Greg Berhalter, World Cup, U.S. discussed on Men In Blazers

Men In Blazers
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To that World Cup and that World Cup cycle, like actual games of importance, actual World Cup qualifying. You had guys like Connor Casey, Jeff Cunningham. You guys like Brian ching. Eddie Johnson, all types of names, Charlie Davies. Ahead of me, Robbie Finley came out of nowhere, you know? Edson buttle came out of nowhere. A guy who just narrowly missed out from being invited was Chris Wanda lasky who came out of nowhere. So things like this are common and you go back through the history of U.S. men's national team and guys come out of nowhere and making it and the player. I don't want to say turn over, but the churning of those rosters as you put it. And it tends to happen, but this has been pretty consistent in that sense. Let's start as you've just shoved this into it at the top with the number 9 configuration. Straight in, all the torque going to these two games, P fock, three goals, two assists. In the Bundesliga for top of the table, union Berlin, I can't think of an international team of our caliber who would be gifted one of the top scorers in a top 5 European league and leave out that player. It is 356 miles from Berlin to cologne by Google Maps. How do you understand why he's not in camp for these two games? I don't. I don't understand it. The main objective of a number 9 because he's a true 9 is to put the ball in the back of the net. You know, all the other things you can add intricacies of playing in the final third and combining and bringing players in and being effective in the way your team presses and being effective in your movements, et cetera. Like that's all fine. And it's great to make other players around you better. But if you're a 9 and you put the ball on the back of the net. And in a cycle where you've seen players. Frankly, when you've seen players like Josh sergeant go cold, you've seen Ricardo pepy go cold. You've seen him convert Jesus feda into a 9. You've seen other 9s given opportunities and have gone cold. Well, here's a guy who's not gone cold. Ever. Like under Greg berhalter, he became the first 9 U.S. men's national team eligible 9 to win a goal scoring title in Europe. The very first. He's 26 years old right now. He's got a couple years if that under the U.S. men's national team. He's only played 9 games for the U.S. men's national team. And if you look at the opportunities or lack thereof that he's received from Greg burr halter, he's played a grand total of a 139 minutes in World Cup qualifying. He started two games in total for Greg berhalter. One of those games World Cup qualifying and it was a very difficult game in Nashville where it was frustrating for everybody versus a Canadian side that Hardman just ate for halter's lunch. In Nashville, and he was part of that. That was when his lone star and World Cup qualifying. That was half of his starting opportunities that has received for the U.S. men's national team and the way this player is harshly judged and it's not just for a halter, many, many fans to this date will bring up well, there's that terrible miss in the Aztec versus Mexico. Yeah, there is a terrible miss. Do you know how many great forwards have missed terribly? It happens all the time. Now, if you're going to judge a player by a 6 second screenshot of his life, it just seems very harsh to me. What about judging him for his long goal for the U.S. men's national team? Coming on as a sub in the semifinal of the cock caffe Nations League versus Honduras, John Brooks ball over the top gets redirected and who comes in and scores. It's Jordan P 5. They're not winning. Nations League over Mexico in dramatic fashion, if not for that goal, that Jordan peacock score. So it's tough as a 9 X 9 myself to see a guy who's just scoring goals and that's all he can do to defend himself and still not be in contention. It's a hard pill to swallow and imagine how he feels. And it's a very weird, almost surreal reality. We U.S. fans have dreamed about having a U.S. player who can score goals at the highest level. It's totally confounding to me that we now have one and he's not even encamped Derek ray tweeting about how German analysts are already talking about how well P fock could play by a Munich and there is an argument in the truss Greg faction will say Pete fock is not a striker that fits Greg system. What does that mean when we say Greg bergholtz system P fock doesn't fit it? Well, first of all, let's hear that from Greg berhalter, right? Because we've heard everything from which is the kiss of death when I'm about to tell you. We know what this said player can do. We want to bring in somebody else. We know what this player is about. That is the kiss of death. That was the last thing I remember hearing about John Brooks and you know how that went for him. So let's wait for Greg brew hall to actually say that. Like it's a system thing. He doesn't fit my system until he says that I refuse to believe that. Because a 9 fits any system, a goal scoring 9 can fit any system. Or we'll have a place on your roster at least at some facet in the game, or some situation in a tournament. That said, Greg berhalter expects his 9 to be about movement in the interpretation of space and how he can make those around him better. The combination play and the movement to make players that Christian Pulisic better to make a bread in areas in Giovanni Reina to make a Timothy waya. Those players around him stronger. That's what Greg berhalter looks and the way that player can press. The way that player can dictate how the defensive structure starts. That would be my estimation of Greg ber halder's expectations of his 9. But the most important thing for a 9 is to score goals is to be confident. And that's what this kid does. I've talked a lot about this, Greg's obsession with Greg system to me is the greatest blind spot of his tenure. He had some experience at club level, not a huge amount. But it has all been at the club level, and international football tactically is so different to club football. It's really a hot mess. The players just don't have the same time together to fuse into a true machine to really gel. It's much more, there's much more space, it's much more open, it's much more defensive, it's much more about the intangibles and about simplicity and please don't want me talking about how Spain 2000 template because I love the U.S. men, but we are not Spain 2010. And when Greg was asked about P four, he said, we're pretty confident we know Jordan's profile. We know what he can do. And yeah, we've had a lot of people tweeting us one of them at guy, this guy to just P Fox going to be going.

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