Digby

Mostly Robbie Findley, though. Altidore certainly had some moments and for how much he frustrated me, he also hasn't really been replaced. What I really wonder about is the timeline where he and Davies are a dynamic duo striker partnership for two World Cups at least. That 2009 Confed Cup was a high water mark that gets overlooked all the time, but what a fun couple weeks that was.

The culture piece is huge. We know the Klinsmann era was marred by a cliquey dressing room and a lot of outsized egos for what they had actually accomplished. It's hard to get a read on these things as an outsider but it seems like this group really supported each other and played together well. That counts for something, especially since the plan appears to be keeping the core of this squad together for a long time. I basically agree on the four-year limit thing, though I don't get the sense USSF has ever cared about that so I don't expect a change unless Berhalter gets a club offer he can't refuse. (Plus, if it's Berhalter vs. the field, I don't if I trust USSF to get "the field" correct.) (And yes I realize the second cycle did not end well for literally any of the previous several MNT coaches. Again, not me making the call here! Just assuming!) I mean, this stuff is easy to armchair quarterback with the benefit of hindsight, who knows. I don't know that a Chicago Fire Homegrown Signing is going to be the guy that scores two against the Netherlands, nor would Brooks (based on his last few USA appearances) offered an upgrade on the backline, which performed well throughout. He got some wrong (strikers couldn't have been worse) and some right (surprise Ream resurgence, Turner the unquestioned #1), like most managers do. I don't see losing to a traditional power that hasn't lost in 18 months to be an underachievement. If the USA losing to the Netherlands is now a fireable offense, the squad is in better shape than I thought! The Ghana and Belgium games had more flattering scorelines but were arguably more winnable games. (Jesus Ferreira, meet Ricardo Clark.) With better luck we could have had Group F as an eminently winnable group, or drawn Japan or Morocco in the knockouts instead, oh well. Based on the draw they got, it doesn't seem fair to say this group didn't perform up to their potential. By that standard, none of these players have done so for their clubs, either. Ultimately I think these questions lie more with Brian McBride and Earnie Stewart.

Tribute video culture is outta control.

That subtle grey gradient works so well for the Swiss. Would be one of my favorite away kits if Puma didn't insist on dropping the iOS Calendar app icon on it.

If only the Commuter Rail below the Garden was this reliable. (Then the Celtics promptly lost their first home game of December.)

Is this how it looked to people in Europe when Beckham came to the US in 2007?

You didn't have to start, buddy.

Between the bad reception of the new identity and the Jazz now being owned by Mr. Qualtrics himself, whatever comes next is going to be focus-grouped to death.

And the captain's armband.

Looked to me like the USMNT were ready to play their game and not play in fear of the mighty Dutch, which is good, but also had a lot of physical and mental fatigue. There were moments of strong play undone by simple, brief moments of losing focus. Yeah, play this game 10 times and the US will win a few of them, but ultimately the most predictable outcome happened. The Netherlands have stronger talent, more experience, better execution. No shame in losing to that, still a bummer, especially knowing that the draw goes a different way and the US would've been handed a more favorable and winnable matchup in this round (or they'd get Brazil, who knows). Even today's mistakes seemed more glaring because we're not used to a USMNT that looks relatively composed even when they're outmatched by the opposition. Bring back 2/3 of this team in 2026 in their primes but with more experience and maturity and they have a real good shot at winning a group and making a solid run. Need to find a striker, will probably need a new keeper (Turner has been tremendous, wish he wasn't a late-bloomer), and really across the board the depth simply is not there compared to the real contenders of this tournament.

Bring in Reyna for Ferreira and Aaronson for somebody in the midfield. Second half hat trick for Reyna. Never hear the end of it from r/ussoccer but would be worth it.

Well, Wright has proven to not be the guy and Sargent is hurt… and my “just play one of the wingers at striker, who cares” pleas for months remain unheeded. as I type this, Ferreira whiffs on a decent chance.

That shot of Suarez hearing about the other result and crying on the bench, that had to be the most collective schadenfreude ever felt by the global soccer community, right?

Timbers charge big-market ticket prices in Oregon and are a top attendance draw in the league anyway, seems hard to imagine they're doing any worse than any other MLS team unless all the sponsors jump ship. Only thing I can imagine is that they built that monstrosity of a new stand just in time for Covid, which was funny. They must've took on some debt for that, I'd think?

We've had a couple great endorsements for the current group-stage format, just in time to destroy it for 2026. Hopefully FIFA come to their senses and figure out a better way to expand the field before it's too late.

I really liked their psychedelic away kit and am sad to not see it. But happy to not see that team anymore, yikes.

So that’s two light kits for NED v USA. The all-blue would have been better, for contrast and also because it’s a less offensively ugly shirt.

I usually like Australia's away kits more than the homes, but this year's garish shade of aqua ruins that, so agreed.

Even if the green *technically* matched the collar area, the way the dark green on the shirt gets broken up by the pattern made it look like the kit in full had three different shades going on. Plus the shorts shade looks a tad too teal for me, which is a complaint I always had about Adidas's early Mexico kits. The current shirt looks the right green. Anyway, doesn't matter now!

Only upsetting thing was that the KSA goal at the end technically means the advancement wasn't determined by yellow cards. Would've taken great joy in that.

My guess is a lot of overlap with the people who were convinced Klinsmann had a plan that he just wasn't allowed to execute. Dark times.

I'm just glad that Boston and Miami have both failed to realize their Atlantic oceanfront locations for this reason.

That would be best of all, true. And that with the navy shorts fulfills my interest in red+navy. I was just figuring if that's not going to happen, what are other possibilities? And if we're stuck with kinda-boring white as a first choice, I don't mind the different looks as away kits. Not every team has a "standard" away and the US seems like a good candidate to switch it up, as long as we get nothing as stupid as the 16/17 black kits again.

I guess I just question how much we can ultimately lay at Berhalter's feet and whether that really outweighs the positives. I definitely feel like they're too quick to bunker to preserve a one-goal lead, and I'd like to see Gio (though I can understand why he hasn't had his moment yet). But, I also think these are easy things to armchair quarterback, we're hamstrung by our top players having duplicative skillsets, and there's no obvious roster snub on the level of Donovan 2014. There is this thread of USMNT fandom I'm seeing -- not on this board, but elsewhere on social media -- that Gregg is a total fraud and holding the team back and there's some obvious answer waiting in the wings. I think he's been imperfect but also don't see some obvious solution waiting in the wings, or feel like these guys have underperformed outside of a few WCQ clunkers that are now old news. And I can't really argue the results... two Concacaf trophies and getting out of a tough WC group with a historically strong defense.

I guess they've already mostly scuttled tradition anyhow, but I think traditional would be red or white shorts. Plus an idea I've had to offset the USA from England would be for the USA to be all-white first choice, red/navy/red second choice. (Blue shirts probably make more objective sense as a regular away kit, I just like red-over-navy better personally!) A very underrated look, better than the white or navy versions IMHO: