The U.S. Men’s National Team only recorded two shots on target on Thursday night against Ecuador, but despite the low attacking output the USMNT attackers saw progress in the third match with Gregg Berhalter in charge, and the first with the full complement of players available.
“It’s just one game,” USMNT forward Gyasi Zardes said. “It’s a great opponent, but it allows to take the next couple of days to really get in and watch this game and progress. That’s the key word, and you’ll hear it from Gregg. Progress, progress, progress. I’m really looking forward to the next opportunity.”
Although the lack of shots is concerning, the connection between the attacking pieces in Berhalter’s lineup played well in spurts.
“I think we kept the ball well,” Christian Pulisic said. “I think we had some moments, but we didn’t expect to be perfect and we still have a lot of stuff we can work on. It was a good start.”
Pulisic was the focal point of the lineup, playing the left-sided number 10 role, and he admitted some of the pieces around him are still adapting to the complexities of Berhalter’s system.
“It’s just everything. Getting more familiar with the positions and just the speed of play and making it second nature so everyone is really on the same page,” Pulisic said.
For Zardes, who is used to playing under Berhalter from their one season together with the Columbus Crew, he understands what the manager demands out of the striker up top in the system.
As we saw on a few occurrences on Thursday, Zardes has to be fast with the ball at his feet with other players surging in from midfield into the final third.
“Those guys are extremely dangerous when they’re facing goal so if the ball comes into me, I have to find them right away,” Zardes said. “I’ve worked in Gregg’s lineup over the years and it was the same with Columbus where I try to find people really quick.”
“Effective players like Christian Pulisic, Sebastian Lletget and other guys on the right, I have to find their feet,” Zardes said. “Every time I touch the ball, if they’re facing goal, I have to get it to them because they can be more effective and more dangerous. Then I just have to get back into the box because the ball is coming to me.”
Thursday’s performance wasn’t perfect, as the USMNT could’ve received better production on the wing from Jordan Morris, but for the most part, the attacking players were positive with the gains made from joining camp on Sunday to the game on Thursday.
“The majority of us got in Sunday. For those of us that weren’t in the January camp, you’re overloaded with information and it’s difficult,” Wil Trapp said. “Knowing how much information was thrown at them and how well they adapted, I think it was a fantastic performance from executing and understanding. It’s not going to be perfect, but there’s a lot of things that went well to build upon.”
Even though the USMNT wasn’t perfect, it still found a way to hit the back of the net and pull out a victory, which is an important quality to build ahead of this summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup.
Zardes, who scored the 82nd-minute game-winner, took advantage of one of the principles the USMNT focused on in the buildup to Thursday’s game.
“During the training sessions, we were looking for that open space so I checked my shoulder and was screaming for the ball and sure enough Tim Ream found me and I was open,” Zardes said.
With the tactical principles in place, and chemistry coming together in the final third, the USMNT has to build on Thursday’s performance and show progress can be made game-by-game with the big picture in view.
“(Berhalter)’s going to be the coach for a while,” Pulisic said. “He wants to implement a system and he wants all the guys that come into camp to understand it. It’s for the bigger picture and we know the big things he’s working toward.”
that was personnel, not system
Just a thought, but why not try this inverted full back/center mid on the left side which is the weaker side. Let Yedlin stay at home more and on the left use Robinson who has pace and range and is good on the ball in that roll. That way u have your best RB out there and can play Adams in his normal spot and see how Robinson does in the next set of friendlies. It would put CP out wide on the right and could have Adams Mckennie and trapp/Bradley in the middle
Apparently you didn’t see Robinson against Egypt U23s.
No I didn’t but as a left back who in the pool has his skill on the ball. He also just came back from injury as u know. So what do u think about my opinion as to make the the left back the hybrid FB/DCM.
Chili will be a different game than Ecuador. I watched the Mexico Chili game until maybe the 8th minute when it was 3-1 for Mexico. Mexico scored only one goal from the run of play the other 2 were a penalty and a corner kick. Chili’s goal came on an attack up the right with the ball cut back from the goal line. I saw at least 2 other instances of the same attack that resulted in missed or blocked shots.
The 3 things I would take from this is that 1) Chili will actually play soccer so the US will not face a packed PA and there may be from time-to-time space behind the defense, that 2) they defend well with pressure despite the 3-1 score line and that 3) they will go after the left side of the US defense.
80th minute
I just hope Berhalter keeps things reasonably simple. It’s got to be difficult for players when they are drilled in a system with their clubs 10 months a year, to then do something completely different every once in a while during international breaks, often with a changing collection of teammates.
Why? Do you miss the travel team tactics of Arena and JK?
Did u think our guys looked at all lost last night? Bc i didnt. And that was 2 days of training.
Its just a change in mindset positionally. Promotes closer triangles in the middle, where we were most vulnerable in the past cycle.
Id argue these tactics were JKs dream but he cldnt execute bc of his lack of detailed mindset.
The game is fluid and Berhalters tactics promote a dutch style “total football” in a way. Promotes freedom for all players to read the game and attack accordingly. When Adams goes fwd from defensive position, the opposition has a hard time marking.
Formation changes when going from offense to defense.
As you can tell, i bought in. It clicked for me after the first Jan game.
We are going to get beat at times. Will be times against better opposition where they expose space behind Adams on counter. But id argue, we did not qualify for the world cup using simplistic tactics.
At the end of the day, players win or lose games. Managers put them in the best positions to do so.
I think you should keep in mind this caveat. This is Guardiola’s system. He has used it to great effect with teams that were already league champions. I don’t know that it has been tested on teams that are less than stellar, such as the USMNT. Berhalter didn’t win any championships in MLS. You write that we did not qualify for the World Cup using simplistic tactics. Well, actually, we did, A total of 7 straight times and the last time, under JK, we had the highest total ever for the US in the Hex while coming in first. I’m not going to argue that Berhalter’s system is better or worse at this stage since it’s too early to tell. But, let’s not rewrite history because of your enthusiasm. The failure to qualify last time was due to the team under performing, poor player selection, and at times poor tactics by the manager. There is just no way the US should not have qualified when all they needed was a draw at T&T. That’s not a failure of any system, but just a breakdown by the team, certain players, and the manager, who all took the game too lightly.