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USMNT 2022 World Cup Qualifying Thread

CyphaPSU

CyphaPSU

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Erial_Lion said:
I like Tillman more than Green mostly due to how highly Germany appeared to think of him…he’s also somewhat more active with the Bayern 1st team than Julian was at this point. I’m really excited about this one.
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That's fine to be excited, but there is a tendency in a segment of the US Soccer fanbase to see the club a kid is brought up in and immediately place inordinate levels of expectations on, and that is what I'm suggesting a tempered approach about. As of right now, it is still a wait-and-see approach to how Tillman develops at the first-team level. He's entering a critical stage of development at his age. I'm hopeful for the best because we have needs.
 
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Erial_Lion

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CyphaPSU said:
That's fine to be excited, but there is a tendency in a segment of the US Soccer fanbase to see the club a kid is brought up in and immediately place inordinate levels of expectations on, and that is what I'm suggesting a tempered approach about. As of right now, it is still a wait-and-see approach to how Tillman develops at the first-team level. He's entering a critical stage of development at his age. I'm hopeful for the best because we have needs.
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For me, it’s more so the fact that he’s been a big part of the German youth system, and has been captaining them at multiple levels while having a lot of success.
 
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CyphaPSU

CyphaPSU

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Erial_Lion said:
For me, it’s more so the fact that he’s been a big part of the German youth system, and has been captaining them at multiple levels while having a lot of success.
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Just consider me in the camp of wait-and-see how he develops at the first-team level. I am certainly hopeful he will be a big boon for the US.
 
CyphaPSU

CyphaPSU

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It’s been an impressive number of reasons Berhalter has given for not including John Brooks in camps. At this point I’m just not optimistic that our most experienced WC and high-level defender in the pool will be on the World Cup squad. Cannot help but assume at this point in time that something behind the scenes happened between Berhalter and Brooks.

On a positive note, looks like Berhalter and the US did enough to help Slonina fend off Poland overtures. He still has a ways to go in his development, though. But, it’s a positive for sure.
 
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Tom McAndrew

Tom McAndrew

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www.espn.com

McKennie returns to USMNT roster for June games

USMNT manager Gregg Berhalter announced his 27-player roster for a pair of friendlies as well as two CONCACAF Nations League matches in June.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

you can see the full roster for the USMNT training camp, June friendlies, and Nations League matches in the above link. It also discusses players that are out due to injury, players that are under consideration that didn't receive an invite, and players that hadn't been on the recent roster that were given an invite.
 
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Erial_Lion

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Tom McAndrew said:
www.mlssoccer.com

USMNT No. 9 options: Who can take lead as World Cup approaches? | MLSSoccer.com

As we head into the June friendlies and the Concacaf Nations League for the US men’s national team, one of the main questions still remains: Who will end up leading the line in attack?
www.mlssoccer.com www.mlssoccer.com
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I'm thinking this is about the 3rd time I've read this same article from a different source (and we'll be reading a similar article from pretty much every outlet that covers US Soccer in the next few months).

If we're playing with a true 9, I'm still in the camp that is rooting for Sarge to distance himself from the pack.
 
Tom McAndrew

Tom McAndrew

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Erial_Lion said:
I'm thinking this is about the 3rd time I've read this same article from a different source (and we'll be reading a similar article from pretty much every outlet that covers US Soccer in the next few months).
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lol. I have hesitated each time I've posted such an article, thinking that the previous one (or more) covered the same issue. But each article has had some unique insights, so I ended up linking them.
 
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GreggK

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Very excited to see Cameron Carter-Vickers back with the team. As a Celtic supporter, I can say the kid is rock solid on defense.
I feel bad to say that I was sort of not upset when Miles Robinson went down. I feel bad for the kid, but he was a liability as far as I was concerned and for whatever reason, Berhalter refuses to play his two best defenders. CCV and Brooks. Now he will be forced to.
 
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EddyS

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CyphaPSU said:
What really bugs me is that this approach of accommodating the west coast is never reciprocated. How many times does a USMNT match on the west coast start before 10:00 EST? There are still significantly more people living in the eastern third of the country than the western third.
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I’ll challenge that assumption. There must be a reason why network producers choose that time.
 
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Erial_Lion

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GreggK said:
Very excited to see Cameron Carter-Vickers back with the team. As a Celtic supporter, I can say the kid is rock solid on defense.
I feel bad to say that I was sort of not upset when Miles Robinson went down. I feel bad for the kid, but he was a liability as far as I was concerned and for whatever reason, Berhalter refuses to play his two best defenders. CCV and Brooks. Now he will be forced to.
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I thought Miles played extremely well for us over the past year (and I’d say the same thing about Zimmerman).
 
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Toadvine

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CyphaPSU said:
What's interesting here is that Leeds initially attempted to buy Aaronson (and maintain their interest in a summer purchase) well before Marsch took the managerial job there.
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He fits the insane pressing model to a T. Bielsa did it, and Marsch is from the Red Bull school and wants to do it too. Can’t believe he cost that much, but he is elite at pressing. Just not really at all the other soccer things.

pretty excited about Haji wright, btw. Evolved Altidore is my hope. Big body, good in the air, but can move and is comfortable checking back and laying the ball off.
 
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Toadvine

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Erial_Lion said:
I thought Miles played extremely well for us over the past year (and I’d say the same thing about Zimmerman).
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Miles is good for a mistake or two every game, but his speed makes up for it. Brooks is better at distributing the ball, but Brooks is comically slow at this point in his career. If we’re going to play berhalter’s “both full backs playing like wingbacks” thing then we have to have at least one centerback who is super fast. That was miles.
 
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Toadvine

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The game against Morocco is on ESPN2 tonight at 6:30 Central. Gregg has said he's going to use the whole squad over these four games (tonight, Uruguay on Sunday, then Grenada Friday June 10 here in Austin, and El Salvador on June 14).

There are a lot of interesting things about this window. Who replaces Miles? How does Weston look? Do we see much Haji Wright or Malik Tillman?

Berhalter said he's going to play Aaronson in central midfield (which is stupid) tonight, and that Zimmerman and Long will start at centerback (I guess). Turner will be in goal but only because Gregg's boyfriend (and statistically the worst keeper in CONCACAF) is injured. You'd think maybe watching Courtois stand on his head and win the Champions League for Madrid despite not being good with his feet would remind of the importance of stopping goals before anything else, but Gregg won't.

Dest, Reyna and Richards are all still out.

Here's the roster for these games :

USMNT roster​

Goalkeepers (3): Ethan Horvath (Nottingham Forest/ENG; 7/0), Sean Johnson (New York City FC; 9/0), Matt Turner (New England Revolution; 16/0)

Defenders (9): George Bello (Arminia Bielefeld/GER; 6/0), Reggie Cannon (Boavista/POR; 24/1), Cameron Carter-Vickers (Celtic/SCO; 8/0), Aaron Long (New York Red Bulls; 23/3), Erik Palmer-Brown (Troyes/FRA; 3/0), Antonee Robinson (Fulham/ENG; 25/2), Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach/GER; 0/0), DeAndre Yedlin (Inter Miami; 73/0), Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC; 28/3)

Midfielders (7): Kellyn Acosta (LAFC; 51/2), Tyler Adams (RB Leipzig/GER; 27/1), Luca de la Torre (Heracles/NED; 7/0), Weston McKennie (Juventus/ITA; 31/9), Yunus Musah (Valencia/ESP; 16/0), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders; 31/0), Malik Tillman (Bayern Munich/GER; 0/0)

Forwards (7): Brenden Aaronson (Red Bull Salzburg/AUT; 18/5), Paul Arriola (FC Dallas; 44/9), Jesús Ferreira (FC Dallas; 9/3), Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders; 46/10), Christian Pulisic (Chelsea/ENG; 48/21), Tim Weah (Lille/FRA; 22/2), Haji Wright (Antalyaspor/TUR; 0/0)
 
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GreggK

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Toadvine said:
The game against Morocco is on ESPN2 tonight at 6:30 Central. Gregg has said he's going to use the whole squad over these four games (tonight, Uruguay on Sunday, then Grenada Friday June 10 here in Austin, and El Salvador on June 14).

There are a lot of interesting things about this window. Who replaces Miles? How does Weston look? Do we see much Haji Wright or Malik Tillman?

Berhalter said he's going to play Aaronson in central midfield (which is stupid) tonight, and that Zimmerman and Long will start at centerback (I guess). Turner will be in goal but only because Gregg's boyfriend (and statistically the worst keeper in CONCACAF) is injured. You'd think maybe watching Courtois stand on his head and win the Champions League for Madrid despite not being good with his feet would remind of the importance of stopping goals before anything else, but Gregg won't.

Dest, Reyna and Richards are all still out.

Here's the roster for these games :

USMNT roster​

Goalkeepers (3): Ethan Horvath (Nottingham Forest/ENG; 7/0), Sean Johnson (New York City FC; 9/0), Matt Turner (New England Revolution; 16/0)

Defenders (9): George Bello (Arminia Bielefeld/GER; 6/0), Reggie Cannon (Boavista/POR; 24/1), Cameron Carter-Vickers (Celtic/SCO; 8/0), Aaron Long (New York Red Bulls; 23/3), Erik Palmer-Brown (Troyes/FRA; 3/0), Antonee Robinson (Fulham/ENG; 25/2), Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach/GER; 0/0), DeAndre Yedlin (Inter Miami; 73/0), Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC; 28/3)

Midfielders (7): Kellyn Acosta (LAFC; 51/2), Tyler Adams (RB Leipzig/GER; 27/1), Luca de la Torre (Heracles/NED; 7/0), Weston McKennie (Juventus/ITA; 31/9), Yunus Musah (Valencia/ESP; 16/0), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders; 31/0), Malik Tillman (Bayern Munich/GER; 0/0)

Forwards (7): Brenden Aaronson (Red Bull Salzburg/AUT; 18/5), Paul Arriola (FC Dallas; 44/9), Jesús Ferreira (FC Dallas; 9/3), Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders; 46/10), Christian Pulisic (Chelsea/ENG; 48/21), Tim Weah (Lille/FRA; 22/2), Haji Wright (Antalyaspor/TUR; 0/0)
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Who can replace Miles? Well John Brooks for one, but for some reason Berhalter decided not to include him.
Tim Ream is the co-captain of a Premier League Squad but also not on the roster.....

Luckily Cameron Carter-Vickers who is on his way to be a star but is only on the squad because Miles is hurt but should be a big upgrade.
Its laughable that ESPN had an article asking who would replace Miles Robinson as if we didn't have BETTER options that our coach just chose to not play for some stupid reason.

I honestly don't understand so many of Berhalters choices. It's a combination of loyalty and thinking he is smarter than everyone else. He is only a slight upgrade on Bruce Arena, who I absolutely loathed. (Bruce Arena who would play DaMarcus Beasley who wasn't even pro at the time!!!)

I had been hoping we could get Jesse Marsch for this cycle but alas, we are stuck with a nepotism hire.
 
Toadvine

Toadvine

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GreggK said:
Who can replace Miles? Well John Brooks for one, but for some reason Berhalter decided not to include him.
Tim Ream is the co-captain of a Premier League Squad but also not on the roster.....

Luckily Cameron Carter-Vickers who is on his way to be a star but is only on the squad because Miles is hurt but should be a big upgrade.
Its laughable that ESPN had an article asking who would replace Miles Robinson as if we didn't have BETTER options that our coach just chose to not play for some stupid reason.

I honestly don't understand so many of Berhalters choices. It's a combination of loyalty and thinking he is smarter than everyone else. He is only a slight upgrade on Bruce Arena, who I absolutely loathed. (Bruce Arena who would play DaMarcus Beasley who wasn't even pro at the time!!!)

I had been hoping we could get Jesse Marsch for this cycle but alas, we are stuck with a nepotism hire.
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The only massive personnel beef I have with Gregg is him selecting Steffen over and over, despite it being clear that: (1) Steffen isn't very good; and (2) Steffen isn't ever healthy. I'm not a fan of Jordan Morris and think his spot could have gone to someone else, but I don't have any real issues with any other selections this time around.

Tim Ream was slow for a centerback four years ago. John Brooks is possibly slower than Tim Ream. Neither guy is going to play in a 4 at the back set-up for Gregg. If we went 3 at the back with wingbacks you might find a spot for one of them, but then you have to face that Brooks isn't in great form and Tim Ream wasn't really good enough four years ago. Could see either guy as depth, but that's about it.

To be clear, I don't think Berhalter is a good manager, and I think his insistence on playing a very difficult system is going to bite us on the *** over and over against athletic teams that can counter into the spaces behind our outside backs (there is a reason we cannot handle Canada, for instance), but his selections have been more merit-based than any American manager in a long time.
 
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Erial_Lion

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The other big event on the horizon for us is the CONCACAF u20 Championship. Not only is this tournament the qualifier for the 2023 u20 World Cup (as it always is), but it's also being used as the qualifier for the 2024 Olympics. The 4 teams that make the Semifinal will qualify for next year's World Cup, while the two Finalists will qualify for the Olympics. It kicks off for us on June 18th.

It's been way too long since we've played in the Olympics, and we need to take that next step to give some of our youth players games on that bigger stage (and to optically show growth in our youth development). However, as usual, clubs don't need to release players for this tournament, so we will be sending out a primarily domestic based squad (though it does look pretty strong on paper vs. everyone not named Mexico). But we've seen this story before in our Olympic qualifiers.
 
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Erial_Lion

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The weird thing with Steffen is that I've never even thought that he was THAT good with the ball at his feet. He might be when he has time, but he makes way too many mistakes when he's put under pressure (and sometimes, when he's not even under pressure), trying to make a dangerous pass rather than launching it up the field and relieving the pressure. I've been a big Turner guy over the past year, and hope this window will be his chance to separate himself.
 
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