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Posted
11 hours ago, tokamak said:

How shitty is our pool that two different head coaches now have been all in on Matt Turner, who has toured around to every club in Europe at this point and can't get playing time at any of them? Supposedly a nice guy and all, but god damn, GK used to be a strength for us.

Fucking this.  Everyone tried to say his amazing shotblocking outweighed everything else.  Bullshit, the keeper has to actually be able to play in the modern game.

Posted
11 hours ago, LurkingHorn said:

The lack of a high quality GK for the USMNT has been perplexing for some time for me. I would just assume give Steffan another shot since he's actually playing. 

That's a little unfair to Turner. He's had some very nice stretches since he became the guy. 

I agree that we can do better. I think there might be something with this MLS kid. Patrick something?

Wtf happened to Gaga?

Posted
8 minutes ago, PittsburghTiger said:

That was an embarrassing couple of games.  There is no fire. No identity. No fight.  There was more fight from the kids on the Pan Am Games team two summers ago.  
 

Just awful

I think we're going to be okay. 

I also think that the "golden generation" USA WC 2026 shit is fucking horseshit and that Poch deserves a full window leading into 2030. 

I just don't understand who watches the back four - or back three - because we are so shitty we don't even have four options apparently - and thinks "wow this current crop is special we better win now".

Keeper is included in that. 

We are going to produce quality wingers and strikers and attacking mids for all of eternity now. "Golden generation" my fucking ass look at this Luna kid. Pulisic isn't going to be our last Euro superstar.

What we need are some CBs and FBs. Please. I mean for fuck's sake. 

Let's see what we can do in '26 but I'd love to hang on to Poch for 4 years after that and see what we can develop. 

Jmo.

Posted
8 hours ago, ztejas said:

I think we're going to be okay. 

I also think that the "golden generation" USA WC 2026 shit is fucking horseshit and that Poch deserves a full window leading into 2030. 

I just don't understand who watches the back four - or back three - because we are so shitty we don't even have four options apparently - and thinks "wow this current crop is special we better win now".

Keeper is included in that. 

We are going to produce quality wingers and strikers and attacking mids for all of eternity now. "Golden generation" my fucking ass look at this Luna kid. Pulisic isn't going to be our last Euro superstar.

What we need are some CBs and FBs. Please. I mean for fuck's sake. 

Let's see what we can do in '26 but I'd love to hang on to Poch for 4 years after that and see what we can develop. 

Jmo.

I just want to see the whole organization become a bit more ruthless towards itself. Playing for the nation is a privilege and an honor. Make the expectations on the field match that reality.

If the players don’t respond, see ya. 

These guys are, for the most part, milquetoast. I’d rather lose with young, hungry and aggressive guys than with guys who just go through the motions.

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Posted
10 hours ago, ztejas said:

That's a little unfair to Turner. He's had some very nice stretches since he became the guy. 

I agree that we can do better. I think there might be something with this MLS kid. Patrick something?

Wtf happened to Gaga?

Schulte. He’s the current next great hope. Just signed an extension with Columbus but you gotta assume he’ll be off to Europe pretty soon. 

Gaga transferred to Chelsea and has been loaned out ever since. This season he was loaned to a League One side, got benched there after a couple months, subsequently got “injured”, and returned early to Chelsea in January. So it’s going great. 

Posted
13 hours ago, ztejas said:

I think we're going to be okay. 

I also think that the "golden generation" USA WC 2026 shit is fucking horseshit and that Poch deserves a full window leading into 2030. 

I just don't understand who watches the back four - or back three - because we are so shitty we don't even have four options apparently - and thinks "wow this current crop is special we better win now".

Keeper is included in that. 

We are going to produce quality wingers and strikers and attacking mids for all of eternity now. "Golden generation" my fucking ass look at this Luna kid. Pulisic isn't going to be our last Euro superstar.

What we need are some CBs and FBs. Please. I mean for fuck's sake. 

Let's see what we can do in '26 but I'd love to hang on to Poch for 4 years after that and see what we can develop. 

Jmo.

I would love for Poch to stick around post 2026, but I don't think he will. This was just for the World Cup and that's it.

It really shows the short-sightedness of the decision to bring back Gregg, just like Bradley in 2010 and Klinsmann in 2014. It risks putting the team back should the coach fail mid-cycle. I think we got really lucky with Bradley flaming out a year later. But Klinsmann really put us behind the 8-ball to the point we missed out in 2018. Now Gregg ...

Given the small windows of opportunities the national team coach has with the team - you need to maximized the amount of time these guys get. We should have brought in new blood after 2022.

I will say this - some of the decisions of this window really do raise some concerns about Poch as a national team coach. Does he have the chops for it? While coaching is coaching, there is a difference between national team coach and a club coach. Some can do both, some can't. Many said Klinsmann wasn't a club coach, but a great national team coach. Someone online questioned if Poch is doing a lot of the right work as an NT coach. Does he call teams for status? I know Wright just came back from injury, but he played 4 games before this window - two full games, one of which he scored a hat trick! His call ups on injury?

 

Posted
21 hours ago, ztejas said:

I think we're going to be okay. 

I also think that the "golden generation" USA WC 2026 shit is fucking horseshit and that Poch deserves a full window leading into 2030. 

I just don't understand who watches the back four - or back three - because we are so shitty we don't even have four options apparently - and thinks "wow this current crop is special we better win now".

Keeper is included in that. 

We are going to produce quality wingers and strikers and attacking mids for all of eternity now. "Golden generation" my fucking ass look at this Luna kid. Pulisic isn't going to be our last Euro superstar.

What we need are some CBs and FBs. Please. I mean for fuck's sake. 

Let's see what we can do in '26 but I'd love to hang on to Poch for 4 years after that and see what we can develop. 

Jmo.

I hope you are correct that things will be okay but, the track record does not support that outlook.

There has to be a major shift in attitude, top to bottom.

Posted
36 minutes ago, Napoleon said:

So nice to have dual citizenship when it comes to pulling for a Fútbol team in 2025 (and 2021, 2022, & 2024 of course)…

 

IMG_8217.jpeg

IMG_8216.jpeg

Being English hasn't helped me much.

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Posted
1 minute ago, LurkingHorn said:

Wait, are you actually a Limey? 

My family are. And I am by birth. But I've been here 40 years.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

I remember when I was growing up, there was all this excitement about the tremendous growth soccer was seeing in the US, and certainty that 30-40 years later, this would result in real homegrown talent. Now here we are and not a single US player makes the top 30 rankings. 

https://www.espn.com/soccer/insider/story/_/id/44135155/yamal-wirtz-bellingham-lead-espn-39-best-male-players-age-21-under

I dont follow international youth soccer at all, so I cant make any comments about who is on the list or whether they are ranked too high or too low. But zero US players is probably not what everyone had in mind after the 94 World Cup in the US. Here's the world rankings since 94

image.thumb.png.ac6a1b5f5d724129751a0c9a4641373e.png

We kind of fucking suck at this soccer thing in the US. 

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Posted

Well it's the deepest and most competitive sport in the world by far. Our latest woes have been due to an imbalanced player pool and poor coaching. 

The US has never had the talent playing in the top 5 leagues that it does currently. Not even close. The US has never had a player as good as Pulisic is right now - and you can count on one hand the number of guys you could argue were ever as good as Antonee is right now. 

To add to that - a lot of other countries have become more competitive that were never competitive in the past - including a few in CONCACAF. 

It takes time and it takes the right window. 2026 is not looking like the right window for a few different reasons but we'll see how it shakes out.

There is more talent in the system than ever - but that by itself doesn't create a great NT. Euro and SA teams with more talent or comparable talent flame out all the time - the US isn't some special case. 

I also would be hesitant to take too much away from a window where we were playing 8+ time zones away from Europe and missing a lot of our best players. 

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Posted
1 minute ago, LurkingHorn said:

 

 

On 3/18/2025 at 7:21 PM, ztejas said:

It's just Panama. What's the worst that could happen?

 

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Posted

I always thought that Wynalda would have turned out like Pulisic - probably better - if he had've gotten a better chance. 

In all seriousness what a fucking clown. 

Posted
1 hour ago, ztejas said:

I always thought that Wynalda would have turned out like Pulisic - probably better - if he had've gotten a better chance. 

In all seriousness what a fucking clown. 

I thought that he would have been a great USMNT manager in 2018 for these NextGen kids who have been unquestioned 1st team players for far too long, but he has been far too anti-establishment/ opposite of pay-for-play and therefore was never going to get a sniff. 

Posted

To be fair - Pulisic is a great player. I think on the field he does his work.

I'm not sure he is the guy to be leading the boys as the team captain. That statement isn't taking away from his play or anything - it's just saying he's not showing team leadership.

Posted

Tyler Adams is the perfect captain for this squad when he's fit.  But when he's out, Pulisic ain't that guy. Ream could have been that guy but his days are done for the USMNT.  There is definitely a leadership void.

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Posted
2 hours ago, Jive Turkey said:

Tyler Adams is the perfect captain for this squad when he's fit.  But when he's out, Pulisic ain't that guy. Ream could have been that guy but his days are done for the USMNT.  There is definitely a leadership void.

This was my feeling too. I didn't want to name names, but he was going to be my pick.

Pulisic has his moments, but he doesn't lead the team vocally. That was evident when he was calling for Berhalter to be back.

Posted
3 hours ago, Captain Ron said:

To be fair - Pulisic is a great player. I think on the field he does his work.

I'm not sure he is the guy to be leading the boys as the team captain. That statement isn't taking away from his play or anything - it's just saying he's not showing team leadership.

I disagree. I think CP is a fine captain. Just ask Milan fans. 

Posted (edited)
16 minutes ago, ztejas said:

I disagree. I think CP is a fine captain. Just ask Milan fans. 

They would say their captain and vice-captain are great. And neither are CP.

 

And they will also say that Pulisic is one of their great players.

Edited by Captain Ron
Posted

Yeah "Pulisic isn't a vocal leader and not really a captain-type" doesn't seem like much of a hot take at all. Best player, sure. Nobody is disputing that (except maybe some Jedi stans).

Adams should and does wear the armband whenever he's on the field.

Posted

Here is my question: What does he do or has he done to show he should lead this team? Because I don't think he has done anything yet.

I think he goes out there with his play and does it on the field. He lets that do the talking for him. And there is no question he is our best player.

But in your captain, that isn't only what you want. You want someone that holds everyone accountable to the standard both on and off the field. And in that aspect, I'm not sure I've seen either of those from CP. He has moments of talking, but not really leading, I haven't seen it.

Posted
On 4/18/2025 at 1:51 PM, Captain Ron said:

Pulisic doesn't lead the team vocally.

He called for Berhalter to be return.

i re-wrote your post slightly as to me these are strikes 1 & 2 why he shouldn't be Captain

for me strike 3 was his failure in qatar - it was his time to shine, create and dominate, and although he did net 1, he should have done a lot more to have been value for the hype of the prior 5 years - it was on him to overcome the beerholder and pulisic failed

this not a prediction for next year - but his karma has never been right - he was given the 10 shirt and has the tools to play a classic 10 but he never embraced the role of the string-puller; he has come in to his own at i rossoneri and will make plenty of money before retiring to mls

but if pulisic is full value for the armband, why when acm made a captaincy change only 3 months ago did it go the french #3 keeper instead of pulisic with 21 goals in 63 appearances

Jedi is currently our "best" combination of consistent play with a solid (no where near relegation) top-5-league club with ironman fitness/appearances/production

current prem assists this season:

18 salah

11 murphy

10 damsgaard robinson saka

9 elanga fernandes heung-min

davies captains canada from the same position (excepting his current rehab from doing an acl in the 3rd place game against us last month)

the program needs a shake-up

Posted
1 hour ago, Hagbard Celine said:

i re-wrote your post slightly as to me these are strikes 1 & 2 why he shouldn't be Captain

for me strike 3 was his failure in qatar - it was his time to shine, create and dominate, and although he did net 1, he should have done a lot more to have been value for the hype of the prior 5 years - it was on him to overcome the beerholder and pulisic failed

this not a prediction for next year - but his karma has never been right - he was given the 10 shirt and has the tools to play a classic 10 but he never embraced the role of the string-puller; he has come in to his own at i rossoneri and will make plenty of money before retiring to mls

but if pulisic is full value for the armband, why when acm made a captaincy change only 3 months ago did it go the french #3 keeper instead of pulisic with 21 goals in 63 appearances

Jedi is currently our "best" combination of consistent play with a solid (no where near relegation) top-5-league club with ironman fitness/appearances/production

current prem assists this season:

18 salah

11 murphy

10 damsgaard robinson saka

9 elanga fernandes heung-min

davies captains canada from the same position (excepting his current rehab from doing an acl in the 3rd place game against us last month)

the program needs a shake-up

Having an Englishman captain the USMNT is a little awkward.

At least guys like Preki & Stuart Holden lived and played in the USA for a while. Jedi has always lived & played in England. 

Posted

dooley was born deutsch and lived and played there for the first 16 years of his career finishing his last schalke 04 campaign with a uefa cup title before moving to the crew in '97 for the last 4 years of his club career

from '92 to '99 he was capped 81 times and captained the nats for his last 23 caps following the CfL's dismissal for fucking waldo's wife

a foreign-born non-native ami captained the us at a world cup

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Posted
8 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

dooley was born deutsch and lived and played there for the first 16 years of his career finishing his last schalke 04 campaign with a uefa cup title before moving to the crew in '97 for the last 4 years of his club career

from '92 to '99 he was capped 81 times and captained the nats for his last 23 caps following the CfL's dismissal for fucking waldo's wife

a foreign-born non-native ami captained the us at a world cup

So he captained at the 1998 World Cup.

Tell me again whether or not he had lived & played in the USA at that point.

(If you need help, I have bolded the pertinent date.)

Posted
16 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

i re-wrote your post slightly as to me these are strikes 1 & 2 why he shouldn't be Captain

for me strike 3 was his failure in qatar - it was his time to shine, create and dominate, and although he did net 1, he should have done a lot more to have been value for the hype of the prior 5 years - it was on him to overcome the beerholder and pulisic failed

this not a prediction for next year - but his karma has never been right - he was given the 10 shirt and has the tools to play a classic 10 but he never embraced the role of the string-puller; he has come in to his own at i rossoneri and will make plenty of money before retiring to mls

but if pulisic is full value for the armband, why when acm made a captaincy change only 3 months ago did it go the french #3 keeper instead of pulisic with 21 goals in 63 appearances

Jedi is currently our "best" combination of consistent play with a solid (no where near relegation) top-5-league club with ironman fitness/appearances/production

current prem assists this season:

18 salah

11 murphy

10 damsgaard robinson saka

9 elanga fernandes heung-min

davies captains canada from the same position (excepting his current rehab from doing an acl in the 3rd place game against us last month)

the program needs a shake-up


I won’t put all of Qatar on Pulisic, I mean watching that team be so handcuffed by “the coach” was absolutely frustrating and a big reason that team didn’t do more than it did.

However you do lightly brush on a point about Pulisic’s play that I don’t see getting a lot of chatter here: with the USNT when he feels the team isn’t playing well, isn’t producing, he goes into this hero mode and starts trying to do it all alone.

This type of takeover the game play works at clubs because your talent is so high and others will step up and jump on for the ride. The Men’s squad isn’t that talented. I’m not saying we have a massive drop off, but if Pulisic is a 9, it drops to a few 8s and then 7s and 6s very quickly. The team can’t match his level.  And this play can breakdown our team game for stretches. Often the players start to ball watch.

And again look I get it. He’s our most talented player. He wants to jump start the team. But a top talent leader knows how to do that and keep everyone going. Pulisic doesn’t seem to see/get that. Worse in a way, he becomes a ball stopper. He gets the ball and then is 100% “I must score on my own!!”

To me, that’s his strike 3, when it’s to the detriment of the team (often). A leader either is keeping everyone involved (in his shoes) or telling him to do so (on or off the field).

As far as who our captain is - I don’t care if they don’t speak a lick of English, if they have the command of the locker room.

A. The casual fans don’t understand captaincy anyway and 

B. The die hards will totally get it

C. This team needs real leadership and accountability! You take what you can get right now. What we have isn’t cutting it. 

Posted

Puli is the type of guy to allow his teammate to take a take a penalty in a close game even though Puli is the designated penalty taker.

Just doesn’t have a captain mentality 

not sure how important the captain position is for a NT though. 

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