Panama up 1-0 on T&T
Mxico up 1-0 on CRC.

What channel will the next set of games in October be on?

Same as always, ESPN for home and BeIN for the road games

Zusi got another start with the USMNT?


wtf man......

CRC ties it up, if it stands they have qualified and would probably send an alternate squad against Honduras

Man I got a bad feeling USA isn't going to qualify. They really needed a win @ Honduras. Why can't they connect any passes together? There's no off the ball movement.

The entire match was one big WTF, from the refs to the quality of U.S. play.

I think CRC still needs a point. I hope that's true, b/c a second choice CRC side probably wouldn't hold up on the road.

Everyone should have expected this as soon as Arenas was hired.

They technically still need a point so while very unlikely, they should play an A squad at the first game.

CRC will definitely play an A squad against Honduras but a B squad vs Panama. That means we have to beat Panama October 6. A tie doesn't help us as much due to the fact we are behind them by one in the Goal Dofferential category.

Thankfully we have a basically already eliminated T&T side in the last game.

At this point, I wouldn't be surprised to see Paul Caliguri called up for the last game...

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Terrible calculation on Arena's part to start Zusi and Gonalzalez on the same side of defense. He has to know his team better than that.

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And also on the same side was Pulisic whose role, it seems, is to play fast and high-ish and to be the imposing, creative force

Yeah, benching Cameron was an overreaction to his worse than normal game on Friday. He should have started and we grossly miscalculated how much of a threat the speedy Honduran wingers would be. i still like Dempsey more in the super-sub role despite his domination of Honduras last time we played, but I understand giving him a shot as a starter yesterday. Our subs rectified all those mistakes, but the damage was already done.

One point was all we really needed from the game even though it would have been nice to get all three. Two very winnable games coming up and we need to get our backline starters healthy before the WC and maybe even play them together in a couple of good warmup matches.

jeffk said:

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claym711 said:

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Everyone should have expected this as soon as Arenas was hired.

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Arena was a stopgap, known quantity hire to get us through the qualification cycle. I didn't expect us to set the world on fire with him or get to first place in the Hex, but I did want to see him stabilize our lineups and provide some fundamental consistency for our core group of players. I think that while we haven't played great, we've seen better play from our team overall than I saw under JK earlier this year. I think we squeak into the WC in the 3rd spot with two wins in October, win a game in group and get eliminated shortly after that - we've got too many holes in our team to do much more at this point. Whomever we hire after the WC will hopefully find some more pieces to play with our good core group and get significantly stronger leading up to 2022 where we'll make it to the quarterfinals and then 2026 where we'll win our first WC.

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My expectations were exactly what you laid and and we have been better since Bruce took over. The real surprise, which is partly due to an injured brooks and Cameron's poor game, was Arena's player choices last night. I thought the main thing he would bring to the team was his knowledge of the players we have. He simply made a mistake last night with the Zusi/Gonzo pairing, which Aston pointed out.

I said it last night. I dont think he picked Omar over Cameron so much as he did what he did against the two teams last matchdays. He looks like he has split the roster into 2 basic squads. They have some players like Pulisic and Bradly and Zusi on both from necessity. But largely he practices and set up two simultaneous squads. It worked last time as he has one focusing on a Mexico shape and one not. It was less effective this time.

Omar has never had the speed to play at this level. That's why he's been so frustrating to watch.

They said before the game that Arena indicated he wouldn't start many, if any euro based players against Honduras due to questions about their fitness levels this early into the season. Since it would be supremely hot and humid

I think I would have rather started Cameron and Wood as I think they quality is high enough to take the risk

Given what we know about our player pool should we contemplate switching to a back 3 with Cameron, Brooks and Besler? No depth behind these three at all. Regardless, Omar's just not up for the international game consistently. Will hope CCV and Miyazga show some improvements for additional competition in January. NO idea if Birnbaum is capable of being a back up. Beyond those, who else for CB?

If not a back 3, should we move Johnson to the back and have back four of Yedlin, Cameron, Brooks and Johnson? Still have issue backing up Yedlin. Zusi's not the answer. Villafana is probably an adequate backup at the international level.

jeffk said:

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claym711 said:

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Everyone should have expected this as soon as Arenas was hired.

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Arena was a stopgap, known quantity hire to get us through the qualification cycle. I didn't expect us to set the world on fire with him or get to first place in the Hex, but I did want to see him stabilize our lineups and provide some fundamental consistency for our core group of players. I think that while we haven't played great, we've seen better play from our team overall than I saw under JK earlier this year. I think we squeak into the WC in the 3rd spot with two wins in October, win a game in group and get eliminated shortly after that - we've got too many holes in our team to do much more at this point. Whomever we hire after the WC will hopefully find some more pieces to play with our good core group and get significantly stronger leading up to 2022 where we'll make it to the quarterfinals and then 2026 where we'll win our first WC.

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Lynden Gooch played and scored against Carlisle United. If we make it to the WC, I'd like to see these players get a call up. Gooch, Williams etc.

I mean put gooch on the right side of the midfield and play pulisic in the middle and let him create. Yeah, sure stabilize to get into the WC but we should be giving the WC our best shot or at least giving young guys an exposure if we suck that bad.

I think in general there was never a plan to integrate younger players into the player pool after '14 in preparation for '18. Some of it has to be younger players not doing enough to be called up but I don't feel USSF has transitional plan in place.

This probably deserves its own thread but your comment about the younger players not doing enough to get called up got me wondering - how is our Development System working? Based on what I have seen, Pulisic is the only man on the team that is a true game-changer (5*-type if you want to use recruiting lingo). We have a handful of very good players but the rest of the squad just isn't that good, in international terms. If we have plateaued developmentally, that doesn't bode well for the future of U.S. International soccer. Who's in the pipeline that has quality on a level with Pulisic, or even the second-tier guys just below his skills and talent?

https://www.ussoccer.com/us-under20-mens-national-team/latest-roster#tab-1

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Acosta- "I wanna go for it"

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Confidence from the young man

PJYoung said:

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Great video

There was definitely a plan to integrate the youth. The problem has been threefold, imo

The failure of the youth teams to qualify for tournaments such as the olympics hindering some of the development of prospects

The fact that numerous players have either failed to take the next step or have been hindered by injuries

But primarily I think its down to the fact that we dicked around and barely scraped through the previous round of qualifying, and now are doing the same in the hex. When you need reeults, it is hard to trust unproven faces. Bruce said as much prior to these last two games, and you hear a similar refrain from guys like Conte with regard to criticisms of Chelseas youth policies.

That being said its not like we've completely ignored the youth, Acosta has gotten big chances, Yedlin is penciled in as our starting RB if healthy, Morris has gotten looks, of course there is Pulisic, etc.



The biggest failure in our pool has been our inability to develop a proper left back in the past 12 years

Some of our young defender talent headed to Manchester City.

http://soccer.nbcsports.com/2017/09/10/report-man-city-sign-young-american-defender/