The U.S. men’s national team aren’t sulking after suffering a slim defeat at the hands of Slovenia on Saturday afternoon. In fact, head coach Gregg Berhalter is proud of the effort they delivered in their first performance of the new year.
Berhalter watched as 11 players made their senior debuts in the USMNT’s 1-0 home defeat at Toyota Field. Despite some sloppy moments in the first half, the Americans improved after halftime, and even came close to tying the match on multiple occasions through Esmir Bajraktarvic and John Tolkin’s offensive chances.
Berhalter would’ve hoped to see his team rewarded for their efforts, but overall wasn’t too disappointed with the final scoreline.
“It wasn’t always perfect, but the will was there, the desire was there, the competitiveness was there, and we kept going to the last whistle trying to get the equalizer,” Berhalter said in a post-match conference call with reporters. “And I really liked that, how they kept their heads up and kept going.
“Overall, when I’m looking at the stats, it’s a performance that I think was good enough to get something out of the game.”
The USMNT out-possessed (68%-32%), out-passed (695-273), and outshot Slovenia (15-9) in the match, doing everything they could to try and get back into the match. Timothy Tillman and Bajraktarevic highlighted the creative performers in the USMNT squad on Saturday while Duncan McGuire and Brian White both tried to use their physical abilities in the final third.
Jack McGlynn, Josh Atencio, Sean Zawadzki, and Diego Luna were also among the debutants to feature in the match while goalkeeper Patrick Schulte made three saves to keep Slovenia from adding to its advantage. Many of the these players will now head into their respective MLS preseasons, but certainly have a confidence boost going into it.
“I think this is a great opportunity to learn and if you think about 11 guys got their debut tonight, five of the guys who started are Olympic-age eligible,” Berhalter said. “So this is going to be a great learning experience for this group, and really happy with the opportunity to do this camp and think we definitely got something out of it looking forward.”
Saturday’s friendly also came two months shy of the conclusion of the CONCACAF Nations League, a tournament that the USMNT will be seeking to win for the third-straight edition. In addition to repeating as Nations League winners, the Americans will also welcome CONMEBOL’s best to the United States this summer for the 2024 Copa America.
With no World Cup Qualifying cycle to look forward to, the USMNT will be preparing to run the table in all competitions as preparation for 2026..
“Looking forward, it’s competition time,” Berhalter said. “We have trophies on the line this summer with Copa America and this spring with Nations League, and we’re looking forward to getting the entire group together and trying to win our third consecutive Nations League and then have a great showing in Copa America.
“So it’s an exciting six months of soccer coming up for the USMNT,” he added.
fwiw marsch backs me up. says, essentially, we wish we were 2010 spain but don’t have the players. says we don’t have the time in a short camp to really work on this kind of scheme. says he has the players thinking too hard about where they are supposed to be and such, that they don’t just play.
to be clear, i am not pro marsch, but he gets it.
Some sour grapes in there though. Plus when you literally got fired because your strategy was send everybody at the ball and if you win it immediately lump it down field. Rinse and repeat. Basically trying to survive in the EPL using U7 tactics you might not be the best to talk either. I’ve actually come to it’s not that the tactics are too complex it’s that Gregg can’t communicate it to the players effectively. Different problem same result though obviously.
the vibe is like we elevate rehearsal and scheme-training over games and execution on the day. the value of scheme-training is exaggerated as is obvious from game results.
sorry but in college while summer preseason was work and fun, and some preseason scrimmage upset flattering, when the first games arrive, so what if you ran hard and bonded and upset a better team in your scrimmage?
when i have this convo with folks re MLS and some rookie who looked good in preseason, i get the opposite response. that was “practice.” can they do it in regular season. the dynamo had a YNT reserve kid score a glorious goal on the rapids a few years back who they then lowballed on this very premise. who took off to germany rather than take the lowball.
I’m not sure what you’re trying to say here? Are you advocating calling in Esmir and Luna over say Brendan Aaronson because they played decent against Slovenia’s B/C team? I mean Esmir has 1g for Revs in two seasons, Luna has a lot more body of work so maybe you could convince me. Do either beat out Pulisic, Weah, Tillman, and Gio? Aaronson has 8 NT goals so it’s not like he hasn’t produced. Or you could send them to the Olympics and compare them to age similar attackers like Booth brothers, Paredes, Cowell, Kamungo, Paxton Aaronson.
“I mean, listen: We talking about practice. Not a game. Not a game. Not a game. We talking about practice. Not a game. Not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game like it’s my last. Not the game. We talking about practice, man.” — Allen Iverson
games are what counts and games are where i judge if you can perform. i knew plenty of juggle kings and streetball circle-dribblers who were crap game players. i don’t think we focus enough on game performance.
i feel as someone posted on here recently that the modern vogue for elevating practice and scheme is intended to aggrandize coaches at the expense of players who make the plays we enjoy. it also helps insulate some of them from accountability to tout practice, scheme work, and long term projects. it’s not that they are trying something dumb, it’s you’re not good or smart enough. this is the golden generation of US players. between the players and a coach who was generally midtable i know who i take more seriously.
anyhow, i just watched a poorly chosen team that might not contribute many players even to the olympic team, lose to slovenia B, and now they’re trying to rehabilitate the value of that slop fest as a useful camp and bonding experience. for a bunch of guys most of whom just had their last US cap. only so many of whom will put into effect their bonding even this summer.
bonding aside, what is the tangible value of what i just witnessed? to copa america? to the olympics? to the NT long term? i thought it was so poorly chosen — very little.
IV: who did you want to see, if this was poorly chosen? Brian White had 15g in 32 appearances this season, those are 32 games not practices so isn’t it beneficial to see what he can do? We could have brought Ferreira but would that prove anything. He looked tired at the end of 2023 season and certainly could use an extra week or two of rest. This being preseason it’s hard to know who was available with off season rehabilitation of injuries and/or minor surgeries. Cremaschi likely not released with Miami on tour.
JR: that was transparently an olympic trial team with a sprinkling of quality-appropriate overagers. i have advocated senior experimentation but that was olympic experimentation. i don’t hate the whole thing and wanted to see miles, shaq, celentano, white, tillman. but beyond that? i have been pro luna and pushed him to dynamo fans years ago, but senior team? meh.
i think you can find pregame quotes where GB comes pretty close to admitting what i am saying, that they wanted to look at olympic players and used this to do so.
last thought but we seem to remember then forget that (a) injured or exiting players can be replaced and (b) we may have some access to european players on winter breaks.
IV: at times you can have access to Scandinavian players but it depends on schedules. The friendly was earlier in January than last year and a lot of leagues were delayed last year because of WC so they started later after break. With Euros this summer leagues are trying to finish sooner. Like Norway starts this weekend so a guy like Sam Rogers probably not released this time. Cappis is injured. I’m not sure who else is even in Scandinavia beside Gallegos in second Danish, and Amon (who has played little this season).
“the vibe is like we elevate rehearsal and scheme-training over games and execution on the day. the value of scheme-training is exaggerated as is obvious from game results.”
Bullshit.
Right now, cupcake seems to be serving as an U-23 camp for Olympic hopefuls. Given that many of these players have never played together, and most of them will not be at the Olympics, the expectations of a scheme install in such a short camp are quite low.
The game itself was about what you’d expect and with a bit of luck they could have tied or won it. And given the absence of most of the realistic Olympic hopefuls, standing out individually, as Diego and Esmir did, might be more important than the entire unit smothly operating the “scheme”.
“sorry but in college while summer preseason was work and fun, and some preseason scrimmage upset flattering, when the first games arrive, so what if you ran hard and bonded and upset a better team in your scrimmage?”
This isn’t college.
“when i have this convo with folks re MLS and some rookie who looked good in preseason, i get the opposite response. that was “practice.” can they do it in regular season. the dynamo had a YNT reserve kid score a glorious goal on the rapids a few years back who they then lowballed on this very premise. who took off to germany rather than take the lowball.”
??? This isn’t the same thing. Olympic prospects, from this camp and elsewhere, between now and when Gregg has to pick players, will be playing games thus have a more chances to make their case.
V:
dude, you’re missing my point. my point is when the team loses and many of the players (save esmir and a few others) look poorly chosen, we fall back on how this was supposedly valuable scheme work. as in the scheme that doesn’t work usually anyway. and as in it was important to work on scheme with a set of players many of whom likely won’t be seen again. i wish it was about individual performances, i agree what you usually get out of january is who stands out in this setting by themselves. if you can’t emerge in a B game — or make big gaffes — why do i need you for A contests?
sorry but it reminds me of when a few years back, we were going to make a qatar trip in january supposedly to acclimate the team to the area. and my thought is most of the B team playing in january won’t be in qatar. you’re acclimating the wrong people. and surely they know that. at which point it’s really a staff junket or scouting trip for the brass and not so much the players.
last point but i read a few days’ worth of articles dating back from before the game and it’s interesting that pregame it was we want to win and after it was the scheme exercise and bonding. and maybe that’s PR spin but i prefer a coach who either says it’s a training exercise before and then after, or who says it’s about winning then is bummed after.
my long term point is i feel like we excuse a lot of suboptimality out of this because the players are supposedly young and we’re supposedly working on new ideas. the core of the team is now 23-25 with reyna the youngest key player at 21. the actual kids are now the ones i just watched, cremaschi, paredes, jogo, gaga. the youth excuses were always lame and starting to get old as they reach prime age. most functioning schemes do not take years to implement. when is the payoff?
Just like PN said “A US team filled with young domestic talent”….YOUNG DOMESTIC TALENT (not the best)…..we got this result with our YOUNG DOMESTIC TALENT, making 5-6 changes without losing intensity, rhythm or focus. WHAT????
————–USMNT—————-STAT—————SLOVENIA———–
—————–15——————-SHOTS—————–9———————
——————69%———–POSSESSION————31%——————
—————–755—————-PASSES—————-351——————
—————–92%!!!!!——-PASS ACCURACY——77%—————–
It looks like USMNT are trying to establish a playing style that we can adapt from the USYNT level all the way to the senior team (Like Japan or Croatia)…….and damn it, these kids showed that we are moving in the right direction for now. To come together and combine like this in a short period of time being together…….this is impressive
2 Slovenia starters that play in the UEFA EURO QUALIFIERS
Žan Karničnik plays in Slovenian PrvaLiga club Celje
Timi Max Elšnik plays as a central midfielder for Olimpija Ljubljana
Those were the only two on the squad with more than 4 caps. Not unlike Moore and Robinson for the US. Slovenia was using generally older players but their unproven 21 yr old attacker beat our 22 yr old keeper and our unproven 22 yr old attacker hit it right at their 25 yr old keeper.
Miles Robinson maybe but when was the last time Moore STARTED for the USMNT?? lol
We had more chances than they did but unfortunately didn’t finish. We out played them, out worked them and out hustled them, in every aspect of the game…….hence a promising sign for the FUTURE of the USMNT
Bizzy I don’t disagree with any of that. But we need to be accurate about the opponent. This wasn’t Oblak in goal, Benjamin Sesko wasn’t leading the line. This was an inexperienced side as well.
Johnnyrazor all I’m staying this isn’t our strongest team (A-team) or our gold cup team (B-Team) or the best MLS has to offer AND STILL PLAYED GOOD TACTICAL SOCCER (When was the last time that happened). They had two A-listers (CM and RB). Yet these kids manage 69% possession, 92% pass rate, completed DOUBLE the passes Slovenia did and controlled the game. We both had inexperience players but we dominated
For the love of g-d, can we just call them Americans instead of the USMNT. Thanks.
“Americans” can mean any team from North, Central or South America. Having dated a Colombian – this has been drilled into my head. In fact the explorer (Amerigo Vespucci) in which the term “America” was named only ever stepped foot in South America. So one could say “Americans” would more accurately describe South Americans than North Americans. In any case it describes basically the entire Western Hemisphere. Sorry to be “that guy” but…
Are you really sorry?
Well in an article about this match I don’t think anyone would be confused as to if the author was talking about players for Colombia or the United States (but I get how in a general context it would be annoying for people from other parts of the Americas). This might indicate why a lot of countries have nicknames for their national teams; El Tri, Three Lions, Black Stars, La Albiceleste etc…
The most dominant American soccer team is the USWNT.
So if you refer to the American soccer team which one are you talking about?
The USWNT have done far more to insert soccer into the psyche of the mainstream United States of America sports fan than anyone. We like winners, especially dominant winners.
That’s why you have the USWNT and the USMNT.
Again though this is an article about the match with Slovenia so I don’t think anyone was confused as to if he was talking about John Tolkin or Megan Rapinoe. If it was a general article like “The Americans will play Germany in April.” then I get the MNT/WNT distinction. This portion of the thread also points out we’ve all been missing “debating” with the Americans/USMNT on hiatus.
JR,
At this point USMNT is a nickname.
I did not give it to them. I don’t care what people want to call them.
The best CONCACAF nickname is “the Catrachos”.
They could call the USMNT the ” The Master Cylinders” or “The Tube Amps” for all I care, or “ATF” for alcohol , tobacco and firearms, important American institutions.
The important thing is USMNT is easy to type.
No matter that this was another meaningless January friendly. A US team filled with young domestic talent, many getting their first cap, outplayed Solevenia for long stretches of this game. While only a few have a shot at a roster spot with the full team, it was impressive to see the growth in domestic talent.
In fairness, it was a Slovenia team filled with guys also getting their first caps too, though.
The gulf in quality and athleticism still jumped off the field at you. Yeah, Slovenia got a result…good for them. We played aggressively, had the ball, dominated play, and generated chances. And more to the point, we got a really good look at where the U23 players in the pool were, using known qualities like DeJaun Jones, Shaq Moore, and Miles Robinson as benchmarks. We know a ton more about our pool than we did before this camp. And our pool now knows a ton more about the USMNT setup, and where they have to get to to participate in it.
Those who say this was a “waste” are just not thinking developmentally. You have a starting 11 you like? Great. Go turn players until you find a complete roster 23 of guys that can all help you. We didn’t have that the last World Cup, we went at most 14-15 players deep who were on a level to contribute and we lacked depth and wore down, and we also lacked options off the bench.
You get a 23 you like? Also awesome. Now go looking for another 11, because injuries happen and happen frequently in soccer. Just ask Tyler Adams, Stu Holden, Oguchi Onyewu, both Reynas, Jozy Altidore…the list is endless.
So hey, you’ve done all that and you go maybe 35 guys deep you’d feel good about calling up. (We’re still not nearly to that level, but I’m pontificating here.) You’re still not nearly done. Go find another 11 because time marches on and your current crop of starters in their primes will be 30+ before you know it and aging out of your pool and by the time you notice they’re getting long in the tooth it’s probably too late to do anything about it if you haven’t developed successors for them.
Good programs never stop evaluation, they never stop developing, and in this day and age, they also never stop recruiting. Dual nats are a huge part of the landscape and if you don’t get those guys opportunities, attention, and a path to success they can see, somebody else will.
We checked a ton of boxes with this last camp. The result was so far down the list of priorities it barely rated.
In the past, the objective of the January camp was to bring in primarily players on the lower end of the USMNT roster and maybe a few players on the fringe for a bootcamp, then expose them to a friendly without the ‘A’ team. What has really changed over the years, especially with this camp, is that a few fringe players are brought in (Robinson, Sands, Jones, Moore) to support a roster filled with young, unproven talent. It was noteworthy that James Sands, a player who has been on past GC rosters, did not see the field. The depth is expanding and competition for first-team call-ups will get more competitive,
I don’t know what the stats were at the point Slovenia scored, but they were much more aggressive early. We had trouble getting out of our end the first ten minutes. I think there was a lot of intention in letting the US have the ball from Slovenia especially once they had the lead.