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USMNT vs. Italy: SBI Live Commentary

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The U.S. Men’s National Team closes out its 2018 schedule in Belgium when they take on Italy at a neutral venue.

In what will likely be his final match in charge, interim head coach Dave Sarachan has made some interesting choices with his lineup, opting to go with a 3-5-2 formation and a ton of youth. In fact, this is the youngest average age for a USMNT starting lineup in its modern era.

Josh Sargent gets the nod up front next to Christian Pulisic in a strike duo featuring two of the most exciting young names in American soccer. Pulisic is the only player in the starting eleven who also started in the loss to England last Thursday, the other ten starters are all new. He is also the most experienced player in the lineup with 23 caps, the same number as midfielder Kellyn Acosta.

Ethan Horvath gets the start in goal after sitting out at Wembley last week. He will have Aaron Long, Walker Zimmerman, and Cameron Carter-Vickers in front of him in a back line that has only 13 National Team appearances between them.

The SBI editorial staff will be providing live commentary on tonight’s match so feel free to follow the action here. As always, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions (NOT play-by-play commentary) in the comments section below.

Enjoy the match.

Comments

  1. At the very least it looked like the US had some fight in this game. Not much else to take out of this game except some nice saves by Horvath. Pretty awful.

    Reply
    • A couple of decent saves, but mostly Horvath was bailed out by horrible finishing by the Italians. They either shot right at him or completely missed the target.

      Reply
  2. Final: Italy 1 – USMNT 0. It was a long time coming for the Italians who had the better of the chances this evening. Matteo Politano with the winning goal which sends the U.S. into a winter break on two consecutive defeats.

    Reply
    • Sarachan once used 2 subs and in 2 other friendlies he used only 5 subs (including England). It makes complete rational sense for most international coaches in friendlies, but Sarachan is that much an outlier. Curious if the press has ever asked him to explain it for any game or as a pattern. Half the point to these games unlike GC or quali is not being limited to 3 subs and being able to look at an unusual amount of players. You don’t even have to buy my affection for treating these like tryouts and bringing in different people, to wonder why you don’t use the 17 slots (11 + 6) you’re allocated on the players you did bring in.

      Reply

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