Oh ***** Don't look now, but USA is looking pretty good to qualify!

Another come from behind win for the good'ol United States of America!

Kiss my ass Mexican Putos, and all the Puto USA fans that post in this board that they want Mexico to win because they think it helps us qualify even though we don't need their help...

Kevin the 3-legged dog said:

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Man I wish I had their numbers memorized.

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Antonee Robinson.

I had to look it up.

Milwaukees Best Light said:

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Just finished the game. Good win.

#5 is not so good on the offensive side. He gets himself in good position, just can't do anything productive. If that is how Gregg wants to attack, they should try someone else for a bit. #5 has the athletic ability, maybe just a little more seasoning.
#8 looked the best I have seen him.
Dest scored the goal and then they forgot all about how he was dominating the game on that side of the pitch. I am sure CR made adjustments, but man, what a disappearing act. Dest, not a face man. Eyes look like the guy on Saturday night live.
Steffan did not look comfortable back there. Not as comfortable as Turner does with these guys.
11 needs a cheeseburger. Love his potential and what he already is doing. Time to hit the weight room a bit.
Hoppe needs more time on the pitch. He was just getting comfortable when they let the air out of the ball.
CR did not look very strong at all. There was no late push. Just old and conceding defeat. Should have stomped them.
Zardes is a nice super sub hustle guy. Wish he had better touch and finish and hair.

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#5 (Antonee Robinson) did have a rough night with his crosses. I will say as a Fulham fan and frequent watcher of Antonee that was not his norm.

#8 (McKennie) had his moments. Like Robinson I thought his final pass was off a bit last night. As a team we seemed to lack quality on the final pass last night, but really put ourselves in solid position all night.

#11 (Aaronson) was good last night, but like others, lacked quality on the final pass.

Dest was clearly the MoM. Great performance, great runs, beautiful finish.

I thought Steffen was fine, goal was not in any way his fault. He did good to come out and head ball away, he needed to make that play, defensive recovery just wasn't there on play. Musah was the player who lost his man, who was wide open on the back post for the goal. But that was a team defensive collapse.

Zardes role on this team is what it was last night, asking more out of him is going to just lead to frustration.

I thought this was the first time I have seen a ***** in the Miles Robinson armor. He had some really bad passes and just wasn't at his best. But was watching him catch up to Bryan Ruiz fun. Like Ruiz was standing in quicksand.

Good win, love the response after going down 1-0. Really should have scored 3-4, but truth be told we should have given up a goal as well.

Finally, we have to stop the "line change" line ups. These players are so young, they must have time to play together and learn one another. We looked like clearly the best team last night, but we also look like we aren't sure where our teammate is going to be, and they need more time on the field together.

Aston94 said:

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Finally, we have to stop the "line change" line ups. These players are so young, they must have time to play together and learn one another. We looked like clearly the best team last night, but we also look like we aren't sure where our teammate is going to be, and they need more time on the field together.

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I was listening to the Counter Attack guys complain about this yesterday. Every match is 7-9 changes. I get you would never do this on a real team but. . . I'm not sure Berhalter has much choice here. Between the compacted 3 games a window schedule, the crazy travel and the COVID restrictions on the European based players that change minute by minute you almost need a dual squad. One for the first and third match and a second squad for the middle match. The whole Ocho qualifying setup is hard and it is placing a huge premium on depth.

How does #5 keep his socks up? He wears them much lower than everyone else, looks to be where the calf muscle starts to taper to the ankle. Does he use some double sided tape or something?

Milwaukees Best Light said:

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How does #5 keep his socks up? He wears them much lower than everyone else, looks to be where the calf muscle starts to taper to the ankle. Does he use some double sided tape or something?

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Likely tucks them behind the top of the shin guard. I love the look... guys like Depay and Grealish are probably the most well known low-sock guys.

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#8 looked the best I have seen him.

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I'll have to rewatch but I thought Weston was below par. Looked slower, several poor passes and a couple of bad giveaways. He was fine in recovery but just seemed to lack his previous intensity. Maybe it was just the tempo and CR's setup

Not sure there is enough defense in the setup but would we be willing to replace Weston with Gio and keep Musah (MMA -> MGM)?

I read last night that McK had the most touches on the team but also the most turnovers. His touch looked a bit loose to me and I saw him try to force it into some too tight spots a couple times. That said, I'll take a few extra turnovers if it means we're looking to advance the ball instead of just possessing for possessions sake. He'll continue to improve in that area as he gets back into form and matures.

TamuKid said:

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I wouldn't waste time responding to poster who calls Arriola "nipple", comments on Dest not being a face guy, aaronson's need to eat burgers, interchanges between numbers and names, and generally has bad soccer takes.

Antonee is our best left back by a pretty wide margin. I thought he had a very good, active night. Aaronson too. He had 2 or 3 times where he hesitated for a half second too long to either play the through ball or shoot. But you can tell he's a quality player.

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...and refers to one of our players as "skunk head"

...and left fullback is traditionally such as hard position to build world class quality depth at. Vines and Bello are coming along, which is great, and Dest, if needed, can play 3 instead of 2 - though he likes 2 and Dest is best at 2, but Antonee is by far the best left back we have in the player pool right now and I'm glad we have him. Would like to see some more quality on the crosses last night, but overall, he was good. We've had a lot of trouble finding a left back since Demarcus Beasley... been waiting for Antonee to come along and he has arrived.

Ya he kind of looked out of form to me. Maybe he was trying to impose himself too much, lead by example in 'trying ****', and took a few too many risks. I think overall we'll take it

Antonee's crossing last night was subpar but Twellman noted that all our attackers were making the same runs into the box. I don't know how much of that is impacting what appears to be the quality of the crosses.

McKennie looked frentic to me. He's just hyper. He was trying to be everywhere. It's partly that the whole team was playing super fast and swarming and cutting everywhere. But partly it's injuries. Put Pulisic and Reyna out there and McKennie gets to sow down and play a true midfielder.

This is the first time I have seen him show some creativity and actually build the attack. His execution was a little off, but I could see what you all have been so excited about. Previously, he just looked to be finding himself and his role out there. Claudio's kid is better, but dude showed me something last night.

This is the best part about last night, behind the 3 points of course.
This is with us missing Reyna (almost 19) and Pulisic (23).
In what was clearly our best starting XI.

We've watched Germany, Netherlands, and Belgium have their "Golden Generation" of players over the past 10 years or so.
Is it our turn?

I'll agree that A. Robinson was a little off on the crosses tonight, but he was constantly threatening.

What's eye opening to me is how we even spent the last three years wondering who our LB should be. He's head and shoulders above anyone else (size, speed, technicality). Has he taken a jump this season, or were we being naive/overly critical?

Mathguy64 said:

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Aston94 said:

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Finally, we have to stop the "line change" line ups. These players are so young, they must have time to play together and learn one another. We looked like clearly the best team last night, but we also look like we aren't sure where our teammate is going to be, and they need more time on the field together.

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I was listening to the Counter Attack guys complain about this yesterday. Every match is 7-9 changes. I get you would never do this on a real team but. . . I'm not sure Berhalter has much choice here. Between the compacted 3 games a window schedule, the crazy travel and the COVID restrictions on the European based players that change minute by minute you almost need a dual squad. One for the first and third match and a second squad for the middle match. The whole Ocho qualifying setup is hard and it is placing a huge premium on depth.

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I agree that the 3 game window makes things more difficult, but a full team line change, in my opinion, isn't the right way to approach it. I think game 1 you have your 10, game 2 you change out 3-4, and then game 3 you change out 3-4 others, with 2-3 being there for every match (you Pulisic, Adams, Reyna, M. Robinson types). Just seems like there would be a lot more continuity that way. I really think you should have a constant back 2 as well. No reason Robinson and Richards, for example, cannot play all 3 games.

Fortunately next window we only have 2 matches, so should not be an issue.

Was really cool to see during this window our dual nationals really looked like they were enjoying themselves and bought in the program. I saw both Antonee Robinson and Musah singing the national anthem at the beginning of Jamaica match. Dest after coming off, walked around the pitch getting the crowd to be louder and high fiving the fans.

Berhalter has really done a great job of integrating the dual nationals and getting them bought into the program.

For the 3 you listed for every game, I'm assuming they're not playing the full 270 minutes right?

I think this is the first we've seen him getting quality playing time since a few starts in 2018 after spending a few seasons getting regular minutes at a high level. So probably both an increase in quality of play combined with the first chance to really watch him in a while.

Definitely agree it's him and Dest as first choice fullback moving forward.

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I think game 1 you have your 10, game 2 you change out 3-4, and then game 3 you change out 3-4 others, with 2-3 being there for every match (you Pulisic, Adams, Reyna, M. Robinson types). Just seems like there would be a lot more continuity that way.

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That's the issue. A bad performance with 7 changes in the second game almost requires 7 changes again in the third game. Gregg overtinkering. We also don't know the agreements and arrangements Gregg made with the player's clubs but more likely Gregg thinks he has boxes full of Pepe

only two match days in the November WCQ window - Mex in Cincy and Jamaica in Kingston. 6 points would be serendipitous, but really 3 or 4 would be best - will need some away goals in Jamaica. Can't have another away match like we did in Panama.

Yeah, I'm not counting on points from Mexico, but we absolutely have to take three from bottom-feeders like Jamaica.

away goals can be so hard to come by.. we could have a good chance to draw with MEX and still draw away at JAM.. 2 points would suck.. .1 would really really suck.

Agreed. Jamaica is bad and I could see them getting worse as the Octo progresses. I feel pretty confident Canada and Mexico will handle them easily home and away, so we'll need to do similarly if we want to keep pace.

H.E. Pennypacker said:

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We need to beat Mexico at home. Full Stop. It's a pressure game, but that's the point. You won't become a world class team unless you win pressure games.

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I agree! That's just not how I prepare myself as a fan or when I'm looking at the Octo point totals and anticipated results. USA-Mexico is always such a freaking nightmare to predict. We've won the last two and I think we can do so again next month... if we play well and have our best 11 (or near best 11) ready to go.

jeffk said:

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Agreed. Jamaica is bad and I could see them getting worse as the Octo progresses. I feel pretty confident Canada and Mexico will handle them easily home and away, so we'll need to do similarly if we want to keep pace.

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Canada drew with Jamaica on Sunday in Kingston.

Jamaica claimed 4 points after our match with them, so they are hanging on to hope. Will be interesting to see who shows up for their November matches, but full credit to them for getting a draw and an away win after losing to us.

TamuKid said:

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Milwaukees Best Light said:

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How does #5 keep his socks up? He wears them much lower than everyone else, looks to be where the calf muscle starts to taper to the ankle. Does he use some double sided tape or something?

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Likely tucks them behind the top of the shin guard. I love the look... guys like Depay and Grealish are probably the most well known low-sock guys.

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Pfft Grealish just copies Emile Smith Rowe to be cool

TamuKid said:

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This is the best part about last night, behind the 3 points of course.
This is with us missing Reyna (almost 19) and Pulisic (23).
In what was clearly our best starting XI.

We've watched Germany, Netherlands, and Belgium have their "Golden Generation" of players over the past 10 years or so.
Is it our turn?

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We may have our golden generation, but we're still missing a coach that's going to get the most out of them

Thought this was awesome.
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM8YDDXs1/

Yeah, I was really surprised by that Canada-Jamaica result.

We had a real good shot of separating from Canada during this window and missed it.