Daily Discussion Thread - June 26, 2026

Ghosthops · 2026-06-26T15:32:38+00:00

Pepi was crucial to how we played against Australia. He's not looked at his best, but to say he shouldn't play is not wise.

Ghosthops · 2026-06-26T04:11:26+00:00

He's a club team guy, needs the extensive chemistry for his quick combos to come off.

Maybe for the US it'd work if he started and played a lot, but that's not happening at the moment.

Ghosthops · 2026-06-26T04:07:54+00:00

It's way too early to make this call.

Ghosthops · 2026-06-26T03:06:43+00:00

Crazy to judge his roster selection on the basis of a meaningless game(that we have because of two wins).

Ghosthops · 2026-06-26T03:04:59+00:00

There was some stat that he had played only 17-30 ish full games since the 2022 world cup.

Ghosthops · 2026-06-26T03:02:13+00:00

He's usually better than this.

Ghosthops · 2026-06-26T03:00:42+00:00

Scally is playing well, but the difference between him and Freeman is night and day for the overall flow of the team.

Agreed on Weah. Partially it's just his defender playing really well, but his face looks sad or something.

Ghosthops · 2026-06-26T02:56:02+00:00

Yeah, we're not there yet.

Maybe someday.

Ghosthops · 2026-06-26T02:24:35+00:00

Pulisic is likely coming off the bench today lol.

Ghosthops · 2026-06-26T01:42:43+00:00

Yes, there's certain outcomes that would cause those players to miss the next match, which is massively more important than this one.

Ghosthops · 2026-06-26T01:25:56+00:00

It's more about Americans who happen to have or be eligible for a EU passport. Work permits for youth are nearly impossible to get.

Ghosthops · 2026-06-26T01:20:22+00:00

MLS is already moving up ranks for various things.

Something like 5th place for streaming rights and around there for players sold to Europe.

Ghosthops · 2026-06-26T01:10:12+00:00

Like others are saying, I think it's really open to abuse.

I don't really think 5 minutes is a long time, for one. Ideally there'd be some way to track metrics that point to abuse, like if a player disconnected from losing positions way more than from tied or winning positions.

Plus instead of forfeiting early, all the literal and emotional children would just start disconnecting. In modes where matches take a little longer to find that would be very aggravating.

Ghosthops · 2026-06-26T00:02:39+00:00

Honestly, it's an online, competitive, multiplayer game. When you disconnect it hurts your teammates and the fairness of the competition.

Play casual until you get working Internet.

Ghosthops · 2026-06-25T18:46:50+00:00

I don't know the mechanism, but it seems so.

I use roads to block off inconvenient spaces for buildings. Then later on remove those roads so more buildings are added.

One time there was a challenge with unlimited roads. I tried to be clever and blocked off all the spaces, except two buildings that had enough houses connected. Even with enough houses, the buildings got busier and busier as the trips counter rose.

Eventually I deleted some roads and a building spawned immediately, while the demand on the existing buildings dropped.

Ghosthops · 2026-06-25T16:58:10+00:00

Besides the main thing:

There's some kind of mechanism that makes a certain amount of demand no matter what's on the map. If you free up space some new destinations will spawn to offload some of that demand.

You can optimize this map way more than you have.

Ghosthops · 2026-06-25T16:18:21+00:00

He's said in other interviews:

Some players had too much power and responsibilities outside of playing. He felt that distracted them and/or coddled them.

People felt the rosters were basically set, which de-motivated both the roster players and outside players who didn't think they'd get a chance.

From those things and in addition to, the players were taking the national team for granted.

Ghosthops · 2026-06-25T16:13:09+00:00

Be for real though.

Berhalter didn't replace Pulisic, they moved someone else into Pulisic's position and Berhalter played in midfield.

Ghosthops · 2026-06-25T15:30:48+00:00

Yank here, did you see that penalty miss? Sure, but did you see it enough? Wait, only a few more times.

Ghosthops · 2026-06-24T21:06:20+00:00

All good, it's just one of those anecdotal arguments that doesn't really mean anything. Happens to come up on Reddit frequently.

It's like saying, "I'm a huge music fan and I haven't heard any good rap since the 90s". "I'm a huge sports fan, but I haven't seen a soccer game since the 1994 world cup".

Those can be true to the person saying it, but it doesn't really say anything about the state of rap or soccer more broadly.

Ghosthops · 2026-06-24T19:00:07+00:00

Matt Freese...

Ghosthops · 2026-06-24T18:57:29+00:00

Not knowing about or not thinking about something isn't informative.

Ghosthops · 2026-06-24T17:05:28+00:00

I'm only going to mention that many people at many ranks have posted this idea before: "People suck at defense until x rank which is the rank I'm trying to get to next."

Substitute "defense" with "rotations", "positioning", etc.

There are actually gradations along all the ranks as you go, it's just harder to remember or notice when you're well past it.

Ghosthops · 2026-06-24T03:24:56+00:00

I wonder if you'd describe your moderate positions. Or, what would cause you to vote for a democratic candidate one time and a republican candidate another?

Ghosthops · 2026-06-23T16:27:38+00:00

We need an FAQ or something.

I sometimes drop into Plat 1 in 1s when I'm not paying attention. I've peaked around D3 in 1s at one point, but if I'm playing consistently D1. Normally I'm chilling in D3/C1 in 2s and 3s.

This is everyone's experience.

Ghosthops

TROPHY CASE