[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

ah, funny thing, i didn't. 1+1 =2. 1+1=2. 1+1=2. it's coherent, but so very fucking boring.

to me he was a huge letdown after arena. he had more talent in his hand and yet accomplished less. it was like he didn't trust the players of being capable of more. no vision, a dead end.



did you watch the jamaica game. i see a team that (as i said above) has possession, passes well, controls the game, and creates goalscoring opportunities instead of just waiting for them.

yes, it's not a tactical innovation, but it's the modern game, and it has more possibilities than waiting for a corner kick. he's following roughly in the pattern of the german transformation that let this generation be world champions. if he can give them some tactical flexibility it will be a huge step.

the usa does not have the same caliber of talent as germany, but if they can play a more interesting, more fun, more creative, more exciting game, then that's massive progress. beating cuba 6-0 was not a bad thing.

see if you can catch some torrent of that game. jamaica's goals were... stupid. really. they were major US fuckups. jamaica didn't score because they created either more, nor more dangerous chances. they had one dangerous chance in the first half, besides the stupid goals. they had a couple of dangerous counters in the last 5 minutes when USA was desperate. that was it.

the us attacked & attacked and they had at least 10 shots to goal. that they didn't score, as i said, was unfortunate. jamaica defends pretty well (and if you don't believe me watch the jamaica-argentina also) but they could have been beaten were it not for the massive fuckup of letting it be 2-0 for no good reason.

i've seen them and i believe. i do see an improvement. a big one. maybe those improvements need to be stamped into the team in the next 3 years and we'll see what happens.

look at what costa rica did at the world cup with sheer team cohesion. i think the usa can and will do better once the tinkering stops and the new structures/schemes get drilled into a regular lineup. playing possession is more complex than kick-and-run, but it can be learned and it will allow so much more. i definitely see progress.

I didn't see the Cuba game or the Jamaica one so fair enough in terms of what you say about how they played in those, and in seeing an overall improvement. I obviously can't comment there. Thing is the few games I have seen, some I've really enjoyed some I haven't, but they've all felt like experiments. And as you say in terms of Costa Rica, national teams benefit from cohesion, especially when they lack great individual talents.