soccer soccer soccer

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Just now, Tim said:

As a super-casual observer that knows nothing, it seemed like the team played a completely different style for the short period where they had a different manager. Am I way off base?

Others may disagree, but I would say yes.  The interim was Gregg's top assistant who wasn't trying to change the style of play, and in terms of results was either on par or worse than what we saw in the same competitions with Berhalter.

[soccer10k]

17 minutes ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

 I'm annoyed that they're doing this for basically doing exactly what they expected, minus Tim Weah losing his mind for a minute.

They also needed a 96th minute own goal just to send a Nations League SF game to extra time in March. Yes the Weah red card wasn’t Berhalter’s fault, but it wasn’t just the Copa that got him fired.

We also never looked like scoring against Uruguay in a game they didn’t need to win but we had to.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

5 minutes ago, soccer10k said:

They also needed a 96th minute own goal just to send a Nations League SF game to extra time in March. Yes the Weah red card wasn’t Berhalter’s fault, but it wasn’t just the Copa that got him fired.

We also never looked like scoring against Uruguay in a game they didn’t need to win but we had to.

If the main arguments against a coach are that he won a knockout game that the team dominated(near 3 xG without the own goal) and that they couldn't score on Uruguay's A team (one of the most defensively solid groups in International soccer) in a game Uruguay did not have any motivation to push numbers forward, I don't find that argument very compelling?

Every country wants their national team to play beautiful, flowing soccer and win every game against a lesser country 3-0, and then everyone is always shocked and angered when the group of players who rarely trains together can't take down a bunkered opponent with surgical precision 10 times out of 10.  Case in point, Gareth Southgate(a man blessed with far more talent than Berhalter can dream of) has been 30 seconds from losing his job like 4 different times in the last month, and he's the most successful manager his country has ever had by a country mile!  The sample sizes, the lack of meaningful time to implement detailed tactics, knockout games being 90+% of the meaningful games, it's all just engineered to maximize randomness.  So consistent product is mostly down to talent, which the US under Berhalter was basically always on the right side of(and had always been before Weah's red).

[Banedon]

[stitchface]

Personally, I think Berhalter is responsible for Weah's red. And for Dest's. you argue they can't implement tactics - well, they certainly are responsible for culture.

The team has played poorly for a long time. Gregg was not the guy. As someone pointed out, you have to be pragmatic in your approach. When you get a 1-0 lead down to 10 against horsefeathers panama and you can't even protect that lead for 5 minutes? That's ridiculous. The team is getting worse.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

8 minutes ago, stitchface said:

Personally, I think Berhalter is responsible for Weah's red. And for Dest's. you argue they can't implement tactics - well, they certainly are responsible for culture.

The team has played poorly for a long time. Gregg was not the guy. As someone pointed out, you have to be pragmatic in your approach. When you get a 1-0 lead down to 10 against horsefeathers panama and you can't even protect that lead for 5 minutes? That's ridiculous. The team is getting worse.

A team down a man is going to be defending in their own third, and sometimes shots from outside the box take a deflection and go in.  Soccer fans in particular like to frame things as inexcusable, or  'that can't happen', when it's functionally impossible to prevent those situations (and therefore those outcomes) entirely.

Again, there's this instinct to try to treat soccer managers as puppetmasters when the overwhelming majority of who wins comes down to talent(and randomness for individual games), that's dialed up to 11 for international soccer.   The idea that a different manager would have achieved different results than Berhalter's track record is wishful thinking.  The manager isn't going to influence Dest getting hurt, Ream, Adams, Sargent, and Reyna lacking sharpness without playing time due to injury, or Balogun, McKennie, Aaronson, etc stagnating in their development in their club situations.  Those things are far, far more influential to the USMNT's success than who is coaching them.

[Banedon]

I'm an extremely casual fan so I don't know anything about anything here but....I just didn't like the guy's face.  Very punchable.  Ready for a change for that reason.

[jersey cubs fan]

31 minutes ago, Banedon said:

I'm an extremely casual fan so I don't know anything about anything here but....I just didn't like the guy's face.  Very punchable.  Ready for a change for that reason.

I’m probably more casual but one thing I know is futbol fans are the biggest meatheads in sports fandom especially when it comes to talking coach hiring/firing 

[imb]

if coaches don't matter then who cares that gregg is gone, easy come easy go. if they do matter, we should be striving for better. 

[soccer10k]

 

4 hours ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

If the main arguments against a coach are that he won a knockout game that the team dominated(near 3 xG without the own goal) and that they couldn't score on Uruguay's A team (one of the most defensively solid groups in International soccer) in a game Uruguay did not have any motivation to push numbers forward, I don't find that argument very compelling?

So you use xG to defend him against Jamaica but then ignore that against Uruguay? The team had 0.56 xG in a game they needed to win. Figure out a way to create, well, anything.

As for that Jamaica game, I see 2.68 xG for the game which I’m assuming includes extra time. That means without the own goal, that number is much lower since two goals were scored in extra time.

Edited July 11, 2024 by soccer10k

[stitchface]

2 hours ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

A team down a man is going to be defending in their own third, and sometimes shots from outside the box take a deflection and go in.  Soccer fans in particular like to frame things as inexcusable, or  'that can't happen', when it's functionally impossible to prevent those situations (and therefore those outcomes) entirely.

Again, there's this instinct to try to treat soccer managers as puppetmasters when the overwhelming majority of who wins comes down to talent(and randomness for individual games), that's dialed up to 11 for international soccer.   The idea that a different manager would have achieved different results than Berhalter's track record is wishful thinking.  The manager isn't going to influence Dest getting hurt, Ream, Adams, Sargent, and Reyna lacking sharpness without playing time due to injury, or Balogun, McKennie, Aaronson, etc stagnating in their development in their club situations.  Those things are far, far more influential to the USMNT's success than who is coaching them.

nonsense. Robinson made a weak-ass tackle and then both center backs backed away. That was a terrible and completely preventable goal not some lucky deflection from 30 yards. To pretend that was impossible to prevent is absurd. The team lacks focus, discipline, and urgency - that's all on the coach. He's been there 5 years - you act like he just took over last month. I guess we can pretend the coach doesn't matter but it's a complete fallacy. The coach matters a lot.

[stitchface]

41 minutes ago, soccer10k said:

Who knew Gregg Berhalter posted on NSBB.

So you use xG to defend him against Jamaica but then ignore that against Uruguay? The team had 0.56 xG in a game they needed to win. Figure out a way to create, well, anything.

As for that Jamaica game, I see 2.68 xG for the game which I’m assuming includes extra time. That means without the own goal, that number is much lower since two goals were scored in extra time.

well it wasn't the coach that put their best playmaker as the 7. oh wait, it was. it was also the coach that runs mids out there who can't pass for 5 straight years then tries to build out of the back. it was also the coach who keeps rotating 9s because he has some absurd idea of how they should play that doesn't fit the best option resulting in all of them being ineffective. 

Edited July 11, 2024 by stitchface

[UMFan83]

Still in a "believe it when I see it" mode but interesting...

 

 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

[UMFan83]

 

[stitchface]

spain has the best womens and mens teams in the world at this point. they were impressive

 

[wolf stansson]

 

college football coach looking for a raise has interest in open SEC job

[stitchface]

isn't it more like SEC coach looking for a raise has interest in Ivy League job?

[soccer10k]

Spain deserved to win that game but Declan Rice is going to me rueing that chance right at the end. He was wide open and headed it right at the goalie.

[stitchface]

14 minutes ago, soccer10k said:

Spain deserved to win that game but Declan Rice is going to me rueing that chance right at the end. He was wide open and headed it right at the goalie.

similar to the yamal chance earlier. 

[cl smooth]

What is with the feed tonight for the copa america final? Audio lags, then is ahead of the video. Video lags and then is ahead of the audio. 

[JHBulls]

So not only are decent people punished because thugs caused a delay for 80+ minutes, but they have to be punished a second time with Shakira is performing. 

[17 Seconds]

 

[imb]

15 hours ago, JHBulls said:

So not only are decent people punished because thugs caused a delay for 80+ minutes, but they have to be punished a second time with Shakira is performing. 

one of the worst takes of all time on nsbb

[javy knows my name]

15 hours ago, JHBulls said:

So not only are decent people punished because thugs caused a delay for 80+ minutes, but they have to be punished a second time with Shakira is performing. 

Hard yuck