to be are tactical rather than personnel reasons. then no longer put out there a team that can pitch a shutout. for tactical reasons.
a team that can win 1-0 is useful. a team that can win 3-2 is useful. a team that plays to a bunch of 1-1 or worse results is one foot on a banana peel. people have mentioned identity. this needs to sell out one end or the other to win tournaments. NL 2021 we would win in OT on offense. GC 2021 we would win 1-0 over and over off defense.
so what is this going to be? right now it’s neither fish nor fowl.
we got a goal on the swiss last time and were competitive. 1-2. the tactics do not work and the selections are getting worse in a naive direction. someone has to be out there to mark. there need to be combo sets of attackers who integrate together for some purpose, eg, crosser target, 10 striker, something. and then stop playing from the back.
if this is about offense, put on the most precise or fast guys we have, play a couple 10s, and quit farting around keep away. just go after teams. like the reyna 2021 team that would win in OT. no more musah weston banger mids. just adams to give a vague ability to mop some counters up. sell out that way.
or, put this in a 451, pick almost everyone for defense or two way play, and play defense first.
you look at this roster and the way the friendlies went and it’s like how do we expect to win competitive soccer games? and contrary to the “we can win this” sentiment you are trying to gin up, mexico will be good, canada will be good, tnt will be good enough, saudi will be hard. we don’t have to guess. we have played within the decade or perhaps even the last 2 years.
sorry but trying to puff them up that these were just two good opponents is crap. we need some actual tactical fixes and maybe retasking some of the guys at different slots. if you remember part of how 2021 gets done is zardes gets benched. we kept tweaking things to keep advancing. this is trending sooooo far in an arrogant, i know better than you, we will keep running out this lineup until it works direction, i don’t think we have the required adaptability to get a meh team through a tournament on guile and bailing wire and duct tape.
IV
“people forget we qualified 3rd last time on a tiebreaker after shellacking panama.”
Big fucking deal. In qualifying, you got no advantage by finishing first so whether you were one , two, or three it did not matter. Getting to third and making sure you stayed there was what mattered.
” think that is a truer indication where this sat in 2022 than 2021’s summer run. because we had to play everyone. as shown by the tournaments since. i know we’re world cup hosts and field size was increased. but if we had to qualify top 3 from a hex again, we’d probably be fighting to barely make it again. we might even be destined for the playoff because panama owns us which would be a 3rd team.”
Speculative bullshit with emphasis on bullshit. If we had to qualify for the World Cup there is every reason to think that the USMNT’s intensity level would be at it’s highest.
“and i think you are underestimating the degree to which this thing has actually regressed and eroded. as i spelled out, canada and mexico that we were briefly starting to beat are turning back into hard to win games. we have close games with secondary regional sides eg panama jamaica tnt, some of whom beat us. the overall results patten is fading back towards 2018.”
That’s not regression so much as the other guys improving.
“to me what has changed is we started with a team that could barely manage world cup goals. for what i believe to be are tactical rather than personnel reasons. then no longer put out there a team that can pitch a shutout. for tactical reasons.”
You believe wrong. The USMNT has never scored a lot of World Cup goals.
“a team that can win 1-0 is useful. a team that can win 3-2 is useful. a team that plays to a bunch of 1-1 or worse results is one foot on a banana peel. people have mentioned identity. this needs to sell out one end or the other to win tournaments. NL 2021 we would win in OT on offense. GC 2021 we would win 1-0 over and over off defense.
so what is this going to be? right now it’s neither fish nor fowl.
we got a goal on the swiss last time and were competitive. 1-2. the tactics do not work and the selections are getting worse in a naive direction. someone has to be out there to mark. there need to be combo sets of attackers who integrate together for some purpose, eg, crosser target, 10 striker, something. and then stop playing from the back.”
This is ridiculous. You keep comparing the performance of a NL2021 team with the performance of a GC2021 team. You also compare the team that lost to Switzerland to the USMNT that last played Switzerland as if all those teams were the same team. They were not.
You’re talking four different USMNTs so your comparisons are nonsense.
V: typical IV, spent 5 years bashing Berhalter and now because he’s gone those were the best years we made Mexico easy to beat. 2021 what a defense neglects to remind everyone it featured Zimmerman and Robinson who he just trashed. That team had no business beating Mexico in the final, but with confidence from the first team beating Mexico and Mexico’s roster exhausted from playing both NL and GC with basically the same squad we won on a late header. The two losses that summer caved El Tris confidence in themselves and Tata. It took the squad four years and several managers to finally regain it. “We’ve regressed” yes if the roster from the other night starts matchday 1 in the WC we’ve regressed. But the likelihood of that happening is 1%.
re 2021, the defense gave up 1 GOAL THE WHOLE TOURNAMENT, which was a penalty. i mean — not one run of play goal the whole time. why? that’s sands who has been inexplicably forgotten. that’s turner before the glitches showed. that’s miles before the achilles. moore and cannon can defend their positions. shielded by acosta who could play 6 fine, not great but up to the regional stuff.
i would much prefer that to johnny’s matador 6, which exposes the backs, some of the crappiest wingbacks (except tolkin) i have seen in recent memory, and a mostly past-it or never-was set of center backs. and then a faltering turner.
i think the offenses are about the same. both teams have ok strikers. neither has much wing quality. lletget wasn’t bad at regional level, push with luna. there is a lot of junk on the 25 offense.
what you’re then missing is that by having a functioning defense 2021 could simply repeatedly win games 1-0, which they did FIVE TIMES. the 2025 select seems to reflect the newer idea where everyone is selected for offense and guys in the back can’t mark. look like a bunch of converted mids. if they can’t do their job that makes it very hard for a sputtering offense that didn’t give the abundant strikers much support help to set them up.
Sands has a broken leg. Apparently you inexplicably forgot that.
IV,
“lletget wasn’t bad at regional level,”
?? Define regional level? Good on the west coast not so much in the midwest or florida?
“push with luna.” ?? a push? Seba, Mr. never played false 9 before so I flew half way across the world during a pandemic just to prove I couldn’t.? What I remember about Seba was how CP and your boy Gio spent the game looking disgusted about how Seba kept killing the offensive movement. Seba was where the ball went to die.
It’s early yet but Diego keeps that ball moving on offense in a way Seba never could.
Great reminder of what a usmnt can do. Regardless of big names.
——-USA——–vs——-Switzerland——-
———0—-Shots on goal—–6—————
———6———Shots———-11————–
——–49—–Possession %—51————–
–
The most important AND SURPRISING stat for this game against Switzerland is the “ZERO SHOTS ON GOAL” for 93 mins……for an hour and a half…..NO ONE ON THE USMNT COULD DELIVER A SINGLE SHOT ON GOAL???!!!! With how bad this starting 11 was, I feel like:
How can we field a team that bad?
Who is analyzing footage of our opponents before games?
Why are we even playing if this is was we are starting with?
Are these players ACTUALLY being properly evaluated in camp…..and if so, how ON GODS GREEN EARTH is it possible to field the absolute worst team in USMNT history against an opponent like Switzerland…..and thought it would be Okay LOL
…….possession, passing, defensive play is meaningless…..absolutely meaningless in this instance without ANY ability to score goals. That single stat right there tells you all you need to know about the ability and talent level of this group of players:
▪️ Nobody is lethal in front of goal
▪️ Nobody has the creativity or the sharpness to GET A SHOT OFF in the 18
▪️ Nobody has the talent, skill and physical ability to be a threat in the final third
▪️ Nobody….Nobody…..Nobody!!!!!
……and that’s why Jack McGlynn is on the national team ticket.
Best line I’ve heard so far in relations to this defeat:
“We need to AutoZone because they beat the brakes off of us”
…….by Clint Dempsey on Men in blazers show lol🤣
Either that line or the one when he said “that dude just got the turtle head”
Oh wait, that was the Turkey game…my bad…
turtlehead
they interviewed a player at one point who said, essentially, we’re not getting rid of you for one mistake. that tracks with what i have seen — eg, johnny gets to start the game after he messes up and costs a game. ream then calmly waves off “mistakes” being made in almost passive voice. something to to be fixed by well meaning players.
sorry but historically you made this team on excellence and you didn’t get to make many mistakes. you made mistakes, you got a plane ticket home. which is how you raise quality and reduce mistakes.
the indulgence of “mistakes” suggests we have our minds made up before we start. the games are just “practice,” as one poster puts it. we aren’t going to harshly judge messups because we like the guy and see them in the final picture. when you’re supposed to be picking them for playing well and not making mistakes. johnny gets to make endless mistakes as he has been Chosen. i’ve seen more from eneli, maloney, morris and others at that position– with fewer mistakes — but they are Not Favored.
Don’t disagree with the general sentiment, but I would’ve given Johnny another start too, both to (re)build confidence, and because if he fixes the mental issues, he is just plain better than the others you mentioned, has a much higher ceiling, therefore improves the USMNT in competitive matches. Every coach/fan has their favorites, including me and you. I believe Johnny’s upside is worth it.
IV,
” johnny gets to make endless mistakes as he has been Chosen. i’ve seen more from eneli, maloney, morris and others at that position– with fewer mistakes — but they are Not Favored.”
endless mistakes?
That’s a bit of an exaggeration don’t you think?.
SBI realizes that you are the one true coaching genius we have.
You get to see the games and you can research them on line and so forth but are righter than everyone else even in the professional coaching ranks.
Unfortunately you don’t spend time with the team and players in training and on the sidelines and you don’t know what instructions the staff have given them. So you are lacking there.
Most important of all you have nothing on the line. If you’re wrong nothing happens to you.
If the coaching staff are wrong about Johnny it affects their job security and livelihood. Ex-USMNT pundits rain shit down on their heads.
Who has more motivation to get it right, you or the coaching staff?
Like it or not Johnny is one of our few realistic challengers/backup to Tyler, a really important role.
You can either sit him for this game and give him a chance to clear his head or you can ask him to get right up back on his horse and play his way out of the IV doghouse.
The fact that Switzerland are an even tougher challenge than Turkie? If Johnny is allegedly good enough for Simeone at A. Madrid then let him prove it. Here and now. Simeone does not like wussies.
If he isn’t good enough IV’s USMNT or Atletico, better to know now than in the Gold Cup or worse, the World Cup.
What you’re seeing in these two games is what happens when you try to “revolutionize” the team and fill it with “fresh faces”.
By and large, no matter how good a player you are, teams need a little time to learn how to play with each other. And the more “fresh faces” you have, that just multiplies the lack of cohesion. A couple of days of practice can’t make up for all the “fresh faces”.
You’re critical of the ones that were called in . Tell us who the 20-23 “fresh faces” players were that they failed to call in?
are you seriously saying “but the coaches watch the practices” for THESE RESULTS? that’s a winning coach argument. if we lose this bad, and i didn’t like the players beforehand, that simply suggests the coach erred. occam’s razor.
i posted who i’d call on one of these articles. you put us in a 451, you sit back and counter, you call defenders who can mark, you call some 6s, and then you play counters with the front 4. we have the strikers. they need support.
btw, it isn’t like johnny dominated night 2 any better.
IV,
“are you seriously saying “but the coaches watch the practices” for THESE RESULTS? ”
No. You said that.
These were friendlies, practice, and , if I am the coaching staff, how the players played and looked was more important than the final score.
It isn’t hard to find teams with bad losses in friendlies that then go into a given tournament and do very well. Had Johnny gone out and played well, even if they lost, I would have been happy.
You think the USMNT is some big boy team like France or Spain so if your #6 candidate flames out, it’s just okay, Johnny out, next guy up. after all you’ve got 2-3 behind him right?
Eneli,Morris, Maloney, who else did you name? Just fly those guys in on one day’s notice. And if they don’t work out then the USMNT just has to go to IV and he has a list of other #6’s, no problem. After all it only takes one game to know that a player is for real right?
Or you could instead give Johnny the Switzerland game to redeem himself. If he fails, and he didn’t look good, then get onto the next candidate.
But vs Switzerland Johnny looks like he has lost some of his mojo. So the next stop is IV hell where players with USMNT mistakes check in but never leave. No one ever accused you, IV, of thinking players can learn and improve.
Johnny’s USMNT career is over for this cycle maybe forever.
No one likes the losses but as I have said since day one. Pochettino , or anyone they might have hired, would have gotten a shit sandwich in this job.
And it looks like he is going to have to coach his way out of this mess.
Because your “fresh face” idea, which is what you have seen these last few games, has turned out to be untenable.
That’s why these cattle call practices look like shit. And before you say Turkie and Switzerland were too good, this is not practice to beat a select team or another high school team.
This is the big time now. Pochettino was given a time line where he needs answers NOW, not next month or next year.
Pochettino critics point to Emma and Jesse and the success they have had with their teams on similarly short notice but its pretty clear that the apples they were handed were good apples on day one.
Mauricio’s apple was a rotten one that was already moldering.
He got left with Gregg’s BFF locker room culture where the players got to escape from their meanie Euro coaches who refused to play them. So much for Gregg’s “great locker room atmosphere.” Mediocre is as mediocre practices.
Pochettino has had very little time or more important, games, in which to change their attitude.
As I have said for some time now, odds are the USMNT gets Ben Dovered in the World Cup. It’s not too late but Pochettino is cutting it close.
i actually suggested the coach should use this line — “we’re trying fresh folks” — and if he did it a couple weeks ago he’d have saved his veterans some grief.
however, we have won gold cup any number of times with B squads (including 2021), and it has also gotten coaches fired (2011).
it has to do with selection. 2011 bradley picked a bunch of slow, semi-technical players who got outworked and outrun, and weren’t actually that much more skilled than their opponents. 2021 they played tough, effective defense and some noobs emerged — moore, sands, hoppe, dike, nico, cannon.
the difference, to me, is can you scout. a lot of this bunch just looks poorly chosen. it’s not one flop — which is on the player — it’s more than a half dozen — which is you have selection/scouting issues.
to me the speed with which aaronson — a cut for U20 worlds — was integrated in the NT compared to the far superior reyna, weah, and richards — who made the U20 team but got sandbagged for the senior team — speaks to a perverse concern with which ones are club first team and/or have first team statistics, over actual talent. too little attention is paid to who dominates the age groups and gets signed by top clubs. you are better off in MLS or holland than in a big club age group team. that’s backwards.
Hard to believe the scouting is that incompetent. Looks more like we’ve been scouting for the wrong things the past 4 years. Team has a serious lack of athleticism and mentality.
Bearded S,
“Looks more like we’ve been scouting for the wrong things the past 4 years. Team has a serious lack of athleticism and mentality.”
The USMNT has no real identity. I doubt that anyone scouting for them is looking for a “type” or a “style”.
Beggars can’t be choosers.
If the team lacks “athleticism and mentality” it’s probably because there still are not a whole lot of USMNT eligible elite soccer players with elite level athleticism and mentality out there..
Lol yup…..while we’re out here looking like clueless idiots on the pitch, Canada and Jesse Marsch are out there (with their limited player pool), turning water into wine almost. It’s crazy
Positives: Josh Wydner (20), Cole Campbell (19), and Mathis Albert (16) all made their clubs expanded rosters for CWC.
-U18s won the UEFA Friendship Cup, U17s won over Japan, U20s beat Colombia.
– I was traveling and didn’t get to see the match
Good stuff.
set up to fail…let’s call it like it is
all of those rookies and newbies, playing a 4 1 4 1 that none knew how to execute…and evaluating players on that? deflection.
even Poch’s half self-own, saying it’s on him, was half baked.
what did we learn? that once again, when we set up to bomb forward with numbers vs. good teams, we suck. we do not create or finish at a high enough rate, our defensive pressure is out of position, and we concede chances, and the opponents DO HAVE the finishers, and they punish us brutally.
I think we learned, again, that we need to be defense first, still, to compete. most international teams do. the ones that don’t, even mighty Brazil, suck when they don’t. That’s why Ancelotti at Brazil is so intriguing; he will set them up to play defensive football and counter with their talent. just watch
positives from these 2 games? maybe Poch believes that now
“That’s why Ancelotti at Brazil is so intriguing; he will set them up to play defensive football and counter with their talent. just watch”
Brazilians won’t like that at first. Brazilian coaches have tried that and gotten blasted. Carlo will get some slack because he is who he is, but you’re right it will be very interesting.
A slightly better choice would have been Zidane but regardless, Brazilian fans are so pissed off they will put up with anything if it looks like they can get back to being the power they are .
Yep, I remember when Dunga tried it, not too happy were the Brazilians
Trying to be positive so:
If the goal was to see which new/fringe players were ready and which weren’t, we have some real data now. The response in both second halves of these friendlies was encouraging, from both the players and coaching adjustments. The Turks and Swiss are top teams, better than anyone we will face in the gold cup so if our guys can translate the way we played in these second halves we should be fine. I’ll leave it to everyone else to list negatives, there are plenty.
Let’s call the games against Turkiye and Switzerland what they are – exhibitions for the purposes of evaluating talent. I agree with Poch’s objectives, as much as I’d have liked a better outcome against the Swiss.
– Tillman is much improved over the last year. His experience at PSV has been very beneficial. I think he moves up the depth chart.
– If Luna continues to impress in the Gold Cup with playmaking, he moves up too. I like LDLT, but he is not strong and lack’s Luna’s bite and hustle.
– Both the Aaronson brothers failed to impress, and are likely to be passed over for Tillman and Luna for the Gold Cup.
– Last-minute callup Tolkien steady play in the 2nd half probably earned himself more minutes.
– Sullivan is not ready for this level of competition yet
– I’d have to think Berhalter’s performance earns him more minutes in the Gold Cup.
I agree with all that. Just want to add…I really like Tolkien even if he never makes another camp. He tried to sombero a Swiss player! Together with a game in the Bundesliga of Kiel – where he took their free kicks and corners – the guy attempted a shot from a free kick in the defensive half when he spotted the Freiburg keeper off his line. If I wasn’t a lifelong fan after that I am after seeing his attempted sombero – even if both were only *almost* completed.