valentine >> mercoledì giugno 26 - 03:20

World Cup Update: Unfortunately, the USA was defeated by Turkmenistan in the round of 16. We managed to outperform our opponent in terms of shots, with a ratio of 13:7. It's important to note that we did not use a high-risk shooting strategy. Our defensive performance in this World Cup did not meet my expectations. In today's game, a strong goalkeeper can be everything.

Looking ahead, we have a reason to be hopeful - we'll have a rising super-talented goalkeeper for the next World Cup. Moreover, it's expected that some of the grandpa goalkeepers with 10+ blocking like those from Turkmenistan will retire by then.

Lastly, I would like to extend my best wishes to Ulysses for your forthcoming run!

Ulysses >> giovedì giugno 27 - 02:22

Thank you!

Good job getting to the round of 16!  It was a long road, with very limited opportunities to get there from North America, and you still had to fend off a lot of the grandpa keepers.  Turkmenistan was a pretty tough matchup.

I'm glad that the team still has some strong depth to carry the team going forward.

Ulysses >> lunedì luglio 1 - 00:13

Thank you for the opportunity to run the team!

We are in a strong position in our group.  The United States has 3 of the 4 best keepers in the group (Antigua and Barbuda has the other one), and half the group does not have a keeper with more than 8 blocking.  The other teams have a few strong players, but nothing substantially better than what the United Staes has, and the United States has the more consistent depth across the roster.  We're lucky enough to have a handful of teams that have been able to produce youth 15 talents for the team.

Keeper is the strongest position.  We have 3 strong keepers who are relatively one.  I added a third as insurance for injuries.  It also allows the luxury of making substitutions to deal with endurance issues without sacrificing ability, if necessary.  Arzamendi is pretty close to establishing himself as the #1 for the next decade.

At forward we have a lot of strong players including three with 7+ talent.  With that said, Flower and Blakey are over 30 and Rollands and Harrow ended up on teams with a level 1 football academies.

At midfield we are in good condition for this tournemnt, but we do not have the crazy ~9+ passing midfielders that some of the other top teams have.  I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, but it's nice to have one or two players like Caddow who can jump in with Long Shots and effectively add an extra elite forward.

Defense is pretty strong.  We have a handful of defenders that can jump into the offense with versatile if necessary as well as some strong players defensively for every role.  There's no 7 talent supertalent, but we have Covey (25) who came from a level 5 youth academy, currently has a level 5 football academy, and is hardworking.

Ulysses >> Ieri - 17:54, Modificato Ieri - 17:58

So far the United States has gone 2-0 in the North American Qualifications, granted that the first two games were against two of the weaker teams in the group.  With that in mind, my goal for these two games was to build up the goal differential.  The next game will be against the Turks and Caicos islands who have a few really talented players (but nothing significantly above the level of the players on the U.S. roster) but a lack of depth.  Next will be a game against Antigua and Barbuda which is carried by their elite goaltender (who is roughly the same level of our goaltending at the moment).  Finally, we will play probably the deepest rival in this group, Mexico, before proceeding with the second leg of this round.

In the first game against El Salvador, we wond 4-1.  I honestly would have liked to score a few more goals or avoid the fluke goal scored on one of their two shots.  Great game by the defense in any case.  It was nice to see four different players contribute goals and three different players contribute assists (Caddow had one of each).  We seem to have some great offensive depth.

Against Curacao in our first interland match, we ended up winning 6-0.  My primary goal for these matches is to get key starters and promising younger players their experience for this season.  We had wide contributions once again on offense (with three goals from Flower) and another solid defensive effort.

Against Dominica, we won 5-1, outshooting them 23-2.  We had goals from 4 forwards once again and assists from every midfielder (both of them).  Injuries decimated our midfield depth for this game.  We had three injuries at midfield leaving 3 players including a prospect I mostly added to get some experience in interland matches.

We have another interland match later today against Guatemala.

Joe Maley's been injured for every game so far, but I'd like to work him into the starting rotation when possible due to his patriotic attribute.  I feel like he's a bit underrated by the star value, at least for national team purposes.