The Soccer Thread (Version 14.5) -- We Don't Need Another Euro

In a world with VAR, we likely go to extra time against a 10 man Germany.

 

I also thought we played pretty well last night, especially before Balogun got hurt. Uruguay are a top team and, with the exception of a couple of Darwin runs, didn’t have the upper hand.

 

Uruguay was playing for absolutely nothing, USA playing for their lives, and we never even had a chance.

I'm not even mad. This is our team. An entire squad of guys 5-11, 172 pounds who go down if breathed on. Can't create on their own, and if given slight openings, where it would take an exceptional shot on goal, we give the opposing goalie a dribbler to scoop up. This is our DNA, and I've been watching since the 1989-90 qualifying campaign. It's who we are and I've resolved myself to that.

But it is in no way "good" on the world level.

 

It was ok. There just wasn't any great pressure, or even what seemed to be urgency, for the results the U.S. needed.

I sometimes the not anything to play for is overblown. You see eliminated teams step up all the time, same with teams with nothing to play for. But the U.S. did have something to play for and it just wasn't special.

Uruguay did stop two balls from going in with players that weren't the keeper, but neither were exactly challenging for them. That was about the extent of the chances. I saw lots of criticism of the midfield and it is legit. The U.S. just never controlled the ball there to set anything up.

I want to see a U.S. team make a run in a major tournament. Even with a team like this, it certainly can happen with things falling right. That said, we're probably stuck with the Panama type games more than any kind of run forever at this point.

 

I didn't expect the USMNT to beat Uruguay. They're really good. They did look disorganized, and they reverted to their somewhat saucy historical kick 'em rep, but I think that had more to do with Bielsa (who rides herd on his players during matches) being absent than anything we did.

From us? I do expect more than three shots on goal. I do expect the tactics to be better. I do expect more of a sense of urgency. I do expect us to defend set pieces better (offside or not, that was poor defending and goalkeeping on our part on their goal). I do expect some lethal nous in the 18-yard box. I'm not sure we would have scored anyway, but that one point where the Uruguay keeper vacated his 6-yard box and we were dicking around trying to set up the perfect shot was a case in point. I do expect us to put more level of expectation and accountability on veterans like Weston McKinnie, who was a ghost all night.

I don't want to hear excuses for us when some of our Central American CONCACAF rivals churn up a result now and then to give themselves something to be proud of with a fraction of the resources we have to commit to the sport. Panama being the latest example.

Like Poin said, we are what we are. We're not going to win a World Cup in my lifetime. I've also accepted that, but I do think we can be more consistent.

I feel as our players have risen in the world professional ranks they've dropped off in what the USMNT means to them because it doesn't have to mean as much to them in terms of profile or salary. There was more hunger from the 90s/2000s and early 2010s players. They knew it was their shot to make something of themselves. Look at players like McBride, Dempsey, Donovan who got their big European chance after World Cup appearances.

Besides all that, we're developing technocratic players. I'm not sure what the solution is to fix that because you can't just conjure naturally gifted players who develop their skills organically in the streets or in a nation all-in on the sport at the exclusion of everything else.

I think large geographic nations struggle to develop a coherent plan of development for the simple fact that being vast geographically makes it near-impossible to form cohesion. Brazil is an exception because they were in on soccer from jump (and most of its population is on the Atlantic Coast too), but ourselves, Russia, China, India? Even with a big push to get better, it's just really hard to create a unified vision of how to develop players. That's not even taking into account that ourselves and India have other sports that are more popular in the first place.

 

Go scout kids playing pickup games in places like Brownsville or Las Cruces or immigrant communities in LA, Miami, etc. Chad and Aiden from Long Island are robots that are never going to veer from their programming.

 

Honestly, I'm not "soccer guy," but needing to win to advance, getting shutout 1-0 is disappointing. Losing 4-3 or whatever would be more palatable, at least you played like you knew you needed to score goals at some point and willing to risk the occasional defensive lapse. Is the basic US strategy at this point to win games in ET and/or kicks?

 

Agreed. Amazing play.

 

Turkey-Austria was a fun game.

 

Canada would fit in here too; this team is by far the best the country has ever sent into international play but in a country this big with a really small window to play outdoors during the year, with kids who are also playing hockey, baseball and basketball etc., it's got to be tough to put together a development plan that will work in the long term.