The U.S. men’s national team begins defense of its Concacaf Nations League title tonight in Austin, Texas, with a group-stage opener against Grenada at Q2 Stadium (10 p.m., ESPN+, TUDN).
The Americans are fresh off a pair of friendlies against fellow World Cup participants, posting a pair of shutouts in a 3-0 win against Morocco and 0-0 draw with Uruguay. Now attention turns back to Concacaf, where Gregg Berhalter’s side will be heavily favored to steamroll their Caribbean counterparts.
Grenada showed some fight in a 2-2 draw with El Salvador to kick off its own Nations League campaign and will face a USMNT lineup missing several key starters as Berhalter opted for some squad rotation ahead of his team’s trip to El Salvador on Tuesday.
Here is the starting lineup the Americans will deploy tonight against Grenada:
Here are some SBI stories leading up to tonight’s match:
USMNT aiming to sharpen attack in Nations League opener vs. Grenada. (LINK)
Who should the USMNT start vs. Grenada (LINK)
Gregg Berhalter defends Aaron Long amid criticism of his push for a starting USMNT role. (LINK)
Cameron Carter-Vickers makes case for USMNT place. (LINK)
Cameron Carter-Vickers completes permanent transfer to Celtic. (LINK)
Brenden Aaronson, Christian Pulisic and the SBI Americans Abroad Best XI. (LINK)
SBI will be providing updates throughout the night in the comments section below so please feel free to follow along here. As always, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions as well.
Enjoy the action.
I think to many fans and pundits have gotten used to a physically dominating #9 due to our old style of play. Ferreira is for our new style of play and I really enjoy what he is doing out there. His speed of play and quick reactions are a welcome addition. Keep banging those goals in Jesus!
Ferreira finally earned his bad hair. The rest of them have more work to do.
Just FYI, Ives’ comments weren’t loading for me until now. Anyone else have that problem?
Comments were a little buggy Otis, thank you for letting us know. We are looking into different software to run live commentary so it’s not just feeding into the comments section here.
Jesus hits 4 in the 78th minute, proving that he can dominate Granada. US 5 – Spice Boys 0.
GOAL USA and Ferreira makes it 5-0, converts the nice lay-off pass from Brenden Aaronson, and credit to Malik Tillman for the hustle to force that sequence in the final third that eventually led to Aaronson’s incisive run.
5-0 USA, 80th minute.
Aaronson on. 72nd minute, cuts a defender out of his socks, has 4 options in the box, attempts to curl it into the far post from a tight angle. Misses by inches. Maybe an indication that he was told to run around and express himself. Not much to take away from this match.
This analysis ain’t it Otis
Paul Arriola makes it 4-0 in the 63rd minute, and it’s a beautiful pass from Luca De La Torre to spring Arriola for the finish.
De La Torre and Arriola have been excellent in the second half.
Arriola runs onto DLT’s passant finishes from 4 yards out. US 4 – Spice Boys 0.
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Tillman also on. Looking as you would expect someone who just joined the team to look in a game like this… Feeling it out.
Jesus Ferreira completes the hat-trick off a nice corner kick designed play as Kellyn Acosta plays it short to him and he makes no mistake from about 15 yards out.
Ferreira went from can’t finish to can’t miss in the space of a few minutes.
3-0 USA, 61st minute now.
One minute after his last goal, and roughly 30 minutes after I said he was useless, Jesus completes his hat trick. Jesus 3 – Spice Boys 0.
GOAL USA! Jesus Ferreira scores his second on the night and finishes off a beautiful Paul Arriola pass. That tandem has been unstoppable for FC Dallas and they connect once again tonight.
2-0 USMNT, 54th minute.
Ball bounces around midfield before Arriola splits lines to find Jesus rushing unmarked onto goal. Jesus scores. Jesus 2 – Spice Boys 0.
Nice work from De La Torre to dribble into the penalty area, but his pass attempt was picked off.
USA continuing to struggle to string passes together.
1-0 USA, 53rd minute.
Luca De La Torre delivers a nice pass to Ferreira in front of goal but he sends his header just over the bar. Free header, he needs to finish that.
1-0 USA, 48th minute.
GGG with multiple behind the back bounce passes. Impressive stuff.
The midfield hasn’t really created much in the first half, save for a good Weston McKennie to find Ferreira near the penalty area. Luca De La Torre has run around a lot but hasn’t made any incisive attacking plays.
It was a pretty lackluster first half for the USMNT, which isn’t a complete surprise given this group hasn’t played together before. Still not an excuse against a team like Grenada, but there’s something to be said for Grenada already having two Nations League matches under its belt heading into tonight.
Well, the late goal saved them from total embarrassment. But, overall, what a poor display. They started out with very sloppy play and then they kind of cleaned that up around the 20th minute. They played as if they were told to just go out and kick the ball around and hope it goes in the net. They seemed totally disorganized and without a game plan. We have seen this before where the US plays down to the opposition instead of putting the game away early, which is what they should be doing. This is a result of poor leadership.
49 minutes. Somehow, 5 minutes of added time in the first half.
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Highlights include Jesus finally getting a goal (and missing 3 other good chances) and Unimas announcers asking viewers: “Tell me what you want — what you really, really want.”
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US 1 – Spice Boys 0
Jesus scores. 43rd. Lucky rebound from Arriola shot/cross, puts it far post. Yes, that sounds underwhelming… because it is.
In 20 minutes, Jesus has shown that he just ain’t it. Movement is great… still no finishing, even against this level of competition. While we are firmly in control, we also don’t look more likely to score here than we did against Uruguay. Wes has played some good balls through, to no effect. Acosta is good for defense, not much more. Arriola still looks like his move to MLS from MX was good for his career.
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TLDR: Should have scored 2-3 by now, haven’t scored 1. Major drop-off at all positions and lack of striker confirmed.