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USMNT faces Uruguay with plenty to prove after Mexico loss

Gregg Berhalter sees progress. The U.S. Men’s National Team coach made that clear after last Friday’s 3-0 loss to Mexico, and reiterated it on Monday in St. Louis ahead of Tuesday’s friendly with Uruguay.

USMNT fans are finding it difficult to agree after watching the Americans struggle badly against Mexico for the second straight match, and after a summer that included friendly losses to Jamaica and Venezuela, and some lackluster performances mixed in with predictable strolls over weak opponents in the early stages of the Gold Cup.

The Americans have yet to deliver a signature performance against a top opponent since Berhalter took charge in January, but Tuesday’s friendly against Uruguay will provide that opportunity, while also offering a chance to erase the bad taste left behind by Friday’s loss to Mexico.

Berhalter drew criticism after the match for a perception that he was happy with his team’s performance against Mexico. On Monday, Berhalter made it clear that while he was happy with certain aspects, he was far from pleased with the result.

“it wasn’t like I was in the locker room opening champagne bottles after the Mexico game,” Berhalter said. “Not at all, but what we have to do is look at what we wanted to accomplish in that game, and then say ‘did we accomplish them?’. In some respects we absolutely did, and then in some respects we failed, and where we failed we need to analyze it.”

Growing pains shouldn’t come as a surprise for Berhalter’s squad, not with the former Columbus Crew coach trying to implement a possession-based system into a national team program that has long relied on counter-attacking and physical play.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1guYPf7bLQ]

The Mexico loss was the latest painful lesson for the USMNT, but one Berhalter believes is a necessary part of the learning process.

“We want to play. We want to be able to break lines. We want to be able to open up the opponent. We want to be able to disorganize the opponent,” Berhalter said. “I think that it was a huge emphasis against Mexico in that game for a reason. To show the guys that you can do it. That you can be brave against a high-pressing team like Mexico and you can succeed.

“Moving on, it’s about being smart and understanding what that means. That if Mexico is pressing with eight players then we need to play long, and that’s another way to disorganize them.”

“In the Gold Cup (against Mexico) I thought we were too direct, and in this game I thought we were not direct enough,” Berhalter said. “We need to find that mix where we can draw them in and be able to hurt them when they’re coming.”

Berhalter defended the progress being made during his tenure as USMNT coach, and is quick to point out how early in the process things still are.

“I think we’e doing a good job. I think we’ve come a long way,” Berhalter said. “I think it’s very clear to the players what we want to do. Now it’s just continuing to work on that. When we have conversations with the guys, when we do video sessions with the guys, it’s really impressive how tied in they are to what we’re doing. How informed they are of what we’re doing.

“The group’s been great and I think we’ve come a long way since January,” Berhalter said. “It’s hard to believe that we’ve only been working together for nine months because I think we’ve come a long way.”

The next test for the USMNT will come from a tough Uruguay team that won’t have stars Luis Suarez, Edinson Cavani and Diego Godin, but will still feature plenty of quality, including the likes of Atletico Madrid defender Jose Gimenez, Arsenal midfielder Lucas Torreira, Juventus midfielder Rodrigo Betancour and Valencia striker Maxi Gomez.

It’s a good team, everything’s a challenge with them,” Berhalter said of Uruguay. “Space is a challenge with them. It’s a very physically aggressive team. It’s a very compact team. If I had to say, the biggest challenge would be space, the lack of space and how you have to process quickly, and how you have to earn the space that you get against them because in the penalty box. It’s probably one of the best teams I’ve seen defend in the penalty box.”

The departure from camp of USMNT standouts Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Zack Steffen will put some new faces in the spotlight against Uruguay, including Josh Sargent, who is expected to start in front of his hometown fans in St. Louis. San Jose Earthquakes midfielder Jackson Yueill is also slated to start in the defensive midfield role, while Atlanta United defender Miles Robinson is a good bet to earn his first national team start after making his debut against Mexico on Friday.

The young USMNT squad will attempt to end the September international window on a positive note, while also attempting to show that the national team is capable of performing well in Berhalter’s demanding system.

The loss to Mexico left plenty of doubt about whether the USMNT program has the players to implement Berhalter’s system, but Berhalter remains convinced the USMNT does.

“The answer to the question ‘Do I believe the players have the ability to do it?’ is yes, I do, ” Berhalter said. “I think we have a large group of talented players. I think they’re intelligent players. They’re technically good players. We’re going to develop, and we’re going to keep developing. Don’t forget, it’s a very young team. We’ll get there.”

Comments

  1. Look, it would be kind of nice if the US men could play out of the back with short passes, Technically the players are capable of it, but this group is woefully inadequate when it comes to moving to good spots to support teammates. That results in too many passes made to players under immediate pressure who then can only pass back and since they are being pressured, some of those passes are poo, even when they are not the back who just passes the ball gets it right back and now with nowhere to go but back to the keeper or across the field to another back who then repeats the whole sequence until finally the team loses possession in a bad spot.

    When the US has more than one player who can be routinely available when his teammates come under pressure they will do better, until then things look pretty grim.

    Reply
  2. And Quit Whining
    “Reminds me of high school, where the atmosphere around a team that SUCKS is “we did our best” or “everybody is a winner” ….how does that seem to you like I was implying that GB said that?? Hahaha, like really?? A little slow on the comprehension are we…..

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  3. It’s not hard to agree with what he says. What is hard is the tremendous gap between what he says and what we see on the field. There’s a serious problem between theory and implementation. BTW, he talks about how it’s really been a short time for the team to implement his new tactics. And whose fault is that? Why wasn’t he appointed back in March, 2018, when many of us were saying that a new coach needed to be brought in right away? Instead, USSF, including Berhalter’s brother, twiddled their thumbs and did nothing for almost 9 months. That was time lost for what? To go through the charade of picking Stewart and then claiming to have an open process for picking the coach? This whole process has been bungled ever since Arena resigned. Additionally, we have the Mexican example. Tata Martino came in late, too. But in no time at all he had them playing together as well as I have ever seen them play. Now much of that is due to what Martino inherited, but coaching definitely makes a difference.

    Reply
    • While it’s easy to cry nepotism because Jay Berhalter is an employee with USSF, it would do people wonders if they actually knew his role instead of continually assuming he’s the reason Greg was hired. Jay is in the marketing department from what I understand, which has nothing to do with the hiring process, for starters.

      Secondly, I like others want to see the senior progress into something we can all be proud of but I don’t know what the rush is to get there. Yes, results haven’t been good but if we are able to bring along more youth players who have the technical abilities and fortitude to carry out GB’s system then we have to expect growing pains along the way. Everyone has been in such a hurry to get the pool younger, as was I, but it comes with periods of pain before results, especially when the younger players are just starting to play big minutes at good clubs.

      Trying to compare Mexico’s start under Tata as an indictment on the US’s start Uber GB is not understanding that Mexico has had a pipeline of a way to play for generations, and not only that but their players have been playing together for years, so it’s doing a disservice to try and compare the two regimes. It hasn’t been pretty but all the same we need to give it some time before we go apeshit and start calling for people jobs!

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  4. USA losses today. And hopefully the coach will be sacked. Why even watch there is just a much more likely hood of disappointment than redemption and nothing new. I even think the players have lost belief in their coach. In my opinion pullisic choose Sargent to take penalty to send berhalter a message choose Sargent over zardes by him scoring penalty but that didn’t happen. At this point Mckinney has not been good at all lots of hype for him all he does is win 50/50 balls in the air and runs after making a mistake. Uruguay please do us a solid and score as much as you can we can’t afford to not go to another word cup and be the laughing stock of CONCACAF!

    Reply
    • No way he gets fired soon. If that happens, USSF is admitting that it screwed up and made a big mistake in hiring him. So, they will stick with him longer, hoping for improvement. If it doesn’t happen and the team limps along, it may still take a near disaster before they start looking elsewhere.

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  5. Uruguay’s MF:
    Matias Vecino (Inter Milan/ITA), Rodrigo Betancur (Juventus/ITA), Brian Lozano (Santos Laguna/MEX), Nahitan Nandez (Cagliari/ITA), Giorgian De Arrascaeta (Flamengo/BRA), Lucas Torreira (Arsenal/ENG), Federico Valverde (Real Madrid/ESP)

    Uruguay’s D:
    Jose Gimenez (Atlético Madrid/ESP), Matias Vina (Nacional), Giovanni Gonzalez (Peñarol), Gaston Silva (Independiente/ARG), Diego Laxalt (Torino/ITA), Sebastian Coates (Sporting Club de Portugal/POR), Marcelo Saracchi (RB Leipzig/GER), Martin Caceres (Fiorentina/ITA)

    Forwards:
    Darwin Nunez (Almeria/ESP), Brian Rodriguez (Laos Angeles Football Club/USA), Maxi Gomez (Valencia/ESP), Jonathan Rodriguez (Cruz Azul/MEX)

    Even without their world class players of Suarez, Cavani, and Godin, this is still a stacked squad especially in MF in my opinion. We’ll be defending for our lives most of the night and hoping their forwards can’t finish, maybe we could hit them on a counter. Not going to be pretty in my opinion since we sent our talent home for this one too.

    Its just a friendly but the only thing we’ll be able to learn about some of our younger players from tonite’s game is who can defend for their lives for close to 90 minutes and who can play on the counter. Certainly not who best fits ‘the system’.

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  6. I feel like he and many other coaches are looking at their team and thinking, yeah, I am going to press like all the top teams to be a top team. But let’s face it, there may have been a few turnovers that led to chances, but the US chances came off Morris finding space, not because Mexico couldn’t handle our sort of press.
    So should we be blown away that the score was 3-0? ( with a missing US PK )
    .
    I don’t think so, Mexico is a top 16 team for sure, and probably closer to top 10 when they are as good as now….. in real terms ( aka not FIFA rankings). For the US to force them into mistakes is going to take something special. Missing players and even with those players the US isn’t as talented as Mexico right now….not going to happen.
    .
    The first order of biz is don’t give up three goals. Just simple soccer math odds there.

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  7. I’m not against his tactical philosophy… I’m against his implementation of it. All the smooth-sounding, tactical-tinkering rhetoric looks sophisticated on paper. But as soon as Zardes steps on the field in a hold-up striker position, well, dat dont read too pritty.

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    • Considering that Zardes got probably less than half a dozen touches and they were over the half way line, that was hardly the problem. The problem was getting the ball out of our half and then making good passes forward.

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      • GP- I respect your opinions & analyzes, because you have been watching this sport since the ‘90s. Why do you fill the need to defend Zardes? Your admiration of Zardes is betraying your decades worth of watching and/or playing the sport. JK played him exclusively as a winger! You know this! His 1st touch has been Notoriously awful, then …as it is now. He turns the ball over a lot! You know this! He’s known for being 1 v 1 on the goalie and kicking it to the goalie, or missing the goal completely! (Paul Arriola is traveling down that path.) Switched to straight a 9, scored a bunch in MLS, w/ the Crew, under Berhalter. Scores majority of goals in the 6 meter box, accordingly to Berhalter’s formation and tactics. Zardes isn’t a hold up player. This you also know! Don’t get it twisted, if Zardes is starting, I want him to score and play well! Whoever is in USMNT, for that matter. Why is he the best 9 to you? We are all just curious as to why he gets your RELENTLESS support? #NotSarcasm!!

  8. “Listen, let’s be fair to fans,” the US men’s national team head coach said in a Monday afternoon press conference. “We have an obligation to the fans, and that obligation is to win games and entertain them. We’re trying our best.”…GB ?

    A 3 – 0 clobbering by Mexico? TRYING?? … And that’s your best?? Reminds me of high school, where the atmosphere around a team that SUCKS is “we did our best” or “everybody is a winner” hahaha, WTH??? I just can’t with GB ???

    Reply
    • He literally said the opposite of what you said he said.

      He said we need to win games. You said “everybody is a winner”, with quotes around it like it was him saying it. But it wasn’t it was you….he said we need to win games.

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      • Quit Whining:
        You can’t take too seriously someone who uses emojis on every post he writes. You just can’t.

      • And Quit Whining
        “Reminds me of high school, where the atmosphere around a team that SUCKS is “we did our best” or “everybody is a winner” ….how does that seem to you like I was implying that GB said that?? Hahaha, like really?? A little slow on the comprehension are we…..

      • Bizzy:

        I don’t feel the need to comment on every article; I just post when I have something to contribute. And as I’ve said a few times before, you probably give some decent analysis, but I just can’t push past all the emojis, lock caps and excessive punctuation to get there.

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