Official USMNT/USWNT Thread

[Cod]

Quote: Originally Posted by Brahvocado

Don’t necessarily disagree but teams outside the top 20 make deep runs all the time. I mean by the rankings we ARE a top 20 team. We should at the very least be able to make it extremely difficult to beat us for any of the top top teams, and able to pull off results on occasion. Currently neither is the case.

According to the FIFA Rankings, yes, we are in the top 20. The Elo Rankings, which put a little more science behind it, have the USMNT at 32. Neither is close to perfect, I just have a hard time trusting FIFA Rankings when Brazil and Belgium have lived near the top for so long...the later not having done near enough to warrant their rankings.

[jasontoddwhitt]

It appears the USMNT have their guy.

https://x.com/david_ornstein/status/...j2wlPEzEFyG14g

Blows my expectations out of the water. Never expected them to hire Pochettino.

[ImTellinTim]

Is this a new era of competency or blind luck lol

[Cod]

Quote: Originally Posted by jasontoddwhitt

It appears the USMNT have their guy. https://x.com/david_ornstein/status/...j2wlPEzEFyG14g Blows my expectations out of the water. Never expected them to hire Pochettino.

This move shows that the federation may have gotten their heads out of their rears. However, as I mentioned with Klopp, Pochettino does not have experience with tournament football on an international level. The game is different and the same tactics, etc. do not work in most cases. I'm excited to see how he can adjust and squeeze the most out of the talent we have. I don't think we're going to see Emma Hayes levels of success, at least not right away, but at least it's in the realm of possibilities now.

[Cod]

Reviewing Wyscout data on Pochettino has me thinking about squad management more. Pochettino typically utilizes a 4-2-3-1 when attacking and switching to a 442 or 4141 when defending. On the attack, the fullbacks heavily influence the style as they end up driving the form shape (compact vs wide). He loves the high-press which flows into a settled defense.

Do we have enough fullbacks / wing backs that are comfortable with the ball at their feet and high fitness levels? I ask "enough" because I think we have a couple that can manage this style, but with players playing more and more games in the calendar year, we're going to need at least 4-5 that can fill-in.

[Brahvocado]

Petition to have female refs replace every top flight male ref immediately.

They are scrutinized 100x more because they are women so they respond by simply never making mistakes.

Seeing an actual good ref makes you realize what clowns some of these guys are.

[fugazi]

Crickets.

Understandably so...

But crickets, nonetheless.