fair enough, but the distance from the pitchers mound to home plate is consistent, as is the distances between the bases.
As is the size of the penalty box, size of the corner kick spot, distance of the penalty spot from the goal, and the center circle in soccer. What changes is the spaces between them and the boundaries...much like baseball. Rugby and cricket don't have specific dims either, other than certain parts of the pitch.
it was a pathetic display, no effort, no passion. I get maybe the US squad was maybe not on the level of some of the Swiss players, but my god man, at least tackle or foul someone.
I love soccer/futbol. I usually get jazzed up for the Gold Cup and qualifying, but man this team is a tough watch. I know a fair amount of our team was not in attendance but for god sake 4 nil in first half. I watched all of 5 minutes of it then went to a new episode of Lincoln Lawyer.
Things look pretty bleak for 2026. This team needed meaningful competition since they don't have to qualify and to see them either sit out of the Gold Cup or get whomped in exhibitions is disheartening. At least the Dempsey/Donovan/Howard teams had an identity: less skilled, but would out-work anyone. This team is less skilled, but entitled. I can't predict anything before knowing the groups, but I wouldn't be surprised if we don't make it out of that stage and perform well below Mexico and Canada.
If the talent hasn't emerged by now, which it hasn't, I don't expect it to. You know it when you see it. Unfortunately for us, we've never seen it.
It's a very real possibility that we don't make it out of the group. T&T and Haiti will smell blood and Saudi definitely won't be easy. I'm used to us having a B/C team in this tournament but that's not going to cut it any more. The players in the CWC I get. But there's no excuse for Jedi, Pulisic, and Musah not to be here. Whining about their minutes when there are plenty of examples of players having played more minutes this past season playing with their national teams over the last week AND THEN going to the CWC. This team needs to play meaningful minutes before next summer and this is the last chance. Yeah...we'll be the 1 host next year to not get out of the first. This is shaping up to be 1998/2006 all over again...only this time, on home soil.
What an unbeliveably bad game last night. Yes, the results are ultimately what matters but there's no way Poch can look at that film and think he has something to build on. A bunch of players too scared to take chances. A bunch of players who have no business playing at this level. Admittedly, this is the most I've ever seen of Diego Luna. I don't get it. So he once played with a broken nose. Who gives a s***? I don't see where all this praise is coming from. What I saw out there is a bunch of try-hards. US Soccer needs to make sure that both Sergino Dest and Antonee Robinson are treated with kid gloves over this next club season because if Arfsten and Freeman our the 2nd choice outside backs, we're absolutely screwed. Out of the 11 that started I saw 4 players worthy of being on the WC squad. Tillman, McGlynn, Chris Richards, and Freese in goal. The rest are awful. It was just a bunch of sideways and backwards passing. No runs. No recognition of what Saudi was doing. Just a bunch of over complicated cut backs to make it look like they had some skill. Yeah, we're through but we'll be looking at a confident Costa Rica team (assuming we don't lose to Haiti and blow the goal diff) or Mexico, depending on who wins that group. That'll likely be the end of the tournament if they play like this.
I've got it on the DVR but from everything I've read there's no reason to watch it today. I thought this was interesting, and would be interested to hear your thoughts: https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_...t-mess-thats-price-us-becoming-soccer-country
It was sooooooooooooooooo boring. Do not watch. I don't disagree with what it's saying. The problem is that the knowlegeable US fan knows the MLS is trash but also wants national team success because we're tired of being seen as also-rans. Pulisic's reasoning for not playing this summer is fair...but did he play more games than the Real Madrid players who played for their national teams a couple weeks ago, just after the season ended, and are now in the US for the CWC? Nope. What about the PSG players who played all the way through the Champions League final...to their national team...to the US? It pisses me off because he and the rest of the players know that this is the last chance to play (theoretically) meaningful minutes before next summer. Him and Musah should be here. The rest of the regulars have excuses (Weah, Weston, and Reyna with their club teams...Robinson and Balogun with injuries...Dest still recovering from his ACL but at least he showed up for camp). Minutes could've been managed in the 2 friendlies and certainly against Haiti and Trinidad. There's just no way it's not a bad look that he's healthy and not here. Either way, though, if US Soccer wants real success to show we are finally an actual player...we have to have these guys. The MLS guys are not good enough overall.
Tillman looks quite good imo, and McGlynn and Richards are solid I'd provisionally add Luna and Berhalter. I thought Luna was great against T&T. His play right before HT to add the 3rd goal was very sharp. Freese has had so little to do it's hard to form a real impression. Agyemang ain't it, and seems to just clog up the middle, and botch any passes into him.
I admittedly didn't see the T&T game because I just had other things to do and didn't have high hopes. What I saw in Luna last night was a guy who doesn't know how to work in tight spaces, has bad positioning, and has a questionable touch. Him and Arfstren are just try-hards. Yes they run a lot and it looks like they're doing things...but they're not. Berhalter is getting a lot of praise for last night and, yes, the assist was nice...but I saw a lot of give-aways and being way too risk averse. His first touch was almost always backwards. McGlynn looked like he wanted to go forward every time. I've seen a lot of Richards with Crystal Palace and much of his best there were against the top teams. True on Freese...but it was his calmness and positioning in the opportunities against him that gave me confidence...much like someone who has been playing every minute for his club team. Turner has blown his opportunity by not playing and it doesn't appear even with his move to France that that's even going to improve. Backup on a middling Ligue 1 team isn't what I'd call inspiring. Agyemang is a poacher and they were trying to use him as a face-to-goal striker last night. He definitely ain't that. Still not sure why they didn't bring Josh Sargent in for this camp...which looks worse now that Haji Wright is hurt.
https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2025/06/usmnt-haiti-starting-lineup-notes-tyler-adams-diego-luna Mauricio Pochettino makes four changes to the Starting XI that faced Saudi Arabia on Thursday, inserting Brenden Aaronson, Tyler Adams, Quinn Sullivan and John Tolkin.
Another "it's the result that matters" performance. Just shouldn't struggle with teams like Haiti. On to the quarters against a Costa Rica team that's playing well. Have a full week off to get things right and they can call in another striker to replace Haji Wright.
That was a bad mistake...but he recovered. Ream put him in a bad position and he should've just cleared it. But he was otherwise solid. When Turner makes a mistake, he snowballs. He's the American version of Andre Onana. Going forward after this tournament, it's still open as far as I'm concerned. Unless Turner wins the job at Lyon and plays every game, he doesn't even make my roster next year.
They should move the world cup from the USA - to save us the embarrassment of not getting out of the first round. DD
