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Message: [QUOTE="Forza Azzurri, post: 4453993, member: 1452"] You can disagree with Yedlin as the sub but then you have to tell me who the sub should have been and why that would have been a better choice than Yedlin. Completely disagree on Acosta for Musah. Musah coming off an injury and was visibly exhausted. Musah also more of a box to box midfielder while Acosta is a 6. He brought him on in the 75th to close out the game. I felt it was absolutely the right move. Until he subbed Acosta for Musah, I don't believe the strategy changed. The Moore sub was key for them and changed the game. They changed their tactics to pressure us and we did not respond well. I believe part of that is youth and part of that is fitness issues, due to guys like McKennie, Musah, Dest and Weah missing time in the run-up to the World Cup. Yesterday was a grueling game played at an extremely high level of both tempo and intensity for 90 minutes. Guys just did have that reserve yesterday and I look at the roster and I'm not sure there was an answer there. Maybe De la Torre. Maybe. Wales is also no joke. I think we are the more talented team but they did get out of a group that included both Italy and Switzerland at the Euros until getting dismantled by Denmark. They have a collective belief in both themselves and in Gareth Bale that makes them a team that is more than the sum of its parts. We do not yet have that collective belief. You can blame Berhalter if you want for that but I think it is more a function of youth. We don't have a talismanic Gareth Bale or even guys like Bonucci or Chiellini who can stand up and demand more from their teammates. Our "captain" yesterday is only 23 years old. There is no Dempsey or Donovan on this team. Unlike say, college basketball where a coach can simply call a timeout to stop an opposing team's run, soccer is a game where "suffering" opposing pressure has to be done on the field. Closing out a game requires both physical and mental toughness. Match fitness plays a big part in that as does maturity. As disappointing as yesterday was, this team is miles from where it was in 2018 and there is a lot to look forward to. [/QUOTE]

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