Just watched the extended highlights. Probably lucky to have forced extra time.
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All I see is a dub
We were knocking on the door throughout, but didn’t get the equalizer until the 95th minute off a corner.
Despite that 3-1 sounds like an accurate reflection of the game.
You’re right. Needing a 95th minute OG to force extra time vs the 57th ranked team in the World without their two best players in a home match is no cause for concern. GGG has got this.
In these international games where the team has only practiced together for 3 days I think it’s unfair to judge a lot of tactics, rather team selection is what defines an international coach in a game like this.
What was the jarring mistake? Joe Scally was horrendous, but he was only playing because Dest was suspended, and Berhalter actually subbed him off at half time, brought on Gio, and moved to a back-three (which is definitely not our standard or preferred formation.
They outshot Jamaica by 24 shots
This teams problem, Balogun or not, is the same as it’s been, they struggle to put the ball in the goal.
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These core guys have been playing together for more than 5 years now. Will agree though on selection and still don’t love how he sets up the midfield without Gio and Musah primarily at the 6. Things bog down in the final 3rd over and over and over again and then he finally makes a change to a back 3 in the 62nd minute (how brave against a team clearly committed to parking it and running the bunker and counter) and still we are blindly firing crosses into a stacked box for the last 15 minutes of regular time.
And yeah, finishing is a problem with this group, always has been. Figured Balo would be the fix there, but he’s in the worst form of his career currently. I don’t think looking at shots or possession as stats to focus on is important in this one anyway since Jamaica was more than happy to completely sit back for 94 minutes and let us fumble around the midfield setting up another cross into the forest.
He seems to always get them to show up vs. Tri, but we shouldn’t be needing 95th minute OG miracle to get past Jamaica’s B squad. Thank God for all that masterful motivational work forged in the pressure cooker position that is the Hammarby headman that GGG can fall back on when things are tough.
I guess my take is that the WC results are what this group’s talent level is, their European (or MLS) track records pretty much show that - there are no actual stars on this team. Berhalter isn’t perfect, but he’s been quite good at recruitment (the number of key players on this team that opted to play for the US rather than another nation is impressive), and the team mostly likes him. I also tend to think that the peer group of national team managers is…not very good compared to clubs!
On that “mostly likes him” point - the obvious exception here is Gio. I actually DO have insider knowledge on team USA through the best man of my wedding who works in the industry and knows basically all these people. All I can say is that the problem with Gio’s playing time on Team USA is at least no less than 50% in Gio’s hands (in addition to myriad, unceasing injury). That stinks!
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My only takeaway is what a terribly timed international window (or I guess perfect in some respects if you think it is pointless to begin with).
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I gotcha. Not trying to be completely negative all the time about it, but I can’t help but feel like our aim is not high enough. We’ve seen the ceiling with GGG already and it’s getting outclassed by the upper echelon teams in the world.
I’ll keep beating the Bielsa drum until they day I die, but there are managers like that out there that can get optimal results with a lesser talent pool. Gregg is not one of them and we should, and can, do better.
What is the GGG hire compared to what Michigan could hire right now? LaVell? How mad would we be about that?
Anthony Grant? I don’t know. I guess my thing is that the obvious answer is “money” but…why would Bielsa abandon a team with better talent, more interest, and significantly higher chances of success? I’m not going to tell you GGG rules or anything, but I think he’s partially responsible for where we are (again, I think his player recruitment has been his strongest asset). The guy we call “Captain America” is going to score like 11 goals (that’s fine!) in the fourth best league in the world after getting ceaseless DNP’s at an absolutely floundering premier league side. Our savior striker scored a ton of goals for a bad club in the 5th best league, and is struggling mightily on a decent club in the same league.
The other face of this generation other than Christian is like 400 pounds and doing “fine” at Juventus. We’re moaning that our starting fullback, who washed out of Barca and Milan in liek 3 months total got suspended.
I kind of think we have a side of replacement level european players (better than we’ve been!) that we’ve all decided to pretend are stars?
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Bielsa was available last year when the position was available and we would have known about it because he was having discussions with Mexico so was obviously ok with managing in CONCACAF. We just either showed no interest or weren’t prepared enough to get involved.
You’ll get no arguments from me about the form of the players currently. But it’s also why you don’t hire a guy who got fired from his one European job and his best season ever is losing in the MLS cup. It’s the most mid move possible in arguably the most important cycle ever.
I wasn’t happy w re-hiring Greg but I think it is pretty much aesthetics and annoyance of going through a long drawn out process and then rehiring that makes me critical of the process.
TBH I think being ranked in the Top 15 is a pretty good outcome for USA given our talent. Think about where our guys play and their roles vs even a second five country like the Netherlands and the talent differential is pretty shocking.
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I am not a soccer knower but in general I think even very smart fans consistently mistake average with bad. Especially when it comes to coaches.
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Yeah I think we had basically a Championship caliber 11 in the last WC? And we’ll prob beat that this year w a couple of average-ish top 5 league starters?
Should get a favorable group. Getting to the quarterfinals (win 1 knockout round after group play) should be the goal, we’ve only done it twice (1930/2002) so that would be a really good result.
We’ve been hearing about the current group of players for a long time coming up through the U18’s to now and is really the first core that is all playing 1st division in Europe. We really should be rolling through most of CONCACAF. Mexico is starting to find their footing again and Sunday vs. them should be interesting.
We also get to play against Bielsa and Uruguay in the Copa group stage this summer so GGG has a chance to make me eat my words.
I think it’s a little better than that but barely and depth is terrible. But in terms of top end talent and our best starting 11, Two of three forwards are starters in big 3 leagues, MMA midfield is all Big3 starters. But the defense is much weaker, w one aging Premier league starter, one good premier league starter and two weaker spots. And then it’s really hard to say what level we are at in Goal when our guys don’t play.
But that’s w all healthy. Depth is the real weakness. I don’t know the numbers but obviously if 3 starters from each team in the Italian league are actually Italian, that’s 60 Big 3 starters. Vs our 8.
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Two wins are needed to get to the quarterfinals with the expanded tournament.
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Good catch, forgot they are expanding.
Wait the three best leagues are EPL, Liga, Bundesliga
Who are our three forwards who start in those leagues
The entire side is basically in Serie A at this point (I KNOW THERE ARE A FEW EXCEPTIONS)
It’s better than MLS!
I think if the US genuinely played first team games outside of CONCACAF more often people would have a better appreciation for what we actually are (extreeemely mid)
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