General Soccer Thread

[thrill]

Altidore and Dempsey are practically secondary players now. Should be a lot of fun to watch.

I think Clint would disagree with your assessment of him being a secondary player now...

But I'm sure he'll behave gracefully in disagreement (cover your balls).

You're coming dangerously close to treading, Saigon.

Reminder: Don't tread.

[thrill]

Oh, Canada...
https://vine.co/v/enQXTznHFra

[Fat Strat]

FYI, US Gold Cup Match against Haiti tonight.

[Schlich]

FYI, US Gold Cup Match against Haiti tonight.

Thank you!!!!

[thrill]

Fox Sports 1

Previews:
http://www.americansoccernow.com/articl ... inst-haiti
http://www.mlssoccer.com/goldcup/2015/n ... -cup-clash

[go birds]

I gotta be honest...I'm not impressed with the play of the USMNT thus far even though they've won the group. Maybe I'm just overly critical

[thrill]

I gotta be honest...I'm not impressed with the play of the USMNT thus far even though they've won the group. Maybe I'm just overly critical

No one is because they've played badly and Klinsmann refuses to pick a consistent lineup/system.

[Fat Strat]

I gotta be honest...I'm not impressed with the play of the USMNT thus far even though they've won the group. Maybe I'm just overly critical

No one is because they've played badly and Klinsmann refuses to pick a consistent lineup/system.

Yeah, definitely playing as bad as I've seen them play since last fall.

I really don't think you can read much into last night. They were obviously not interested in playing. After they scored the equalizer, I noticed the midfield just starting walking around, not even bothering to come back and help on defense. They were trying to conserve some energy in a meaningless game under terrible heat/humidity.

Yes, the lineup changes have been problematic. The linkup between our midfielders has been incredibly spotty. All tournament we have missed easy touch passes and had bad giveaways, particularly in the middle 3'rd -- which has contributed to our vulnerability to counter attacks. Our touch and control in the passing game has been horrible all over the field. Decision making has been largely terrible. Yet, we've scored pretty easily when we've been able to string some possession together and push runners toward the goal. We just haven't been able to hold the ball long enough to get into those positions.

Inconsistent lineup contributes to that. No doubt. I also think that CONCACAF style hasn't allowed us to move the ball without getting murdered. The last three games, our opponent has come out guns blazing, racing around the field, hitting, fouling, winning contested balls. But, they've worn down by the 30 minute mark and we've been able to hold possession and play our game from then forward.


Also... I thought last night really revealed the differences in players. Compare Fabian Johnson to Timmy Chandler. Wow. The difference in ability between the two was startling. Chandler had the worst game I've seen from a USMNT player in a long, long time. I also keep going back to Bedoya... He needs to play all the time. He actually has the ability to link up with Bradley and hold possession. We're a really good team when those two are working together. I love Zardes and Yedlin for their respective abilities and potential but we need Bedoya out there.

[thrill]

Klinsmann called in:
Damarcus Beasley for Greg Garza

Joe Corona for Alfredo Morales

Alan Gordon for Jozy Altidore


Whatever. I like the Beasley call but it just further highlights our reliance on old players. This team is nothing without Clint Dempsey bringing his ruthless play in the final third. Beasley frees up Fab to play right back like in the World Cup. Corona adds some possession and attacking ability into a midfield that needs it. Gordo is just an indication that Johansson is going to continue to get minutes, which is fine with me. Keep Gordo there when you're down a goal late and need to bang in a set piece. He's obviously not any kind of significant piece of the puzzle though. I would've liked to see Agudelo there, but Klinsy 'gon Klinsy.

The frustrating thing about the Klinsmann era is that every good performance is treated like evidence of his greatness and every bad performance has just enough justification for him to be above criticism. You rarely watch a game and feel like he's found his best 11 players for his system and he seems like he always builds in some wiggle room with his roster selection or tactical formation to fall back on the excuse of experimenting. I just don't get it. He's been the coach for 4 years now and I don't feel he has a better handle on our player pool than he did the day he was hired. But then some game or games come along where everything falls into place and it looks great, but even then you can't tell if it's just the right combination of players coming together despite his incompetence or if it was something he was building towards the whole time because he's such an unreliable narrator of his own vision.

We're not better than we were under Bob Bradley and we're not worse, but at least with Bob I felt like every single lineup was something close to our best available team. I didn't feel like his ego was running the show. Benny Feilhaber and Landon Donovan would still be playing for the national team.

Either way, we'll probably still win this tournament by playing the kind of soccer we've been playing the last 13 years and he'll claim to have taken the team to new heights as per usual.

[Hoot45]

The Gold Cup is a classic CONCACAF competition. The only point of it is to humiliate Mexico. That's all I care about. Looking too far into Klinsmann's approach to the tournament and its impact on the long-term quality of the squad is not important right now. Beat Mexico and Be Happy. We'll figure out the rest later.