"It seemed to me that we were possessing for possession sake, and that we had no real plan in the forward 3rd of the field. It basically seemed like "possess until you get the ball up there and then do what you can." (aTmAg)
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"It seems to me, that Pep at Barcelona changed a lot with hyper possession. Now almost everybody tries to do it, but only a few can really pull it off. Everybody else (including USMNT) merely possess for the sake of possessing.
I read somewhere that the Dutch coach was perfectly happy to allow us to try to out possess them. It wasn't that we were better at it than them. In fact, they showed they were clearly better once they won the ball immediately prior to their first goal. It's just that we were not dangerous with it.
The best coach I've ever knew first hand once told me "it's easy to teach possession, it's hard to install a potent offensive scheme from it." He told me that is what separates great teams from good teams." (aTmAg)
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"You mentioned Pep - the way to beat City right now is pretty much what the Dutch did to us Saturday - let them try and try and try to unlock your defense, wait for a couple of key miss-hit passes or cleared cornerkicks and then counter to win a scoring chance or a set piece. Same with Liverpool. Both of those teams LOVE IT when you come out and try to win the ball higher on the field because you stretch out and open space for them to beat you in. The first and second Dutch goals didn't come off of them being able to out-possess the US; they came off of transition play opportunities where they were able to push fast at a US formation that was out of balance." (jeffk)
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"It seems to me, that Pep at Barcelona changed a lot with hyper possession. Now almost everybody tries to do it, but only a few can really pull it off. Everybody else (including USMNT) merely possess for the sake of possessing.
I read somewhere that the Dutch coach was perfectly happy to allow us to try to out possess them. It wasn't that we were better at it than them. In fact, they showed they were clearly better once they won the ball immediately prior to their first goal. It's just that we were not dangerous with it.
The best coach I've ever knew first hand once told me "it's easy to teach possession, it's hard to install a potent offensive scheme from it." He told me that is what separates great teams from good teams." (aTmAg)
****
"You mentioned Pep - the way to beat City right now is pretty much what the Dutch did to us Saturday - let them try and try and try to unlock your defense, wait for a couple of key miss-hit passes or cleared cornerkicks and then counter to win a scoring chance or a set piece. Same with Liverpool. Both of those teams LOVE IT when you come out and try to win the ball higher on the field because you stretch out and open space for them to beat you in. The first and second Dutch goals didn't come off of them being able to out-possess the US; they came off of transition play opportunities where they were able to push fast at a US formation that was out of balance." (jeffk)