aggiephoenix02 said:

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Just watch, Brian... Canada scored and took a 1-0 lead. The wheels will now fall off for Mexico, they'll start playing even more out of control with their attacks, and with their defending (which will be done with bad fouls). It plays out the same way every time Mexico gets down in a game against a Concacaf team...

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I just wanted to bump my own post...

Yes and the yellow card for that stupid wb!

LOL, and mexico resorts to fighting. They know they suck

Is it possible for Mexico to lose with class?

Sorry I am late to this. Watched the game late last night. Here are my thoughts:

#5 Robinson should probably sit for a while. He has so many physical tools, but he just doesn't have all the pieces together at the same time. I still think he has a future, but let him get some more seasoning with his club.

I also think Steffan misplayed the shot on goal. But, man, what a shot!

I saw Pepi get subbed off, but I am not sure #19 actually stepped on the field. Sure didn't see him out there.

The big honky at the back, Zimmerman, is good. Keep him in there.

What a boring, ugly game. We really missed McKinney.

Aaronson is good, and getting better, but he needs more experienced talent around him. He is not enough to lead a bunch of 18-19 year olds. He is plenty good enough to play, but not lead the attacks at this stage.

For this team to not qualify at this point would be an epic collapse. And that feels pretty good to say.

You want to bench Antonee Robinson?

Problem is #5 is our best option at left back. We have Bello (who wasn't in this squad) and Vines, who are also promising but still behind #5 Antonee Robinson in what they can do. Dest is more often a right wing back or winger for club and right back for Greggg, can play left back, but he also wasn't in this squad. Scally is a right back, but has played little bit of left back in Germany- this wasn't the time to throw him in there at that spot in what would have been his first cap.

jeffk said:

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You want to bench Antonee Robinson?

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Yes. He loses the ball on the offensive end every time. He can't get a cross. He just runs really fast down into the corner and loses the ball for a goal kick. His best outcome is a rare corner kick. He does get back to his defensive position really well. As I said, I think he will be good, just needs a little more time.
Now, if he is the best we have, then he is the best we have and let him get experience on the big stage. Hard to see if anyone else has it, unless they get a shot.

Cant evaluate players off of one game.
I agree with how he played last night, and his service has been his weak spot since he came on the scene..so it may never get more consistent. I think our starting lineup has gotten to the point where we dont have any outright bad players, and just want more skilled players to push the average players out...but it wont be the end of the world if that doesnt happen.

Milwaukees Best Light said:

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jeffk said:

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You want to bench Antonee Robinson?

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Yes. He loses the ball on the offensive end every time. He can't get a cross. He just runs really fast down into the corner and loses the ball for a goal kick. His best outcome is a rare corner kick. He does get back to his defensive position really well. As I said, I think he will be good, just needs a little more time.
Now, if he is the best we have, then he is the best we have and let him get experience on the big stage. Hard to see if anyone else has it, unless they get a shot.

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You obviously didn't watch the Mexico match. Robinson needs to work on consistency of his crosses but he's much better than you rate him.

I don't think we have any unknown quantities at outside back currently at the senior level. Scally maybe, but I'd rather see him on the right side. Robinson definitely has some gaps in his game, but he's absolutely the best we have at the moment and he's going to continue to get better.

Bad Field + no McKennie= no flow in the midfield.

Musah really struggled with the pitch last night, took away a lot of his comfort. Busio looked lost out there. May have a lot of potential, just have not seen it at the MNT level yet.

Pepi is a great story, not sure he is ready to be the man up top against NT level clubs. His touch was bad last night.

Weah is a sure fire man up top. Will be interesting to see how we align the front 3 with Reyna back and Pulisic at full strength. Maybe drop Reyna in as a false 9 and take out Pepi? Might help us more in midfield as well. Just a thought.

Zimmerman and Richards looked good last night, Richards is a good back up for Miles Robinson. Antonee Robinson did great work defensively, his crossing does need work, but the dude puts in the effort to get back on defense.

Tyler had a strong defensive game, but he needs Weston and Musah out there for him to be at his best.

I thought the Starting XI was good, what we wanted to see. I am not sure about the subs that were made, especially taking off Weah and Musah. But there may be more to the story on that as far as club not wanting them to have too many minutes, etc. Arriola had minimal impact on the game, and subbing in Acosta for Musah made our midfield very disjointed. Would have preferred Pulisic go in for Aaronson so we could have had some time with Weah and Christian on the field together.

Point on the road when other team hits a wonder strike, bed pitch, 4 of 10 starters out (Reyna, McKennie, Robinson and Dest) and another starter limited to sub duties, is a good result. Take your away point and move on.

Marvin said:

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aggiephoenix02 said:

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Is it possible for Mexico to lose with class?

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Nope, or win with it either.

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You must be talking about LL Tri.




*stolen from somewhere. reddit maybe?

Aston94 said:

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Bad Field + no McKennie= no flow in the midfield.

Musah really struggled with the pitch last night, took away a lot of his comfort. Busio looked lost out there. May have a lot of potential, just have not seen it at the MNT level yet.

Pepi is a great story, not sure he is ready to be the man up top against NT level clubs. His touch was bad last night.

Weah is a sure fire man up top. Will be interesting to see how we align the front 3 with Reyna back and Pulisic at full strength. Maybe drop Reyna in as a false 9 and take out Pepi? Might help us more in midfield as well. Just a thought.

Zimmerman and Richards looked good last night, Richards is a good back up for Miles Robinson. Antonee Robinson did great work defensively, his crossing does need work, but the dude puts in the effort to get back on defense.

Tyler had a strong defensive game, but he needs Weston and Musah out there for him to be at his best.

I thought the Starting XI was good, what we wanted to see. I am not sure about the subs that were made, especially taking off Weah and Musah. But there may be more to the story on that as far as club not wanting them to have too many minutes, etc. Arriola had minimal impact on the game, and subbing in Acosta for Musah made our midfield very disjointed. Would have preferred Pulisic go in for Aaronson so we could have had some time with Weah and Christian on the field together.

Point on the road when other team hits a wonder strike, bed pitch, 4 of 10 starters out (Reyna, McKennie, Robinson and Dest) and another starter limited to sub duties, is a good result. Take your away point and move on.

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Good points all around.

Pepi has had a run of mediocre games. Seems like every time we want to crown someone as our new 9, they end up disappointing (consider the Dike hype this summer).

Which begs the question… if every 9 we use starts off hot, but then fades, is the real problem tactics/training within the system? i.e. - these guys come in, and early days they're relying on club training, but then they're getting trained differently and spend more time thinking about where they need to be than just being instinctive and playing.

Just thinking out loud. I honestly have no freaking clue but I'm just tired of not having a 9. And yeah, maybe Berhalter just needs to own it and work a false 9 tactic.

We can just snip-snap-snip between Pepi and Dike each window. Maybe even let fans decide based on an online poll.

Pepi has really improved his combination play, a lot of his good moments were with quick one touch play with other players.
He is stil developing his hold up play/touch when the defender is muscling into him, which helps us maintain possession.
The part of his game that is already excellent, is his danger 20 yards and in, which with our extremely poor crossing and final passing in the attacking side limits the impact of.

jeffk said:

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We can just snip-snap-snip between Pepi and Dike each window. Maybe even let fans decide based on an online poll.

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I'd prefer Sargent.

Mathguy64 said:

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Maybe it's just that Pepi is 19 years old and hasn't matured yet as a player physically to play like the number 9 everyone expects him to be. Hell Chelsea gave up on Lukaku at one point. Look where he is now.

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I get that. I'm not bagging on Pepi, nor am I giving up on him (long term).

I'm just tired of having bad 9's. If our expectations were too high for Pepi because we just had a stud 9 retire then I'd keep my opinion to myself. But we've had poor play from the 9 for many many years. Makes me wonder if something's in the water, so to speak.

Sargent, Pefok, Dike, Pepi, Zardes- all have quality and most quite young. None have separated as the clear 1st choice selection in our best 11. We don't have a Haaland out there. That's ok.

deadbq03 said:

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Mathguy64 said:

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Maybe it's just that Pepi is 19 years old and hasn't matured yet as a player physically to play like the number 9 everyone expects him to be. Hell Chelsea gave up on Lukaku at one point. Look where he is now.

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I get that. I'm not bagging on Pepi, nor am I giving up on him (long term).

I'm just tired of having bad 9's. If our expectations were too high for Pepi because we just had a stud 9 retire then I'd keep my opinion to myself. But we've had poor play from the 9 for many many years. Makes me wonder if something's in the water, so to speak.

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I'm not sure it's our expectations are too high but I think his exploits have garnered more attention, especially close to to the goal. His link up play is better than expected (as mentioned before) and still needs to grow into his frame to handle the holdup portion of being a #9.

Also it hasn't helped that the service into the box has been eratic lately.

akm91 said:

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deadbq03 said:

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Mathguy64 said:

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Maybe it's just that Pepi is 19 years old and hasn't matured yet as a player physically to play like the number 9 everyone expects him to be. Hell Chelsea gave up on Lukaku at one point. Look where he is now.

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I get that. I'm not bagging on Pepi, nor am I giving up on him (long term).

I'm just tired of having bad 9's. If our expectations were too high for Pepi because we just had a stud 9 retire then I'd keep my opinion to myself. But we've had poor play from the 9 for many many years. Makes me wonder if something's in the water, so to speak.

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I'm not sure it's our expectations are too high but I think his exploits have garnered more attention, especially close to to the goal. His link up play is better than expected (as mentioned before) and still needs to grow into his frame to handle the holdup portion of being a #9.

Also it hasn't helped that the service into the box has been eratic lately.

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I love the kid, but the point is that he is a kid, and he is still learning. I don't know that he is the answer for the short term, but will definitely be a mainstay for the long term.

His touch was bad last night, no 2 ways about it. And yes, service was not always great, but he has to create pockets where he can get service, and he needs to do more with the ball when he gets touches. I would love to see a video of his touches last night, because in my memory I cannot remember many good ones.

I'm a hard no on Sargent. He can't do anything without good service into the box. Sargent doesn't finish well enough to to be a top of the spear guy just waiting for the ball.

Furlock Bones said:

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I'm a hard no on Sargent. He can't do anything without good service into the box. Sargent doesn't finish well enough to to be a top of the spear guy just waiting for the ball.

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Yeah.... I don't think you're right on that. He's really good off the ball and has great holding ability. He has struggled at times to finish, but like all of them, he's young. He's also currently playing in the best league in the world.

Aye Davanita said:

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Furlock Bones said:

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I'm a hard no on Sargent. He can't do anything without good service into the box. Sargent doesn't finish well enough to to be a top of the spear guy just waiting for the ball.

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Yeah.... I don't think you're right on that. He's really good off the ball and has great holding ability. He has struggled at times to finish, but like all of them, he's young. He's also currently playing in the best league in the world.

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To be fair, he has zero goals in that league.

But I hear you. I'd add that he's pretty dang good at relentlessly pressing. Super high work rate all around. If we're stuck with a bunch of choices at the 9 who we can't count on to score, he's probably my top choice.

LOL. For the past two months while CP was injured, Sargent was the only player in the usmnt player pool playing in the EPL. But yeah he sucks.

I'm still high on him. All of these guys - Sargent, Pefok, Dike, Pepi deserve call ups and opportunities

Yeah, all our forwards are young and promising but also immature and have holes in their game.

deadbq03 said:

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Aye Davanita said:

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Furlock Bones said:

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I'm a hard no on Sargent. He can't do anything without good service into the box. Sargent doesn't finish well enough to to be a top of the spear guy just waiting for the ball.

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Yeah.... I don't think you're right on that. He's really good off the ball and has great holding ability. He has struggled at times to finish, but like all of them, he's young. He's also currently playing in the best league in the world.

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To be fair, he has zero goals in that league.

But I hear you. I'd add that he's pretty dang good at relentlessly pressing. Super high work rate all around. If we're stuck with a bunch of choices at the 9 who we can't count on to score, he's probably my top choice.

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Also to be fair, his team is absolutely terrible so it's tough to pin all of his lack of production on him. The entire team only has 5 goals this season.

whether we like it or not...we miss Zardes