To those who think there has been no improvement, I offer the following:
2022:
– Wales – push
– England- US outplayed England slightly (I might be biased here)
– US outplayed Iran
– Holland – US completely competitive
2014:
– Ghana outplayed US
– Portugal- push
– Germany – outclassed US
– Belgium – if not for Howard, US would not have even been competitive
2010:
– England outplayed US
– Slovenia – push
– Algeria – push
– Ghana outplayed US
2002:
– Portugal push
– Korea push
– Poland outplayed US
– Mexico push
– US competitive against Geany but outplayed
It takes luck to win a WC. Every team that wins has luck. Croatia was lucky to beat Brazil, France was lucky to beat England. Not to say it it wouldn’t be the other way if Brazil and England won but when top teams play other top teams the winner is usually decided by fortune on that day. US could have beat Holland if fortunes were different for both teams. The 2002 run had elements of luck that got them one stage further than this tournament.
“To those who think there has been no improvement, I offer the following:”
Of course there has been improvement.
Greg exceeded expectations but that ‘s over now. We’re done with 2018-2022 Gregg.
Now, today , the only question that matters is in 2026 can the USMNT with Gregg on the throne, be reasonably confident about reaching the semis?
Can they win the World Cup?
Those were not reasonable expectations for the 2022 team.
They will be expectations for the 2026 WC team.
Are you confident that Gregg is the best person to lead to USMNT given the much more difficult challenges that they will face in the next 3 years?
If so, why?
“US could have beat Holland if fortunes were different for both teams. The 2002 run had elements of luck that got them one stage further than this tournament.”
?Your point? That’s been true for at least 20 years, is that good enough for you? With a bit of luck the 2006, 2010 and 2014 teams could have all gone at least one game further. And in 2017 Clint missed an equalizer in Couva by not much. He was unlucky. So?
Do you think this team could have beaten Argentina? Do you think the current team could have beaten Croatia?
While I agree with you that luck is a big part of the World Cup I think that counting on it is maybe not the best idea. All you can do is build a team that can at least take advantage of any luck that breaks their way.
Going forward, teams do not stay the same, they either get better or they get worse. You can’t talk about the 2022 WC team anymore, that’s done. All 26 players in 2022? They will have to prove themselves worthy yet again.
Gregg or someone, is going to have to build a new team to try and win the World Cup in 2026.
Are you telling me that Greg is the manager for that ?
Vac, you seem to always read things into my posts that aren’t there. Regardless, to answer some of your questions to me, yes I think the 2022 team could beat any team in the tournament with moderate luck. I don’t think that has ever been the case before. My post was directed to those who think there has been no improvement and/or regression. There is at least one person on this site that believes that. I agree with that the expectation and hope for most is that in 2026 the US can compete to win without the need for ridiculous luck but instead the good fortune that every world cup winner gets. For the record, I am not advocating at all for Gregg to be the coach. I rate his performance much lower than you do. A tie or loss to England was essentially the same and known at the time of the game. He knew, just as you and I did, that McKennie, Musah, and Dest could not play 90 minutes and that Adams >>Acosta. He could have rotated squad against England to have fresher players available against Iran and subsequently round of 16 if they made it there. It would have been a gamble and hindsight is 20/20 but the higher percentage was to rest players and accept a tie or loss to England. I said prior to the game that I would have done that. Cheers!!
It’s hard to say no to Berhalter when you don’t know the other realistic candidates. I think it’s time to move on. Gregg’s tenure at my Crew were generally pretty good offensively but he hasn’t been able to find that at Hammerby and USMNT to so maybe that was just Higuain and Kamaras. Would I be excited about 4 more years? No. But I’m a lot more excited about that than Peter Vermes or Greg Vanney. My heart can’t take 4 years of a Marsch led side playing 4-3 matches with both Guatemala and France.
Tele maybe I’m wrong but had we lost to England then England would not have needed any points against Wales. So we could have beat Iran and still gone out on GD to Wales had Wales beat the English reserves. I don’t see anyway the US gets a draw against England with Acosta and Luca in MF Bellingham has a field day instead of being kept in Tyler’s pocket. Ifs and maybes for sure but once Zim brings down Bale you have to get at least a point against England to have control over your own destiny.
JR, I did say it would have been a bit of a gamble and hindsight is 20/20 but I still think that was the higher probability. If the US was going to have a deep run, they couldn’t run their 3 top midfielders into the ground. I personally don’t think he should have been playing with 8s considering only two WC level in the whole pool whereas several serviceable WC 10s. Didn’t build team around strengths and weaknesses. Wales picked up cards against Iran and lost by two. Wales expended enormous amounts of energy in both games and all 23 field players for England would start for Wales. Even if England rotated all of their players they still would have had vastly superior players that would try their hardest as they would be auditioning for more playing time in subsequent rounds. Gregg may have had other reasons like concern for morale if they lost to England but I think he was too aggressive and thought they would win and then win the group getting an easier opponent in the round of 16 but I don’t think that was a good strategy if that was his strategy. He ran his team into the ground to get out of group play but we saw what happens when you do that in 2010. Hindsight again being 20/20, but the energy expended against England was essentially wasted. There are several other reasons why I don’t want Gregg back but this is already too long. I agree with you that I certainly don’t want Marsch either. He runs his teams into the ground also IMO. Cheers!!
Tele 57,
Possible is one thing.
Probable is another thing.
I thought in 2002, 2010 2014 winning the WC was possible for the USMNT but certainly not probable.
And that’s true for 2022, possible but not probable.
Things in 2026 should be a little more “probable” than in 2022 be because:
Home field
Hopefully more talent
A better manager .Either an improve Gregg or someone else who is not so stupid..
That’s the probability I see .
If you ask me if any of us will live to see the USMNT win a World Cup I’d say that’s improbable. That’s cause I think we need about 18 new players of much higher quality than what I see out there and that’s a big ask.
Winning the World Cup is really, really hard.Ask Brazil.
If you think Greg is the coach we need, you didn’t watch the WC. We had 2 goals in group play with zero true strikers picked for the team. No. This team could not beat everyone with all the luck in the world. We were also tanked against Iran. This team was not picked to be successful, Berhalter did not lead the team and fitness was atrocious. This was one of the most individually talented teams we have ever had and it was pathetic. Berhalter needs to be fired.
we need someone who will try new players and tactics and extract more from existing players. to me this one is tapped out. he started with his grand vision, passing 6, 433, possession, a particular set of older players. the story of the cycle, to me, was him “climbing down” towards reality. he finally accepted adams and shifted to a more traditional 6 concept. he finally integrated the guys who were stuck on U20 or U23 through the summer of 2019. at the world cup itself we finally began trying new things. i don’t see what the untapped value is in a coach whose “idea in his head” for this didn’t work and seems to be improvising — and the difference between games or even halves in qatar suggest what i will charitably call mixed results.
i also think a lot of the analytics-driven stuff we seem to try is crocked. trying to find the hot “club form” streak players didn’t pay off, and i’ve always seen that as more pertinent to scouting a noob to first-cap as opposed to pick a team to rely on for a key game or tournament — which i see prior NT performance as more predictive (if seemingly too obvious for some to consider). i also half wonder if the perseveration on pumping aimless crosses through the 6 — rather than wall balling into the 18 or taking shots from the edge of the box — is driven by analytics ideas of which sectors of the field are perceived as higher xG. i have heard GB mention related ideas — that certain segments of the field pose more statistical danger. like that they have literally broken the field down into a bunch of rectangles and run numbers. i am sure teams score a lot more often and with higher efficiency if they get a ball in the 6. it’s getting it there with any accuracy and utility that’s the hard part. if the idea is we hoof it there all day and play xG odds, the reality is we could rarely find anyone to feed, or overhit the crosses.
as a result, we were tied dead last with poland on GF among advancing teams from the groups at 2. both teams then went out round of 16 on identical 3-1 scores.
i think USSF has historically kept coaches who make it this far but we have also only once made it further. so perhaps change that. and my general belief on MLS (which i see applicable here) is that teams that stand pat on mediocre results risk being a freeway pattie. the world will move forward 4 years on tactics when i think we are already a dated copy of 2010-2015 era possession concepts. to the extent GB improved on selection he never did find a 9 and the coach will need to continue evolve the lineup — not just pat themselves on the back. i think we need more and newer. i don’t see this team reaching its potential this way.
if i was us — regardless who gets kept or hired — i would be asking for them to bring the confed cup back. i know some of that may have been qatar’s lack of preparation. i know there was club world cup talk they never followed through on. i think US/Canada/Mexico could easily handle hosting it — our bid wasn’t premised on building a bunch of new stadia — and should push to bring it back.
i’d also be asking for someone else to host the copa america we are rumored to be invited to. i think we are coddled by all the home tournaments and need more adversity.
also maybe put together a summer tournament or two. i think we need a regular drumbeat of summer “cut the crap” tests this cycle to make sure we have the right coaching, personnel, and tactics during a cycle we don’t have to qualify.
You know the USMNT manager doesn’t determine if there is a Confed Cup right? Chelsea won the Club World Cup that you claimed didn’t happen so there’s that I guess too.
Want it back? That sort of thing doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
It probably won’t come back for the simple reason that the calendar is just too crowded now.
JR: i am fully aware confed cup was canceled. it was canceled in the context of qatar and its construction issues, though presented as a shift to club world cup. club world cup hasn’t actually been expanded and changed so i half wonder if that was sincere. i think the old version may have been canceled to avoid showing up qatar’s slow construction as much as anything. you then suggest teams might be opposed but don’t name any. or act like one team can’t force it, without seeing if anyone else is interested. run it up the flag pole and see who salutes.
example: my dynamo got ripped off for a bunch of academy age players in our area who went to dallas. richards, cappis, servania. no compensation. last year we signed raines. even though he had left RSL, MLS treated it as a territorial incursion and made us compensate them.
moral: squeaky wheel gets the grease. all our stadia are more or less finished. if we want confed cup and all 3 countries stepped up IMO we might get it back done, if at least one time. i think we could use something more intense than gold cup. or we can sit here passively and assume the worst, and hope we’re ready.
for people who talk like they want us to be the next big thing y’all just kind of do whatever they say and don’t really push this down the road very far.
Good for Gregg, go to clubs and continue learning. Please, I beg you Gregg ….go coach a club.
I agree, leaving now would be the smart move for Berhalter. Few coaches do better after 4 or 5 years than they did early on.
Connections between player and coach are important for success. As players get older or better players become available, that will necessarily strain the relation between first the older players, then the entire team. That strain will occur if the coach favors the older player (playing favorites is not generally well-accepted by the team as a whole) , or if he replaces him with a younger, better player (the players can see that as breaking trust and wonder if they might be next). It is not a situation that has an easy solution and very few coaches have walked the tightrope for more than 6 years for club or country.
book i recently read suggested the issue is often stagnation that develops at this point. 4 years is a long time but many coaches at this point will get stubborn on tactics and personnel. as it is we had a few guys like booth and vazquez who didn’t get a world cup sniff on the “need experience to get a job” paradox. wouldn’t try them then argued they hadn’t been integrated.
to be fair about every US coach i can think of who got to cycle 2 did the same thing. klinsi’s team got real old on him and he badly wanted it still to work. and the only reason his tactics had worked was the patched midfield that got old. he never found a new idea and set of players beyond pulisic. one guy wasn’t enough. bradley lost the plot second cycle. though i might even connect the 2 and say bradley had a development hole open up — a bunch of adu type disasters — and klinsi only temporarily patched it with dual nationals before it popped on him 2018 cycle. arena let the 2006 team get real old. maybe it’s a loss of drive or objectivity after some degree of success.
“to be fair about every US coach i can think of who got to cycle 2 did the same thing. klinsi’s team got real old on him ………. bradley lost the plot second cycle. though ”
That’s not fair.
Sunil , who was never a big Bob fan, wanted to fire Bob and replace him after the Ghana loss but didn’t probably because he hadn’t yet locked down JK to a contract. Once that got worked out and Bob had a stinker of a 2011 Gold Cup it was JK in and Bob out.
JK just pissed off too many people and as soon as he lost those two Hex openers and Mr. Safe hands conveniently had just resigned from the Galaxy, it was off to Couva with Bruce and Paul.
I believe the average lifespan of a top flight manager these days is about 3 seasons anyway.
Gregg did a good job given the circumstances. But he gave no indication that he is the one to take this team up another level.
After watching Croatia/Brazil and Argentina/ Netherlands I wondered if anyone seriously thinks Gregg and the guys could have kept up with any of those four teams in a game like we saw today.
I say Gregg and the guys because too much of the commentary we make ( myself included) here is about shit like we don’t have a 9 or enough depth or we lack the tactics or style or whatever other fancy shit you like go on
and about.
The truth is any style of play you want has to have a “real” team to carry it out.
We don’t have one. It would be nice if we did .
Gregg, after all that time managed to find the makings of a team and one basic style that worked pretty well.
But that’s all. And now the USSF thinks Captain Crew can take them to the next level, a level you just saw on display today. I guess we’re about to find out.
Whether Gregg is a limited and just got lucky, or the players are obtuse or Gregg just ran out of time ( which no national team manager has) a one trick pony will not go far in the World Cup.
At this stage of the World Cup one trick ponys get sent to the slaughterhouse .
Argentina had Holland down for the count and all of a sudden, Holland bring in some Pefok like guys, they start dropping crosses into the box and boom, the game is tied and Argentina looks like Grenada.
You don’t see that kind of adjustment from the USMNT.
By the way Wout Weghorst the guy who scored those 2 goals for Holland?He plays in Turkey, like Hadji does, while on loan from fricking Burnley.
Weghorst represents three things many here think are shit;
1. Strikers playing in Turkey
2. Strikers playing in the Championship
3. Players who are on loan.
the difference with Klinsmann is he sold ussoccer a 2 cycle plan…his whole MO was 2018, not 2014, and how he was the ONLY guy who could do it. He was given the keys to EVERYTHING…never done before and won’t happen again. So when the wheels came off and his dumpster fire exploded, it created the single biggest mess in ussoccer since returning to the World Cup. Comparing him to other US coaches not close to reasonable because not one of them sold a 2 cycle plan NOR were given keys to all of ussoccer. Jurgen Klinsmann and his snake oil promises, bought by the naive and desperate Sunil, is the single most destructive force ussoccer has seen. He’s like a crypto ponzi grifters
Mr. bum,
” He’s like a crypto ponzi grifters”
If so that explains why he pissed off so many at the USSF and MLS. It takes one to know one and he wasn’t one of “theirs”. Predators hate competition.
“Jurgen Klinsmann and his snake oil promises, bought by the naive and desperate Sunil, is the single most destructive force ussoccer has seen.”
Sunil is a lot of things but naive is not one of them. Arrogant? Corrupt? Yes . He lost out to Qatar for 2022.
But his bid also succeeded for 2026. What did he trade for that success?Alan Rothenberg brought the 1994 WC to the US. He made 7 million off of that deal. How much do you think Sunil is in line for in 2026?
For what he’s going to get I’m sure Sunil will let you call him anything you want all year long.
I have a slightly different take on JK than you do. JK is the best thing that I’ve seen happen to “ussoccer.”
He shook up what was clearly an old boys club and brought a lot of scrutiny and media attention to the USMNT. Previously you had only seen that with the USWNT.
And that was a great thing. JK certainly knew US soccer. He’s been living in and working out of SoCal since 1998. And he came in at a time when American players were increasingly heading overseas. He’s not responsible for it, it was happening anyway, but him being USMNT manager at that time was encouraging.
As for the USMNT on the field, the best thing he did was turn the team from “Landon and the USMNT” into “the USMNT”.
Ever since the 2002 World Cup LD was the USMNT talisman. I challenge you to find a single positive, consequential result achieved by the USMNT w/o Landon. I can’t think of one. Never happened.
JK recognized two things:
• There’s only one boss on the team
• Players eventually lose effectiveness as they get older.
Landon was a USMNT player not an LA Galaxy player. The USMNT was Landon’s team. MLS just kept LD fit for USMNT games. And as a USMNT fan I was very happy with that because it kept LD happy and an unhappy LD was a shit player.
But it wasn’t going to last forever. Eventually he was going to age out and then what?
There was no successor waiting in the wings. You see the problems with one man teams.
Portugal are having trouble moving on from CR7.
I hope Messi wins the WC because then he can retire gracefully and save everyone from an awkward transition.
Being cold blooded, ruthless and completely confident JK was the perfect guy to transition LD out, which needed to happen, sooner or later. Many of Landon’s fans, and I am one of them wish it could have happened after the 2014 World Cup so he could have had his fairy tale farewell tour, and it might have happened but then the Snow Bowl happened.
The Snow Bowl in Denver where Jermaine and Clint showed they could lead the USMNT to a very important qualifier win vs. Costa Rica (probably they exact same guys who just played in Qatar}.
The point was the team led by the manager proved they could do something w/o LD playing.
So by the time LD got back into the Qualifying picture the team was well on it’s way to qualifying and they wound up finishing first in the Hex. That gave JK just enough reason to think the team would be okay without Landon in Brazil. Despite all the talk about Green, Davis or Wondo, no one player replaced LD in Brazil.
W/o LD (and then Jozy) around the team was forced to rise to the occasion. And they did.
You’ll notice that Gregg, not my favorite manager, nevertheless understands the pitfalls of having to rely so heavily on one player ( see Reyna, Gio and Pulisic, C ) and clearly works to emphasize the whole team.
The USSF is still an old boys club but since JK’s tenure it seems to be a little less so. And that‘s a good thing.
Mr V, I appreciate your thoughtful reply.
Re. LD, Klinsmann invited him back pre World Cup for GC where LD played awesome, then JK clipped him anyway using JK’s well-known now self-destructive ego to do it, best decisions for the team aside it (Brad Davis, Julian Green, etc.) and ruined the locker room in the end anyway lol
with re. to Sunil, everything you said and naive as eff…he too believed that JK was messiah and revolution was on. he was wrong but believed it for sure
the best thing JK did was get respect in the region from officials while he was coaching
we do see it dfferent. He broad stroked ALL ussoccer as problem when in fact his ego was unable to hear things besides himself…Martin Vasquez, a great coach sure, but not a challenging sort to JK’s voice. The dictator ruler failed like they typically do, same way…….
he himself was his own ussocer problem…selling solutions while burning all down because that’s what he wanted to be called, what you still want to see apparently…and instead 2018 was the worst failure for ussoccer since returning to the World Cup
thank goodness for MLS, Academies, and all the rest who have actually impacted the EVOLUTION of ussoccer to today’s spot in spite of the pitiful state left behind by the fake master revolutionist. He and Sunil got the timing wrong! the ‘throw out all before’ was exactly like how he treated LD after inviting him back, weak, revealing, and disgraceful.
of course he threw all out when given the keys, he was afraid of any challenging voice, like all tyrants
re. GB…it’s not like I cannot see what you see, and you see well and I appreciate your posts even when we disagree.
I simply respect his results, how he evolved the team successfully through the cycle in the end with the 2nd youngest group at the World Cup, how much the group says they love playing for him (which I think shows)
but I’d also like to see, at this point, for things to keep evolving and for me at some point soone enough another voice to lead. At least that voice will receive a locker room in much better shape than GB did
respectfully
When JK took over, he at first pretty much excluded Michael Bradley from the team. It took some games where the US looked poor before he brought him back. Bradley had a very good WC in 2010 and while he maybe did not star, he was a very important piece of the team in 2014. JK, I think, saw that some of the 2014 team would or should not be part of the 2018 team and he thrashed about trying to find replacements. I think that some of the players whom JK wanted to replace knew that, but it turned out JK was unable to find adequate replacements and he had to go back to the veterans. By then, his relationship with some of them deteriorated badly; he was not able to repair that, he had dropped Landon from the 2014 team and made public disparaging remarks about Landon, that laid the background of mistrust niggling at the players.
That history and JK’s frequent public criticism of players did nothing to repair the relationships needed to successfully lead a team. JK was doomed by his own actions as much as by an aging talent pool.
Mr. bum,
By the way just about everyone (JK, LD, Sunil,Gregg, etc., etc. ) we’re discussing, has a huge raging ego. It’s necessary for success at this level. Some are come across better than others.
Funny you should bring up the 2013 Gold Cup
Going into it I felt that it was important that LD really have a beyond outstanding Gold Cup. I saw it as his best chance to impress the new guy.
You talk about dictator, which of course, all managers, esp. international managers are. It’s not a democracy. Belichek , Popovich, all those guys are not running a democracy.
But leave the hyperbole out of it.
This was about an employee, who had publicly questioned whether he even wanted to continue working there anymore, coming back and trying to re-impress the new boss. And in JK’s case he was the new boss.
If, in his absence, the company had gone to hell , well, sure you “welcome” them back.
But if everything has been going well and the team has moved on, then maybe you’re not so interested.
I’ve been that boss so I know how JK felt.
I think JK wanted LD to realize that everyone was supposed to make a case for their inclusion even LD. Maybe he told Landon that directly. If so LD didn’t take him seriously. I saw LD doing what he always did. lobbying in the media and being surprised that it wasn’t enough for JK.
But to be fair to LD it had been years since he had had to fight for his place. Years. He didn’t know how to do what most of us know how to do very well. How to suck up to your new boss. He’s LD and sucked up to no one.
Nothing happens in isolation.
Other vets like Clint and DMB knew what a new sheriff in town meant. It meant trying to win a job. And both guys knew all about that. And LD did not. I don’t care what LD said, he was entitled and he never understood how JK could have a USMNT without Landon.
Clint did not have the greatest transition back to MLS. So, he went back to Fulham on loan to get in reps and improve his fitness. It wasn’t a statistical success per se, but it really showed JK that Clint was willing to do anything impress him.
DMB was asked by JK to play left back and famously said that it took him 10 seconds to say he would do whatever he was asked. This despite the fact that he hated the idea. But he knew that it was his only shot. DMB went through a period in Germany at Hannover and didn’t play much.
There’s a very nice interview on You Tube about it.
The point is I believe if JK thought LD would have helped more than hurt in Brazil he would have brought him. I have zero doubt about that. JK played and managed in Germany where players and managers often truly despise each other, and they win together anyway. It’s all about winning for JK. Nothing else.
It certainly would have politically been much easier for JK to pick LD but he didn’t. And JK certainly knew he was going to make a lot of powerful enemies because LD was and is a God in the USSF. Always was and still is. Deservedly so I might add.
I literally watched every minute LD was on the field and when the Gold Cup ended I was very depressed. It was clear that LD did his usual okay for the Gold Cup but not enough to put doubts to rest performance. He gave a solid measured performance against very weak opposition. Absolutely nothing to write home about and for me he looked slow and fat. He scored 5 goals. He should have scored 10.
Belize (pen)
Cuba (pen)
El Salvador
Honduras 2
You know who else scored 5 goals? Wondo, Belize 3, Cuba 2. Scoring is always better than not scoring but, as we see with Ferreira, the quality of the opposition has to be considered.
Others point out how LD, after he was cut, tore up MLS.
That makes my point or me. The time to impress the person doing the hiring is before he hires someone else, not after you get the note that says they are moving in another direction. And tearing up MLS? That’s what LD is supposed to do.
For me it boils down to JK knowing LD pretty well. He brought Landon to Bayern Munich, in spite of a lot of internal criticism. Do you think he would have taken that risk if he didn’t have a real high regard for LD’s talent and skill? This was Bayern fucking Munich, FC Hollywood a team full of divas. You’ve read the tell all books by all the know it alls.
Landon was poorly received by the staff and the players, did not play all that well and left earlier than he had to. LD’s no fool and he saw right away that Bayern was not a great spot for him, so he saw no point in being where he did not want to be. I think JK could be forgiven for thinking that LD had a little bit of quit in him, even if it was JK who maybe made the wrong move in bringing LD in. in the first place.
I won’t say LD got JK fired at Bayern but it did not help. And of course, LD was not available for JK early in his USMNT tenure and did not come back until, really, he wasn’t needed anymore.
That’s why I was worried about LD’s Gold Cup performance because if I had been in JK’s shoes I would be thinking that maybe this guy wasn’t really reliable when it hit the fan.
I don’t know JK. Based on everything, I’ve seen as a manager he’s cold blooded, ruthless and has very high expectations. He obviously has a very clear understanding of tactics, his critics notwithstanding. But he’s also impatient and isn’t really interested in the nuts and bolts. JK is the motivator guy. He wants to leave that grunt work to the Jogi’s of the world. And he is actually a tournament guy, not a league guy which is another expression of his impatience. He’s an elitist. He saw the Gold Cup like I do , as glorified practice vs the JV teams. Arrogant and it costs him. But he understands talent.
“I simply respect his results, how he evolved the team successfully through the cycle in the end with the 2nd youngest group at the World Cup, how much the group says they love playing for him (which I think shows)”
JK got the same results as Gregg. JK brought three unknown kids to Brazil, Green, Yedlin and Brooks. All succeeded in various degrees
They did not necessarily follow it up with ongoing USMNT success but that’s irrelevant.
One, you build a roster for that World Cup not the next one. Four years is a long time. Who knows what happens to the roster four years later.
Two, we don’t know how the 2022 26 will do going forward. They could flame out. They could be a rousing success.
If he had to do it over again I’m sure JK would have brought LD to Brazil and Gio Reyna-ed him.
Don’t think for minute that GB didn’t learn something from JK.
To those who think there has been no improvement, I offer the following:
2022:
– Wales – push
– England- US outplayed England slightly (I might be biased here)
– US outplayed Iran
– Holland – US completely competitive
2014:
– Ghana outplayed US
– Portugal- push
– Germany – outclassed US
– Belgium – if not for Howard, US would not have even been competitive
2010:
– England outplayed US
– Slovenia – push
– Algeria – push
– Ghana outplayed US
2002:
– Portugal push
– Korea push
– Poland outplayed US
– Mexico push
– US competitive against Geany but outplayed
It takes luck to win a WC. Every team that wins has luck. Croatia was lucky to beat Brazil, France was lucky to beat England. Not to say it it wouldn’t be the other way if Brazil and England won but when top teams play other top teams the winner is usually decided by fortune on that day. US could have beat Holland if fortunes were different for both teams. The 2002 run had elements of luck that got them one stage further than this tournament.
“To those who think there has been no improvement, I offer the following:”
Of course there has been improvement.
Greg exceeded expectations but that ‘s over now. We’re done with 2018-2022 Gregg.
Now, today , the only question that matters is in 2026 can the USMNT with Gregg on the throne, be reasonably confident about reaching the semis?
Can they win the World Cup?
Those were not reasonable expectations for the 2022 team.
They will be expectations for the 2026 WC team.
Are you confident that Gregg is the best person to lead to USMNT given the much more difficult challenges that they will face in the next 3 years?
If so, why?
“US could have beat Holland if fortunes were different for both teams. The 2002 run had elements of luck that got them one stage further than this tournament.”
?Your point? That’s been true for at least 20 years, is that good enough for you? With a bit of luck the 2006, 2010 and 2014 teams could have all gone at least one game further. And in 2017 Clint missed an equalizer in Couva by not much. He was unlucky. So?
Do you think this team could have beaten Argentina? Do you think the current team could have beaten Croatia?
While I agree with you that luck is a big part of the World Cup I think that counting on it is maybe not the best idea. All you can do is build a team that can at least take advantage of any luck that breaks their way.
Going forward, teams do not stay the same, they either get better or they get worse. You can’t talk about the 2022 WC team anymore, that’s done. All 26 players in 2022? They will have to prove themselves worthy yet again.
Gregg or someone, is going to have to build a new team to try and win the World Cup in 2026.
Are you telling me that Greg is the manager for that ?
Vac, you seem to always read things into my posts that aren’t there. Regardless, to answer some of your questions to me, yes I think the 2022 team could beat any team in the tournament with moderate luck. I don’t think that has ever been the case before. My post was directed to those who think there has been no improvement and/or regression. There is at least one person on this site that believes that. I agree with that the expectation and hope for most is that in 2026 the US can compete to win without the need for ridiculous luck but instead the good fortune that every world cup winner gets. For the record, I am not advocating at all for Gregg to be the coach. I rate his performance much lower than you do. A tie or loss to England was essentially the same and known at the time of the game. He knew, just as you and I did, that McKennie, Musah, and Dest could not play 90 minutes and that Adams >>Acosta. He could have rotated squad against England to have fresher players available against Iran and subsequently round of 16 if they made it there. It would have been a gamble and hindsight is 20/20 but the higher percentage was to rest players and accept a tie or loss to England. I said prior to the game that I would have done that. Cheers!!
It’s hard to say no to Berhalter when you don’t know the other realistic candidates. I think it’s time to move on. Gregg’s tenure at my Crew were generally pretty good offensively but he hasn’t been able to find that at Hammerby and USMNT to so maybe that was just Higuain and Kamaras. Would I be excited about 4 more years? No. But I’m a lot more excited about that than Peter Vermes or Greg Vanney. My heart can’t take 4 years of a Marsch led side playing 4-3 matches with both Guatemala and France.
Tele maybe I’m wrong but had we lost to England then England would not have needed any points against Wales. So we could have beat Iran and still gone out on GD to Wales had Wales beat the English reserves. I don’t see anyway the US gets a draw against England with Acosta and Luca in MF Bellingham has a field day instead of being kept in Tyler’s pocket. Ifs and maybes for sure but once Zim brings down Bale you have to get at least a point against England to have control over your own destiny.
JR, I did say it would have been a bit of a gamble and hindsight is 20/20 but I still think that was the higher probability. If the US was going to have a deep run, they couldn’t run their 3 top midfielders into the ground. I personally don’t think he should have been playing with 8s considering only two WC level in the whole pool whereas several serviceable WC 10s. Didn’t build team around strengths and weaknesses. Wales picked up cards against Iran and lost by two. Wales expended enormous amounts of energy in both games and all 23 field players for England would start for Wales. Even if England rotated all of their players they still would have had vastly superior players that would try their hardest as they would be auditioning for more playing time in subsequent rounds. Gregg may have had other reasons like concern for morale if they lost to England but I think he was too aggressive and thought they would win and then win the group getting an easier opponent in the round of 16 but I don’t think that was a good strategy if that was his strategy. He ran his team into the ground to get out of group play but we saw what happens when you do that in 2010. Hindsight again being 20/20, but the energy expended against England was essentially wasted. There are several other reasons why I don’t want Gregg back but this is already too long. I agree with you that I certainly don’t want Marsch either. He runs his teams into the ground also IMO. Cheers!!
Tele 57,
Possible is one thing.
Probable is another thing.
I thought in 2002, 2010 2014 winning the WC was possible for the USMNT but certainly not probable.
And that’s true for 2022, possible but not probable.
Things in 2026 should be a little more “probable” than in 2022 be because:
Home field
Hopefully more talent
A better manager .Either an improve Gregg or someone else who is not so stupid..
That’s the probability I see .
If you ask me if any of us will live to see the USMNT win a World Cup I’d say that’s improbable. That’s cause I think we need about 18 new players of much higher quality than what I see out there and that’s a big ask.
Winning the World Cup is really, really hard.Ask Brazil.
If you think Greg is the coach we need, you didn’t watch the WC. We had 2 goals in group play with zero true strikers picked for the team. No. This team could not beat everyone with all the luck in the world. We were also tanked against Iran. This team was not picked to be successful, Berhalter did not lead the team and fitness was atrocious. This was one of the most individually talented teams we have ever had and it was pathetic. Berhalter needs to be fired.
we need someone who will try new players and tactics and extract more from existing players. to me this one is tapped out. he started with his grand vision, passing 6, 433, possession, a particular set of older players. the story of the cycle, to me, was him “climbing down” towards reality. he finally accepted adams and shifted to a more traditional 6 concept. he finally integrated the guys who were stuck on U20 or U23 through the summer of 2019. at the world cup itself we finally began trying new things. i don’t see what the untapped value is in a coach whose “idea in his head” for this didn’t work and seems to be improvising — and the difference between games or even halves in qatar suggest what i will charitably call mixed results.
i also think a lot of the analytics-driven stuff we seem to try is crocked. trying to find the hot “club form” streak players didn’t pay off, and i’ve always seen that as more pertinent to scouting a noob to first-cap as opposed to pick a team to rely on for a key game or tournament — which i see prior NT performance as more predictive (if seemingly too obvious for some to consider). i also half wonder if the perseveration on pumping aimless crosses through the 6 — rather than wall balling into the 18 or taking shots from the edge of the box — is driven by analytics ideas of which sectors of the field are perceived as higher xG. i have heard GB mention related ideas — that certain segments of the field pose more statistical danger. like that they have literally broken the field down into a bunch of rectangles and run numbers. i am sure teams score a lot more often and with higher efficiency if they get a ball in the 6. it’s getting it there with any accuracy and utility that’s the hard part. if the idea is we hoof it there all day and play xG odds, the reality is we could rarely find anyone to feed, or overhit the crosses.
as a result, we were tied dead last with poland on GF among advancing teams from the groups at 2. both teams then went out round of 16 on identical 3-1 scores.
i think USSF has historically kept coaches who make it this far but we have also only once made it further. so perhaps change that. and my general belief on MLS (which i see applicable here) is that teams that stand pat on mediocre results risk being a freeway pattie. the world will move forward 4 years on tactics when i think we are already a dated copy of 2010-2015 era possession concepts. to the extent GB improved on selection he never did find a 9 and the coach will need to continue evolve the lineup — not just pat themselves on the back. i think we need more and newer. i don’t see this team reaching its potential this way.
if i was us — regardless who gets kept or hired — i would be asking for them to bring the confed cup back. i know some of that may have been qatar’s lack of preparation. i know there was club world cup talk they never followed through on. i think US/Canada/Mexico could easily handle hosting it — our bid wasn’t premised on building a bunch of new stadia — and should push to bring it back.
i’d also be asking for someone else to host the copa america we are rumored to be invited to. i think we are coddled by all the home tournaments and need more adversity.
also maybe put together a summer tournament or two. i think we need a regular drumbeat of summer “cut the crap” tests this cycle to make sure we have the right coaching, personnel, and tactics during a cycle we don’t have to qualify.
You know the USMNT manager doesn’t determine if there is a Confed Cup right? Chelsea won the Club World Cup that you claimed didn’t happen so there’s that I guess too.
Mr V and JR,
https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/what-happened-confederations-cup-world-cup-warm-up-cancelled/bltc39f7dc2393dfcc8
Want it back? That sort of thing doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
It probably won’t come back for the simple reason that the calendar is just too crowded now.
JR: i am fully aware confed cup was canceled. it was canceled in the context of qatar and its construction issues, though presented as a shift to club world cup. club world cup hasn’t actually been expanded and changed so i half wonder if that was sincere. i think the old version may have been canceled to avoid showing up qatar’s slow construction as much as anything. you then suggest teams might be opposed but don’t name any. or act like one team can’t force it, without seeing if anyone else is interested. run it up the flag pole and see who salutes.
example: my dynamo got ripped off for a bunch of academy age players in our area who went to dallas. richards, cappis, servania. no compensation. last year we signed raines. even though he had left RSL, MLS treated it as a territorial incursion and made us compensate them.
moral: squeaky wheel gets the grease. all our stadia are more or less finished. if we want confed cup and all 3 countries stepped up IMO we might get it back done, if at least one time. i think we could use something more intense than gold cup. or we can sit here passively and assume the worst, and hope we’re ready.
for people who talk like they want us to be the next big thing y’all just kind of do whatever they say and don’t really push this down the road very far.
Good for Gregg, go to clubs and continue learning. Please, I beg you Gregg ….go coach a club.
I agree, leaving now would be the smart move for Berhalter. Few coaches do better after 4 or 5 years than they did early on.
Connections between player and coach are important for success. As players get older or better players become available, that will necessarily strain the relation between first the older players, then the entire team. That strain will occur if the coach favors the older player (playing favorites is not generally well-accepted by the team as a whole) , or if he replaces him with a younger, better player (the players can see that as breaking trust and wonder if they might be next). It is not a situation that has an easy solution and very few coaches have walked the tightrope for more than 6 years for club or country.
you broke down the dynamic challenges really well, thank you, illuminating post
Dennis,
In other words, quit while you’re ahead
book i recently read suggested the issue is often stagnation that develops at this point. 4 years is a long time but many coaches at this point will get stubborn on tactics and personnel. as it is we had a few guys like booth and vazquez who didn’t get a world cup sniff on the “need experience to get a job” paradox. wouldn’t try them then argued they hadn’t been integrated.
to be fair about every US coach i can think of who got to cycle 2 did the same thing. klinsi’s team got real old on him and he badly wanted it still to work. and the only reason his tactics had worked was the patched midfield that got old. he never found a new idea and set of players beyond pulisic. one guy wasn’t enough. bradley lost the plot second cycle. though i might even connect the 2 and say bradley had a development hole open up — a bunch of adu type disasters — and klinsi only temporarily patched it with dual nationals before it popped on him 2018 cycle. arena let the 2006 team get real old. maybe it’s a loss of drive or objectivity after some degree of success.
Mr. V,
“to be fair about every US coach i can think of who got to cycle 2 did the same thing. klinsi’s team got real old on him ………. bradley lost the plot second cycle. though ”
That’s not fair.
Sunil , who was never a big Bob fan, wanted to fire Bob and replace him after the Ghana loss but didn’t probably because he hadn’t yet locked down JK to a contract. Once that got worked out and Bob had a stinker of a 2011 Gold Cup it was JK in and Bob out.
JK just pissed off too many people and as soon as he lost those two Hex openers and Mr. Safe hands conveniently had just resigned from the Galaxy, it was off to Couva with Bruce and Paul.
I believe the average lifespan of a top flight manager these days is about 3 seasons anyway.
Gregg did a good job given the circumstances. But he gave no indication that he is the one to take this team up another level.
After watching Croatia/Brazil and Argentina/ Netherlands I wondered if anyone seriously thinks Gregg and the guys could have kept up with any of those four teams in a game like we saw today.
I say Gregg and the guys because too much of the commentary we make ( myself included) here is about shit like we don’t have a 9 or enough depth or we lack the tactics or style or whatever other fancy shit you like go on
and about.
The truth is any style of play you want has to have a “real” team to carry it out.
We don’t have one. It would be nice if we did .
Gregg, after all that time managed to find the makings of a team and one basic style that worked pretty well.
But that’s all. And now the USSF thinks Captain Crew can take them to the next level, a level you just saw on display today. I guess we’re about to find out.
Whether Gregg is a limited and just got lucky, or the players are obtuse or Gregg just ran out of time ( which no national team manager has) a one trick pony will not go far in the World Cup.
At this stage of the World Cup one trick ponys get sent to the slaughterhouse .
Argentina had Holland down for the count and all of a sudden, Holland bring in some Pefok like guys, they start dropping crosses into the box and boom, the game is tied and Argentina looks like Grenada.
You don’t see that kind of adjustment from the USMNT.
By the way Wout Weghorst the guy who scored those 2 goals for Holland?He plays in Turkey, like Hadji does, while on loan from fricking Burnley.
Weghorst represents three things many here think are shit;
1. Strikers playing in Turkey
2. Strikers playing in the Championship
3. Players who are on loan.
the difference with Klinsmann is he sold ussoccer a 2 cycle plan…his whole MO was 2018, not 2014, and how he was the ONLY guy who could do it. He was given the keys to EVERYTHING…never done before and won’t happen again. So when the wheels came off and his dumpster fire exploded, it created the single biggest mess in ussoccer since returning to the World Cup. Comparing him to other US coaches not close to reasonable because not one of them sold a 2 cycle plan NOR were given keys to all of ussoccer. Jurgen Klinsmann and his snake oil promises, bought by the naive and desperate Sunil, is the single most destructive force ussoccer has seen. He’s like a crypto ponzi grifters
Mr. bum,
” He’s like a crypto ponzi grifters”
If so that explains why he pissed off so many at the USSF and MLS. It takes one to know one and he wasn’t one of “theirs”. Predators hate competition.
“Jurgen Klinsmann and his snake oil promises, bought by the naive and desperate Sunil, is the single most destructive force ussoccer has seen.”
Sunil is a lot of things but naive is not one of them. Arrogant? Corrupt? Yes . He lost out to Qatar for 2022.
But his bid also succeeded for 2026. What did he trade for that success?Alan Rothenberg brought the 1994 WC to the US. He made 7 million off of that deal. How much do you think Sunil is in line for in 2026?
For what he’s going to get I’m sure Sunil will let you call him anything you want all year long.
I have a slightly different take on JK than you do. JK is the best thing that I’ve seen happen to “ussoccer.”
He shook up what was clearly an old boys club and brought a lot of scrutiny and media attention to the USMNT. Previously you had only seen that with the USWNT.
And that was a great thing. JK certainly knew US soccer. He’s been living in and working out of SoCal since 1998. And he came in at a time when American players were increasingly heading overseas. He’s not responsible for it, it was happening anyway, but him being USMNT manager at that time was encouraging.
As for the USMNT on the field, the best thing he did was turn the team from “Landon and the USMNT” into “the USMNT”.
Ever since the 2002 World Cup LD was the USMNT talisman. I challenge you to find a single positive, consequential result achieved by the USMNT w/o Landon. I can’t think of one. Never happened.
JK recognized two things:
• There’s only one boss on the team
• Players eventually lose effectiveness as they get older.
Landon was a USMNT player not an LA Galaxy player. The USMNT was Landon’s team. MLS just kept LD fit for USMNT games. And as a USMNT fan I was very happy with that because it kept LD happy and an unhappy LD was a shit player.
But it wasn’t going to last forever. Eventually he was going to age out and then what?
There was no successor waiting in the wings. You see the problems with one man teams.
Portugal are having trouble moving on from CR7.
I hope Messi wins the WC because then he can retire gracefully and save everyone from an awkward transition.
Being cold blooded, ruthless and completely confident JK was the perfect guy to transition LD out, which needed to happen, sooner or later. Many of Landon’s fans, and I am one of them wish it could have happened after the 2014 World Cup so he could have had his fairy tale farewell tour, and it might have happened but then the Snow Bowl happened.
The Snow Bowl in Denver where Jermaine and Clint showed they could lead the USMNT to a very important qualifier win vs. Costa Rica (probably they exact same guys who just played in Qatar}.
The point was the team led by the manager proved they could do something w/o LD playing.
So by the time LD got back into the Qualifying picture the team was well on it’s way to qualifying and they wound up finishing first in the Hex. That gave JK just enough reason to think the team would be okay without Landon in Brazil. Despite all the talk about Green, Davis or Wondo, no one player replaced LD in Brazil.
W/o LD (and then Jozy) around the team was forced to rise to the occasion. And they did.
You’ll notice that Gregg, not my favorite manager, nevertheless understands the pitfalls of having to rely so heavily on one player ( see Reyna, Gio and Pulisic, C ) and clearly works to emphasize the whole team.
The USSF is still an old boys club but since JK’s tenure it seems to be a little less so. And that‘s a good thing.
Mr V, I appreciate your thoughtful reply.
Re. LD, Klinsmann invited him back pre World Cup for GC where LD played awesome, then JK clipped him anyway using JK’s well-known now self-destructive ego to do it, best decisions for the team aside it (Brad Davis, Julian Green, etc.) and ruined the locker room in the end anyway lol
with re. to Sunil, everything you said and naive as eff…he too believed that JK was messiah and revolution was on. he was wrong but believed it for sure
the best thing JK did was get respect in the region from officials while he was coaching
we do see it dfferent. He broad stroked ALL ussoccer as problem when in fact his ego was unable to hear things besides himself…Martin Vasquez, a great coach sure, but not a challenging sort to JK’s voice. The dictator ruler failed like they typically do, same way…….
he himself was his own ussocer problem…selling solutions while burning all down because that’s what he wanted to be called, what you still want to see apparently…and instead 2018 was the worst failure for ussoccer since returning to the World Cup
thank goodness for MLS, Academies, and all the rest who have actually impacted the EVOLUTION of ussoccer to today’s spot in spite of the pitiful state left behind by the fake master revolutionist. He and Sunil got the timing wrong! the ‘throw out all before’ was exactly like how he treated LD after inviting him back, weak, revealing, and disgraceful.
of course he threw all out when given the keys, he was afraid of any challenging voice, like all tyrants
re. GB…it’s not like I cannot see what you see, and you see well and I appreciate your posts even when we disagree.
I simply respect his results, how he evolved the team successfully through the cycle in the end with the 2nd youngest group at the World Cup, how much the group says they love playing for him (which I think shows)
but I’d also like to see, at this point, for things to keep evolving and for me at some point soone enough another voice to lead. At least that voice will receive a locker room in much better shape than GB did
respectfully
When JK took over, he at first pretty much excluded Michael Bradley from the team. It took some games where the US looked poor before he brought him back. Bradley had a very good WC in 2010 and while he maybe did not star, he was a very important piece of the team in 2014. JK, I think, saw that some of the 2014 team would or should not be part of the 2018 team and he thrashed about trying to find replacements. I think that some of the players whom JK wanted to replace knew that, but it turned out JK was unable to find adequate replacements and he had to go back to the veterans. By then, his relationship with some of them deteriorated badly; he was not able to repair that, he had dropped Landon from the 2014 team and made public disparaging remarks about Landon, that laid the background of mistrust niggling at the players.
That history and JK’s frequent public criticism of players did nothing to repair the relationships needed to successfully lead a team. JK was doomed by his own actions as much as by an aging talent pool.
Mr. bum,
By the way just about everyone (JK, LD, Sunil,Gregg, etc., etc. ) we’re discussing, has a huge raging ego. It’s necessary for success at this level. Some are come across better than others.
Funny you should bring up the 2013 Gold Cup
Going into it I felt that it was important that LD really have a beyond outstanding Gold Cup. I saw it as his best chance to impress the new guy.
You talk about dictator, which of course, all managers, esp. international managers are. It’s not a democracy. Belichek , Popovich, all those guys are not running a democracy.
But leave the hyperbole out of it.
This was about an employee, who had publicly questioned whether he even wanted to continue working there anymore, coming back and trying to re-impress the new boss. And in JK’s case he was the new boss.
If, in his absence, the company had gone to hell , well, sure you “welcome” them back.
But if everything has been going well and the team has moved on, then maybe you’re not so interested.
I’ve been that boss so I know how JK felt.
I think JK wanted LD to realize that everyone was supposed to make a case for their inclusion even LD. Maybe he told Landon that directly. If so LD didn’t take him seriously. I saw LD doing what he always did. lobbying in the media and being surprised that it wasn’t enough for JK.
But to be fair to LD it had been years since he had had to fight for his place. Years. He didn’t know how to do what most of us know how to do very well. How to suck up to your new boss. He’s LD and sucked up to no one.
Nothing happens in isolation.
Other vets like Clint and DMB knew what a new sheriff in town meant. It meant trying to win a job. And both guys knew all about that. And LD did not. I don’t care what LD said, he was entitled and he never understood how JK could have a USMNT without Landon.
Clint did not have the greatest transition back to MLS. So, he went back to Fulham on loan to get in reps and improve his fitness. It wasn’t a statistical success per se, but it really showed JK that Clint was willing to do anything impress him.
DMB was asked by JK to play left back and famously said that it took him 10 seconds to say he would do whatever he was asked. This despite the fact that he hated the idea. But he knew that it was his only shot. DMB went through a period in Germany at Hannover and didn’t play much.
There’s a very nice interview on You Tube about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDBnQIWq9vs
The point is I believe if JK thought LD would have helped more than hurt in Brazil he would have brought him. I have zero doubt about that. JK played and managed in Germany where players and managers often truly despise each other, and they win together anyway. It’s all about winning for JK. Nothing else.
It certainly would have politically been much easier for JK to pick LD but he didn’t. And JK certainly knew he was going to make a lot of powerful enemies because LD was and is a God in the USSF. Always was and still is. Deservedly so I might add.
I literally watched every minute LD was on the field and when the Gold Cup ended I was very depressed. It was clear that LD did his usual okay for the Gold Cup but not enough to put doubts to rest performance. He gave a solid measured performance against very weak opposition. Absolutely nothing to write home about and for me he looked slow and fat. He scored 5 goals. He should have scored 10.
Belize (pen)
Cuba (pen)
El Salvador
Honduras 2
You know who else scored 5 goals? Wondo, Belize 3, Cuba 2. Scoring is always better than not scoring but, as we see with Ferreira, the quality of the opposition has to be considered.
Others point out how LD, after he was cut, tore up MLS.
That makes my point or me. The time to impress the person doing the hiring is before he hires someone else, not after you get the note that says they are moving in another direction. And tearing up MLS? That’s what LD is supposed to do.
For me it boils down to JK knowing LD pretty well. He brought Landon to Bayern Munich, in spite of a lot of internal criticism. Do you think he would have taken that risk if he didn’t have a real high regard for LD’s talent and skill? This was Bayern fucking Munich, FC Hollywood a team full of divas. You’ve read the tell all books by all the know it alls.
Landon was poorly received by the staff and the players, did not play all that well and left earlier than he had to. LD’s no fool and he saw right away that Bayern was not a great spot for him, so he saw no point in being where he did not want to be. I think JK could be forgiven for thinking that LD had a little bit of quit in him, even if it was JK who maybe made the wrong move in bringing LD in. in the first place.
I won’t say LD got JK fired at Bayern but it did not help. And of course, LD was not available for JK early in his USMNT tenure and did not come back until, really, he wasn’t needed anymore.
That’s why I was worried about LD’s Gold Cup performance because if I had been in JK’s shoes I would be thinking that maybe this guy wasn’t really reliable when it hit the fan.
I don’t know JK. Based on everything, I’ve seen as a manager he’s cold blooded, ruthless and has very high expectations. He obviously has a very clear understanding of tactics, his critics notwithstanding. But he’s also impatient and isn’t really interested in the nuts and bolts. JK is the motivator guy. He wants to leave that grunt work to the Jogi’s of the world. And he is actually a tournament guy, not a league guy which is another expression of his impatience. He’s an elitist. He saw the Gold Cup like I do , as glorified practice vs the JV teams. Arrogant and it costs him. But he understands talent.
“I simply respect his results, how he evolved the team successfully through the cycle in the end with the 2nd youngest group at the World Cup, how much the group says they love playing for him (which I think shows)”
JK got the same results as Gregg. JK brought three unknown kids to Brazil, Green, Yedlin and Brooks. All succeeded in various degrees
They did not necessarily follow it up with ongoing USMNT success but that’s irrelevant.
One, you build a roster for that World Cup not the next one. Four years is a long time. Who knows what happens to the roster four years later.
Two, we don’t know how the 2022 26 will do going forward. They could flame out. They could be a rousing success.
If he had to do it over again I’m sure JK would have brought LD to Brazil and Gio Reyna-ed him.
Don’t think for minute that GB didn’t learn something from JK.