It's actually impressive how soft we are

Could’ve had Marcelo

To be fair, we couldn't sneeze near an opponent without those officials carding us, so unfortunately we had to back off more than usual.



But yeah, were softer than ever overall for sure.

Yea. Of the 30 or so years of me really following the national team, this current iteration is easily the least enjoyable to watch. So few guys I actually like too root for.

Antonee Robinson plays with heart. Pulisic is wonderfully skilled. Adams has been great when he’s right. Weston has some fire.

But it’s too many spoiled Reynas or national opportunist who, unlike Jermaine jones in 2014 world cup, aren’t laying it out there for us.

I’m very apathetic with this group, and never really appreciated how much elite goal keeping was carrying certain teams of the past.

The midfield core we had around 2014 with guys like Jones, Bradley, Bedoya, Beckerman, etc had an intangible grittiness that made it better than the sum of its parts. They knew how to foul tactically when needed, and they rarely backed down 1v1 even against much talented opponents. Our current group show flashes of that, but it’s not consistent enough.

The fact that we’re at the bottom of this chart despite trying to be a pressing team is astonishing. That’s a complete failure to implement the system. The Panama game when we played in a low block after the red card probably skews that, but still. We shouldn’t be at the bottom. I think Marcelo Bielsa might have been the perfect coach for this team, and it’s a shame we didn’t hire him when we had the chance.

It’s the country club atmosphere that they have there. We couldn’t have asked for a better draw and we absolutely crapped ourselves.