Never heard this take before. Again, the USA defense let us down.

Pulisic didn't have a great tournament but some of these takes are just bad.

The team should've watched summer of '94 before the game. That would've fired them up.

Berhalter and Reyna need to step up and lead this team - those are the two until someone else shows up. I have less faith in Reyna growing up but if he does he has what it takes to lead the team to the next level-

MookieBlaylock said:

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Berhalter and Reyna need to step up and lead this team - those are the two until someone else shows up. I have less faith in Reyna growing up but if he does he has what it takes to lead the team to the next level-

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Tillman?

THE_CHOSEN_ONE said:

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MookieBlaylock said:

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Berhalter and Reyna need to step up and lead this team - those are the two until someone else shows up. I have less faith in Reyna growing up but if he does he has what it takes to lead the team to the next level-

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Tillman?

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Richards? McKennie?

Quote:

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You can have athleticism and technical know-how but that is worthless at the highest level if you can't handle to pressure cooker of playing at the highest level.

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Donovan is Exhibit A of American soccer players failing to handle the pressure cooker

fig96 said:

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tysker said:

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Quote:

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You can have athleticism and technical know-how but that is worthless at the highest level if you can't handle to pressure cooker of playing at the highest level.

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Donovan is Exhibit A of American soccer players failing to handle the pressure cooker

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There's some valid criticisms of Donovan, particularly in his club career, but when it came to the national team he absolutely showed up and left it all on the field.

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I think we have suffered some revisionist history based on a couple of key plays and highlight reels. LD was often known as a guy who disappeared for long stretches of US matches. Some of it was probably due to how he was used - playing out as wide as possible and often not paired with another striker to play off of - but we constantly criticized LD for going missing in big matches and not imposing himself on games


eta: he even went on sabbatical in 2013 and then expected a spot on the 2014 roster. And somehow the guy is not currently being called out when criticizing CP for taking time off for 'fitness' and 'avoiding burnout'

tysker said:

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fig96 said:

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tysker said:

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Quote:

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You can have athleticism and technical know-how but that is worthless at the highest level if you can't handle to pressure cooker of playing at the highest level.

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Donovan is Exhibit A of American soccer players failing to handle the pressure cooker

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There's some valid criticisms of Donovan, particularly in his club career, but when it came to the national team he absolutely showed up and left it all on the field.

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I think we have suffered some revisionist history based on a couple of key plays and highlight reels. LD was often known as a guy who disappeared for long stretches of US matches. Some of it was probably due to how he was used - playing out as wide as possible and often not paired with another striker to play off of - but we constantly criticized LD for going missing in big matches and not imposing himself on games


eta: he even went on sabbatical in 2013 and then expected a spot on the 2014 roster. And somehow the guy is not currently being called out when criticizing CP for taking time off for 'fitness' and 'avoiding burnout'

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This soo much this. Yes he scored some big goals for the US but he was way worse at disappearing in games than CP. I have said before the LD is overrated because of the big goals he scored especially since he was missing more often than not in big games.

AustinScubaAg said:

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tysker said:

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fig96 said:

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tysker said:

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Quote:

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You can have athleticism and technical know-how but that is worthless at the highest level if you can't handle to pressure cooker of playing at the highest level.

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Donovan is Exhibit A of American soccer players failing to handle the pressure cooker

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There's some valid criticisms of Donovan, particularly in his club career, but when it came to the national team he absolutely showed up and left it all on the field.

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I think we have suffered some revisionist history based on a couple of key plays and highlight reels. LD was often known as a guy who disappeared for long stretches of US matches. Some of it was probably due to how he was used - playing out as wide as possible and often not paired with another striker to play off of - but we constantly criticized LD for going missing in big matches and not imposing himself on games


eta: he even went on sabbatical in 2013 and then expected a spot on the 2014 roster. And somehow the guy is not currently being called out when criticizing CP for taking time off for 'fitness' and 'avoiding burnout'

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This soo much this. Yes he scored some big goals for the US but he was way worse at disappearing in games than CP. I have said before the LD is overrated because of the big goals he scored especially since he was missing more often than not in big games.

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What're we calling big games? He had 5 goals in 12 World Cup games, currently tied for the lead (Balogun should pass that next tournament but we're not there yet).

Like I said there's some fair criticism and he was far from perfect, but historically speaking he's still one of the best we've had. And I'd find it hard to say he disappeared more than Pulisic at this point, he's got 1 goal in two tournaments.

Some interesting discussion from Herculez Gomez and Rog (and yes Herc likes to play the contrarian but he's pretty spot on here).




Rog asking if Herc thinks players will be on the next World Cup squad along with their ages:

"Tim Ream, he'll be 63 years old."

https://apnews.com/article/pulisic-leg-fracture-f3db63f070150fc16214515a27d6e0b9

Not much to add in the way of commentary.

tysker said:

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fig96 said:

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tysker said:

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Quote:

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You can have athleticism and technical know-how but that is worthless at the highest level if you can't handle to pressure cooker of playing at the highest level.

---

Donovan is Exhibit A of American soccer players failing to handle the pressure cooker

---

There's some valid criticisms of Donovan, particularly in his club career, but when it came to the national team he absolutely showed up and left it all on the field.

---

I think we have suffered some revisionist history based on a couple of key plays and highlight reels. LD was often known as a guy who disappeared for long stretches of US matches. Some of it was probably due to how he was used - playing out as wide as possible and often not paired with another striker to play off of - but we constantly criticized LD for going missing in big matches and not imposing himself on games


eta: he even went on sabbatical in 2013 and then expected a spot on the 2014 roster. And somehow the guy is not currently being called out when criticizing CP for taking time off for 'fitness' and 'avoiding burnout'

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He isn't called Ladycakes for nothing.

LeonardSkinner said:

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https://apnews.com/article/pulisic-leg-fracture-f3db63f070150fc16214515a27d6e0b9

Not much to add in the way of commentary.

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the microfracture gives me some pause, but when he went down, it was still 2-1 and we came out as the better team at half. His absense led to that 3rd goal right after he went off. I think he's been way too penalized for his performance in this WC, at least on social media. But, I just wonder how many key players for teams across this tournament would have gone out with a microfracture and bone bruise, even knowing the dangers of it getting worse and affecting the upcoming club season. Who knows...

I like Pulisic and we're so much better with him in there.

But he's not known to be a durable player. I know you cant control injuries, but it's frustrating to have your best player always dinged up or getting hurt.

zgolfz85 said:

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LeonardSkinner said:

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https://apnews.com/article/pulisic-leg-fracture-f3db63f070150fc16214515a27d6e0b9

Not much to add in the way of commentary.

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the microfracture gives me some pause, but when he went down, it was still 2-1 and we came out as the better team at half. His absense led to that 3rd goal right after he went off. I think he's been way too penalized for his performance in this WC, at least on social media. But, I just wonder how many key players for teams across this tournament would have gone out with a microfracture and bone bruise, even knowing the dangers of it getting worse and affecting the upcoming club season. Who knows...

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Couple of things
You're remembering the time line wrong. They scored while he was still on and basically unable to move. To the point where Stu had just finished saying "if you hurt, just go down and force a stoppage, we're playing a man down "
I dont think he caused ths goal, but its possible an active player on his spot may have prevented the long ball from occurring. But that goal is 100% on Freese unfortunately.

I also know you can definitely seriously injure yourself on the play Pulisic got injured, really easy to tear ligaments or break something when you go to.shoot full effort and get your leg impeded with and dont get to follow through.
Similar to when a QB goes to pass and the blitz gets to their hand/elbow during the throw.

However at this point Pulisic has sort of no showed a lot of big games or been forced to miss them with injury. Which is tough when its juxtaposed as him being our best and most important player and captain america.

Tough to say…

Hurts like hell, and we're looking like **** anyway, in the round of 16…. Maybe it's not the best idea to keep playing.

If it's a 0-0 draw in a quarterfinal or later round? Maybe you do gut it out as long as the pain is bearable.

But that's me trying to be objective, in hindsight, and giving him the benefit of a doubt.

That third goal… it's almost like, if anyone involved had done anything except what they actually did, they might not have scored.

If Ream had literally just fallen down on the 18 yard line, his decrepit body would have blocked it.

Poopslap bet he doesn't have a micro fracture. Just using that to quiet all the noise

Hill08 said:

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Poopslap bet he doesn't have a micro fracture. Just using that to quiet all the noise

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well considering microfracture is a surgical procedure and not an injury, I think you're safe there. I'm guessing they meant hairline or stress fracture....seems insane that any kind of legitimate medical diagnosis would state an injury that doesn't exist in medical terminology.

After listening to some pods and respected talking heads across the globe since Monday's abomination of a match by us, it's universally agreed to that the Balogun stuff was a clear distraction. They reference the inconsistency in play sure, but more so the different body language and energy both before, during and especially after the game.

Still blows my mind how so many on these boards got up in arms for pointing out what was a blatant blunder by Trump to get involved. It immediately turned into a nonexistent TDS thing when it had nothing to do with Trump. I'm glad he's there and not Kamala, full stop. But, to suggest he should have gotten involved in the Balo stuff is so insane to me and I have to assume most who argued that have come to their senses now that we're a few days out with more time to reflect.

The biggest shame is the erasure of most of the good will we'd built up this summer with this team globally with the feel good underdog story and magnetic personalities of these guys, only to return back to a largely hated entity, and so unnecessarily.

Ffs

Then they were mentally weak as athletes anyway and don't deserve to be in the QF. Simple as that

Other countries do the same ****, too. And our best chance to win was with Balogun on that field.

And **** all the "good will" ***** You can be a winner or you can get the "bless your heart, nice try" treatment. Any "good will" from the rest of the world was the latter.

Buck Compton said:

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Then they were mentally weak as athletes anyway and don't deserve to be in the QF. Simple as that

Other countries do the same ****, too. And our best chance to win was with Balogun on that field.

And **** all the "good will" ***** You can be a winner or you can get the "bless your heart, nice try" treatment. Any "good will" from the rest of the world was the latter.

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I don't disagree that our team is soft. The only call should have come from the USSF though, not a favor called in by POTUS

Thank God we have some ***** here to tell us what the globe is saying

Problem with that attitude is that our best players play in Europe. Lord knows what kinds of messages they got from their teammates, SO's, friends, family, etc, but it's bound to be really difficult to separate yourself from it completely.

I've said it before on this board - USMNT will suffer until MLS is good enough of a league that our best players don't feel the need to run off to Europe, except for exceptional opportunities (EPL top 6, Madrid/Barca, Bayern). It's not hard to imagine that in a decade MLS could be a better opportunity than Gladbach, Celtic, etc. Again, I'm not talking about elite clubs. But I'm convinced that having more of our team based in the states would do wonders (assuming the MLS is a higher level than it is currently).

Enrico Pallazzo said:

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Thank God we have some ***** here to tell us what the globe is saying

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It's our 5th most popular sport. Turns out global feedback kind of matters in this case. It's not NFL or NBA guy

zgolfz85 said:

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You can argue in this echo chamber all you want. I'm telling you what the globe is saying.

Still amazes me how many of you guys think it was appropriate for POTUS to call in a red card review. Like do yall hear what you're saying?

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No one here cares bro. The world is welcome to theor clown opinions.


It's is beyond hilarious that people think overturning a red card given in error is the problem and not the giving of the red card or lack of review thereof.

Doesn't matter in the end. Belgium exploited our weaknesses and we didn't have the competency to deal with it. I suspect trump didnt have anything to do with the outcome since it was a repeat of an outcome from a recent game with them.

Who?mikejones! said:

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zgolfz85 said:

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You can argue in this echo chamber all you want. I'm telling you what the globe is saying.

Still amazes me how many of you guys think it was appropriate for POTUS to call in a red card review. Like do yall hear what you're saying?

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No one here cares bro. The world is welcome to theor clown opinions.


It's is beyond hilarious that people think overturning a red card given in error is the problem and not the giving of the red card or lack of review thereof.

Doesn't matter in the end. Belgium exploited our weaknesses and we didn't have the competency to deal with it. I suspect trump didnt have anything to do with the outcome since it was a repeat of an outcome from a recent game with them.

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I care. Most people outside of this weird TexAgs vacuum care. Belgium might ultimately be the better side, but we lost that match IMO mentally before we ever put boot to grass.

Also, strip out the global take then. I'll challenge you to find a single USMNT centric talking head that would agree it was a nothingburger. I'll wait.