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OT: USA vs. Columbia

Much better 2nd half with the great goal by Weah and better passing on offense, but two terrible defensive giveaways could've resulted in 2 goals by Columbia if not for the post on one and a great save by Turner on the other.
 
Spoke too soon - two more terrible giveaways lead to two more goals by Colombia. If we give the ball away like this under pressure in the "real" games, we're going to get shredded.
 
If I'm reading this right GB has 3 wins ever against European or South American teams. Ecuador 5 years ago (how could we forget this 'winner' ), Northern Ireland (weakened squad at that), and Bosnia (ditto).

But he does have an awful lot of wins against tiny countries in this hemisphere though. Which is something I guess.
 
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One thing you can count on is that people will say for decades on end that US Men’s Soccer is on the precipice and then they just flat out suck as they have forever.

It’s like Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown. Soccer marks never learn.
 
Their talent gets better but so does the worlds. Never making real headway.

Americans don’t typically do well with foreign coaches. There are some examples otherwise but it’s generally true. That said I think it’s time to bring in a Euro and implement their systems from the ground up.
 
Spoke too soon - two more terrible giveaways lead to two more goals by Colombia. If we give the ball away like this under pressure in the "real" games, we're going to get shredded.
It sure got ugly quickly...
 
It had to be a rough night for USA fans in attendance.
 
Berhalter sucks. Have wondered how much of us keeping him was due to the women’s contract ensuring the same $ to the USWNT coach making the economics of hiring a Ponch. level men’s coach impossible.
 
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Berhalter sucks. Have wondered how much of us keeping him was due to the women’s contract ensuring the same $ to the USWNT coach making the economics of hiring a Ponch. level men’s coach impossible.
"Berhalter fielded a strong XI, which according to Opta, marked the first time that all USMNT starters were current club players in Europe's top five leagues."

Plus he had Tillman and Musah on the bench. IMO he's done less with more than any predecessor. Only keeper is an obvious step down from prior teams/regimes. Turner is not a guy you can start in a Cup.
 
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Watching the game now. First two goals by Colombia were due to atrocious individual and team defending in the box. US doing okay in possession, and have sped up the ball movement some, which is good. Maybe too impatient in the attack, trying to force things which happens being two goals down.
 
37 minutes in and the inability for our defenders to make incisive entry passes clearly remains a critical weakness for the team. The difference between Colombia’s back line and ours in this regard is stark.

I wonder if moving Weah to D could help with this. Right now, our back 4 is a liability in the attack.
 
I turned it off at 3-1. Didn’t realize until this morning that it ended at 5-1. Man this team is disorganized and plays with very little fundamental awareness.

Coach is a disaster! Tell me again why he was rehired?
 
Did the US have all their normal starters or were normal starters missing ? If they had all their starters that is down right brutal result
 
The team had a bad game, especially at the back. But it was a meaningless friendly. I think people are overreacting.
See I feel I am reacting like at a near perfect level. Not too hot, not too cold. And I provided a link to an actual Zardes goal. That has to count for some extra credit no?
 
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The team had a bad game, especially at the back. But it was a meaningless friendly. I think people are overreacting.
Funny because most of the soccer reporting world doesn’t think it’s meaningless. And more of a sign and a need for a philosophy shift or a need for a wake up call.



 
Funny because most of the soccer reporting world doesn’t think it’s meaningless. And more of a sign and a need for a philosophy shift or a need for a wake up call.



The soccer reporting world, like the rest of the reporting world, benefits from overreacting and hyping stuff up. I pay no attention to it (for soccer or anything else).

Let's see how the Brazil game goes. But even then, it's a meaningless game and, if I were the coach, I'd be using these games to tinker, to experiment some. Defensively, we need to be a lot better but don't appear to have the personnel. So I might try Weah at the back. I think Reyna is better for the team as a midfielder in the attack, but is somewhat of a liability defending. So I might try play 4 4 2 w/Reyna as an attacking, roaming central mid.

It looked to me like the coaching staff were experimenting a bit in this game, although it's impossible to know how much. I would be surprised to not see a different starting lineup for the next game, and lots of subs to experiment even further (not necessarily the stuff I mentioned above).

The priority is the Copa tournament and it's only then I'll start judging the team.
 
See I feel I am reacting like at a near perfect level. Not too hot, not too cold. And I provided a link to an actual Zardes goal. That has to count for some extra credit no?
But of course. 🙂
 
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The soccer reporting world, like the rest of the reporting world, benefits from overreacting and hyping stuff up. I pay no attention to it (for soccer or anything else).

Let's see how the Brazil game goes. But even then, it's a meaningless game and, if I were the coach, I'd be using these games to tinker, to experiment some. Defensively, we need to be a lot better but don't appear to have the personnel. So I might try Weah at the back. I think Reyna is better for the team as a midfielder in the attack, but is somewhat of a liability defending. So I might try play 4 4 2 w/Reyna as an attacking, roaming central mid.

It looked to me like the coaching staff were experimenting a bit in this game, although it's impossible to know how much. I would be surprised to not see a different starting lineup for the next game, and lots of subs to experiment even further (not necessarily the stuff I mentioned above).

The priority is the Copa tournament and it's only then I'll start judging the team.
Yea and Copa starts in 2 weeks. You want your team to be clicking at this point. Not looking like a disorganized mess. Time to tinker has passed.

We will see
 
The soccer reporting world, like the rest of the reporting world, benefits from overreacting and hyping stuff up. I pay no attention to it (for soccer or anything else).

Let's see how the Brazil game goes. But even then, it's a meaningless game and, if I were the coach, I'd be using these games to tinker, to experiment some. Defensively, we need to be a lot better but don't appear to have the personnel. So I might try Weah at the back. I think Reyna is better for the team as a midfielder in the attack, but is somewhat of a liability defending. So I might try play 4 4 2 w/Reyna as an attacking, roaming central mid.

It looked to me like the coaching staff were experimenting a bit in this game, although it's impossible to know how much. I would be surprised to not see a different starting lineup for the next game, and lots of subs to experiment even further (not necessarily the stuff I mentioned above).

The priority is the Copa tournament and it's only then I'll start judging the team.
I'm not sure if anybody else notices this stuff, but the clickbait nature of soccer articles on ESPN particularly are worse than any other sport IMO. A headline will be something like "Ten Hag on being "convinced' he will stay at United." And then the actual quote will be something like "I'm neither convinced nor not convinced I will stay."
 
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One thing you can count on is that people will say for decades on end that US Men’s Soccer is on the precipice and then they just flat out suck as they have forever.

It’s like Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown. Soccer marks never learn.
Ha this is so true
 
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Yea and Copa starts in 2 weeks. You want your team to be clicking at this point. Not looking like a disorganized mess. Time to tinker has passed.

We will see
It’s easy to say that the time to tinker has past. But it never passes until in a match that counts, unless there are no personnel problems. And, unfortunately, this team has some critical weaknesses, on D in particular. Also, figuring out how to let Reyna attack and have less responsibility on defense is an ongoing problem. So the tinkering must continue.

I’d hoped that the team would locate more tall, fast, strong defenders with more capability to create in the attack than the current starters. But that doesn’t seem to have materialized yet. This is probably the biggest problem for the team, at the moment. And, for whatever reason, A Robinson has had a couple really awful games recently.

Anyway, I see people bashing GB, and for sure the coach is responsible for game results. But GB didn’t tell A Rob to touch the ball to a Colombian player inside the box. And GB didn’t tell Reyna to react like he was under water, allowing that Colombian player to essentially get a free shot on goal. And GB didn’t fail to mark the player who scored on a bicycle kick.

After those two goals, it was gonna be extremely hard to come back against a team of Colombia’s quality. Especially when sitting one the team’s most prolific attacking players to rest him in the second half. Attacking too aggressively, with a suspect back 4, was always a risky proposition. But there was no other choice.
 
I'm not sure if anybody else notices this stuff, but the clickbait nature of soccer articles on ESPN particularly are worse than any other sport IMO. A headline will be something like "Ten Hag on being "convinced' he will stay at United." And then the actual quote will be something like "I'm neither convinced nor not convinced I will stay."
I avoid the media as a habit. But when I peek at it now and then, it appears that clickbait and sensationalism in general has become the rule for everyone. At one point, it was mostly politics that brought it out. Now it seems to be everything. Sucks.
 
It’s easy to say that the time to tinker has past. But it never passes until in a match that counts, unless there are no personnel problems. And, unfortunately, this team has some critical weaknesses, on D in particular. Also, figuring out how to let Reyna attack and have less responsibility on defense is an ongoing problem. So the tinkering must continue.

I’d hoped that the team would locate more tall, fast, strong defenders with more capability to create in the attack than the current starters. But that doesn’t seem to have materialized yet. This is probably the biggest problem for the team, at the moment. And, for whatever reason, A Robinson has had a couple really awful games recently.

Anyway, I see people bashing GB, and for sure the coach is responsible for game results. But GB didn’t tell A Rob to touch the ball to a Colombian player inside the box. And GB didn’t tell Reyna to react like he was under water, allowing that Colombian player to essentially get a free shot on goal. And GB didn’t fail to mark the player who scored on a bicycle kick.

After those two goals, it was gonna be extremely hard to come back against a team of Colombia’s quality. Especially when sitting one the team’s most prolific attacking players to rest him in the second half. Attacking too aggressively, with a suspect back 4, was always a risky proposition. But there was no other choice.
I hope they turn this around. But GB is partially responsible for roster formation and he has been at the helm 1st and 2nd stint for 6 years. So the results and the way the team reacts are on him. He should not be tinkering at this point in the schedule. And they shouldn’t be getting blown off the pitch by a team that is ranked similarly to them.
 
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I hope they turn this around. But GB is partially responsible for roster formation and he has been at the helm 1st and 2nd stint for 6 years. So the results and the way the team reacts are on him. He should not be tinkering at this point in the schedule. And they shouldn’t be getting blown off the pitch by a team that is ranked similarly to them.
The score in that game said blown off the pitch. But the game was largely settled after the second goal. The US isn’t built to come back, especially with the arguably best attacker, Puli, being rested which forced the US to be overly aggressive to create scoring chances, putting too much pressure on an already problematic back line.

GB is responsible for everything. But that doesn’t mean he did anything wrong in that match.
 
The score in that game said blown off the pitch. But the game was largely settled after the second goal. The US isn’t built to come back, especially with the arguably best attacker, Puli, being rested which forced the US to be overly aggressive to create scoring chances, putting too much pressure on an already problematic back line.

GB is responsible for everything. But that doesn’t mean he did anything wrong in that match.
Agreed on the match being over after the second goal. As I said I turned the game off after the 3rd. But this team the way it is constructed, primarily by GB, does not look like they are primed for a run in copa. I hope I am wrong. But this game losing the way they did could very well lead this team to press and spiral in future games that mean something.
 
Agreed on the match being over after the second goal. As I said I turned the game off after the 3rd. But this team the way it is constructed, primarily by GB, does not look like they are primed for a run in copa. I hope I am wrong. But this game losing the way they did could very well lead this team to press and spiral in future games that mean something.
I don’t think they’ll win Copa América. But we’ll see.

The absence of Dest is, IMO, having a significant impact on the team, both defensively and in the attack. Nobody really plugs in for him. Ream’s age is a factor that will snowball. Jedi is having uncharacteristically bad games on D, which is troubling and comes at just the wrong time.

And I’m curious what’s up with M Robinson.

So yeah, there are issues, particularly at the back. But let’s see what happens.
 
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This is so idiotic I don’t even know where to start. Lol
1994 World Cup = Round of 16 elimination
vs.
2018 World Cup = Not qualified
2022 World Cup = Round of 16 elimination

You are what your record says you are.
 
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