The U.S. Men’s National Team earned its third clean sheet under new head coach Gregg Berhalter, and center back Aaron Long was one of the main reasons why.
Long, who continued his string of solid performances in red, white and blue next to John Brooks, is the SBI USMNT Man of the Match from the 1-0 win over Ecuador.
Long put out plenty of fires next to Brooks and looked sound given the demands of the position in Berhalter’s system.
In fact, the USMNT didn’t concede a shot on target and only let up one shot against the South American side.
In addition to Long, Brooks turned in a solid showing in the middle of the USMNT defense.
Wil Trapp, Tyler Adams and Gyasi Zardes, who scored the lone goal of the contest, are also worth of honorable mention.
In a future game, switch Adams and McKinney, keep Yedlin, use Morris as sub and use Letget. Goal :Steffen. Otherwise a very good lineup.
In a game where the USA had to defend so little, I am not sure any defender was really MOM. I agree of the lot, Long did the most and I cannot recall a single error he made.
So who was MOM? While he was not in the game long Lletget was the guy who found Zardes in acres of space that setup the goal (Zardes nearly blew it, so I can’t say Zardes deserved MOM). Still a sub who saw little time is also hard to be called MOM.
None of the players really stepped up to show why they were there in any surprising way..
John Brooks was the best player on the field and made his teammates better. Outstanding leadership and communication organizing the backline with he midfielders infront of him. Brooks should be the cornerstone of this team and hopefully Berhalter helps him reach his vast potential. His size speed and adept left foot make him unique but he needs to a leader on this team. Three missed passes the entire night was huge but organizing guys on the run is how you stop a team that only wants to counter. Brooks will make whoever plays next him better!
Long has impressive speed and cool on the ball. Looking forward to see more of him going forward. Never really had to defend in the defensive third with everything coming at him.
Adams continues to impress me and really seems to be focused and tactical. Way less frantic and spastic energy usage but playing within a system. Not sure about the RB wondering position?
The negatives: McKennie needs to be better on the ball. He needs to make his team better in the offensive third. Arriola, has speed to recover and maintain shape defending counters. Going forward he wastes opportunities and Pulisic needs someone who can pick out passes.
Agreed. Long shut down a couple fast breaks yesterday.
Hmmm ?……Nothing special happen or no one really looked exceptional for me in this game. USMNT held-the-line and played collectively well as a team. Maybe that in itself is a very good thing….everybody was playing for the team and for each other, rather than trying to be the singe bright spot during the game. As a whole we looked good as a team
–
USA——————–ECUADOR
————Overall————–
62.3%———————-37.7%
??——–Summary———??
6———–Corners———-1
1—–Missed Chances—–0
46——–Duels Won——-38
9———Tackles Won——-6
0————-Saves———–1
5———-Clearances——-19
1————Offsides———-3
7————–Fouls———–11
1———-Yellow Cards——1
0———-Red Cards———0
–
Not an eventful evening at all. Ecuador just didn’t seem interested to go forward. The quick touches, movement on the field and teamwork mentality were all things to be happy about, but lets see if they can hold their shape and do the same thing against a better opponent
I might have gone Tyler Adams, but it is really one of those matches that no one really deserved MOTM not because everyone was bad just no one was great.
Would give it to Adams. Prob had most touches out of anyone.
Do really like Long though.
How is that possible? He had nothing to do. Equador’s midfielders refused to attack and simply passed the ball back to their fullbacks. A traffic cone would have sufficed!
This comment was on an earlier version that named Trapp as MOM.
Yeah I remembered the same thing.