re: Two Things to Add

Anyone expecting the quarterfinals for us is fooling themselves. That's a great goal to set moving forward, but even great teams can struggle to make it that far, especially consistently. Jurgen brings us to the quarters, and we're all wearing t-shirts with his face on it and talking about "experimentation" paying off in the long run. That's the bar we want to set as far as "What do we shoot for next", but if we'd gone there this past WC, it'd have been a bit of a miracle.

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at least not get outshot by every team we play in the process

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Baw, this isn´t basketball. This isn´t ALWAYS a bonafide touchstone of how a match went.

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Baw, this isn´t basketball. This isn´t ALWAYS a bonafide touchstone of how a match went.

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No it isn't but if you watched those matches they were indicative of how they went

I think a better way to convey that sentiment is to highlight the amount of chances opponents are being allowed to create over short periods. For a while now, we've basically let every team we've played spend a ton of time around our box while we're defending frantically for 15-20 minutes every single half.

We give them the wings, sit deep and put bodies in the box, and just hope we can get one good clearance to start a counter. Recently, though, that clearance just seems to always serve to center the ball 10 to 15 yards from the top of the box and reset their attack for several minutes at a time. We have such an issue in the midfield at times that we've basically cut that part of the game out, and anyone with any sort of decent shot who makes it near the box takes the shot.

We need to find some sort of consistent midfield that can possess the ball for any amount of time or we'll just continue to be whomped.

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Of course, but above all, I think the WC showing was a damned good one.

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And that's when the Jurgen support was at its height. Even the ones who hated him for leaving off Donovan were giving him props.

But I still remember thinking that the possession had to get better. We were dominated in the 2nd half by Ghana, 1st half by Portugal, and the whole game by Germany and Belgium. Those are obviously great teams, but we still had a lot of room to improve.

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Has it gone downhill? Yes.

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It has gone downhill big time. After that WC performance, you'd think we were past the days of losing to CONCACAF nobodies like Jamaica and Panama. You'd think we'd work on the possession and the back line would improve. It hasn't - it has regressed. We no longer look like a top dog in CONCACAF, and that is very depressing.

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You people have very short memories and outrageously delusional expectations.

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My expectations for the USMNT is to win the Gold Cup, qualify for the Confed Cup, and qualify for the World Cup. That's not a lot. I don't even expect to always beat Mexico.

I do, however, expect to at least look confident and sound against CONCACAF teams, and that hasn't been the case since (for the most part) since the WC.