US Soccer

[Omaha 680]

An awful lot of complaining by the announcers about the ref which wasn't completely off base, however the most salient point was when they said they were 83 minutes into it and the US had only taken 3 shots. That wasn't the ref. You can't win that way and Uruguay is good, right now definitely one of the favorites to win the tournament. The US threw this away by playing badly vs Panama, a team they know well and should beat at home.

That ref should never do a major international game again. At least for 5 years or so. It was that bad how in over his head he was. That being said yes losing to Panama was the unforgivable sin. Never should have happened. Urugay is a top 5 squad in the world and we actually played them pretty tough especially in the first half. But none of it mattered because of the dud against Panama.

[SteelBlue]

That ref should never do a major international game again. At least for 5 years or so. It was that bad how in over his head he was. That being said yes losing to Panama was the unforgivable sin. Never should have happened. Urugay is a top 5 squad in the world and we actually played them pretty tough especially in the first half. But none of it mattered because of the dud against Panama.

For all that the ref got wrong, very little of it ended up mattering as far as outcome. The yellow card/quick start mistake was his worst and Tim Ream saved him some embarrassment there. The horrible no offside call on the goal was VAR’s call.

[Omaha 680]

For all that the ref got wrong, very little of it ended up mattering as far as outcome. The yellow card/quick start mistake was his worst and Tim Ream saved him some embarrassment there. The horrible no offside call on the goal was VAR’s call.

I mostly agree with this. Rarely do officials actually cause a loss and we have no leg to stand on after Panama. But there is something to be said for how he refused to take control of the game. 3 yellow cards total, with only one for Uruguay was absolutely insane with how that game unfolded. The only Uruguay yellow card wasn't until the very end of the first half but they were blatantly pulling down our guys every potential breakaway the entire game. I understand that is a legitimate strategy but it is also the referee's responsibility to use his card to punish a team for it. He failed almost every metric last night.

[SteelBlue]

I mostly agree with this. Rarely do officials actually cause a loss and we have no leg to stand on after Panama. But there is something to be said for how he refused to take control of the game. 3 yellow cards total, with only one for Uruguay was absolutely insane with how that game unfolded. The only Uruguay yellow card wasn't until the very end of the first half but they were blatantly pulling down our guys every potential breakaway the entire game. I understand that is a legitimate strategy but it is also the referee's responsibility to use his card to punish a team for it. He failed almost every metric last night.

He was the worst I’ve ever seen.

[falafel]

I guess this is the unofficial Copa thread this year. Crazy game between Uruguay and Colombia tonight with the cocainas ending urugay's 28 game win streak, longest active in the universe, despite only playing 10 men the whole second half. Colombia could have sealed it at the end if it weren't for an excellent hip save by the Uruguayan keeper. Super tense game until the final second. I can't think of another time I've seen the keeper leave the goal in the last minute like its a hockey game. And its always good to watch Luis Suarez lose.

[Omaha 680]

That was a wild game. I had truly forgotten how nuts CONMEBOL is in every way until this tournament. A few random thoughts.

1. We get the final we wanted in Argentina v Colombia. Should be a good one.

2. I'm just now seeing video of the confrontation between Uruguay players and Colombia fans in the stands. Uruguay player claiming it started with Colombia fans assaulting their families. The footage is crazy. I know it's a conmebol event but it's a joke such a thing was allowed to happen in a game in tournament stages in the US. This whole tournament was very very poorly run. Here's hoping many lessons are being leaned by the 2026 WC event team.

3. Berhalter out. I should be excited about the possibility of hiring someone who can maximize the window of opportunity with this generation of players but I dont have a lot of faith in US soccer to make a good hire.

[Pelado]

That was a wild game. I had truly forgotten how nuts CONMEBOL is in every way until this tournament. A few random thoughts.

1. We get the final we wanted in Argentina v Colombia. Should be a good one.

2. I'm just now seeing video of the confrontation between Uruguay players and Colombia fans in the stands. Uruguay player claiming it started with Colombia fans assaulting their families. The footage is crazy. I know it's a conmebol event but it's a joke such a thing was allowed to happen in a game in tournament stages in the US. This whole tournament was very very poorly run. Here's hoping many lessons are being leaned by the 2026 WC event team.

3. Berhalter out. I should be excited about the possibility of hiring someone who can maximize the window of opportunity with this generation of players but I dont have a lot of faith in US soccer to make a good hire.

Knowing what you know now, who would be your top choice for the job?

[Omaha 680]

Knowing what you know now, who would be your top choice for the job?

If they insist on hiring an American, my top choice would be Jesse Marsch (current Canada manager). Not hiring him instead of rehiring Berhalter turned out to be rather epic whiff. But I think he may not be a realistic option at this point. I think most likely they go with another former player in Steve Cherundulo. While I liked Steve as a player and have nothing overtly against him it would be another underwhelming hire that would probably get us out of the group stage of the WC and no further.

I was one who actually didn't mind the Jurgen Klinsmann experiment. He was his own undoing with the constant tinkering of lineups and tactics going into the crucial hex of the 2018 qualifying which led to the horrible start in the hex, his firing, and eventually the US not qualifying. But the 2014 run was a good one and he had something building in the 2018 cycle until he lost his mind and the wheels came off. We have a higher percentage of regular players on the squad that play professionally for Europe clubs than ever before. I would love to see a manager with solid European experience come in and see what he could do with this group. I think there has to be someone outside of the MLS world who would love the distinction of finally taking the US to the next level in soccer. I think that's what drove Jurgen to seek the job.

[Joe Public]

Come on, fellas!

[Joe Public]

Noooo!!!

[BigPiney]

Noooo!!!

That was frustrating

[Jeff Lebowski]

No bien.

[BigPiney]

And let's just say that no call on the handball was insane. Total BS.

[Omaha 680]

And let's just say that no call on the handball was insane. Total BS.

That was wild. I'm not a soccer official so I just accepted what they said on the broadcast. But if you do a one handed pushup on the ball in the box while struggling to clear, it seems it should be a penalty regardless of where the defenders happen to be.

It's hard to be super upset with the tournament result given where this team was a month ago. This definitely wasn't our A squad but a couple players stepped up that I hope will get serious consideration for the WC roster. There is such a wide range of possibilities for next year. I would be equally unsurprised if we crashed out of the group stage or made our deepest knockout stage run in the modern era. I still hold out hope that everything gels in the next 8-9 months, but it has been kind of a mess since the Berhalter/Reyna world cup soap opera.