My thought is basically pulisic and that's it. With Jedi being a close second world class player. Everyone else needs to check themselves
Copa América 2024
- Thread starter GratefulDawg
- Start date
My thought is basically pulisic and that's it. With Jedi being a close second world class player. Everyone else needs to check themselves
I was there. USA debacle soured my mood, but I had club seats which were nice.
Pro tip: take the bus from Port Authority. It took about 45 minutes to get there and 30 minutes to get back. I walked into the bus at 7 p.m. and only had to wait at Lot K for 10 minutes.
Taking the train for the Argentina match was completely fucked up because they didn't run shuttles until 6:45 and I wanted to hang out with friends earlier. Driving back that night was terrible via the GWB.
Our national team is a disgrace and has been ever since Couva made us realize it.
The only chance to advance would be if Uruguay rotates the entire XI, which, to be fair, would be a perfectly logical move for them since they are guaranteed to top the group. If they start their best XI they will obliterate the USMNT. Nothing would play into Uruguay's hands more than a nervous team that loses the ball frequently while committing players forward. Darwin would be through on goal inside of five minutes.
Although I guess it depends on what's the first tiebreaker. If it's goal difference, then Uruguay would top the group even if it loses narrowly to the USMNT, because they have a GD of +7. If it's the head-to-head match then they cannot let the USMNT win, because they would automatically fall to 2nd place.
Yeah, I've never really understood all the "golden generation" talk about this current group of players. Sure, they're young and a lot of them are playing in Europe now, but this shouldn't be close to the USA's "golden generation" especially considering how the development of young players has dramatically increased in this country over the last 10 years.
There's so much talk about all these guys playing in Europe and how it's so historic for the US. To a degree, sure, but this is such recency bias. Has anyone seen where the guys on the 2010 team were playing? 3 total MLS players and one of those is arguably the greatest USMNT player of all time.
I've seen talk about how this team absolutely needs to make the semis of Copa or it's a failure. Wtf is that even based on? The somewhat standard preferred XI is:
A keeper struggling on the last EPL team that wasn't relegated. LB and LCB who are good players on the 13th place EPL team, RCB who is a good player on the 10th EPL team, a RB on the 14th place Bundesliga team, a midfield of a role player on Inter Milan, a good player on Juventus, and a guy who can't get minutes on Dortmund or Nottingham Forest. And a front three of a great player at Inter Milan, a striker who struggled to score goals for Monaco, and a role player on Juventus.
Is that a decent team? Hell yeah. Is that a team that should be expected to beat Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, or Chile?
There are a LOT of people who are weirdly blind to this. Like when a bunch of those guys were at Leeds when they got relegated, they kept saying that the US players needed to jump ship because they're too good for Leeds.
...Were they really? Maybe slightly. Were they part of the reason Leeds got relegated? 100%. And it's not just with Leeds, it's with a bunch of other players on other teams too.
Yeah. The fans make more excuses for their shortcomings than the players do.
Meanwhile, has anyone besides Pulisic successfully revived his career and level of play after falling out of favor with a coach or team? It's so frustrating to see these guys Peter Principle themselves up to the level where they can't quite compete and then not do so well when they move back down to a lesser team or league. What is the reason for this? It applies to Sands as well IMO.
this generation has lacked the grit and fight of prior generations. player by player, you could argue the current generation is more talented, but are they truly better players overall? I'm not so sure.
they went into a game vs panama thinking they were "too good" for panama. Weah's reaction to being grabbed and bodied up tells me they weren't ready to play a tough, physical game. they weren't ready to fight. the mentality wasn't there from the start. to me that's arrogance from the players to the coach. GGG should have prepared them for the fight and he clearly didn't. his tactics and subs after we went down were also not good enough. he needs to go but i have a feeling he won't and that is why US soccer will fail for another 10 years.
this is soccer, so upsets can and do happen. even when the better team puts out their best XI, but it's not like panama put on a master class. they worked harder and fouled more. if that's enough to beat our "golden generation" then we stand to be severely embarrassed in 2026.
they went into a game vs panama thinking they were "too good" for panama. Weah's reaction to being grabbed and bodied up tells me they weren't ready to play a tough, physical game. they weren't ready to fight. the mentality wasn't there from the start. to me that's arrogance from the players to the coach. GGG should have prepared them for the fight and he clearly didn't. his tactics and subs after we went down were also not good enough. he needs to go but i have a feeling he won't and that is why US soccer will fail for another 10 years.
this is soccer, so upsets can and do happen. even when the better team puts out their best XI, but it's not like panama put on a master class. they worked harder and fouled more. if that's enough to beat our "golden generation" then we stand to be severely embarrassed in 2026.
Last edited:
Has there been any indication of why Weah felt the need to punch someone in the back of the head when VAR exists?
He did not give any explanation in his apology, which probably is for the best. As for the rst of us there are 2 main theories:
1. He's stupid.
2. He was frustrated with the ref not protecting US players to that point despite many fouls by Panama, including when Blackman took out a fully extended Turner making no attempt to play the ball nor to avoid contact and did not even get a yellow.
Both can be true. He was annoyed and frustrated, in part for good reason, and he acted recklessly at best. Weah and the Panamanian counterpart were pushing each other repeatedly in mutually stupid fashion and Weah lost control. I think he meant to push the guy in the upper back and missed badly. It's dumb to strike out even close to the head or neck.
mgarbowski if you didn't see, you may be happy to hear that argentina head coach is suspended for the next game as punishment for being late for 2nd halves.
I just saw on Twitter, but thought it was Chile. Maybe both?
one of the announcers for one of the games, i forget who, said this is typical for argentina and not a new thing. they've been doing the 2nd half lateness for a long time. guess they don't care about fines but probably didn't expect their coach to be suspended.
always nice to see mexico flame out.
while weah's red card played a big part, it's a bit unfair to put 100% of the blame on him. berhalter's subs and tactics didn't help (e.g., changing formation to a back 3 instead of staying in a standard 4-4-1). conceding right after going up a goal was pathetic. we are good enough to at drag out a draw at least vs panama even with 10 men.
kinda sad to see even berhalter throw weah under the bus. we should be a much better team than that. yes the red card played a big part, but it's a team sport.
99%?
A red is bad. A red for punching someone in the back of the head is atrocious. A red for doing so in the 15th minute ... I don't know. I'd put pretty damn near 100% on that. Down a man for 75 minutes is brutal.
Yes. But the point should be made that, if the difference in quality between both teams is what the Transfermarket valuation says it should be, then the USMNT should be able to grind out a tie against Panama, especially being up 1-0. For me, even if this Golden Generation isn't as good as advertised, the team frequently looks less than the sum of its parts.
Similar threads
