December and January friendlies are traditionally not the prettiest affairs for the U.S. men’s national team, with MLS-based players often out of season and sharpness lacking even with the help of an extended camp.
Saturday’s friendly against Bosnia and Herzegovina was no different, with the last USMNT match of the year lacking cohesion even before the Bosnia red card that doomed the match to morphing into a lackluster clash.
What it did provide was some promising glimpses for USMNT fans to consider. Jordan Morris showed some promising flashes, Johnny Cardoso looked like a defensive midfield prospect worth spending more time on and Brooks Lennon performed well enough to merit further consideration in the crowded right-back pool.
Here is a look back at how the USMNT players performed in Saturday’s win against Bosnia and Herzegovina:
Matt Turner – 7
Recorded three saves, and completed all 11 of his passes on a night when he wasn’t seriously tested.
Brooks Lennon – 7
A solid debut for the Atlanta United fullback, who handled his defensive duties well, while also showing some of the attacking quality he can bring to the role.
Walker Zimmerman – 8
The USMNT Man of the Match was stellar yet again, snuffing out some Bosnian threats and dominating yet again.
Henry Kessler – 6.5
Didn’t have a ton to do given the man advantage and Zimmerman’s presence, but Kessler was sharp with his passing and positioning.
George Bello – 6.5
Won all six of his duels and added six recoveries, but he didn’t contribute as much to the attack as you would like to see, though part of that was down to Bosnia bunkering after the red card.
Johnny Cardoso – 7
Very sharp day for the Brazil-based midfielder, who completed 91 percent of his passes, including six of eight long-range passes. Defensively, Cardoso added nine recoveries to show off his impressive two-way ability.
Kellyn Acosta – 6
Active as always, but didn’t contribute enough to the attack for the advanced role he was placed in, and as much as the red card might have influenced that, it was still far from Acosta’s best.
Cristian Roldan – 6
Much like Acosta, Roldan wasn’t able to really find an attacking spark, and while he did put in some good defensive work, the Sounders midfielder missed an opportunity to really boost his stock.
Jesus Ferreira – 6
Deployed on the wing instead of his usual central role, Ferreira contributed two successful crosses, and a key passes, but was largely quiet on the day.
Ricardo Pepi – 5.5
It was a night to forget for Pepi, who was starved for service, and who looked like a player who hadn’t played much in the past two months. He gets some credit for his defensive effort.
Jordan Morris – 6.5
He didn’t score a goal or register an assist, but Morris provided the most promising glimpses of the night, flashing his trademark speed in his first USMNT appearance in two years. He worked his way into threatening positions on multiple occasions, and while the sharpness isn’t quite there yet, Morris looked like a player ready to jump right back into the conversation for a regular role with the full squad.
Gyasi Zardes – 5
Failed to record a shot during his 28 minutes of action.
Bryan Reynolds – 6.5
Produced a pair of key passes and was very active in his 28-minute shift, though it was pretty clear he lacks sharpness due to his lack of club minutes.
Jackson Yueill – 6
Completed 39 of 40 passes during his 27 minutes of action, contributing three recoveries in a tidy performance.
Cole Bassett – 7.5
Delivered the winning goal during his 12-minute shift, and as much as there was some luck involved in the ball falling to him, Bassett’s track record for producing goals lets you know he deserves the credit for putting himself in dangerous positions.
Cade Cowell – NR
A quiet 12-minute shift for the San Jose Earthquakes prospect.
Jonathan Gomez – NR
Only played six minutes, but only needed five to make an impact, with his shot forcing the rebound that fell to Bassett for the winner. A promising debut for the young fullback.
my rule of thumb on “camp cupcake” type limited availability games is you’re primarily looking for the players who stand out because the game is watered down and if they can’t make this look good there’s not much hope in a serious match. turner and zimmermann played well but we’d already know they are quali game ready. i thought morris looked good and earned back on quali roster from rehab. that’s about the only obvious “add” from this bunch. I liked bassett, reynolds, and gomez off the bench — and think they should be in the 23 — but it will be interesting how much credit they get towards GB’s pecking order since he had them pegged as cupcake bench level. i think he was wrong with who started vs sat but this coach tends to trust his paper theory instincts over game play. his concrete responses tend to be glacial timescale.
i thought pepi acosta lennon bello roldan yeuill and others underwhelmed, and to me if you can’t show in a watered down game with bosnia B you either have consistency issues or are significantly overrated. pepi has gone cold and his status as the starting 9 should be in question. ditto acosta. i thought the late second half burst showed he had the team evaluated backwards and wasted a lot of his time. about all he will probably get out of that is perseverate on his favorites and bring in morris. at least that last bit might help.
that being said, while i generally discount cupcake results, i think it says something when your B in a horrible system can beat other Bs. we’d kind of slipped back to scoreless ties in these kind of games last cycle because the depth sucked. i do think the system sucks and doesn’t leverage the team, and that we spend inordinate amounts of time passing the ball sideways or playing keepaway by the corner flag — without a lead. the system is almost like what you do to run out clock sitting on a margin, not what you’d do to create good chances. our good chances continue to come between the edges of the 18 and not whacking hopeful balls in from the flag. it’s actually more effective having the wingbacks cut across and shoot than having them go to the endline and cross…….the “crosses” that seem to work are get to the endline on footspeed inside the box and square a ball on the ground to the spot…..i keep waiting for the snobs to point such things out but they seem to have passing confused with chance creation…..
In a normal year I don’t think you are wrong. But this isn’t a normal year. The schedules are so different from what has been in the past. Right or wrong Berhalter treated this as a fitness session for his available players in his top 30. You were never going to see someone step up in this game and translate that into minutes in Hamilton or St. Paul. The new guys were training these two weeks not for game time in qualifying but to be invited this Summer to WC roster camp. With the exception of maybe Gomez (to tie him) I would be shocked to see someone new the next qualifying window.
JR: we are in second place, not first. with many draws and plenty of frustrating personnel choices. this was a chance for him to tinker and not double down on a suboptimal status quo. personally i feel like he risks repeating some of arena’s flaws with his favoritism for certain frustrating choices — the equivalent of leaning on omar and villafana right off the cliff. tnt was not their first bad game and the next NT game that yeuill roldan etc. play won’t be their first bad or anonymous effort. this was his chance to kick some tires and give himself some other options with cap experience and see if they are any better. if you have looked at the last 3 games in the schedule, they are harsh and when he arrives there, the close will be a strict test for whoever we field. the more you just run out status quo favorites not getting the job, the more you risk some sort of arena scenario where they end up playing and aren’t up to the job. i’d rather an objective process where others get a chance to take their spots.
also, you act like it’s a special year but neglect this is also the last rest period in that special year. snobs like the idea of having players busy but always forget about “rest.” ever seen pulisic or aaronson when they look tired? not near the same. nor were the people played two games in a row without any changes including TnT last time. anyhow, i anticipate we will have a long january camp for MLS based before the quali games. only euros will have to actually be released. they would get fitness then. this is redundant fitness work at the expense of their only rest through next november. if we’re sincerely considering how this builds towards the tournament.
The rest argument I think is why you only saw guys like Reynold’s and Gomez for limited minutes. They will be playing with their clubs in January (assuming Bryan gets a transfer). I would say the big difference between Rollget/Acostiola vs Omar and Villafana is Berhalter’s guys are 2nd string and Bruce made them first choice. Bottom line is if we beat Honduras, ES, and Panama at home we will be in Qatar and at this point it would take a huge collapse to at worst have to beat New Zealand at a neutral site. What we can’t do if we want points on the road is field a lineup with Lleget, Acosta, and/or Roldan in the middle. Put any of those three with Wes and Ty and it’s fine. The lesson learned from Panama should be you can’t field a complete 2nd group, the margin becomes to small because they will not create a lot of chances.
you either get rest of not. with the intensity of pre-friendly practices, for weeks, whether they play 45′ or 90′ at the end isn’t much “rest” difference. they just finished MLS and instead of feet up in a barcalounger are putting weeks more practice and a game on their legs. actual rest difference is they get those weeks off, vs they are still playing. to me 45′ vs 90′ is more like how much injury risk am i going to expose them to, when the other team in fact studs up tackles a player and gets a red……
the deal is this was their offseason, they got however many weeks their team was out, back in camp early december, maybe 2-3 more weeks, back in US camp in january preparing for quali.
to me at the end of a college or select season i would be tired and bruised and ready for a break. even if we just won state. athletes need rest, they just ended last season, and the next one will run all the way up to qatar. this was their break. i think he’s trying to push hard to get through quali but what if these players need to have legs in next november? but then half my point on GB is we should be sitting on a cushion for qatar as opposed to still fighting about whether it happens……
You are kind of talking out of both sides of your mouth though. We need rest we need rest, but we should have won more matches. Well we lost points when we rested our starters. I understand that you believe every decision that 3G makes is wrong so therefore Green, Holmes, Horvath, Wood, etc… would have surely driven us to 30 pts at this stage but that is just not true. Their flaws are just as great as the players you rail against. I don’t like every decision Berhalter makes, but I know he knows more about soccer, has vastly more resources and watches far more tape than you or I so he gets some leeway to make those mistakes. He’s watched thousands of hours of tape on Duane Holmes and Julian Green how many hours have you watched?
Not sure if I watched a different game than Ives…or if I just expected more from some of these players.
As veterans and supposed leaders in this camp I believe that Acosta & Roldan deserve to be graded more harshly. I’d have rated them the same as Zardes @ a 5 (at best). They were invisible for much of the match and since we were a man up for 50+ minutes I would have expected more.
Bello & Lennon about a 1/2 point higher than I’d have given them. While they were defensively OK, being a man up I would have expected them to be more effective in the attacking 3rd.
Considering Morris was about the only threatening attacker in the 1st 45 minutes I think he warrents 1/2 to 1 point higher than his 6.5 rating. Yes, he showed some rust and his stamina wasn’t where it needs to be…I’d still prefer to see him in the 23 than Arriola. He’s still a 3rd string wide attacker (Pulisic, Reyna, Weah, Aaronson), but he’s an option as a late sub.
The rest of the rankings are fairly accurate. Still disappointed we didn’t see much of Gomez or Cowell and that Booth wasn’t even given a chance.
Gregg’s rating for this match: 4 or 4.5. He had 2 weeks to prep this team. They were a man up for 50+ minutes; yet the team looked like crap and substitutions were late/slow to be fielded.
I keep harping on this but it’s about the 22, not the 11. Until somebody can prove to me that Reyna isn’t our best 10 I think he and Musah should share that spot. (Yeah, I know Gregg plays co-8’s but one of them inevitably shades a little higher)…which pretty much leaves McKennie and probably Busio as the “true” 8 though that’s contingent on Busio continuing to progress.
I think Weah and Morris are our clear frontrunners to share the right wing spot (obviously with Pulisic and Aaronson at LW.) The fifth-best winger in the pool is probably Konrad de la Fuente…in a rational lineup Arriola wouldn’t see the field except for Gold Cups.
Completely agree on Acosta and Roldan, with a man advantage these two did next to nothing to push the ball forward and try to attack. Our best attacking moments came from out wide with Morris or occasionally one of the young right backs. Acosta’s athleticism and defensive bite give him a chance to be Adams’ backup at the 6, but neither one deserves any more time in an attacking central role. It’s past time to look for more/better options. If you can’t create against an average u23 team playing a man down, then when on earth can you?
I was shocked when Roldan said he wanted to be an 8. He’s not fit for that in Berhalter’s system. Neither Roldan or Accosta were bad, they just weren’t good enough. Roldan is basically Lleget without the finishing. Put in with 9 or 10 first team guys and he won’t hurt you and he’ll mostly let others carry the load and he’ll cycle the ball and defend. Put him in with Acosta who also isn’t technical or able to take space on the dribble and it’s endless sideways and backward movements. You really see how important Wes and Yunus are and how much Williamson’s injury hurt this roster.
I really wanted to see more of JOGO at this level. I’m not so sure Belo is even better than him.
Most significant and maybe the only significant thing from this match?
Jordan is in contention for Qatar if they get there and if he continues to recover at this rate.
i think morris was sufficiently good at a position where we have had depth issues where he makes the january team. i think he’s well ahead of just a november trajectory. out of the relative outsiders he was one of the few who will stick for quali. conversely the coach couldn’t get long healthy and sorted and so his only option is your race to make qatar later in the year. the rest i will be curious who he keeps because it’s not just looking decent but bumping someone already in the call sheet. i can think of people but this coach has favoritism/abstraction issues where he’s not objective. he seems to have some definite idea how this should come out regardless how the games go. as such it may not matter if you starred off the bench because it says he didn’t rate you much. soto, nico, few others who came in, did alright, were never his chosen ones, disappeared back away. i don’t think he has the concrete nous to see, for example, if we’re gonna run out arriola, then nico, green, and a few others are better than that. he kind of wants an idea he got to work and that is that. he can upgrade steffen to turner and he will eventually revert because the idea was supposed to be steffen from the word “go.”
“this coach has favoritism/abstraction issues where he’s not objective.”
No manager is. The good managers just have better judgement about who they favor than the bad ones.
And in Jordan’s case, Jomo is already one of the manager’s fair (albeit thinning) haired boys so he’s got no problems there. Some managers might have waited longer into Jordan’s recovery to call him back but whatever.
The difference with Jordan is he’s no Llet/riolla.
JoMo has actually earned the favoritism with his overall performance.
As for Steffen, he’s the classic example of a starter not losing his job due to injury.
Turner has done all he can but that’s not enough to oust Steffen. It’s not his fault but Turner’s outstanding play for the most part, came against weaklings, has beens and never will be’s.
It’s not like the USMNT faced Bayern Munich, PSG, and Man City all in a row and Turner stoned them.
He was fine and if he was #1 I wouldn’t care but it wasn’t like he was a quantum leap better than Steffen might have been.
They are both pretty average. Keeper is not the big issue with the USMNT.
all due respect, while every US coach has had “an” Olsen or Bornstein — fair enough — they have not had this lengthy a list of head scratcher favorites. i then think your framing of the issue as “steffen vs turner” as favorites is misleading. i do think he favors steffen but that’s not the ridiculous end of his efforts eg zardes yeuill roldan arriola brooks acosta. to be fair, every NT roster is a fight at the margins. like donovan vs davis, etc. but people don’t usually think you have a half dozen or more marginal players completely wrong.
i hear people act like this is inconsequential but it matters about every world cup. the coach will start clark or sub wondo. and the tournament will be over that day. you have to treat each one of these like they might end up playing. you make these goofy personnel errors one time in qatar and we’re going home. and this is not a debate about 1 guy, or a couple, it’s a half dozen every time. the odds near 100% one (or more) of them starts or plays significant time.
IV: that’s just recency bias. If we were in the eras of those coaches you’d remember a lot more. Especially when considering off window camps like this one. Split Covid camps also added caps to players. Factor in 3 match windows and 2 competitions in one Summer and Gregg has just had far more opportunities than some other managers. Lleget, Roldan, Acosta, and Arriola would have all been called frequently by Arena, Klinsmann, Bradley, and Sampson if they played during those managers stints.
Klinsmann had Waldo, Orozco, Mix, Davis, Zusi. Arena II used most of those same plus Omar by that point, Villafana, Arriola, Bradley (I guess at that point in his career). I’m sure I’ve missed some guys too.
JR: first off, arriola in 2017 was a different comparison than now. we had modest offense. he was competing for time with benny or bedoya or people like that. at that time there weren’t many other choices. he could have brought back green — i pushed for that. otherwise, the cupboard was pretty bare. fake news.
zusi was also a fairly reliable wingback at a time when we didn’t have cannon dest reynolds etc. all sitting around. you’re sweeping under the rug WHY FJ and yedlin and chandler and co. got pastured. like gold cup 2015 or the regional playoff didn’t happen.
second, you are missing my point, which is that usually over time the headscratcher “favorites” winnow down to perhaps one by the world cup. the coach wakes up. yes, davis beat out donovan. but off the others you named, orozco didn’t make 2014 team. mixx was briefly in fashion during the cycle but by the tournament was unused bench. my whole point is usually the coach wises up over time. by the end the weirdness is usually just bornstein, so to speak.
he’s still at several weird people, not just one, and despite performance “disproof” if people got hurt the others might be his first phone call. yeuill was his emergency call in a recent window.
it’s a matter of “extent,” not some constant about which i have bias. most US coaches the fans agree with 95% of the roster and it comes down to a player or two. sorry, he wishes it was the same. he’s closer to 75-80%. and when he started in 2019 he was completely out to lunch. compare his roster for 2019 to where sarachan was in 2018. sarachan liked weah, horvath, sargent, and others our child is just (re)discovering.
if canada or mexico had our roster they would be riding off into the sunset.
In 2017 Arriola was competing with Pulisic, Nagbe, Bedoya, Morris, Fabian Johnson, and Lleget. Luckily for him Morris and Lleget suffered injuries in late 2017 and 2018. Not unlike today with Paul seeing time after Pulisic and Reyna injured and Weah was only a few weeks returned from a muscle injury. At that time Green was very much playing the same part as Hoppe today flashes of brilliance but complete lack of faith by his club. During that time you had much stronger forwards as well in Dempsey, Altidore, and Wood. Every manager plays guys they trust over players fans favor, everyone all over the world in every sport. Mostly because they are around the players more, watch more tape, interact in training and video sessions. Sometimes they get it right sometimes they get it wrong.
JR,
“Lleget, Roldan, Acosta, and Arriola would have all been called frequently by Arena, Klinsmann, Bradley, and Sampson if they played during those managers stints.”
That is very doubtful. Better, more useful players than them were available then.
Lletget and Roldan were of questionable international class in their primes. And obviously, they are now past their primes and are worse now.
Your fabulous four are just not very good soccer players at the level in question.
Klinsmann is the guy who called up Acosta originally, played him at left back and got some good use out of him shifting him around a bit. People gave JK a lot of flak for playing Acosta “out of position” at left back but he did fine in the games I saw him. And he moved around a bit too.
Today’s Acosta is not the same player. I think his run in with Dallas FC management killed him a little. JK’s Acosta was pretty good with the dead ball. The current Acosta sucks at that. He has never been greatly skilled, but he made up for it a bit by being confident and dynamic. Something he now is intermittently, not consistently. He’s a comeback story but he has not come all the way back. He has shown a lot of guts, but I dislike watching him because it is depressing and embarrassing. Anyone who thinks he is anywhere near what he was or could have been is just thinking wishfully looking for the happy fairy tale comeback.
Lletget and Roldan did not really get into the USMNT picture until the manager before the current one replaced Klinsmann. The competition they faced around that time for second string roles were guys like Sacha, Zusi, Green, Gooch, Timmy Chandler, Benny, Mix etc. all of whom were flawed but all of whom, except for Linden, I have seen play at least one great USMNT game. I cannot say that about either Cristian or Lletget. And, except for Linden, the guys I mentioned had higher ceilings, which they occasionally reached, than Sebastian and Roldan who are consistently earnest, boring, and unproductive. Offensive flow killers.
Even if you go all the way back to the early to mid-2000’s, for Lletget and Roldan, to play as much as they do now, they would have had to beat out guys like Steve Ralston, Eddie Lewis, DMB, Bobby Convey, Earnie Stewart, Ben Olsen, Jon O’Brien, etc. guys whose jock strap they could not have carried.
In other words, in terms of all time ranking your fab four rank low. If you took Michael Bradley at his very worst, that is the level where Roldan and Lletget play consistently. Do no harm and do no good.
Ariolla was a promising winger under JK and was coming along nicely. He was in Liga MX and was very promising. The turning point for me was when he played like a man wearing a concrete jock strap in Couva. He was subbed out at half time by Clint and since then has been a consistently embarrassing USMNT player.
He makes a liar out of people who say that the USMNT features the best players America has to offer.
“Klinsmann had Waldo, Orozco, Mix, Davis, Zusi. Arena II used most of those same plus Omar by that point, Villafana, Arriola, Bradley (I guess at that point in his career). I’m sure I’ve missed some guys too.”
I saw most of the games those guys played. I have seen most of the USMNT games Lleget and Roldan have played.
Overall. I would take “Waldo, Orozco, Mix, Davis, Zusi. Arena II used most of those same plus Omar by that point, Villafana, Arriola, Bradley (I guess at that point in his career)” at their best, over Lleget and Roldan at their best. Without question. Those guys were more effective tha your fab four.
Except for Villafana and Davis.
Vacqui,
You kind of missed the point. Arriola, Roldan, Lleget, and Acosta might not have been first choices for previous managers but there not first choices for Berhalter either. They’ve all been one of the best Americans in MLS at their position during their time so each manager would have given them plenty of chances during windows when European players weren’t available. The three match windows also provide more opportunities for rotation which leads to more 2nd and 3rd choice players. I’d rather not have any of the 4 in the 23 man roster but they all would have found time during other eras in similar situations. Is Roldan any different than Ricardo Clark or Mike Sorber? Is Lleget different than Ben Olsen or Arriola and Bobby Convey? Gregg has moved on from Trapp, Lovitz, Yeuill, and seems to be moving from Lletget and perhaps Arriola. The emergence of Busio and improvement of Tessmann will push out Sebi and Roldan as the health of Weah, CP, Reyna, and Morris will do with Arriola. Injuries will be the 4s only tickets to Qatar, but we always have a few of those.
JRaz,
“They’ve all been one of the best Americans in MLS at their position during their time so each manager would have given them plenty of chances during windows when European players weren’t available.”
The manager is allegedly supposed to pick the best AMERICANS, not just the best Americans in MLS.
Your fab four have been given plenty of time during the windows when Euros WERE available”
Maybe the best way to say this is that do you really believe that at least one or two if not all of your fab four, Lleget, Roldan, Acosta, and Arriola are NOT going to Qatar if the USMNT qualifies?
Or that they won’t be asked to play significant roles?
Because I don’t trust this manager.
“The emergence of Busio and improvement of Tessmann will push out Sebi and Roldan as the health of Weah, CP, Reyna, and Morris will do with Arriola.”
Your logic is perfectly sensible.
But it is YOUR logic, not necessarily this manager’s.
We don’t really understand his logic. He has a history of making very illogical moves at the worst time. Remember his flying Seba over to Europe to try out for the false 9 role? It didn’t make sense then and it still doesn’t now. And as he showed with the starting lineup vs. Honduras and in the loss to Panama, he’s still prone to this kind of vanity. Even in the pressure cooker of WC qualifying games.
I can already hear his rationales for why his faves should be there and why they are the core of the team. I remember his saying that they looked at Ariolla and Aaronson as one person. That’s interesting because Cruyff once said that there were specific opposition players who he wanted to have the ball because he knew it would be bad for his opponents if they did. Ariolla is like that. When he has the ball our opponents love it.
This manager looks to me to be digging for reasons to reward “his guys”, your fab four, along with guys like Long and Morris, etc. Morris deserves it but I fail to see the need for Long other than the fact that this manager has never backed down from the assertion that he is a “core” member.
It’s already very, very late in the game to be bringing in anyone new. For example, Tessmann or even Busio, aren’t just national team newbies, they are, by comparison to some, international game newbies. It’s not like giving a solid veteran, who has finally recovered from injury and showing well for his club, his place back.
If they don’t come in and play significant roles in the remaining WC qualifiers it would be pretty hard to trust them in Qatar. After qualifying they will only have a camp and maybe some friendlies. That’s not enough to integrate someone new, especially a RAW kid like Tessman, for example. Nothing against him or Busio, but’s it’s not like he’s some phenom.
I know that there have often been times when the #21-23 players have seen zero minutes at a World Cup. But I don’t think a manager can afford to think like that. The manager should be confident that every player on the WC 23 will be able to contribute if called upon.
Bornstein was a fave of Bob, but he had two decent WC games in South Africa. Zusi and Besler held their own in Brazil. I’m not confident that you can expect that level from your fab four.
This manager has had 44 games at the helm. I’m all for place holders and a certain degree of continuity. But your fab four showed what they have a very long time ago yet still get called in regularly. Maybe I’m overly pessimistic but I don’t see any of your fab four getting a whole lot better no matter how many caps you give them.
Calling them in (or Yueill) for any games at this point is just throwing good money after bad.
But this discussion isn’t really about the players.
It’s about the managers.
Bornstein, Besler, Zusi, etc., it’s not like their managers had much of a choice with them. In those days, the USMNT did not have the kind of potential depth the current manager has. But they coached decent performances out of them.
I’m not convinced this manager can do that with his faves at Qatar. Or that he has really tried to mine the valuable resource he now has in front of him.
Yes, he’s handed out a lot of first time caps. But there’s a lot of 20 minutes of garbage time in the second half involved with that. That’s just for show. It’s NOT the same as actually giving a newcomer a chance with a run of games to show what they can do for the USMNT. That’s how you explore and develop depth.