No Other Way To Put It: Too Many Missed Chances And Gregg's Dumb Decisions Cost The USA
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I don't know how else to say it. Too many missed chances. Pulisic missed a sitter. We had our chances. It's not like the US sat back and tried to park the bus. They had plenty of chances and it came from everyone. Haji Wright had a horrendous touch before finishing. Ream missed this to really change the game in the second half.
It comes back to Gregg obviously. He chose to bring Jesus Ferriera, Haji Wright and Josh Sargent as the strikers. Ferreira was a nothing today. Sargent was fine, missed a chance in the Wales match and then got hurt against Iran. Wright was average. You question Pefok, Pepi and even why a Vazquez didn't get a look at all. That ultimately is what did the US in. No goal scorer from the 9 spot. We scored because of Weah, Pulisic and a ridiculous Haji goal.
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Gregg didn't play Reyna until the 2nd half of this match. He rarely got our best 11 on the field and that is how the US gets to this point. Even pulling Weah out instead of Musah. I love Musah but he looked winded from the start. Weah was a guy creating chances.
Now you have a decision to make. We're in the 2026 World Cup because we're hosting it. Assuming there isn't major injuries we're running back a lot of this group. Pulisic, Reyna, Aaronson, Musah, Adams, McKennie, Weah, Robinson, Dest are going to be there. You need a 9. You need more creativity. You can't give up that goal right before half. You can't miss as many chances as we had. That's what it is.
Don't get me wrong. We got out of the group. We look the part that we should. An extremely young team with a ton of upside. But it's a loss in the 16. At some point besides 2002 we have to get past this. We can't keep giving up terrible goals on dumb decisions. Netherland was beatable. We had our chances. We didn't have the people to finish the chances. That's what it comes back to. There's no moral victory here. We looked the part and took the loss. That's not good enough. We have too much talent to accept that.
It's not a failure. It's a letdown. You can't accept finishing in the round of 16 every time. I still believe in this group because of how young and talented they are. But you can't let Gregg fuck it up anymore. You can't have guys who are afraid to be selfish and take shots.
We aren't going into hibernation. Anyone who does the 'soccer sucks' is played out. At some point we'll realize what we have. 2026 starts now.