US Mens Soccer

[Sgt. Largent]

Other than Pulisic looking like he couldn't wait for his off season to start, first match couldn't have gone any better.

Some great young players to get excited about. Loved the energy.

Wasnt bad...

now get all those kids back to their host clubs so they can keep getting better.

They beat a team they should have beat 3-0, that's great. Because if these young kids stumbled against a poor opponent like Bolivia? We'd be hitting the panic button today.

I agree though, get em back to their clubs.

 

[Uncle Si]

Other than Pulisic looking like he couldn't wait for his off season to start, first match couldn't have gone any better.

Some great young players to get excited about. Loved the energy.

Wasnt bad...

now get all those kids back to their host clubs so they can keep getting better.

They beat a team they should have beat 3-0, that's great. Because if these young kids stumbled against a poor opponent like Bolivia? We'd be hitting the panic button today.

I agree though, get em back to their clubs.

Would we?

I mean I couldve cared less really. Many of these kids won't be a part of this cycle. There is still no coach, little direction and no real implications at the moment.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Other than Pulisic looking like he couldn't wait for his off season to start, first match couldn't have gone any better.

Some great young players to get excited about. Loved the energy.

Wasnt bad...

now get all those kids back to their host clubs so they can keep getting better.

They beat a team they should have beat 3-0, that's great. Because if these young kids stumbled against a poor opponent like Bolivia? We'd be hitting the panic button today.

I agree though, get em back to their clubs.

Would we?

I mean I couldve cared less really. Many of these kids won't be a part of this cycle. There is still no coach, little direction and no real implications at the moment.

Yes I'd say losing to the 57th ranked country in the first match back from trying to fix the disaster of what's been going on for the past year would be cause for panic.

All you'd read today about the match is "Is this rock bottom for the USMNT?"

 

[Uncle Si]

Rock bottom was not making the World Cup. There is nothing between now and the next cycle that will measure to that. Losing to Bolivia in a friendly full of teenagers who play in Europe is not going to last 12 hours on a sports page.

Noone paying attention was interested in the game the other night outside watching promising young players get a run out. Win or lose, it would've been about assessing them as individuals, not the team as a whole.

 

[SeatownJay]

Sounds like the hiring of Columbus Crew manager Gregg Berhalter as the new coach of the USMNT is all but a done deal.

 

[Uncle Si]

Sounds like the hiring of Columbus Crew manager Gregg Berhalter as the new coach of the USMNT is all but a done deal.

Couldnt do better if they want an American..

But there are plenty better options out there on the international stage.

Im tepid on it. If he was replacing Klinsmann after a World Cup, i'd be excited to see one of our own promoted. But after the unmitigated disaster if the last cycle plus the seeming lack of direction as the program as a whole, I hope this isnt too much for Berhalter.

 

[SeatownJay]

Here's a look at Berhalter's first USMNT roster with players from Europe for the March camp & friendlies vs. Chile and Ecuador.

GOALKEEPERS (3): Ethan Horvath (Club Brugge, BEL; 3/0), Sean Johnson (New York City FC; 6/0), Zack Steffen (Columbus Crew SC; 8/0)
DEFENDERS (8): John Brooks (Wolfsburg, GER; 36/3), Omar Gonzalez (Atlas, MEX; 48/3), Nick Lima (San Jose Earthquakes; 2/0), Aaron Long (New York Red Bulls; 4/0), Daniel Lovitz (Montreal Impact; 2/0), Matt Miazga (Reading, ENG; 11/1), Tim Ream (Fulham, ENG; 26/1), DeAndre Yedlin (Newcastle United, ENG; 57/0)
MIDFIELDERS (7): Tyler Adams (RB Leipzig, GER; 9/1), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC, CAN; 143/17), Sebastian Lletget (LA Galaxy; 7/2), Weston McKennie (Schalke, GER; 7/1), Christian Pulisic (Borussia Dortmund, GER; 23/9), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders FC; 7/0), Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew SC; 13/0)
FORWARDS (6): Paul Arriola (D.C. United; 19/3), Corey Baird (Real Salt Lake; 2/0), Jonathan Lewis (New York City FC; 2/0), Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders FC; 25/5), Christian Ramirez (LAFC; 2/1), Gyasi Zardes (Columbus Crew SC; 42/6)

 

[Uncle Si]

Decent roster...

Particularly like the wide players in the back and mid. Mckinnie has a bright future in the center.

Forward group is weak though. Hopefully weah and zelalem come good in 2 years.

Good for Morris as well... could be a big factor in qualifying

 

[SeatownJay]

Some news on the youngsters. Here is the roster that Tab Ramos has called in for the U20s in their final training camp before the U20 World Cup this Summer.

U.S. U-20 MNT Roster by Position (Club or College; Hometown; Caps/Goals)
GOALKEEPERS (2): C.J. Dos Santos (Benfica/POR; Philadelphia, Pa.; 1/0), Trey Muse (Seattle Sounders FC; Louisville, Ky.; 0/0)

DEFENDERS (6): Sergino Dest (Ajax/NED; Almere-Stad, Netherlands; 6/1), Chris Gloster (Hannover 96/GER; South Orange, N.J.; 9/0), Aboubacar Keita (Columbus Crew SC; Columbus, Ohio; 0/0), Jaylin Lindsey (Sporting Kansas City; Charlotte, N.C.; 5/0), Matthew Real (Philadelphia Union; Drexel Hill, Pa.; 8/0), Chris Richards (Bayern Munich/GER; Hoover, Ala.; 6/0)

MIDFIELDERS (6): Frankie Amaya (FC Cincinnati; Santa Ana, Calif.; 11/1), Christian Cappis (Hobro/DEN; Katy, Texas; 2/0); Andrew Carleton (Atlanta United FC; Powder Springs, Ga.; 5/2), , Chris Durkin (D.C. United; Glen Allen, Va.; 0/0), Alex Mendez (Freiburg/GER; Los Angeles, Calif.; 13/8), Juan Pablo Torres (New York City FC; Lilburn, Ga.; 10/4)
FORWARDS (6): Ayo Akinola (Toronto FC/CAN; Detroit, Mich.; 10/9), Jonathan Amon (Nordsjaelland/DEN; Summerville, S.C.; 0/0), Konrad de la Fuente (Barcelona/ESP; Barcelona, Spain; 0/0), Ulysses Llanez (Unattached; Lynwood, Calif.; 9/7), Justin Rennicks (New England Revolution; Hamilton, Mass.; 12/6), Sebastian Soto (Hannover 96/GER; San Diego, Calif.; 3/2)

 

[SeatownJay]

And for those wondering why players like Tim Weah, Josh Sargent, and Cameron Carter-Vickers weren't called up to the senior team, they're part of the U-23 camp as USSoccer has committed to make qualifying for the 2020 Olympics a priority.

Here is the full U-23 roster for the March camp.

GOALKEEPERS (2): Jonathan Klinsmann (Hertha BSC/GER; Newport Beach, Calif.), JT Marcinkowski (San Jose Earthquakes; Alamo, Calif.)
DEFENDERS (9): Julian Araujo (LA Galaxy; Lompac, Calif.), Cameron Carter-Vickers (Swansea City/WAL; Southend-on-Sea, England), Marco Farfan (Portland Timbers; Portland, Ore.), Jack Maher (Indiana; Caseyville, Ill.), Matthew Olosunde (Manchester United/ENG; Trenton, N.J.), Donovan Pines (D.C. United; Clarksville, Md.), Lucas Pos (FC Lausanne-Sport/SUI; Irvine, Calif.), Antonee Robinson (Wigan Athletic/ENG; Milton Keyes, England), Miles Robinson (Atlanta United FC; Arlington, Mass.)
MIDFIELDERS (6): Derrick Jones (Philadelphia Union; Philadelphia, Penn.), Cameron Lindley (Orlando City SC; Carmel, Ind.), Djordje Mihailovic (Chicago Fire; Lemont, Ill.), Keaton Parks (New York City FC; Plano, Texas), Eryk Williamson (Portland Timbers; Alexandria, Va.), Jackson Yueill (San Jose Earthquakes; St. Paul, Minn.)
FORWARDS (6): Jeremy Ebobisse (Portland Timbers; Bethesda, Md.), Josh Perez (LAFC; La Habra, Calif.), Emmanuel Sabbi (Hobro IK/DEN; Columbus, Ohio), Josh Sargent (Werder Bremen/GER; O'Fallon, MO), Tim Weah (Celtic FC/SCO; Rosedale, N.Y.), Haji Wright (Schalke/GER; Los Angeles, Calif.)

 

[Uncle Si]

Well in Jackson Yueill

 

[SeatownJay]

Not a good camp health-wise. McKinnie will miss 6-8 weeks with an ankle injury and Pulisic is out 3-4 weeks with a quad injury. Hopefully both are 100% for the Gold Cup this Summer.

And in other USMNT news, the groups were drawn for the inaugural CONCACAF Nations League this Fall. The US is in Goup A with Canada and Cuba.

 

[Chapow]

Back to back losses to Jamaica and Venezuela.

I get that these are "just" friendlies, but yikes.

At this point I won't be surprised if they don't get 6 points out of their first 2 Gold Cup matches against Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, and then lose to Panama.

He is far from the only issue, but I don't want to see Steffen in goal for this team again anytime soon.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Back to back losses to Jamaica and Venezuela.

I get that these are "just" friendlies, but yikes.

At this point I won't be surprised if they don't get 6 points out of their first 2 Gold Cup matches against Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, and then lose to Panama.

He is far from the only issue, but I don't want to see Steffen in goal for this team again anytime soon.

This young version of the US squad is like an MLS club, it's not good enough yet to sustain key major players missing and still be competitive.

Honestly, the US squad has always been this way, for it to be competitive it needs ALL it's good players available and in form. Death, taxes and US Soccer has depth issues.

 

[Uncle Si]

they had a very good 2nd half against a capable Venezuela side. Moved the ball into attacking positions, had strong and creative patterns to goal, just could not finish (almost comically so)

1st half was very naive. All 3 goals were very preventable and rested on the shoulders of individual players making mistakes against top tier players they were not used to playing against (Rondon is a high level striker and took advantage of young players).

So.. this version, as mentioned, needs seasoning, and is getting it. Which is fine. I do think some players need to be hooked sooner. Thought McKinnie was solid yesterday but Trapp needed off. Yueill was sent home after the first friendly but would have been a perfect ball playing replacement in the game.

There is plenty of depth though.. this is far different. What it needs is experience. I know that's splitting hairs in some ways, but I think its much different this time around. There is a bevy of young talent in the pool, unlike any of the previous cycles. However, the players need the games. Hopefully a deep run in the Gold Cup gives us that... although I didnt like some of the youth being left off the roster.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

they had a very good 2nd half against a capable Venezuela side. Moved the ball into attacking positions, had strong and creative patterns to goal, just could not finish (almost comically so)

1st half was very naive. All 3 goals were very preventable and rested on the shoulders of individual players making mistakes against top tier players they were not used to playing against (Rondon is a high level striker and took advantage of young players).

So.. this version, as mentioned, needs seasoning, and is getting it. Which is fine. I do think some players need to be hooked sooner. Thought McKinnie was solid yesterday but Trapp needed off. Yueill was sent home after the first friendly but would have been a perfect ball playing replacement in the game.

There is plenty of depth though.. this is far different. What it needs is experience. I know that's splitting hairs in some ways, but I think its much different this time around. There is a bevy of young talent in the pool, unlike any of the previous cycles. However, the players need the games. Hopefully a deep run in the Gold Cup gives us that... although I didnt like some of the youth being left off the roster.

Definitely, and I don't mean to disparage the talented roster the US is starting to put together, but it is very young, and does lack the experience and depth needed to go toe to toe with the more experienced CONCACAF countries, even in friendlies.

Right now we do need guys like Pulisic, Weah, Sargent, Yedlin, Adams and even some experience like Altidore and Bradley for depth to bring on late if needed.

But that's fine, these are the matches we want some of these younger players playing in, to gain experience and give Berhalter a chance to put together the best roster possible come WC qualifying.

 

[Uncle Si]

Weah and Sargent are U20 players. And that's where i think we are at (saying the same thing from a different angle). The US is very deep in talent, shallow in experience. Even Pulisic has only gone through half a cycle of international football.

So, it's both exciting and frustrating

 

[Threedee]

Hopefully they can at least avoid getting reverse-US Womens'd.

 

[Uncle Si]

Hopefully they can at least avoid getting reverse-US Womens'd.

My 2005 academy team couldve been more competitive than Thailand was in that game.

This is a strange time for men's soccer. Will be interesting how they navigate the next year.

Id like to see Teal Bunbury from NWE brought into the fold as they try out new 9s.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Hopefully they can at least avoid getting reverse-US Womens'd.

I honestly had no problem with what the US Women did.

The World Cup is the pinnacle of soccer, for both men and women............so to be criticized for excessive celebration for scoring goals, of which is every man and woman's dream since they started playing soccer at a very young age is tone deaf to me.

btw, absolutely no one on Thailand's team said anything negative, in fact the goalie said it was the greatest moment of her career after the game when Carli Lloyd came over to offer her encouragement.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-world- ... lloyd-did/

Do we get mad when NFL teams run up the score? Do we expect MLB teams to stop scoring runs once they're up 10 runs?

The World Cup is professional soccer, and btw every other team in our group is also playing Thailand, we need all the goals we can get to get the best seeding going into the knockout round.

People who are criticizing don't understand the sport is all I can think.