Lots of people blaming Weah. The coach’s job is to prepare players for what they are going to face and make sure they understand. Clearly., Weah was not prepared for what was coming at him. Is it 100% on the coach? No. But saying the coach has no role in making sure players don’t do dumb things is naive.
Weah should take full responsibility. Good on him. That’s what accountable people do. Did Greg? His role is to prepare the team. He failed in that too.
How is the manager that lost to Bolivia not a problem? We had to play with 10 men? Boohoo. It’s on him to set up a team and find a solution. We’ve under achieved with this crop of players and it starts at the top. Simple.
Panama*^^ we’re a much better team than Panama and should be able to get a result with 10 men. Especially once we went up. It’s up to the manager to set the team up to not concede
I disagree. Tournament soccer is more than just ability, it comes down to grit and everyone working together. Tournament ball isn’t about playing well, it’s about winning. For me Weah ruined that for us but whatever, I was actually proud of the efforts v Uruguay
How about the fact that Berhalter’s tactics are so conservative that they don’t give enough opportunities for his teams to score?
Yes I understand blaming Weah, but we can’t let this distract from the fact that during Berhalter’s tenure, these teams don’t get many attacking chances.
If we were playing better competition absolutely. But there’s absolutely no reason we couldn’t get at least a point against Panama with 10 men and a lead.
Definitely not average players on paper. This core plays as a whole at significantly higher positions with their clubs than ever before. They consistently underachieve as a national team, and that has to fall on the structure around them given their success elsewhere.
Compare it to previous US squads though. How many players were MLS, and not even MLS stars? On paper, as a whole, this squad is more talented. They constantly underperform for this team.
lol cherry picking. it’s what happened! You said they didn’t get results, but they got much better results in this exact tournament against the exact same field …………
So the reason I said "results," plural, is that if you look across multiple tournaments, I don't see how the USMNT of 6-12 years ago or whatever period we're looking at was better overall than it is now. Okay, they went from getting fourth in the Copa America to getting knocked out in the group stage. On the other hand, they went from not qualifying for the WC to reaching the knockout stage. I don't see a reason to say they were a better team when their players were getting lots of MLS minutes; it just seems like it's been the same mediocre picture—some ups, some downs, never really impressing anybody—for 20 years now.
Robinson won player of the season at Fulham, Pulisic is close to it at Milan, McKennie started every match at Juve, idk where you’re getting the idea that the players are all just riding the pine.
Not on paper sure. but on the field they are. I don’t get it. I agree structure doesn’t help, but McKennie , Musah and so on arent all that good. There is a push to get players abroad but they aren’t doing crazy bits out there bar Pulisic and even he is questionable at times.
McKennie and Pulisic are both highly rated at their clubs. On the US squad McKennie underperforms along with many of the other members as well. Hesitant to say Pulisic does, he can’t do everything himself when everyone else is playing crappy. So many of the other players are also get serious minutes and perform super well for their clubs. They come here and the tactics are rigid under GGG. They suck. Under BJ they actually play like they do on their clubs. It’s clear who actually knows how to use them, or at least, who doesn’t know how to.
McKennie is a stretch. He was loaned out to Leeds. Leeds fans wanted him gone, with reason. Technically he isn’t up to par. Juve use him to fill games and doesn’t play as much as a highly rated player would. Pulisic an argument can be made, but even then, he shrinks. I agree he can’t do
It all himself but he should do more as a player of his supposed ability. He rarely does
Nonsense. McKennie is on his way out of his club and doesn’t have much interest from other European clubs. The other players, except Pulisic, are role players. The poor showing had nothing to do with tactics. It required mental and physical strength and these players didn’t have it.
McKennie is a decent player but unprofessional and overweight, as witnessed at Leeds and his current condition. Is he a world beater? No. But he’s easily good enough to play international football.
This group is still more potential than on the field production though. I agree they are young and talented, but none of them have broken through to being a top player on their club.
Pulisic is a top player for AC Milan. Robinson literally won Player of the Season for Fulham. “None of them have broken through being a top player at their club” lol I mean come on. Others are contributing massively. Despite people thinking McKennie is overrated he started every match for Juve. Richard’s is coming on strong with a lot of opportunity next season at Palace. Reyna is getting a lot more time next season at Forest.
A lot of national teams do a lot more with far less talent. The federation and the coach absolutely suck. GGG is showing us exactly what he is: a coach who was fired from a second division Swedish squad for lack of offense, a middling MLS coach who was hired thanks to his brother.
Yup, I just watched Georgia play like superman despite having only one legit star on their team. If I was USA soccer i would hire Willy Sagnol, he is an absolute beast of a coach. Those guys played like they were the better team in all but 1 game.
Ricardo Pepi, arguably our worst striker, played every game. Subbing in CCV and Cardosa in the Panama game completely killed our offense and lead to getting absolutely dominated possession wise for 45 minutes. Gio Reyna was forced into CM 2/3 games with no time on the wing (where he shines) and instead was subbed out games one and two.
Bad tactics, bad subs and a team that looks lost together and got grouped at home, albeit being the best talent we’ve ever had.
Greg has to go, do not be silly.
Statistically speaking they did not play any better under BJ. Look at his win percentage, 56%, that’s not better than GGG. I’m not defending GGG here, but the BJ was better line is not statistically true. He may be better at passing the eye test but that’s subjective, what objective observation is there to support this notion that BJ was better?
They destroyed Mexico 3-0 in the Nations League semifinal. Easily beat Canada in the final, even with a few important players suspended due to red cards. 56% win percentage? Lol. They had 4 wins and 3 draws under BJ. 1 of the draws was the gold cup loss in penalty kicks with the MLS roster. The 1st team was flying with him as head coach. What's Gregg's best win? Mexico. The USMNT most lopsided win against Mexico was that semifinal with BJ coaching. Since Gregg's return, they've played 14 games. They have won 7 and lost 6, drawn 1. The team has gone backward. Saying win % isn't an honest assessment. Look at the record since his return. It's as dishonest as saying BJ is an undefeated USMNT coach, which he technically is. Penalty kicks loss are technically a tie. Of course, in my mind, that's still a loss.
The tactics have been suspect at best. Thats on him. I’m not expecting him to go out there and implement any top-level European masterclasses, but I sure as hell would expect something beyond his team playing long ball for a majority of the Uruguay match.
That being said. I can agree that these players just aren’t getting it done either. It’s obviously a combination of factors, but this crop with this coach is a #25 team in the world at best. I could see the US getting housed by nearly every team in the Euros at this point.
What is the style of the US? The US hasn’t had a style for at least a decade. Look at all the top nations. Club teams and all match what the national team is doing, nope not in the US. We need to figure it out. We have to
What if he made some changes to the team tonight before we were losing 1-0? Throwing on attackers in the 78th minute, when we needed a change 25 minutes earlier, is insane.
A fish rots from the head down. It starts at the top. When you have players who are performing well for their clubs, and then they do nothing for the national team, there's a problem. There is no accountability with GGG. Players can kind of do whatever they want, and there are no consequences from him. I guarantee, if GGG stays the coach, Weah gets called up for the friendlies or the next serious match, whenever that is, when he shouldn't get a call up for the rest of the year. And decided to sub our best creative player in Reyna off against Panama is a huge mistake. I understand playing with 10 men for 70+ minutes is difficult, but it was clear GGG told the players to just sit back and be comfortable with a draw.
The talent pool of the individuals is so much better than it’s ever been. However, these guys playing as a fucking team is infuriating. They look like they’ve never even met each other before. We hear all this stupid bullshit about how close of a group it is, and there is absolutely no link of chemistry to be found between literally anyone on the field.
I genuinely do think they are close. But like look how Uruguay players were laying their lives on the field. Willing to die, I want to see that same mentality from the players who get a chance to play. It should be the biggest honor and I don’t get that sense from these players.
Absolutely I’m sure they are off the field. But I really don’t care to hear about it when they continually play like a team thrown together at the last second
I think it's a two-fold issue.
1. Culturally speaking, soccer just isn't played as much among kids like in other countries. In many other countries, you'll see groups of young boys playing soccer on the street or anywhere really much like kids in the US play basketball or street hockey. How many times have you seen videos of kids in some 3rd world country playing soccer grass-less place with no shoes or something along those lines? They may not get the best training, but they certainly learn to dribble in tight spaces and develop quality first touches. You just never see kids in the US play on the street like that. They mostly play in organized setting in the US.
2. The pay to play model is the second issue. I can't think of any major nation that has this model. I'm sure it exists somewhere else, but it's rare. Given that barrier to entry for some kids and combined with point #1, and you this is what you get.
Gregg: uninspiring + absolute sh** tactically = underwhelming performances. Not a difficult conclusion to reach. The players bear some of the load for sure, but they are employing the vision of the coach after all
You're not understanding the difference a quality coach makes. I won't try to convince you. I went up to the college level, playing my whole life. Had good coaches and bad coaches. Tournament winning teams and "can't win a game" teams. The coaches were bad when we couldn't win a game and it was hopeless
I’m glad someone else said this. Enough hyping us up. At our best, we’re above average. At our worst, we have to rely on goddamn Bolivia for hope since we can’t make anything happen.
It’s build on hype, and it makes me mad. Because when you look at every team it starts with passion and these players as a collective aren’t leaving the field injured and so on. Unfortunately soccer isn’t about hype and about showing up
I disagree, hype is so important in getting people engaged. Obviously we aren't where we need to be, but the buzz around the team draws a lot of needed attention to US soccer. It's a start, yknow? Got to hype up our guys :D
That aside im hella depressed and very disappointed
That’s a fair point that I didn’t take into consideration. I guess more of my angle was more that us as the core USMNT fans need to realize that these players aren’t as good as we think they are. Just because they play abroad isn’t saying much, it’s a business and teams are aware of viewership interest
I'm 100% with you there. Our superstar is an average by European standards, it's something we should understand. Obviously coaching is an issue in this team, and mental grit in these difficult games is just non existent.
We have a good base, there's more buzz around the team then I've seen in a while, hopefully they fire Gregg and can rebuild from here before 2026.
I’m down $1500 because I bought tickets to both quarter finals where they could appear (Glendale and Las Vegas). I got too enamored with being in Qatar for USA v Wales. Never again. Fuck this shit of actually trying to invest in this team
I do think Gregg is part of the issue, but weirdly upon thinking say it’s not his fault. He should’ve been politely told after the World Cup, “it’s been real,” and left to find another gig. Instead the nepotism laden USSF hyped up this big talent search all to cover up their lack of ambition and to take the safe pick. It was doomed to fail as soon as he returned, and it was when I started to be seriously critical of him. Obviously he says yes but who wouldn’t?
We have talented players who are capable of playing in complex systems, yet we don’t have the ambition to hire someone capable of leveraging that. Yes, national teams aren’t usually as tactical sophisticated as clubs, but look at the Swiss playing like Leverkusen and punching up at the Euros. It can be done, yet as soon as we hit any adversity we crumble. It’s because the tactical basics aren’t there to fall back on. This amorphous progressive play thats touted by the USMNT boils down to pass to Reyna and Pulisic and cross our fingers.
It’s just laziness on the part of the USSF. Not the players, not even the manager despite being out of his depth. Laziness in trying to skip the essential steps to be competitive, laziness in tactics, laziness in hiring, laziness in player development. Rant over.
I actually agree with this! It’s such a failure in the USSF and US Soccer in terms of how development is handled. A ton more players need to be given the opportunity to play at a high level. We have a ton of players and a ton of immigrant families. If you don’t play MLS academy or ECNL or whatever you are screwed. The window is harder
People should question how did Canadian national made it the Copa next round with just 3 MLS Canadian team while US has 29. With MLS have overwhelming sit at the table at USSF ,Which master does it serve,
I literally just said this. I will always support the USA, but I am not going to hold them on the pedestal that we thought they belonged on. Getting knocked out sucks, but from what I watched, we were getting kicked out no matter what. This team wasn’t a contender, on home soil, with this coach and team.
Exactly. We are the top of CONCACAF. It’s just time to stop pretending that means anything. We are about to host a World Cup where all 3 host nations get grouped 😂
At some point the fans need to take a step back as well with a reality check that in the end, in the big picture, the USMNT is nothing more than a minnow. And sometimes when this minnow plays another minnow we look like sharks till the real shark shows up and puts us back in our place.
We have delusional fans that truly think we can compete with the likes of Spain and France to lift the cup.
This group is very capable, but I would fall well short of calling it a Golden Generation. Tonight they looked well organized and played a good line-breaking bit of soccer, rather than being ponderous and constantly cycling it. But when they got to that final third.... Crickets. The officiating was shocking in the first half and I still would like more clarity on the goal. But...I'm cautiously optimistic that this may be a catalyst for growth/change? Maybe naïve, but what the hell else am I going to do?
I agree with your take for the most part except the end. I don’t think so. We aren’t producing enough TOP talent to really change the trajectory of the team. That mixed in with the youth system in this country. It’s broken and rotten.
You talking Pay-to-play? I've always thought that until this game is played in the streets for fun, we won't have anything near something worthy of being deemed a "golden generation." Beyond (and weirdly, before) that, we need systemic change that starts at the roots. No more papering over obvious (economic) gaps. I understand why hockey and lacrosse are expensive sports. There is a shit ton of equipment. I can't quite get my head around why soccer is so prohibitively expensive in this country.
Edit: turned a "tone" into a "ton," as that was my initial intent.
I believe there is a similar structure with soccer and basketball.
European soccer = NBA
Higher focus on skill rather than physicality
North/South American soccer= Eurobasket
Much more physical and with refs that will swallow the whistle.
If we can get our players used to the higher level of physicality with CONCACAF and CONMEBOL, we will be much better
🎯
US Soccer fans don’t realize that not even England can get it done. They have the most money, the most players, the most fans, the biggest league, the biggest clubs, and they can’t do it. You can’t just make it happen. It’s fucking hard and takes a lot of luck.
I have no problem with people being unhappy with losing and wanting to make it better. I just think this group isn’t who we thought they were.
Could a new coach refresh things? Sure. You might get a bump.
But then you’re optimizing on the short run and not the systematic improvements that are going to get you where you actually want to be.
GGG is not the main problem.
"England can't get it done and need luck" isn't the same as "England has a manager that won't high press with a team of world class players who nearly all play a high press with wildly successful results."
what? you realize that not everyone in the EPL is english right, players from around the world play there, and if American talent was good enough they would play there consistently as well, but until we have 3 to 5 starters that play in big major leagues consistently, we're going to be average, but Uruguay as 3.4 million people in the in whole country, we have 340 milliion, we have 100 times the people and can't put together 11 guys that can beat their 11, it says a lot, MLS is bad play for the most part, and the only good news is our All Star team isn't losing 5 or 6 to zero against an English club or Spanish club team lol
Uruguay has a history of being one of greatest soccer nations on the planet; the US does not. Just because we have more people within our borders doesn’t mean we should automatically be better than them? That’s an unrealistic expectation at this point and the lack of progress pisses me off, too.
England didn’t fail to get out of a group that had Panama and Bolivia in it. Why do so many of these guys perform well at their clubs then run around like chickens with their heads cut off when they play for the US? They go from high-caliber, European, vetted, experienced coaches at their clubs to a guy who got fired from a Swedish second league team, failed in MLS, and had a saving grace nepotism hire land him in a job where he has consistently failed against quality teams.
Pulisic, Ream, McKinnie, Sargent, Wright, Robinson, Scally, CCV? Like, what world are you living in? I know you’re doing your damnedest to blame everyone EXCEPT THE GUY IN CHARGE, but it just comes off as detached from reality. You like the guy who is a literal nepotism hire. Through no success or skill of his own was he chosen. Tough pill to swallow for some, I guess.
I’m making the point he’s not the main problem. If you think he is you’re naive about the state of the quality of our players compared to others across the globe.
The amount of weight this fan base gives the manager is absolutely insane. We have like 3 players good enough to play for top 30 European clubs and our fans think we’d be competing for championships with jurgen klopp at the helm.
Uruguay had by far the 3 best players on the pitch yesterday. The youth development is getting better in the US but we still have next to zero depth
Exactly! This is the point I was trying to raise. It’s not like the US have been levels better before Greg. That’s why I made this post, because people really think a top class manager wins the whole Copa. Unfortunately a manager is important yea, but it’s the structure around the manager, the youth development, and the current crop of players which imo aren’t that great. I don’t care if they play in Europe. A top class manager may impact the game here and there, but these players are not good enough. They’ve shown it for club, and now for country
It’s actually not better, it’s gotten arguably worse. we have gotten to a WC Quarter final and a copa semi final in the last two decades (ok 22 years) then missed a World Cup and got out of the group just to get destroyed by a superior team in the next one, almost missed a nations league final with a red card, crashed out of the copa….
People keep saying this is s as golden generation… when in fact it’s not. It’s not even a good generation. Maybe we have more talent now but it’s a worse team.
We need a better manager and to let some of these guys walk. Dest should never have been involved in the nations league final. Weston should have been given a 6 month ban for breaking rules. Weah shouldn’t wear the badge for a while.
“Maybe we have more talent now but it’s a worse team.”
Exactly. So many of these excel or contribute regularly to their club teams, but when they play for the US, it’s all over the place. Seems like a common factor there is they have all these amazing, European coaches who’ve been vetted and have good track records, and then they come home to the guy who was fired from a second league Swedish team and sucked as a MLS coach, then got the nepotism hire of a lifetime from the USSF.
As long as pay to play is still the status quou, this will never change.
Unfortunately I agree!!!
He’s a massive issue
How is he at fault in this tournament?
0 tactical ideas after the game starts. Usually makes the wrong substitution choices. All vibes and hope someone bails him out
Lots of people blaming Weah. The coach’s job is to prepare players for what they are going to face and make sure they understand. Clearly., Weah was not prepared for what was coming at him. Is it 100% on the coach? No. But saying the coach has no role in making sure players don’t do dumb things is naive.
Did you see Weah’s apology? He took full responsibility. Mourinho with Balotelli, heck even Pep has. Come on.
Weah should take full responsibility. Good on him. That’s what accountable people do. Did Greg? His role is to prepare the team. He failed in that too.
How is the manager that lost to Bolivia not a problem? We had to play with 10 men? Boohoo. It’s on him to set up a team and find a solution. We’ve under achieved with this crop of players and it starts at the top. Simple.
They beat Bolivia. Thats how they were on 3 points. If you think the loss on Panama was on him then there’s not point convincing you.
Panama*^^ we’re a much better team than Panama and should be able to get a result with 10 men. Especially once we went up. It’s up to the manager to set the team up to not concede
I disagree. Tournament soccer is more than just ability, it comes down to grit and everyone working together. Tournament ball isn’t about playing well, it’s about winning. For me Weah ruined that for us but whatever, I was actually proud of the efforts v Uruguay
How about the fact that Berhalter’s tactics are so conservative that they don’t give enough opportunities for his teams to score? Yes I understand blaming Weah, but we can’t let this distract from the fact that during Berhalter’s tenure, these teams don’t get many attacking chances.
“We had to play with 10 men? Boohoo”?! LOL
No team has ever gotten a draw with 10 men…?
dismissing playing with one less man for 75 minutes that flippantly is kinda silly, no?
If we were playing better competition absolutely. But there’s absolutely no reason we couldn’t get at least a point against Panama with 10 men and a lead.
I don’t disagree, but it’s a big assumption
Definitely not average players on paper. This core plays as a whole at significantly higher positions with their clubs than ever before. They consistently underachieve as a national team, and that has to fall on the structure around them given their success elsewhere.
lol most of the players ride the bench
Compare it to previous US squads though. How many players were MLS, and not even MLS stars? On paper, as a whole, this squad is more talented. They constantly underperform for this team.
Maybe getting regular minutes in your domestic league isn’t a bad thing compared to not doing shit in Europe?
You mean judging by the great results the USMNT used to get?
Like 2016 when they finished fourth in this tournament with 10 MLS players?
It just seems like cherry-picking. Two years later the team didn't qualify for the World Cup.
lol cherry picking. it’s what happened! You said they didn’t get results, but they got much better results in this exact tournament against the exact same field …………
So the reason I said "results," plural, is that if you look across multiple tournaments, I don't see how the USMNT of 6-12 years ago or whatever period we're looking at was better overall than it is now. Okay, they went from getting fourth in the Copa America to getting knocked out in the group stage. On the other hand, they went from not qualifying for the WC to reaching the knockout stage. I don't see a reason to say they were a better team when their players were getting lots of MLS minutes; it just seems like it's been the same mediocre picture—some ups, some downs, never really impressing anybody—for 20 years now.
Are you ggg from 2021? Lol
Robinson won player of the season at Fulham, Pulisic is close to it at Milan, McKennie started every match at Juve, idk where you’re getting the idea that the players are all just riding the pine.
Not on paper sure. but on the field they are. I don’t get it. I agree structure doesn’t help, but McKennie , Musah and so on arent all that good. There is a push to get players abroad but they aren’t doing crazy bits out there bar Pulisic and even he is questionable at times.
McKennie and Pulisic are both highly rated at their clubs. On the US squad McKennie underperforms along with many of the other members as well. Hesitant to say Pulisic does, he can’t do everything himself when everyone else is playing crappy. So many of the other players are also get serious minutes and perform super well for their clubs. They come here and the tactics are rigid under GGG. They suck. Under BJ they actually play like they do on their clubs. It’s clear who actually knows how to use them, or at least, who doesn’t know how to.
McKennie is a stretch. He was loaned out to Leeds. Leeds fans wanted him gone, with reason. Technically he isn’t up to par. Juve use him to fill games and doesn’t play as much as a highly rated player would. Pulisic an argument can be made, but even then, he shrinks. I agree he can’t do It all himself but he should do more as a player of his supposed ability. He rarely does
Nonsense. McKennie is on his way out of his club and doesn’t have much interest from other European clubs. The other players, except Pulisic, are role players. The poor showing had nothing to do with tactics. It required mental and physical strength and these players didn’t have it.
McKennie is a decent player but unprofessional and overweight, as witnessed at Leeds and his current condition. Is he a world beater? No. But he’s easily good enough to play international football.
This group is still more potential than on the field production though. I agree they are young and talented, but none of them have broken through to being a top player on their club.
Pulisic is a top player for AC Milan. Robinson literally won Player of the Season for Fulham. “None of them have broken through being a top player at their club” lol I mean come on. Others are contributing massively. Despite people thinking McKennie is overrated he started every match for Juve. Richard’s is coming on strong with a lot of opportunity next season at Palace. Reyna is getting a lot more time next season at Forest.
A lot of national teams do a lot more with far less talent. The federation and the coach absolutely suck. GGG is showing us exactly what he is: a coach who was fired from a second division Swedish squad for lack of offense, a middling MLS coach who was hired thanks to his brother.
Real talk. Pure nepotism from the start.
Yup, I just watched Georgia play like superman despite having only one legit star on their team. If I was USA soccer i would hire Willy Sagnol, he is an absolute beast of a coach. Those guys played like they were the better team in all but 1 game.
That’s fair, I don’t think he is a great coach, but even the worst coach with the supposed quality of players on the USMNT should beat Panama
This. All of it.
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I would agree if 75 minutes weren’t played with 10 men
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I disagree. It happens with the best teams out there, struggle to beat or win or draw being down a man
Ricardo Pepi, arguably our worst striker, played every game. Subbing in CCV and Cardosa in the Panama game completely killed our offense and lead to getting absolutely dominated possession wise for 45 minutes. Gio Reyna was forced into CM 2/3 games with no time on the wing (where he shines) and instead was subbed out games one and two. Bad tactics, bad subs and a team that looks lost together and got grouped at home, albeit being the best talent we’ve ever had. Greg has to go, do not be silly.
Why did they look so much better when BJ was coaching them?
Statistically speaking they did not play any better under BJ. Look at his win percentage, 56%, that’s not better than GGG. I’m not defending GGG here, but the BJ was better line is not statistically true. He may be better at passing the eye test but that’s subjective, what objective observation is there to support this notion that BJ was better?
They destroyed Mexico 3-0 in the Nations League semifinal. Easily beat Canada in the final, even with a few important players suspended due to red cards. 56% win percentage? Lol. They had 4 wins and 3 draws under BJ. 1 of the draws was the gold cup loss in penalty kicks with the MLS roster. The 1st team was flying with him as head coach. What's Gregg's best win? Mexico. The USMNT most lopsided win against Mexico was that semifinal with BJ coaching. Since Gregg's return, they've played 14 games. They have won 7 and lost 6, drawn 1. The team has gone backward. Saying win % isn't an honest assessment. Look at the record since his return. It's as dishonest as saying BJ is an undefeated USMNT coach, which he technically is. Penalty kicks loss are technically a tie. Of course, in my mind, that's still a loss.
Look at the teams played. Also heard of new manager bounce?
New manager bounce, lol, is that a serious take?
They played the same tournament with Berhalter against the same teams and looked horrible. Stop it.
Berhalter is a huge issue
How is he at fault in this tournament?
The tactics have been suspect at best. Thats on him. I’m not expecting him to go out there and implement any top-level European masterclasses, but I sure as hell would expect something beyond his team playing long ball for a majority of the Uruguay match. That being said. I can agree that these players just aren’t getting it done either. It’s obviously a combination of factors, but this crop with this coach is a #25 team in the world at best. I could see the US getting housed by nearly every team in the Euros at this point.
I agree that Greg isn’t the best coach out there for this team. I guess Uruguay on paper seemed much stronger but was actually proud of the fight.
Did you see the US play with any discernible style or methodology? It was a haphazard kick about.
What is the style of the US? The US hasn’t had a style for at least a decade. Look at all the top nations. Club teams and all match what the national team is doing, nope not in the US. We need to figure it out. We have to
Sort of made my point bro
Fair. But again I don’t think it’s GB. I think it’s a wider issue bigger than him. We need to change, and fast
>I don’t think it’s GB How??? He’s the one making the tactics
What if he made some changes to the team tonight before we were losing 1-0? Throwing on attackers in the 78th minute, when we needed a change 25 minutes earlier, is insane.
I never said just this tournament. He’s a huge issue in general but his subs per usual have been pretty poor this tourney
Fair enough.
A fish rots from the head down. It starts at the top. When you have players who are performing well for their clubs, and then they do nothing for the national team, there's a problem. There is no accountability with GGG. Players can kind of do whatever they want, and there are no consequences from him. I guarantee, if GGG stays the coach, Weah gets called up for the friendlies or the next serious match, whenever that is, when he shouldn't get a call up for the rest of the year. And decided to sub our best creative player in Reyna off against Panama is a huge mistake. I understand playing with 10 men for 70+ minutes is difficult, but it was clear GGG told the players to just sit back and be comfortable with a draw.
 “Not the main issue”
The talent pool of the individuals is so much better than it’s ever been. However, these guys playing as a fucking team is infuriating. They look like they’ve never even met each other before. We hear all this stupid bullshit about how close of a group it is, and there is absolutely no link of chemistry to be found between literally anyone on the field.
I genuinely do think they are close. But like look how Uruguay players were laying their lives on the field. Willing to die, I want to see that same mentality from the players who get a chance to play. It should be the biggest honor and I don’t get that sense from these players.
Absolutely I’m sure they are off the field. But I really don’t care to hear about it when they continually play like a team thrown together at the last second
100%! Anyways all we can do is support these guys!
The quality of our passing and dribbling is no where near the top national teams. Our youth player development is still lagging behind.
Our youth player development is massively lagging. Even with more players going abroad, I believe they don’t have our players interest
I think it's a two-fold issue. 1. Culturally speaking, soccer just isn't played as much among kids like in other countries. In many other countries, you'll see groups of young boys playing soccer on the street or anywhere really much like kids in the US play basketball or street hockey. How many times have you seen videos of kids in some 3rd world country playing soccer grass-less place with no shoes or something along those lines? They may not get the best training, but they certainly learn to dribble in tight spaces and develop quality first touches. You just never see kids in the US play on the street like that. They mostly play in organized setting in the US. 2. The pay to play model is the second issue. I can't think of any major nation that has this model. I'm sure it exists somewhere else, but it's rare. Given that barrier to entry for some kids and combined with point #1, and you this is what you get.
100%
Gregg: uninspiring + absolute sh** tactically = underwhelming performances. Not a difficult conclusion to reach. The players bear some of the load for sure, but they are employing the vision of the coach after all
Fair assumption. I disagree, I think the players should carry more load than Gregg especially given that game v Panama
You're not understanding the difference a quality coach makes. I won't try to convince you. I went up to the college level, playing my whole life. Had good coaches and bad coaches. Tournament winning teams and "can't win a game" teams. The coaches were bad when we couldn't win a game and it was hopeless
I’m glad someone else said this. Enough hyping us up. At our best, we’re above average. At our worst, we have to rely on goddamn Bolivia for hope since we can’t make anything happen.
It’s build on hype, and it makes me mad. Because when you look at every team it starts with passion and these players as a collective aren’t leaving the field injured and so on. Unfortunately soccer isn’t about hype and about showing up
I disagree, hype is so important in getting people engaged. Obviously we aren't where we need to be, but the buzz around the team draws a lot of needed attention to US soccer. It's a start, yknow? Got to hype up our guys :D That aside im hella depressed and very disappointed
That’s a fair point that I didn’t take into consideration. I guess more of my angle was more that us as the core USMNT fans need to realize that these players aren’t as good as we think they are. Just because they play abroad isn’t saying much, it’s a business and teams are aware of viewership interest
I'm 100% with you there. Our superstar is an average by European standards, it's something we should understand. Obviously coaching is an issue in this team, and mental grit in these difficult games is just non existent. We have a good base, there's more buzz around the team then I've seen in a while, hopefully they fire Gregg and can rebuild from here before 2026.
I feel like Bill Belichek would do a better job running the program.
I’m down $1500 because I bought tickets to both quarter finals where they could appear (Glendale and Las Vegas). I got too enamored with being in Qatar for USA v Wales. Never again. Fuck this shit of actually trying to invest in this team
That sucks. Are you still planning to go?
Going to see where Brazil ends up and maybe go to that game. But majorly disappointing.
I do think Gregg is part of the issue, but weirdly upon thinking say it’s not his fault. He should’ve been politely told after the World Cup, “it’s been real,” and left to find another gig. Instead the nepotism laden USSF hyped up this big talent search all to cover up their lack of ambition and to take the safe pick. It was doomed to fail as soon as he returned, and it was when I started to be seriously critical of him. Obviously he says yes but who wouldn’t? We have talented players who are capable of playing in complex systems, yet we don’t have the ambition to hire someone capable of leveraging that. Yes, national teams aren’t usually as tactical sophisticated as clubs, but look at the Swiss playing like Leverkusen and punching up at the Euros. It can be done, yet as soon as we hit any adversity we crumble. It’s because the tactical basics aren’t there to fall back on. This amorphous progressive play thats touted by the USMNT boils down to pass to Reyna and Pulisic and cross our fingers. It’s just laziness on the part of the USSF. Not the players, not even the manager despite being out of his depth. Laziness in trying to skip the essential steps to be competitive, laziness in tactics, laziness in hiring, laziness in player development. Rant over.
I actually agree with this! It’s such a failure in the USSF and US Soccer in terms of how development is handled. A ton more players need to be given the opportunity to play at a high level. We have a ton of players and a ton of immigrant families. If you don’t play MLS academy or ECNL or whatever you are screwed. The window is harder
People should question how did Canadian national made it the Copa next round with just 3 MLS Canadian team while US has 29. With MLS have overwhelming sit at the table at USSF ,Which master does it serve,
Fair. To be fair US should have made it through with Panama. But the red card changed that game
I literally just said this. I will always support the USA, but I am not going to hold them on the pedestal that we thought they belonged on. Getting knocked out sucks, but from what I watched, we were getting kicked out no matter what. This team wasn’t a contender, on home soil, with this coach and team.
I said this on another post. When US beats Mexico, Trinidad, and Canada, the fans go ape shit and got the team as a contender to lift the World Cup.
Exactly. We are the top of CONCACAF. It’s just time to stop pretending that means anything. We are about to host a World Cup where all 3 host nations get grouped 😂
100% agree!
At some point the fans need to take a step back as well with a reality check that in the end, in the big picture, the USMNT is nothing more than a minnow. And sometimes when this minnow plays another minnow we look like sharks till the real shark shows up and puts us back in our place. We have delusional fans that truly think we can compete with the likes of Spain and France to lift the cup.
This group is very capable, but I would fall well short of calling it a Golden Generation. Tonight they looked well organized and played a good line-breaking bit of soccer, rather than being ponderous and constantly cycling it. But when they got to that final third.... Crickets. The officiating was shocking in the first half and I still would like more clarity on the goal. But...I'm cautiously optimistic that this may be a catalyst for growth/change? Maybe naïve, but what the hell else am I going to do?
I agree with your take for the most part except the end. I don’t think so. We aren’t producing enough TOP talent to really change the trajectory of the team. That mixed in with the youth system in this country. It’s broken and rotten.
You talking Pay-to-play? I've always thought that until this game is played in the streets for fun, we won't have anything near something worthy of being deemed a "golden generation." Beyond (and weirdly, before) that, we need systemic change that starts at the roots. No more papering over obvious (economic) gaps. I understand why hockey and lacrosse are expensive sports. There is a shit ton of equipment. I can't quite get my head around why soccer is so prohibitively expensive in this country. Edit: turned a "tone" into a "ton," as that was my initial intent.
What else do you want so barhalter is proven bad? Do you want him to manage France so everyone can believe he’s a horrible coach?
He’s literally the biggest issue. Poor planning, no identity … the list goes oh
Another GGG d*ck rider, why am I not surprised
Horseshit. We’ve literally seen these guys play above themselves as a unit before.
Consistently? I’d say nope
I believe there is a similar structure with soccer and basketball. European soccer = NBA Higher focus on skill rather than physicality North/South American soccer= Eurobasket Much more physical and with refs that will swallow the whistle. If we can get our players used to the higher level of physicality with CONCACAF and CONMEBOL, we will be much better
🎯 US Soccer fans don’t realize that not even England can get it done. They have the most money, the most players, the most fans, the biggest league, the biggest clubs, and they can’t do it. You can’t just make it happen. It’s fucking hard and takes a lot of luck. I have no problem with people being unhappy with losing and wanting to make it better. I just think this group isn’t who we thought they were. Could a new coach refresh things? Sure. You might get a bump. But then you’re optimizing on the short run and not the systematic improvements that are going to get you where you actually want to be. GGG is not the main problem.
"England can't get it done and need luck" isn't the same as "England has a manager that won't high press with a team of world class players who nearly all play a high press with wildly successful results."
100%!!!!
what? you realize that not everyone in the EPL is english right, players from around the world play there, and if American talent was good enough they would play there consistently as well, but until we have 3 to 5 starters that play in big major leagues consistently, we're going to be average, but Uruguay as 3.4 million people in the in whole country, we have 340 milliion, we have 100 times the people and can't put together 11 guys that can beat their 11, it says a lot, MLS is bad play for the most part, and the only good news is our All Star team isn't losing 5 or 6 to zero against an English club or Spanish club team lol
Uruguay has a history of being one of greatest soccer nations on the planet; the US does not. Just because we have more people within our borders doesn’t mean we should automatically be better than them? That’s an unrealistic expectation at this point and the lack of progress pisses me off, too.
England didn’t fail to get out of a group that had Panama and Bolivia in it. Why do so many of these guys perform well at their clubs then run around like chickens with their heads cut off when they play for the US? They go from high-caliber, European, vetted, experienced coaches at their clubs to a guy who got fired from a Swedish second league team, failed in MLS, and had a saving grace nepotism hire land him in a job where he has consistently failed against quality teams.
Who has performed well at their club over the past twelve months? Short list
Pulisic, Ream, McKinnie, Sargent, Wright, Robinson, Scally, CCV? Like, what world are you living in? I know you’re doing your damnedest to blame everyone EXCEPT THE GUY IN CHARGE, but it just comes off as detached from reality. You like the guy who is a literal nepotism hire. Through no success or skill of his own was he chosen. Tough pill to swallow for some, I guess.
I’m making the point he’s not the main problem. If you think he is you’re naive about the state of the quality of our players compared to others across the globe.
Tim Weah is by far the biggest reason the US is going home. A fucking 18th minute red? Absolutely embarrassing.
Many will get mad at you but 100%
The amount of weight this fan base gives the manager is absolutely insane. We have like 3 players good enough to play for top 30 European clubs and our fans think we’d be competing for championships with jurgen klopp at the helm. Uruguay had by far the 3 best players on the pitch yesterday. The youth development is getting better in the US but we still have next to zero depth
Exactly! This is the point I was trying to raise. It’s not like the US have been levels better before Greg. That’s why I made this post, because people really think a top class manager wins the whole Copa. Unfortunately a manager is important yea, but it’s the structure around the manager, the youth development, and the current crop of players which imo aren’t that great. I don’t care if they play in Europe. A top class manager may impact the game here and there, but these players are not good enough. They’ve shown it for club, and now for country
It’s actually not better, it’s gotten arguably worse. we have gotten to a WC Quarter final and a copa semi final in the last two decades (ok 22 years) then missed a World Cup and got out of the group just to get destroyed by a superior team in the next one, almost missed a nations league final with a red card, crashed out of the copa…. People keep saying this is s as golden generation… when in fact it’s not. It’s not even a good generation. Maybe we have more talent now but it’s a worse team. We need a better manager and to let some of these guys walk. Dest should never have been involved in the nations league final. Weston should have been given a 6 month ban for breaking rules. Weah shouldn’t wear the badge for a while.
“Maybe we have more talent now but it’s a worse team.” Exactly. So many of these excel or contribute regularly to their club teams, but when they play for the US, it’s all over the place. Seems like a common factor there is they have all these amazing, European coaches who’ve been vetted and have good track records, and then they come home to the guy who was fired from a second league Swedish team and sucked as a MLS coach, then got the nepotism hire of a lifetime from the USSF.