I'm only exaggerating slightly. If you were to put together a first-choice USA U23 eleven, you'd have taken something like seven or eight players who are probably first-choice starters for the senior team.

They might very well have put 9 past this Honduras team.

They would have beaten Honduras down quickly. The problem is that the players that were there should have still beaten Honduras. And Kreis should have selected some of the available MLS players (not all were because of CONCACAF CL).

I only responded to the post because a reference to Haaland makes an apples-to-apples comparison involve the first-choice U23's for the U.S.

I'd add that (continuing on the same theme) the U.S. has been performing consistently well at the U17 and U20 levels through the latter part of the last decade, which also goes toward the criticism not being well-founded.

There are certainly issues with how the team was ultimately fielded. I'd like to keep the criticisms on point and focused on the real problems, which in this U23 generation have more to do with Kreis's selection and tactics than in the state of player development.

Tab did a great job with the youth teams. The talent is there. I'm actually very happy with the talent development in the program in the last 10-15 years. I put this recent failure on Kreis' shoulders.