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USMNT vs. Wales: Your Running Commentary

The U.S. Men’s National Team plays its first match in 10 months today, facing Wales in Swansea.

The match will mark the national team debuts for Gio Reyna, Konrad De La Fuente and Yunus Musah, in a squad that will see Sebastian Lletget operating as a false nine, with Reyna and De La Fuente oin the wings.00

SBI will provide commentary on today’s action in the comments section, so feel free to join us there, and share your own thoughts on the match.

Comments

  1. that was fun, enjoyed reading all the comments too. love seeing the kids play, grow. Agree with Ives about Musah on the turn, expect he will get fouled hard in CONCACAF doing that, hopefully it will be whistled. Some quality out there in red white and blue tho, all over the field, although Wales didn’t do much, and a true 9 would have been happy out there I think. Steffen looked good too against this challenge. Looking forward to the next

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  2. We dominated in almost every way except the scoreline. The first 70 minutes prior to subs was some of the best we’ve looked from a passing and spacing and overlapping and over all aggression in a long time. I was pleased.

    I said earlier and I’ll say it again. However this match turned out it didn’t matter. All that matters in the near future is getting our Golden Generation on the field TOGETHER at the same time. GB did that and credit for letting the subs go a little late. I’m going to without any tactical critique because I don’t think tactics were the point today, the point was let them play, let them learn each others tendencies and gel as a squad.

    Credit where its do for digging up Musah too. Great find and great to start him right away and kid showed he’s got the stuff. Just adding depth in MF now. A few horse at striker and another dominating CB and my oh my would we be stacked going into 2022.

    I said a few weeks ago we still need to play well in 2022. 2022 is a dress rehearsal for 2026. Making a good run in 2022 will give this golden generation not just the experience it needs in WC but also the nerves to put it away when they’re up against the best. Crossing my fingers for at least Quarters and maybe Semis if we can get some luck. For the first time in my lifetime I feel like with a few key adds at striker and CB we have outside chance at a WC. Now, lets max this out, everyone on the train full steam ahead.

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  3. The Americans and Welsh settle for a 0-0 draw. Some decent chances in the second half for the USMNT, though overall it was about as disjointed a performance as you would expect from a group that hasn’t played much together.

    That said, there was plenty of promising stuff. You see the talent, and potential, but it will need time to develop, and to establish those connections as a group.

    Much more promising stuff than the USMNT has shown in a good while though, so there’s reason for optimism.

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    • I keep saying play the kids and people freak out like we won’t get results. Compared to how we have looked that was an improvement. I thought we were held back a little without a 9 or 10 — like all the action was wide and there was no concept for how to ultimately score — but maybe the message being sent was he anticipates starting other people (usual suspects) up the spine eg Pulisic Zardes Sargent.

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    • I think you are being too sparing in your praise and too harsh in your criticism. The first 30 minutes, the US looked about as good as can be imagined. They only had two days of practice and they played a number of teenagers who hadn’t played for the team ever. Given all that, I thought it was an excellent showing. In the first half I thought players were sometimes too unselfish and then in the second half some players were too selfish, which resulted in turnovers. Also, the decision making was not always the best, especially in the final third. Given the overall lack of experience and almost total lack of experience playing together, this is hardly surprising. Once we can get a full team and a lot of time playing together, I think this team can really make an international impression.

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  4. Gioacchini makes his USMNT debut, while Weah makes his first appearance since 2018.

    Good debut for Musah. Reyna did okay, had such high expectations, and you could tell he struggled a bit to impose himself, but the quality is obviously there.

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  5. Get an actual finisher in and try to get the offense where the players getting the ball in attacking positions are the ones you would want to be creating. The first half it was wingbacks and the second half it’s all McKennie.

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  6. chuckling at the discussion of pep rubbing off on steffen with superior coaching. setting aside whether i buy it, who was steffen’s old coach that would be outclassed in this scenario? exactly.

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  7. Musah is smooth on the turn. He has that speed to work in space, but you can tell his positional DNA is as a central midfielder.

    Considering how unfamiliar he is with this group, Musah has handled himself very well.

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  8. if they swapped Musah and Reyna they would have them in their right spots. while Musah looks like he can handle tight spaces and central pressure, i haven’t seen incisive passing. and reyna keeps seeming to take the ball back to a midfield spot then turn and face. so play him where he feels comfortable and seems to want to be.

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  9. HALFTIME- Wales 0, USMNT 0. No truly dangerous chances for the Americans, though Lletget had a decent back-heel look off a good McKennie pass late, but the USMNT controlled the match for stretches.

    Brooks and Adams have been their best players. Reyna looks smooth and shows his quality.

    Robinson has struggled, and so has Konrad.

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    • They need to quit going to the corner flag with the ball so much, and whether they do or not, not just cross every time, sometimes cut back across, work the ball across the middle, try some combo balls. And settling for crosses is goofy when you’re not really starting a target 9.

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  10. They need to get the wing forwards the ball earlier and have the wide attacking players and AMs creating as opposed to letting Wales get back and running so much of the offense through low percentage wingback crosses from Dest and Robinson. It’s not even that they can’t hit a ball, it’s that of the available creative choices if I was Wales I would want us settling for whacking it in, and doing it from backs instead of attacking specialists.

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  11. John Brooks has been excellent, he and Adams have been the best USMNT players through the first 40 minutes.

    The Lletget-as-False Nine experiment hasn’t really impressed. Here’s to a striker being plugged in for the second half.

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    • he rarely played it, was up high on that back line for most of the match with 2 on him; lots of space in the gaps he’d vacate, but not enough movement like that from him; a true nine the obvious need today, but Lletget played fine if not out of position and was unlucky not to score with his back flick. De la Fuente’s skyball was a bummer

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    • hey Ives, he rarely played it, was up high on that back line for most of the match with 2 on him; lots of space in the gaps he’d vacate, but not enough movement like that from him; a true nine the obvious need today, but Lletget played fine if not out of position and was unlucky not to score with his back flick. De la Fuente’s skyball was a bummer

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  12. Big Picture…

    All that matters today is that the golden generation gets minutes and begins to gel together. Scoreline and tactics I’ll worry about critiquing later in a meaningful game. All that matters here is letting our talents gel. We could have a blowout or a bad defeat or a draw none of that matters, they need time on the pitch TOGETHER. We’re getting that less Pulisic and Sargent due to their circumstances. Just seeing them all on the field at once is beautiful.

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  13. Here’s how the team is lined up:

    De La Fuente———Lletget————Reyna

    —————-McKennie——-Musah————

    —————————Adams——————

    Robinson———-Brooks———–Miazga——Dest

    ———————Steffen——————

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