US Men's National Team Discussion

WI_Red said:
To your second point it does lose it's "uniqueness" if you begin playing in a tournament outside your region. If Germany suddenly moved to COMNEBOL and was playing Brazil every year or so wouldn't that make a potential Brazil/Germany WC final lose some of it's novelty? Sure, you would still be excited, but the matchup would not be as mysterious as you likely would have played Brazil 2-3 times in the preceding 12 months. Similar to club football and the champions league.
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I don't really think it makes a huge difference. A knockout match against a big nation is always special (unless they play like England) and everyone else is just a team you have to beat, it doesn't really matter where they come from. Familiarity creates its own narratives anyway, be it a rivalry, some result/misbehavior that needs to be "avenged" or some streak that needs to be defended. And I'd much rather play the top sides regularly than once or twice every four years.


As for the first point, I think invitations to individual tournaments is fine, just like the US in Copa America a few years ago. It would help with the preparations, especially since the top 3 teams in CONCACAF will not need to qualify for 26. For the long term though I would prefer to stay in CONCACAF and participate in a region that improving yearly. Canada was fantastic and has some real up and coming stars. Likewise, Jamaica, if they can get their shit together, has a great chance to become a solid team.
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Well I didn't express it properly but what I thought of in my mind was the USMNT doing this as a 2026 preparation and then evaluating how it went afterwards.

And I think CONCACAF improving to a reasonable level is a bit of a pipe dream, the football world only ever seems to become more polarized.
 
Feel kind of similar with England. Would be disapointed to not get out of the group but after that anything can happen depending on the opponent. Southgates safety first approach makes England harder to beat. Hard to call how the group will pan out as I don`t know much about USA or Iran, looking forward to it though.
 
do.ob said:
I don't really think it makes a huge difference. A knockout match against a big nation is always special (unless they play like England) and everyone else is just a team you have to beat, it doesn't really matter where they come from. Familiarity creates its own narratives anyway, be it a rivalry, some result/misbehavior that needs to be "avenged" or some streak that needs to be defended. And I'd much rather play the top sides regularly than once or twice every four years.




Well I didn't express it properly but what I thought of in my mind was the USMNT doing this as a 2026 preparation and then evaluating how it went afterwards.

And I think CONCACAF improving to a reasonable level is a bit of a pipe dream, the football world only ever seems to become more polarized.
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I don't think it's a pipe dream, all you need to do is look at the level of players that the region is producing compared to years past.

Canada: Davies is the best player in the region at 21 and on track to be a world star and David and Larin probably the 2 best strikers in the region.
USA: Reyna and Pulisic are likely the best players we have ever had (up there with Donovan and Dempsey), but beyond that there are actual high end (for us) options all across the midfield and front line. Are we at the level of the top European and South American sides? No, of course not, but the level of talent in the player pool is light years ahead of where it has ever been.
Mexico: Not as much elite talent as in years past, but still really good.

These are the 3 best teams in the region and at least 2 of them or on an upward trajectory with teams full of guys under 23 years old. Mexico will find its legs, it always does. To say the region is not improving is to ignore the evidence in front of you. We will see in a few months if this holds true and at least 2 of those teams progress.
 
WI_Red said:
I don't think it's a pipe dream, all you need to do is look at the level of players that the region is producing compared to years past.

Canada: Davies is the best player in the region at 21 and on track to be a world star and David and Larin probably the 2 best strikers in the region.
USA: Reyna and Pulisic are likely the best players we have ever had (up there with Donovan and Dempsey), but beyond that there are actual high end (for us) options all across the midfield and front line. Are we at the level of the top European and South American sides? No, of course not, but the level of talent in the player pool is light years ahead of where it has ever been.
Mexico: Not as much elite talent as in years past, but still really good.

These are the 3 best teams in the region and at least 2 of them or on an upward trajectory with teams full of guys under 23 years old. Mexico will find its legs, it always does. To say the region is not improving is to ignore the evidence in front of you. We will see in a few months if this holds true and at least 2 of those teams progress.
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I'm not saying that these teams aren't improving, I'm saying that everyone else is improving too and in general every country has cyclical developments or lucky breakth throughs over the short to mid term, but what matters long term are money and infrastructure. The US may have a chance at sustained long term growth that outpaces other nations if MLS makes the right steps and via the untapped potential that comes with the country's size. But I find it much harder to see that for others teams in the region.
 
In terms of CONCACAF, I’d love to see another 16 team Copa América event with all 10 CONMEBOL members plus the top 6 (though I’m not sure how exactly that would be determined apart from basing it on World Cup qualification results) CONCACAF teams.

It would be a shame if the Centenario event in 2016 was a one-off. It was considerably more enjoyable that the snoozefest that was Euro 2016 during that same summer. Plus the 16 team format was perfect. It was far more enjoyable than most of the imbalanced and overly forgiving 10 or 12 team editions with 8 teams reaching the quarter-finals.
 
GuybrushThreepwood said:
In terms of CONCACAF, I’d love to see another 16 team Copa América event with all 10 CONMEBOL members plus the top 6 (though I’m not sure how exactly that would be determined apart from basing it on World Cup qualification results) CONCACAF teams.

It would be a shame if the Centenario event in 2016 was a one-off. It was considerably more enjoyable that the snoozefest that was Euro 2016 during that same summer. Plus the 16 team format was perfect. It was far more enjoyable than most of the imbalanced and overly forgiving 10 or 12 team editions with 8 teams reaching the quarter-finals.
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I really enjoyed the Centenario as well. The 6 CONCACAF teams were US, Mexico, Panama, CR, Jamaica, and Haiti. You could swap out Canada for Haiti and that would be a consensus current top 6 I think. I would love to see this again.
 
GuybrushThreepwood said:
In terms of CONCACAF, I’d love to see another 16 team Copa América event with all 10 CONMEBOL members plus the top 6 (though I’m not sure how exactly that would be determined apart from basing it on World Cup qualification results) CONCACAF teams.
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Gold Cup and Nations League... all are tournament points for FIFA rankings. Essentially, it's the same tournament, three times, over and over again. Except the World Cup qualifiers get you to the World Cup finals, where the other two tournaments just get you a trophy.
 
Getting back to actual play on the field, I really, really hope the federation holds off on giving GB a new contract until after the world cup. Their MO is to do the opposite, but it would be stupid to do so. I will be honest and say that my opinion of him has improved slightly, but I don't think he can be forgiven for the absolute shit show he made of early qualifying. His continued scapegoating of Brooks and love affair with Steffen are problematic, and his substitution usage is Ole-esque.
 
adexkola said:
Also, why does it seem like every home game has to be played in the rust belt or Tornado Alley? Has a game ever been hosted in Portland or Seattle (2 soccer crazy cities)? Or the NE corridor?

I get the concerns about large away crowds but surely that can be mitigated somehow.
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There have been games played in the Northwest just not often.

https://www.timbers.com/news/throwb...team-has-played-portland-four-different-occas

https://www.sounderatheart.com/2021...cer-snubbing-seattle-for-world-cup-qualifiers
https://seattle.sbnation.com/puget-sounds/2012/12/17/3778654/sounders-usmnt-qualifying-seattle
 
djembatheking said:
Whats the expectancy of USA fans for the World Cup ?
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I would be happy with quarterfinals. Anything more than that exceeds. We have enough players that can compete at that level, but not an entire squad. We will always be shorted with the manager we have. In the game last night you could see that Uruguay had a plan to attack us, it broke down in the final third, but it created a clear attack on the right. We had nothing but get the ball near the box and hope for individual brilliance to score. Gregg is not elevating this team, a group of individuals are making him look better at his job than he really is.
 
Grenada goalkeeper is a menace. He is recklessly coming after any ball and has wiped out 2 players and one of his own so far. Dude needs to calm down.
 
3 really good finishes by Ferreira, good to see him bag a few as the other parts of his game are already very good, the finishing was the biggest question mark.
 
sport2793 said:
3 really good finishes by Ferreira, good to see him bag a few as the other parts of his game are already very good, the finishing was the biggest question mark.
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I mean you can only play who is in front of you, but Grenada were awful. That being said the finishes were good. LDT was the standout player for me. His acceleration on the ball is a real surprise each time I see it.
 
There were times Ferreira was just jogging past the defense. Glad Ferreira had a break out scoring, it will help him. Not much to judge, better deeper team wins, no injuries.
 
WI_Red said:
I mean you can only play who is in front of you, but Grenada were awful. That being said the finishes were good. LDT was the standout player for me. His acceleration on the ball is a real surprise each time I see it.
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Ya LDT looked far better than I ever thought he would. Would be surprised if he couldn't at least get a squad spot in a first division side anywhere in Europe this coming season, seems a tidy player at minimum.
 
The ref allowing this match to go ahead on this pitch is a joke. I love the huge rows tackles leave in the pitch.
 
The guy I feel bad for is Wright. Fereira got his chance against Grenada on a pristine field while Wright gets a mud wrestling pit.
 
The goalkeepers are going to be in ankle deep mud by the end of this. Middle school pitches are better than this.
 
I don’t fault federations for bad pitches due to weather, but apparently this pitch was in bad shape a few weeks ago and since then there have been multiple concerts. That is something that is controllable and should be punished.
 
WI_Red said:
I don’t fault federations for bad pitches due to weather, but apparently this pitch was in bad shape a few weeks ago and since then there have been multiple concerts. That is something that is controllable and should be punished.
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You think this FIFA/CONCACAF development money goes toward supporting soccer in CONCACAF? :wenger:
 
Rooted, and horrible positioning. This definitely has that CONCACAF funk to it.
 
Between the pitch, conditions, and El Salvador kicking the shit out of the US with no repercussions I would get Pulisic, Adams, Weah, Aaronson, and Mussah off now. Robinson too, screw the sub limit.
 
MrMarcello said:
Mussah had a teammate wide open to his left and shoots straight at the keeper's leg.
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Don’t blame the shot, but it was a poor one. That being said he made that chance, his acceleration out of the midfield is a weapon.
 
Straight red after all the hacking we have recieved. He did keep his leg up though
 
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