Game over; "they're still ****ty" /major league

All good Curaaco were the the Caribbean cup champs solid win.

Pretty much what I said the the the other day.
They were a much better team than we have played to now. Even though we should have won, how we looked was going to be a good marker. And we looked like dirt.
But they won, and in the end that's what matters today.

gregg saving the sub for the next match?

I don't disagree with anything you said other then the optimism that we will get get better. That what everyone said through qualifying last WC cycle and we all know how that turned out. Every team in the tournament has to throw together a pool team. That can't be the main reason. Something is missing and I'm not smart enough to figure it out. And it seems no one in the federation has any idea as well.

Zardes is terrible where was jozy?

The Gold Cup has helped to set expectations for me moving forward. I don't see this group being much better than what we've seen and I'm assuming we'll be 2nd to 4th in the Hex and qualify for the World Cup in 2022. If we're 4th then it'll be a play off to get in.

Now our young guys could become really good and that'll change how I feel but we'll see if that happens.

Qualification is going to provide a ton of uncertainty...

Zardes didn't do anything to distinguish himself. However, if you are blaming him - you are missing the plot. There were 3 or 4 guys that played much worse than him.

Zardes had a couple of chances to put the game away late, but missed. But generally I saw him running and waiting for passes that never came.

he definitely has work rate, but he didn't make himself available to relieve pressure tonight

this isn't even a knock on his touch, it's a knock on his ability to recognize opportunities to drop deep and provide an outlet

Spot on commentary.

My lazy, ignorant analysis is that >90% of our attacking moves only came from dribbles (typically Pulisic). Passing was sloppy all game long.

Even the attacks we saw in the first 25 minutes seemed like a disorganized feeding frenzy... a "we're better so let's just get forward and see what happens" kinda thing. Nips' pass to Pulisic was a perfect example of this... we had guys in all the right places, but his pass in was late and behind, Pulisic managed to get a toe on it to create something but it was saved. Get the timing right and he buries it and there's no chance of a save.

Doyle's a good follow on Twitter too. Pretty level-headed and knows his stuff.

I think he's right about us being limited by player talent and lack of cohesion. Curaao was better than I think we thought they'd be and they kept us from being able to push forward at will from our rigid formation. Add to that a couple guys having bad nights and a strange reluctance to sub in the second half and you get the sticker that was last night.

Also, I don't know how anyone would have looked at the roster announcement for the tournament a few weeks ago and thought we'd be dominating games after the group stages.

I sort of get having guys playing on the U20 and U23 teams to fill those rosters out and help those teams qualify, in particular for the Olympics next year. But the primary objective should be the main squad. This experimentation should have happened a year ago and the best players (Weah, Sargent) should be logging every minute they can with the full squad.

tl/dr: US Soccer continues to pay the price of ineptitude.

Couldn't agree with you more. The hiring process was a complete fiasco. We tactically should be further along than we currently are.

A couple of thoughts about the youngsters not on the roster. With them not participating in the Gold Cup, they actually get a full preseason with their club teams. Also, the goal is to get the 2022 and qualifying doesn't start until next spring so this gives them best opportunity to get regular playing time with their clubs when qualifying actually starts.

I regret to inform you, sir, that you can't be PMed; I assume I know you.

mathguy86 said:

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I sort of get having guys playing on the U20 and U23 teams to fill those rosters out and help those teams qualify, in particular for the Olympics next year. But the primary objective should be the main squad. This experimentation should have happened a year ago and the best players (Weah, Sargent) should be logging every minute they can with the full squad.

tl/dr: US Soccer continues to pay the price of ineptitude.

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I agree completely.

Everyone's excited about 3 straight quarterfinals for our U-20s. I question whether U-20 success has any bearing on the full international level.

Look back at old U-20 squads around the world... Wikipedia has full lists of every roster back to 2007. You rarely see stars on these squads. In fact, top-notch teams like Germany frequently don't even qualify for the competition. I'm not smart enough to know what all of this means, but I do think that keeping guys out of the senior squad in order to have success at the U-20 or U-23 levels probably isn't a good idea.

Yes, I'm Pmed. Only '98 guys I really know are from D2. Is that where we know each other?

You're right not all top teams make it but there are still quite a few future stars that play in the U-20 WC. It varies by cycles but still lots of quality in the U-20 WC's.

Took a quick glance at rosters and included regulars/stars at top leagues (don't know most of the African players so they weren't included):

2007 U-20 WC:
Chile: Gary Medel, Alexis Sanchez, Arturo Vidal
Spain: Pique, Juan Mata
Uruguay: Cavani, Suarez
Mexico: Vela, Hector Moreno, Chicharito, Gio Dos Santos
Brazil: Willian, Marcelo, David Luiz
Argentina: Ever Banega, Sergio Aguero, Angel Di Maria

2009 U-20 WC:
Spain: Jordi Alba, Ander Herrera
England: Kieran Tripier
Brazil: Douglas Costa

2011 U-20 WC:
Colombia: James Rodriguez
France: Griezmann, Koulibaly, Lacazette
Spain: Isco, Koke, Rodrigo
Brazil: Danilo, Cotinho, Casemiro,

2013 U-20 WC:
France: Kurt Zouma, Pogba, Umtiti
US: Yedlin
Spain: Paco Alcacer
England: Kane, Dier, Stones, Barkley
Argentina: Jose Gimenez

I watched the second half which I guess was the awful half. I didnt see anything too surprising. Acting like "Oh we are the US we should beat Curucao 5-0" or whatever. We could have beaten them by multiple goals I guess if we had played well, but basically everybody is determining what should be the score based on the name of the opponent and not the quality of their team and it is BS.

Nobody scored more than a goal on them in the entire competition, which for them is Caribbean Cup qualifiers all the way through the Caribbean Cup, where, BTW they beat Jamaica.

I'm not really asking for a 5-0 win, I'm just asking for a comfortable evening. We were legitimately outplayed for all but a few minutes of the second half.

Full marks to Curacao FWIW. They should be proud of their performance.

Yes sir. But if you think I mean Pre-med instead of Personal Message, maybe you're a different '95 than I was guessing.

Watching replay. Still extremely embarrassing.
Populations:
Curacao-- 160,000
USA -- 330 000,000

MidTnAg said:

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Watching replay. Still extremely embarrassing.
Populations:
Curacao-- 160,000
USA -- 330 000,000

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Look at the bright side, you can also count the Netherlands population into that number,17M

Never mind, doesn't make it much better

I'll take the Dutch youth development program over ours every day of the week.

MidTnAg said:

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Watching replay. Still extremely embarrassing.
Populations:
Curacao-- 160,000
USA -- 330 000,000

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amazing insight

Maybe all 160,000 residents can greet the Curacao players at the airport, since they just got knocked out of the tournament.

Have you seen where they Curaao players play?

EPL, Championship league, Eredivisie, etc.

They may be from a small country, but they play at a higher level than most of our MLS guys.

jeffk said:

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I'll take the Dutch youth development program over ours every day of the week.

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They've also been doing this for over 60 years as well.

akm91 said:

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A couple of thoughts about the youngsters not on the roster. With them not participating in the Gold Cup, they actually get a full preseason with their club teams. Also, the goal is to get the 2022 and qualifying doesn't start until next spring so this gives them best opportunity to get regular playing time with their clubs when qualifying actually starts.

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I don't trust these guys enough to bring in the best players. I hope I'm wrong.

I Am Mine said:

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Have you seen where they Curaao players play?

EPL, Championship league, Eredivisie, etc.

They may be from a small country, but they play at a higher level than most of our MLS guys.

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Eh. I wouldn't agree with that.

1 is the USL.
3 are in the semi-professional Curacao league.
1 is in the English championship, 2 are in League 2.
1 is in the 2nd level in Belgium.
1 is in the top Cyprus league.
1 is in the Saudi Arabian league.

4 play in the Dutch 2nd division and 2 play in a Dutch semi-pro league.

[1 is in the top Portuguese league (but just relegated back down).]

TXAggie2011 said:

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I Am Mine said:

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Have you seen where they Curaao players play?

EPL, Championship league, Eredivisie, etc.

They may be from a small country, but they play at a higher level than most of our MLS guys.

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Eh. I wouldn't agree with that.

1 is the USL.
3 are in the semi-professional Curacao league.
1 is in the English championship, 2 are in League 2.
1 is in the 2nd level in Belgium.
1 is in the top Cyprus league.
1 is in the Saudi Arabian league.

4 play in the Dutch 2nd division and 2 play in a Dutch semi-pro league.

[1 is in the top Portuguese league (but just relegated back down).]

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So we have 6 that in a higher level of play than the MLS.