yeah when it's not WC none of these guys are on really it's a different show.

****kk

maybe it was just me
but yedlin so much better than i expected

I cringe every time I think about FOX airing the next two World Cups.

There's just so many reasons it's going to be terrible. First of all I'd be surprised if FOX decides to air non US games daily on FOX. Affiliates won't be okay with soccer replacing Judge Judy and Maury on their weekday schedules. That means most games will end up on FS1 and FS2; channels that only have a fraction of the daily viewers and potential audience of ESPN and ESPN2. They also won't be able outdo the promotional machine ESPN has that has helped soccer grow in this country.

Plus it seems like FOX still has no desire to bring in quality analysts and announcers. Their plan is to stick American baseball and football guys in the booth. The last time I watched soccer on FOX the pregame had a segment where Michael Strahan explained the difference between "football" and "football." It was beyond terrible. You can tell FOX still doesn't quite "get it" when it comes to soccer.

Twellman is actually fine.

FWIW Scherer, Twellman was basically on the path to becoming the GOAT American. Unfortunately had major concussion issues, and wasn't treated properly. Very sad shortened career. His final game he scored 2 goals, and reportedly claimed during HT he took something crazy, like 8 excedrins, 3 types of alcohol, other pain killers, and something, just to see straight.

It's likely he's suffered some kind of brain damage.

I will always be a Twellman fan. He could have transferred to a Big League, but was held back by the MLS. Was very sad.

Twellman had a massive feud with Bob Bradley as well, I don't know what it was about. His goalscoring record in the MLS was 2nd to none.

So I rocked in the fetal position for pretty much the entirety. Couldn't deal with what I was watching for the most part. Am also lamenting the missed chances. But after some time to sulk and reflect I think I can sum it up for me at least. And the total is positive trending.

First of all, looking back at my previews we succeeded beyond measure in almost all areas. Getting out of that group took some luck but we did it the way it had to be done. Our o/u for that group point wise was 1.5. And our actual worthwhile point total for how we played was somewhere around 3. That's phenomenal. And such a positive trend to the future with an assurance that we haven't lost what makes us good as a USMNT.

*The defense gets an A for sure. Anybody who thinks it gets anything less than like a B+ has no idea how much of a tire fire this was supposed to be going into the tournament. We used the WC qualifiers and the actual cup itself to figure out some players for the future. And Jurgen has proved me wrong in finding some new blood, some old blood, and some new, old blood.

*Jozy's loss was so unfortunate as we saw just how much a guy like Zusi relies on his presence to be effective. Zusi was not tasked with defending much in the RO16 match and he lost so much worth not having Jozy. Could he have seen benefit from Boyd on the roster? Yeah, probably, but Johannssen was more in form coming in and then **** the bed against Ghana. Jozy is still the man up top and his continued development is key. Let us not forget he still isn't 25, and strikers of a certain size tend to have a later development curve. I'm not one to say Jozy will be Drogba, but the top of his development curve is absolutely a poor man's Drogba and not a homeless man's one.

*Gotta give Bradley a pass for what we've pretty much collectively labeled as a poor showing by his standard. He was still our best field player half the time. He tried to do too much obviously. Another benefit from him returning to MLS is that he will get more experience being THE MAN on a team and next cycle he'll likely be better with his decision making. Not that it's particularly bad now. Variance can be a bitch sometimes. I love Michael Bradley. I assume he wears the C next.

*Youth was served this cycle and it should doubtlessly help us in the next 4 years. Beyond qualifiers and Gold Cup be on special lookout for the Olympics qualifiers which, if memory serves me correctly, will happen early 2016. CONCACAF got two slots last time so the semi-final match was basically a play in. We got housed by a better side. It hurt our development not to qualify for the Olympics. If you think that U23 tourney isn't valuable just look at how those kids that played Mexico thru ended up revitalizing what was essentially a dead national team. We NEED to qualify for the Olympics. There may be a few guys that we just didn't identify because they didn't get a chance to go to London.

*It'll be interesting to see if any of the younger guys that have been touted at one time or another come back to the team soon even after having been "written off." This was supposed to be our CB golden generation lest we forget. Guys like Tim Ream, Gale Agbossomunde and Ike Opara didn't make it this cycle. This next could see an emergence for any of them. Coupled with a steady hand like Besler and continued development of Omar, both of whom really impressed me we could be looking at CB as a position of strength going into 2018.

Attackers fall in and out of vogue. Juan Agudelo and Terrance Boyd were both guys that could have made this roster. They'll fight Johannssen and Jozy for the future. In the MF Brek Shea is a Jurgen favorite and I expect him to get more opportunity especially as Eddie Johnson is probably done now and Zusi didn't exactly cover himself in glory. Mix will continue. He could use a season learning in Serie A or La Liga even if he's not playing every week iyam. Going to a league like the Turkish league wouldn't be awful for him either. Toughness could help.

*Sunil giving Jurgen the contract early helps the program immensely. I'm not a fan of more than one cycle for a national team manager in general. But I support this move. We'll see if his... odd... motivational techniques still work on the team in the future. He seems like a guy who could definitely lose the team at times. Luckily we have to be one of the mentally toughest sides which helps.

*Anybody who joined just for the World Cup finals here, you can really get a lot of fun from watching the team develop in the other tournaments, keeping an eye on the kids (U.S. Soccer has a GREAT youtube channel) and especially bunkering in for CONCACAF qualifying which, as Roger Bennett puts, is like the Star Wars bar of international soccer. It's intense, unfair, ridiculous, and a **** ton of fun.

I'm happy to share this thread with so many people who are interested in the team. I hope we can continue to develop as supporters as well as a national side. But I'll be there whether we become WC champs or the drizzling ****s. Look forward to seeing all of you there and on to Russia. Cheers.

this this this this

ESPN's coverage has been absolutely amazing, including with the announce teams, studio coverage, video packages, and the miniseries leading up to the WC was a great promotional tool as well. FOX on the other hand seem content to ram Gus Johnson (who I love but the soccer thing is just not happening for him) down our throats. Basically I'm expecting FOX's coverage to be a complete tire fire, and I really hope fan support doesn't suffer as a result.

Nice post LK. I think you're way overestimating some of the guys who didn't win a slot. (Tim Ream sucks and probably will never be good enough, IMO, and I think Boyd sucks too but YMMV)

State of the team is pretty high. I am not sure why you don't like managers getting more than 1 cycle. That seems a bit defeatist. My stance is keep a manager as long as he's good and positive. Jurgen obviously fits the bill.

see i didnt watch taylor play, so i dont have feelings for him. sunday was the first time i caught him in a studio-like setting and he came across as having a superiority complex and a few of the people in studio looked very uncomfortable talking to him at times bc of his attitude. and visa versa.

once they had to make a dumb joke about him banging his foot on the table to get him to stop talking about the refs giving arjen robben a yellow card for exaggerating contact. awkward.

in the booth he can make some good tactical observations (imo anyway, but im new to this) but repeats some of them far too often. "lukaku changed this game... lukaku came in and changed this game... ian, but ian, lukaku. changed. this. game."

Yeah I hear you. Just filling you in on some backstory.

agudelo > boyd

In 2011 I thought Agudelo was going to be a goal scoring god. Guess there's still time.

Yedlin was a pleasant surprise. Also Beasley.

Grant Wahl tweeted that the AR had his flag up for offside and it wouldn't have counted.

We really have no clue who will emerge for the next cycle. Four years ago, Yedlin was maybe a freshman in high school. This cycle that players who came up through Development Academics will be eligible for. We don't know which German-Americans will be uncovered by JK.

Guzan is more than capable deputy if Howard retires from international duty.

For the rest of it, who knows? Dempsey, Jones, Beasley, Beckerman won't be around.

The key will be developing quality depth.

does last night's game go into the FIFA computer rankings (and, for that matter, the ELO computer rankings) as a draw or USA#1 loss?

I'm 99% sure that penalty losses go into Elo as a 0.5 goal loss.

Our actual scoreline should be accurately reflected though.

Zusi was ****ing god awful in that game yesterday. Lost possession more times then I could count and was literally doing everything he could not to have the ball at his feet. He should of been taken off at halftime.

Yup. Sucks that we have to deal with Gus Johnson. They will lose the viewers ESPN gained because they are so terrible.

Taylor Twellman is terrible in the booth. He offers no insight whatsoever and is only there because he was a former American player.

As far as i can remember it was not a penalty loss?
This is the general system for the ranking:

Result Points
Win (no penalty shootout) 3
Win (penalty shootout) 2
Draw 1
Loss (penalty shootout) 1
Loss (no penalty shootout) 0

The nr of points is then modified based on a few other factors:

Ranking points = 100 x (Result points x Match status x Opposition strength x Regional strength)

As someone mentioned, Zusi is the sort of player who has to have someone to hold the ball up and run off of. That is why the loss of Altidore hurt so much, because he really allowed Dempsey to drop deep and turn and run at goal and Bedoya/Zusi to play off of him.

It is puzzling no back-up target player was selected, but really who were the options? Boyd is not international caliber and Eddie Johnson not really a target player either. The best target striker in MLS who is also American is .... ?? (I honestly have no clue, maybe Casey still?)

Johnson has some holdup play in his game. He was likely our best option for that role, although he never would have been in contention to start, so it would have been of limited value to Zusi, who was poor even when he got on the ball. Thought Zusi and Beasley were the two real weak links in the team.

Besler was heroic, but it'd be swell if the US developed a more mobile CB pairing at some point between now and 2018. Hard not to sit deep when that's what your CBs want to do, and we don't have the players (as shown yesterday) to avoid conceding chances when parked.

Remember when Casey beat Honduras and got us a crucial 3 last cycle? That had to be like one of my most unexpected moments experienced as a USMNT fan.

This is what I have such a hard time with here. There are such WILDLY varying opinions on whether a guy is good/bad/WOAT/GOAT, that, as a noob, I have a hard time getting a handle on what's going on.

also +1 to it being horrible that Fox got the WC instead of ESPN. ESPN's coverage has been absolutely perfect this + the last WC (and it's always nice to have ESPN in an event's camp given their impact on overall sports narratives).
which guys?

Almost broke down and bought a Beasley jersey after Portgual match.

After yesterday, definitely wishing I had. Man. What an effort from DMB.

As for young players, touching on a few already mentioned:

Lederman is exciting in the "sort by club team, select world cup roster" sense given that he's been in La Masia for 3 years, but the kid is 14. Literally no one has seen him play a game. Important to remember that a lot of people go through Barca's academy and end up playing in places like Sporting KC (Uri Rosell)

Junior Flores blew up in the Nike U-17 tournament 2 years ago against solid competition. He wasn't able to sign with a European club for 2 years because of labor laws, but just signed with Dortmund a few months ago. He's good.

Marc Pelosi was getting time for Liverpool in Europa league last year before braking his leg.

Erik Palmer-Brown is super legit. He had a terrible first game for SKC when he was forced to play after everyone else got injured/suspended, but he has all the talent in the world. And thankfully a coach like Vermes is going to keep giving him chances after one bad outing as a 17 year old.

Others to watch:

F Haji Wright was the Junior Flores of the last Nike U-17 tournament, only better. He was one of the top 3 players in a tournament that featured US, Brazil, England and Portugal. Currently in LAG's youth academy and word is that his younger brother is even better.

F Joe Gallardo has showed out in his last couple U-17 tournaments as well (Nike, Aegean Cup). Currently plays in Monterrey's youth system.

M Luis Gil is a 20 year old starter for Real Salt Lake who plays similarly to a young Stuart Holden. Turned down an Arsenal youth squad offer at 16 to go pro in MLS, and is probably going to cash in on that decision in the next year or two.

M/F Dembakwi (Boxi) Yomba was a top high school prospect and U-17 national teamer who just signed a deal with Atletico Madrid.

D Shaquell Moore is in the Junior-Flores-holding-zone of unattached players who are waiting to turn 18 to sign a European contract. That will happen in November this year.