wolf stansson

Lamps with a well earned “I know what I’m doing, guys.” https://www.frontrowsoccer.com/2019/10/26/praise-for-pulisic-lampard-it-was-a-fantastic-match-winning-performance/

One man wrecking crew

Boss horsefeathers from Christian. God damn. Christian Pulisic isn’t strong enough. Christian Pulisic can’t finish. Sheds a tackle, burns a defender with a running step over, nutmegs another defender for the goal. Lmao

Not a super ideal time for USS to lose Tab Ramos to the dynamo head job.

I don't have a ton of opinions on Lampard as a manager yet, but I trust the player. He's proven willing and able to make an impact regardless of minutes, so as long as he continues, minutes will come. It's not like Lampard doesn't want to manage multiple 21 year old super stars as they develop into great players at the highest level. That's pretty much what every manager wants, so as long as the attitude and production are right, he'll get his chances.

Jesse Marsch loves the Red Bull organization, so he probably won't jump at just any offer, but he's going to have tough decision to make someday, because that guy is going places.

Now leading the team in assists, despite playing less than a third of the minutes. Lampard has his reasons for what he's doing, and it's working, but Pulisic is still the best playmaker on his team and has been the entire time. If anyone is curious, yes, that is Sergino Dest's scalp hanging from CP's belt after that 1v1 to end line assist. Just cooked him over about 10 yards.

[tweet] [/tweet] God I miss Clint Dempsey. Really hope Ulysses Llanez can be the heir to the sauce like everyone thinks he is, but nobody combined that skill, that chip on the shoulder, and that physicality like Deuce when he really turned it on. The greatest.

Uh huh. Saw this over the weekend. Don't see anyone from Spurs on there. Shrug emoji. [tweet] [/tweet] Second on Chelsea to Tammy Abraham, but sure, Mount has been perceieved to be a revelation and Pulisic a bust. Sure would hate to have a 21 year old producing at that level, under outrageous pressure, on my team. Not to mention that Pulisic is a really good finisher and he hasn't been finishing. We have enough of a sample size to know it's a fluke. Physicality & pressure are the learning curves. If wasted chances aren't a fluke, they're probably just a factor of those things, not an actual learning curve he needs to overcome. If he adjusts to the spotlight pressure and gets stronger, which every athlete who's only 21 inevitably does, he'll be good money. This, from Ryan O'Hanlon, is very good on the subject: https://nograssintheclouds.substack.com/p/psst-christian-pulisic-has-been-kinda Excerpt: [spoil] [/spoil] I really think the physicality is relatively minor for him to address. The pressure, well, that's a bitch for sure. The other factors to overcome are the old but proven wingers (Pedro + Willian) who he's actually out-produced offensively, his finishing slump, and whatever tactical deficiencies Lampard may have as a teacher/manager (if that's actually a problem; might not be). He's going to be good for them for a long time if they handle this right. It's Chelsea, so that's definitely not something we can take for granted. The US is another issue entirely and pretty much not worth thinking or caring about, if you can pull that off.

Just saw this tweet and it’s very apparent why the new format is better. The frenetic chaos with all home teams ultimately winning is best of all worlds.

Buried in an article on the Athletic's Newcastle FC coverage was this gem: https://theathletic.com/1301597/2019/10/19/yedlin-must-shake-off-international-woes-to-provide-vital-weapon-in-newcastles-attack/ Grrrrrrreat. Quick reminder: the head coach, who should've had an incredibly easy act to follow in terms of building optimism and a positive culture, is already failing but don't worry, his brother is about to be named CEO so I'm sure he'll be held accountable. I keep thinking back to the story of Carlos Bocanegra walking into the players meeting before the USSF president vote and convincing them to reject populist candidates like Martino and elect Cordero. horsefeathers him for that. horsefeathers them for listening to a boss during such a key negotiation. Cordero sucks, Berhalter(s) sucks, and without the women's cult of personality, they're be seen for the abject failures they are.

Verbalizing/criticizing the issues wasn't his problem. He's always been good at that, not that it takes a ton of insight to zero in on what's wrong with US Soccer. Based on IG, he seems to be pretty tight with Tomori, Abraham, and Batman. 2/3 are academy dudes. Also, speculating on Christian Pulisic's social skills is a weird thing to do in general.

I agree that the backlash has been ugly and personal in a way that is totally unacceptable, but objectively, if you're essentially doing a flash rebuild before WCQ starts back up, what are you doing playing a 28 year old and a 26 year old who has plateau'd for 4 seasons? A rebuild is about upside and development. Neither of those players have shown either over a pretty [expletive] broad sample size. That's the funny thing about Will Trapp. He looks like he's 16, so you can talk yourself into thinking he's a project. He's already two years into his soccer prime.

Dude reeeeeeeeally doesn't care about friendly results. To the degree that I feel like a sucker for watching at this point. I can forgive and even admire his hubris in that regard, but still can't get over two things: 1) A senior national team is the last venue where you should be developing your system. The senior team should be pragmatic imo. 2) Playing his shitty Columbus guys like Trapp and Zardes. They're solid MLS contributors. That's it.

Regardless of the results they achieve, that's by miles the most talent we've ever put on the field together. But as Mexico, England, et al have shown forever and ever, it's really hard to get past the round of 16, regardless of talent.

The Netherlands didn't call Ajax left back, Sergino Dest, up to their last roster and a bunch of fans online were very bummed. Thought he was a big snub. Koeman said it's because he's not a realistic get for them. Lo and behold he's on our roster for the upcoming friendlies. Also Pomykal got the call up from FC Dallas and for those of you who aren't MLS followers, he's absolutely a Pulisic/Adams/McKennie level prospect imo.

Jesse Marsch is 5-0 with RB Salzburg, which is apparently an Austrian Bundesliga record.

Pedro is a pretty good player also but that Man U game really revealed their lack of forward threat. Did you watch yesterday's game? Sounds like they were better. Yeah, and he has great chemistry with Kante already, was the best at transitioning possession up the field with the ball at his feet, made more dangerous runs than anyone, and made more key passes than anyone. Kante was the big difference from the United game, but CP having more of the ball was the second biggest.

I'm definitely biased, but it sure seems like Christian Pulisic is the best attacker on Chelsea's entire roster and it's not that close. They must've been REALLY reliant on Hazard last year.

Pulisic is going to absolutely star in Lampard's system. His ability to run in space, progress possession with the ball at his feet, and finish in transition is going to be a perfect fit.

It sure seems like every U-20 cycle since Ramos took over is producing 2-3 potential stars and another 2-3 solid pros every cycle, which is the way it should be but hasn't really ever been for the US. This is a great run down of the fringe national team prospects: https://theathletic.com/1106395/2019/07/30/parchman-nine-gold-cup-absentees-who-could-be-usmnt-regulars-by-2022/

10 or an 8. Typical situation where he's always by far the best guy on his team so he roams wherever he gets the ball the most, but a pro club will force him to settle into a natural position. He's basically on track to be a more athletic, more refined version of his dad, which is pretty freaking good. So far he's been pretty advanced up the field on the ball in his time with the Dortmund first team. More of a 10/inverted winger like Favre likes to do with Sancho/Pulisic.

Gio Reyna is really impressing at Dortmund. The hype train is saying he has a real chance to be the youngest player in Bundesliga history this year. [tweet] [/tweet] https://en.onefootball.com/giovanni-reyna-made-a-big-impression-lucien-favre/ https://sportbild.bild.de/bundesliga/vereine/borussia-dortmund/bvb-borussia-dortmund-giovanni-reyna-wunderknabe-63557550.sport.html

Looks like Tyler Boyd signed with Besiktas, not MLS. Good, good. This is an excellent breakdown of where we are with the MNT after the Gold Cup: https://sports.yahoo.com/usmnt-gold-cup-2019-takeaways-pulisic-berhalter-084439845.html My #1 wish for this upcoming club season is that David Wagner brings Weston McKennie some positional stability because I think that will help his consistency issues a great deal. Last season was absurd. His versatility is great, but a 20 year old needs to be refining his game at his best position.

No more stat padding v Barbados? Lame.