‘Mentality, confidence not there,’ leading to Olympic failure

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Jason Kreis believes that the “mentality and confidence weren’t there” as the USMNT under-23 crew did not qualify for the Olympics — an all too frequent incidence which now stands at three successive tournaments — and he accepts the blame for that indisputable fact.

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Talking after Sunday’s defeat to Honduras, who will go on to signify CONCACAF of their fourth straight Olympic look, Kries pointed to quite a lot of elements which have all too steadily plagued the USMNT at just about all ages degree over the past decade.

In short summation, the concepts handed all the way down to the gamers weren’t ok and the gamers didn’t purchase into mentioned concepts sufficient for it to matter anyway.

“I feel the primary half appeared so much just like the Dominican Republic first half. We now have gamers that aren’t shifting. We now have individuals on the ball that aren’t committing defenders to make selections to open up areas. We now have guys that appear to be they simply don’t really need the ball.

“And so, once more, it simply sort of goes again to principally mentality for me. That’s my opinion proper now and I might have it improper. However, I simply assume on the finish of the day it simply wasn’t fairly there from a confidence perspective.”

[ MORE: 5 things we learned from USMNT’s March friendlies ]

As for a way the blame for failing to qualify for the Olympics ought to be doled out, Kreis isn’t shying away from his justifiable share.

“That is who I’m as an individual. I’ll look firstly at myself and assume again concerning the selections that had been made concerning the roster, concerning the type of the gamers that had been coming in, the gamers that weren’t right here.

“After all, completely. Anyone that is aware of something about me is aware of that I level the finger at myself first. Having mentioned that, it’s a collective effort. It wasn’t simply me making these selections. However, I’m greater than keen and capable of take the brunt of the blame, no drawback.”

…

“I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a recreation the place we’ve had gamers mis-control the ball a lot, balls rolling below individuals’s ft, passing out of bounds. These are issues which might be simply actually… you sort of scratch your head.

“You’re pondering, ‘What’s happening right here?’ However, I even have been across the recreation lengthy sufficient in our nation at a professional degree to let you know that is what you see in preseason.”

Now, let’s take a look at a choice of quick quotes, made by former U-23 head coach Andi Herzog, 5 years in the past following the 2016 Olympics failure…

“We weren’t good offensively — we’ve got to be sincere. I don’t care about Honduras, it’s extra about my crew. We had our plan, however we weren’t capable of do it in the proper approach, in order that’s probably the most disappointing factor.”
“When a crew performed actual bodily towards us, we didn’t have any energy, any assertiveness up entrance, and that’s disappointing.”
“We hand over such a easy, silly objective.”

The extra issues change, the extra they keep the identical, proper?

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In the long run, Kreis will transfer on — whether or not voluntarily or by dismissal — and the U-23 crew will fall below the watchful eye of the following American soccer teaching retread tasked with guiding the eldest-aged youth crew to the 2024 Olympics in Paris.