- 2022 looks good but we have to replace a lot of talent - Howard, Guzan, Dempsey, Bradley, Jermaine Jones and others. I think the 23-27 year old group has been relatively disappointing for the most part.
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I gotta see the draw before I project 2018....
Let me know when Nagbe's on the left, goes to the left corner, & centers a ball with authority. You just know he's going right with the ball.Um no. He's just not a natural winger. He likes operating in the center of the field more. He was moved inside by Portland two years ago and that's when he took off. But he's still very good out wide.
I can project a F4 of Germany/Spain/France & one of Brazil/Chile/Tina.I gotta see the draw before I project 2018....
Here's hoping we advance beyond F16. I doubt it.I gotta see the draw before I project 2018....
Wish I could disagree.I agree there are things that are massive flaws in Zardes the main one being his touch, but for some reason man when he is on the pitch he makes things happen. Morris has that pace and power we have been missing. He makes our attack dynamic. The person who I am most impressed with is Villafana. He had multiple key tackles both last night in 1v1 instances and during the entire tournament. his delivery from out wide is far better than anyone else at that position and if Yedlin can continue to improve we will have a set of fullbacks that are very talented.
For a long time the USMNT flaws could be traced back to not having a replacement for Demarcus Beasley at LB. It forced us to play Johnson out of position which set off a chain reaction of people playing positions that were not their natural position. when you are able to plug in someone like Villafana, now its balaces everything out. It gives more depth at the winger and CM positions... just look at the effect:
with Villafana you line up like so:
Howard
Villafana, Brooks, Cameron, Yedlin
Acosta - Bradley
Nagbe - Pulisic - Johnson
Altidore
but it gives you a lot to play with in that front 4. You have Nagbe, Pulisic, Johnson, Zardes, Morris, Arriola, Dempsey, Bedoya....Most of which can play at least 2 of the front 4 positions. We are very flexible and its all because now we have a reliable, natural LB in Villafana. I also notice such a massive difference in Bradley playing next to Acosta. Acosta relieves soo much pressure off of Bradley which allows him to kinda be that "regista" and not have too much put on his plate. I really like the momentum of this team. Winning the Gold Cup should really propel us up the FIFA rankings....finish out strong in WCQ and we could continue to climb.... Maybe catch a break in the WC draw and Russia could be a very interesting world cup for the USMNT.
Personally I would rank the US easily top 20 right now, or just barely outside.
'18: F16.So, it sounds like many of you agree that we might be decent in the 2018 World Cup. How far do y'all think we "should" go?
And, how do you think we project roster-wise to 2022?
Let's say hypothetically we draw the exact same opponents as 2014. Do you think we're better and do you think we compete more?
I can project a F4 of Germany/Spain/France & one of Brazil/Chile/Tina.
Let me know when Nagbe's on the left, goes to the left corner, & centers a ball with authority. You just know he's going right with the ball.
I think we massively overachieved the last 2 world cups. A group of Germany, Portugal, Ghana, US would be No bueno. If that happened I don't think we make it out of the group.... we ain't beating Germany. I think Portugal is an overall much better team and we barely got a win against Ghanas B team and it took a last second header in 2014.
I'd bet our group in Russia looks something like this:
One of Germany/Brazil/France
Nigeria or Egypt
Portugal
US
What I'd want:
Switzerland
Ivory Coast
Ecuador/Iran
US
He doesn't do it because he's no good at it. He's just not effective off left foot.He doesn't do that, often, because that's the easy thing to do. He cuts inside, dribbles at people etc... because he's almost always the only guy in the midfield (until pulisic came along) who can do that... Pulisic, when out wide, doesn't send many crosses in. why? Because that's the easy thing. The hard thing, the thing that the us hasn't been able to do, is work through the middle, dribble at people, work 1 - 2's etc...
I'd rather work with johnson on the left wing than nagbe. But if we put johnson at left back again and went with nagbe on the left wing, i wouldn't be devastated. He's the least of our worries.
He doesn't do it because he's no good at it. He's just not effective off left foot.
Last time they went to Russia they lost their whole 6th Army.I like Germany, although they are gonna have so much pressure on them.
Oops....3-3 now.
Isn't it absurd that switzerland is almost assured to be a "pod 1" team? The ranking system for fifa is absurd. The rest of the world is penalized because we don't constantly play world cup qualifiers all year round every year. We would be better served having a system like europe where every team makes it to a group stage and allow our top teams to play the embarrassing concacaf teams 2 times every cycle so we can rack up "official fifa wins". That's why whales and switzerland are ranked so high. Not because they're beating decent teams. But because they are playing more "official fifa matches"
We get punished because we end up having to play the top teams in our region 3-4 times per cycle. Whereas germany won't play a single one of spain, portugal or england... But switzerland can tie one of those teams once and win the rest of their qualifiers and end up being in the top 10 in the world. Smh
The womens team is suffering from complacency. We need to drop in Fifa rankings to 5th-ish. Light a fire under them. Against Australia we lacked a sense of urgency and for the first 70 minutes of Brazil match. The last 20min of the Brazil match is how we should always play. When we play like that there isnt a team in the world that can handle it. I also dont like the 4-4-2 for this team at all. Just leaves way too much space for other teams. Brazil and Australia would pass between the lines and there was 30-35 yards of free space between the back like and the midfielders to run in.
I mean look at 214- Costa Rica won their group of England, Uruguay and Italy, Mexico advanced, and US came in 2nd in the Group of Death. With Costa Rica advancing to Final 8 (shouldve been final 4)
Agree. Going 4-4-2 with this group is silly. WHy allow a team to overload you in the midfield when you can absolutely dominate them?
I'd love to see them adopt something like BBV did last season with 3 in the back, that at times looks like 1 or 2 in the back. At times, Sokrates was their only true center back on the field.
Personally I like the Chelsea Formation - 3-4-2-1
Alex Morgan
Christen Press - Carli Lloyd
Meghan Klingenberg - Megan Rapinoe - Lauren Holiday - Ali Krieger
Christie Rampone - Becky Sauerbrunn - Kelly O'hara
Alyssa Naeher
Personally I like the Chelsea Formation - 3-4-2-1
Alex Morgan
Christen Press - Carli Lloyd
Meghan Klingenberg - Megan Rapinoe - Lauren Holiday - Ali Krieger
Christie Rampone - Becky Sauerbrunn - Kelly O'hara
Alyssa Naeher
It will be interesting to see how much we move up after winning the Gold Cup. I still think South America is by far the hardest.
Rankings:
Brazil-2
Argentina -3
Chile - 7
Colombia - 8
Peru -14
Uruguay - 17
Ecuador - 31
Paraguay - 40
Bolivia - 67
Venezuela - 69
Current WCQ Standings:
Brazil - 33
Colombia - 24
Uruguay - 23
Chile - 23
Argentina - 22
Ecuador - 20
Peru - 18
Paraguay 18
6 points separating 2nd from 8th... I think someone from South America wins it in Russia. They are due... I still love Brazil so much. I think they would give Germany fits. So many folks give them crap for the 7-1 loss but they were without their starting CDM, Thiago Silva and Neymar.
This roster is just dirty: https://sofifa.com/squad/187649
I play with it all the time on FIFA - My last 20 matches im 18-2-0 and averaging 4 goals a game
Agree. I'm more scared of Brazil and Argentina than any other team in the world.
Argentina is baffling right now. I think they need to go with Agustin and Dybala over Higuain. I'd also give more time to Lanzini. Add them to Messi and Di Maria and that's a better attack. Defensively is bring in Mateo Musacchio and they have a young midfielder by the name of Ezekiel Barco that had a phenomenal year in Argentina. Also have the next generation of attackers in Correa, Laurtaro Martinez, icardi (who I love), Vietto and a couple other under 20 in Argentina
NASL, NPSL teams file claim over promotion/relegation
"In a joint statement on Thursday, Miami FC of the NASL (second-tier) and Kingston Stockade FC of the NPSL (unofficial fourth-tier) revealed they’ve appealed to CAS to force the FIFA, CONCACAF and the US Soccer Federation (USSF) to usher in promotion and relegation in the U.S. soccer pyramid.
Two lower-tier teams in the U.S. have launched a claim with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to try and impose promotion and relegation in the U.S. Soccer pyramid."
NASL, NPSL teams file claim over promotion/relegation
"In a joint statement on Thursday, Miami FC of the NASL (second-tier) and Kingston Stockade FC of the NPSL (unofficial fourth-tier) revealed they’ve appealed to CAS to force the FIFA, CONCACAF and the US Soccer Federation (USSF) to usher in promotion and relegation in the U.S. soccer pyramid.
Two lower-tier teams in the U.S. have launched a claim with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to try and impose promotion and relegation in the U.S. Soccer pyramid."
Anyone else think there's still a chance Qatar loses the world cup? Still lots of rumblings - would likely be in England or US if they do.
I think we are going to look back at this past year as the revolution of the Conte 3-4-2-1 formation. Everyone is doing it now and it has so many positives and very few negatives