MNT Roster for March Friendlies

[businesslawyer]

Nice to see Joshua Perez's name somewhere. He seems to have fallen into oblivion since his small number of appearances with Florence.

 

[LIuconn]

U20 team is stacked
https://www.ussoccer.com/us-under20-mens-national-team/latest-roster#tab-1

 

[ZooCougar]

Ha! Adams is going to play right back according to Beer Holder. I guess this is how he ensures that Michael Bradley gets rammed down our throats through 2022...

 

[ZooCougar]

U23 Team for friendlies 3/22 (Egypt) and 3/24 (Netherlands)

Jason Kreis coaching.

GK - Klinsmann, JT Marcinkowski
DF - Julian Araujo, CCV, Marco Farfan, Jack Maher, Olosunde, Donovan Pines, Lucas Pos, A. Robinson, Miles Robinson
MF - Derrick Jones, Cameron Lindley, Mihailovic, Parks, Eryk Williamson, Jackson Yuell
FW - Ebobisse, Joshua Perez, Emmanuel Sabbi, Sargent, Weah, Wright

Jason Kreis... the American Alan Pardew.

 

[meyers7]

Ha! Adams is going to play right back according to Beer Holder. I guess this is how he ensures that Michael Bradley gets rammed down our throats through 2022...

Well I don't think it's to ensure MB plays. But that's the way Berhalter wants to play. I guess he played this way at Colombus?? (I really didn't watch them). Though it is similar to the way Germany used Lahm and for a bit Kimmich??

A 4-1-4-1 or 4-3-3 whichever you want to call it. But it does use a dedicated 6 and basically two 10's. (Pulisic and McKennie is the guess). RB tucks in while in possession. (hence the need for a RB who can maintain possession- i.e. not Yedlin) So yea the 6 will be either Bradley or Trapp. At that point I'd prefer Bradley. For Berhalter's system this needs to be a long ball passing 6, not a destroyer 6.

But yea, sure, we could use an upgrade at the 6. Just not sure who now. Maybe Park in the future???

 

[meyers7]

U20 team is stacked
https://www.ussoccer.com/us-under20-mens-national-team/latest-roster#tab-1

Nice to see only 1 college player.

 

[LIuconn]

Anyone watch the pillow fight tonight? If not you missed nothing, but MB90 did have a few sweet line busting back passes

 

[LIuconn]

And we played our best players out of position. GB is a train wreck waiting to happen

 

[ZooCougar]

And we played our best players out of position. GB is a train wreck waiting to happen

I missed it. What happened?

 

[ZooCougar]

From Twitter it seems like the Pulisic as a 10 didn’t go so well.

Jurgen tried it.

Bruce tried it.

Didn’t work for them either.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Anyone watch the pillow fight tonight?

Sure hope Weston McKennie's left ankle injury isn't as ugly as it looked nor his inability to put any weight on it

 

[meyers7]

USA completely controlled the match. Johnson was hardly tested, except for a couple times when Reams, Bradley and Adams messed up. (he doesn't seem all that great with his feet though ) However Ecuador pretty much parked the bus (at times had all 11 within about 40 yards of their goal without really pressuring the ball). USA had quite a bit of trouble breaking them down. USA did have a couple good opportunities. Arriola shot right at the GK when he should have/could have scored. McKennie missed wide on a header. Xardes' goal was lucky/poor GKing. But it counted.

Long and Brooks did a nice job, but didn't have a lot to do.

Trapp way outplayed Bradley. Did a nice job moving the ball around and directing traffic.

Pulisic and McKennie had trouble finding pockets of space - there wasn't much. Best attacks came from long diagonal balls to Arriola and Morris. Mostly Arriola. He was the most dangerous. Back 4 of Ecuador stayed pretty compact. So there was never much space in the channels for Pulisic and McKennie. But Arriola and Morris were open on the wings a lot. Didn't always get the ball though.

Adams started tucking into the midfield about 20 minutes into the game. Not sure it really helped that much. The right side seemed to get congested occasionally with Morris, McKennie and Adams all trying to use the same space. Adams worked hard and covered a lot of ground, but his passing wasn't anything special.

McKennis is a monster in the air. (didn't know that) He must have won a half a dozen aerial battles in MF in the first half alone. I think his ankle is gonna be messed up for a bit though. Looked pretty bad. Wouldn't surprise me if it was a high ankle sprain or some ligament damage. He might be out for a while. Doubt he'll play on Mon.

Xardes didn't do much except occupy the 2 CB's. However, his touches were not as donkeyish as they have been in the past. Morris and McKennie had some trouble with some of their touches. Also they seemed to have some trouble with what Berhalter wanted them to do in the system. They were talked to throughout the game by GB and some of the other players (Trapp, Adams, Long, Brooks).

This system leaves a gaping hole at RB, which Long covered pretty well last night. However Ecuador wasn't really attacking much either. We'll have to see what happens against Chile.

Reams wore the armband, but Trapp and Brooks seemed more like the leaders on the field last night.


Edit: Oh yea forgot, Arriola did score but it was waved off for Offside on Morris. Probably shouldn't have been.

Arriola, Long and Trapp were probably top performers last night.

 

[businesslawyer]

Some of you are insufferable. First game for the players trying a new system, and while it wasn't always pretty they did pretty much dominate against a credible opponent. There could have been far worse starts to the Berhalter era.

I'd see how they use Yedlin Tuesday before being worked up about his role going forward, but Berhalter wouldn't be the first coach in sports history to have a way he wants to play that he makes players conform to. If he was a Serbian doing that the same critics would be telling us all what an act of genius this is and why American players are too dumb to understand what he wants.

 

[ZooCougar]

Some of you are insufferable. First game for the players trying a new system, and while it wasn't always pretty they did pretty much dominate against a credible opponent. There could have been far worse starts to the Berhalter era.

I'd see how they use Yedlin Tuesday before being worked up about his role going forward, but Berhalter wouldn't be the first coach in sports history to have a way he wants to play that he makes players conform to. If he was a Serbian doing that the same critics would be telling us all what an act of genius this is and why American players are too dumb to understand what he wants.

No.

We would be wondering why an EPL RB was on the bench and a Bundesliga midfielder was playing RB.

 

[meyers7]

No.

We would be wondering why an EPL RB was on the bench and a Bundesliga midfielder was playing RB.

Well I explained it to you before, hoping you might get it.

You may not like it, you may not agree with it, hell it may not even work. But you don't have to wonder why.

 

[LIuconn]

Ecuador brought a crap team to play bunker ball. Chile will be a free-flowing game, although we'll be without McKennie and Adams (club recalled him), so not sure how much we can take away from Tuesday - tho I'll have my eye out for how badley and trapp are outclassed in the middle.

 

[ZooCougar]

Well I explained it to you before, hoping you might get it.

You may not like it, you may not agree with it, hell it may not even work. But you don't have to wonder why.

Oh we know why, we just don’t know why. It’s like serving cheap champagne at McDonalds.

He should play players in their natural positions and simplify.

 

[LIuconn]

Ya I don't think a 'system' coach is right for the NT. Too many guys in and out of the lineup, too much to learn and guys playing out of their familiar zones.

Ty Adams runs laps around both Bradley and Trapp at CDM, yet he starts at RB, pushing a Premier-league starting RB out of position. And Berhalter wants Adams to play more inside as a 6/8. Head scratching for sure

 

[meyers7]

Ya I don't think a 'system' coach is right for the NT. Too many guys in and out of the lineup, too much to learn and guys playing out of their familiar zones.

That I can agree with. But so far he's 3-0. At least he has a plan. Better than our last 2 coaches.

 

[ZooCougar]

That I can agree with. But so far he's 3-0. At least he has a plan. Better than our last 2 coaches.

I agree. He’s better than Sriracha and Arena.

JK is still the winningist coach in program history.

 

[Waquoit]

This guy has a "system" honed by his years leading the Columbus Crew? And it mandates playing one of best players out of position? What could go wrong?

 

[meyers7]

This guy has a "system" honed by his years leading the Columbus Crew? And it mandates playing one of best players out of position? What could go wrong?

He wasn't my first choice, or probably 2nd, 3rd, etc. But I'll give him the Gold Cup to how he does.

 

[Palatine]

McKennie is out about 8 weeks.

Hurts his German team but should be back for the Gold Cup. Should be interesting tonight.

 

[meyers7]

McKennie is out about 8 weeks.

Hurts his German team but should be back for the Gold Cup. Should be interesting tonight.

Probably get a different look tonight. I'm assuming they'll try to run the same "system". No McKennie, No Adams. Probably Horvath in goal. Will be interesting to see if he uses Yedlin or Lima at RB.

 

[SubbaBub]

Gold cup is the first test but calling up Trapp and playing Zardes as a center striker are indefensible everytime.

Other than that I have no complaints about his approach so far.