Great thoughts.

by PMan , The Banks of the Spokane River, Tuesday, July 07, 2026, 08:22 (15 days ago) @ HCE

The whole Balogun situation was stupid; bad card, bad behavior by the President and his sycophants, bad decision by FIFA to "correct" their bad card. Hopefully, Balogun will not be hampered by it all, and will thrive off arguably the best Cup by a US 9 ever.

Unlike Bryan, I think Weston McKennie starts in almost everyone's midfield. A healthy Tyler Adams is an excellent defensive midfielder, and he'll get his first taste of Europa League this year. Tillman was great overall, and hopefully that will translate into minutes at Leverkusen. Richards at Palace is getting tons of experience. Balogun scored massive goals against PSG. We'll see what happens with Coventry and Haji in the likely 26-27 relegation battle in the Prem.

Pulisic had an empty tournament, minus those few minutes against Paraguay. Jedi and Dest playing poorly along with Pulisic last night was out of character.

Belgium was as talented in the midfield as the US, and tactics neutralized that one US strength. It got back to even once Poch went to a back 4 at halftime, took Dest out at the wing, and added another midfielder. Gio Reyna even looked pretty good. Then, Matt Freese happened.

Belgium is just better at the back. And Ream got posterized by De Ketelaere.

I think Poch was fine for this group in this 2-year, no-qualifying circumstance. He was going to be judged on this Cup, and the 3 wins were fun. But the end result was the same.

I don't think Poch is the best fit for the CONCACAF qualifiers scenario the US has over the next four years. Hosting a '28 Copa would be great intermingled with qualifiers. The next coach needs to find some talented defenders and goalkeepers in the next young group, and start playing them. I don't know that Kochen going to the Danish Superleague from Barcelona B for minutes will get him places; Slonina got that Chelsea contract, but minutes for the likes of Barnsley aren't going to get him to GK1 for the US.

Conversation has it that USSF is going to try to overhaul the youth system off the back of this Cup, but haven't heard details, yet.