USMNT Talk

[mgarbowski]

It is also possible to exert friendly social pressure to root for the US while fully and actively welcoming immigrants so they choose to do so sooner and freely. But nobody on either side of the immigration debate seems interested in doing that, and that's the last I'll say on the topic here.

 

[SoupInNYC]

A lot of my thoughts on last night have already been covered here. One note I wanted to bring up that I mentioned to a few others is that I think once we get to the HEX, games should be refereed by refs from not in the HEX. The missed PK on Jozy was a crime, and I know there were a couple of other shouts, but honestly didn't see it well enough to form a good opinion on them.

However, to be putting a ref of a country who is one point behind the US in the standings, and who will really be the competition for spots 3 and 4 is not a good position to be putting someone in.

Another note on the crowd. This was probably the least organized I've ever seen an AO group/section. The march was a little late (no issue there) but unannounced. Then we get into the sections (I was in 103) and everything to my right had two capos and drums and they were doing their songs being kinda loud. Whereas the section to my left had one drum and was going f'in nuts doing their own stuff. You could see the capo closest to us being upset with that section, while they were doing their own thing.

I told my dad at one point, its hard to be pissed off at the "rogue" section because of the passion that was being brought over there, but these guys need to link up at least a little bit.

 

[Victors87]

Not for anything...there were people there that were not rooting for USA or Costa Rica...

For example saw people with Colombian Jerseys....but some had kids, and these kids had pulisic shirts on, or US shirts on.....these are the fans...we need to make sure they see the US team, and it wil grow with them.

 

[mgarbowski]

Not for anything...there were people there that were not rooting for USA or Costa Rica...

For example saw people with Colombian Jerseys....but some had kids, and these kids had pulisic shirts on, or US shirts on.....these are the fans...we need to make sure they see the US team, and it wil grow with them.

Love.

 

[NickA]

Crowd

It was probably 65-35. The American crowd was a plenty and much louder in the beginning. If we went up 1-0 and then 2-0...we'd all be saying how great the atmosphere was and that they should play in the NYC Metro area more. The best way to have shut the CR fans up was by scoring a goal. That didn't happen and it exposed the problem of playing around here. The problem I personally have is not about rooting for your foreign country and maybe this was just my section, but don't mock the American fans. Ok you support CR, but you live in the US. It's ok to not root for the US and don't care if you don't, but it's kind of a low class move to mock the US fans. I saw people have beers thrown on them, I saw a woman in her 40s screaming in a little girls (12yo?) face calling her 'puta'. The father said something and some other CR fan ran from the other side, took the guys hat and flung it (they left after that), saw a field level guy barking back and forth with a 1st row US fan, the guy pulled a small American flag hanging off rail and starting yelling shit and rubbing it in his ass like he was wiping. That kind of stuff is bullshit. There is no loyalty to America in melting pot cities. Immigrants are here for the areas not the country. So their reason for not having a meaningful game around here in the past was correct and they should continue to avoid predominantly immigrant cities in the future.


Game

I didn't get the lineup or the formation from the onset like most of you too. I didn't like it, especially against a good side like CR. I don't know what Bruce was waiting for with making changes. It wasn't working, at all, so make some adjustments. He basically took Pulisic out of the game in the first half by sitting him so far back, by the time he started to push up more he did little. Not a good game for him regardless. Nagbe was leaving so much space open for CR. We got our asses handed to us down the wings. Jozy looked slow majority of the game. Bradley looked uninspired. I would've like to have seen Morris in and a 4-3-3 with Pulisic playing a wing.


RBA

Good site lines, good noise, area around being built up, new station coming in...but the amenities are a fucking joke. All of it. There is not one good thing about that stadium outside of your seat. The fact that there is no order to even get in the place is ridiculous...a crowed cluster pushing into an entry?


At least we got our boys in blue...

 

[Tom in Fairfield CT]

Jozy has one move, go for the penalty. He sucks so bad, every ref in the world knows he goes down too easily. Every one of our attacks died when he got involved. He sucks. I am so happy he is gone next game. I hate his game so much, it makes me like the whole team less.

 

[mgarbowski]

The Costa Rica goal that doomed the U.S. was not a defender's fault. It was Tim Howard's.

Interesting analysis. Short version is the US was mostly playing from the back, but Howard chose to kick long on that play. It's his prerogative to do so, but the CBs were positioned wide and back instead of up where they need to be to help on a long ball. Ream was actually running back towards goal when Howard kicked long because the game plan was to play from the back. Howard was not under pressure. Yet he made one perfunctory gesture deep and without looking up just kicked it long for a 50-50 ball we lost. Ream and Cameron were caught flatfooted and far too far apart not because they had bad chemistry with each other but because Howard made a bad decision with poor communication. I think he's right. He also says Ream made a decent play once he recovered, forcing Urrea wide and deep enough he had a limited angle and a tough shot and Howard needed to make that save. I agree.

I guess this isn't that short a version, but it's shorter than the article.

 

[mgarbowski]

Jozy has one move, go for the penalty. He sucks so bad, every ref in the world knows he goes down too easily. Every one of our attacks died when he got involved. He sucks. I am so happy he is gone next game. I hate his game so much, it makes me like the whole team less.

About a minute before that play he went down on our side of the field while running towards our goal after he was tripped from behind. He got the call. He also probably could have avoided going down if he wanted. I started texting some friends that a Jozy flop was good for something for a change, but before I could do so the play in the box happened. Funny thing is I think it was a clear foul and ridiculous non-call, but I also have to wonder if the ref thought "I'll give you the less important ones when you go down easy but not in the box." He shouldn't do that but he's human.
PS: I also agree with SoupInNYC that it's crazy for refs from Hex countries to be calling these games. The idea that they are neutral as long as their team isn't playing is silly. You don't have to believe he hurt us on purpose to think it's the type of CoI that shouldn't be there. At least use a mixed international team. All the officials were from Panama.

 

[413Blue]

While I was not at last night's match, usually a good number of the people with Costa Rica/El Salvador/Panama whatever the opponent may be jerseys on, are also US fans. They go to these matches because it's a great time to show pride in their heritage, but they often cheer US goals and players. If you noticed during the national anthem, it seemed like everyone held up those patriotic display signs, even the supposed 30-50% Costa Rican supporters.
When Gillette Stadium used to be one of the main homes for the US, I would often see the same people who were at Revs games all the time, show up in support of El Salvador against the US, then I would see them in US gear when they were playing other teams. If you talk to these people, they don't really care so much about the game, they are their more for the pride in their heritage.
If we were playing someone else at RBA soon, many of those Costa Ricans would be there in US Jerseys.

 

[Ulrich]

About a minute before that play he went down on our side of the field while running towards our goal after he was tripped from behind. He got the call. He also probably could have avoided going down if he wanted. I started texting some friends that a Jozy flop was good for something for a change, but before I could do so the play in the box happened. Funny thing is I think it was a clear foul and ridiculous non-call, but I also have to wonder if the ref thought "I'll give you the less important ones when you go down easy but not in the box." He shouldn't do that but he's human.
PS: I also agree with SoupInNYC that it's crazy for refs from Hex countries to be calling these games. The idea that they are neutral as long as their team isn't playing is silly. You don't have to believe he hurt us on purpose to think it's the type of CoI that shouldn't be there. At least use a mixed international team. All the officials were from Panama.

I mean, for a guy Altidore's size, he does flop a lot, but the takedown in the box was a third-degree mugging - it was violent and Altidore was going to have a real scoring opp - nobody flops until the play is closed. It's impossible for the Ref to use his flopping against him in that instance.

The hex should use refs from: Canada, Jamaica, El Salvador, and Honduras. Mix four countries into each unit for the three matches being played at any one time, so that they rotate from match to match the roles of Ref/L1/L2/O4

 

[Midas Mulligan]

The Costa Rica goal that doomed the U.S. was not a defender's fault. It was Tim Howard's.

Interesting analysis. Short version is the US was mostly playing from the back, but Howard chose to kick long on that play. It's his prerogative to do so, but the CBs were positioned wide and back instead of up where they need to be to help on a long ball. Ream was actually running back towards goal when Howard kicked long because the game plan was to play from the back. Howard was not under pressure. Yet he made one perfunctory gesture deep and without looking up just kicked it long for a 50-50 ball we lost. Ream and Cameron were caught flatfooted and far too far apart not because they had bad chemistry with each other but because Howard made a bad decision with poor communication. I think he's right. He also says Ream made a decent play once he recovered, forcing Urrea wide and deep enough he had a limited angle and a tough shot and Howard needed to make that save. I agree.

I guess this isn't that short a version, but it's shorter than the article.

Howard has sucked a while. I don't know why we don't play anyone else. Bruce was too hung up on his ego to play who should have played at the gold cup.

We're on the level of an Arsenal as far as shambles now. Maybe even Italy, though we may not be quite that bad.

 

[Ulrich]

The team looked pretty tired. And a bunch of players had MLS games his past Saturday and Sunday. With the stakes as high as they were, I'd have called the players into camp before the weekend games so they could be as fresh as possible and have a few more practices to gel. Bradley and Altidore looked slow/tired, while Altidore and Wood have zero chemistry. Even Morris was only on for a few minutes and he couldn't be bothered to sprint to pressure a player. Howard probably could have used some more time with the defense since he wasn't bothered to let them know he was kicking long.

If Altidore went home already, did Bruce call in another forward or are we going down shorthanded? Heading into Honduras, it'd be kinda nice to have a forward with a nasty & physical presence- this would be the perfect occasion to call in Dom Dwyer

 

[Midas Mulligan]

The team looked pretty tired. And a bunch of players had MLS games his past Saturday and Sunday. With the stakes as high as they were, I'd have called the players into camp before the weekend games so they could be as fresh as possible and have a few more practices to gel. Bradley and Altidore looked slow/tired, while Altidore and Wood have zero chemistry. Even Morris was only on for a few minutes and he couldn't be bothered to sprint to pressure a player. Howard probably could have used some more time with the defense since he wasn't bothered to let them know he was kicking long.

If Altidore went home already, did Bruce call in another forward or are we going down shorthanded? Heading into Honduras, it'd be kinda nice to have a forward with a nasty & physical presence- this would be the perfect occasion to call in Dom Dwyer

That's bullshit to me. We didn't look tired, we looked like we didn't know what we were doing. That's what happens with dumbass shape and tactics.

 

[Ulrich]

That's bullshit to me. We didn't look tired, we looked like we didn't know what we were doing. That's what happens with dumbass shape and tactics.

Ha funny, your response is horseshit to me. I don't think the shape of a 442 against a 541 was the reason we lost.

With the exception of the first 20min or so, there was very little movement off the ball which was why players forced balls in to congestion resulting in a turnover or reverted to backpasses that stalled everything. A lack of movement typically equates tiredness. A lack of heavy tackling also tends to.

 

[ferrarinycfc]

This should never be part of the equation. Immigrants are Americans. Today's son of a Costa Rica fan can be tomorrow's USMNT fan, maybe even tomorrow's USMNT player. Ignoring areas or not bringing immigrant American communities out to watch our national team, even if at this point they still support their native country, is the worst thing we could do for the future of the sport here.

Yeah President Trump and his supporters would beg to differ.......

I will say that at all the Copa America games in NYC that i went to, all the supporters from both teams watching were very patriotic to the american anthem. I think the majority of immigrants are grateful what the USA has done for them.

I hope the time comes that if Mexico play the USA anywhere in the USA, the crowd will be overwhelmingly supporting the USA.

 

[ferrarinycfc]

Fire Bruce

He is walking a finer line every match.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

Ha funny, your response is horseshit to me. I don't think the shape of a 442 against a 541 was the reason we lost.

With the exception of the first 20min or so, there was very little movement off the ball which was why players forced balls in to congestion resulting in a turnover or reverted to backpasses that stalled everything. A lack of movement typically equates tiredness. A lack of heavy tackling also tends to.

There was no excuse for tiredness. Everyone was on more or equivalent rest to CR.

Not knowing what youre doing is as often the reason for inaction as tiredness.

 

[Christopher Jee]

Howard has sucked a while. I don't know why we don't play anyone else. Bruce was too hung up on his ego to play who should have played at the gold cup.

We're on the level of an Arsenal as far as shambles now. Maybe even Italy, though we may not be quite that bad.

Nah, IMO Italy failed because they bizarrely decided to go against the grain tactically. The US just don't have the tactical and technical quality to break down that defensive of a set up. IMO. I wanted to be surprised but wasn't.

 

[sundance]

https://twitter.com/x/status/904845117869182976

https://twitter.com/x/status/904846332648710146

 

[LionNYC]

On r/ussoccer on a thread regarding the next USMNT coach as Arena is a caretaker to get us to Russia and not the man to coach us in Russia, the most upvoted coach was the ex-Dortmund manager.