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[zitothebrave]

I hope Klinsmen is finally done. He doesn't even let the best players play and having Bradely in the lineup at his point is retarded.

What "best players" didn't he play? The only case you can kinda make is Nagbe should have started for Bedoya or Jones against Argentina. That's really it. Aside from that the best players started or were hurt or suspended. As far as selectionf or the team, it's basically Ream vs Orozco which while I prefer Ream, really isn't a big difference. ANd who do the USMNT have that's better than Bradley? I'm pissed that Bradley sucked, but even in his sucking he was a solid contributor. He went from the engine of the team to solid contributor which really sucks and I blame his move to TFC and personally hope the rumors that Samdoria are interested in Bradley are true. He needs to be playing in Europe if he wants to be the best player he can be. One of the faults I"ve seen with him since his move to MLS is he is too content to move the ball backward instead of how he used to play which was quickly with his partners next to him to open up the defense. Now he seems content to hold the ball and wait for something and then dump it backwards. I also think his passes aren't as crisp because MLS defenses suck and you can get away with it. That being said, I can't see him giving up almost 7M a year for probably 1-2 and then leaving North America. So my only other hope is he goes to an MLS team that helps him. If he can't then we lost our best player and captain's peak and we need to find someone else to fill those roles. My vote would be for Cameron though I don't know how he is in the locker room.

Seriously, I don't get why you have a raging hard on against Jurgen. He completed the best result of a US manager in 21 years. All the while he lost 3 games, to the FIFA ranked number 1 and 3 teams. The games against Columbia were super duper close. Game 1 was more Columbia driven, but you can honestly say that the stage got to the US. Game 2 was luck and ref driven. The ref blew in that game and Columbia capitalized on their one chance.

ANd can we say anything more about Jurgen's recruitment and faith in John Brooks? Last summer some (not anyone here, just a general consensus of dumb US supporters) were ****ting on Klinsmann for his Alvarado Brooks partnership and saying Brooks will never be good. Shocker that juts one year later he's one of the best players in the tournament and is drawing interest from Man City. ALvarado still kind of sucks, but given that Cameron wasn't available, Gonzalez's form was terrible, and Besler wasn't picked, it's not shocking he got PT.

[gilesfan]

Lol off hyping up that Copa performance. We beat Paraguay, Costa Rica, and Ecuador. Got completely bossed by Argentina and Columbia. We've also lost to Jamicai, Costa Rica, and Guatamala in the last year.

Argentina is a great team, but that performance was completely embarrassing. Who have we beaten that is good in a meaninful match? Ecuador and ....?

Chris Wondolowski should never see the pitch. Nagbe is significantly better than Bradley. Not playing Nagbe is hilarious. Pulisic (despite his age) is about the only one that is able to creat anything and he hardly plays. Orozco.....LOL.

[zitothebrave]

Costa Rica and Ecuador are great opponents. Ecuador was FIFA rated 13th going into the tournament, Colombia and Argentina should boss the USA. Again, you're complaining that the US did not beat 2 of the 5 best teams in the WORLD. They played Colombia hard and close both games. First game was much closer than the scoreline, and second game is probably a win if the ref wasn't the worst, Colombia got all the calls and wasted so much time. Often when the run of play favored the USA.

USA went into the Argentina match facing the best team in the world, without 2 of the best players on the team and their best attacking midfielder. They got blown away, there's no denying that, but they had no prayer, even if they were all there, we lose, Argentina is the exact type of team the US has no prayer. Realize this, the USA finished 4th in the tournament, behind Colombia, Argentina, and Chile, how is that bad? Got further than Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador, and Uruguay

Of those 3 losses, the only not high quality team is Guatemala. Realize that Jamaica isn't a joke anymore. They're a talented side full of some top athletes who can make you pay. Guatemala's loss was a bad one but it was a road CONCACAF game, which is not easy. So it's understandable. US bossed Guatemala at home. Their loss to Costa Rica was a friendly. By the logic of friendly wins matter the US MLS squad beat Iceland in January and they're now in the Quarters for Euros. LOOK AT HOW GREATS WE IZ.

Nagbe doesn't play the same position as Bradley did. Nagbe isn't a number 6. He plays the same position that Bedoya or Jones did to start the tournament. Jones had a fantastic tournament aside from his stupid red card. Bedoya was really solid all tournament. So your "hilarious" reason for not playing Nagbe is to play him at a position he's going to fail at? He's a CAM who can wing as well, he's Bedoya or Zusi. If you want to argue he should have started over Zusi that's fine. But that's one game, Aside from that do you really think Nagbe would have been markedly better than Bedoya? or do you opt to play him out of position for Bradley? Bradley mind you did more defensive covering that any non-Zardes midfielder.

I wouldn't have started Wondo personally, but trying to keep things as consistent as possible is why Klinsmann did it. I personally would have started Pulisic and Nagbe, but you're complaining about one game we would have lost. Maybe Jurgen didn't start them because of pressure or expectation or any number of reasons. Maybe he didn't want to risk a huge blow to confidence for those players when they're getting bossed around by Argentina. I don't know, I'm not the manager so I don't know those things, neither do you. That being said who do you bring over Wondo? Jozy? Hurt. Johannson? Hurt. Boyd? Hurt. Morris? Piss form going into the tournament and he'd have been murdered by Argentine defenders.

Pulisic was brought into the tournament in the same way that Brooks, Yedlin and Green were to the World Cup. He's a building block player but he's not ready for the bigs yet.

Orozco is a solid player, he was not good and his sending off was moronic. But again in that scenario what player do you see making the difference? Chandler? Hurt. Garza? Hurt Ream? Only semi-plausible improvement is to have named Omar instead and used Besler as a LB, but is Omar/Besler better than Besler/Orozco? Who knows. It's picking between 2 ****ty options.

So basically your case for Jurgen picking terrible lineups is the Argentina game which he couldn't pick an acceptable lineup if he tried. Let's suppose he doesn't go with what he did, lets suppose he plays the guys you want.

Same back line, MF of Bradley, Beckerman, Nagbe, and Pulisic, Demspey and Zardes striking, does that win the game for us? Nope. Maybe we lose 4-1. Maybe we lose 6-0 because Zusi was actually quite good that game.

[gilesfan]

Costa Rica and Ecuador are great opponents. Ecuador was FIFA rated 13th going into the tournament, Colombia and Argentina should boss the USA. Again, you're complaining that the US did not beat 2 of the 5 best teams in the WORLD. They played Colombia hard and close both games. First game was much closer than the scoreline, and second game is probably a win if the ref wasn't the worst, Colombia got all the calls and wasted so much time. Often when the run of play favored the USA.

USA went into the Argentina match facing the best team in the world, without 2 of the best players on the team and their best attacking midfielder. They got blown away, there's no denying that, but they had no prayer, even if they were all there, we lose, Argentina is the exact type of team the US has no prayer. Realize this, the USA finished 4th in the tournament, behind Colombia, Argentina, and Chile, how is that bad? Got further than Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador, and Uruguay

Of those 3 losses, the only not high quality team is Guatemala. Realize that Jamaica isn't a joke anymore. They're a talented side full of some top athletes who can make you pay. Guatemala's loss was a bad one but it was a road CONCACAF game, which is not easy. So it's understandable. US bossed Guatemala at home. Their loss to Costa Rica was a friendly. By the logic of friendly wins matter the US MLS squad beat Iceland in January and they're now in the Quarters for Euros. LOOK AT HOW GREATS WE IZ.

Nagbe doesn't play the same position as Bradley did. Nagbe isn't a number 6. He plays the same position that Bedoya or Jones did to start the tournament. Jones had a fantastic tournament aside from his stupid red card. Bedoya was really solid all tournament. So your "hilarious" reason for not playing Nagbe is to play him at a position he's going to fail at? He's a CAM who can wing as well, he's Bedoya or Zusi. If you want to argue he should have started over Zusi that's fine. But that's one game, Aside from that do you really think Nagbe would have been markedly better than Bedoya? or do you opt to play him out of position for Bradley? Bradley mind you did more defensive covering that any non-Zardes midfielder.

I wouldn't have started Wondo personally, but trying to keep things as consistent as possible is why Klinsmann did it. I personally would have started Pulisic and Nagbe, but you're complaining about one game we would have lost. Maybe Jurgen didn't start them because of pressure or expectation or any number of reasons. Maybe he didn't want to risk a huge blow to confidence for those players when they're getting bossed around by Argentina. I don't know, I'm not the manager so I don't know those things, neither do you. That being said who do you bring over Wondo? Jozy? Hurt. Johannson? Hurt. Boyd? Hurt. Morris? Piss form going into the tournament and he'd have been murdered by Argentine defenders.

Pulisic was brought into the tournament in the same way that Brooks, Yedlin and Green were to the World Cup. He's a building block player but he's not ready for the bigs yet.

Orozco is a solid player, he was not good and his sending off was moronic. But again in that scenario what player do you see making the difference? Chandler? Hurt. Garza? Hurt Ream? Only semi-plausible improvement is to have named Omar instead and used Besler as a LB, but is Omar/Besler better than Besler/Orozco? Who knows. It's picking between 2 ****ty options.

So basically your case for Jurgen picking terrible lineups is the Argentina game which he couldn't pick an acceptable lineup if he tried. Let's suppose he doesn't go with what he did, lets suppose he plays the guys you want.

Same back line, MF of Bradley, Beckerman, Nagbe, and Pulisic, Demspey and Zardes striking, does that win the game for us? Nope. Maybe we lose 4-1. Maybe we lose 6-0 because Zusi was actually quite good that game.

Nagbe can play anywhere in central midfield. He can easily play with Jones.

[zitothebrave]

No Nagbe cannot be a 6. You thinking that shows how massively ill informed you are. Your alternative is to take Jones from his box to box position where he is best and make him a 6, which is also not his best position.

It's cute that you think you're knowledgeable.

[gilesfan]

I actually thought you followed the team. Jones has always been a defensive midfielder (except when Klinsmen put him at centreback, lol) until recently. He played ok as an attacking midfielder, but it was the ****ing MLS so that really doesn't mean much. He's strong as a defensive minded midfielder. He can certainly play with Nagbe who is more offensive minded. You could even play Bradley/Jones/Nagbe with Bradley having the primary defensive responsibilities, but Bradley sucked the entire tourney and should have been benched. Could have played Kitchen with Jones and Nagbe and been better than what they used. Instead he used Bradley/Beckerman(LOL), and Jones.

Orozco was the worst player on the pitch. Bradely was dreaful. Zardes was bad. Besler sucked. Wondo was garbage. Bedoya wasn't good. Meanwhile, Pulisic and Nagbe mainly sat on the bench.

This isn't even getting into JKs dreadful tactics.

[zitothebrave]

Jurgen has used him as a CDM, but it's always been paired up with Bradley or Beckerman giving him the ability with his teammate to surge forward. With Nagbe next to him consistently wanting to be behind the forwards, Jones wouldn't get the same freedom he gets otherwise.

So what you're proposing is Nagbe over Bedoya, which to me is a moot point. Bedoya does things that Nagbe can't and vice versa, I don't see a net gain there.

Yousaying Zardes was bad and Besler sucked just goes to show how ignorant you are. From game 3 on Zardes was one of our better players.

[zitothebrave]

Can we all talk about how much Jozy ALtidore rips CONCACAF's tits? Seriously he's 26 and has the US record for WCQ goals. More than Landon, Dempsey, Wynalda, McBride. Dempsey and Landon are of course better overall players and Dempsey on a per match basis is a better goal scorer. But when it comes to playing CONCACAF, no one terrorizes them like Jozy. Hopefully he stays healthy through the Hex.

[acesfull86]

I'm just glad to see my boy Kljestan back in the fold. 31 years old, but should be able to keep himself at his current level through the WC. Although I dont want to get ahead of myself...just hoping he still features in the hex. By halftime of the game on Tuesday, he had 6 chances created in 69 minutes across the two games. 2 goals, 2 or 3 assists, not a bad couple of shifts. But against Mexico, I still feel like JK is going back to a Jones-Bradley in the middle.

[zitothebrave]

I'm just glad to see my boy Kljestan back in the fold. 31 years old, but should be able to keep himself at his current level through the WC. Although I dont want to get ahead of myself...just hoping he still features in the hex. By halftime of the game on Tuesday, he had 6 chances created in 69 minutes across the two games. 2 goals, 2 or 3 assists, not a bad couple of shifts. But against Mexico, I still feel like JK is going back to a Jones-Bradley in the middle.

A Jones/Bradley pairing is the most likely pairing. But Kljestan likely earned his way up the rankings towards top of the bench.

6 weeks is a long way away, but assuming health my best guess for the USMNT lineup is.

GK - Guzan
RB - Yedlin
CB - Cameron
CB - Brooks
LB - Johnson
RM - Bedoya
CM - Bradley
CM - Jones
LM - Pulisic
ST - Jozy
ST - Wood

Other 12
GK - Howard, Horvath
DF - Besler, Gonzalez, Chandler
MF - Kljestan, Kitchen, Zusi, Nagbe
FW - Dempsey, Morris, Johannsson.

I just cannot see Dempsey winning back his starting spot without Jozy or Wood out or in horrible form. As legendary as Clint is, he isn't better than WOod or Jozy right now. Coming off the bench though he could be an amazing poacher. Kljestan, Kitchen, Nagbe, and Zusi provide intersting options for the MF. Kitchen is replaceable with Stanko or any non-Beckerman CDM. Nagbe can CAM or play wide, same with Zusi, with them in the game on the wings the game will narrow into the middle more. But that can be good. Kljestan is the closest to a box-to-box sub but usually works best as a CAM. Johannsson is my one surprise pick, because he was a lock before his injury. People forget about him, but he's back and already on the score sheet for Bremen with a goal and assist. He has a gift to be a strong second striker and would pair well with Dempsey if we need to double striker sub or could work well with Morris if we need to go 3 forwards.

[The Chosen One]

Arsenal today.

[zitothebrave]

Bob Bradley hired as coach of Swansea. First American born coach hired in the big 4 leagues, hired in the biggest of them all.

Swans new ownership is American and under a lot of fire for this hire, but I hope the best for Bob cause it would be massive for US Soccer.

[gilesfan]

Arsenal today.

Hey, how did Tott look vs. Man City?

[The Chosen One]

Hey, how did Tott look vs. Man City?

Not bad. Still will finish below Arsenal again this season.

Man City despite being undefeated before that match didn't look invincible and was shaky at times. Arsenal have been improving form since week 1.

[The Chosen One]

Arsenal right now =

UNREAL.

[zitothebrave]

Arsenal right now =

UNREAL.

Only 2 of the games today were decided by 1 goal today. Arsenal, Bayern, PSG, Barca, and Mönchengladbach all really kicked ass, and Benfica won by 2.

But more importantly can we talk about how Pulisic went 90 against Sporting? The hype train is truly going off the rails.

[zitothebrave]

MLS MVP is an interesting race.

Giovinco is the best player in MLS but is certainly hurt by his absence.

Villa is certainly a candidate but not winning golden boot hurts his chances.

BWP is the golden boot winner, but he is hurt by his teammate.

Sasha Kljestan tied the record for most assists in MLS since 2002 when the rule on assists changed.

[zitothebrave]

Julian Green got his first start for Bayern and first league goal for Bayern

[gilesfan]

we suck

[zitothebrave]

we suck

More apt is Omar Gonzalez, John Brooks, and Jermaine Jones suck.

Though Brooks is usually really good I'll chalk this up to missing his usual partner

USA is now in a must win all home matches and they have to pull probably 4 other points from away matches, which isn't easy in CONCACAF.

Upside is this is the hardest leg. Next leg is Honduras and Panama. Both winnable games. IF the US wins both of them they'll be OK. If they have 9 points throughthe first 5 games they have one impossible task which is Azteca but they already got Costa Rica on the road out of the way. US and Costa Rica have very strong home success records against each other.

16 points is about what you need to advance. So 4 home wins, 1 away win and 1 away draw should be enough. It won't be easy but it should be enough.