SexualChocolate said:
Packchem91 said:
SexualChocolate said:
statefan91 said:
SexualChocolate said:
This was our B/C team. I think maybe 4-5 of these players will make our World Cup team. Turner has done a lot and has earned the top 2 goalie spots. Even though Tab had a lot to do with the young group of players that were identified by US coaching staff, the decision to send most of the players overseas to play in the better European leagues has been great. We do not need to be starting MLS players for our National Team. We have tons of talent gaining valuable experience playing in Europe.
Which World Cup team 
? Unfortunate that we didn't qualify, that hurts.
For European leagues, I have the unfortunate honor of picking Arsenal about 7 or 8 years ago when Wenger was still there. They have fallen off a bit of a cliff unfortunately and don't look destined for Champions League any time soon.
We should be able to qualify this year for next years World Cup was what I was referring to. We are still very young with Pulisic, Reyna, Mussa, McKinnie, Dest, Adams, Steffen, Sargent, and Weah. There is no guarantees that we will qualify like we didn't last time but this is a whole new team. The last time we tried to qualify, we were old and the majority of all the players were MLS players.
Im a Liverpool fan so it's been a good run for us lately but I started pulling for Liverpool when Brendan Rodgers was the manager. Klopp has turned that team around.
Agreed on your points. Landing our top talent in Europe's top leagues is of great value. Only tradeoff with that is, given the condensed WC qualifying schedule (basically 3 games per month for the next 4+ months), can those guys get away from their club teams. Though I suspect the SA players have the same challenge, and the European club schedules will be set to help accommodate?
The only other concern, to your point is....while the talent level is much higher now, many of tehse guys will not have had a huge national road game where they are expected to deliver. Seems simple, but we've proven over the years that even in CONCACAF, those road games can be major stumbling blocks.
Great points and those CONCACAF road games are really tough but I like the makeup of this team. I think offensively, we can score goals but Defense is a problem. We are missing a partner with Brooks if he plays a flat 4 but Berhalter likes the back 3. I had my doubts about Berhalter but he has done a great job so far but the true test is making next years World Cup.
Its funny....i've thought for the last several years that our back line was horrible.....but in the Gold Cup, we actually had some really strong performances (certainly enabled by Turner's excellent performance).
I know the WC is a much different level though, and not sure any of the guys who played in GC back line would knock off a guy above them?
As for Berhalter....indeed, we've done better this summer than I feared we would with him, but I need 6 more months to see how we do in "real" games before I change my view of him.
That said, everyone thought the Mexico hire of Martino was a slam dunk, and after back-to-back losses to the US, I'd guess he's getting ton of heat in Mexico about right now....so you just never know.
