the expectations for this tournament after Rio should have been semis, but thats just not reasonable.
---------Wood-----Dempsey -----------------Nagbe Pulisic---------------------Bedoya? Jones? Zusi? -----------------Bradley Fab----Brooks----Besler-----Yedlin Idk just spitballing
idk Dempsey is on a downhill trajectory, but he's still producing quite a bit in terms of goals. If AJ was healthy I might take him over Clint going forward, but for now I think he's still the best we have up there.
Dempsey is still one of the more talented guys in the pool, the team just works better without him in the lineup. he does score goals, but when he's not scoring he gives you nothing else.
You very well may be right, I just feel like this team struggles enough scoring goals that we may not be able to drop the one guy that seems to consistently produce them.
Lost in my happiness of the nagbe goal was how bad yedlin shat on the defender to get the original cross through. Guy literally almost fell down off that headfake.
It's tough. Dempsey will do absolutely nothing for 30 minutes, have 5 terrible giveaways, and then come up with absolute brilliance to set up what should have been a goal for Zardes. He's a mixed bag at this point, but we need anybody who can create up top. Admittedly, it's becoming far less regular.
Many think Messi is going to the USA to play in a tournament but in reality he's seeking out Bobby Wood to be shown how playing striker is really done.
My problem with dempsey is that while you may get the moment of brilliance he also doesn't move well off the ball and clogs key areas or he'll drop back towards the midfield to get more touches and allows the CBs to push higher up the pitch. Our attack just seems to flow so much better without him out there.
----Pulisic----Wood----Bedoya---- --------Jones-------Nagbe--------- ---------------Bradley-------------- -Johnson-Brooks-Cameron-Yedlin --------------Guzan----------------
I was busy and missed the 2nd half : ( and my man Nagbe nets not only his first goal, the game winner, and generally considered to have played a great half from everything I've read. I hope Jurgen continues to give him minutes, such a creative talent that feeds off his own confidence.
Germany won the world cup without having a true left back on the squad. Most full backs are just failed wingers.
well he's used to be featured as a sub I'm not opposed to keeping him in that role. there are worse spots for him than 30 min off the bench running at tired legs. don't forget we will play 3 games in 8 days during the group stage, no reason to burn him out.
I'm not kidding when I totally expect Wondolowski to either start or be the first person off the bench next week.
Don't know why i do this to myself, but I'm still holding out hope we don't see starts out of zusi, beckermann, zardes, or jones against Bolivia. There's no reason not to get a better look at what we have with the younger guys all on the pitch together against a weak team in the last friendly before copa.
with that lineup, i'm sure the momentum and positive, attacking play we saw in the second half of last game will continue
ugh I'm sorry but I see zero point in starting Jermaine Jones in a meaningless friendly against a bad team.
Mainly because he's 34, there's a good chance he won't even be on the next world cup team, and we have much younger, more talented players that need reps. If this was actually copa I wouldn't have as much of an issue, but this game doesn't matter. A guy like Zardes I can kind of understand because he's 24 and maybe Jurgen is still holding out hope he will develop.
I just don't think I'll ever understand some of this stuff. You got to give the kids a chance to play and start to develop depth on an international roster. No wonder we barely have 15 guys ready to go at any given point, because that's all that are given consistent chances.
Jones has been one of the best players in the squad for the last few years and has shown no signs of slowing down though.