reading about Rossi regretting his decision to play for Italy really brightened up my morning. http://www.espnfc.com/italy/story/2...grets-choosing-italy-over-united-states-agent
piece from the Guardian on Pulisic https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/may/31/christian-pulisic-usa-soccer-copa-america-2016
So whats a success for this tournament? Make it out of the group, competitive in the first knockout game?
getting out of the group will be no easy task. and assuming if we do it will be in second place, Brazil will be waiting in the quarters.
if you had asked me 2 years ago my expectations would have been Semis. Now, my expectations are advance out of group and play Brazil competitively. Success? idk Winning the Group i guess.
I don't believe Italy has advanced further than the US in a tournament we were both in since Rossi chose them.
That third group stage match day from the 2009 Confed Cup is one of my top moments watching the USMNT. I was so demoralized after Rossi scored against us and had about as much hope of making the knockout stage as Man United fans had of finishing fourth before their last match against Bournemouth.
Yeah, I probably had already angrily turned the channel when he scored 4 minutes into extra time. It was sort of a Rossi hat trick with Daniele de scoring too.
"The issue is that after five years under Jurgen, the national team still has no sense of itself and how it should play. Klinsmann’s US is neither a plucky, counter-punching outfit in the Bruce Arena/Bob Bradley tradition, nor a possession-based attacking ensemble. It doesn’t press with any particular urgency, and the starting XI is not consistent enough for us to be able to say it’s a team built to support the strengths of its brightest talents. It’s an in-between team, and therefore a nothing team" Amen
describing us as a plucky, counter attacking team under arena and bradley is like describing a team that just runs hail marys in football every play as a deep passing team i'm not a big jurgen fan but people somehow have these fond memories of arena and bradley like we were anywhere better or more organized or had some sort of identity other than, "kick it far and try and chase it." two highlight goals versus brazil in the confederations cup somehow skews the perception of what 95% of our matches were like.
"On paper, the US has been better at the last two World Cups than Australia. But the Socceroos have a much stronger sense of who they are as a team, and how they want to develop over the next generation; their example shows that stylistic consistency can easily form the basis of a systematic national plan" This is the dumbest shit I have read in awhile.
if anyone is interested The Total Soccer Show podcast is doing daily pods covering the Copa and Euros. just listened to the pod where the broke down the Columbia game and interviewed Lalas. they really do a good job getting in depth with tactics if you're into that sort of thing. this was the first I'd listened to them but won't be the last.
this reminds me of people who have bad football teams but brag about their academics. "I know our results are terrible BUT WE'RE COMMITTED TO CLASS!!"
As expected #USMNT starting XI (4-3-3): Guzan; Yedlin, Cameron, Brooks, Johnson; Bedoya, Bradley, Jones; Zardes, Dempsey, Wood (per @FS1)
There better be a lot of people showing up soon if this reported near sellout is going to happen. Stadium is awfully empty.
It was nice of the thousands of Borussia Dortmund fans I see in the crowd to come all the way over here to support Pulisic.
If I have to listen to one more Latin music song or another Jason Derulo tune then I'm gonna have to stop watching this sport forever. I won't be able to take anymore.