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USA National Team Watch


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9 hours ago, Bison44 said:

We should have a thread for the entire CONCACAF.  We get bombarded with USMNT info all the time, harder to keep track of the other teams more in our weight class.  

Wouldn't it be easier to track our opponents if they had individual threads like this one?

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Wales & US played to a 0-0 friendly today in Swansea. Wales fielded players nearly all from the Championship as they have a Nations League match this weekend. US didn't have Pulisic and MLS (ex one). 

I just kept an eye on it as the 3 Euro playoff matches took precedence. The harshest evaluation I heard was from Lalas who gave the US a 6/10. Fotmob only rated Steffen higher than 7. NBC gave 8s to Dest, Brooks, McKennie & Musah. CBS main takeaway was that McKennie, Adams & Musah looked good in passing and understanding each other. The Mirror noted Bale was caught on camera in the stands with a laptop - likely watching the Masters since the football match was utterly forgettable. The overly optimistic American supporters were very happy with seeing the individual skills on display but given no goals, they blamed GGG for playing with no true striker.

My view of the Americans is that a young starting eleven not surprisingly played with much more vigour, impetus & energy than Wales. Though, American sports teams tend to play everything in first gear while Euro nations rarely get out of second gear in a friendly. GGG was even high fiving subs coming in while the replacement Wales manager rarely got out of his seat.

Americans dominated in possession but didn't know what to do when in the final third. The passing wasn't quick enough and there was no incisive and tight passing. Only good chance came off a sloppy back pass. GGG system employs a high press, high back line and playing out of the back. The high press was good in the 1st half but petered out in the 2nd. High line seemed vulnerable at times to counters. Good enough system and execution to break down most Concacaf nations but against a typically well organized Euro team, even if it was a B version, the US was the one that broke down in the final third and to some degree in the second half.

For individual players, Dest & McKennie looked the most notable in attack but no end product delivered. Reyna without Haaland looked sluggish. Back line wasn't really challenged but they and defensive mids looked good in moving the ball.

 

Edited by red card
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13 hours ago, red card said:

Wales & US played to a 0-0 friendly today in Swansea. Wales fielded players nearly all from the Championship as they have a Nations League match this weekend. US didn't have Pulisic and MLS (ex one). 

I just kept an eye on it as the 3 Euro playoff matches took precedence. The harshest evaluation I heard was from Lalas who gave the US a 6/10. Fotmob only rated Steffen higher than 7. NBC gave 8s to Dest, Brooks, McKennie & Musah. CBS main takeaway was that McKennie, Adams & Musah looked good in passing and understanding each other. The Mirror noted Bale was caught on camera in the stands with a laptop - likely watching the Masters since the football match was utterly forgettable. The overly optimistic American supporters were very happy with seeing the individual skills on display but given no goals, they blamed GGG for playing with no true striker.

My view of the Americans is that a young starting eleven not surprisingly played with much more vigour, impetus & energy than Wales. Though, American sports teams tend to play everything in first gear while Euro nations rarely get out of second gear in a friendly. GGG was even high fiving subs coming in while the replacement Wales manager rarely got out of his seat.

Americans dominated in possession but didn't know what to do when in the final third. The passing wasn't quick enough and there was no incisive and tight passing. Only good chance came off a sloppy back pass. GGG system employs a high press, high back line and playing out of the back. The high press was good in the 1st half but petered out in the 2nd. High line seemed vulnerable at times to counters. Good enough system and execution to break down most Concacaf nations but against a typically well organized Euro team, even if it was a B version, the US was the one that broke down in the final third and to some degree in the second half.

For individual players, Dest & McKennie looked the most notable in attack but no end product delivered. Reyna without Haaland looked sluggish. Back line wasn't really challenged but they and defensive mids looked good in moving the ball.

 

They only had one full day of training together.  It was the first time playing together for most of them, with no real 9.  This team has the potential to be scary good if they all develop as expected.  The skill is well balanced all over the field.  They will solve their missing 9 issue, i just hope its not Akinola.  But one has to think that Ayo looks at this and realizes the role is his for the taking, and this team will compete.  A different coach would also help.

Meanwhile in Canada............

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On 11/12/2020 at 1:18 AM, Bison44 said:

We should have a thread for the entire CONCACAF.  We get bombarded with USMNT info all the time, harder to keep track of the other teams more in our weight class.  

We won't have to worry about all those countries in the long run.

I created this thread because their youth development issues have largely been similar to ours. I am fascinated to see how both countries evolve over the next few years.

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The reality is the US is getting better, the reality is we're getting better. The reality is Wales is a tiny country. Is it even a country? And i think the game finished 0 0. Anyways I find American soccer annoying but im not stressed about it. US soccer will be a top 20 team going forward and so what. 350 million people, uncovering people all over the world and capping them. Based on the resources at their fingertips they still suck in my books. Pound for pound we're better and I look forward to playing them.

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9 hours ago, SpursFlu said:

The reality is the US is getting better, the reality is we're getting better. The reality is Wales is a tiny country. Is it even a country? And i think the game finished 0 0. Anyways I find American soccer annoying but im not stressed about it. US soccer will be a top 20 team going forward and so what. 350 million people, uncovering people all over the world and capping them. Based on the resources at their fingertips they still suck in my books. Pound for pound we're better and I look forward to playing them.

The US only has over 100x the population of Wales ;)

Edited by Bdog
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The US needs soccer to become more lucrative - which it won’t anytime soon. With that reality they’ll never get the top athletes that they could, as the culture is to put your kids into Basketball or Throwball especially if they are naturally born athletes. Plain and simple, there’s a lot of Michail Antonio’s and Adama Traores, they’re just playing the money sports. 

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20 minutes ago, Bdog said:

The US only has over 100x the population of Wales ;)

Also on the subject of population, Macedonia has 2 million and made it to the Euros for the first time yesterday!!!! At least one of my teams did something this year :) 🇲🇰🇲🇰🇲🇰🇲🇰🇲🇰🇲🇰

I love how they played, even though they're a bit boring they were very organized and solid defensively.  Way easier to watch than Canada. You could also tell how much it meant to the players to represent their country. 

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17 minutes ago, Shway said:

The US needs soccer to become more lucrative - which it won’t anytime soon. With that reality they’ll never get the top athletes that they could, as the culture is to put your kids into Basketball or Throwball especially if they are naturally born athletes. Plain and simple, there’s a lot of Michail Antonio’s and Adama Traores, they’re just playing the money sports. 

I’d guess that over time elite athletes that may have played American football will end up finding their way to soccer (violent nature of game). Although, if both US and Canada continue the “pay to play” model, maybe not.

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21 minutes ago, TOcanadafan said:

I’d guess that over time elite athletes that may have played American football will end up finding their way to soccer (violent nature of game). Although, if both US and Canada continue the “pay to play” model, maybe not.

I dont buy this argument.. they have more than enough people playing the sport and most basketball or football players too big a clumsy to ever have the coordination and stamina to be top level footballers. Plus a wise man once told me "nobody cares about what you didn't do"

Edited by SpursFlu
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12 hours ago, SpursFlu said:

I dont buy this argument.. they have more than enough people playing the sport and most basketball or football players too big a clumsy to ever have the coordination and stamina to be top level footballers. Plus a wise man once told me "nobody cares about what you didn't do"

I think you underrate the athleticism of some of the skill / speed position players in the NFL (WIde receivers, Corner backs nd even some Running backs and LInebackers who could make great Centrebacks) - these guys aren’t clumsy oafs and have amazing speed, agility, balance and footwork.    

I guess it won’t really matter because those with elite athleticism who grow up poor will never have the money to play Soccer in the US.

Edited by TOcanadafan
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13 hours ago, Shway said:

The US needs soccer to become more lucrative - which it won’t anytime soon. With that reality they’ll never get the top athletes that they could, as the culture is to put your kids into Basketball or Throwball especially if they are naturally born athletes. Plain and simple, there’s a lot of Michail Antonio’s and Adama Traores, they’re just playing the money sports. 

Right now this is certainly the case but I have a feeling MLS is going to make some powerplay moves as their media deal is up 2022. I'm thinking more than a dozen big name DP signings, including Ronaldo and Messi and it just might land the league the big money deal they are craving. When that happens, and most MLS players are making seven figure salaries, more top US athletes will choose the sport. 

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On 11/13/2020 at 8:50 AM, costarg said:

They only had one full day of training together.  It was the first time playing together for most of them, with no real 9.  This team has the potential to be scary good if they all develop as expected.  The skill is well balanced all over the field.  They will solve their missing 9 issue, i just hope its not Akinola.  But one has to think that Ayo looks at this and realizes the role is his for the taking, and this team will compete.  A different coach would also help.

Meanwhile in Canada............

This has been the standard Wales post match analysis from the US supporters base ex no one is talking about Ayo.

They tend to get infatuated with the potential of young players (as in all American pro sports), so they are loathe to be too critical of them. Any shortcomings now are on GGG + most of them hated his selection. They also despise most of the veteran players since they were the core that failed in 2017.

That means all their hopes and dreams rests on this up and coming group. So only in the US would be the hype machine would start rolling as talk of winning in 2026 has emerged amongst the supporters and in the US soccer media in the past month.

It's all peaches and cream until the potential of the young players starts fizzling out at the club level as generally been the case for the US and/or their vulnerabilities are exposed in meaningful national team matches. Now this crop has the best club pedigree of any but the probabilities say not all will reach their dream potential. One wildcard is the dual/triple nationals that appear out of nowhere to fill in the gaps. The Wales starting 11 had three of them.

Edited by red card
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51 minutes ago, red card said:

They tend to get infatuated with the potential of young players (as in all American pro sports), so they are loathe to be too critical of them.

I see enough of that on this board, frankly, but I will concede that there are one or two posters who p*ss on a younger guy or two (I'm thinking Fraser of late).  

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14 hours ago, Stryker911 said:

To bring it back to the US I actually wouldn't be surprised if they pass Mexico in a few years. The Mexican league is obviously much stronger than MLS too to bottom, but the US European contingent looks like they have a much higher ceiling than Mexico.

Believe it or not, i believe that they have actually regressed.  I thought that they were on the verge of surpassing Mexico about 10 years ago when they had Landon Donovan, Dempsey, a younger Bradley who was still in his prime.  I dont think that they have really replaced these players.  From what i have seen of Pulisic, i have not seen anywhere near the same impact as Donovan 

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