European Soccer

Just thankful each day that Matt Turner saved our country from Zach Steffen :joy:

Man City cup games were more than enough for me.

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My poor boy Zach catching strays.

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I can’t even remember the last time a USMNT game ended in a shootout.

Game went full nutty CONCACAF after the 87th minute.

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That Vazquez penalty was disgusting in the worst way lol.

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2015 Gold Cup 3rd place game against Panama. Lost 3-2 in pens.

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I was just about to be a little mad at myself for watching 104 minutes of the US B team lose in the Gold Cup semis and then that equalizing goal happened and the game totally redeemed itself!

We only show up when we’re down 1 against these big teams it appears

Obviously I spent the previous 30 minutes taking all sorts of sh*t about Jesus Ferreira (only good against St. Kitts and Jordan Morris (fat) to my friends

Just when I was all in on the Reggae Boys, they give up a goal within the first 2 minutes :weary:

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I don’t think anyone on the B squad did much to help themselves this tournament and I think a couple of guys with first team potential might have hurt themselves (Miles Robinson specifically, but neither Vasquez or Zendejas did much either). I understand why he wasn’t here because of transfer season, but Pepi up front and you probably win this tournament. Maybe not last night, our passing in the final third was just dire.

Just dreadful finishing against any landlocked team this entire tournament and again shows why getting Balogun was such a big deal going forward. Dude might have bagged a dozen+ goals this tournament and while I don’t mind giving the B sprinkled in with the C team some run, might have benefitted from a handful of those guys showing up.

On the plus side, I thought Sands and Cowell had couple decent enough of outings and wouldn’t stand out for the wrong reasons too much if used on the first team sporadically. Turner was Turner and got completely hung out to dry by the backline on the OT goal, not the best pens last night, but he was great all tourney.

On the super negs, I am entirely done with Morris, Roldan, Miazga and Yedlin going forward. Also, Brandon Vasquez has a first touch that is almost Zardes-like at this point and anything besides aerial or hold up plays seem like a huge struggle for him. Ferriera is Ferriera, if GGG trots him out there in any big matches going forward, I will burn this mofo to the ground, but he’s fine for random “qualifying” matches or minnows.

Definitely don’t think that it would be worth anyone playing in Europe playing in the Nations League and then the Gold Cup. Preseasons are already starting, those guys needed the break – especially with a mid-season World Cup.

Generally I think it is pretty hard to judge the B team by how they play together with an entirely B team. Obviously the product was pretty shitty, but many of those guys would just be asked to play smaller roles with other much better players if they get A team call ups.

Ferreira isn’t perfect by any means, but I think his qualities make him a useful depth striker. He can press, he can pass, has good touch

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I’m not a huge expert, but I’m not entirely aligned with some of your thoughts. For example, are we sure Pepi is that good on the A-team and would have been that much of a difference? I thought Ferrera did about as well as you could hope and figures into the A-team bench.

Vasquez is interesting because he’s a different 9 than we’ve had. I don’t like his feet, but his ability to get a head to the ball is something our strikers haven’t done in a while. Sands was pretty solid and probably earned a bench role.

I was down on Cowell. I think he’s fast…and…just fast. I felt like he could never get the ball off his feet or do something interesting with it. He can spread out the defense, scare them with his speed, and maybe open something up for another attacking player…but the ball never did much with him IMO.

Miazga does nothing for me other than “is tall”. Robinson mixed good plays with bad - very up and down tournament for him. He’d do something dumb and then he’d shut down an attack. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt given how much time he missed.

Finally, I realize that Yedlin is no longer an A-team guy and was never the impact player we hoped. But I thought he played pretty well last night overall and was infinitely better than Reynolds, who I didn’t like in either of the last two games.

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Yeah, feels like he’s the 3rd striker for similar but completely different reasons to what I said about Jesus above. He’s the guy you throw on if you are losing and need a goal in desperation mode. Always OK to have one of those guys.

Probably worth noting the age on some of these guys. Yedlin should be capable of being a class above everyone else at this level. Cowell is 19 and getting his first caps … a ton of upside still, even if he’s just fast right now. Reynolds is 21 and getting his first caps, etc. Robinson really just needs reps right now after missing time I think.

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Oh, totally agree on the young guys. Frankly it was great that they all got this experience because they need to figure out how to compete at this level and it helps some of them get a chance to be signed by bigger clubs. I am not writing off the young guys like Cowell and Reynolds even if I didn’t like their play in this tournament. Nor am I getting excited about Yedlin as an A-team player at this point of his career. He’s solid insurance and that’s about it. The other guy that I think has future long term potential is Busio.

They lost to a pretty good team last night in a game that came down to PKs. I knew that game was going to be a slog based on style of play.

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My thing with Ferreira broadly is that the first team struggles scoring enough that a striker whose best assets don’t include putting the ball in the net serves a pretty solid hard cap for what we can accomplish. If this was MC with scoring all over the front 6 that would be different I guess. Fine to use him here but I don’t see him on an “A” roster going forward.

I still think Miles Robinson is a starter for the A team in full form, and these were just reps for him. The Yedlin/Morris crew pulling the Amir Johnson on G League Ignite role (good vets, someone has to know what they’re doing).

I was mostly interested in Busio, and leave with as many questions as answers there (clearly some talent, seems really weak/soft which will be tough in CONCACAF games)

What do you mean if this was MC?

What would the USMNT striker depth chart be right now after Flo?

It’s not like Sargent is great at putting the ball in the net either.

Sargent is also a dude whose main strength is pressing, and distribution

MC is Man City - what I mean is that if you have dangerous goal scorers all over you can play a guy who does other things (not that Man City does this now, but last year they still managed to be excellent without a big time striker)

Isn’t Pepi rather obviously ahead of Ferreira for first team?

Yeah, exactly my point.

If your group after Flo is Sargent, Jesus, Pepi, Haji Wright in whatever order … I don’t think you can just say that there’s not a path for Jesus Ferreira to get minutes with the A team.

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Probably yes, but not head and shoulders ahead imo. Both players are still super young, I mean Clint Dempsey had 2 caps at the same age that Jesus Ferreira has 15 goals.

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I don’t think anything about how Man City plays is applicable to the USMNT :rofl:

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