USMNT | World Cup Discussion Thread

MarylandMUFan said:
Hey fellow Yanks. Guess who is out of the tournament watching the USMNT still play? Mexico, Belgium, Germany (oh and Italy).
Kind of nice after missing out last year.

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JFC, I read your second sentence, saw the picture, and my brain connected them and short circuited. feck off yah bastard. :lol:
 
The US has been decent from what I've seen, although lacking in urgency in the second half of the games. Just keep Wright on the bench and they have a chance against the dutch.
 
Mickson said:
The US has been decent from what I've seen, although lacking in urgency in the second half of the games. Just keep Wright on the bench and they have a chance against the dutch.
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It's the second half tactics. Berhalter handcuffs this team. Doesn't trust them to play.
 
simonhch said:
The midfield is decent. But even when they dominate, they barely create any real chances. Just huff and puff. Yes I’ve “only” viewed 2.5 of the 3 games they’ve played. Thought they were decent in 2 of the 5 havles I saw then play but thought they were Poot for the second half vs Wales, okay in the first half vs England and poor in the 2nd half vs Iran. Even in the one game, vs England, where they played their best 90 minutes and ran their little socks off, they created about one decent chance. Anyway, my point was that they are good or poor, they’ve done well to qualify through the group, it was that I’ve so far found them boring to watch, much like the Netherlands and hence think it’ll be a stinker of a game. I stand by that. Likely a game of very few chances. Lots of running from the Americans, without much quality, and lots of passing without threat from the Dutch.
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As an Englishman in the US I agree with much of this, US was poor in the second half against Wales, they should have won that game comfortably, didn't see the Iran game, against England they were the better side but didn't really cause many problems, also, if they had scored England would have just upped their game, England are a very good team when the don't sit back. I think the Dutch will have too much for them, but the US will give a good account of them sleves
 
Pulisic has a great chance to score 2 minutes into the match but a good save from the keeper......Dutch come down and Depay buries the cut back to take the 1-0 lead

we got cut open on that counter as the CB's allowed Depay to receive without pressure and Adams actually got caught not tracking Depay when Klasson made the CF run to pull out Ream
 
Not bringing Pepi is going to do us in. Fereira does not fit this team.
 
At this rate with crosses and passes into the box where a true 9 or taller forward would get to them more often than not, perhaps GB should just toss Zimmerman up front as a battering ram, sub out Ferreira for a more mobile defender to go in the back. Guys like Morris and Wright aren't gonna do it.
 
Reyna needs to come on for McKinnie. Then work the right side with Dest and Weah and over run Ake and Blind seems to be the best chance we have.

Need to play faster out of the back and the CB's have to start hitting accurate passes.
 
They've had a decent tournament, should be better in the next one.
 
2mufc0 said:
They've had a decent tournament, should be better in the next one.
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Yeah, and hopefully with a coach that will let them play. Although I expect Berhalter to stick around now, unfortunately.
 
Berhalter’s love affair with Fereira is killing us. The tactics he has employed in every game this WC are a horrible fit for his “skill set” and we are seeing today that the MLS skill level is miles below international football. How he left Pepi at home but brought 4 right backs and Jordan fecking Morris is beyond my ability to imagine.
 
Anybody else just clock Roldon warming up? I swear to god if he comes on…
 
Any team set up the maximise the talent of Christian Pulisic is going f'n nowhere.

I may be biased, because I remember his Dad running the full length of a pitch for Milan and scoring, but I can't believe Weah went off and Pulisic stayed on. Pulisic was nowhere near the danger Weah was. Bizarre.
 
#07 said:
Any team set up the maximise the talent of Christian Pulisic is going f'n nowhere.

I may be biased, because I remember his Dad running the full length of a pitch for Milan and scoring, but I can't believe Weah went off and Pulisic stayed on. Pulisic was nowhere near the danger Weah was. Bizarre.
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Both should've stayed on. Greg just doesn't know how to maximize his players. Reyna has always been used either incorrectly or not at all. At some point you have to realize the mma midfield can't create a lot and get reyna central and go more 4231
 
I thought aside from set pieces Pulisic was fine tbh. Was trying to make things happen between the lines and set up the goal. First half he put two excellent crosses in, Ake headed well away for the first and second just skimmed across the six yard box so that's where lack of killer CF was apparent in those moves.

Berhalter did o.k but he is simply too welded to endless MLS players, Aaronson really should've started as the false 9 today.

It would be mistake to give him 2026 imo. Said it elsewhere but think you could do worse than Bielsa as your squad has the skillset he loves and he'd have a full three years to get it up to World cup QF standard with endless friendlies to experiment.
 
Gregg needs to gggo, but I fear that making the knockouts is enough for him and his tumescent football to hang around.
 
I expected them to trouble this dutch side more. That was a poor way to bow out.
 
Some thoughts:

1. Berhalter: For as much credit as I gave him for England, he gets an equal amount of blame for this. His ego, and wanting to seem oh so clever has cost us.
- Not bringing Pepi turned out to be a disaster, especially when Sargent went down
- Bringing 4 right backs and only 3 strikers (if you can even consider Fereira a striker)
- Starting Fereira
- Whatever the hell is going on with him and Reyna
- Returning Zimmerman to the starting role when everyone knew the Duch were going to counter and the pacier, and better passing, CCV was a better option.
- Getting absolutely owned by LvG tonight. We had no plan for their wingbacks.

2. Fereira: This is what happens when you play an out of season MLS guy, who doesn't even fit your system or really even play forward, as your forward. And he was 2X worse than that,

3. Pulisic: Love the guy for all he has done, but he had two moments today (the first few minute sitter and the overhit pass to Wright) that cost the US 2 goals.

4. Musah: Thought he looked gassed in the first half but man he pulled a great second half from somewhere.

5. CB's: Ugh.... man we need Richards to get healthy and get some actual playing time. I have no idea what EPB needs to do to get an actual call up.

6. Dest: My fear was he would get in his own head and try to dribble though everyone...fears confirmed.

7. feck off Berhalter and US Soccer that are preparing his extension as we speak.
 
Seargents hold up play would've been huge.

But a good springboard for 2026 as all their players are very young.

Two things stuck out
- Learn to play short corners as Pulisic has about 50 corners in the tournament and not one threatened.

- The coaching has to tell the attackers to play it to the overlapping player. USA had around 7 shots from outside the box that went nowhere. It's just poor coaching if you do that, Guardiola would have a fit if that was City. When they went down the outside, they got the goal.
 
Getting out of the group was a good accomplishment and if they won a knockout game, it would have been a total overachievement.

Understanding that the team is young and the core should continue to improve and mature, the lack of goal threat and creativity through the middle, with a need for better CBs is vital.

Then the manager is the other dilemma. Berhalter is arguably one of the worst and ineffective managers after the group stage and will continue to be so.

With the WC expanding to 48 teams in 4 years, getting out of the group is a must and winning a knockout game is a must as well. Anything less is a total failure as the host nation/region.
 
I don't actually think Reyna was that good when he came on. Think you should've just gone with front 3 of Pulisic-Aaronson-Weah tbh but easier to say now.
 
edcunited1878 said:
Getting out of the group was a good accomplishment and if they won a knockout game, it would have been a total overachievement.

Understanding that the team is young and the core should continue to improve and mature, the lack of goal threat and creativity through the middle, with a need for better CBs is vital.

Then the manager is the other dilemma. Berhalter is arguably one of the worst and ineffective managers after the group stage and will continue to be so.

With the WC expanding to 48 teams in 4 years, getting out of the group is a must and winning a knockout game is a must as well. Anything less is a total failure as the host nation/region.
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You should be aiming for QFs imo, SF not impossible given it's a home world cup so you'll get a better seeding than usual if we go by the usual criteria of hosts being in top 1.
 
Reyna had already been mentally destroyed by lack of minutes, all the stuff in the press. The coach lying about his fitness (apparently). Asking a lot to stick him in the freezer, then pull him out in desperation and expect a ton.

Burkhalter is out of his depth.

I would have gone with Carter-Vickers again, especially with pace an issue.

Getting through the group stage is already a lot for this team. Netherlands a fair step ahead of us in class, especially in certain areas.
 
MarylandMUFan said:
Reyna, and our speed in general are muted when the entire Dutch team parks the bus. We just don't have an answer for that style of play (especially with our lack of size).
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The answer is to play patiently and pass around not through, making sure you defend as a team and know where the runners are coming from.

Berhalter just did the same shit as the other matches and it was so predictable. Seeing Ream and Zimmerman having to hold their own early on against Memphis and Gakpo was terrifying....and those 2 aren't elite, tactically just a total mismatch to begin with.
 
Given the brackets and the poor level Netherlands had shown against Ecuador, I thought the US would have many chances of even reaching Semifinals.

As Mexican, I give credit to the US. Physically they have interesting players and think they have resourceful players... Sadly for them, I think they have shown also that they are unbalanced, specially in 2 fronts: No CF and no CBs.

I don't fancy the Netherlands to be astonishing, but they cover each of their playing positions with Key Players. I think that was the difference today.
 
Too naive in the end, but a decent tournament from a young group. I don’t see any world class level talent in there tbh, but I expect them to be really solid in 4 years time.
 
Charrockero said:
Given the brackets and the poor level Netherlands had shown against Ecuador, I thought the US would have many chances of even reaching Semifinals.

As Mexican, I give credit to the US. Physically they have interesting players and think they have resourceful players... Sadly for them, I think they have shown also that they are unbalanced, specially in 2 fronts: No CF and no CBs.

I don't fancy the Netherlands to be astonishing, but they cover each of their playing positions with Key Players. I think that was the difference today.
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Ecuador have an actual scoring forward in E. Valencia and a competent creative central player like Platta. US has neither of those, thus they struggled up top again against a superior backline.

The quickness and agility of the forward players for US cause some problems, but without enough space or time, they don't have creativity or clinical players to threaten consistently in knockout matches.
 
I thought the US put in a decent enough performance. In the end, the Netherlands were just more creative / clinical in the final thirds. Which was to be expected.

It was a frustrating watch as there were a number of moments where the final ball or finish let US down again. Whereas the Netherlands took pretty much all of their big chances (apart from the Turner double save).

Sargent being injured, and Pepi not being selected, obviously didn't help in terms of the final third. But no guarantee they'd have been any more clinical as they're not prolific or proven at the top level either.

There's definitely a decent team taking shape. Though squad depth is an obvious issue, and a clinical #9, and pace at centre back, needs addressing if good enough options can be found.
 
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