I don’t know enough about the game to know a good player from a bad one. But as a team, the lack of swagger was palpable. We had no player who stepped up and showed a modicum of confidence. I think we are better but in no way do we beat Belgium. We beat ourselves before we left the locker room.
Well we certainly looked apathetic for sure. Did the distractions hurt us? I have no idea, but Belgium played pissed off and physically dominated us, won the 50/50 balls, and bullied Pulisic and Balogun all game long (or least a half as it relates to Pulisic). Belgium was faster and more athletic than us and Jeremy Doku didn't even get a meaningful run out.
Shoving carrramrod into a locker since 2024.
@co-hoosier they looked nervous. But mark is right that we don’t have any game changers. Still. Not who can control the mf. And certainly not in the final third. Kane. Dembele. Mbappe. Haaland. We don’t have anyone remotely close to that level much less an even 40 year Messi. Google Messi’s last goal and watch how he brings the ball down just before scoring. We don’t have anyone close to that technical ability. Pulisic is the closest and he’s still miles away and he’s absolutely soft as butter with his injuries
From a casual observer who doesn’t really understand the game, my questions:Pussylisic is hurt again. Guy is the absolute fucking worst. kick him off forever. total fing waste of a spot. RIC FLAIR WRESTLED WITH A TORN ROTATOR CUFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He was a passenger before he was hurt. Literally only a negative impact on the game, which is largely what happens with him when we play better teams. He gets hurt and/or makes no impact against quality opponents. He's a guy who should be better but isn't. He's soft, and quite frankly he and others on the team were bullied.
We looked absolutely disinterested the first half, then got punched in the mouth and didn't respond. Defensively, it was shambolic and time and time again Belgian looked faster, was faster, and exploited USA's lack of team speed. We have to find forwards/wings who can run, create and attack. I was more optimistic for our midfield against Belgium, and boy was I wrong. Belgium didn't have a great midfield--but they were better than ours.
There are two other aspects to the game that by and large gets unnoticed: (1) extraordinary lack of tactical awareness from American players relative to the rest of the world; and (2) the off the ball movement of the US is still lagging significantly behind everyone else. I think Ponch has improved it though. You can see Ponch on the bench just seething with rage.
The newest so called golden era for USA soccer in Weah, Pulisic, Reyna, Dest, and a few others turned out to be fool's gold. We have some good players, but ZERO game changers.
1. USA players seemed to take higher risk pass or dribbling moves on our side of the field compared to Belgium. Just pass the ball to the wide open guy, low risk, until you get into the scoring zone.
2. Our defenders looked passive. Were they? That one ball that went airborne that led to a goal, it looked like three defenders were just waiting for someone else to get it.
3. Why can’t the US just pay Messi to become a US citizen?
4. Our offense doesn’t look like other teams offense. Why?
@mark-milton so if you take an accounting we are still probably 16-35 in the world depending on the day. Miles away from the elite countries. An argument can be made mls hasn’t done much. Pay to play stronger than ever. And Mo State U has become a very solid D1 program. This fall they will have 28 internationals. Not a single Gallagher Lou fusz city sc nxt kid.
Well we certainly looked apathetic for sure. Did the distractions hurt us? I have no idea, but Belgium played pissed off and physically dominated us, won the 50/50 balls, and bullied Pulisic and Balogun all game long (or least a half as it relates to Pulisic). Belgium was faster and more athletic than us and Jeremy Doku didn't even get a meaningful run out.
I am convinced that they would have played better if Balogun had not been reinstated. Would they have won? Probably not. But they're definitely not good enough to win without being pissed, with a chip on their shoulder. When Balogun was reinstated, the roles were suddenly flipped. They needed Balogun sitting on the sidelines fuming. Instead, they were lifeless and heartless.
Which is why I blame Trump.
@bar-down Some questions... Did the USMNT know they were THIS far behind in all these areas? I mean obviously they're competitors, they have to think they can win. But deep down, did they know? If so, might have been better had the Balogun suspension stuck. At least then there's a little bit of doubt that what we saw... was what we saw. And then... how, in THE hell, can we still be this far behind, when a team like Cape Verde isn't? Or was Cape Verde's performance purely based on grit, Argentina overlooking them, etc...?? Is the US more advance than Cape Verde... in all the things you and Milton are referencing? If its even close... how?
It sure seems like there's A TON of youth soccer involvement and development going on right now. We lose players in our community to regional youth "academies", fairly routinely. When my son was attending both youth soccer and basketball AAU events, the soccer ones were just as big, and just as well attended, if not more so.
Still losing all our best athletes to other sports? What is it?
@iunorth I don’t think it’s best athletes. We have great athletes. I’m beginning to think it’s just not in our dna. Humble brag I played on a top 20 D1 team then won 3 games again top 10 teams in a season. We beat Claudio Reyna’s uva team. I went to two national team mini camps. Then everybody was a nobody. We were literally all college kids.
guys on this roster played at Barca Chelsea Milan Dortmund Fulham. They made it no farther than the college kids of 94. So a lot goes into but maybe it’s really just having 8 guys all relatively close in talent can get you that far but to be elite you need world class players. And we have never had one. And whether the guys pedigree is creighton or Fulham it doesn’t matter that much. World class is what matters.
Cape Verde I wouldn’t read too much into. I think that’s just kind of an outlier anomalous thing
@iunorth I will add that the fact that we have 3 million kids playing is probably illusory. Maybe we have 50,000 really playing. The rest would just be cut anywhere else but here where my generation realized you can make money off these kids that they know by 10 will never be great players. Why stop cashing their checks
@iunorth I will add that the fact that we have 3 million kids playing is probably illusory. Maybe we have 50,000 really playing. The rest would just be cut anywhere else but here where my generation realized you can make money off these kids that they know by 10 will never be great players. Why stop cashing their checks
There's plenty of talent inside this country to win a World Cup. But the best athletes don't play soccer here. It's a 4th or 5th sport and that isn't changing. It's just too boring.
@bar-down I was digging for this point. Is that not a phenomena in Europe? Theres SOOOOO much "participation trophy" culture in American youth sports.
I suspect its different in other countries. We hosted an Italian exchange student a couple years ago. Very good soccer player. Instantly was a middle/high end player in Northern Indiana high school soccer... As in... literally got off the plane in August, drove to our scrimmage, and made our team look different and better without speaking English or knowing anyone on the team. After the school season, he played on one of the local travel teams. It drove him INSANE having guys on his team that probably shouldn't have been playing travel soccer. And when they'd play bad teams in early rounds at their tournaments, he'd rant about it for hours when he got home.
The basic takeaway that I had from it was in Italy at least, the "travel teams" are very much merit based. Almost like they push down college type recruiting, down in to the youth levels, and parents paying for their kids to play and get spots isn't really a thing. This is a bigger "problem" for national level teams than many think. We're actually starting to see it in basketball. Euros are very, very, very rapidly catching us with elite level competitiveness.
@dbmhoosier that’s both wrong and stupid. It’s not all about athleticism. You can’t make Deion sanders have touch. To bring a ball down like Messi.
@iunorth I think the pay to play model where clubs have 5,000 kids is not helping
@bar-down Freeman's opportunity on that great run, and pass, in the 2nd half is a pretty good example of this. Not an easy touch, by any means, but that play is more than likely made, and a very legit shot on goal made, by a truly elite player. And within any soccer game, there are probably dozens of plays heavily impacted merely by how good a players touch is. I'm not knowledgeable enough to recognize all of them. But as what I would call a former "high level athlete", I can surely feel it happening when I see it. And when I hear people like you, or the announcers, talk about it, its pretty easy to then understand the impact. Even our best players, most famous players, routinely have balls get away from them, or put balls a yard or two outside where they need to be. We've got a team filled with Jonathon Kumingas, but no Steph Curry's or Nikola Jokic's...
@iunorth perfectly stated. @dbmhoosier north's post is spot on. that's the superbowl winner's kid. he's a phenomenal athlete. but his touch is shit. i firmly believe you could say we are banning football baseball and basketball and every kid born for the next five years has to play soccer. i don't think we'd be any better. just more redundant players. whatever creates ronaldinho messi maradona zidane xavi iniesta pirlo lamal and on and on we simply do not have in our dna.
USA hockey made huge strides in the last 25 years or so. On the flip side, so has Japanese baseball. Gotta be more to it than camps and Academies.