USA USA USA!!!

Snowing at game's location...could that affect the Costa Ricans? (Although many of them play in Scandinavia, MLS, etc. so are used to it).

Gringos in MexicoO0oO0o0oO0oOo

Not sure if this is the right place but is anybody watching the CONCACAF U-17 championship match between USA and Honduras? Winner qualifies for the U-17 World Cup. Score is currently 1-1.

Spoiler alert

It's on my DVR...

3-1, Honduras to the U-17 WC, USA go home.

A lot of things are going to be questioned.. like the effectiveness of Bradenton's Residency Program, the coaching decision to keep Junior Flores, the top U-17 US prospect in the world, on the bench the whole game, and the coaching job of Ritchie Williams which was deplorable.

Our coaching is dreadful from top to bottom

People make a big deal about how we need MLS players to go overseas for the good of the country's football landscape etc

IMO we need more managers going overseas far more than players...even at the college and amateur levels players get exposed to all sorts of different playing styled just based on the diversity of the country at large...

...the same cannot be said of the coaching landscape

Player development has improved dramatically...Manager development has stagnated at best

Yeah, after that performance it's time to can Jurgen and Gulati. I wouldn't feel so bad if there was at least some semblance of tactics, but we looked like 11 individual players out there with no sense of purpose or drive. I hope it was just a bad game, but unfortunately it looked like more of the same under Jurgen.

Some of the MLS players had games Sunday night such as Omar Gonzalez, Graham Zusi and Brad Davis and all 3 of them started(Matt Biesler,Eddie Johnson, Brad Evans were on the bench as well).
Assuming they left Monday morning to join up with camp that had half of Monday and Tuesday to practice with their teammates before the game.
I was surprised Goodson started as he is trash in my opinion and he proved it to me again. He was making Rec league errors all game from poor positioning to horrible runs and and not covering the other center back.

Gonzalez's first touch on that Benteke tap in was hard to watch. Seriously. You'd think he'd never trapped a ball before. Such a poor goal to give up.

I really don't have too many other complaints about the others. Belgium made their own mistakes. We just made more of them and they were savvy enough to punish us for them.

I personally think we looked ok at 1-1, but just disintegrated after their 2nd. The team just doesn't have an identity, but then again...neither did Bayern under Klinsmann.

There are some VERY VERY good players on the U-15-U-18 level. Just as good as some top european/South american talents

Trust me.. I know. America has alot of talent. We just have to be patient

I'm not worried about us not having talent, I'm worried about it not being found and coached correctly.

McLewis wrote:Gonzalez's first touch on that Benteke tap in was hard to watch. Seriously. You'd think he'd never trapped a ball before. Such a poor goal to give up.

Yeah I agree I was disappointed in the goal. At first it was a good job covering Goodson and winning the ball off Benteke but the touch after that was horrible. I wasn't surprised to see Goodson just stop at the top of the 18 yard box after Omar won the tackle while Benteke continued his run right to the 6 yard box. There are Sunday league defenders that could've done a better job than Goodson in that situation, you have to drop to the level of the ball the plays not over !!
I do think Biesler should have started. Him and Omar complement each other really well plus they're both young unlike Goodson. Biesler plays exactly like delagarza from the galaxy and omar plays exactly like Aureliens Collins from SKC.

The coaching is horrible I don't think it's on Klinnsman though its Vasquez, the only fault Klinnsman has is not firing Vasquez.

Motogp69 wrote:I'm not worried about us not having talent, I'm worried about it not being found and coached correctly.

This. The talent is there, but its not scouted properly. There are kids that can get trials in Mexico but not in LA or even get college scholarship, its a joke. I hope Chivas USA gets sold and rebranded(LA Aztecs anyone lol?) while being moved to East LA and not Carson, they will draw fans there and with the Galaxy there will be 2 MLS academies to Find all the amazing soccer talent that is in LA.

Also, Jozy has shown exactly what I feared what happens to just about any player who lights up the Eredivisie: That form stays there.

He looked pretty bad once again in US colors. Slow, cumbersome and just didn't have the right movements.

McLewis wrote:Also, Jozy has shown exactly what I feared what happens to just about any player who lights up the Eredivisie: That form stays there.

He looked pretty bad once again in US colors. Slow, cumbersome and just didn't have the right movements.

Admittedly, it's hard to play on an island when you are getting no service. I don't doubt Altidore's ability one bit, but he needs to receive more than 1 chance a game to be successful. If we moved back to the 4/4/2 (diamond), and went back to our fast break counter-attacking style against better teams I think you would see him do much better.

Right now they want him to be Drogba for the USMNT, and that isn't his game. It's the coaches job to tailor his tactics to the team and talent he has, and Jurgen and Vasquez aren't capable of doing that. If we were actually playing German style football I think we would do fine as the game perfect suits the talent we have at our disposal, but unfortunately, we got the wrong German.

Brad Evans

Played like shit today. Surprised we won

As usual bradley stands out from the rest and carrys the team

Jozy gaining confidence

We have a solid core, but our wingers are streaky as shit and the center of our defense can look fine for 80 minutes and then collapse like a stack of cards...its baffling

Swanhends wrote:Jozy gaining confidence

We have a solid core, but our wingers are streaky as shit and the center of our defense can look fine for 80 minutes and then collapse like a stack of cards...its baffling

This is the part that worries me more than anything, there was never really a sense of danger from Jamaica for most of the game but then they get easy shots from plays where we obviously know what they are going to do, but still don't have the positional sense to stop it. Baffling

Anytime you get 3 points away from home it's an amazing performance.

I was really impressed with the positions Zusi got into, but everyone's touch seemed to be questionable last night, except Bradley

Good game, never in trouble, constantly pressing and should of been more than 2 if the field was better.

Top of the table. Now we can relax the rest of the games and focus on the Gold Cup.

Also, first game in a while that someone besides Bradley was man of the match, that Altidore work rate tonight

I'll type up more later, but a big win for the US tonight all but securing their ticket to Brazil.

Jozy bringing that beautiful AZ form to the USMNT. Now he needs to get settled at the right club and the next challenge ahead of the World Cup.

I really miss the Dempsey that put away all his chances. It seems so long ago when he was on that run of form where he didn't miss any chance that came his way. If we get that ship right I think we'll have a pretty good attack going into the World Cup.

Other than that, width as always was the key.

Now onto the Gold Cup and punching our ticket to the Confederations Cup.

Oh, and Jones was killing our midfield. There was no reason to play him, and he was just running reckless all game forcing Bradley to essentially play the majority of the game at CB. Not surprising once he was subbed off the US seemed to stabilize. I think he might of lost his spot permanently to Cameron. One can only hope...

Good win tonight. A professional performance and one that pretty much secures it for us. Sick

Happy We-Beat-The-Champs-And-Nobody-Else-Can Day

Four years young

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_gxxISfHPE

MEXICO MEXICO MEXICO!!!

How does it feel to fail to get out of the groups?