World Cup and European leagues

[Clotpoll]

This was a WQ qualifier, Mexico played their strongest available team.

Emphasis on 'available'. No Tecatito, no Peralta, no Damm...just for starters.

Mexico's strongest 11 blow us off the field in any venue. And Mexico is far from being a great NT.

[truenorth]

I predict this "weak" U.S. team will qualify for the World Cup and advance AT LEAST as far as Mexico and their vaunted strongest 11.

[Goldenrj]

Just agree to disagree here.  We can only play the strongest players they put on the field for a WQ qualifier.  They did not blow us off the field in Columbus or in Azteca.

Results matter.  In competitive games we have a better record against Mexico since 2000, including the most important result of all, 2-0 in 2002 World Cup. Mexico would not have even qualified for the last WC if we didn't beat Panama in the last minute to send them into the 4th place play-in game, while we were winning the Hex.   

The quality of teams go in cycles, we dominate Mexico (I believe we were unbeaten in something like 11 straight games against them at one point in the 2000's) and they dominate us.  2 even rivals both trying to improve against the truly big teams.

[jknezek]

This was a WQ qualifier, Mexico played their strongest available team.

Emphasis on 'available'. No Tecatito, no Peralta, no Damm...just for starters.

Mexico's strongest 11 blow us off the field in any venue. And Mexico is far from being a great NT.

Mexico hasn't blown us off a field in more than a decade. They've won, they've possessed the ball, but blown us off a field? You are mistaking their technical ability for being better. They are fragile psychologically, poor against fast and physical teams, and don't play well away from home. Are they better than the U.S.? Right now they are. That hasn't always been the case recently and blowing us off the field hasn't been in the cards for them for quite a while.

[Clotpoll]

Where's the 'results matter' crew today, after we got punked & nearly beaten by an amateur side that isn't recognized by FIFA?

This would be a good time for the 'Jurgen Out' crowd to try out a new batch of excuses...

[jknezek]

Where's the 'results matter' crew today, after we got punked & nearly beaten by an amateur side that isn't recognized by FIFA?

This would be a good time for the 'Jurgen Out' crowd to try out a new batch of excuses...

There is no excuse. We were terrible last night. We missed a multitude of open chances, defended poorly, and simply looked like a disjointed mess. The only thing you can say is that was clearly a "C" team. On the other hand, a U.S. "C" team should do much better against Martinique than they did last night. A very, very poor performance. 3 points and leading the group despite 2 very subpar performances is what it is for a CONCACAF Gold Cup. A tournament we appear to not be taking even remotely seriously or competently.

[Clotpoll]

'C' team. That's a good one. But let's just call it the MLS team (which it mostly is).

If these are the best players in MLS, I can see why they're falsifying attendance figures and the TV ratings are lower than dog shows.

[Goldenrj]

Clotpoll, last night was a very poor win.  Results do matter, but we shouldn't have to eke out a result against Martinique, experimental team or not.

[Clotpoll]

Agreed, 100%. A complete embarrassment.

[1970s NESCAC Player]

Assuming that the USMNT qualifies for the WC in 2018, Arena is trying to find the players to round out his 23-man roster.  In the case of this edition of the "experimental" Gold Cup team, weeding players out -- i.e., eliminating them from consideration -- may be the best he can hope for.

[jknezek]

Assuming that the USMNT qualifies for the WC in 2018, Arena is trying to find the players to round out his 23-man roster.  In the case of this edition of the "experimental" Gold Cup team, weeding players out -- i.e., eliminating them from consideration -- may be the best he can hope for.

I understand this, but here's the thing. This is our Federation championship. We shouldn't be sending weakened teams to this event, especially since it is held here in the States. It drives me nuts. I wish we only did this once every 4 years like the other Federations. We might actually take it seriously then. But all those Caribbean nations need the money it brings to just field teams. So we have to play it twice and we send embarrassing teams like what we fielded the other night. They might be wearing the shirt and getting the caps, but does anyone really consider that our National Team?  The team I saw at the end of the January camp, playing an exhibition against Jamaica in Chattanooga, was a better team than what we slapped on the field in our Federation tournament. That's sad.

[Clotpoll]

Assuming that the USMNT qualifies for the WC in 2018, Arena is trying to find the players to round out his 23-man roster.  In the case of this edition of the "experimental" Gold Cup team, weeding players out -- i.e., eliminating them from consideration -- may be the best he can hope for.

I understand this, but here's the thing. This is our Federation championship. We shouldn't be sending weakened teams to this event, especially since it is held here in the States. It drives me nuts. I wish we only did this once every 4 years like the other Federations. We might actually take it seriously then. But all those Caribbean nations need the money it brings to just field teams. So we have to play it twice and we send embarrassing teams like what we fielded the other night. They might be wearing the shirt and getting the caps, but does anyone really consider that our National Team?  The team I saw at the end of the January camp, playing an exhibition against Jamaica in Chattanooga, was a better team than what we slapped on the field in our Federation tournament. That's sad.

And some people don't think Chuck Blazer really harmed US Soccer...

[Goldenrj]

Assuming that the USMNT qualifies for the WC in 2018, Arena is trying to find the players to round out his 23-man roster.  In the case of this edition of the "experimental" Gold Cup team, weeding players out -- i.e., eliminating them from consideration -- may be the best he can hope for.

I understand this, but here's the thing. This is our Federation championship. We shouldn't be sending weakened teams to this event, especially since it is held here in the States. It drives me nuts. I wish we only did this once every 4 years like the other Federations. We might actually take it seriously then. But all those Caribbean nations need the money it brings to just field teams. So we have to play it twice and we send embarrassing teams like what we fielded the other night. They might be wearing the shirt and getting the caps, but does anyone really consider that our National Team?  The team I saw at the end of the January camp, playing an exhibition against Jamaica in Chattanooga, was a better team than what we slapped on the field in our Federation tournament. That's sad.

And some people don't Chuck Blazer really harmed US Soccer...

Chuck Blazer hurt US Soccer, and all of soccer, by lining his pockets and those of his cronies at the expense of our players and infrastructure.

[jknezek]

Well the U.S. won the group. They looked better in the last game. Reinforcements called in. Some players left I was surprised about, but 3 of those sent home had either asked or known since before the camp that they were only playing in the group stage. Dwyer seems odd, but if you are bringing in Jozy and Clint, and intend to play them, you might as well release him. He played well, but not well enough to really break into the main team.

And we're off to the elimination games. So hard to be interested in this faux team and faux tournament.

[jknezek]

Uggh. The defense. I don't see what Arena sees in Morrow and Hedges. I just don't get it. Lichaj looked lost at times defensively, though better going forward. Frankly the whole back line beside Gonzalez looked like they'd never played defense before, and even Gonzalez seemed to have trouble communicating with the rest of the line making him indecisive.

I thought Arriola was OK last night. Better than Zardes who seems to have bricks where his feet are supposed to be. I liked Nagbe and Bradley together. That seemed like one of the few things that worked.

The refs were pathetic. Zardes was onside, though having goals called back for that hardly seems like an oddity these days. El Salvador should have been playing with 8 by the end of the game. Ridiculously dirty and the Canadian ref was much too timid about throwing cards until midway through the second half.

Regardless, the Americans need to get some practice in how to play as a team. That way they aren't screwing up simple passes and positioning because they don't know where each other are going to be or want each other to be. There was some seriously sad teamwork last night.

On the upside, through to the next round. We've scored 9 goals and let in 3, none in the last 2 games. Pretty sure a lot of that goal differential is opponent incompetence, but the ratio stands. Win the group, check, win the trap game, check, win the two games against quality opponents? We will see.