Photo: Rob Simmons
Philadelphia Union
Brenden Aaronson finished second in Rookie of the Year award voting.
The history of Union Rookie of the Year finalists who didn't win:
2019 – Brenden Aaronson 2nd (Andre Shinyashiki won)
2018 – Mark McKenzie 3rd (Corey Baird won)
2017 – Jack Elliott 3rd (Julian Gressel won)
2016 – Keegan Rosenberry 2nd (Jordan Morris won)
— Jonathan Tannenwald (@thegoalkeeper) October 15, 2019
Are you sitting down? There’s a Phang bobblehead.
Local
Joe Tansey looks at Burlington County high school girls soccer.
Some college scores for ya:
- Drexel 3-0 Saint Joseph’s (M)
- Lehigh 0-4 Princeton (W)
- Penn 0-1 UMBC (M)
- Pittsburgh 1-3 Penn State (M)
- Villanova 2-1 La Salle (M)
MLS
Sacramento is expected to be the next MLS team on Monday.
The Colorado Rapids’ forward Andre Shinyashiki is Rookie of the Year.
The league crowned Allen Chapman as Referee of the Year for the second time in three years. Brian Dunn was named Assistant Referee of the Year.
A Chicago Fire fan thinks president/GM Nelson Rodriguez doesn’t have a plan to move the club forward.
NWSL
The Inquirer interviewed North Carolina Courage’s manager. BTW, the playoffs are this Sunday.
The Washington Spirit might split its 2020 home schedule among three venues.
U.S. Soccer
For the first time in 34 years, Canada beat the USMNT, 2-0.
Carli Lloyd essentially says that if she won’t play in next summer’s Olympics, she doesn’t want to be on the USWNT anymore.
Tickets for the USWNT’s match in Columbus vs. Sweden are in high enough demand that they’re adding 3,182 additional seats via temporary bleachers to go on sale today.
Around the globe
Profile on goalkeeping coach Des McAleenan.
Neymar ruled out for four weeks with a hamstring injury suffered on international duty.
A team full of Turkeys defied UEFA again by celebrating with a military salute.
Highlight of the day
https://twitter.com/ESPNFC/status/1184182034270437376?s=20
Glad I missed the USA game. Mindboggling why Berkhalter was hired in the first place when so many other coaches who have won something should have been. Berkhalter has never won anything and now jeopardizes us getting to Qatar. He needs to go.
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Berhalter needs to go. I don’t understand why we have to try to play like other countries do. Footy on the national level reflects the culture you come from…we are not Spain, so stop trying to play like them. Play a style that fits what we have, stop trying to force a square peg in a circular hole. The rotation of players is also mind boggling. I am glad Twellman ripped him a new one last night, deservedly so! Our national team actually reflects the state of our Country quite well right now! Sad.
I unfortunately did watch that US-Canada horror show. There’s nothing like Ian Darke and Taylor Twellman telling it like it is, even as painful as it is to hear. Wtf is Berhalter doing taking our best player in the 60th minute?!? The team played with zero intensity for about 3/4 of the game and that’s being kind. All that being said, the Canadiens took it to us and are well deserved winners. If the US doesn’t at least reverse that score in Orlando next month and win the group, Berhalter’s got to go. This is alarming and quite frankly just as bad as two years ago, if not worse.
With Berhalter’s brother apparently becoming the lead guy in US Soccer and with Stewart being the GM – I don’t see GreGGGGGGGGGGG going any where any time soon. This might get worse before it gets better, if that’s even possible. That game last night might have been worse than the game that knocked them out of WC last year, vs. Trinidad. They looked like they have never played a game together. Absolutely awful
I liked the idea of berhalter and his plan in general, but we just don’t have the time to implement it or the right players. Somethings gotta change fast tactically. The bigger problem is the lack of desire since the 06-10 days. These guys look like NBA players playing for the US, except without the casual winning.
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On another note, so many bad games last night, but the three that stood out most were Yedlin, Roldan and Ream. They all seemed to be way off.
The NBA olympians won casually because they have world class talent and athleticism. Our footy team has neither of those qualities. I think the 2002 squad was the best we ever put out there……..they brought it……with half the talent of the other sides.
Yeah you’re agreeing with me, this team can’t afford to act that way, but they do.
They wasted an entire year waiting for Gregg. US Soccer has learned nothing, and are actually worse than before.
The US-Canada result is a five alarm fire that we’re on track to not qualify for the WC again, never mind advancing in it. We haven’t won an away match since beating minnow Cuba back in 2016. At home, we consistently lose to Mexico and lose or draw against midlevel national teams and reserve teams from strong nations. We struggled to barely beat Curaçao in the Gold Cup quarterfinal at home. Now this…
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This disaster is also good news for the Netherlands who–as we know–is targeting Sergiño Dest to file a one-time switch. It creates the argument that our team offers travel hassle with poor prospects. US-Mexico dual nationals will also take note of the trend. Losing promising talent to available better options is self-evidently bad news.
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The team not only lacks cohesiveness but also *urgency*, the latter being the most controllable and least excusable. Someone needs to drill into them the “Tortoise and the Hare’ story again. The lack of urgency showed by the lallygagging that was photoed before the fatal WC qualifying loss to a T&T reserve squad.. Those photos ought to be posted on every locker and strategy room as a reminder. This attitude regarding the CNL and opponent Canada showed again following the expected 7-0 win over minnow Cuba at home. Given their poor record the past few years, it is chutzpah from them to even rate themselves as the hare rather than the tortoise.
No single person is responsible. Historically, USMNT has succeeded based on modest skill and maximum passion. If you remove the passion, all that’s left is modest skill, which is not clearly not sufficient to compete on the international stage, period.
U.S. players, as a whole, simply don’t have high enough skill nor high enough “soccer sense.” Given this situation, no passion == losing. Only a very few U.S. players understand how the game gets played at a high level. The players mostly play in MLS which is a substandard league that fools the players into thinking they are better than they really are because of MLS league branding advertising and increasing salaries. Note, that Carlos Vela, the best scorer in the U.S. is, at 30 years old, past his peak, but still good enough in MLS to break the season scoring record in 2019 with 34 goals.
Further, If you watch MLS carefully, you can see that about 50% of all goals are caused because defenders are watching the ball and not marking players. The second goal by Canada was scored in just this way. Center back #23 staring at ball while center forward is running by him for ball over the top and subsequent goal. This is basic junior league defense, USMNT simply can’t do it. Either you are taught this stuff as a teenager and learn it properly, or you never learn it, period.
Anyone who wants to learn how to play soccer should watch designated player Bastian Schweinsteiger. He has 3 years in MLS as designated player, at age 32-35. And he has scored 8 goals — from midfield player — no less. How is this possible? He’s over the hill — very slow, lacks speed, but scores anyway. It’s because he understands how the game works, how the ball should be moved around to various places and why, how to get himself a positional advantage that overcomes his speed deficity. He hardly every watches the ball; you can see him swiveling his head around all the time watching where all the players are on the field, which is what you must know when playing midfield. He plays soccer like Wayne Gretzky plays hockey — analyzing where the players are, how to defend and attack. Such a player determines where the ball/puck is by simply observing which player are always ball-watching and watching them. I used to do this all the time as a player — it works really well.
You cannot learn this stuff once you are in your 20’s — it’s all learned as a teenager. I’m 56 and played, coached and refereed the game at a high level for 20 years. Americans are still trying to get the knack of it. I don’t think our players deserve criticism. They just don’t have the background and training to understand how to play the game at a high level. I’ve made peace with it and I still root for team USA, but I”m not imagining our team will improve any time soon. Zardes can’t trap the ball and Jordan Morris is off to the races and has trouble passing. Michael Bradley passes ball backwards too much. It’s OK. I accept it all. It’s just a game.
That’s well put Kip. It’s a longstanding problem that Klinsmann and past USMNT players reared in Europe have also correctly stated.
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That said, the US got to its first ‘modern times’ WC in 1990 with only 2 CONCACAF qualifying slots alloted with no domestic league and an average age of 23 with mostly seasonal NCAA trained players. They were part of the US soccer’s ‘first generation’ environment with well meaning parents learning the basics with a few foreign match replay VCR tapes for study, etc. Yet, we qualified every time since 1990 until 2018 and reaching the knockouts many times.
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Given what’s here today, they shouldn’t be this terrible. As you also mentioned, the passion–hunger/urgency–isn’t there. Canada wanted to break the 35 year no-win streak. As Michael Bradley said before the Canada match: “[Y]ou’re going to get a young, motivated, dynamic team that is ready to play this game like it’s a cup final.” Why then didn’t our team once again?
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Playing for your nation is the ultimate privilege and honor, not an entitlement and just another game. It’s something most of us would dream to do if gifted enough. They need to learn and respect what Crash Davis of the film ‘Bull Durham’ taught given he wished he has that level of talent:
Ebby Calvin LaLoosh : How come you don’t like me?
Crash Davis : Because you don’t respect yourself, which is your problem. But you don’t respect the game, and that’s my problem. You got a gift.
Ebby Calvin LaLoosh : What do I got?
Crash Davis : You got a gift. When you were a baby, the Gods reached down and turned your right arm into a thunderbolt. You got a Hall-of-Fame arm, but you’re pissing it away.
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They need to respect the shirt and treat every game like it’s a cup final. If they lose doing their best, we can all live with that besides themselves. Anything less then there’s always barber college…
I feel similarly about the motivation factor.
I never had the physical muscularity necessary for the game, so survived as a player on smarts, skill, deception and passion. I never took any game for granted, in U-12, U-14, U-17, college and U-23. Still have my Jerseys. Scored exactly 1 goal in my college career, an unassisted trick play where I dribble the entire field at the end of the game — the other team knows I’m way too slow to attempt such a thing — which is why it works. Then, because I don’t have a thunderous shot, chip the keeper. That is how someone who weighs 130 pounds can play in the NCAA. I look like the waterboy, but I could play in my day.
Anyway, we do need more passion from USMNT. Our players don’t really look like they’re having much fun. Training is rough, but it is a game. I see our players scowling a lot, accosting the referees, stuff like that. Really? Go out and knock the ball around some.
couldn’t agree with you more, No skills my sons played college soccer the worse soccer I ever seen in my life, kick and run like chicken without heads the more you ran the more playing time you got,,, they couldn’t settle a ball , these kids were taught to win the ball and nothing else at a young age , we use to call it American soccer, soccer is regressing in this country,,, cant watch MLS anymore
Good story Kip. For me, the weakness was speed and strength a strong and accurate foot but the storyline is otherwise very similar. You can’t coach speed, height, etc, and that’s why USMNT was never in our reach. We got as far as we could due to controlling the things we could though, and motivation and appreciation of wearing the shirt was surely one of them. It’s the likely story of many fans posting here that likewise sit in the stands, watch them on TV, read, talk and post about them, etc. Otherwise, we’d be out there.
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As Pulisic conceded after the match: “We didn’t have the same energy that they did…That’s the one thing that we can control.” Yessir. And if Berhalter wants to get anything right, he needs to send that message just as the coach in Bull Durham did with the bats in the shower: