Twellman's rant was probably the highlight of the game to me. It was just disgusting.
While the Canadians got away with a few really nasty tackles that should have been Yellow, Laryea in particular, the US was just a mess from the start both in terms of effort and structure. No one stepped-up, even after going down 1-0 against a team that the US has not lost to for 30+ years. Yes, the Canada seems to be on the upswing; but, the US should win these games.
The player selection and structure of the team right from the start was a huge pile of steaming pile of X. Did Greg select the the starters in part to appease his MLS masters with Bradley (Toronto) and Lovitz (Montreal)? Canada has good speed in the attacking midfield with Davies and Osorio, which meant fast pressure against the US center. Bradley can't handle players with speed and either passes backwards into a black hole or gets dispossed. Roldan does not have a deft touch with his passes. Those two were overwhelmed from the start. Combine that collapse with McKennie's bad game and the US motor was dead on arrival. In turn, Sargent got pulled in deep to defend, which resulted in the loss of a key distribution outlet for the midfield and to keep the Canadian back from from joining in on the fun. At the same time, Pulisic was pulled away from the wing and in to the middle where he was often isolated and stripped while trying to take-on 3 or 4 red shirts at the same time. Greg's system relies on attacking fullbacks, yet Yeldin did very little going forward, likely because he is not 100% yet. That added to the mess in the middle as there was no wing play. Instead, Cannon, who has been playing well, should have started in Yeldin's place. Based on the roster, not sure who would have been a better choice than Lovitz. In the middle, I would have had Arriola (Twellman pointed to Lletget, which at least shows acknowledgement of the issue and an attempt to adapt), who has a better soft touch than Roldan, and Yueill, who showed the other night he can serve a good long ball (to break a fast press) to provide better options against what Canada was going to throw at the US. Oh, and if the US was still down, why the heck put in Gyasi "Face" Zardes in instead of a guy like Boyd?
It's been months now and its clear that Greg is underwater trying to make the USSF powers happy with questionable player selection and then jamming those players into his system, which really did not work well in Columbus either. It's also clear that the USMNT players are not buying it and benching Pulisic, even if he was having a bad game, looks to be more of a power play than a tactical adjustment. Even if USSF fired him, which they won't, that's only a part of the problem. USSF needs to be cleared-out.
At this stage, call it 50/50 is the US qualifies for the 2020 World Cup, which is abhorrent.
