The players sucked, but we have to have a conversation, which we won't have, about the coaching. Every game, every game, we are disjointed tactically with poor personnel decisions going into halftime. Then, we hope we luck into Berhalter making the right switches or it just remains shit, like it did tonight. We had zero shots on goal. Zero. Against [uck fay]ing Panama. He got fired from his gig in Sweden because he has no clue about how to coach offense and he got hired here after we did a year and a half search to hire the brother of a federation exec. He's the Butch Jones of US Soccer, minus the dickishness. We might qualify, especially since we are significantly more talented than the other countries in the group, minus one. But, it will be in spite of Berhalter. He suuuuucckkkkkssss.
USSF seems to care more about being a commercial enterprise rather than a competitive football federation. I doubt they do anything about him.
You have to wonder. US Soccer is a, clearly, nepotism and good ol boy laden system, which for years was accused of ignoring Hispanic-American players and inexplicably plays a few head scratching MLS guys nearly every match. I'm sure there is an effort to push MLS guys through the national team. It's the only way I can fathom guys like Zardes, Lletget, and Arriola keep getting on the field.
Gotta think the Sargent thing is an "it's not me, it's you" deal after a couple rounds of "Telephone". There's no on-field argument for his inclusion over probably another 3 or 4 guys that weren't called, let alone the ones who were.
Uh, "it's not you, it's me". But I guess the message came across. There's a bipolar nature to US Soccer analysis/fandom, likely because there are relatively few games, so every game is treated as the most important game in the history of the program. But the roster selection is generally OK. The system and how the players are used seems like a bigger issue. Acosta is typically bad outside of the CDM role. Lletget can't be a main creative player, but if he's clearly the worst player in the 11, he typically finds ways to contribute. But as a focal point? No shot. Musah being asked to carry those two? So your midfield is a non-starter. If you had Pulisic or Reyna, maybe they could play hero ball and bail the midfield out or earn set pieces, but you don't this window. We have interesting wingers, and Aaronson has been producing, but none are at a level to overcome the lack of creativity elsewhere. Arriola at this level is an energy player, and another situation like Lletget where you don't want to be relying upon him. But apparently he burned out against Jamaica anyways, which should have precluded his selection. Zardes is maybe not the best choice in a game with few expected chances, but he looked fine this summer, and people were generally cool with him getting minutes last night until he got minutes last night. And even with all that, it was a set piece goal allowed. Although our xG was effectively 0, and you'd like to at least have some chance at winning.
I'll throw in the idea the narrative "Qualifying in CONCACAF is hard" is bullshit. Qualifying in CONMEBOL is hard. We are playing Panama, El Salvador, Honduras, Canada, and Costa Rica for a couple of spots in the World Cup. Those are mediocre teams, at best, and we have a severe talent edge on all of them. You can try and sell me on it being tough to win in El Salvador, I suppose, but it isn't like playing a similarly crap team as Bolivia in La Paz. Plus, it's El Salvador. Just have a little bit of organization and purpose in the game plan.
