A lot of national team coaches fail their second WC cycle due to not adapting/changing enough to the game, player pool changes, showing favoritism to “their guys”, grudges, etc…I just don’t see how you can take him back knowing all you do about him and knowing issues that plague coaches for a 2nd cycle are things GGG struggles with anyway.
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https://twitter.com/airborne69/status/1669764581692956672?s=46&t=tAYh-EyAAnK6CkaDd6gKKA From papa mckennie
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Tbf, while still an extremely promising prospect, Reyna hasn’t made a significant jump in the last 18 months at BVB.
Maybe things change now that Bellingham is gone and he’ll have the opportunity to showcase his skillset. Needless to say that he remains one of the most promising American players and should be integrated into the core team as soon as possible.
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So no Dest against Canada. My boy Davies is going to absolutely annihilate our @sses.
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Joe Scally SZN
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Oh, a Gladbach player…
Let’s hope some of that Bayern DNA kicks in for Davies and we’ll be safe.
He played an easy 29 mins, scored early had another great chance. He will be the best player in the field come Sunday count on it.
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Without question, and it’s not an indictment on either of these two teams or CONCACAF. I’m biased but Davies is one of the most talented and effective players in the world, if it weren’t for the fact that he plays LB, he’d be listed alongside Vini and Haaland as one of the best.
Bayern pretty much don’t know how to attack without him on the pitch.
I generally agree w you. It would not have been a major issue to me to move on. I do think the extreme youth of the team mitigates a bit against the second quadrennial blues, but yeah, it’s really hard for a manager in any setting — let alone one this pressurized and public — to be an effective leader of basically the same group for that long.
I think Reyna aside this team grew up together really well, and played a ton of tough Concacaf games under Berhalter, and that sort of synergy, Berhalter’s tactical problems and fetish for 30+ year old MLS aside, is worth something. The team had a good esprit d’corps (again, Gio aside, but I put that on Gio) and a huge (and underestimated) part of a coach’s job is to keep people happy.
Gio obviously is an important talent and Gregg’s relationship there is important too, but I also don’t think that, until his terribly ill-advised decision to discuss him at that panel, he did the wrong thing there.
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Yeah at the national team level tactics is overvalued. Best teams at WC play pretty simple solid soccer and have the best players and don’t hate each other. USA won’t have best players but they can do the rest. They aren’t just a try hard squad anymore but the talent is more deep than individually excellent.
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Should get a decent group and some home cooking, I think anything worse than the quarterfinals would be a disappointment assuming everyone stays healthy and no one gets emo or dramatic about playing time.
Sounds right. Re QF, is that one win out of the group stage or two? I feel like one post-group win is a reasonable expectation. Anything after that would mean they probably beat a top 10 squad, which would be awesome.
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It’s one win out of group stage. Netherlands was a terrible draw and if we held on vs Wales instead of turtling up 1-0 (a GGG special), would have had Senegal in the round of 16 this past WC and probably could’ve managed that. Really should’ve had 9 points out of group this past one. Pretty much outplayed everyone and then Van Gaal just tactically decimated Greggers.
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Concacaf and Conmebol should merge. One federation for the Americas would be so much better. Concacaf doesn’t offer enough serious competition while Conmebol is super competitive but needs more members now that the WC is expanding. Under the new plan Conmebol will get something like 6.5 bids for 10 teams which is getting silly.
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Pros and cons, that’s a crazy travel distance for World Cup qualifiers
Yeah they really underperformed in group and got a Pot 1 squad in Netherlands they just couldn’t handle. you said above and I totally agree, would not be a surprise if the uSA gets some help with the draw or in the group such that they are playing a weaker team in first round out of group.
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They finished second to a very good England team in the group (who they drew). I wouldn’t say that was underperforming at all.
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also, as host they will be in pot 1 in 2026 (as will Mexico and Canada)