Antonee Robinson’s presence was sorely missed during the U.S. men’s national team’s October window and the American defender made up for lost time with a Man of the Match showing on Thursday in CONCACAF Nations League action.
Robinson earned SBI Man of the Match honors at Q2 Stadium in the USMNT’s 3-0 first leg quarterfinal win over Trinidad & Tobago in Austin, Texas. The Fulham fullback assisted on Ricardo Pepi’s breakthrough goal before delivering a stellar strike of his own to pad the eventual victory.
Robinson led all players with five chances created in the match, one of which was flicked home by Pepi in the 81st minute. After finding room on the left wing, Robinson’s powerful cross was redirected past Denzil Smith for a 1-0 USMNT lead.
The 26-year-old called his own number in the 86th minute to help pad the USMNT’s advantage. After settling possession about 20+ yards out, Robinson unleashed a curling left-footed shot that nestled into the back of the net.
https://x.com/USMNT/status/1725362163814944887?s=20
Gio Reyna’s insurance goal on the verge of second-half stoppage time truly iced the 3-0 victory for the USMNT.
Robinson completed 82% of his passes, made seven recoveries, and completed four of his seven crosses in the match.
Robinson edged out Gio Reyna, Weston McKennie, Sergino Dest and Ricardo Pepi for Man of the Match honors.
What did you think of Robinson’s performance tonight? How bright is his future with the USMNT? Did you expect him to score tonight against T&T?
Share your thoughts below.
the problem with this team is we keep annointing people based on TNT and not germany. yes, great if wasteful game. deal is defend the other team and do this against anyone good. we get a different read then. which is why lund is around. and the problem is this team confuses itself about what TNT means, which ain’t a lot.
This was for man of the match against Trinidad so how someone played against Germany doesn’t really matter. Especially since said winner of the imaginary award was resting at home in England.
He assisted on the winning goal and scored the insurance goal. It is hard not to name him MoM no matter how bad you think he was for most of the match.
I suppose you could name Ream MoM since he never put a foot wrong cutting off attackers before they cold get anything going. (Well, he did make one mistake, but CCV cleaned it up pretty easily.). Defusing attacks before they develop is great defending, but it is seldom recognized, but in this game that was seldom required. And when defenders get a MoM award it is usually because they faced relentless pressure, hardly the case here.
The best player on the field, the whole match was terrible?! …and a sub off the bench was better than ol bleach blond moving around the field all night?! This is why I suggest people/fans watch the match a 2nd time without their emotions being in the way. I don’t trust anyone’s opinions about players, coaches, tactics, history or culture when they have consistently shown they have the same negative opinions about players, coaches tactics, history, or culture especially years later. No room for improvement from players you don’t have a positive opinion of. Expecting humans to be robots is nonsense. It’s never been Jedi’s 1st touch, it’s always been his 3rd touch. A fullbacks job is to prevent the other team from scoring. Jedi created the most chances (5), had the most crosses in the box (7), had a goal & an assist. That’s 2 out of 3 goal contributions. Ran more meters/yards than everyone on the field. On top of all that, the man did 2 fn backflips to celebrate his goal. He SHOULD be MOTM just for that, speaking on opinions. USA hasn’t had a single player to celebrate a goal w/ a backflip until Jedi. Now, this man is doing doubles. What’s next 2 double backflips w/ a back hand spring and a twist. (Pepi played great! I am glad!, MotM tho?, he’ll naw, I disagree)
I’m sorry he had nothing to do with them not scoring! He had the most crosses but how many were on target? Do you think there was a reason they gave him time and space to cross it? One, which took a golazo from Pepi or would have been another wasted cross that Jedi put too close to the endline. He ran around a lot, wow, I didn’t realize it was a cross country meet! The match changed when Pepi came on. By the way the forward that played 1/3 of the game had more tackles and duels won than your exalted defender.
I’m sure until the goal Jedi was terrible and the goal came up 2 men. His touch was poor, his crosses were poor, even the ball to Wes that originally when the pen was because he fell down when he went to hit it. If not for Pepi’s great play he doesn’t get the assist either. Pepi changed the game when he came on, and his finish opened the gates. Others had far better looks in the first 80 minutes and either couldn’t put it on net or hit it weakly to the keeper. El Tren is MotM for me.
One thing I notice about MOTM and other awards such as MVP in American sports is the lack of specific criteria.
Most goals? Game winning goal? Penalty save? Lead or tie preserving save or tackle? Most tackles?. Injured the other sides best player and put him out of the game? Etc.,etc……
The lack of specificity turns it into a popularity contest and thus generates lots of discussion. Which is basically a good thing. It helps keep fans and media engaged and involved.
I’ve come to believe this is deliberate or it ought to be. It promotes endless discussion and argument so the powers that be are unlikely to ever provide specific criteria for such awards.