tStonewashed jeans is doing a World Cup column for the athletic

Posted on 11/18/22 at 3:08 pm

Posted by S

RIP Wayde

Member since Jan 2007

155263 posts

Posted on 11/18/22 at 3:08 pm

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Jesse Marsch: This young U.S. team makes me dream – especially for 2026

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When you’re there at the World Cup, you can miss some of that big picture. I remember when Landon Donovan scored that goal against Algeria in South Africa in 2010. In the locker room, we were pumped. I remember the power and excitement of winning the group. Of mentally getting ready for the next match. But the movement back home that it created? We didn’t anticipate that. And then we saw the videos coming out of all of these celebrations in the bars back home.

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One thing for sure is that over the years fearlessness has been the American identity. I think of the 2002 team that went to the quarter-finals; that was a big part of it. They played with total reckless abandonment and belief. That was certainly part of it for us in 2010, when you think about how we fought and battled back in games against England and Slovenia. And of course that late goal against Algeria. There is this identity of fearlessness and belief in U.S. teams, and soon we will see that in this group. They’re too young to be afraid. Too young to know any better.

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What do you expect each opponent to look like? And who are the best players to use to maximize your potential in that match? It’s why Ream is a good match for Aaron Long on the roster. Facing Tim in the Premier League, you see he has really developed an intelligence on the pitch, a savviness and an understanding of games. Tim is incredibly good with the ball, but it’s not just that his technical ability is good, it’s that he’s a good decision-maker. When you watch him play week in and week out in the Premier League, he doesn’t make many mistakes because he’s a very intelligent player. He plays to his strengths and he’s good at that. Long has a bigger arsenal to draw on in terms of qualities and athleticism, but he doesn’t have the experience that Tim has. Now you have one player that has a little bit more athleticism and you have one player with a little bit more experience. And the balance of those two could be good.

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Against Wales, the U.S. is going to see a team that sits in a low block and looks to hit them in transition with players like Daniel James and Gareth Bale. It will likely be similar against Iran. I always say the reason teams play with a low block is that it’s hard to break down. People like to criticize you when you can’t break those teams down, but when they have a low block, that’s the strategy, right? At Leeds, one of the things that we always talk about against teams like this is finishing plays with shots. We want to finish, obviously, with goals, but we say we want to finish plays with shots on frame because that’s another way to create more corners and more set-piece plays. Those can be the difference in these types of games.

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England will obviously be a match where they have the ball a little bit more, which could be good for the U.S. This is one of the things with Leeds, too. We like playing against opponents that want the ball because we’re fast, we have athleticism, we like to press, we like to play with intensity. This U.S. player pool can run. They’re young, they’re fit and they have some talent. And most of them, most importantly, are built with fearlessness. A lot of the guys are playing now in the Premier League or in the Champions League week-in and week-out. These guys know what the level of a game like that is. I think if they can be organized against the ball and in pressing, and if they can be good in set-piece situations, defensive and attacking, that will give them the best chance to get a result in that match.

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One of the most difficult things for me is I don’t know Christian well enough. A big part of uncovering the potential of players is uncovering the potential of the people. You have to get to know players to really unearth the potential of their personality, within what their qualities are as a player. And that’s often the fun for me of being a coach. A lot of times with me it’s young players, but that’s not always the case. We have Rodrigo at Leeds, and he’s 31 and I’ve even had a conversation with him at one point and said it’s too bad I didn’t know him when he was 18 because I could have helped make him one of the best players in the world — I truly believe that. But in the process at Leeds, we’re still uncovering new potentials for him and he’s committed and adapted incredibly well. But to do that I’ve had to really get to know Rodrigo as a person and what makes him tick. What are his vulnerabilities? What are his insecurities? What things make him stronger? What are the things he likes?

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They won’t want to talk about it right now, but in reality, this World Cup is a stepping stone for the team going into 2026. We all want to see the team do really well now, but everyone back home is looking at 2026 and imagining what this can really become when the World Cup comes back to the U.S.