Kolek planning to go pro
I still really dislike Gyasi Zardes as a player.
Yech, this is terrible to watch. Between the complete disrespect from the US crowd, the constant flopping of Colombia (weird cause their senior team usually stays on their feet) it's pretty brutal.On that note I have a real simple way to stop diving. If a player is on the ground for longer than 10 seconds, you have to sub them off if there is no blood.
Pretty crazy how much more confident the individual players looked, and the team cohesiveness appeared, when the players played in their natural/club roles (minus Cameron)
100% this.Hypocrite alert....I rail against players playing out of position...but I love Cameron in the center. Truth be told, I love Cameron generally, I think he is the most consistent player on the senior team in the last year or two.
I agree that the biggest weakness is at LB right, not sure what solution we have there long term. I do love the Cameron-Brooks pairing with Besler as a sub as needed there.
Demarcus BeasleyBut if finding a left back is hard, why doesn't the US just play 3 in the back with Beckerman in a CDM role and yedlin and someone else as wing backs? I'm not super familiar with the US personel but I know Yedlin can play defense and midfield so I feel like being a wing back would really benefit his game.
I actually quite like the 3-4-3/3-5-3. But, there are many international teams who use a 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 (or variant) and their wingers/outside mids wreak HAVOC with an undisciplined/sub-par technical 3 CB formation. The US would be that team.
On Friday, he played a RB at CB, so he could play a DM at RB, so he could play a RB at RM, so he could play a CAM at CDM, so he could play a deep lying playmaker at CAM.
We need to find a LB that is capable. I would go ahead and pencil in Brooks-Cameron-Yedlin in the back.
I think the problem you mentioned in the Friday post relates directly to this comment from your recent post. We have a capable LB in Fabian Johnson. The problem is that Jurgen seems to want to deploy him in the midfield, bouncing back and forth from side to side.
The U-23s were disappointing, though I missed most of the game. Saw the opening 20 minutes or so but missed all real action. Honestly, coming out of CONCACAF, I don't think there's ever much excuse for us not being able to qualify. Two Olympics running now we've come up short.
Ug. So Spursy...
I do not know what I should think about Arsenal. On the one hand, their track record of consistency is very impressive. OTOH, their continued under-performance is an issue right?
So Leicester City just won the league. Wow. On Twitter, everyone wants to compare it to other sports. There is no comparison. They were a 5,000:1 shot. For the love of God, the Babylonian Casino only had David as a 2,000:1 underdog against Goliath.Winning a one-off, winning a tournament, it just can't compare to winning a full league like this. Especially in a sport where competitive disparity isn't just encouraged, it's the entire basis of the sport. Since the league's inception in 1992-93, there had only been 5 different champions (Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City, Blackburn Rovers), and those five along with at various times Liverpool, Tottenham, Newcastle, and Leeds dominated the top four. Prior to Leicester this year, only 13 teams had ever finished in the top-four of the league, with Everton, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest, and Norwich City each having one appearance up there in the past 24 years.Winning this league, winning any top flight European league, is a virtual impossibility for all but a handful of ultra-wealthy teams. Absolutely amazing accomplishment. There's no comparison. There's nothing like it. There will likely be nothing else like it in our lifetimes. Next year, it will be United, or City, or Arsenal, or Chelsea again, the status quo will return.Don't forget this moment. This is the single unlikeliest event in sports you will ever see in your life. I hope you didn't miss it.
MiBs call it right, Arsenal is great as long as it doesn't mean anything. It's like the club has a collective mental block in performing when the pressure is on. Don't see any reason it changes.
One thing I do wonder, is if there is some new model that gets taken away from this. LC played almost only EPL games (no champions or Europa Leagues, etc) which allowed them to play their starting XI more than any other team in EPL. Next year LC will have to play all of the non-EPL cups and that wears a team down. Will be interesting to see what their title defense looks like.
This season redefines Spursy.....they scored the most goals in the league, allowed the fewest in the league and can't catch the league winner with 2 games to go. Tremendous team that in any other season would be the clear winner and would be remembered historically....so Spursy.