I didn't delete it, but I did jump from page to page, so it is somewhere on here. I called you out, saying that you're probably confusing PSV for PSG because the dutch league is the equivalent of Liga MX
OT : ALL THINGS SOCCER (-) WC and EURO CUP 😜
- Thread starter MineroFanatico
- Start date
I don't understand the Tim Ream or McKenzie selection or only having 5 true midfielders. Are we gonna play some forwards on the outside as attacking midfielders or are gonna use some outside backs in the midfield?
USMNT needs to make noise in the WC. Winning the Gold Cup and the new Nations League is a start. Both countries will be judged by how they do outside the region not against each other.
USMNT does seem to have the brighter future.
It was an awful and forgettable summer for the Mexicans.
USMNT does seem to have the brighter future.
It was an awful and forgettable summer for the Mexicans.
If the USMNT is ever going to make a WC semifinal and beyond, then we need a dominant striker. Somebody that can really finish and apply pressure up front and on set pieces. Otherwise it's not happening. We just don't have the ball control or aggression to consecutively beat world class teams.
Pepi is that missing piece. I'm excited to see what he becomes by the 22 and 26 WC.
On paper the United States has the potential to dominate CONCACAF for the next 5 plus years. For the US to make a deep run in a World Cup is going to be tough. Can the United States field a world class team rounded out with MLS talent? Plus is Gregg Berhatler a good enough coach? Plus a lot of this is based on the assumption guys like Reyna, Pepi, Dest and Pulisic will continue their upward trajectory which will not happen. One or more of these players is going to plateau or decline. Plus The United States will also need to get lucky. Hopefully they can avoid being placed in a “group of death” and they can have a favorable opponent for the knockout stages. 2026 is probably going to be their best chance since it will be on home soil.
The majority of the team doesn't play in MLS. I'm starting to think Berhalter is a good coach. He's made adjustments during the game that has changed the match. The game in Vegas should have been all Mexico with the size of the field. That field was better suited for Mexico than the usmnt, but they made the adjustments they needed in the 2nd half and demoralized Mexico. A team from concacaf will always be in the group of death, unless Mexico or USA crack a number one seed (which they are ranked 9 and 10)
Another thing.... I'm not entirely sure how the rankings work, but if I remember correctly the visiting team suffers less of a point reduction in a loss and the home team gets less points for a home win. We played Mexico in Houston and Vegas and I assume we were classified as the home team in both games, when we weren't. I MAY BE WRONG ON THIS, SO PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I have no idea how this works anymore because Coca Cola/fifa rankings aren't being shown by total points per match. I think it was the classification of the match (friendly, competitive and world cup/major tournament/ qualifier... I believe), then the opposition, but I think it mattered who was the home team also.
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Let’s be real here. On the USMNT’s best day, if they beat a team the likes of Brazil, Argentina, England, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain or several other teams it won’t be because the US has more talent. Those teams will pretty much have to lose the game.
As it stands now, right. But if Musah, Pepi, Dike, and others just turn into super players, it wouldn’t be totally shocking to see an upset. You’re right though, a team with Zardes, Lleget, and Tim Ream quality players isn’t beating those teams 99 times out of 100.
usmnt hasn't won very much against those teams. Their record sucks, but it ain't 1 out of 100.
Italy is 1-6-3
Argentina 2-6-2
Brazil 1-18-0
England 2-8-1
Belgium 1-5-0
France 0-3-1
Spain 1-4-0
I know what you mean but we're at the least 8-85-7 if we lose the rest of the games to them
Pretty much, but without the context of the squads, hard to say all those teams were playing their “A” teams. Still, slim chance of USA not losing to those teams very often - now.
isn’t it a little unreasonable to think that all of the players live up to, or exceed their potential? Mexico has won 2 sub-17 World Cups and an Olympic games and a lot of those players failed to live up to their potential. The first one that comes to mind for me is Julio Gomez. He won the Golden Ball for the best player at the 2011 U-17 World Cup and he’s been playing in the 2nd division in Mexico for the last 7 years. Jonathan Espericueta won the Silver Ball and he’s playing in some league in Mexico that’s not even recognized by FIFA. Carlos Fierro won the Bronze Ball and his career is “meh” and that’s being generous. As a US fan you have to accept that several of these guys are going to fail and hopefully the US can keep developing talent so that maybe someone can step in and provide depth and options for the national team.
Of course it’s unreasonable for “all”, but the US has never had this many players and young players, playing in top European leagues. Landon Donovan is one of the “goats” of US soccer. He went to Europe when he was younger, he didn’t play very much, but he was an anomaly.
Now Musah is playing in La Liga for Valencia. Dest starts for Barcelona. Pulisic is at least in the 18 every game for Chelsea. That was unheard of 10 years ago and pretty much laughable 20 years ago.
Don't disagree, but you wouldn't even know the context of a squad if it landed like booty on your face... example, Mexico Gold Cup vs Mexico Nations Cup. You just want to argue, even though, you don't know what you talking about.... YOU JUST A GOOGLE MOFO
It isn’t very often, but we have beaten the likes of Portugal and Colombia in WC play. We also haven’t had a team with this much talent spread across the field. Ream won’t get much, if any, pt come WC time. Nor will Dike, for that matter.
This will be a much improved squad over 2018’s team. I’m with randaddy though, 2026 will probably be our best team ever.
This will be a much improved squad over 2018’s team. I’m with randaddy though, 2026 will probably be our best team ever.
But even then the “We have a bunch of players playing in Europe“ argument doesn’t mean much. Every team in Europe’s players are playing in Europe, and we‘re calling up MLS level bums to reinforce the team. Pulisic is good, but he’s constantly falling in/out of favor with Teuchel and that’s the guy who coached him at Dortmund. Reyna is a good young player but is he someone Dortmund expects to carry the load when Halaand leaves? Dest is a defensive liability. Steffen can‘t beat out Ederson for the starting GK job at City while Juventus is looking to ship out McKennie. Weah and Seargant are not playing with top teams, nor are they scoring while de la Fuente got shipped off to Marseille. How many of these guys crack a starting 11 for England, Brazil, Italy, Belgium, Argentina? Maybe Pulisic but that’s it. As it stands right now everyone else are just B and C level guys. They should 100% coast through WC qualifying in a weak CONCACAF. They should also challenge to get out of the group stage at the WC. Anything more than that is playing with house money, but let‘s not talk like this is 2002 Brazil or 2010 Spain lining up. You guys sound like Sebastian Salazar and Hercules Gomez talking about how great MLS is on ESPN.
Steffen can’t beat out a Brazilian national team keeper and starter on a European super power? OMG, yeah he sucks!
20 year old Konrad DLF couldn’t crack the team at Barcelona? Yeah, he’s trash too for not being good enough for a European super power!
Juventus needs the money, not because Weston sucks.
Weah hasn’t been able to get that many minutes at Lille, but he’s still young
Sargent just landed at Norwich, but he’s still young.
MLS players are getting sold left and right for big bucks. Is it La Liga? No, but it’s better than it was when Beckham played.
Well, during World Cup play, when all the teams presumably bring their "A" teams, I remember off the top of my head the USMNT drawing the World Cup champion Italy (the only team in that tournament that didn't lose to them, IIRC), drawing England, and drawing AND beating Portugal.
The USMNT hasn't won too many of these matches, but they've played a fair amount of them to a draw. At the least, I would say that they can make the match ugly and don't usually get steamrolled by the heavyweights. They just won the Gold Cup with their B-team by making the games ugly, being stingy on defense, and winning a series of 1-0 games. There must be something to the strategy.
Talented or not Steffen isn’t playing. That’s all that matters. That’s not helping him.
MLS is trash, whether or not players are getting sold for “big cash”.
You want to defend all these kids because they’re young but they are getting chances. Weah has already gone from PSG to Lille. If he doesn’t do anything here he’ll take the next step down. Same for Sergeant.
Steffen is no longer our best goalie.
And that was why is was important that Pepi choose USMNT.
How much has it hurt that he’s the 2nd option at City and he’s not playing week in and week out?
He’s still going up against the world’s elite, every day in practice. How much better is it to be loaned to an awful German side and get scored upon every week?
It’s not enough that you’ve contradicted yourself once when talking about the Mexican National Team, now you’re going to say this? You sir, are an idiot.
Agree, with the first bold part. Strong possibility to make it out of the group stage, then obviously the possibilities arise.
Let’s not be dramatic. Nobody is saying this is a WC contender. It is probably the best squad since 2002. If the core stays together, it should be the best team we’ve ever fielded in 2026.
Brazil 1-17-0
Argentina 2-2-3
Belgium 0-5-0
England 1-4-1
France 0-1-1
Spain 1-3-0
Italy 1-3-1
A team we haven't brought up
Germany 4-7-0
Record for the past 30 years against the powers 10-42-6
We need to quit playing brazil that damn much
also
Portugal 2-0-2
Mexico 19-14-10
This is just the last 30 years
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Hosts get put into pot 1 for the draw which in theory means they avoid being grouped with the top teams. With a US/Mexico/Canada joint bid does that mean all three are going to get a favorable group?
But still, South Korea made the semis. AFTER the group stage, they beat Italy and Spain.
Pretty good showing.
So I looked it up and I think it is bull S***. We're looking at a 48 team tournament for 2026. It will be 16 groups of 3, with the top 2 from each group moving to the next round of 32 teams. Then you got the knockout stage.
What I think is BS is the number of teams allowed per confederation.
Asia gets 8 spots, up from 4.5
Africa gets 9 spots, up from 5
Concacaf gets 6, up from 3.5
conmebol gets 6 up from 4.5
ocenia gets 1, up from 0.5 (this use to be a qualifier between Concacaf 4th place and ocenia)
uefa gets 16, up from 13
Australia switched confederations from oceania to asia some time ago because they didn't want to play the 4th place team from concacaf to qualify for the WC. Instead they opted out to play in Asia which had auto-bids (which was easier for them than beating the 4th place concacaf team) and now asia has 8 spots compared to 6 spots for concacaf.... Bull S***.
Conmebol got the most screwed up job only gaining 1.5 spots (they actually only gained one spot because asias 8th place team is nowhere as good as conmebol's 7th team, which was the other play in game).
All three Concacaf members will be seeded number one in their group, but that doesn't really matter right now since 2 of the 3 teams would be seeded 1 in this format anyways.
edit: there will be two play in rounds for the WC between confederations not including uefa. I have no idea how that gonna play out, but I'm way into my beer right now
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I don’t know if CONMEBOL got screwed, there are only 10 teams in their confederation so 3/5 going to the WC is the best odds of any confederation. CONCACAF got an absolute gift with 6 spots which almost assures the US and Mexico qualify for the WC. At least they didn’t try to load up with UEFA and CONMEBOL teams which would probably be a good financial move and instead they rewarded the Africa, Asia and North America with more spots.
I think Conmebol did get screwed a little bit. If we're allowed to send 6 teams they should be able to send anywhere between 7 or 8. They’re that deep. Venezuela is ranked 7th in Conmebol and 40th overall. That's better than Concacaf's 3rd place team Costa Rica who is ranked 44 overall.
But that’s 80% of the confederation, at that point just send everyone. I know CONCAFAF is a very weak confederation but when you look at CAF and AFC they lack the depth to justify their spots as well. Quatar is number 5 in Asia and they‘re tanked number 42. Egypt is number 6 in Africa and they‘re number 46. In a way it’s better for the sport that they’re turning it into a UEFA/COMEBOL dominated tournament, because they are giving incentive to smaller countries and confederations to improve football in their county. Granted they’re going to die, but this can also benefit squads like Mexico and the US because they could get grouped in with a weaker squad improving their chance to get out of the group stage.
Record chaser: Where Ricardo Pepi stands among top-scoring teenagers in MLS history | MLSSoccer.com
The goalscoring exploits of FC Dallas homegrown Ricardo Pepi have captivated MLS in 2021, as he's broken out behind 11 goals and two assists in 21 games, establishing himself as an MLS All-Star and rising young star. But where does the 18-year-old's season-long tear leave him in the pantheon of
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He should surpass the record if he plays another year in MLS.Record chaser: Where Ricardo Pepi stands among top-scoring teenagers in MLS history | MLSSoccer.com
The goalscoring exploits of FC Dallas homegrown Ricardo Pepi have captivated MLS in 2021, as he's broken out behind 11 goals and two assists in 21 games, establishing himself as an MLS All-Star and rising young star. But where does the 18-year-old's season-long tear leave him in the pantheon of
I looked up Diego Fagundez who is the all time leading scorer in MLS as a teen and he’s never represented Uruguay at the international level. I’ve never watched MLS, but has the US Soccer Federation tried to get these fringe international players to switch allegiance to the US? Mexico has used naturalized players such as Funes-Mori, Zinha and Guillermo Franco.Record chaser: Where Ricardo Pepi stands among top-scoring teenagers in MLS history | MLSSoccer.com
The goalscoring exploits of FC Dallas homegrown Ricardo Pepi have captivated MLS in 2021, as he's broken out behind 11 goals and two assists in 21 games, establishing himself as an MLS All-Star and rising young star. But where does the 18-year-old's season-long tear leave him in the pantheon of
