Thoughts on the Lalas rant (USMNT)

[aTotal360]

Hard to argue with him.

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[MSUDC11]

The fact of the matter is that outside of Mexico and Costa Rica, CONCACAF is garbage. And we should at least be on the same level as those two nations. No excuse to have only gotten one point from those four matches.

We'll qualify for the WC. but it's sad that when America is supposed to be a growing soccer nation, we seem to have regressed to being closer to the Honduras and Panama's of the world than we are to the better teams in Europe and South America. We would be screwed if we had to go through UEFA or CONMNEBOL qualifying.

 

[RocketDawg]

Didn't listen. Is it about soccer?

 

[patdog]

He's right. A little harsh on Pulisic but the rest have been major disappointments. These players have looked like they just don't give a **** for 2 years now. A similar rant could be made about many of the women's team players (and their coach) ever since the last World Cup.

 

[Col. Forbin]

It's time to scrap the majority of this roster. Get rid of the old MLS guys and lets bring up some of our U20s. If we aren't going to qualify lets at least get these young guys some reps.

 

[patdog]

We'll qualify for the WC. .

The way we've been playing, we actually might not. If we draw with Panama, we're going to be counting on an already qualified Costa Rica team to keep us out of the play-in series, (that is IF we can get a road win at Jamaica (which we haven't done in the previous 4 road matches).

 

[Lou3000]

When you're this terrible, there is absolutely no reason to be carrying players who will be AARP before Dubai. Rebuild the squad around the young players and move forward.

 

[patdog]

As tempting as that sounds, we just can't do that quite yet. We still have a better chance to qualify with this group than with the U20s. But there needs to be some turnover after these next 2 matches whether we qualify or not.

 

[patdog]

Two reasons. This group, as bad as it is, still gives us the best chance of qualifying right now, so we're stuck with them. And, the bigger picture reason, the last 2 U-23 groups to come along both failed to qualify for the Olympics. There's just a massive black hole of talent in the 22-28 year old group to draw from.

 

[TheStateUofMS]

He's right although I've thought Pulisich and Altidore have actually been playing well. I did not see the Honduras game.


Against Costa Rica, I thought we outplayed them, we just couldn't get the ball in the goal with bad luck. It happens

Howard had a rough night against Costa Rica, but he's still really good. Guzman is an embarrassment and he's a guy I'm not sure how he's a professional goal keeper.

ETA: Last World Cup Mexico, MEXICOOOO!, had to qualify via the play off route. If we have to beat Australia or Syria to advance to the WC, I really like our chances, and all anyone should care about is getting into the World Cup.

 

[patdog]

Howard's a shell of the GK he once was. He started declining pretty quickly almost right after the last World Cup. Guzan is what he's always been. He'll make some very good saves and some incredibly boneheaded mistakes. Both should have been retired after the last World Cup, but there was literally no one to take their place, so here we are.

 

[MSUDC11]

We close qualifying with Panama and Trinidad. There is absolutely no excuse for not winning both of those games and avoiding the playoff.

Australia is better than everyone in CONCACAF other than Mexico or Costa Rica. You don't want to risk having to beat them on aggregate. Just take care of business against two bad teams next month.

 

[patdog]

Seeing that one of those 2 has more points than us right now and the other is on the road, I'm not taking 2 wins for granted. Agree there's no excuse for not winning those 2 games, but there's no excuse for having to win those 2 games either.

As bad as it is, without that late goal at Honduras a few weeks ago, we'd really be up **** creek.

 

[Col. Forbin]

I don't know with Jon Brooks and Yedlin out, CCV has to be better than any defender we have on the roster currently. Not to mention Erik Palmer-Brown who is on pre-contract with City.

 

[patdog]

He's 19 and has no adult club or national team experience prior to a month ago with Sheffield.

 

[Col. Forbin]

Can't be any worse than 145lb DMB back there at age 35.

 

[patdog]

You may be right. Gotta love Beasley though. He knew it was time for him to retire 3 years ago, but we keep calling him up.

 

[Bulldogg31]

We're America. We have buckets of money. We should just go find the best young talent on the planet and marry them up to some American ladies and put them on the national team.

Just kidding (sorta) I'm not even sure if that's "legal" for World Cup, but there is no excuse for a nation with our resources to not field a Top 10 team on the planet.

 

[KurtRambis4]

We are in the driver's seat right now.

We'll qualify.

 

[patdog]

We should qualify, and we probably will qualify. It's pretty hard not to in CONCACAF. But we're not a very good team right now and I could definitely see this team winding up in a play-in series where anything can happen.