2017 Gold Cup

[ZooCougar]

you paint with a broad brush when I am talking about a particular tactic but that's ok - you and zoo continue to think you know what you are talking about - Ive forgotten more soccer than you will ever come to know.
Continue bashing Jozy - at 41 minutes of today's final he was laughing at you

And Zoo's claim that the 2nd division Bundesliga as better than MLS - yeah - he's watched a ton of tier 2 BL matches

I used to live in 2nd Division city in Germany. Kaiserslautern. What are your questions?

I'm laughing at donkey zardes and some bad Jamaican goalkeeping. The MLSUSMNT is going to get murdered in Russia. But you Garber suckboys will still claim progress.

 

[UConnDan97]

So. Nice win. Quick thoughts.

Morris clearly belongs. He will be in England eventually.
Nagbe was possibly our best player tonight. Electric at times.
Bradley, under Arena, is more like his old self. Played well.
Jozy was solid. Great free kick.
Zardes doesn't belong on the roster, let alone the field. What an oafish player.
Arietta has horrible hair.
Acosta...didn't like his game. Bruce correctly subbed him first.
Tough break for Andre.

I agree with everything you've said except for Zardes. There's a place for him, but for me, it has to be on the left side. He's completely uncomfortable on the right...

 

[ZooCougar]

you paint with a broad brush when I am talking about a particular tactic but that's ok - you and zoo continue to think you know what you are talking about - Ive forgotten more soccer than you will ever come to know.
Continue bashing Jozy - at 41 minutes of today's final he was laughing at you

And Zoo's claim that the 2nd division Bundesliga as better than MLS - yeah - he's watched a ton of tier 2 BL matches

And one more thought, it's because rinky dink American "coaches" like you that we have donkeys like Pontius and Zardes gumming up the works. You pretenders sit back and say "oh look how tall and fast they are!". You've got 35 years of getting it wrong. You sound just like the loser CT high school football coaches who endorsed Paul Pasqualoni.

 

[BlueMAB]

Zardes was terrible.
We still have a ways to go.
But this wasn't our A squad anyway (no Pulisic who is the best player we have right now)
And god bless Zoo, but JK's team wouldn't have performed any better. In fact he lost to Jamaica 2-1 the last time we played them in the gold cup.

 

[spsct]

The second Bundesliga? Hogwash. Absolute hogwash.

I don't watch any MLS, but I would say the top 25% of the second Bundesliga (4-5 teams) could compete in the first division. After that I would say the quality starts dropping fairly quickly but I think that the top teams would do OK in MLS.

I won't say they're better because I don't know much about MLS other than some names.

Just a neutral opinion.

 

[meyers7]

Zardes was terrible.
We still have a ways to go.
But this wasn't our A squad anyway (no Pulisic who is the best player we have right now)
And god bless Zoo, but JK's team wouldn't have performed any better. In fact he lost to Jamaica 2-1 the last time we played them in the gold cup.

Don't forget his team also lost to Costa Rica 4-0 last time too.

But Zoo doesn't see any difference in the teams under JK and BA.

 

[upstater]

I don't see the big improvement expected in the USA either. The talent pool is small still and the dedication is not what it could be.

Claudio Reyna played for the USA 20 years ago. Have we had a field general like Claudio ever since then? No. I acknowledge that Pulisic is going to play at a higher level than Reyna, but we don't have people at key positions like the #6. Bradley is playing better. But compare Bradley to some of the guys from the past like Reyna. There is a night and day difference. Heck, Bradley is not anywhere near John O'Brien's level either.

 

[SubbaBub]

I think Bradley was an excellent 6. Now he is just a good 6, but so long as he doesn't have the responsibility to go box to box any longer, I think he matches up well well most any opponent.

With the exception of Villafana, who is emerging but not a lock starter yet, the entire back line for this gold cup is a hard pass.

Zardes isn't there. Nagbe has a chance to crack the WC 11 and will be on the roster. Acosta will be fighting with Jones for a spot. Though we could do worse than bringing those 3 plus Pulisic as our center mids. First time I can reminder not feeling panicked over yellow card accumulation at that position.

The wings will depend heavily on formation and opponent I think, but I'd like to see Johnson and Nagbe on the field at the same time.

Jozy made a really nice free kick and was way more active than he usually is. I still think we create more chances without him, but he had a good game last night.

I'm guessing Dempsey could get used to the play 30 minutes and generate a goal. His comeback has been amazing. His ball skills were so much better than everyone else on the field it was odd to watch. I hope he maintains his form for another year.

Morris will need to show against better sides. This one is already out of qualifying. He is starting to look comfortable at this level though. Next 12 - 24 months will be big for him.

The next qualifiers will have a different look, but I think Bruce will start to favor the younger fringe players over he older ones.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I'm not sure I follow the arguments. So the USA absolutely dominates Jamaica, start to finish, allowing them almost no possession and only a couple of chances, but the US squad isn't any good. Doesn't matter, I suppose that Jamaica just beat Mexico and that we just beat Costa Rica handily. Was CR at full strength? No. But they were closer to it than the USA was.

Has a U.S. team ever rolled through a Gold Cup as easily as this one did? With a B-level roster? I suspect that people are nostalgic for favorite players of the past. Yes, a young Reyna would be great and would let us move Pulisic to the wing. But at many other spots this squad is improved over many of the past. Gonzales has really improved playing without Brooks, and has taken on more responsibility. Besler has been good. Nagbe is legit. Morris is one of the most potentially effective attacking subs I can recall, and he even plays defense, so you can plug him in a tied game without adding risk.

I really can't recall any U.S. team playing as aggressively, with as much pressure as this one does. Maybe it will backfire in Russia, maybe it won't. Goakeeper is the spot that concerns me most. They look cohesive, and play pretty well as a team out there, except Zardes. I would like to see somebody besides Acosta in the sub center mid role. I think Nagbe got an audition because Acosta did little besides commit fouls.

 

[upstater]

This is a funny article from 2 years ago:

The United States' 10 best players under the age of 21

 

[SubbaBub]

I used to live in 2nd Division city in Germany. Kaiserslautern. What are your questions?

I'm laughing at donkey zardes and some bad Jamaican goalkeeping. The MLSUSMNT is going to get murdered in Russia. But you Garber suckboys will still claim progress.

This team isn't going anywhere in Russia. You think there isn't going to be a lot of money invested in questionable referee decisions?

Let's be honest here about the prospects of the US getting a fair shake.

I'm curious if the team will get hit head on travel as well like they did in Brazil. Do they out them in Moscow or St. Petersburg, or do they send they out into the hinterlands?

I think advancing is not going to be determined on the pitch.

 

[ZooCougar]

Don't forget his team also lost to Costa Rica 4-0 last time too.

But Zoo doesn't see any difference in the teams under JK and BA.

Not apples to apples. I really should not have to explain it to you.

 

[ZooCougar]

I'm not sure I follow the arguments. So the USA absolutely dominates Jamaica, start to finish, allowing them almost no possession and only a couple of chances, but the US squad isn't any good. Doesn't matter, I suppose that Jamaica just beat Mexico and that we just beat Costa Rica handily. Was CR at full strength? No. But they were closer to it than the USA was.

Has a U.S. team ever rolled through a Gold Cup as easily as this one did? With a B-level roster? I suspect that people are nostalgic for favorite players of the past. Yes, a young Reyna would be great and would let us move Pulisic to the wing. But at many other spots this squad is improved over many of the past. Gonzales has really improved playing without Brooks, and has taken on more responsibility. Besler has been good. Nagbe is legit. Morris is one of the most potentially effective attacking subs I can recall, and he even plays defense, so you can plug him in a tied game without adding risk.

I really can't recall any U.S. team playing as aggressively, with as much pressure as this one does. Maybe it will backfire in Russia, maybe it won't. Goakeeper is the spot that concerns me most. They look cohesive, and play pretty well as a team out there, except Zardes. I would like to see somebody besides Acosta in the sub center mid role. I think Nagbe got an audition because Acosta did little besides commit fouls.

This was a B list Gold Cup and the US brought in their A- team. Not winning the cup would have been a calamity.

Let's be honest, the standard of play was perhaps the worst ever seen in this tournament.

This was a missed opportunity. Instead of blooding youth, we brought in MLS USMNT fringe players. There should have been more Miazgas...

 

[Excalibur]

I don't see the big improvement expected in the USA either. The talent pool is small still and the dedication is not what it could be.

Claudio Reyna played for the USA 20 years ago. Have we had a field general like Claudio ever since then? No. I acknowledge that Pulisic is going to play at a higher level than Reyna, but we don't have people at key positions like the #6. Bradley is playing better. But compare Bradley to some of the guys from the past like Reyna. There is a night and day difference. Heck, Bradley is not anywhere near John O'Brien's level either.

Bradley spent many of his prime years playing out of position for Jurgen. From a European club standpoint, he was far better than O'Brien. Reyna is probably still the best mid to play for the U.S.

 

[Excalibur]

Not apples to apples. I really should not have to explain it to you.

Right -- Jurgen lost to Jamaica with his A squad . . .

 

[ZooCougar]

Right -- Jurgen lost to Jamaica with his A squad . . .

And then the next summer he crushed everyone not named Argentina and Colombia in the Copa.

We had no business beating those two top 5 teams anyways.

You guys crack me up. Remind me again about the 2006 World Cup.

 

[ZooCougar]

Bradley spent many of his prime years playing out of position for Jurgen. From a European club standpoint, he was far better than O'Brien. Reyna is probably still the best mid to play for the U.S.

Bradley is synonymous with overrated. He's just not what he was in his early twenties.

 

[UConnDan97]

This was a B list Gold Cup and the US brought in their A- team. Not winning the cup would have been a calamity.

Let's be honest, the standard of play was perhaps the worst ever seen in this tournament.

This was a missed opportunity. Instead of blooding youth, we brought in MLS USMNT fringe players. There should have been more Miazgas...

This was the US's A-team? Really?

You don't think that Pulisic, Cameron, Johnson, Brooks, Yedlin, Wood, or Bedoya would have anything to say about that? When more than half of your projected starters for WC Qualifying are not on the roster that wins it, that is the definition of a B-side.

Could we have seen more playing time for folks like Miazga? Yes, and I've argued as much in this thread. But my God, man. You work so very hard to hurl nonsense at Arena in order to defend your stance on Klinsmann. It's beyond tired at this point. The players are playing better under Arena than they were under Klinsmann, no matter how you try to slice it. Players like Nagbe didn't even get a sniff under Klinsmann, and he now looks to be one of our key players going forward. But I guess you should continue to hold out hope that Aron Johannson and Julian Green will eventually turn the corner so that you can fulfill your anti-Arena anti-MLS fetish. Don't get me wrong, I hope they turn the corner because they are Americans, but I also am aware that they aren't our best options right now and I don't care where our best options come from...

 

[Excalibur]

Bradley is . . . just not what he was in his early twenties.

Clearly . . .

 

[HuskyHawk]

This was a B list Gold Cup and the US brought in their A- team. Not winning the cup would have been a calamity.

Let's be honest, the standard of play was perhaps the worst ever seen in this tournament.

This was a missed opportunity. Instead of blooding youth, we brought in MLS USMNT fringe players. There should have been more Miazgas...

Costa Rica had more normal starters than we did. Morris isn't one of the youth? Villafana? Acosta? Arriola?
Could we have left Zusi at home? Sure. Other than Miazga and Jesse Gonzalez, they played the rest of the youngest guys they had.

CCV was playing for the Spurs in the Champions Cup against Roma Tuesday, isn't that even better experience? We do need to cap him soon. I don't know why Miazga didn't get a look on the back line.

 

[ZooCougar]

Costa Rica had more normal starters than we did. Morris isn't one of the youth? Villafana? Acosta? Arriola?
Could we have left Zusi at home? Sure. Other than Miazga and Jesse Gonzalez, they played the rest of the youngest guys they had.

CCV was playing for the Spurs in the Champions Cup against Roma Tuesday, isn't that even better experience? We do need to cap him soon. I don't know why Miazga didn't get a look on the back line.

Morris is not youth. He spent too much time in college. He's not as young as you think.

Acosta I can sort of see because the alternative was Jermaine Jones. But in reality Emerson Hyndman may be a better player. If you don't think he would play in MLS like Acosta then you are nuts.

 

[Excalibur]

CCV was playing for the Spurs in the Champions Cup against Roma Tuesday, isn't that even better experience? We do need to cap him soon. I don't know why Miazga didn't get a look on the back line.

There was a legitimate reason to leave CCV out, but given how bad the back line was during this tournament I can't understand why Miazga was left off the field.

 

[UConnDan97]

Morris is not youth. He spent too much time in college. He's not as young as you think.

Morris is 22 years old. He's exactly as young as I think...

 

[Excalibur]

Acosta I can sort of see because the alternative was Jermaine Jones. But in reality Emerson Hyndman may be a better player. If you don't think he would play in MLS like Acosta then you are nuts.

He may be. His injury complicated things.

I also think Acosta will take a turn in Europe at some point.

 

[ZooCougar]

Morris is 22 years old. He's exactly as young as I think...

22 is still youth to you? At 22 you are an established pro. Only in the US do we consider that age "youth".