MNT Roster for March Friendlies | Page 3 | The Boneyard

MNT Roster for March Friendlies

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 :oops:) 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. Head bang 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 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.
 
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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.
 
businesslawyer said:
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.
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No.

We would be wondering why an EPL RB was on the bench and a Bundesliga midfielder was playing RB.
 
ZooCougar said:
No.

We would be wondering why an EPL RB was on the bench and a Bundesliga midfielder was playing RB.
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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.
 
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.
 
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meyers7 said:
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.
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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.
 
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
 
LIuconn said:
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.
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That I can agree with. But so far he's 3-0. At least he has a plan. Better than our last 2 coaches.
 
meyers7 said:
That I can agree with. But so far he's 3-0. At least he has a plan. Better than our last 2 coaches.
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I agree. He’s better than Sriracha and Arena.

JK is still the winningist coach in program history.
 
Waquoit said:
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?
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He wasn't my first choice, or probably 2nd, 3rd, etc. But I'll give him the Gold Cup to how he does.
 
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McKennie is out about 8 weeks.

Hurts his German team but should be back for the Gold Cup. Should be interesting tonight.
 
Palatine said:
McKennie is out about 8 weeks.

Hurts his German team but should be back for the Gold Cup. Should be interesting tonight.
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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.
 
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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.
 
SubbaBub said:
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.
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I get that Zardes has been ineffective. But Trapp has looked pretty good this year. He goes forward and puts the ball deep into open areas leading to dangerous plays. He has shown some talent.
 
1-1 after just 10 minutes in Houston. The back line of both teams are having issues.
 
Palatine said:
I get that Zardes has been ineffective. But Trapp has looked pretty good this year. He goes forward and puts the ball deep into open areas leading to dangerous plays. He has shown some talent.
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He's lost on defense and outclassed by lesser opponents. He will be worthless in qualifying.

Zardes touch is worse than Altidore's. Tonight's first goal is the exception.
 
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SubbaBub said:
He's lost on defense and outclassed by lesser opponents. He will be worthless in qualifying.

Zardes touch is worse than Altidore's. Tonight's first goal is the exception.
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Berhalter Loves him in that central striker/floater position
He's played better tonight with exception one bad touch in defensive third
Gonsalves looks a bit hesitant but that is expected
Nice to see Lewis get some burn tonight - for all the talent he has he has been an enigma
Trapp has been less than adequate tonight but had some better touches in the later portions of 2nd half
Both defenses were awful
 
SubbaBub said:
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.
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Palatine said:
I get that Zardes has been ineffective. But Trapp has looked pretty good this year. He goes forward and puts the ball deep into open areas leading to dangerous plays. He has shown some talent.
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Well not that I'm a Zardes fan, but we've scored 2 goals in the 2 games. Zardes scored 1 and assisted on the other. Not sure how that is ineffective. Seems defensible to me. At least for these two games.
 
Palatine said:
I get that Zardes has been ineffective. But Trapp has looked pretty good this year. He goes forward and puts the ball deep into open areas leading to dangerous plays. He has shown some talent.
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Wait till you see what happens when we play an actual good team.
 
meyers7 said:
Well not that I'm a Zardes fan, but we've scored 2 goals in the 2 games. Zardes scored 1 and assisted on the other. Not sure how that is ineffective. Seems defensible to me. At least for these two games.
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He’s probably the luckiest USMNT player ever. We need to do better at this position. He’s like the Jacob Peterson of the USMNT.
 
meyers7 said:
Well not that I'm a Zardes fan, but we've scored 2 goals in the 2 games. Zardes scored 1 and assisted on the other. Not sure how that is ineffective. Seems defensible to me. At least for these two games.
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That and the US offensive strategy seems to continue to use a holding central striker. Altidore's continued injury issues as he has a lot of wear and tear on hi 29 year-old body means that the USMNT needs a viable alternate whether it be Zardes, Morris, Wood, etc. Identifying that alterantive in these friendlies is OK with me. The lack of a back-up for Altidore on the US roster in 2014 was, in my opinion, Klinsmann's biggest mistake and likley cost the US an opportunity to go even further. Overall, Zardes was agressive in the offensive third and made some really good touches. The bad is that he's a liability in the defensive third. Both aspects were evident last night.

In addtion to very shaky backline, Horvath looked antsy playing the ball with his feet, especially with Chile's high press. Of course, some of the pases back to him did not help. With a high press, there is value (and risk avoidance) with just clearing the ball with authority instead of playing with it in the box. It's tough to play small ball in the back third when many of the players are still new to each other. The team and the coaches should have seen this issue early and adjusted. Horvath, for example, did not appear to be that nervious for his club's Champions League games.
 
Zardes was active but he makes a high number of bad plays for every good one.

Trapp really steadied the team when he came in. He had one major screw up but in general he is a smart player and always seems to have solid, productive minutes.

Overall not a bad result with McKennie and Pulisic both being hurt. We still have not seen our A team. I think the new coach is trying to get as many players as possible to learn the system. As they learn it, they will help each other and eventually develop some chemistry.

You could see how experience helped Chile. That was a team with numerous veterans, who had played together for years, and it showed. Given that, it was a good night for the USA.
 
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meyers7 said:
Well not that I'm a Zardes fan, but we've scored 2 goals in the 2 games. Zardes scored 1 and assisted on the other. Not sure how that is ineffective. Seems defensible to me. At least for these two games.
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The assist was nice, no doubt about that. The goal was a complete fluke. If your a 9, you have to produce. Goals, assists, chances. He flubs way too many chances for a team with limited firepower in the first place. His touch is awful. When you see a striker producing goal at a clip of less than 1 for every 2 games, you need to find a new striker. This isn't basketball where the top scorer can come from any position. There are 2 or 3 spots on the field where you need to get most of your goals. Zardes is clogging one of those positions.
 
Palatine said:
And this is for the Cougar Michael Bradley is better than you think, but it's time for the USMNT to move on I think it's very accurate.
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He's still better than Trapp but, it's clear he is too old and slow to cover the ground necessary for that role.

GB looks like he wants a 3 man triangle in the midfield. That's Adams, McKinne and Pulisic. We need more depth there as I'd prefer Pulisic be allowed to roam and play higher, while GB seems like he wants Adams at RB for now, and truth be told it might be an upgrade to Yedlin.

What I didn't like last night is that for long stretches it looked like we were playing a 4-1-1-4. Chile easily exploited the entire midfield by simply bypassing it. The back line was terrible but they were being overrun.

The bad giveaways made it worse. Things settled a bit with the 5 man back line but, we can't play that way.
 
ZooCougar said:
Wait till you see what happens when we play an actual good team.
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Like who? The reigning Copa America Champions?

Dude, forget good teams. We first need to be able to beat crappy CONCACAF teams. Then we can worry about good teams.
 
ZooCougar said:
He’s probably the luckiest USMNT player ever. We need to do better at this position. He’s like the Jacob Peterson of the USMNT.
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Some people make their luck.

But I agree, we need to do better. However, if people are gonna whine and complain about his play, don't do it right after he does a decent job.

If you want to whine and complain do it about Miazga and Gonzalez. Or Ream and Yedlin. Or Horvath. Someone who stunk it up.
 
Mr. Conehead said:
That and the US offensive strategy seems to continue to use a holding central striker. Altidore's continued injury issues as he has a lot of wear and tear on hi 29 year-old body means that the USMNT needs a viable alternate whether it be Zardes, Morris, Wood, etc. Identifying that alterantive in these friendlies is OK with me. The lack of a back-up for Altidore on the US roster in 2014 was, in my opinion, Klinsmann's biggest mistake and likley cost the US an opportunity to go even further. Overall, Zardes was agressive in the offensive third and made some really good touches. The bad is that he's a liability in the defensive third. Both aspects were evident last night.

In addtion to very shaky backline, Horvath looked antsy playing the ball with his feet, especially with Chile's high press. Of course, some of the pases back to him did not help. With a high press, there is value (and risk avoidance) with just clearing the ball with authority instead of playing with it in the box. It's tough to play small ball in the back third when many of the players are still new to each other. The team and the coaches should have seen this issue early and adjusted. Horvath, for example, did not appear to be that nervious for his club's Champions League games.
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Agree with most of that, but if you're putting a putting a Striker on for his defensive ability, we got way bigger problems. I really don't want my Striker in my defensive 3rd except for like corners and FK's. And then hopefully because he can head the ball. But I'm not even gonna worry about that if he can score.
 
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