Bruce Arena Era 2: Electric Boogaloo. USMNT Super Thread

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Yank said:
Completely agree. I never really cared for Landon despite all the reasons for me to like him.

Failed at Bayern, and every where else he tried to play in Europe. Decided to sit out most of qualifying then thought he could just turn up and play a WC. He just struck me as someone being content to be a big fish in a small pond. Then all this other non sense and how he reacted to Carlos Bocanegra revealed his true self.
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Landon failed at Leverkeusen, and admitted he was way too young for Europe. He got homesick then went back to MLS and then got a little too comfortable plus bored w/ footie (it was a job) and was a very soft player until around 2007-08. I think the LA Galaxy signing Beckham helped in kind of weird way. In Beckham's 1st 2 years he pretty much gave the vibe that he wanted to be anywhere but the Galaxy. I don't think Landon ever understood the Premadonavan chants until he was exposed to a bigger fish who was acting the same way. After that he really dedicated himself didn't shy away from physical contact and finally started to become a leader.

However, I watched him at Bayern, he had no chance there. It wasn't because he wasn't good enough, and had a great warmup to the 2nd half of the season. He just walked in on a loan deal on a totally dysfunctional club (the FC Hollywood days). The players hated Klinsmann, the chairman hated Klinsmann, and the players hated each other. Klinsmann also did Landon no favors by playing him a different position every single match (RW, LW, center freaking forward, CM). Still Landon did alright and was a bit unlucky and had some great chances (remember a couple where he was just stoned by the oppositions keeper). Then Jurgen blamed Landon for getting fired (and started the feud w/ him) which would be like Big Sam blaming Lookman for getting fired.

Contrast that to what we did w/ Landon, he was told that he's playing RW and started that position as soon as he got off the plane. Plus the locker room was tight at the time and everyone accepted him. Low and behold, success. Also as far as him not wanting to go to Europe, he wanted to stay at Everton its just we "couldn't afford" the price tag of 1/3 of what we paid for Bolasie.

As far as him not training enough for the last WC, he was greater than 30 and had been playing footie for just about 12 months a year the past few years. Yes he took some time off and Jurgen made him play in the Gold Cup, where he was the tourney's best player. Knows his body and what he should and should not be doing and your job as manager for a national team is to keep your vets fresh enough so they can play 3-6 matches at 100%. You think Tim Cahill was running hours of wind sprints in the run-up to the last 2 world cups?
 
SerenityNigh said:
I thought Landon grew up in the rec/club culture? Deuce grew up in the Sunday league/Mexican league culture, much more "playground" (or Rucker Park, to crossover) atmosphere than the current model (although he did go to a big club as a teen). Maybe I'm wrong on all of that, but I remember reading about a big difference of influence in the two.

Yes, I think MLS academies are catching up, but don't know if anything has changed yet. FCD seems to be pretty successful in getting their kids to debut at the MLS level. We'll see if they or anyone else can translate that into producing talent beyond what the current model does, however. FCD have been pretty aggressive with feeder clubs (they've got an East Texas group that is now growing into our market, "talent searching"), but this is a tired model and not the grassroots effort required to change the industry.
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Landon played in rec leagues, but played a lot with the Mexicans in his spare time plus they helped teach him spanish.
 
Antonee Robinson called back up - good for 'Merica, and good for Everton too. I think this kid has the potential to bee a fixture at LB, he just needs to keep getting on the pitch against good competition.
 
mmmmsnouts said:
Not being able to call up Pulisic should go a long way towards that.
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I'm fine with Pulisic and Sargent being left in Germany during these friendlies. We know what Pulisic is, and he doesn't need, IMO, the weight of leading during every international break at his age. Sargent will benefit from working with the first team. As we get closer to games that matter, CP is the first name on the teamsheet.

But we need to quick jacking around and appoint a manager.
 
This narrative that the US played well because they drew France when they got absolutely dominated and were lucky to not get smashed and also lost to an awful Ireland side in the same tour is absolutely opposite of what we need if we're ever going to improve this team
 
TheBigIguana said:
This narrative that the US played well because they drew France when they got absolutely dominated and were lucky to not get smashed and also lost to an awful Ireland side in the same tour is absolutely opposite of what we need if we're ever going to improve this team
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Not sure if you watched the France game tbh. Maybe fortunate to get a draw but it wasn’t total domination and we weren’t lucky to not get smashed. We were never going to take the game to France but they honestly showed well and executed a game plan.
 
carolinablue232 said:
Not sure if you watched the France game tbh. Maybe fortunate to get a draw but it wasn’t total domination and we weren’t lucky to not get smashed. We were never going to take the game to France but they honestly showed well and executed a game plan.
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I was only able to watch bits and pieces but what I saw involved us not having the ball and bunkering in Pulis style. Which I understand we need to do against better teams but what concerned me was there was very little counter attacking threat and the goal was from an error more than actual good play.

My feeling is given we have Yedlin and Robinson as useful wingbacks we should work on a 3-4-3 type system which we could easily adapt to be 5-2-3 against good teams. That way we are always playing in a system we are used to but can really take it to Jamaica and Guatemala while having counter attacks ready for the likes of Brazil.
 
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