USMNT 2024

[Biaxtar]

The depth is not there so far.

 

[IthacaMatt]

So many bad passes in the middle third of the field.
Musah, A. Robinson, Scally, Morris all guilty.

Sargeant seems invisible. I don't care about "lack of service"; he's had no impact.

Aaronson runs around a lot and creates chaos, but he misplaced a lot of passes, too.

Malik Tillman seems more of an athlete than a super-skilled player.

 

[Forza Azzurri]

So many bad passes in the middle third of the field.
Musah, A. Robinson, Scally, Morris all guilty.

Sargeant seems invisible. I don't care about "lack of service"; he's had no impact.

Aaronson runs around a lot and creates chaos, but he misplaced a lot of passes, too.

Malik Tillman seems more of an athlete than a super-skilled player.

Brutal game. Team could not string two passes together all night. Both goals created by bad turnovers. Just awful for 90 minutes.

Only positive was Pochettino getting an eyeful of the B-listers although that probably gave him a migraine.

I am honestly not sure whether the left winger was Tillman or Aaronson. Pochettino clearly wanting his left winger to tuck inside and play the role of a double-10, allowing Robinson to rampage up and down the flank. That started with Pulisic last game and continued last night.

He started with Musah on the wing and then, towards the latter stages of the first half, tucked him inside and put Aaronson on the wing to try and stabilize the midfield.

I thought Busio was lively early but faded fast. Everyone else was non-descript to bad to putrid.

I actually was most impressed with Zendejas and Vazquez. Both looked like the only guys who wanted to be there.

Aaronson is a good support player and fills a role with enough talent around him. He is not good enough the be "the talent".

Going forward, I am interested to see what he does with the A team - assuming that he has at least most of the A team available.

I have been on record as saying that I don't think the MMA midfield works unless there is a team that wants to get up and down with us - rare in Concacaf.

I am interested to see if he agrees or if he will also go with the MMA midfield against a team that is bunkering and countering.

Perhaps Musah on the wing is trying to find a way to get him on the field while still fielding a MAR (McKennie, Adams, Reyna) trident. Then, he could sub in for either McKennie or Weah.

 

[cusefan88]

I'm happy they finally played a decent away game. I think the program was incredibly soft with that. These guys need to play friendlies in hostile environments whenever possible.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Brutal game. Team could not string two passes together all night. Both goals created by bad turnovers. Just awful for 90 minutes.

Only positive was Pochettino getting an eyeful of the B-listers although that probably gave him a migraine.

I am honestly not sure whether the left winger was Tillman or Aaronson. Pochettino clearly wanting his left winger to tuck inside and play the role of a double-10, allowing Robinson to rampage up and down the flank. That started with Pulisic last game and continued last night.

He started with Musah on the wing and then, towards the latter stages of the first half, tucked him inside and put Aaronson on the wing to try and stabilize the midfield.

I thought Busio was lively early but faded fast. Everyone else was non-descript to bad to putrid.

I actually was most impressed with Zendejas and Vazquez. Both looked like the only guys who wanted to be there.

Aaronson is a good support player and fills a role with enough talent around him. He is not good enough the be "the talent".

Going forward, I am interested to see what he does with the A team - assuming that he has at least most of the A team available.

I have been on record as saying that I don't think the MMA midfield works unless there is a team that wants to get up and down with us - rare in Concacaf.

I am interested to see if he agrees or if he will also go with the MMA midfield against a team that is bunkering and countering.

Perhaps Musah on the wing is trying to find a way to get him on the field while still fielding a MAR (McKennie, Adams, Reyna) trident. Then, he could sub in for either McKennie or Weah.

Terrific post. Yes, Busio has been pretty good, but faded in game two. Loved your comment about Aaronson. I also thought Miles SU Robinson was also very solid.

 

[SUfanNC]

Happy to get the result last night! Still a bunch of pieces that need to be addressed but that field was pretty bad. I don’t know that even is allowed. Can’t get a decent field give us both games in US.

 

[upperdeck]

Such a different game. Some electric plays on offense to put multiple passes together and create chances.

Sloppy on D once they got on 3-0 but still 4 could easily been 7-8.

 

[SUfanNC]

Looked really active on offense. I really like pulisic in the middle. I have wanted to see that for awhile. Curious to see how Adam’s fits

 

[IthacaMatt]

Such a different game. Some electric plays on offense to put multiple passes together and create chances.

Sloppy on D once they got on 3-0 but still 4 could easily been 7-8.

Yes, very enjoyable effort in the first half. Big overloads on the left with Weah, Pulisic and Robinson all working that side, and then Robinson tucking in. Very aggressive attack. Of course the defense needs work, but that new holding MF, Tessman, looked pretty good.

 

[cusefan88]

Yes, very enjoyable effort in the first half. Big overloads on the left with Weah, Pulisic and Robinson all working that side, and then Robinson tucking in. Very aggressive attack. Of course the defense needs work, but that new holding MF, Tessman, looked pretty good.

Hopefully we can see them vs some non-Concacaf teams soon too.

I did enjoy them playing Mexico away I hope they do that again and put the guys into tougher environments.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Hopefully we can see them vs some non-Concacaf teams soon too.

I did enjoy them playing Mexico away I hope they do that again and put the guys into tougher environments.

Did you see that the Mexico coach was hit in the head with a full can of beer following their loss the other day? OMG, it was like watching the Zapruder Film.

Those Mexican fans are the absolute worst. Imagine bringing (or filling) bags of piss to throw at your opponents. Mexican Tailgating, I suppose.

 

[OrangeFoo]

Looked really active on offense. I really like pulisic in the middle. I have wanted to see that for awhile. Curious to see how Adam’s fits

It’s questionable whether Adams will ever be healthy enough to achieve his promise. It seems like his body can’t take the stress of soccer at that level.

Even assuming Adam’s is at full health… the MMA midfield is too defensive and too narrow to generate any offense. I guess I could see Tessman on when we need offense and Adams when we need defense?

 

[cusefan88]

It’s questionable whether Adams will ever be healthy enough to achieve his promise. It seems like his body can’t take the stress of soccer at that level.

Even assuming Adam’s is at full health… the MMA midfield is too defensive and too narrow to generate any offense. I guess I could see Tessman on when we need offense and Adams when we need defense?

Johnny Cardoso is having a fantastic season at Real Betis and it's better than 50/50 he signs for Tottenham in the summer.

He's the best American DM club wise. His form hasn't translated yet but Poch is no fool. He'll get him going.

 

[SUfanNC]

Johnny Cardoso is having a fantastic season at Real Betis and it's better than 50/50 he signs for Tottenham in the summer.

He's the best American DM club wise. His form hasn't translated yet but Poch is no fool. He'll get him going.

Poch was quoted on saying Cordoso should get the call from the Spurs. Might be Jan window, that being said hopefully he can start or get a good amount of playing time being that Spurs are in Europa as well

 

[OrangeFoo]

Johnny Cardoso is having a fantastic season at Real Betis and it's better than 50/50 he signs for Tottenham in the summer.

He's the best American DM club wise. His form hasn't translated yet but Poch is no fool. He'll get him going.

He has been pretty non impactful every time he plays for USMNT. I think each of MMA is better at least at the nats level.

 

[IthacaMatt]

It’s questionable whether Adams will ever be healthy enough to achieve his promise. It seems like his body can’t take the stress of soccer at that level.

Even assuming Adam’s is at full health… the MMA midfield is too defensive and too narrow to generate any offense. I guess I could see Tessman on when we need offense and Adams when we need defense?

It seems like Poch is playing them all farther forward, and leaving less skillful guys behind them to provide the defensive shield.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Really good article on ESPN.com, behind the paywall. It analyzes US MNT performance going back to 1994, using the ELO system, measuring against strength of opponent, importance of games, quality of squads, etc. I'll leave all that discussion for subscribers, and it is fascinating.

But I'll summarize and then paste in the conclusion from the article:

Our best teams of the modern era were from 2010 to 2014, despite the 2002 team going farther in the World Cup, or even the modern generation's general dominance over Mexico under the Pulisic Era.

More of our guys are playing better competition in better leagues than ever before. Why isn't it translating into better results? Coaching? We're about to find out. Here are their thoughts:


"Despite all of the new talent, the U.S. had already been well ahead of both of those peaks in the past.

This U.S. generation isn't so Golden then, huh?​

Perhaps the logical conclusion is that these current players aren't any better than the players from the past. You could even argue that the current players might be a little worse. Sure, only a couple of guys here and there would make it to Europe in previous cycles, but the international market may have just been inefficient. It's not like every player in the world who is good enough to be playing in the Champions League is already playing in the Champions League.

Now, I do think that the talent level of the current generation of American players is a bit overblown. Christian Pulisic looked like he could become a true superstar, as did Giovanni Reyna. The former is a borderline world-class player but not a superstar, and the latter has barely played any professional soccer over the past few years.

Tyler Adams had the potential to become an elite holding midfielder, but he just can't stay healthy. Chris Richards went from Bayern Munich to in-and-out of the Crystal Palace starting lineup. Weah left Paris Saint-Germain and has been in and out of the starting lineup with a reduced Juventus team.

McKennie occupies the same spot at the same club as Weah. And Sergiño Dest went from Ajax Amsterdam to Barcelona and then back to the Eredivisie with PSV.

Outside of Reyna and maybe Adams, none of these are bad outcomes, but based on earlier expectations, none of them are really great outcomes, either.

At the same time, you have to do a ton of mental and economic and political and sociological and tactical gymnastics to convince yourself that the current U.S. team, filled with contributors for good teams across Europe's biggest leagues, is worse than all of these other teams that were mostly made up of players from MLS, Scandinavia and low-level Big Five sides.

Which still brings us back here: Why isn't the U.S. better?

Perhaps some of it was coaching -- and we'll see how that plays out over the next two years with Mauricio Pochettino on the sideline instead of Gregg Berhalter -- but the simplest explanation is that everyone else is better, too.

In North America, most of the teams in the tier below Mexico and the U.S. have way more players playing in MLS or other higher-level professional leagues than they've had in the past. Canada were an afterthought for every World Cup cycle since 1994 -- until 2022. Now they have a coach with Champions League and Premier League experience and a number of guys on top teams in Europe.

Beyond North America, so many of the other teams in this same cluster as the U.S. -- countries that could conceivably be ranked anywhere between 12th and 35th -- are seeing the same trends with their own player pools. In mid-2002, Japan was ranked one spot ahead of the U.S. in the Elo ratings. Its roster for that World Cup included four guys who played in Europe; the other 19 played in Japan. Come 2022, with the rosters expanded to 26, 19 players were playing in Europe. Over 20 years, the share of players on its roster playing in Europe went from 17% to 73%.

The same holds true for the team ranked one spot below the U.S. in 2002: Belgium. Its roster that year had six men playing in leagues in England, Spain, Germany, France or Italy. That's 26%. In 2022, 81% were playing in one of those five major countries.

Champions League clubs are scouting and signing more Americans than ever before, but they're also signing more Japanese, Swiss, Ecuadorean, Norwegian, Moroccan, Austrian and Belgian players than ever before, too.

If someone at U.S. Soccer figured out how to build a time machine and then used it to bring the current roster to any of the pre-2022 World Cups, the U.S.'s past results would've almost definitely improved.

However, the unfortunate truth -- one that often goes unspoken in most of these "why isn't the U.S. better at soccer?" conversations -- is that in most of the sports that the U.S. dominates, there isn't the same level of global competition. But in soccer, the U.S. isn't the only national team trying to find ways to improve player development and coaching and see its players star for the biggest clubs in the world.

So to improve your standing in the global pecking order, it's not just that you have to do all of those things. You have to do all of those things, and you have to do them better than everyone else."

 

[OrangeFoo]

Really good article on ESPN.com, behind the paywall. It analyzes US MNT performance going back to 1994, using the ELO system, measuring against strength of opponent, importance of games, quality of squads, etc. I'll leave all that discussion for subscribers, and it is fascinating.

But I'll summarize and then paste in the conclusion from the article:

Our best teams of the modern era were from 2010 to 2014, despite the 2002 team going farther in the World Cup, or even the modern generation's general dominance over Mexico under the Pulisic Era.

More of our guys are playing better competition in better leagues than ever before. Why isn't it translating into better results? Coaching? We're about to find out. Here are their thoughts:


"Despite all of the new talent, the U.S. had already been well ahead of both of those peaks in the past.

This U.S. generation isn't so Golden then, huh?​

Perhaps the logical conclusion is that these current players aren't any better than the players from the past. You could even argue that the current players might be a little worse. Sure, only a couple of guys here and there would make it to Europe in previous cycles, but the international market may have just been inefficient. It's not like every player in the world who is good enough to be playing in the Champions League is already playing in the Champions League.

Now, I do think that the talent level of the current generation of American players is a bit overblown. Christian Pulisic looked like he could become a true superstar, as did Giovanni Reyna. The former is a borderline world-class player but not a superstar, and the latter has barely played any professional soccer over the past few years.

Tyler Adams had the potential to become an elite holding midfielder, but he just can't stay healthy. Chris Richards went from Bayern Munich to in-and-out of the Crystal Palace starting lineup. Weah left Paris Saint-Germain and has been in and out of the starting lineup with a reduced Juventus team.

McKennie occupies the same spot at the same club as Weah. And Sergiño Dest went from Ajax Amsterdam to Barcelona and then back to the Eredivisie with PSV.

Outside of Reyna and maybe Adams, none of these are bad outcomes, but based on earlier expectations, none of them are really great outcomes, either.

At the same time, you have to do a ton of mental and economic and political and sociological and tactical gymnastics to convince yourself that the current U.S. team, filled with contributors for good teams across Europe's biggest leagues, is worse than all of these other teams that were mostly made up of players from MLS, Scandinavia and low-level Big Five sides.

Which still brings us back here: Why isn't the U.S. better?

Perhaps some of it was coaching -- and we'll see how that plays out over the next two years with Mauricio Pochettino on the sideline instead of Gregg Berhalter -- but the simplest explanation is that everyone else is better, too.

In North America, most of the teams in the tier below Mexico and the U.S. have way more players playing in MLS or other higher-level professional leagues than they've had in the past. Canada were an afterthought for every World Cup cycle since 1994 -- until 2022. Now they have a coach with Champions League and Premier League experience and a number of guys on top teams in Europe.

Beyond North America, so many of the other teams in this same cluster as the U.S. -- countries that could conceivably be ranked anywhere between 12th and 35th -- are seeing the same trends with their own player pools. In mid-2002, Japan was ranked one spot ahead of the U.S. in the Elo ratings. Its roster for that World Cup included four guys who played in Europe; the other 19 played in Japan. Come 2022, with the rosters expanded to 26, 19 players were playing in Europe. Over 20 years, the share of players on its roster playing in Europe went from 17% to 73%.

The same holds true for the team ranked one spot below the U.S. in 2002: Belgium. Its roster that year had six men playing in leagues in England, Spain, Germany, France or Italy. That's 26%. In 2022, 81% were playing in one of those five major countries.

Champions League clubs are scouting and signing more Americans than ever before, but they're also signing more Japanese, Swiss, Ecuadorean, Norwegian, Moroccan, Austrian and Belgian players than ever before, too.

If someone at U.S. Soccer figured out how to build a time machine and then used it to bring the current roster to any of the pre-2022 World Cups, the U.S.'s past results would've almost definitely improved.

However, the unfortunate truth -- one that often goes unspoken in most of these "why isn't the U.S. better at soccer?" conversations -- is that in most of the sports that the U.S. dominates, there isn't the same level of global competition. But in soccer, the U.S. isn't the only national team trying to find ways to improve player development and coaching and see its players star for the biggest clubs in the world.

So to improve your standing in the global pecking order, it's not just that you have to do all of those things. You have to do all of those things, and you have to do them better than everyone else."

I keep going back to the fact that we went from a team of players who carried the pressure of their club teams on their shoulders to a bunch of water carriers. They carry water for better club teams than ever… but they don’t make the winning plays. Pulisic is the one exception.

 

[CuseCPT]

The 2010 team was dangerous to anybody they played. Tim Howard was going to keep you in a game no matter what. Donovan was relentless, there were times when he just willed us to win. Dempsey was fearless. God I love that team. They had such a toughness; they were never intimidated.

I remember reading a forum post from a dude in the UK that said he started out hating us, nothing personal, just liked to see the arrogant yanks put in their place a bit, spillover from Dubya and the war in Iraq, etc.. But the more they got screwed over by bad calls he started rooting for them because "the way they just kept getting up, just kept carrying on"


I truly believe they were just one reliable striker from having a real shot at winning the whole thing.

 

[OrangeFoo]

The 2010 team was dangerous to anybody they played. Tim Howard was going to keep you in a game no matter what. Donovan was relentless, there were times when he just willed us to win. Dempsey was fearless. God I love that team. They had such a toughness; they were never intimidated.

I remember reading a forum post from a dude in the UK that said he started out hating us, nothing personal, just liked to see the arrogant yanks put in their place a bit, spillover from Dubya and the war in Iraq, etc.. But the more they got screwed over by bad calls he started rooting for them because "the way they just kept getting up, just kept carrying on"


I truly believe they were just one reliable striker from having a real shot at winning the whole thing.

Jozy Altidore is the biggest tease in usmnt soccer history. He had so much talent and actually showed it at club level but never had quite the same impact at the nats level. He could have been the difference maker for that 2010 team if the results matched the talent.

 

[cusefan88]

Jozy Altidore is the biggest tease in usmnt soccer history. He had so much talent and actually showed it at club level but never had quite the same impact at the nats level. He could have been the difference maker for that 2010 team if the results matched the talent.

I had high hopes for Jozy at Sunderland after his breakthrough with AZ. He was awful.

 

[PoppyHart]

2014 was the best team and best chance to make a deep run imo. If only Jurgen wasn’t an egomaniac.

 

[CuseCPT]

Jozy Altidore is the biggest tease in usmnt soccer history. He had so much talent and actually showed it at club level but never had quite the same impact at the nats level. He could have been the difference maker for that 2010 team if the results matched the talent.

Yeah, at times, he looked unstoppable.

That video encapsulates everything I love about that team. Oh you're defending European champions? That's nice. 1-0 us. This era's team could be beaten, but I never saw it broken.

 

[OrangeFoo]

Yeah, at times, he looked unstoppable.

That video encapsulates everything I love about that team. Oh you're defending European champions? That's nice. 1-0 us. This era's team could be beaten, but I never saw it broken.

We have better skilled players now for sure… but again none of them have that alpha dog mentality. They all feel like complementary players. Tyler Adams is getting back to health and he definitely is take control type of guy so that will help. I think the biggest issue with this team is they don’t have a strong creative midfielder in the middle of the field and their CBs are either old or not reliable. There is a ton of talent if they can find the middle of the pitch guy to complement Pulisic.

 

[cusefan88]

We have better skilled players now for sure… but again none of them have that alpha dog mentality. They all feel like complementary players. Tyler Adams is getting back to health and he definitely is take control type of guy so that will help. I think the biggest issue with this team is they don’t have a strong creative midfielder in the middle of the field and their CBs are either old or not reliable. There is a ton of talent if they can find the middle of the pitch guy to complement Pulisic.

I think one of the biggest issues is creativity right. US development is generally formulaic and against creativity and just trying stuff.

Need more guys who can win 1v1. Honestly it's a lost art compared to 10-20 years ago globally. Players need more unstructured play to have fun and try stuff