Photo: Paul Rudderow
USMNT
The USMNT drew 1-1 in Panama. The pitch was less than ideal as players were slipping often and the turf was noticeably chewed up late in the game. The referee also seemed to decide that anything less than a blow to the face was not a foul, which allowed both teams to cynically foul with abandon. Still, a road point is a road point and the June version of this team should hopefully be far healthier. More from SSFC and Deadspin.
Charles Boehm asks who the USMNT GOAT is.
A great story on Zusi’s goal that saved Mexico and eliminated Panama from the last World Cup.
The best American soccer player is from Hershey, PA.
Philadelphia Union
Jay Simpson’s goal against Toronto was named Union’s goal of the month.
MLS
Matthew Doyle’s week 4 roundup.
Sebastian Lletget is out 4-6 months after the horrible tackle suffered against Honduras, but at least LA Galaxy is getting Gio dos Santos and others back soon.
Atlanta will be without Josef Martinez for 4-6 weeks.
Ignacio Piatti may be missing time with a groin injury.
RSL’s Chad Barrett will miss most of this season.
Bastian Schweinsteiger has arrived stateside.
Luis Gil is heading to Orlando on loan, pending MLS red tape navigation.
Around the globe
VAR was used twice in a game between Spain and France. Each call took about a half-minute to right a wrong. I look forward to VAR being adopted more and more. Trinidad & Tobago sure wishes CONCACAF had it implemented last night.
FIFA’s 4 game ban of Leo Messi raises more questions than it answers.
With his goal yesterday, Cristiano Ronaldo entered the top 10 international goalscorers of all time.
Phoenix Rising FC of the USL has added Didier Drogba in a deal that is expected to lead Drogba into a management or ownership role in a few years.
It’s time Bruce.
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Jones and Bradley on the field at same time is not the best version of our footy… especially if that is going to push the kid out wide. If your putting Pulisic in the middle put him in the middle and adjust accordingly.
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Losing Sebastian L may have caused the lineup change- unsure but I’d rather Acosta over Jones and I’d rather Bradley sit altogether… but that’s not likely to happen- so it’s the 35 year old jones we need to move on from. Really really disjointed play and I hold those two players most responsible.
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With all due respect to Panama and an away game andall that…
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Damn is it nice to see Duece back at it. Easily the most important NT player of all time…why are we even discussing it in pundit circles…isn’t it obvious. Clint Dempsey for POTUS. Huge goals for NT at multiple points in his career and that isnt even accounting for the times he has been required to single handedly drag the ragtag bunch by their scruff carrying hem all over the world.
I’m going door to door with POTUS petitions for Clint Dempsey. A genuine American hero.
I feel Bradley is a capable player, but playing with Jones who is horrifically bad positionally, has poor vision and reading of the game, and isn’t that good of a passer forces Bradley into bad play trying to make it work. Jones sole redeeming quality was his freakish athletic ability, which has long since sailed. All he has left is increasing frustration at his inability to play leading to more and more violent fouls. Jones should never wear a US jersey again. Period. It would be far better for a young player (Acosta etc) play and even make the same stupid mistakes, but at least he’d be learning and improving vs declining. Bradley played pretty well on Friday, really all I’d like to see is someone else take corners/freekicks.
Some may want to point out that Jones played the pass that led to the goal. Great, except the pass was terrible, only Pulisic’s tenacity and pressure to get the ball from the defender opened the scoring chance.
Jones sucks, we all agree right?
Bradley looked horrible except for his goal. He was repeatedly caught in possession. Lost possession multiple times. His free and corner kicks were abysmal. Time to look for a replacement. I agree Jones’ time should be over.
The USMNT let themselves be stretched badly defensively, and from the beginning. That tended to give control of the midfield away.
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If we play defense that way at the pyramid of Huitzilapochtli in Tenochtitlan on Lake Texcoco in two games, we will collectively and individually be dragged up its steps to have our hearts ripped out as blood sacrifices, a la Cortez’s men taken as POWs by the Aztecs in 1519.
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I am glad we got the point. I think we were somewhat lucky to do so.
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By the end, Pulisic had adapted to the physicality and was dishing it back.
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Probably Arena played Jones to find out whether he still offered much to the NT.
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Credit the Panama CBs.
Yeah, all coaches have their peculiarities, and Arena has his. Sometimes, analysis can help you to make better judgements so I hope he allows some analysis. . Scrutiny will show the abject poor play in every dimension by Jones,with Altidore in the same bag . If the coach insists on Bradley playing a deep mid, than Jones must be dropped.I can’t remember a more undisciplined midfielder than Jones. He encroached on Pulisics territory, leaving much less room for the best setup man in the USA to operate. I hope Arena allows somebody to show him analytically how badly Jones and Bradley played in tandem. Bradley had to eat the ball because Jones was hiding, not showing, not helping. Also, time for Pulisic to take all the dead balls.USA was a little lucky to get a point.
Man, that guy who scored for Panama sure looked familiar …
Oh, how it killed me to see that…
Take a look at his Wikipedia page and check out which uniform he’s wearing in his picture.
I have no problem with the lineup last night. Was it visually pleasing soccer? God no! But when you are down to your 3rd and 4th choice CB, a RW converted to RB and your 2nd or 3rd choice LB and you are on the road in qualifying with only 3 points out of 3 games, you park the bus and do what you have to do to get the point.
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My only bone to pick was the first sub. I would have left Nagbe in the game, subbed off Altidore and moved Pulisic in underneath Deuce (which was eventually done anyway. Jozy had a bad game and Nagbe looked dangerous on the ball.
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Other then that, they got the point and that is what was needed under the circumstances.
solid point i thought Nagbe played pretty well, as well.
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Regarding the defenders…hard to argue. My point is more about Jones than anything else. Thank you sir for your service to the National Team and that wondrous gol against Portugal in World Cup but your more harmful then helpful.
Hey, I’m no fan of Jones, certainly not a fan of the Jones/Bradley combo. But who else starts in that spot? You’re definitely going with 2CM/DM on the road with that haphazard backline. You could have started McCarthy, but I don’t think he’s played a meaningful INTL game this decade. Acosta is the future, but maybe Bruce didn’t trust him to 60-85 minutes on the road in what would amount to be the biggest game Acosta has played in to date. It was a tough spot. Just hoping the June matches provide them with a little more roster choices.
I would’ve liked to have seen Sasha Kljestan in center midfield for that match. I think the combination of him in the center and Pulisic and Nagbe on the wings might have been very intriguing. It’s a much more offensive-looking lineup than the one with Jones, but I think it would’ve been much better.
Hate him as pink cow, but he could have helped last night. Agreed
Petke looks like he’ll be the next RSL coach… opportunity missed?
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The Ringer story about Pulisic is good. But when he played for PA Classic is was not yet a Development Academy. He actually played against my son’s team at U8 or U9 when playing for the PA State Cup; fun memories! So my son was one of the few (if not the only one) with a US Pulisic jersey last summer at the Linc! How quickly things change.
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The transfer fee of this French forward from Monaco increased in 10 months from 250,000pnds to 125million pounds. How about Pulisic’s?
About 24x increase in the past year.
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http://www.transfermarkt.com/christian-pulisic/marktwertverlauf/spieler/315779
Think it is more. Looks like those numbers are incorrect. Mbappe is only listed at $10million. Pretty sure they said on SiriusXM that he is now 125milion pounds.
Yeah I agree that the site usually is an underestimate. But it is the best for mostly unbiased estimates that I know of.
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At the same time, Mbappe at 125mil right now is very likely a major overrestimate.