OT: USMNT Weston McKennie sent back to Italy before the next WCQ match
Based on the quotes from Tyler Adams and Christian Pulisic, it's obvious that Berhalter has lost control and respect of the team. Now, Weston McKennie, suspended for this past Sunday's game against Canada, is not going to be with the team for their next match against Honduras either.
Things are not going so great in World Cup Qualifying for the US men.
IMHO, with or without him, they should have 2 wins, not 2 ties at this point. The team is stacked with talent. If they are not playing with drive, if the strategy is letting them down, if the lack of changes in strategy are holding them back, if the substitutions come too late, the problem is on the coaching. Berhalter's seat is ablaze.
September 6th, 2021 at 8:34 PM ^
Quick thoughts:
#1- Berhalter has got to go. I do not know what he's doing with substitutions, tactics, anything. But none of it seems to be working. He waits until the 80th minute and then just throws like 3 new people on the field. You have to stagger those subs.
#2- We are not "stacked with talent." I have always used the analogy that we have one quasi-superstar in Pulisic; the great teams have 11 Pulisics. But, we are better than most of the teams in CONCACAF, so the results are very disappointing so far, to be sure.
I think the team is very good. If they are firing on all cylinders, they could cause problems in the WC. But they just aren't good enough to go very far.
September 6th, 2021 at 9:46 PM ^
We are stacked with talent compared to any other USMNT prior. Never have we had so many Americans playing (getting legit PT) for legit European clubs. That is just an objective fact.
September 6th, 2021 at 11:05 PM ^
We have a bit more depth than we've shown as well. The problem is, GB always brings in mediocre MLS players (Lledget, Acosta, Roldan, Yueill, Lewis) instead of our 2nd tier guys in Europe like Julian Green and Luca de le Torre, to name two. Both of those guys have been playing well for a while, play midfield and probably could've done better moving the ball forward than Acosta and Captain Backpass (Lledget), who were our big problems on Sunday, imo, and all we had on the bench to help was flipping Roldan because we gotta meet or quota of MLS players I guess.
September 7th, 2021 at 10:57 AM ^
Just to clarify, it's not that GGG brings in MLS players, it's that he brings in the wrong MLS players. Tajon Buchanan might have been the second or third most impactful player after Davies on Sunday, and he's Matt Turner's teammate on the NE Revolution. Mark Anthony Kaye ate his MLS teammate's lunch in central midfield (Acosta) and baited Tyler Adams into losing his composure.
Acosta is fine when you're playing without the ball vs. Mexico and he can eat up ground, but he's not a midfielder you want in possession. Lletget is, at best, a chameleon, but he's not even a difference-maker for his club the Galaxy. Roldan has played really well this season for Seattle, but he's surrounded by elite players on all sides in Ruidiaz, Joao Paulo, Lodeiro, Montero, etc.
If GGG brought in MLS players who were actual difference-makers for their teams like Julian Araujo, Eryk Williamson (cries), Brandon Servania, Caden Clark, Paxton Pomykal, Cole Bassett (who just turned down a move to Benefica), Jeremy Ebobisse, etc, this would be a different conversation. Instead, we get Jackson Yueill and Jonathan Lewis over and over.
Also, many of those second-tier Euro players haven't been great for us either: Sargent, CCV, Johny Cardoso, Miazga, etc... I agree that I would have liked to have seen LDLT in this squad; not because he plays in Europe, but because he's the mold of player that we could really use in a window where we were going to hold possession 60-70% of the time.
September 7th, 2021 at 3:30 AM ^
Talented but also extremely young. I think people keep forgetting that. McKennie just turned 23 a week ago and Pulisic is 22. The other talent is young as well.
September 6th, 2021 at 10:57 PM ^
I don't get it - why does Berhalter have to go? I thought this team was building momentum after what they accomplished over the summer, and there was optimism with the direction Berhalter is taking things.
Is this an overreaction to 2 games? Or have other things happened that I missed?
September 6th, 2021 at 11:15 PM ^
It's not an overreaction. Player selection and tactics have been absymal for a while. We stumbled to a lot of 1-0 victories against weak opposition over the summer. We're getting everyone's A-team now, and it's even harder to generate opportunities. GB's crap player selection is really catching up to him due to injuries and suspensions too.
September 7th, 2021 at 3:32 AM ^
Stumbled to 2 championships while missing a lot of our top talent.
September 7th, 2021 at 9:55 AM ^
FIRE BAKICH
September 7th, 2021 at 10:31 AM ^
1) With McKennie and Reyna out and Dest only going for 30 minutes or so, our lineup was eerily similar to a Klinsmann/Arena WCQ squad from the last cycle (minus Aaronson and Adams).
2) Canada's roster was equal or even better than the US roster on Sunday due to those injuries. Davies is a better talent than Pulisic and his athleticism can take over a game in a way that Pulisic can't. The two players they brought off the bench (David and Buchanan) would be borderline starters for the USMNT, even at full strength.
3) You can see the difference in talent between Champions League-level attackers in Pulisic and Aaronson and your more general European players like Sargent, Pefok, and Konrad DLF. In fact, I don't think the gap between some of the better MLS players and those standard European players is all that great.
4) The hardest thing to do in soccer is to break down a well-organized low-block, especially without an elite striker. The space evaporates, the pace slows, and you need some sparkling individual efforts or good luck to break them down. Look at Spain's struggles in this group play of this summer's Euro.
With all that being said, Berhalter still deserves some criticism for his tactics, roster construction, and substitution patterns. This game was screaming for a midfielder like Musah, Eryk Williamson, Luca de la Torre, or Paxton Pomykal, someone who could pickup a ball in midfield (so Pulisic didn't have to drop into defense to touch the ball) and break a defensive line themselves through a dribble or a pass, but there wasn't anyone of that mold available.
However, most of the criticism has to fall on the players for me. All of these professionals have seen a low-block before and know that they need to hasten the pace, take fewer touches, and move off the ball. Even Pulisic took too many touches, constantly tried to dribble through multiple defenders, and provided awful service on set pieces. But at least he tried stuff, which is more than you can say than some of the other players on the field.
September 6th, 2021 at 8:37 PM ^
This will give McKennie more time to organize a World Cup watch party for the whole USMNT.
September 6th, 2021 at 8:37 PM ^
Gerg was a nepotism hire.
September 6th, 2021 at 8:40 PM ^
This is the same coach \ team everyone was hailing just a few weeks ago... right? Seems like both of these situations were over reactions.
September 6th, 2021 at 8:46 PM ^
It'll be interesting to see what formation Berhatlter uses against Honduras and going forward. We've looked bettter with 5 at the back for a while now. Pulisic wants to be high up the field and central anyway, so play like a 5-3-2 with Pulisic as the "underneath" striker. And then Dest and Antonee Robinson can attack on the wings without getting exposed on counterattacks as badly. The 4-3-3 just is not working.
September 6th, 2021 at 9:05 PM ^
Where are the quotes from Tyler Adams and Christian Pulisic that lead you to believe that Berhalter has lost respect of the team? I assume the quotes you're referring to are about the tactics and not about this suspension.
I tried to find some more evidence regarding what McKennie did and apparently he had a little get-together with some folks one night, breaking covid protocol. In this article, Landon Donovan says he doesn't want to go into detail about what happened but reveals that much at least:
September 6th, 2021 at 9:40 PM ^
Yeah I'd love to see the actual comments.
September 7th, 2021 at 8:55 PM ^
Yes, the quotes are about the tactics. And indeed, as some have mentioned here, the players bear their share of responsibility.
Here's ESPN's review of Pulisic's comments in which he says the team lacks ideas. Notably, the commentators criticize the players quite severely.
(I hope this link works!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9PHjR1yUMg
September 6th, 2021 at 9:07 PM ^
McKennie's a dumbass for violating COVID protocols. It's WCQ FFS, take this seriously.
As far as "should have two wins," I'd say one. The first game was on the road, El Salvador had the crowd behind them, and this is the 1st WCQ for a number of players. It was a very physical game, I heard the field wasn't good. WCQ is just different. But we need to win home games. Getting another tie was disappointing. Reyna was out with a hammy, Dest went out late in the 1st halft. But we had the lead, and 7' later, the D fell asleep. Ugh.
Now another road game, and we really need a win. There may not be many chances, and the ball needs to go in the net.
September 6th, 2021 at 9:37 PM ^
The d did not "fall asleep." The d was doing exactly what Berhalter wanted: they were playing a high line and going 1 on 1 vs the best player in cocacaf(Davies). The Canada goal was always coming with Berhalter garbage tactics and failure to adapt.
We're lucky Davies went out with an injury or we probably get 0 points.
September 6th, 2021 at 10:10 PM ^
Looked like it to me. Brooks was out of position and just watching the play go by.
September 6th, 2021 at 10:20 PM ^
Not really. Brooks is slow and was being asked to play a high line.
I assume youre referring to his decision to not try and intercept the cross. That's very common because he could have easily deflected it into the net if he had tried.
That goal was 100@% on the coaching tactics.
September 6th, 2021 at 10:33 PM ^
I agree with you on that. It was all coaching.
The way to neutralize a player like Davies is to overload his side and make him defend. Gerg’s tactics played right into Davies strength
September 7th, 2021 at 7:51 AM ^
How did they not fall asleep? When the pass comes, Yedlin is running somewhat towards the sideline. Why didn't he head straight back? (And the refs fell asleep, too: it looks to me like Davies is partly behind our D, so offsides, but it's close, and there's no VAR.) By the time the cross came Brooks could have been closer to Larin, but he's ball watching and bent his run towards the ball, whereas Larin bent his run away from Brooks and was unchallenged for the tap in. If Brooks knows where Larin is and sticks close to him, maybe he can prevent that goal, shield him and turn towards the field so there's less chance of an own goal. That's better than leaving the guy free to score.
September 7th, 2021 at 12:00 AM ^
Here is one for everyone to think about, there is a reason VAR is not being used in CONCACAF for this qualifying. It was announced during the game last night on TV that according to CONCACAF officials only Canada, Mexico and US have the infrastructure in place that would allow for VAR to be properly implemented. That right there screams of both incompetence as well as horrible leadership both on the financial and communications realm. If nothing else CONCACAF should be working with the soccer federations in Panama, Jamaica, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Honduras to get at least one stadium in the country up to the level of the worst stadium in US, Mexico, Canada.
think about it Mexico plays in one of 3 different stadiums which have all hosted major events, The US has 20+ Soccer only stadiums, as well as a number of football stadiums (Rose Bowl, et al) that can host major events, and Canada has just as many stadiums that can host a top line soccer match. So the question is why does these top 3 teams have to go to these other countries and play on the equilivalant of a goat pasture that is so torn up after 30 minutes that it looks like a polo match has played on it.
September 7th, 2021 at 1:01 AM ^
I think it would be a good idea for CONCACAF to step in and help with these stadiums and their infrastructure (we also had a power outage in the Honduras/El Salvador game last night), but this isn't an excuse for the USMNT to keep losing or drawing these games. Both teams play on the same field. If you're the better team, you win the game, period.
Not saying bweldon was making an excuse for the team's poor play against El Salvador. I'm just tired of hearing excuses from players and media regarding CONCACAF away games. Mexico doesn't seem to have the same problems winning away from home as the US does. Could be luck, but they've proven it for decades.
September 7th, 2021 at 11:47 AM ^
It is not an excuse however it can be an issue when you have teams that are used to playing on a pitch that will remain constant for the whole match vs on that shows significant degredation over a single match.
Mexico had that problem for a few years with some of their Liga MX teams and now look, most of them play on turf, the league made sure that there was a quality playing surface at every venue, and quality of play has increased significantly.
The same thing can be said for other sports, the more consistent the field is from one stadium to another the more consistent the play will be.
September 6th, 2021 at 9:20 PM ^
Landon Donovan said McKennie did something pretty boneheaded, FWIW.
September 6th, 2021 at 9:34 PM ^
Berhalter is trash. Stubborn, fails to adjust tactics to the game, and shit leadership.
Need him gone asap.
September 6th, 2021 at 11:01 PM ^
Were you saying this after the USMNT won the Nations League and Gold Cup? I just don't understand the apparent 180 on Berhalter after 2 sub-par games.
September 6th, 2021 at 11:48 PM ^
It is because of those results that some people are expecting us to win everything all the time. This team should qualify for the World cup, they have the talent.
The other thing people are failing to take into account was the fact that Dest left the game before half time with a foot injury and Reyna was not available due to a hamstring injury.
This qualification is going to be a marathon and it is the teams that have enough depth that will survive.
Concacaf did not do US or Mexico a favor in making this change to the qualifying and it could cost them their two strongest squads in the long run.
September 7th, 2021 at 7:14 AM ^
This qualification is going to be a marathon and it is the teams that have enough depth that will survive
2 of 9 qualifying games have been played so far, and the US is far from out of it.
September 7th, 2021 at 11:49 AM ^
2 of 14 games. there are 8 teams in the final grouping and we play each one home and away between now and the world cup next year.
September 7th, 2021 at 12:23 AM ^
I never wanted him to be the coach to begin with.
He was picked to be the coach because of his brother. Also due to the fact that he will bow down to Don Garber.
September 6th, 2021 at 10:38 PM ^
I was at the game yesterday. Really disappointing to see what happened. Refs were trash but there was no excuse we don’t win that game. This team has way too much talent to not qualify for the World Cup so hopefully we play well next week and get some momentum back.
September 6th, 2021 at 11:44 PM ^
Ok a couple of things here...
1) 3 games in 8 days and he cannot even follow team rules for that long?
2)This is not the first time McKinney has done something both against the rules and to a certain extent stupid for his own personal pleasure (choice)
3) Both times he has been held accountable by his team (Juve and USMNT)
4) There have apparently been other issues at Juventus, and they seemed to be willing to move on from him after only one year in Italy. http://www.thehardtackle.com/news/2021/08/24/transfer-news-tottenham-table-offer-for-weston-mckennie/
But even Tottenham decided against him and his talent.
5) he is 24 years old and supposed to be one of the leaders of this USMNT team, yet he has failed to realize that leadership extends to how and what you do both on and off of the pitch, to the point that even people who have defended him previously are not backing him.
6)This is a simple matter of a young man who needs to wake up and understand that he has one of 2 paths that he can move forward on -- First is waking up and coming to the realization that he needs to start looking at how the real leaders o the team act and what they do off the pitch. or he continues to do stupid and selfish things and ends up wasting all of that talent.
As far as the coach, when one of your top players ends up forcing you to suspend him and pull him from the lineup less than 2 hours from the start of a match? What would happen if less than 2 hours from kick-off against State, Cade ends up doing something that is a major team violation, and is benched for the game. you think that the game plan would not be basically thrown into the blender at that point. That is what happened to the UNMNT and the fact that they only drew against Canada, they are lucky they did not lose. This result is not on the coach it is on a selfish player who broke the rules and in the process left his team, short-handed, and at the same time all but gave the USMNT and USA the middle finger with his actions.
September 7th, 2021 at 3:42 AM ^
FWIW, there were 3 recent former USMNT players in studio on whatever network it was after the El Salvador game. Charlie Davies, Gooch, and Dempsey. None were freaking out like the posters here. Only one was even concerned it was a draw really. Dempsey mentioned they usually had draws on the road in games like that. Sure, they're more talented now, but they're not gimmes, and the team is very young. Not to mention Pulisic was out for El Salvador and McKennie was out for the Canada game.
September 7th, 2021 at 8:00 AM ^
I want to address the talent portion of this in a separte comment because it needs to be drilled down
Is this the most talented and deep the USMNT has been? Probably? I'm not sure how it compares to the team that got by Mexico and lost to Germany 1-0 in the WC.
But, the problem is that when you compare this team to ANY top-flight country: Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Portugal, England, Belgium- who on this team is getting any significant playing time for those squads? I could see Pulisic, at best, getting decent minutes off the bench. Who else? You are hard-pressed to find one or two more names that would be substitutes for those teams.
That's the problem. This team may be deep and talented, more than it typically is; unfortunately, it doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of being a national contender.
September 7th, 2021 at 9:31 AM ^
That's true. No one should mistake this for a team that would be competitive in UEFA. USMNT is years away from that, if they ever do get there. For my part, if the US manages to qualify, I'd like to see them reach the quarterfinals again, something that IIRC CONCACAF teams have done only twice since the field expanded to 32.
My reading was that the OP was talking about talent in the context of CONCACAF.
September 7th, 2021 at 10:19 AM ^
It just felt generic to me.
"This team is stacked with talent."
They really aren't. On a world scope, they have one very good player and a lot of role players around him.
I'm the biggest USMNT fan out there, but I'm just getting more and more discouraged as these qualifiers go on. I can forgive the tie at El Salv. The tie at home to Canada is inexcusable. You would figure after the last WC embarrassment, they would be playing with their hair on fire.
September 7th, 2021 at 10:42 AM ^
I would agree, but we aren't trying to qualify in UEFA. We are trying to qualify in CONCACAF. We should be deep enough even with a couple players out to qualify easily. With that being said, I was counting on 5 pts from the first 3 matches and that can still happen although it will be difficult now.
September 7th, 2021 at 10:55 AM ^
Is qualifying the end goal? Is that what the USMNT is aspiring to do?
I think you'd ask ANY player or coach, and they'd want to be the best team in the world.
This conference is terrible. Qualifying should be an afterthought. This country, with an endless amount of resources and incredible athletes, cannot cobble together a team that threatens to make a run on the world stage. To me, that's really sad, and speaks to a serious foundational issue at the grassroots level.
I will never, ever, ever accept the notion that our best are "playing other sports." There are SO MANY elite athletes produced in the USA, and soccer SHOULD be the cheapest sport to play, almost as cheap as basketball (ball, net, kick). There is really no equipment required and you can play anywhere on any field. But the fact that it is so ridiculously expensive at the higher levels completely stunts the ability for parents to have their kids continue on, so they have to play a different sport.
September 7th, 2021 at 11:52 AM ^
It is a two step process - Step one get to the World Cup which means surviving a 14 game qualifying process. Step 2 is to take the best players and team to the WC and make it out of the group stages, from there it is a little bit of luck on the pitch, a lot of hard work, and the luck of the draw regarding who they have in their bracket.
September 7th, 2021 at 11:57 AM ^
I'm not entirely sure what we're arguing about. We all agree the USMNT should easily qualify out of CONCACAF, and it's frustrating that they continue to struggle even after embarrassing themselves in 2018. I think most of us also understand that with out current talent level our stretch goal is to reach the WC quarterfinals, and getting to the semifinals would be a big, wonderful upset.
And you're right, in the long term it would be disappointing if the USMNT couldn't become contenders. It's just that that takes time. It isn't only a matter of getting elite athletes. You have to have a culture and a structure for it. The first soccer-specific first-division professional stadium in the US wasn't built until 1999. The sport is still young here. Even though I have my problems with the way US Soccer and MLS are run, there's no question they've made a lot of strides, including in youth development.
Of course, at the same time that I counsel patience for the long-run success of USMNT, I obviously don't think we should have patience for a second straight failure to qualify for the World Cup.
September 7th, 2021 at 9:55 AM ^
FIRE BAKICH!
September 7th, 2021 at 12:02 PM ^
Look at this https://www.espn.com/soccer/fifa-world-cup/story/3860182/2022-world-cup-how-qualifying-works-around-the-world
There are 5 international windows on the calendar between now and the World Cup next summer.
UEFA has 13 spots - and 10 groups so 10 automatic qualifiers who have to play 8 games (less than 2 per break and the winners have the last international window off from qualifying.
CONCACF has 3.5 spots and has a single final qualifier where the top 3 go and the 4th place moves into a playoff (the .5) and everyone has 14 games in the same time period. (average 3 per break)
So tell me why CONCACAF could not have gone and had 2 groups split the teams and had 2 more to the final round. It would have matched the euro config, and then you could have the 2 second place teams play in the final window to see who qualifies and who goes to the playoff. And at the same time would have had more FIFA sponsored games within the federation, which is something that the heads of CONCACAF have bitched about the lower level teams not having the same opportunities.
CONCACAF is the only Federation that has a single qualifying pool for the last round of the World Cup.
Sounds like a bunch of idiots doing the calendar.