• Welcome to OGBoards 10.0, keep in mind that we will be making LOTS of changes to smooth out the experience here and make it as close as possible functionally to the old software, but feel free to drop suggestions or requests in the Tech Support subforum!

Official US Soccer / World Cup '26 Thread (USA vs. Mexico 3/24 in Dallas)

Vegas Jethro said:
HuskyDeac said:
Are you accusing him of not knowing history when you're bringing up Dwight Yorke and Stern John in reference to us losing the WCQ to T&T in 2017?

Sure, of course it's different than the 2017 match as that was played in T&T which is a whole different scenario, but PHs point still rings true. We beat a T&T team yesterday 6-0 with our B/C team. Yesterday's T&T team is about the same, arguably slightly more talented than the T&T team from 2017 (which wasn't good - at all). And here is our lineup from that 2017 match. I could even argue (not very seriously) our B/C team yesterday is better than that A team from 7 years ago, which was the entire point. We've improved our depth and talent dramatically in that time.

View attachment 4229
Click to expand...

Is it me, or does it seem like every Mexican game turns into a shit show one way or another
Click to expand...
Cool anecdote.

What I’m accusing him of, and apparently now you, is thinking this T&T team is worth a half nickel. Or that somehow beating the crap out of that team (that includes a guy who isn’t a key player on an MLS2 team whose parent club is 11th in the Western Conference right now) with a B team somehow proves US soccer is tiers better than it was, say, 15 years bc you’ve created this notion our A teams have historically struggled vs. this type of opposition. It was just two games ago this same B team eeked out a draw against Jamaica afterall.

Do you think the 2002 or 2006 versions of our NT wouldn’t beat the ever living fuck out of that team last night? The one making passes for our forwards to go 1-on-1 with their keeper? Of course they would.

Are we better than we were in 2017? Sure. We also were a lot better 15 years earlier than that night in 2017.

The biggest misnomer is this idea the US has historically struggled vs. these types of teams. In 28 games all time vs T&T the US is 21-3-4 and not once lost at home. All time the goal difference is almost +50. The US is 221-90-80 all time against CONCACAF opposition. The US has won 6 of the last 10 Gold Cups and finished second three times. Mexico is the only team with a winning record vs. the US and accounts for 53 of those 170 losses or ties. Only two other teams come remotely close to being .500 vs. the US and account for another 44 of those losses and ties. And these are records that date back to well before 1990 when the US finally started to pay attention to soccer. And yeah, playing on the road, is a lot harder than playing at home.

The overall narrative is just off. We will get a better measure of these guys when they take on the likes of Costa Rica or Mexico (or did we already get one against Jamaica?).
 
DeacMan said:
Cool anecdote.

What I’m accusing him of, and apparently now you, is thinking this T&T team is worth a half nickel. Or that somehow beating the crap out of that team (that includes a guy who isn’t a key player on an MLS2 team whose parent club is 11th in the Western Conference right now) with a B team somehow proves US soccer is tiers better than it was, say, 15 years bc you’ve created this notion our A teams have historically struggled vs. this type of opposition. It was just two games ago this same B team eeked out a draw against Jamaica afterall.

Do you think the 2002 or 2006 versions of our NT wouldn’t beat the ever living fuck out of that team last night? The one making passes for our forwards to go 1-on-1 with their keeper? Of course they would.

Are we better than we were in 2017? Sure. We also were a lot better 15 years earlier than that night in 2017.

The biggest misnomer is this idea the US has historically struggled vs. these types of teams. In 28 games all time vs T&T the US is 21-3-4 and not once lost at home. All time the goal difference is almost +50. The US is 221-90-80 all time against CONCACAF opposition. The US has won 6 of the last 10 Gold Cups and finished second three times. Mexico is the only team with a winning record vs. the US and accounts for 53 of those 170 losses or ties. Only two other teams come remotely close to being .500 vs. the US and account for another 44 of those losses and ties. And these are records that date back to well before 1990 when the US finally started to pay attention to soccer. And yeah, playing on the road, is a lot harder than playing at home.

The overall narrative is just off. We will get a better measure of these guys when they take on the likes of Costa Rica or Mexico (or did we already get one against Jamaica?).
Click to expand...

I’m curious about this. What is it about road matches that are so much more difficult for national teams?
 
DeacMan said:
Cool anecdote.

What I’m accusing him of, and apparently now you, is thinking this T&T team is worth a half nickel. Or that somehow beating the crap out of that team (that includes a guy who isn’t a key player on an MLS2 team whose parent club is 11th in the Western Conference right now) with a B team somehow proves US soccer is tiers better than it was, say, 15 years bc you’ve created this notion our A teams have historically struggled vs. this type of opposition. It was just two games ago this same B team eeked out a draw against Jamaica afterall.

The overall narrative is just off. We will get a better measure of these guys when they take on the likes of Costa Rica or Mexico (or did we already get one against Jamaica?).
Click to expand...
So you're making a completely different argument than that which you replied to. Neither Ph or I said its a great T&T side or better than 15 years ago. Simply that the B/C side handled them easily vs how our 2017 A team lost to essentially that same side.

I do think Jamaica is the 2nd or 3rd best team in this tournament and I have no problem with our B/C side playing a 1-1 draw against a side starting Bailey, Antonio and Gray up top.
 
WindyCityDeac said:
I’m curious about this. What is it about road matches that are so much more difficult for national teams?
Click to expand...
Its true in all soccer leagues (sports in general I guess). Home sides always have better records. Some of that is coaches' tactics - playing for 3 points at home vs 1 point on the road is a typical coaching attitude. But with CONCACAF there is a stark difference in field conditions, crowd atmosphere, weather, altitude, etc which definitely plays its part as well. The US also has a target on their backs in every away match for qualifying. Every team gets a bit more fired up for that match than others.
 
Home court/field advantage has been dwindling in some US leagues.
 
HuskyDeac said:
Its true in all soccer leagues (sports in general I guess). Home sides always have better records. Some of that is coaches' tactics - playing for 3 points at home vs 1 point on the road is a typical coaching attitude. But with CONCACAF there is a stark difference in field conditions, crowd atmosphere, weather, altitude, etc which definitely plays its part as well. The US also has a target on their backs in every away match for qualifying. Every team gets a bit more fired up for that match than others.
Click to expand...

I get it in domestic leagues/sports where you stay in your own bad…no travel etc. but internationally everyone is “on the road”.
the CONCACAF thing makes sense. I can’t say I understand home crowd from a soccer standpoint since I never played nor followed a ton, so not sure I follow that part of it.
 
WindyCityDeac said:
I get it in domestic leagues/sports where you stay in your own bad…no travel etc. but internationally everyone is “on the road”.
the CONCACAF thing makes sense. I can’t say I understand home crowd from a soccer standpoint since I never played nor followed a ton, so not sure I follow that part of it.
Click to expand...
Its tough to explain without experiencing it in person, but you can notice the change on tv. Some stadiums are literally shaking for 90 minutes. Every tackle and half chance the crowd erupts for. It plays on your nerves and gives the home crowd adrenaline to play off of. That's not always the case in CONCACAF - a lot of the island nations are fairly tame. But El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras all have pretty intense atmospheres.
 
WindyCityDeac said:
I get it in domestic leagues/sports where you stay in your own bad…no travel etc. but internationally everyone is “on the road”.
the CONCACAF thing makes sense. I can’t say I understand home crowd from a soccer standpoint since I never played nor followed a ton, so not sure I follow that part of it.
Click to expand...


Here is one of the extreme away games in Europe. This is the walk from the visiting locker room. Can't really compare this to Concacaf, but the central american countries treat soccer just like the euros. And some of their stadiums are similar to this one in the video of Red Star Belgrade.
 
You also just cannot discount the inspiration the players feel to have the chance to beat the "big, great" United States in qualifying. Even if we aren't an international powerhouse. Geopolitical forces mean those players would give up blood and life to win the match sometimes.
 
All the CONCACAFing that Central American and Caribbean nations try is why I found all the complaints about playing in Hamilton against Canada to be weak sauce. And equally weak sauce that there were complaints from others about us playing in Minnesota. We have northern advantages, it behooves us to use it every now and again.
 
Gooner said:
All the CONCACAFing that Central American and Caribbean nations try is why I found all the complaints about playing in Hamilton against Canada to be weak sauce. And equally weak sauce that there were complaints from others about us playing in Minnesota. We have northern advantages, it behooves us to use it every now and again.
Click to expand...
This was supposed to be in response to Juice
 
Vegas Jethro said:


Here is one of the extreme away games in Europe. This is the walk from the visiting locker room. Can't really compare this to Concacaf, but the central american countries treat soccer just like the euros. And some of their stadiums are similar to this one in the video of Red Star Belgrade.
Click to expand...


Maybe Allegacy will spring for ugly visiting team tunnel. Every little bit can help.
 
Gooner said:
All the CONCACAFing that Central American and Caribbean nations try is why I found all the complaints about playing in Hamilton against Canada to be weak sauce. And equally weak sauce that there were complaints from others about us playing in Minnesota. We have northern advantages, it behooves us to use it every now and again.
Click to expand...

Nah I disagree here. Extreme weather is an equalizer. The underdog using extreme weather to limit the ceiling of a better team makes sense. The favorite using extreme weather to equalize themselves is stupid. I still to this day say that scheduling decision was really fucking stupid. Our national team is good enough now (and was then) to beat El Salvador (or was it Honduras) on any unfrozen pitch in America. Pick a spot where it’ll be above freezing and you can limit their fans to under 20% and go to town 100/100 times. Never pull that bullshit again.
 
Correct decision aside

It is a fair decision for the association to make
 
When was the last time we played in Guatemala? We went by Estadio Flores last year before we went to Antigua and that pls e looked intimidating as hell to play in.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top