USMNT SOCCER

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General thoughts:

That was the best ref performance I've seen in a US v MEX final. Guy was rigid has hell and never let the game escape his control like every other CONCACAF ref would. 

Matt Turner surrendered 0 goals from the run of play. He was world class stopping power. Big knock is his distribution but he definitely needs to be in consideration as GK 2 or 3.

Knockout round forward Kellyn Acosta showed himself to be every bit as valuable a hold-up man and disruptor as GGG thinks he is. Guy was everywhere.. He's also probably our second best s***-houser after McKennie.

Gyasi catches a lot of hell for his touch but he. Never. Stops. Moving. Best off the ball striker we have and it isn't close.

After Zimmerman went down the boys stepped up and filled the gap excellently. 

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2 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

Very good point. Zardes in particular is just undeniable at this point. Doesn't matter if he's actually a good soccer player, lol. Dude gets goals. 

He just never stops moving. He'll never be a hold-up guy but his runs off the ball and unrelenting pace in the high press are undeniably an asset. 

Cue the "I am inevitable" meme. 

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David Ochoa officially filed his paperwork for a transfer to Mexico today. I'd have been way more distraught about this 3 weeks ago, but since we are young and deep at keeper with a world class distributor (Steffen), a world class shot stopper (Turner) and a guy that's so clutch he needs a wheelbarrow to tote his massive balls (Horvath)...

Well, Ochoa? Thank you. **** you. Bye.

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Acosta has to be on the 23 man come WCQ. Leader. 

 

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So the when the FIFA rankings drop shortly we'll be very close to being a top 10 team. That would solidly put us in POT 2 for World Cup Final seeding purposes.

Just gotta take care of business in qualifying. 

[AUBwins 10,075]

1 hour ago, AUDub said:

So the when the FIFA rankings drop shortly we'll be very close to being a top 10 team. That would solidly put us in POT 2 for World Cup Final seeding purposes.

Just gotta take care of business in qualifying. 

Will that help us stay away from the group of Death again lol? 

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8 minutes ago, AUBwins said:

Will that help us stay away from the group of Death again lol? 

No guarantees. Ideally we get POTTED with Qatar, whose place in POT 1 is by virtue of hosting.

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The unofficial rankings pretty much all have us at 9th, FYI. Mexico is 10th. 

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I know this is the men's thread but the women finally played an impressive game in the Bronze game.  Amazing goals from Rapinoe and Carli,  including scoring directly from a corner for Rapinoe. Couldn't find where I saw the highlights to link it. 

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Sargent started for Norwich in the Carabao Cup and tore the house down with a brace and an assist. 

Getting out of Germany may work wonders for his development. 

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The Octagonal starts tomorrow night in San Salvador. We have at El Salvador, Canada, and at Honduras in this three-game swing. Pulisic didn't travel to El Salvador, but he should play against Canada over the weekend. Squad looks pretty good though, and I expect a lot of guys to play over these three games.

[McLoofus 35,182]

18 hours ago, boomstick said:

The Octagonal starts tomorrow night in San Salvador. We have at El Salvador, Canada, and at Honduras in this three-game swing. Pulisic didn't travel to El Salvador, but he should play against Canada over the weekend. Squad looks pretty good though, and I expect a lot of guys to play over these three games.

As someone said somewhere on social, it's pretty great that a guy who was very recently and still might be our greatest player of all time- and who is still very much in his prime- is missing a WC qualifier and we're just like, eh, no biggie. 

I'm looking forward to a look back on how sudden this elevation of talent has been. I'm sure plenty of people can say they saw it coming and why, but I haven't really seen a deep dive on it yet. Can we trace it back to a shift in our national strategy in the youth programs when these guys were kids? I'm guessing yes. What else came into play? Was there something that happened that made Americans more viable as contributors on major Euro sides? Did they actually get better? Did it have something to do with TV money and tapping into the American consumer market? Was it a self-fulfilling prophecy where Americans playing in Europe *is what made Americans better at soccer*? 

It fascinates me. 

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51 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

As someone said somewhere on social, it's pretty great that a guy who was very recently and still might be our greatest player of all time- and who is still very much in his prime- is missing a WC qualifier and we're just like, eh, no biggie. 

I'm looking forward to a look back on how sudden this elevation of talent has been. I'm sure plenty of people can say they saw it coming and why, but I haven't really seen a deep dive on it yet. Can we trace it back to a shift in our national strategy in the youth programs when these guys were kids? I'm guessing yes. What else came into play? Was there something that happened that made Americans more viable as contributors on major Euro sides? Did they actually get better? Did it have something to do with TV money and tapping into the American consumer market? Was it a self-fulfilling prophecy where Americans playing in Europe *is what made Americans better at soccer*? 

It fascinates me. 

Yeah, I remember following the last cycle and just praying we could somehow get into the WC because the next cycle and the 2026 cycle would be so great with some of the young talent we had coming up. But it was probably 20-25 names, and several of them are big contributors now. I can't keep up with the number of kids who are eligible MNT players because there are so many now. And this current group of young stars are really the breakthrough group that got Americans to Europe en masse. I think MLS and the MLS academies should get some credit for that. And honestly, the national team doing what it did in 2010 and 2014 to make waves at the WC probably propelled a lot of this movement as well. 

This is probably 20+ years of laying groundwork in US Soccer to get to this point, and it's pretty great to go into this WCQ with the feeling that we're as talented as we've ever been and hungrier than we've been in years. This whole group seems to play with confidence and a chip on their shoulders, and that's been lacking in the last two cycles.

Edited September 2, 2021 by boomstick

[McLoofus 35,182]

28 minutes ago, boomstick said:

Yeah, I remember following the last cycle and just praying we could somehow get into the WC because the next cycle and the 2026 cycle would be so great with some of the young talent we had coming up. But it was probably 20-25 names, and several of them are big contributors now. I can't keep up with the number of kids who are eligible MNT players because there are so many now. And this current group of young stars are really the breakthrough group that got Americans to Europe en masse. I think MLS and the MLS academies should get some credit for that. And honestly, the national team doing what it did in 2010 and 2014 to make waves at the WC probably propelled a lot of this movement as well. 

This is probably 20+ years of laying groundwork in US Soccer to get to this point, and it's pretty great to go into this WCQ with the feeling that we're as talented as we've ever been and hungrier than we've been in years. This whole group seems to play with confidence and a chip on their shoulders, and that's been lacking in the last two cycles.

The confidence... man... a USMNT has never even remotely been justified in having it in the way that they are now. We're still not a true soccer power but maybe realistically on that next tier??

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1 minute ago, McLoofus said:

The confidence... man... a USMNT has never even remotely been justified in having it in the way that they are now. We're still not a true soccer power but maybe realistically on that next tier??

Yeah, I think that next tier is fair. I just think the confidence comes from the validation that so many of these players are sought after by world renowned clubs. There's not as much proving to be done and questioning if you're good enough when you're being linked in a transfer from Juventus to Tottenham or a regular starter for Barcelona or Chelsea or Dortmund. Those clubs give instant credibility, and it seems to rub off on these "kids."

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5 minutes ago, boomstick said:

There's not as much proving to be done and questioning if you're good enough when you're being linked in a transfer from Juventus to Tottenham or a regular starter for Barcelona or Chelsea or Dortmund.

These are heady times. 

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3 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

These are heady times. 

No doubt. Who would've thought on Oct 11, 2017 that four years later we'd be ranked 10th in the world by FIFA? Quite the turnaround for Gregg Berhalter and this young group of players.  

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I think klinnsman had a lot to do with the shift in culture and the push for guys to get to Europe and test themselves.  He wasn’t a great x/o coach but he changed the mindset.

as crazy as it sounds … the concussion worries in football - particularly pros.  I think a bunch of mommas wanted their kids to try another sport.

and lastly … good ole fashioned money making by the local clubs selling parents that their little Johnny is the next great scholarship athlete.

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Not been a good game. Sargent is the wrong kind of striker for the game we want to play. Finally subbed off for Pefok after 65 ineffective minutes. 

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8 hours ago, AUDub said:

Not been a good game. Sargent is the wrong kind of striker for the game we want to play. Finally subbed off for Pefok after 65 ineffective minutes. 

I thought they created lots of great opportunity and then just got all goofy brained once real scoring chances presented themselves. 

Typical experience in a hostile Central American venue. 

Other than just a couple shaky moments, I thought we were fairly sound in defense.

I love the swag that Dest brings. Dude is fearless. Maybe confident on the ball to a fault but I feel that creativity and assertiveness can only be good in how it rubs off on the rest of the squad.

McKennie had a rought night I thought.

I'll take that point right out of the gate. I think there's a lot of fixable stuff and a lot of latent chemistry between these players. 

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Happy to have a point without Puli.  I was aggravated I was struggling to stay awake to not see us score a goal lol

The header early that just cleared the crossbar was an excellent chance.  Also the deflection was oh so close.  I would have taken that luck lol. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

2 minutes ago, AUBwins said:

Happy to have a point without Puli.  I was aggravated I was struggling to stay awake to not see us score a goal lol

The header early that just cleared the crossbar was an excellent chance.  Also the deflection was oh so close.  I would have taken that luck lol. 

CAN RELATE

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I mean it's a fine result given the fact that we met the bar. In CONCACAF, win at home and get a few token points on the road and you'll find yourself in the World Cup Final. Trouble is we still don't have a true 9. 

Lot of "the sky is falling!" takes on r/USSoccer, but this result's not really indicative of much. We need to beat Canada and draw Honduras at the bare minimum though. Lose either of those and those takes suddenly have a bit more oomph behind them.

Worried about Canada though. Who do we put on Davies? 

 

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Honestly, it was a pretty poor performance. We started the first 10-15 minutes like I thought we'd play all night, but that wore off quickly. From then on, there was little build-up and we couldn't get the ball at the feet of our playmakers until really late in the match. Really disappointed with the play of Dest and Yedlin. IMO their play significantly stifled our ability to build and retain possession. And they didn't really do anything with the ball to advance play or make us more threatening. And if they're not going to do that while pushing up in the attack, I'd rather them just distribute and stay farther back and not bring more defenders and pressure into the spaces the MF and wingers are trying to operate in.

Having said that, getting a result in your road games is the basic requirement, and we did that. So, while not a good match, we got a result and need to play better against Canada.

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That was simply a hard game to watch.

The inexperience was evident.  Didn’t play as a team in too many long stretches and missed our set piece oppo’s.

At least Canada and Jamaica didn’t gain points on us.  Was hoping Jamaica would hold on to the tie.