2024 EURO & COPA AMERICA

#279
#279
I told you all, after Gareth Bale retired that Cody Gakpo could become my new favorite player. Well, it's official, now. Go Big Orange of Europe !
 
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#280
#280
n_huffhines said:
Thoughts after last night:

The facts that we wouldn't have advanced anyway yesterday, nor did we deserve to, makes it so easy to swallow the officiating.

IDK what to do about Berhalter. I've been following US soccer for 20 years and nobody's ever happy with the coach for any length of time, and they're all the same. Tell me we can get an elite coach, OK, fine. Musical chairs with guys that never make any meaningful difference? Nah. How about some continuity? He won the gold cup. Advanced out of group stage in the WC. We flopped in Copa America because Weah pulled a David Beckham. This result is not on Berhalter. I think our expectations are too high if we think we should fire a coach with this tournament resume. All that being said, I realize a lot of you know way more about soccer and the team than I do. Just my $0.02

I can't believe we're hosting the world cup on the heels of this tournament. I guess we got the Confederations Cup for a chance at redemption prior to the WC?
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You’re right we wouldn’t have advanced, but the officiating was appalling. The passage of play where the ref blew his whistle to pull play back for a foul, and then proceeded to issue a yellow card while simultaneously playing advantage for Uruguay resulting in Tim Ream having to make an acrobatic clearance off the line was one of the most shocking things I’ve seen in the sport. I would expect better from a 13 year old kid reffing his first U-7 match, much less an alleged professional at a major tournament.

As for Berhalter, winning the Gold Cup and getting out of the group stage of the WC is really just treading water re: expectations. With the rise in talent level, we really should be aspiring to better than that, especially in 2026 when we’re hosting. I’m just highly skeptical Berhalter has a ceiling any higher than just meeting the bare minimum expectations.
 
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#287
#287
"This is a fantastic group as everyone knows but sometimes the intensity falls through the cracks," Ream said. "If we start to think that we are a finished product then guys are going to stagnate and just stay at the level they are at.". -Ream
 
#289
#289
n_huffhines said:
Thoughts after last night:

The facts that we wouldn't have advanced anyway yesterday, nor did we deserve to, makes it so easy to swallow the officiating.

IDK what to do about Berhalter. I've been following US soccer for 20 years and nobody's ever happy with the coach for any length of time, and they're all the same. Tell me we can get an elite coach, OK, fine. Musical chairs with guys that never make any meaningful difference? Nah. How about some continuity? He won the gold cup. Advanced out of group stage in the WC. We flopped in Copa America because Weah pulled a David Beckham. This result is not on Berhalter. I think our expectations are too high if we think we should fire a coach with this tournament resume. All that being said, I realize a lot of you know way more about soccer and the team than I do. Just my $0.02

I can't believe we're hosting the world cup on the heels of this tournament. I guess we got the Confederations Cup for a chance at redemption prior to the WC?
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I do agree somewhat with the coaching continuity statement. Seems like we never like the coach and we always assume a new one will fix it. I do think we are capable of spending the money on someone much better.

I read this quote on Twitter today and think there's a lot of merit to it.

 
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#292
#292
theFallGuy said:
I do agree somewhat with the coaching continuity statement. Seems like we never like the coach and we always assume a new one will fix it. I do think we are capable of spending the money on someone much better.

I read this quote on Twitter today and think there's a lot of merit to it.

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Rob Stone was talking about how our teams in the past knew they were underdogs and would just grind. "You might beat us but you're going to hate playing us."

We don't have that identity anymore. We got doubled up on fouls in this tournament and somehow we got more cards than our opponents. We're trying to finesse teams and we're soft and mentally weak. We let these teams beat the **** out of us and goad us into cards.
 
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#293
#293
I know this will never happen because emotionally, purists would freak out, and practically, it would render historical goal records incomparable, but can we please get rid of offside inside the 25 yard line? Just draw a line all the way down the field, no offside once the ball is beyond this point. It'd make the game so much better.
 
#294
#294
theFallGuy said:
"This is a fantastic group as everyone knows but sometimes the intensity falls through the cracks," Ream said. "If we start to think that we are a finished product then guys are going to stagnate and just stay at the level they are at.". -Ream
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To me that is a pretty damning statement on GB. Also aligns with what Carli Lloyd was saying (FTR I wood). She stated the team almost looks too comfortable with GB, and when she was with the USWNT they basically hated all their coaches because they pushed them so hard.
 
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#295
#295
n_huffhines said:
I know this will never happen because emotionally, purists would freak out, and practically, it would render historical goal records incomparable, but can we please get rid of offside inside the 25 yard line? Just draw a line all the way down the field, no offside once the ball is beyond this point. It'd make the game so much better.
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I’m not necessarily a “purist” but I wouldn’t like that at all. I understand the feelings around offside calls and I’m not a fan of holding my breathe after every goal to see if there was a marginal offside somewhere in the play, but no offsides in that distance would hurt the game more, IMO. My personal opinion would be that with no offsides as you laid it, we would think there would be more goals and more excitement but I think it would actually lead to less goals and less exciting passages of play. If forwards are allowed to just camp by the goal or even just sink lower to the goal line than normal to drag CBs further backward to cover them, which in return then has the defensive midfielders and players tracking back sinking even further towards their own net, then now you have a seriously congested box and it’s even harder to find openings and exciting combinations.
 
#296
#296
n_huffhines said:
I know this will never happen because emotionally, purists would freak out, and practically, it would render historical goal records incomparable, but can we please get rid of offside inside the 25 yard line? Just draw a line all the way down the field, no offside once the ball is beyond this point. It'd make the game so much better.
Click to expand...
I don’t like the idea of getting rid of offsides, but make it like hockey. If you have one foot behind the plane you are onside.
 
#297
#297
Nash_Vol97 said:
I’m not necessarily a “purist” but I wouldn’t like that at all. I understand the feelings around offside calls and I’m not a fan of holding my breathe after every goal to see if there was a marginal offside somewhere in the play, but no offsides in that distance would hurt the game more, IMO. My personal opinion would be that with no offsides as you laid it, we would think there would be more goals and more excitement but I think it would actually lead to less goals and less exciting passages of play. If forwards are allowed to just camp by the goal or even just sink lower to the goal line than normal to drag CBs further backward to cover them, which in return then has the defensive midfielders and players tracking back sinking even further towards their own net, then now you have a seriously congested box and it’s even harder to find openings and exciting combinations.
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You may be right but it's hard for me to wrap my mind around that. Forwards would only be allowed to camp by the goal if the ball is inside the 25 (or it could be the 18). If teams pack it in defensively to keep the ball outside the 18-yard line, then they're giving up too much possession. If goals are easier to come by, it changes the risk and cost calculus. You can give up more goals because you can score more goals. I mean, the box is never more congested than on corner kicks and we see a lot of goals from corners, and rarely are they disallowed for offside

I swear half the fkn goals are reviewed and half of those are overturned. It's awful. It's the worst part of the sport.
 
#298
#298
n_huffhines said:
You may be right but it's hard for me to wrap my mind around that. Forwards would only be allowed to camp by the goal if the ball is inside the 25 (or it could be the 18). If teams pack it in defensively to keep the ball outside the 18-yard line, then they're giving up too much possession. If goals are easier to come by, it changes the risk and cost calculus. You can give up more goals because you can score more goals. I mean, the box is never more congested than on corner kicks and we see a lot of goals from corners, and rarely are they disallowed for offside

I swear half the fkn goals are reviewed and half of those are overturned. It's awful. It's the worst part of the sport.
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Different leagues have slightly different patterns of play. I don’t watch enough Bundesliga or La Liga to tell you exactly how theirs is but it’s common to hear that they are more wide open than the Premier League for example. Lot more space to deal with as teams aren’t as keen to park the bus. In a league like that, maybe your idea would be a little more enticing.

On the flip side, look at the Premier League. It’s a more compacted and physical league. The bottom of the league, especially teams around the relegation zone, don’t have near the talent as the top half of the league and you regularly see them give up possession and play defensive looking to counter when they can. The top 6 regularly face low blocks when they are playing teams towards the bottom and those games already see the top team have 60%, 70% or more possession. If you take away the offsides inside 25 meters or so and allow a team like City to strategically back you further towards your own goal than you may see possession in upwards of 80%. Then on top of that, if a defensive team does get the control for a minute it’s even harder to break out on a counter because of the way they’ve been compacted towards the net. These types of games can already be hard to watch at times and casuals to the sport would be turned off to this type of match.

Now, when two top 6 teams in the PL play each other where you have at least comparable talent, then yeah, that offside rule may lead to a bit more excitement in that game. But I guess it’s just what’s the net positive vs net negative of that rule overall that I’d be too concerned about.
 
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#299
#299
n_huffhines said:
You may be right but it's hard for me to wrap my mind around that. Forwards would only be allowed to camp by the goal if the ball is inside the 25 (or it could be the 18). If teams pack it in defensively to keep the ball outside the 18-yard line, then they're giving up too much possession. If goals are easier to come by, it changes the risk and cost calculus. You can give up more goals because you can score more goals. I mean, the box is never more congested than on corner kicks and we see a lot of goals from corners, and rarely are they disallowed for offside

I swear half the fkn goals are reviewed and half of those are overturned. It's awful. It's the worst part of the sport.
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To the second part I totally agree. For offsides the three main changes I’d make is to increase the line width dramatically when evaluating the offsides, make the threshold more forgiving like offsides is only applicable if the entire person is in front of the last defenders foot/body part rather than the way it’s done now, and lets get the semi-automatic offsides technology fully integrated and continue to improve that.
 
#300
#300
Nash_Vol97 said:
I’m not necessarily a “purist” but I wouldn’t like that at all. I understand the feelings around offside calls and I’m not a fan of holding my breathe after every goal to see if there was a marginal offside somewhere in the play, but no offsides in that distance would hurt the game more, IMO. My personal opinion would be that with no offsides as you laid it, we would think there would be more goals and more excitement but I think it would actually lead to less goals and less exciting passages of play. If forwards are allowed to just camp by the goal or even just sink lower to the goal line than normal to drag CBs further backward to cover them, which in return then has the defensive midfielders and players tracking back sinking even further towards their own net, then now you have a seriously congested box and it’s even harder to find openings and exciting combinations.
Click to expand...
Similar to why extra time Golden Goal in the late 90’s and early 2000’s didn’t work. The thought was if a single goal could win the game, teams would be motivated to try and go get that goal to avoid PK’s. Instead the opposite ended up happening. When there’s no way back from conceding, teams were afraid to throw anyone forward, which ended up with both teams usually parking the bus and playing for PK’s.
 
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