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wolf stansson

By wolf stansson,
in Other Sports

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stitchface First Round Pick

stitchface

Old-Timey Member
Posted
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That's pretty great news. Need as many competitive games between now and '26 as possible.

 

Totally agree - playing this every time would be fantastic!

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stitchface First Round Pick

stitchface

Old-Timey Member
Posted
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Portugal are a better team without CR7

 

 

well, duh. :)

 

What a finish by Ramos. Joao Felix has been amazing in this game - with Bruno, that midfield is so good.

Transmogrified Tiger All-Star

Transmogrified Tiger

Community Moderator
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First and foremost, others on Twitter pointed this out but this isn't significant news, it's not in either party's interest to not at least schedule conversations(which is all the article mentions is taking place), and the article continues the trend of pointing out Berhalter may prefer to try to capitalize on this relative high and try his hand at club coaching overseas. That said, I am conflicted about it.

 

On the plus side, the internet perception of Berhalter is way out of wack with reality. This was no more obvious than in the last week when the USMNT fanbase continued to shriek about him for umpteen different reasons while the foreign press and european tactics bloggers raved about his work. He's met performance expectations, built a great culture in the team, been a terrific recruiter, adjusted his tactics to play to his team's strengths, and generally had a smart outlook on deploying an international team. This is ironically reflected best in the bouts of offensive struggles the team has had, because part of the reason the attack is static at times is an emphasis on rest defense, and Berhalter understands that in international play and especially in tournaments that variance can burn you so it's best to limit opponent attacks before they start. As it relates to him getting a 2nd cycle, I think a lot of the risks(holding on to last cycle's prime players too long as they age out) don't have near as much risk for this roster so the downside is more muted. Also of note, 6 of the 8 quarterfinalists have a coach in their second cycle.

 

On the down side, I think if you want the program to move up a level and be a team favored in a knock out round and being seriously considered to make the semis/finals, you'll need a little better on field coaching and tactical flexibility than Berhalter has shown. You could reasonably argue he doesn't expand more tactically because of how inexperienced his core is(along with the limitations of international soccer), but this is also the soccer he wants to play so it's not as if he's eager to add more clubs to the bag but is holding himself back. This also manifests itself at not being able to conform his approach to the roster at hand, which leads to things like playing 4 different players at striker in 360 world cup minutes.

 

All that said I don't have a strong opinion on Berhalter staying or going. I'm fearful that a different manager will be a worse downgrade at Berhalter's strengths than it is an upgrade on his weaknesses, but I also don't have intense optimism that he's going to level up the team more than increasing the talent and experience will already.

stitchface First Round Pick

stitchface

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted
I think stability at coach is a positive. It kind of depends if you believe Berhalter will build off this team or be content with the same approach. The lack of coherent attacking movement was disturbing to me. Is this the result of lack of talent or lack of coaching? To TT's point (and what I said earlier), the team played with a 6 and two 8s - very defensive. This leaves the 9 to have to drop deep to fill in the hole where the 10 should be but then you are attacking 2v4. VVD was free to defend Pulisic 40 yards from goal because there was no 9 threat whatsoever. Either you need midfield rotation or you need an actual 10. You can get out of the group stage and maybe to a quarterfinal with this approach, but you can't get much further. Maybe with this team, this was the limit, but I think we all hope for more so the question is, can Berhalter take the team further?
wvcbxl ACL Cubs

wvcbxl

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I don't like that. Not sure who the replacement should be, but it hasn't gone well when we've had National Team managers try to go past one cycle

 

Roberto Martinez is available ;)

stitchface First Round Pick

stitchface

Old-Timey Member
Posted
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sigh, pragmatism wins. At least we get to keep watching the genius that is Luka Modric - most underrated player of all time (yea, I know he won Ballon D'Or)
stitchface First Round Pick

stitchface

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

 

I was thinking Portugal in Euro 2016. Drew all 3 group games, won 2 knockout games in extra time and a third in penalties. So they only won 1 of 7 games in 90 minutes.

 

I believe after 1982 was when they increased wins to 3 points, literally re-defining! It's an issue with soccer in general but also keeps more teams competitive.

imb MVP

imb

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted
sigh, pragmatism wins. At least we get to keep watching the genius that is Luka Modric - most underrated player of all time (yea, I know he won Ballon D'Or)

 

every time someone says "if lebron james played soccer!!!!" i think of how modric would eat his lunch for 90 minutes and laugh

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