Official Team USA Soccer Thread

MaseInYourFace · Post #1081 » by **MaseInYourFace** » Wed Jul 2, 2014 2:22 pm

Very disappointed with Bradley's world cup. Not having enough playmaking ability and precision in the midfield was a killer for USA, also Altidore injury. But going back to Bradley, he's kind of at a crossroads in his career. Did not have a strong world cup and now he's in the MLS, he might really struggle to get offers to play in a big league again. It will be interesting to see where team USA goes from here. They need to develop some of these younger guys like Brooks, Yedlin, Green, Diskerud, and Johansen. That is the future of the team. Also what happens at Keeper since this was likely Howard's last World Cup? Guzan I guess, since he's only 29. Ultimately how well they do in the next cup will rest on how well those younger guys develop.

BUCKnation · Post #1082 » by **BUCKnation** » Wed Jul 2, 2014 5:15 pm

Guzan is very solid but I expect Howard to be back. He is coming off of his best year in his career and barring injury should "age" well in the future. With his work ethic and ability, he could probably play into his 40's and still be very good.

and1GS · Post #1083 » by **and1GS** » Wed Jul 2, 2014 5:44 pm

Either way, I think that position is the least of our worries. Yedlin/JOhnson developing over the next few years will be interesting. I'm not convinced the latter becomes a star, but I've been saying Yedlin was going to be a stud for a while now. He's a better Marvell Wynne in the 'what if our best athletes played soccer' discussion.

MaseInYourFace · Post #1084 » by **MaseInYourFace** » Wed Jul 2, 2014 6:19 pm

BUCKnation wrote:Guzan is very solid but I expect Howard to be back. He is coming off of his best year in his career and barring injury should "age" well in the future. With his work ethic and ability, he could probably play into his 40's and still be very good.

Yeah I actually thought about it some and he is right now in his prime. Goalkeeps are funky like that. It is not unusual for a GK to hit his peak in his mid to late 30's. Howard is 35 so next cup he'll be 39. He'll prob be a bit past his prime but probably still good enough to make team. Not sure he will still be starter though.

poeman · Post #1085 » by **poeman** » Wed Jul 2, 2014 6:19 pm

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2116 ... ce-for-usa

NO wondo...

Replays showed Wondolowski was clearly onside when the chance came his way, though it looked like the assistant referee had flagged for offside.

ESPN commentator Ian Darke initially corroborated the offside call, but he soon made it clear the linesman was merely signalling for a goal kick, and the FIFA.com match stats show zero offsides for the U.S. team.

MaseInYourFace · Post #1086 » by **MaseInYourFace** » Wed Jul 2, 2014 6:21 pm

and1GS wrote:Either way, I think that position is the least of our worries. Yedlin/JOhnson developing over the next few years will be interesting. I'm not convinced the latter becomes a star, but I've been saying Yedlin was going to be a stud for a while now. He's a better Marvell Wynne in the 'what if our best athletes played soccer' discussion.

I was very impressed with Yedliln. He has so much natural talent. He needs to be polished some though. The thing with a lot of U.S players is that they go overseas and they have to deal with a bias against players that were brought up in U.S system. They either get benched or have their confidence destroyed. It's not easy. But on the other hand you want to see guys play overseas and develop as much as possible which is not really possible in MLS.

poeman · Post #1087 » by **poeman** » Wed Jul 2, 2014 6:26 pm

Julian Green, the 19-year-old has reportedly been linked to Tottenham, and the Spurs valued him at nearly $8.75 million (or £5million).

PANDEMONEUM · Post #1088 » by **PANDEMONEUM** » Wed Jul 2, 2014 8:32 pm

BUCKnation wrote:End of world cup thoughts and maybe rant.

Midfielders:
Outside Mids:

Is there a more forgettable player than Bedoya? What does he even do? He isn't bad, but he is just a non factor. Did he even play?

Why was Brad Davis on this team? He played a little over a half against Germany and had a howler. No reason for him to be on the squad over Donovan.

Julian Green proved the haters wrong. It did seem like a white flag move at first, but why not throw him in there. Turns out that he was the spark we needed. It was finally nice to have an outside mid/winger who actually knew his position and made runs. His first run to score was probably the best one from a winger on the team all tournament. He just knows what to do in those situations and I look forward to seeing him in the future. Hopefully this earns him some more PT.

Wondo is useless. Seriously, f*** that guy for missing that putt into the back of the net. No reason he should have made the squad over Eddie Johnson, who I feel was a missing link. Sure he is off form atm, but he provides pace, skill, and power. An option we could have definitely used.

Bedoya has a high work rate.
he is not someone that over dribbles, or over does anything on the offensive end.
he tracks back very well
as soon as he gets the ball, hes looking for the Mids, or the Creative player
i have no problem with his performance
i feel like he didnt make mistakes, and provided all the defensive help that was needed

Brad Davis and Wondolowski = completely USELESS. really, they were ahead of Donovan ? WTF
having both of them, were bad decisions at the time, and their performance showed that was true

i dont want Greens goal, to be the, proof for the haters
i, a hater of having Green on the team, am not convinced
he only went in the game, after, we were down 2 goals.
the defense had been playing 110 minutes or so, before Green came on
id hope he looks faster than them
the 2 positives about Green. 1, experience. 2, he actually turns and faces the D and attacks.

id post the vids of wondo missing, but, they will just piss everyone off

Twinkie defense · Post #1089 » by **Twinkie defense** » Thu Jul 3, 2014 6:05 am

I think the criticism of Bradley is a little harsh. He was solid defensively. His passing completion rate was actually not bad. And he and Zusi are the only guys who can serve up balls that are a threat to score, though there aren't a lot of targets.

We know we have a great backstop in Howard. I think Klinsmann wanted to lean on that and take it to the opponent more, attack. But it wasn't happening much.

Twinkie defense · Post #1090 » by **Twinkie defense** » Thu Jul 3, 2014 6:17 am

Yedlin looked good. Julian Green, goal on his first WC touch? Jermaine was a revelation, until the Belgium game. Surprised to see Beckeman out, he was very good. Brad Davis, not impressive. Zusi, 50/50. Clint, brilliant at first, then faded. Looking forward too seeing more Johannson - and Mix. Cameron was horrible, wasn't he? Surprised to see him regain a starting spot vs. Belgium, but he was still very bad. Besler, Johnson, Bedoya were pretty solid. Beasley seemed a little shaky but generally came through.

We need more quality youth, more time for the defense to gel, more skilled guys with a nose for the goal.

PANDEMONEUM · Post #1091 » by **PANDEMONEUM** » Thu Jul 3, 2014 6:21 pm

i hope everyone sees how important the next 4 years are
before the WC, we were ranked 13th (june5th)
we CAN get a top 8 ranking for the next WC
then be in the A1 position of a group

have to win Friendly matches
-i believe all friendlies have the same value. so i wouldnt mind scheduling a few extras, with some minnows

have to win the 2015 Gold Cup
-we won the last one, with ease. Costa Rica and Mexico look to be imporved.

advance deep into the 2016 Copa America
-brazil, argentina, colombia, uruguay, mexico, costaR., some good teams, with good rankings/value

win CONCACAFF to qualify for the 2018 WC
-would b nice to W or D ALL of our matches

BOOM. top 8 ranking for the 2018 WC

right now

Rnk Team Pts
1 Spain 1485
2 Germany 1300
3 Brazil 1242
4 Portugal 1189
5 Argentina 1175
6 Switzerland 1149
7 Uruguay 1147
8 Colombia 1137
9 Italy 1104
10 England 1090
11 Belgium 1074
12 Greece 1064
13 USA 1035
14 Chile 1026
15 Netherlands 981
16 Ukraine 915
17 France 913

Bernman · Post #1092 » by **Bernman** » Thu Jul 3, 2014 7:00 pm

Shouldn't it have been obvious from the beginning that Zusi and Bedoya provide little to no width with their lack of speed and dribbling ability? Jurgen tried to compensate with speedy fullbacks, but that ended up getting us exposed by opposing team's width, especially on Johnson's side. And on the other side, while Beasley is still pretty fast, I think the last time I saw him get a successful cross over the first line of defense was like 5 years ago. His legs are twigs. He has the ball striking power of a small child at this point.

That, and only 1 in the attack were the main issues for the team. Jurgen's hand was partially forced here by Altidore's injury, but it was some his fault too that was the formation because he didn't bring the likes of Agudelo or Boyd, nor did he rely on the best alternative he had on the roster and that was to play Mix at attacking mid. He inexplicably played zero minutes. So, outside of Yedlin and Johnson marauding on the dribble to allow true mids to join the attack, we just had terrible options to pass to in the attacking 3rd. That's why I think Bradley was so uncomfortable. He should have done a lot better by using the space that was ahead of him to dribble into, but his instincts are more to pass quickly, and he couldn't do that until Yedlin came onto the field and then he looked for him and his speed constantly, like players looked for Shea as an outlet to great effect in his sub appearances over the last couple of years.

While I think we can't complain about Jurgen overall at this point because he got us out of the group, he still is far from maximizing our potential as a nation because of tactical issues that multiple former players gave him crap for, and also due to taking far from all our best players. Like it or not Landon's exclusion did hurt us because he could have provided the spot kick taking that only Zusi could have, but also width too. And he also could have brought Agudelo, Edu, Parkhurt, etc.; and given many more young standouts a chance during the cycle like Okugo, Farrell, John, Lichaj, etc. instead of proven AAAA guys like Evans, Wondo, Orozco, etc. There is a solid amount of untapped potential already in the pool, and more on the horizon potentially w/ the likes of Zelalem, Nagbe, etc. So the outlook going into next Cup could be very sunny, it's going to be about whether Klinsmann can push more of the right buttons, and part of that will be employing better assistants than Martin Vazquez.

MaseInYourFace · Post #1093 » by **MaseInYourFace** » Thu Jul 3, 2014 10:26 pm

Twinkie defense wrote:I think the criticism of Bradley is a little harsh. He was solid defensively. His passing completion rate was actually not bad. And he and Zusi are the only guys who can serve up balls that are a threat to score, though there aren't a lot of targets.

We know we have a great backstop in Howard. I think Klinsmann wanted to lean on that and take it to the opponent more, attack. But it wasn't happening much.

Bradley is one of the leaders of the team and expectations were that he would be better than solid.

Boognish · Post #1094 » by **Boognish** » Thu Jul 3, 2014 10:35 pm

It's my fault. I bought a Michael Bradley shirt and he played like ****. I'm sorry.

AlexDelta · Post #1095 » by **AlexDelta** » Fri Jul 4, 2014 12:48 am

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2118 ... g-national

Yep, not picking Donovan was a good idea. If Wondo had scored everybody would be talking about how much of a genius Klinsmann is.

truth18 · Post #1096 » by **truth18** » Fri Jul 4, 2014 1:02 am

Boognish wrote:It's my fault. I bought a Michael Bradley shirt and he played like ****. I'm sorry.

Ah, the real jinx was on us

.

But, more seriously, were you being facetious about buying a Bradley shirt or did you actually get one?

Boognish · Post #1097 » by **Boognish** » Fri Jul 4, 2014 1:58 am

Yep, have a Bradley shirt, he's still my favorite American player. Love his work rate, his attitude, how he can control the game (when he's in form / not at CAM)

EArl · Post #1098 » by **EArl** » Fri Jul 4, 2014 2:03 am

Boognish wrote:Yep, have a Bradley shirt, he's still my favorite American player. Love his work rate, his attitude, how he can control the game (when he's in form / not at CAM)

No Preki or Cobi Jones smh

truth18 · Post #1099 » by **truth18** » Fri Jul 4, 2014 2:45 am

Boognish wrote:Yep, have a Bradley shirt, he's still my favorite American player. Love his work rate, his attitude, how he can control the game (when he's in form / not at CAM)

Yeah, I like Bradley too, not sure if I have a favorite American player on the USMNT though, Subotic is my favorite "American" player if he counts in any way. Was just confused. Are you Belgian-American? If Trinidad was playing the US in the WC i'd be rooting for Trinidad like mad, would be trash talking the US as well most likely, but given the way you occasionally speak about the USMNT, I didn't think you were American. Just curious is all. Are you just a straight up fan with no US connection?

nyhuskyfan · Post #1100 » by **nyhuskyfan** » Fri Jul 4, 2014 10:44 pm

AlexDelta wrote:http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2118446-landon-donovan-comments-on-jurgen-klinsmann-usa-world-cup-roster?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=programming-national

Yep, not picking Donovan was a good idea. If Wondo had scored everybody would be talking about how much of a genius Klinsmann is.

Everybody would be taking about Tim Howard saving our bacon and the US stealing a win despite being dominated. It would be on par with Kasey Keller standing on his head to beat Brazil. Nobody talks about the genius of Sampson for that one - it was a fluky win on a heroic goalie performance and getting one good scoring chance.

We're not long removed from a 2-0 win over Spain at a time when they were invincible. Howard made six saves in that game, not 16, and three of them were after we took the 2-0 lead. Led Brazil 2-0 a few days later in the final and lost 3-2. We'll always be an underdog in these type of games, but the days of needing total miracles should be behind us. There's no coaching genius in allowing 38 shots and hoping your goalie breaks World Cup records to keep you in it.

(Not anti-Klinsmann - we missed Altidore's presence to make life easier on Dempsey and Bradley and losing Johnson added to it. I'm on board with him for next four years).

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