USMNT 2024

[cusefan88]

Berhalter ball blows

I'm not rooting against the team but, if it gets GGG fired...

 

[PeteCalvin]

Turnovers, turnovers and more turnovers. That’s what killed us today. We need to control midfield to be successful.

Didn’t think we’d get shellacked like Mexico did. We have no margin for error with our subs.

 

[CuseCPT]

USMNT has hit it's ceiling. We will usually (but not always) be the best team in CONCACAF and somewhere between the 30th and 20th best team in the world most of the time. It is what it is.

 

[PeteCalvin]

I'm not rooting against the team but, if it gets GGG fired...

They will never pull the trigger on that before 2026. Where do they get a replacement that would take the job and be worth the change? Berhalter’s problem is game management and haphazard substitutions. He just started throwing guys in there when it was 2-1. I know he wants to see how different guys will play, but doesn’t he want to build confidence for the side too???

 

[orangenauburn]

They will never pull the trigger on that before 2026. Where do they get a replacement that would take the job and be worth the change? Berhalter’s problem is game management and haphazard substitutions. He just started throwing guys in there when it was 2-1. I know he wants to see how different guys will play, but doesn’t he want to build confidence for the side too???

Next coach was in Boston watching the NBA Finals other night

 

[IthacaMatt]

Robinson was awful. Turner was awful. Carter-Vickers with a bad mistake. Scally was ok in spots.

Reyna is not as effective so deep. Midfield was not active enough. I thought I had seen Adams in the starting lineup, and was wondering where the hell he was, but I was wrong. He didn't play. It was Jonny Cardoso with the start (who wasn't bad), and Tillman off the bench. McKennie was a bit better, but not much.

Weah was OK, Pulisic had that one header out of nowhere, but otherwise didn't have much impact.

Haji Wright was maybe our best player, gave us some spark in the 45-60 minute segment of the game, when we cut it to 2-1.

Yes, Columbia has some top class players, but we were not working nearly as hard as them to recover the ball.

 

[PeteCalvin]

Robinson was awful. Turner was awful. Carter-Vickers with a bad mistake. Scally was ok in spots.

Reyna is not as effective so deep. Midfield was not active enough. Adams was mostly invisible. McKennie was a bit better, but not much.

Weah was OK, Pulisic had that one header out of nowhere, but otherwise didn't have much impact.

Haji Wright was maybe our best player, gave us some spark in the 45-60 minute segment of the game, when we cut it to 2-1.

Yes, Columbia has some top class players, but we were not working nearly as hard as them to recover the ball.

Yeah, we packed it in after that 3rd goal. Heads were hanging. Berhalter should have played for some pride and held the 2-1 margin. All those subs didn’t help our already poor positioning on the pitch. Everyone was out of position, none of our passes in the last 15 minutes were worth a crap. Guys weren’t coming to the ball, we were rushing passes into the box. We looked like a team without any cohesion.

 

[Melancer46]

I ask this as someone that watches soccer a decent amount but is simply not a smart enough fan to know what is coaching/skill/player issues. I know the vast majority seem to pile on Berhalter and even if he isn't the main issue, we're probably in "You can't fire all of the players so you have to fire the coach" territory, but how much of our decent but not great international play do we really think is on Berhalter vs. being that our players are merely decent but not great?

It seems to me that even outside of international play, our players are considered just decent for the most part. Even Pulisic has had to bounce around from club to club to find playing time while someone like Reyna has struggled to find playing time for like 3 years now and he's supposed to be one of our biggest talents.

I guess I tend to think until proven wrong, this is just kinda what we are right now. I think the US soccer team will probably continue to get better as it seems like our country is continuing to buy more and more into it but I'm skeptical that a new coach will actually lead this current group to a World Cup semifinal or anything like that.

 

[cusefan88]

I ask this as someone that watches soccer a decent amount but is simply not a smart enough fan to know what is coaching/skill/player issues. I know the vast majority seem to pile on Berhalter and even if he isn't the main issue, we're probably in "You can't fire all of the players so you have to fire the coach" territory, but how much of our decent but not great international play do we really think is on Berhalter vs. being that our players are merely decent but not great?

It seems to me that even outside of international play, our players are considered just decent for the most part. Even Pulisic has had to bounce around from club to club to find playing time while someone like Reyna has struggled to find playing time for like 3 years now and he's supposed to be one of our biggest talents.

I guess I tend to think until proven wrong, this is just kinda what we are right now. I think the US soccer team will probably continue to get better as it seems like our country is continuing to buy more and more into it but I'm skeptical that a new coach will actually lead this current group to a World Cup semifinal or anything like that.

Berhalter has struggles as a manager for a lot of his career. I also think the US lacks a playing identity. As more fans watch soccer they will start to see the low level of our domestic game and ask questions.

 

[storange]

It was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back game for me, back line did a great keystone cops impression. We sucked , Time for Gregg to go . This group has some talent …… unacceptable.

 

[storange]

Yeah, we packed it in after that 3rd goal. Heads were hanging. Berhalter should have played for some pride and held the 2-1 margin. All those subs didn’t help our already poor positioning on the pitch. Everyone was out of position, none of our passes in the last 15 minutes were worth a crap. Guys weren’t coming to the ball, we were rushing passes into the box. We looked like a team without any cohesion.

Starters or Subs , we couldn’t play out of the back the entire game.

 

[IthacaMatt]

I ask this as someone that watches soccer a decent amount but is simply not a smart enough fan to know what is coaching/skill/player issues. I know the vast majority seem to pile on Berhalter and even if he isn't the main issue, we're probably in "You can't fire all of the players so you have to fire the coach" territory, but how much of our decent but not great international play do we really think is on Berhalter vs. being that our players are merely decent but not great?

It seems to me that even outside of international play, our players are considered just decent for the most part. Even Pulisic has had to bounce around from club to club to find playing time while someone like Reyna has struggled to find playing time for like 3 years now and he's supposed to be one of our biggest talents.

I guess I tend to think until proven wrong, this is just kinda what we are right now. I think the US soccer team will probably continue to get better as it seems like our country is continuing to buy more and more into it but I'm skeptical that a new coach will actually lead this current group to a World Cup semifinal or anything like that.

I've been watching seriously (at least 2 or 3 games every week, often more) since 2010.
Berhalter was given a "2" rating by ESPN this morning, but other than having Adams and Dest, that was pretty much our first team 11.

What tactical errors did he make? If he played 3 at the back to try to solidify our defense, he would have been crucified for "not trying to win" against a good team.

They were trying to advance the ball quickly up the flank against Columbia's pressure, but the 2nd flick to the fullback often went awry.

Mostly, it came down to two things - our defense was abysmal, and our midfield lacked energy.

Well, make that 3 things, because I can't count how many times we turned the ball over on only the 2nd or 3rd pass when we were in possession.

As much as Berhalter appears to have reached his ceiling with this group, I don't see how most of last night's game was his fault.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Starters or Subs , we couldn’t play out of the back the entire game.

Yep. And he kept trying to do it up the flanks. At a certain point, you need to find the progressive pass through the middle. That's why Reyna was in the holding MF position, but his long passes tended to be toward wide areas forward.

If you watched what Man City try to do against pressure is that they try to find that lane to advance through the middle, rather than out wide. The ball over the top out wide is saved as a last resort, for somebody like Jeremy Doku to run onto.

 

[IthacaMatt]

It was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back game for me, back line did a great keystone cops impression. We sucked , Time for Gregg to go . This group has some talent …… unacceptable.

I think that for Brazil, Ream, Turner and Robinson all have to sit.
Start Haji Wright over Balogun. Probably play 3 at the back against Brazil to avoid a shellacking.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Starters or Subs , we couldn’t play out of the back the entire game.

Our inability to just retain possession was astounding, just remarkably bad for guys who are all playing in top European leagues. Even if most are not stars, most are playing against these kind of guys every week.

 

[orangenauburn]

I think it's his style of play and approach that bugs people the most

 

[Orangezoo]

Didn’t post in the thread holding off with how disgusted I was. Not sure exactly what to make of that disaster but a lot has to fall back on Greg. They look more like the group that was playing garbage football under Greg before. Such a waste of talent…

Honestly not even worth breaking down the tactics - this was a weak, undisciplined and uninspired performance. Who cares if a friendly or not. They better show up at Copa in a big way. I’ll leave it at that.

 

[SUalldway]

Didn’t post in the thread holding off with how disgusted I was. Not sure exactly what to make of that disaster but a lot has to fall back on Greg. They look more like the group that was playing garbage football under Greg beforeu. Such a waste of talent…

Honestly not even worth breaking down the tactics - this was a weak, undisciplined and uninspired performance.

Back line defense was a sieve!

 

[Orangezoo]

Back line defense was a sieve!

Might be too kind in your phrasing. They were god awful. 15 shot attempts and 5 goals. Looked at times like they hadn’t even practiced once going into this matchup.

 

[SUalldway]

Might be too kind in your phrasing. They were god awful. 15 shot attempts and 5 goals. Looked at times like they hadn’t even practiced once going into this matchup.

Maybe a combo of no practice and just a lack of instinct for defense. Hope they have a Plan B for some new player(s) on that line.

 

[IthacaMatt]

I think it's his style of play and approach that bugs people the most

I think his style of play is fine; it's what Jurgen Klinsmann promised, and it's a maybe less-manic version of what Jesse Marsch wants to do. We are farther along that we've ever been in terms of technical capability, but our defense has become soft and vulnerable to counter-attacks. He has to fix that.

If we get wiped out in the Copa America, if we can get a "global quality" coach, then Berhalter should be replaced. But if the replacement is Marsch or Peter Vermes, or some Mexican coach who knows MLS, then forget it, it's no real upgrade. The players seem to like him, but he's kind of like our version of Gareth Southgate. He's got a ceiling on what his teams will give you.

 

[OrangeFoo]

I've been watching seriously (at least 2 or 3 games every week, often more) since 2010.
Berhalter was given a "2" rating by ESPN this morning, but other than having Adams and Dest, that was pretty much our first team 11.

What tactical errors did he make? If he played 3 at the back to try to solidify our defense, he would have been crucified for "not trying to win" against a good team.

They were trying to advance the ball quickly up the flank against Columbia's pressure, but the 2nd flick to the fullback often went awry.

Mostly, it came down to two things - our defense was abysmal, and our midfield lacked energy.

Well, make that 3 things, because I can't count how many times we turned the ball over on only the 2nd or 3rd pass when we were in possession.

As much as Berhalter appears to have reached his ceiling with this group, I don't see how most of last night's game was his fault.

My take… berhalter ball relies on fullbacks and the center back to kick start the offense or “build from the back”. If the 4 backs aren’t great st picking out passes the offense will have a long night. Scally in for Dest is a huge drop off… Ream hasn’t started for Fulham in forever… Robinson has always been bipolar when it comes to his passing and he was bad Jedi yesterday. I don’t know much about Richards but his 5 foot passes in the triangle didn’t exactly rip open Colombia.

And all this leads to the biggest problem with berhalter ball… there is no plan B. If I were coach I would have had McKennie and Musah drop deep to protected the backline and kick start the offense. In fact most of the dangerous possession for the US came from counters or a midfielder dropping back.

Instead berhalter had Reyna drop deep where his lack of speed exposed the D. Fwiw the first goal is as much on Reyna as it is Jedi… Reyna gave his guy a free run into the box so when Jedi messed up the Colombian was wide open 6 feet from the goal. I have no idea why Cardoso started ahead of Musah, but it wasn’t pretty.

Anyways this is by far the most proven high level talent the US has ever had. But two things are holding them back… one they are all water carriers other than Pulisic. Who is going to stir the drink when it comes to winning time? And two… the coach doesn’t help the talent on the field with his strategy and in fact often does the opposite.

Back in the day the US was always played better than the sum of the parts. That has not been true since Dempsey retired.

 

[PeteCalvin]

I've been watching seriously (at least 2 or 3 games every week, often more) since 2010.
Berhalter was given a "2" rating by ESPN this morning, but other than having Adams and Dest, that was pretty much our first team 11.

What tactical errors did he make? If he played 3 at the back to try to solidify our defense, he would have been crucified for "not trying to win" against a good team.

They were trying to advance the ball quickly up the flank against Columbia's pressure, but the 2nd flick to the fullback often went awry.

Mostly, it came down to two things - our defense was abysmal, and our midfield lacked energy.

Well, make that 3 things, because I can't count how many times we turned the ball over on only the 2nd or 3rd pass when we were in possession.

As much as Berhalter appears to have reached his ceiling with this group, I don't see how most of last night's game was his fault.

And the turnovers were in the absolute worst spots on the field. Columbia knew they could beat us on the counterattack. They pressured the players when the passes were made and just sprung the ball loose. Those last three goals were way too easy. The first two were defensive gifts as well. Columbia is very talented up front, but we beat ourselves.

I still believe we have the talent to compete with the better teams. We just can’t put everything together when it matters. We aren’t clinical where we absolutely have to be. We have clinical players, but not enough.

 

[Orangezoo]

And the turnovers were in the absolute worst spots on the field. Columbia knew they could beat us on the counterattack. They pressured the players when the passes were made and just sprung the ball loose. Those last three goals were way too easy. The first two were defensive gifts as well. Columbia is very talented up front, but we beat ourselves.

I still believe we have the talent to compete with the better teams. We just can’t put everything together when it matters. We aren’t clinical where we absolutely have to be. We have clinical players, but not enough.

And the counter has been a consistent weak point under Berhalter. It’s an open secret and yet they looked completely unprepared to deal with it both individually and tactically. No Dest hurts given he keeps opponents honest and cautious about getting too forward but it’s much more than that. I even look at Turner and he just doesn’t command the respect and attention of his back line. Spoiled so many years by Howard but still…

There is a lot to correct by 2026 and I just don’t see it happening under Berhalter. Hope I’m wrong.

 

[cusefan88]

MLS and USSF really need to step player development. A lot of the top guys didn't play a min in MLS (Reyna Pulisic Weah McKennie etc).

The top countries develop players in their domestic league and have great competition. To me in this area, the USA is way way behind.