OT: US soccer qualifiers this week | The Boneyard

OT: US soccer qualifiers this week

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While we are in football purgatory I figured it's been a while since there's been anything on US soccer. Anyone watching the qualifiers this week vs Trinidad and Tobago 8 tonight Fs1 and Mexico Sunday 8:30 fs1? I don't believe I've watched since Klinsmann was fired but I'm looking forward to seeing how things are shaping up under Arena. Any big changes to note, is the traditional U.S. defensive minded sit back take 50 shots then counter attack approach back? Noticed Howard is back in goal which is great to see. Unless I'm reading the standings wrong looks like we are barely qualified at this point.
 
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T & T game is tomorrow (Thursday June 8) night! ;)

Arena & Edsall have their limitations, but their return will hopefully begin to return their respective programs to respectability.
 

SubbaBub

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Two of our three toughest qualifiers were the first two games. CR away and Mex at home. Losing both put us in trouble. Mex away is rarely anything but a loss so a point would put us back in safe qualifying position. What we can't do is drop points, especially at home to anyone else.

JK went a little too Diaco in his lineups. Bruce clearly has a core group of guys in mind while looking at how the younger guys fit in.

The squad tactics aren't settled and seem to rely mostly on the attacking players individual skills, which is usually hit or miss for the US.

That said, the defense has looked better with a healthy squad and we have some attacking options. The biggest issue right now is playing together, improving our build up through the midfield, and finding a formation that helps the attack without exposing the backline.

Anything less than a win against TT is a disaster. Mexico will give clear picture where the squad is at regardless of qualifying.
 
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While we are in football purgatory I figured it's been a while since there's been anything on US soccer. Anyone watching the qualifiers this week vs Trinidad and Tobago 8 tonight Fs1 and Mexico Sunday 8:30 fs1? I don't believe I've watched since Klinsmann was fired but I'm looking forward to seeing how things are shaping up under Arena. Any big changes to note, is the traditional U.S. defensive minded sit back take 50 shots then counter attack approach back? Noticed Howard is back in goal which is great to see. Unless I'm reading the standings wrong looks like we are barely qualified at this point.

We have a whole soccer board which is why you haven't seen anything. F Bruce Arena.
 
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Two of our three toughest qualifiers were the first two games. CR away and Mex at home. Losing both put us in trouble. Mex away is rarely anything but a loss so a point would put us back in safe qualifying position. What we can't do is drop points, especially at home to anyone else.

JK went a little too Diaco in his lineups. Bruce clearly has a core group of guys in mind while looking at how the younger guys fit in.

The squad tactics aren't settled and seem to rely mostly on the attacking players individual skills, which is usually hit or miss for the US.

That said, the defense has looked better with a healthy squad and we have some attacking options. The biggest issue right now is playing together, improving our build up through the midfield, and finding a formation that helps the attack without exposing the backline.

Anything less than a win against TT is a disaster. Mexico will give clear picture where the squad is at regardless of qualifying.

There has been zero difference between Bruce and Jurgen. Actually, when Jurgen experimented it was called experimentation. When Bruce experiments, the fanboy MLS media says that players are "versatile".
 
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There has been zero difference between Bruce and Jurgen. Actually, when Jurgen experimented it was called experimentation. When Bruce experiments, the fanboy MLS media says that players are "versatile".
This may sound like a loaded question but it's not. Do you think the team is performing better under Arena that it had been under Jurgen? (I know we had some really good games under JK, but we also had some really poor performances). JK might have a higher ceiling, but I just don't think his style was working.

IMO we have some pretty good players, but we lacked consistency and JK, whether a better coach than Arena or not, had lost the team. I'm hoping, like Edsall, he builds upon what's been established and gets better the second time around. I think we've got a chance to make a deep run...at least until I see that we're back in another group of death.
 

Waquoit

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This team should be all about Pulisic. The best approach would be to put him is a position to succeed. Anyone who grouses even a bit about this should be dropped from the squad. Kliestjan brought out the best in Pulisic and he didn't make the 40-man. Arena blows.
 
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To compare Edsall to Bruce, Bruce would have had to leave the US team to coach England or Holland for a few years, get curbstomped, then assist at a Stoke-level club. LEARN, then return to the place he started.

Bruce got canned, ran the same program with the Galaxy then was rehired. He's the same guy. Randy at the very least moved around since UConn, picked up assistants from different parts of the country and might have learned a thing or two along the way.
 
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This may sound like a loaded question but it's not. Do you think the team is performing better under Arena that it had been under Jurgen? (I know we had some really good games under JK, but we also had some really poor performances). JK might have a higher ceiling, but I just don't think his style was working.

IMO we have some pretty good players, but we lacked consistency and JK, whether a better coach than Arena or not, had lost the team. I'm hoping, like Edsall, he builds upon what's been established and gets better the second time around. I think we've got a chance to make a deep run...at least until I see that we're back in another group of death.

No difference. Same player pool. The players are a product of their club environment more than a NT coach who gets them 10 days at a time in intermittent intervals.
 

meyers7

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So far it looks like the team is less confused and trying harder under Arena. Don't know if the team is going to get a lot better under Arena, but they probably won't have the shambolic performances that they had on occasion under Klinsmann.

It was time for Klinsmann to go. I just wish we could have gotten someone better than Arena to step in. Arena can probably get them to play to their ability, but I don't think he can really move them on beyond that level. Which will be to make the WC, but not really do much there.
 
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To compare Edsall to Bruce, Bruce would have had to leave the US team to coach England or Holland for a few years, get curbstomped, then assist at a Stoke-level club. LEARN, then return to the place he started.

Bruce got canned, ran the same program with the Galaxy then was rehired. He's the same guy. Randy at the very least moved around since UConn, picked up assistants from different parts of the country and might have learned a thing or two along the way.
I wasn't comparing the two. I was just saying my hope is that each improves the second time as HC.

I wasn't comparing their paths back to their respective teams or literally anything else other than they are each back at a place they once coached. Although each is the winningest coach at his program. But I'm not trying to change anyone's mind on Arena. I would hope we qualify for the WC, do well, and then he "retires" so we can move on to the next coach and prepare for 2022.
 
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No difference. Same player pool. The players are a product of their club environment more than a NT coach who gets them 10 days at a time in intermittent intervals.
I'm not talking about individual players improving, or different player pools.

Very small sample, but you don't think the team performed any differently in Arena's first few games than they had been under JK?
 
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I wasn't comparing the two. I was just saying my hope is that each improves the second time as HC.

I wasn't comparing their paths back to their respective teams or literally anything else other than they are each back at a place they once coached. Although each is the winningest coach at his program. But I'm not trying to change anyone's mind on Arena. I would hope we qualify for the WC, do well, and then he "retires" so we can move on to the next coach and prepare for 2022.

Arena has only won more by perhaps the finest of margins.
 
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I'm not talking about individual players improving, or different player pools.

Very small sample, but you don't think the team performed any differently in Arena's first few games than they had been under JK?

They look just as inconsistent and have showed poor set piece defense. I also don't see better organization in the midfield.
 
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So far it looks like the team is less confused and trying harder under Arena. Don't know if the team is going to get a lot better under Arena, but they probably won't have the shambolic performances that they had on occasion under Klinsmann.

It was time for Klinsmann to go. I just wish we could have gotten someone better than Arena to step in. Arena can probably get them to play to their ability, but I don't think he can really move them on beyond that level. Which will be to make the WC, but not really do much there.

2006 World Cup. At least Jurgen beat Ghana.
 
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It was time for JK to go. He lost a big chunk of the locker room,, and my guess is he was as frustrated with USSF and all the politics and ignorance he had to deal with as the USSF was frustrated with him (and they were plenty frustrated with him). I wasn't thrilled with the Arena hire, but it was 'safe' to get thru the Hex and qualify for Russia (fingers still crossed). He knows most the US players, he knows most of the other players in the Hex as many play in MLS, and he knows the inner working of the USSF machine. I would have preferred they brought in someone outside of the USSF inner circle, but here we are and either way, to zoo's point earlier, the USMNT would most likely be sitting in 4th place with 4 points whether it was JK or BA at the helm the last 2 games.

Must win game tonight
 
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I really don't get this debate. It just doesn't matter whether you think JK is a better coach than Arena or not. JK lost the clubhouse in the final round of World Cup qualifying. No sane person would say that Mourinho isn't a good coach, but he had lost the Chelsea players. So the choice was fire him or give him time to build an entirely new team. Chelsea, if results matter, made the correct and obvious call. The safest path to Russia was to bring in a safe interim coach who could get the clubhouse back, because the players -- assuming they didn't quit -- where more than good enough to dig out of the hole and qualify. It's that simple.

If you want to complain about the coach hired after Russia, feel free but it might make more sense to wait until he's named.
 
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@businesslawyer that's pretty much my take as well. Wasn't my intent to start a debate. Arena and Landon Donovan, easily the two most polarizing figures in recent USMNT history.
 

HuskyHawk

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Thoughts on the game tonight anyone? I'm pretty much ready to say Pulisic has passed Landon Donovan. And he's 19. Pretty dominant despite a few lapses. Nagbe was active and productive. He's plays very well with Pulisic.
 
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Did I hear that right that pulisic has 7 goals and 5 assists so far for USMNT? Unreal.
 

meyers7

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Thoughts on the game tonight anyone? I'm pretty much ready to say Pulisic has passed Landon Donovan. And he's 19. Pretty dominant despite a few lapses. Nagbe was active and productive. He's plays very well with Pulisic.
Not until September.

He just might be the real deal.
 
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Why is Guzan playing? What does tanking the game get us?

He didn't have shot to save, but he commanded the box pretty well tonight. He is the second best keeper in the pool and I'll take Arena at his word -- he was afraid that the keeper would have to make a lot of kicks and he didn't want to reinjure a tired Howard.
 

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