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Retired US Soccer / World Cup Thread (RIP)

BostonDeac said:
good article

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6707994/hard-lessons
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Um, not really. Sitting Tim Ream was a mistake? Ream was absolutely awful and the defense looked a hundred times better without him in there.

I guess I do agree with the rest of it, kind of. I think it will be much more important to infuse younger players during the upcoming qualifiers and the 2013 Gold Cup. Winning this one was all about getting to the Confed Cup.
 
I do agree with the Goodson thing. What was the point? He's a below average player who will be fine against lower CONCACAF teams and not good enough for good teams. He's 29, he's proven this. I feel like a younger guy could've done just as well AND actually have the chance to improve
 
The good thing about us being shaky in defense is that Ike will likely get some run in the next 2-4 years.
 
BillBrasky said:
Um, not really. Sitting Tim Ream was a mistake? Ream was absolutely awful and the defense looked a hundred times better without him in there.

I guess I do agree with the rest of it, kind of. I think it will be much more important to infuse younger players during the upcoming qualifiers and the 2013 Gold Cup. Winning this one was all about getting to the Confed Cup.
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i just meant more along the lines of the younger guys should have seen more time and that the larger goal should be to win a World Cup, not win the Gold Cup.
 
deacvision7 said:
Confed Cup isn't that important, IMO
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Maybe. But the coaching staff obviously think it does.

And using the argument provided in the article I assume that our CB's should have been Ream and Gonzalez, with Lichaj and maybe Spector playing on the outside.

Yikes, we may not have made it out of the group.
 
I don't get what he had against Dolo. We don't have the talent to just replace every single guy with an equally good or better player like Brazil. If Chandler was available I could see the complaint there
 
deacvision7 said:
Confed Cup isn't that important, IMO
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I disagree. If we're tuning up for the World Cup, I would rather have our guys playing against the likes of Brazil, Spain, and the eventual Euro and ACN Champions rather than Guadeloupe, Panama, and the pu-pu platter of Caribbean nations in the gold cup.
Lets face it, you get better by playing against better competition. You've said so yourself. We're not going to become a better nation if our only true test each gold cup is El Tri. The Confed cup is our best opportunity to have meaningful matches against the better teams.
 
I normally hate Colin Cowherd, and he was defending Bob Bradley, which made me dislike him even more, but he did make some good points that, while a lot of us are aware of them, a lot of Americans that want Bradley gone do no understand it either.

Basically it was that we do not have nearly as much talent as the teams ahead of us in the FIFA rankings (particularly the top 10). He said that we were the South Carolina of the SEC. We have the ability to go 9-4, but we will hardly ever compete on a consistent basis with the best of the best. We may beat them occasionally though.

He also pointed to Bradley's record while a USA head coach:

Record
All-Time: 38-21-8
Qualifying: 13-3-2
Gold Cup: 10-1-1
Goals For: 120
Goals Against: 82
Shutouts: 25

Record vs. …
CONCACAF: 25-5-5, 74 GF, 33 GA
CONMEBOL: 1-7-1, 9 GF, 21 GA
UEFA: 7-8-2, 24 GF, 24 GA
AFC: 2-0-0, 7 GF, 2 GA
CAF: 3-1-0, 6 GF, 2 GA

Record when …
Leading at half: 21-3-2
Losing at half: 3-9-3
Tied at half: 13-9-3

By year …
2007: 12-5-1
2008: 9-3-2
2009: 13-8-3
2010: 4-5-2

2010 is not very impressive, but the other years are all pretty good. Once again, I am not defending Bradley, because he often seems at a loss as to how to manage the team, and his substitutions/starters have been pretty poor at times. I'm just not sure how much better somebody else could do because of the talent deficit at our hands against the better countries.
 
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Not sure if this is the right place for this, but Mexico is starting a 16 year old GK today against England in the Women's WC.
 
Deacsfan27 said:
I normally hate Colin Cowherd, and he was defending Bob Bradley, which made me dislike him even more, but he did make some good points that, while a lot of us are aware of them, a lot of Americans that want Bradley gone do no understand it either.

Basically it was that we do not have nearly as much talent as the teams ahead of us in the FIFA rankings (particularly the top 10). He said that we were the South Carolina of the SEC. We have the ability to go 9-4, but we will hardly ever compete on a consistent basis with the best of the best. We may beat them occasionally though.

He also pointed to Bradley's record while a USA head coach:

Record
All-Time: 38-21-8
Qualifying: 13-3-2
Gold Cup: 10-1-1
Goals For: 120
Goals Against: 82
Shutouts: 25

Record vs. …
CONCACAF: 25-5-5, 74 GF, 33 GA
CONMEBOL: 1-7-1, 9 GF, 21 GA
UEFA: 7-8-2, 24 GF, 24 GA
AFC: 2-0-0, 7 GF, 2 GA
CAF: 3-1-0, 6 GF, 2 GA

Record when …
Leading at half: 21-3-2
Losing at half: 3-9-3
Tied at half: 13-9-3

By year …
2007: 12-5-1
2008: 9-3-2
2009: 13-8-3
2010: 4-5-2

2010 is not very impressive, but the other years are all pretty good. Once again, I am not defending Bradley, because he often seems at a loss as to how to manage the team, and his substitutions/starters have been pretty poor at times. I'm just not sure how much better somebody else could do because of the talent deficit at our hands against the better countries.
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Yep. I agree. I've said many times before, Bob may be A problem, but THE problem is our lack of talent in out pool. It wouldn't look too bad without the injuries of Holden and CD9, but injuries happen. Let's also remember that in 2010 we have played Brazil and Spain with our B sides. So there's 2 automatic losses. Also played Argentina. And I'm not sure the 10-1-1 Gold Cup record is right, since we lost 2 this gold cup and 1 in 09.
 
Deacsfan27 said:
Also, it was very clear to me that Mexico was a much better team than we were.
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The games against Panama, Canada, Guadeloupe, and Panama again were examples of the team just shutting out Bradley and tiring of him. And those are teams we're far more talented than. Then having zero heart after Mexico scored. That's not something that normally happens to USA soccer, no?
 
BillBrasky said:
Um, not really. Sitting Tim Ream was a mistake? Ream was absolutely awful and the defense looked a hundred times better without him in there.

I guess I do agree with the rest of it, kind of. I think it will be much more important to infuse younger players during the upcoming qualifiers and the 2013 Gold Cup. Winning this one was all about getting to the Confed Cup.
Click to expand...

BostonDeac said:
i just meant more along the lines of the younger guys should have seen more time and that the larger goal should be to win a World Cup, not win the Gold Cup.
Click to expand...

That article is spot on. I wouldn't pay as much attention to the specific replacements he mentioned as I would just the message, which I think is right on the money.

I mean, I don't think it was really a 4-6-0 either even if there was no recognized out and out striker.

One can't just keep coming up with excuses for not transitioning different players in. It will always be "the Gold Cup is too important, the qualifiers are too important, we don't want young players getting destroyed by Spain (oops -- that one didn't work), Brazil, Argentina, etc."

It's just a really stagnant, conservative outlook on it, in my opinion.
 
Well this is scary.

Generation gap between MEX/USA best players: Chicharito is 23, Barrera 24, Guardado 24, Dos Santos 22. Donovan is 29, Dempsey 28, Howard 32.
 
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