Passing along the back line, Robinson has thr ball and everyone is just standing still in the midfield.. not great

There you go Vazquez. Have it!

PatAg said:

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I don't think Poch should fully write anybody off from the friendlies, but I imagine people are definitely moving down his list.

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Someones gonna have to do the work and get down into the weeds of finding players with traits to build a team out of. This teams biggest weakness is that everyone thats being picked, while being the best guys we have at those positions are all still kinda "just a guy" typical players. Especially glaring when you go up through the heart of the whole team from goalkeeper through tye middle to center forward

Run is correct, that ball has to be one timed into acres of space by Lund, imo

JJxvi said:

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PatAg said:

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I don't think Poch should fully write anybody off from the friendlies, but I imagine people are definitely moving down his list.

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Someones gonna have to do the work and get down into the weeds of finding players with traits to build a team out of. This teams biggest weakness is that everyone thats being picked, while being the best guys we have at those positions are all still kinda "just a guy" typical players. Especially glaring when you go up through the heart of the whole team from goalkeeper through tye middle to center forward

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Completely agree. Abd i don't know that the players need to be excelling in Europe either. We've had plenty of central mids play well for the national team as mls players.

I think this lineup was pretty soft in general but top to bottom 1 -11 we're not quick enough, either in decision making or quick twitch muscle fibers, nor or we technically skillful or tactically smart enough.

Hard to watch a match like this and think we'd have a very formidable squad in less than two years.

I didn't realize Obed Vargas swapped to mexico

oh no said:

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I think this lineup was pretty soft in general but top to bottom 1 -11 we're not quick enough, either in decision making or quick twitch muscle fibers, nor or we technically skillful or tactically smart enough.

Hard to watch a match like this and think we'd have a very formidable squad in less than two years.

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As it stands right now, definitely relying on a run of injury free play from a group that has consistently been out injured

The team is crying out for even just like a Brad Davis type player. Weston McKennie has to be in the team if your center backs are going to be zero aerial threat on set pieces, etc. Were weak in a bunch of different specialist areas where normally somebody in your eleven will be good

Like i said, yeah we are missing arguably our three best players, road game against a good side with a new coach playing witt lineups. A loss isn't world ending.
But we have been out efforted for about 6 months now, minus the first half against Panama. There is some rot on this team that needs to be dealt with or nothing is getting better,

We have to wear the Waldos again

Only watched about 30 minutes of the match. Largely a throw away game. Tim Reem looked his age for the first time. Need to find his replacement fast.

oh no said:

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I think this lineup was pretty soft in general but top to bottom 1 -11 we're not quick enough, either in decision making or quick twitch muscle fibers, nor or we technically skillful or tactically smart enough.

Hard to watch a match like this and think we'd have a very formidable squad in less than two years.

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This was my take on the match as well. Full squad and healthy, we are as fast, big and strong as most teams out there. Subtract a few and we look slow. That shows the lack of depth. I don't know if Poch will have enough time to address the lack of depth. Seems that the only way to really address this is thru youth programs. Maybe he can get a few established guys to transfer.

2 years ago, no one knew who Lamine Yamal was.

I'm not at all saying we have someone like that in the pipeline, but it's not impossible to imagine that a couple young guys get a lot better in the next year.

deadbq03 said:

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2 years ago, no one knew who Lamine Yamal was.

I'm not at all saying we have someone like that in the pipeline, but it's not impossible to imagine that a couple young guys get a lot better in the next year.

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From his Wiki:

At six years of age, Yamal was scouted by Barcelona and was invited to training sessions at La Masia, signing for the club in 2014 and moving to Barcelona to live and train at the academy.

Along with the MLS and continental club games now i swear its ****ing usa vs mexico mls vs liga mx over and over and over, its like the whole domestic sport

Holy crap. Yes I was being super literal and you caught me. Congratulations.

PatAg said:

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I didn't realize Obed Vargas swapped to mexico

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Crazy considering he's from Alaska of all places too.

He recently switched (May or June?) and he's moved up the Mexican table very quickly. I think he went from U20, to U23 in the same camp.

JJxvi said:

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Lalas is on the rampage about the players not playing for load management or whatever and how they should want to play in this game always no matter where it is for what stakes etc.

I have a suggestion…for both fan AND player interest. Stop having USA-Mexico money grabs so we can get in a another Mexico-USA game in every year. We're playing Mexico in like 4-6 official games per cycle now

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And that is also the major downside of the Nation's League crap in CONCACAF and UEFA. There are no longer any open dates to play other teams in the world because every international break is some tournament qualifier. Basically prevents the USA from playing any other decent team.

1) Lalas is a turd and that's a bad take.
2) Wangus is right. Either CONCACAF and CONMEBOL need to merge or the US needs to make a hard push to join UEFA. Obviously there are challenges to either, but we're stuck with Mexico as our only good opponent in the current landscape, so it's no surprise we try to play them as often as possible.
3) My hyperbolic point above was that young guys can explode onto the worldwide scene in a short amount of time. It's possible for someone with 0 senior caps today who to be a starter for us in 2026. There are a lot of guys with potential to explode on the scene. While Cavan Sullivan is perhaps the most likely, I desperately hope Josh Wynder can be a guy who jumps to the next level quickly… we're hurting so bad at CB now.

Sullivan will be what? 16 years old during the world cup? that would be amazing if he's broken through with the senior team already by then. Let's see if he gets called into a camp soon.

oh no said:

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Sullivan will be what? 16 years old during the world cup? that would be amazing if he's broken through with the senior team already by then. Let's see if he gets called into a camp soon.

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He's not ready for MLS. I hope we don't' call him until he's playing regularly at least at the MLS level.

Yeah I misspoke above… I probably should've said "most famous" instead of "most likely" … I don't think he's likely to break into the squad, but he's probably the name most of us know and are excited to see. And it's not impossible.

Rudyjax said:

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oh no said:

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Sullivan will be what? 16 years old during the world cup? that would be amazing if he's broken through with the senior team already by then. Let's see if he gets called into a camp soon.

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He's not ready for MLS. I hope we don't' call him until he's playing regularly at least at the MLS level.

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Yeah, at a minimum he'd need to be an every-game starter for MLS. Best case would be that he's been placed somewhere else in Europe by City (evidently he can't go to England until he's 18) and is starting for whoever that is.

I want to see more of Trusty. He's becoming a regular starter for Celtic and started most of the PL games for Sheffield last year (although the got relegated).

yes

wangus12 said:

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I want to see more of Trusty. He's becoming a regular starter for Celtic and started most of the PL games for Sheffield last year (although the got relegated).

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Trusty is 26, sadly. Not impossible for him to pull a Ream and get a lot better, but it's more likely that he's nearly reached his peak ability.

Also, with both him and CCV, it's important to recognize that there is a giant cliff between Celtic-Rangers and the rest of their league. They're well below MLS and the worst among them would get beaten by EFL League 2 sides.

That said… I could see a lot of benefit to having a CCV-Trusty pairing if both end up playing together a lot for Celtic.

where do we go at Left back in less than two years if we enter the world cup and Antonee Robinson isn't healthy? Jedi does seem to take quite a few knocks and injuries in recent year or so.

Lund hasn't looked like the answer, although he's young. Trying to think through who has capped at LB in the last couple of years and looking up where they're playing now:

Dest or Scally both prefer the right side, but are capable of playing well on the left when called upon. Gregg played Dest at LB several times and Dest has played some left winger for club in the past. Scally has played LB for club out of need a good bit when he was breaking through in Germany, but is currently the regular starter at RB for M'gladback. Versatility and quality has both of these two as almost guarantees to be included in Poch's WC squad in 2026, IMO, though as along as Jedi is healthy, Dest is likely your starter at RB and Scally is a versatile sub for either/both. Dest is 24 yrs old. Scally is 22.

As far as true, more natural LBs behind Jedi:

Kristoffer Lund playing currently in Serie B in Italy. 20 yrs old.
George Bello playing currently in 2.Bundesliga. 20 yrs old.
Sam Vines playing currently in Belgium. 25 yrs old.
DeJuan Jones playing currently in MLS. 27 yrs old.
John Tolkin playing currently in MLS, but young (19) - could land in Europe in the next year ahead of the 2026 WC.
Kevin Paredes playing currently in Bundesliga for Wolfsburg. Also young (19). Injured at the moment. Poch may really like Paredes he's quite skillful has played a lot centrally at midfield and attacks more on the left side as a winger or wingback.
Jonathan Gomez playing currently in Greece, out of FC Dallas academy. Only 18. Eligible for Mexico. Uncapped- played in friendlies only- for both US and Mex.

You could probably add Caleb Wiley to that list although he didn't have a good Olympics and it looks like he's struggling at his new club.

There's a lot of young guys there so hopefully someone has a great year and improves a lot. We've seen Vines plenty so I would hope we can do better.