USA Soccer

Realize most people are caught up with the scrimmage but the first half of this USA-Germany friendly was one of the most wide open and fun USMNT halves I’ve ever seen! Certainly against a big opponent

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It was very fun to watch. Nice goal by Pulisic.

We can’t seem to mark runners and we just don’t pressure Germany quickly enough in the last third. Now 1-3 pretty quickly.

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We winning or losing?

And is Gio playing for Germany or US

Losing. The second half was far less fun.

Unclear.

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Good lesson for the Copa next summer. Can’t get into a track meet with the South American teams we’ll see there

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Gregg is just a bad coach. If he’s still in charge when the World Cup hits we have no shot of going past the quarterfinals.

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What is soccer? That sport where man hit ball with stick and run?

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Night and day when gio was on and off the field. Even if gio wasn’t his best, our shape is so much better and we are able to transition through the various thirds of the field.

We just don’t have any fluidity without a 10 - and Gregg doesn’t want to play with one, as seen when he was trying to get gio to play in a more defensive position all 1st half. Then 2nd half we were playing with a flat midfield with no depth/structure. Thus, we couldn’t combine to supply our attack.

Gregg has to go. He’s wasting the best generation of talent. The fact that he’s coaching 2 cycles is a crime.

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Yeah the flat three in the second half (and last 5 minutes of the first) didn’t look good. Germany had no trouble playing through the lines.

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And Dest is infuriating. Really quick and decent going forward but he just switches off. Kept Germany on for the second goal for just one example.

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There’s one of two problems with keeping Gregg: either the federation didn’t do a real search and was always going to circle back him or they did try a real search and no good coaches were interested. Neither one sounds good. Second one especially bad with a home Copa America and World Cup coming up

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It was clearly the first. If they weren’t intent on keeping Gregg, the leak to the press around the Reyna-Gregg drama never would have happened. They would have thanked him and moved on, and none of the controversy would have seen the light of day.

It was leaked by ussf to manage the message and push the public against the Reynas (quite successfully). They ran a faux “investigation”. Waited for the media circus to die down, then announced a new contract for Gregg.

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Yea seems most likely. Sucks to likely waste a home World Cup but at least this is just a first wave of talent and not a ‘golden generation’. Bright side I guess

So much better when Gio in the line up in this roaming number 10 role. If you want to see a beat down in progress, turn on TNT.

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And when was the last time anyone has seen an indirect free kick in the penalty box??? Free kick executed to perfection.

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Saw it once at my son’s game few years ago. So strange

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We literally just had it last night in my son’s 10U game on a defensive header in the box (no heads allowed in 10U).
We had a 3 touch play set up and executed well except the shooter skyed it over the crossbar.
One of those nights where our attacking players just coudn’t finish. So I moved one of my goalies and another defender up to striker and they both scored a goal. :slight_smile:
Ha - one of the reasons I make them all practice all positions - want to make them soccer players - not just one position wonders.

p.s. Actually had another one 2 weeks ago on a back pass to the goalie that he picked up with his hands. Same rule for indirect.

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That was the one my sons game. Back pass to goalie.

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