Copa América

guinness77 said:
I don’t buy that. They have more players playing abroad than ever, deservedly too.

You can absolutely blame the tactics and the coaching. They are playing hero ball, through and through. There’s no purpose out there. They are playing kickball waiting for moments of brilliance from Pulisic, Balogun, Reyna or even Pepi. Geg absolutely has no idea how to utilize these guys, it almost reminds me of Anderson coaching St John’s. Run a 5-man weave and pray. And, his substitutions are even worse.

They lost to Panama. To Panama!! And, to me, that was completely on the coaching. Yeah, Weah did something unforgivable, there’s no excusing that, really. But, you park the bus because you’re down a guy against a team like that?? You make substitutions that range from head scratching to downright stupid?? The players don’t believe in their coach. The players can keep their composure…like, ever. Their coach runs the streets before the games. Are you kidding me? He’s a joke, his hire is a sham, and they all know it.
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Outside of Pulisic, name one impact player on a top European league team. Just because you have a bunch of players who play minor roles in Europe doesn't mean you have talent capable of lifting the team to the next level.

I had zero confidence in this team going into last night's game.

So they fire the coach, and they bring in somebody else, is he going to be able to turn these guys into international contenders? I hope so but I'm not holding my breath.
 
Section9 said:
Outside of Pulisic, name one impact player on a top European league team. Just because you have a bunch of players who play minor roles in Europe doesn't mean you have talent capable of lifting the team to the next level.

I had zero confidence in this team going into last night's game.

So they fire the coach, and they bring in somebody else, is he going to be able to turn these guys into international contenders? I hope so but I'm not holding my breath.
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They don’t have a top class goalie or fullbacks, I’ll give you that. But Balogun was sold for 40M euros from Arsenal. Reyna is definitely top level talent. A Musah/Adams partnership is definitely nothing to sneeze at. McKennie has played at top clubs.

They’re not threatening to win the World Cup but they should be making it to the semis of this tournament and definitely knock outs of WC.
 
guinness77 said:
They don’t have a top class goalie or fullbacks, I’ll give you that. But Balogun was sold for 40M euros from Arsenal. Reyna is definitely top level talent. A Musah/Adams partnership is definitely nothing to sneeze at. McKennie has played at top clubs.

They’re not threatening to win the World Cup but they should be making it to the semis of this tournament and definitely knock outs of WC.
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Okay, I forgot Mckennie, but I'm not buying Bologun, Reyna or any other guys playing in Europe as "top level talent". None of them has had an impact on their clubs. Being a sub or second level player there doesn't equate to significance on the USMNT. There is just nobody, outside of Pulisic, who I think has the ability to make a difference in International play.

As bad as the coach is, the players, with rare exceptions, did not play to expectations, were baited into stupid fouls, let themselves be bossed by more physical, and often, dirty opponents.

There is plenty of blame to go around.
 
Section9 said:
Okay, I forgot Mckennie, but I'm not buying Bologun, Reyna or any other guys playing in Europe as "top level talent". None of them has had an impact on their clubs. Being a sub or second level player there doesn't equate to significance on the USMNT. There is just nobody, outside of Pulisic, who I think has the ability to make a difference in International play.

As bad as the coach is, the players, with rare exceptions, did not play to expectations, were baited into stupid fouls, let themselves be bossed by more physical, and often, dirty opponents.

There is plenty of blame to go around.
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All I’m gonna leave it at is that Klinsmann and Arena coached teams with much less talent and got their teams much further than Geg has. Arena was pretty celebrated but Klinsmann got pretty much crapped on. This guy has most of his team playing in Europe for club footie while Klinsmann had primarily MLS players. Klinsmann got his teams further.

Reyna scored some great goals for Dortmund and Balogun was USA’s best player, easily, in this tournament. Both are still young, especially Reyna, so we’ll see on that. Geg subbing off Balogun was his biggest mistake in a tournament he made a ton of them.

Is the US winning the World Cup? I answered that already. This is embarrassing. You can argue all day that this is not a “top class” team but this is considered some sort of golden generation of US footie and the only team they can beat with any quality is Mexico and they’re about as crappy as theyve ever been. This is on the Federation and, yes, the coach. This team should be competing with all teams. Not losing to freaking Panama in a tournament in their own country. To me, the talent is there. When the coach is telling his players about Bolivia tying the game up, there’s something wrong with that.
 
To be fair there’s so much burnout from these players going year round now that most of these teams look like absolute shite. Too much money to be made and the show must go on! Prem kicks off in just over 5 weeks SMFH!
 
I guess, to make an excuse of sorts (and because I can’t go back and edit my last post) I think Dest is a world class player and his absence causes a guy like Scally to start and play major minutes. But, like Weah (who I think of as a pretty top player, usually, in his own right) Dest has done an extremely boneheaded thing in an important match (wanna say T&T) as well and got himself suspended. McKennie, too, got baited in a blowout against Mexico and took a red. Common denominator is the damn coach. They don’t do this at their clubs.

Sec9, you know I respect your knowledge of the sport, so I hope you don’t take my disagreeing as some sort of a shot. 🙏. Haha, let’s go Germany!
 
guinness77 said:
I guess, to make an excuse of sorts (and because I can’t go back and edit my last post) I think Dest is a world class player and his absence causes a guy like Scally to start and play major minutes. But, like Weah (who I think of as a pretty top player, usually, in his own right) Dest has done an extremely boneheaded thing in an important match (wanna say T&T) as well and got himself suspended. McKennie, too, got baited in a blowout against Mexico and took a red. Common denominator is the damn coach. They don’t do this at their clubs.

Sec9, you know I respect your knowledge of the sport, so I hope you don’t take my disagreeing as some sort of a shot. 🙏. Haha, let’s go Germany!
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I would argue Scally is a better RB than Dest. He's played the last 3 years full seasons in the Bundesliga.
Dest is a forward trapped in a RB and makes a ton of bonehead decisions like you said.
 


Who's on the Canada team? I also searched the STJ social media account since May and couldn't find an announcement. lol
 
guinness77 said:
All I’m gonna leave it at is that Klinsmann and Arena coached teams with much less talent and got their teams much further than Geg has. Arena was pretty celebrated but Klinsmann got pretty much crapped on. This guy has most of his team playing in Europe for club footie while Klinsmann had primarily MLS players. Klinsmann got his teams further.

Reyna scored some great goals for Dortmund and Balogun was USA’s best player, easily, in this tournament. Both are still young, especially Reyna, so we’ll see on that. Geg subbing off Balogun was his biggest mistake in a tournament he made a ton of them.

Is the US winning the World Cup? I answered that already. This is embarrassing. You can argue all day that this is not a “top class” team but this is considered some sort of golden generation of US footie and the only team they can beat with any quality is Mexico and they’re about as crappy as theyve ever been. This is on the Federation and, yes, the coach. This team should be competing with all teams. Not losing to freaking Panama in a tournament in their own country. To me, the talent is there. When the coach is telling his players about Bolivia tying the game up, there’s something wrong with that.
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I think were at odds over the definition of "world class". To me just because somebody plays in top European league doesn't qualify him as world class. There are very few world class players on any of the top teams. By my reckoning the only guy on our roster who would get starters consistent minutes in Europe top 5 leagues is Pulisic. Even Mckennie is on the fringe. The rest are nice guys but not the type that can carry this team, or any other significant team, in the big moments.

This is a very tarnished "golden generation". We'll see what happens with the new coach.

From now on can we just disagree about Sane? ;)
 
Hoping we get a new coach, good to see Tim Howard ruffling some feathers on twitter today regarding USMNT

To me the team lacks identity and a real leader. The right hire could make this a formidable team IMO, but honestly not a fan of the current crop of US players outside of Puli, Balogun and maybe Tyler Adams. Dest when he's healthy of course too. Some of these other guys like Reyna and Mckennie, when the competition is ratcheted up a little, I don't think they are good enough frankly. Perfectly fine players for CONCACAF tournaments, but something like copa or the world cup may be above them. But who knows maybe Reyna could be unlocked with a coach who he doesn't clearly hate due to a complicated history
 
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