A spot in the WC is clearly not our right anymore and there’s too many other teams who could catch some breaks and put up Ws.
We can’t play safe and get draws - we need top 3 of 8….2 Ws and 1 L is better than an unbeaten 1 W and 2 Ds.
They've played poorly for basically 4 halves out of 3 games so far, and currently sit 3rd. 11 to go, that's 33 points.
The good news is: looks like we've found a striker. Definitely found a left back. Acosta is your CONCACAF enforcer if McKennie isn't going to be there.
You've got a setup that you know works now. Get a point in Panama, win at home next break. Win at home. That's it. Get the points there and you're going to qualify because they'll get enough points away - they already have 4.
If you had told me last week the US would get 4 points away in this break, I'd have said that's a good result because the assumption is they would have gotten 3 at home. They didn't, but they can make up for that.
Qualifying isn't easy in CONCACAF. No matter how much we want it to be. Just look at Mexico. They were lucky as hell to get out of Panama with a point last night. They could have easily dropped more in their other 2 matches. And we haven't won in Honduras in 12 years.
Last two goals, which made scoreline look better, came after Honduras threw everybody forward
All 5 goals were from "fast break" offense and team looked very bad after defense had time to set up. (I realize that's true of most teams). I saw perhaps two threatening moments for us.
We gave up far too many threatening opportunities to teams worse than we were. Better teams will have clinical finishes if we make the WC
First half last night, our spacing looked terrible - nearing the beehive one sees when their kids first play.
On the good side, we're seeing a separation of those with potential (Josh that's you) from those who seem to get things done
I'm wondering if Steffen's lock on GK is slipping away, especially since he seems prone to howlers
You're not playing the Netherlands. There isn't as much structure to the game. You're playing in a hot, humid area on an absolute shit pitch. The other team is going to run themselves ragged for 60-70 minutes and hope they can be in the position of a draw or have a lead, then shithouse their way through the last 30 minutes.
What you end up with, sometimes, is a bit of chaos especially at the back. We had that last night at times, though both the Robinsons played very well and made up for some mistakes (from both McKenzie but Brooks especially).
on these trips back home. He's solid for Wolfsburg, used to be in CONCACAF...not sure why the transition hasn't worked this time.
doesn't do well when there's lots of travel in a short time, which is what we have in the CONCACAF WCQ schedule.
Doesn't appear that Wolfsburg wants to renew him.
But as long as you pair him with, say, Miles Robinson, it's fine.
Can't put him next to Tim Ream.
Corrections welcome if I misheard, but with the US trailing 1-0 at halftime, Charlie Davies said that in 33 previous USMNT WCQ games played on the road, we had only come back to win two (2) of them, so we are now 3-for-34 in on-the-road WCQ comebacks.
That has to mean something for this team. This is a victory to build on.
Either way, it's a crazy stat and just shows how hard it is to win on the road in this federation.
• USMNT is 1-33-6 when trailing at halftime in WCQ without Ricardo Pepi.
September 9, 2021
• USMNT is 1-0-0 when trailing at halftime in WCQ with Ricardo Pepi. pic.twitter.com/OBldNk0n8d
El Guapo would be proud.
Also, quite glad Bayern set up a partnership with them. It's paying off.
... talent. Both my sons learned to play in Dallas. They were on organized team in kindergarten. They played all year -- Fall and Spring outdoor seasons, and Winter and Summer indoor seasons. The outdoor teams had professional skills coaches to supplement the dad coaches even at ages 8-10. My younger son's indoor team was selected via competitive tryouts at age 7 and coached by a former professional player. Lee Nguyen was on that team, and they were required to 'play up' two years in age.
It got crazier and more professional starting at U11. And all of this was well before there were Academy teams. There wasn't even an MLS.