The U.S. men’s national team opened its Copa America schedule in winning fashion on Sunday after edging Bolivia at AT&T Stadium.
Christian Pulisic and Folarin Balogun both scored first-half goals as Gregg Berhalter’s squad defeated Bolivia 2-0 in Arlington, Texas. Pulisic also registered one assist in a Man of the Match performance while Tyler Adams made his first start since the March international window.
“We came out flying with a lot of intensity. Obviously, that early goal helped us a lot,” Pulisic said. “All around, a pretty dominant performance. I think we could have put it away and had more goals there.”
It was a fast start for the USMNT, who needed just three minutes to take a 1-0 lead. Tim Weah’s pass to Pulisic off of a corner kick was curled into the top-right corner of the Bolivia net.
Guillermo Viscarra got a hand to the shot, but was unable to fully keep it out. It marked Pulisic’s 30th international goal, tying him with Brian McBride for the fifth-most in program history.
Pulisic’s impactful first half continued as the AC Milan star set up Balogun for the USMNT’s second goal of the night. Balogun received possession just outside of the Bolivia box before racing in and drilling a low shot into the far corner.
It was Balogun’s fourth USMNT goal and his first since October 2023.
Matt Turner was tested twice in the second half and made a pair of key saves to keep the USMNT’s lead at multiple goals. Turner denied Roberto Fernández in the 51st minute before also repelling Miguel Terceros’ shot after the hour mark.
“It’s a start that’s massive for us. Build the confidence,” Antonee Robinson said. “If we were being picky, we could have been a lot more clinical, We could have put another two, three goals away.”
The USMNT hung on to claim three points, giving them added confidence going into Thursday’s showdown with CONCACAF rivals Panama at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Josh Sargent, Haji Wright, and Malik Tillman were among the unused substitutes in Berhalter’s squad, all of whom who will be fighting for minutes in Atlanta later this week.
re reyna as 6, this is perseverating about the “passing 6” concept GB keeps trying to implement. remember trapp and yeuill? what we figured out was they didn’t do much offense, then weren’t athletic and good enough at defense to cover the ground and stop transitions. reyna would be an attacking upgrade but likely not a pimple on adams on defense.
he’s smart about positioning on defense, but i thought the whole point to our big game history was learning we needed a nastier dog to stop the transitions. my sense he’d work fine this early type game, but the idea is beating someone good with him there. i think we’d get overrun in exchange for giving up some of the offense he’d have added as 10.
so as i thought we already learned in bulk. go get us more real 6s and let reyna 10.
The problem is Adams can’t get the ball upfield. That means either drop another midfielder or play it up the wings. Without Dest it means just the left side because Scally is iffy in possession so now we become even more predictable. We are also pretty bad at winning long balls in the air or getting to second balls when we play long. I agree Gio dropping in creates other significant problems but Gregg is apparently ok with those problems.
quozzel,
” but I’ve yet to see any real sign we’re likely to pull a major upset at Copa.”
We still have a chance to upset someone major.
Colombia and Brazil remain in the mix for the later rounds and Uruguay is coming up.
Fortunately the schedule gets harder progressively so Gregg has a chance to build up to things.
It is possible that the Uruguay game won’t mean much besides choosing between Brazil or Colombia as an opponent.
Should we get past all that Argentina probably awaits.
Lots of upset possibilities remain for the USMNT, none of them likely.
First game, 3 pts. I’m not going to get too excited one way or another.
After Pulisic scored, was rough to watch. Bolivia was mid block, man up primary options in the midfield and dared us come up with answers. Mostly we had very few. Brings memories of that Japan friendly leading into WC. It’s why you can’t paint by numbers as we so often do. Teams can and will watch a little film- our repeated patterns and beat us to the spot. Panama certainly knows our choreography step by step by now. There was a play 2nd half where Ream had the ball, everyone standing, watched waited. He waved furiously at Weah who was stationary out wide on the left to… run in behin!. He did and Ream put the ball in a perfect spot for him to run into. They did the same a few times in a row. Hopefully we learn something as Uruguay will be doing something similar
excellent post rico, thank you
In other news Hajduk Split announced they will not release Rokas Pukstas for Olympics. Split play Conference League qualifiers against HB Torshavn (Faroe Islands) July 25, the day after the US faces France in their Olympic opener. Their next round first leg would be the same day as the Bronze match.
That’s to bad, but to be expected
I’m not sure he would have made it anyway.
I don’t know why Mckennie is still being played higher than Reyna. Quite frankly Mckennie has been poor in 3 games running. That needs to get figured out.
Without Dest, we need another pressure release valve especially given Tyler lack of minutes (rust) and the narrow field making the long diagonal more difficult. Gregg has elected to use Gio for this. This wasn’t really a game for Wes. We were in a 3-2-5 or 2-3-5.
Jedi-Pulisic-Balo-Wes-Weah
———-Gio——Tyler——-Joe (2nd half)
—-Ream——-Richards—Joe (1st)
Most of the time then the ball is going to Pulisic’s side. If it did come to Wes’s side Weah was looking to cook so that’s going to end up in a shot or cross. Wes was in decent spots in the middle of the box when Puli and Jedi were going at Bolivia’s right side but no balls were really played his way.
That’s why I say drop Wes more and move Reyna more forward. Get Wes more involved.
Because as I stated in the first half of that first reply we need a guy that can break pressure. That used to be Serge. Scally can’t do that so he’s dropping Gio into that role. Now do we need that against Bolivia or Panama probably not but we likely do against Uruguay. I’m not sure Gregg trusts Wes to do that, remembering back to Japan. I was hoping Wes would get his deal done to Aston Villa and he could relax but something about the deal didn’t sit well for his camp. Allegri’s style of soccer was often hard to watch but Wes thrived in it. I’m not sure Wes is really comfortable in Gregg’s system. Weah at times struggled for Juve but he steps in for Gregg and looks great. We’ll see as the tournament progresses Wes generally plays better the bigger the match.
midfielders need to move and get open for the CBs to play to…get open more consistently. if it’s not there the CBs need to go long, boot it long. yes, not pretty, but it’s soccer decision making. can’t force it out if it’s not there and turn it over. Better to launch in that situation up an outside channel. maybe win that ball, but if not, reset D vs. scramble emergency defending because of forced ball
this was a must win. job done. next
Right on the money…
After the great start, once the game settled in Bolivia did what several other teams have done, they put a guy on Tyler’s tuchus like glue and we looked perplexed how to advance the ball out of the back. Everyone else stood around and we either tried to advance down the left side, or then a bunch of long balls and the partial dysfunction began…
I recall a while ago when teams starting doing that Musah started dropping back to have a 2nd outlet and it made a difference. If I recall correctly that was one reason our midfield looked strong against England.
Without Musah starting I don’t know if GB wanted to play more long balls or Weston just didn’t drop in – who knows, but for me we should have played better in the midfield.
Eventually we just had better players and Bolivia didn’t have much of an answer but we should have had a better showing in the midfield.
Fans and pundits have talked about Reyna as a 10 in a 4231 but that’s been just wishful thinking. GB has his system and that’s it.
If I’m wrong someone will point it out but we should have dominated that midfield
you are not wrong imho…on top of it as usual Mac
for me, hopefully we see more Yunus man
*Bac
Bolivia were man marking, so it made it difficult to just move and get open, which meant we had to play log balls more often then I’m sure we wanted to. It didn’t stop us from crating a ton of chances however, chances that we again squandered and something that I have ben harping on for a few years now…..if we want to take that next step, “our players” need to be better in front of net, period!
yep Ronnie, but vs. m2m, key is still movement off the ball to receive, can’t just stop moving and launch. also, connecting is easier vs. man marking with 1-2s, hold and punch, etc. but also a guy like Yunus who can beat you off the dribble; beat one player and you’re in or break a line, Gio too
many teams we play mark us like that to challenge our midfielders ability to beat them off the dribble or the turn; Yunus is excellent at that
yes, not finishing chances is always going be a problem, no debate from me man!! I was just responding to the discussion re. the CBs; it wasn’t their fault, or for sure, many others were culpable as well
I’ll stick to my post 100%
I know we got the W. But man this outcome is so disappointing. Left so much on the table tonight. I guess it’s a great start to the tournament with a W and 3 points but honestly, the guys have got to play better and at a faster pace.
We dominated, as we should have, but should have done better finishing. Top teams in the tournament will not look at this game and think, Uh oh, we better look out for the US.
As someone who grew up in NYC with a lot of SA friends (still have them) they already know this. It’s the general Euro elitist and stateside snob who doesn’t know this. Even in our Brazil warm up they trotted out their B team against Mexico and A against s because they know we have decent quality. We are a good team. Getting there,
Did you watch the Uruguay Panama game? Talk about not finishing chances.
MOV, missed chances happens for both teams in most games; granted not normally to the magnitude of either of the games yesterday. Finishing is usually the difference in games. If Canada finished their chances and Argentina didn’t, Canada could have won by multiple goals. I call it luck but obviously their is some truth that people make their luck through practice and hard work but sometime fortune is on your side and sometimes not. The team that wins this tournament will have good luck whether it is Arg, Brazil, Colombia Columbia, the US, or any other team for that matter.
Uruguay dominating but can’t get that second goal 50 minutes in to put it away. Panama one lucky shot against the run of play to make this interesting.
Much closer than that Panama made a game of it.
Possession: Uruguay 55, Panama 45
Shots: Uruguay 20, Panama 11
Shots on goal: Uruguay 7, Panama 3
Panama played Uruguay tough. Not a walk in the park.
….and I will wager that if Panama plays the same way against us, and we win by the same score and same way Uruguay did, the lamenting of how disappointing it all was will be the same as the Bolivia match.
It will never ever change and is eminently predictable.
*No one is saying that folks can’t critique, I am just pointing out the ABC, 123 routine that is guarnateed.
TK
“the lamenting of how disappointing it all was will be the same as the Bolivia match.”
Regardless of the level of the teams or the score in the game, if there is a missed chance by either side it is still to be lamented.
Goals, even in service to a lost cause, matter.
Both Uruguay and Panama expended far more energy than the US did last night. I think the US was in full cruise control last night, resting with the ball as Wilfred Nancy calls it. Panama did carve up the US B/C team last summer but did need pens to beat us. Panama had 66% possession in the first half, US worked it down to 56/44 for the match. The last time the A team faced Panama we won 5-1 but no Godoy (injury) this time to gift us two penalties.
And they expended all that energy in Miami where the humidity is extra oppressive. I lived it for 20 years…it’s oppressive. I can’t believe that’s where the final will be. It’s going to be a bunch of tired legs after a season and the tournament. I expect it to be dull no matter who is playing it. Uruguay clearly slowed down at about 30 minutes and couldn’t get the intensity back thereafter. However, Panama live in basically the same climate so it will matter less for them.
Can we please get the ball to Pulisic more often and in better positions for him.
Please include Giovanni Reyna as well as Florin B.
Florian had tons of opps and the ball before the goal and looked like absolute trash. Go rewatch the first half and pay attention to every touch/move he makes. Simply terrible. He wonderfully buried one chance which is what a 9 has to do, but he was really poor in so many ways otherwise. He was inc a lot IOW’s.
Reyna clearly was told to play further back and dictate the game and he clearly did. Second goal happened because he mad that real nice pass to CP.
Our middle was less crowded because of this and there was more space for our guys, which is usually an issue against teams like this. There was actually logic to GB’s set up….like it or not. I think the general US fan has to finally acknowledge that Gio isn’t the take over the field player they project/want him to be. High quality that may be (is IMO) used more specifically and focused.
Also, chance creation and spacing have been a huge problem, and fan complaint against opponents like this. Neither was an issue yesterday. Our guys needed to finish another one of those chances for certain. Not a bad showing for GB IMO, even against a weak opponent, he answered a lot fo the complaints. What he needs to do now is play smarter/more conservative against the top teams to give us a chance.
I did not really see a sense of urgency in Bolivia, even after falling behind. The US team tends to get a sense of lull when playing an opponent of lower quality and lacking motivation. Bolivia was a good CA opponent to work out the first-game kinks, get key players rested, not get overworked, and come out injury-free.
There were a few bad giveaways on the back line that a better opponent would take advantage of, but feel confident that’ll be worked on before Panama. The finishing could’ve been better, but that didn’t hurt us.
We should get the 3 points from Panama to take us to the knockout round. That is priority #1. Given our head-to-head history with Panama, the pressure should be reduced for Uruguay.
PN, I know I am in the minority on this site, but I think he is playing Reyna back there because he thinks he can play that position better than anyone else he has. There have been lots of holes in front of the centerbacks against top teams when he has tried others there. Kind of like why Paul McCartney played the bass for the Beatles. Once they they hit Uruagay, their defending is going to be way more critical than it was today. I don’t think Reyna lost a tackle today.
gio’s dad, to me, was often a fairly deep lying playmaker type. get it, give it. we also know GB has been chasing a passing 6 dating back to trapp and yeuill. and gio seems to be answering his critics on defensive effort.
what you have to ask yourself, is, is this a waste of a 10, particularly when in tougher games we start needing guys to unlock defenses?
IV I think it’s absolutely a waste of a 10. See my response to Bum above
IV, Tele 57,
“gio’s dad, to me, was often a fairly deep lying playmaker type. get it, give it.
They used to call Claudio the Timekeeper as in he would set the tempo for the team. Bradley tried to take over that role in his later years but he was never as good at it.
Claudio pretty much played everywhere. He was the best winger and best player on the 1994 World Cup team and made it as a UVA player. (this was before Jordan Morris and his dog) but pulled a hamstring and did not play a minute. He remained a dangerous goal threat throughout his career.
At Wolfsburg he captained their team when he was 24, the first and youngest American captain ever in the BL, as far as I know. At Rangers he played deeper, right midfield, right back but scored a lot. This was when Rangers were a Champions League team that were much more competitive than they are today.
Gio is a bigger, faster version of Claudio and is the best fit to replace Tyler, if you are looking for more than a destroyer.
He is as intelligent defensively. He’s not as physical but , in case anyone did not notice, Gio’s grown pretty big and is obviously much more dangerous going forward. So if CP does not take over the #10 fulltime, there is a need for an attacking forward like a Malik, a Paxton, a Richie.
The knock on Gio from Dortmond & Terzic was his defense. What I’m seeing is a much improved 2-way player emerging in Gio. No question he’s our best 10, but he adjusted well in this game. We will need to see more of that vision and tenacity in the knockout rounds.
Oops, not only did I reply to the wrong post, it wasn’t even the right thread. Sorry PN.
IV, I’m not sure he has anyone else that can do it, hence the reference to McCartney playing bass. This team is pretty unlikely to outscore a big team in a 5-4 shootout; more likely defend with their life and win 1-0 if it happens.
A good serious performance vs a opponent we needed to beat in this group. Lots of goal scoring opportunities and good ball movement. Job well done.
Aside from the Pepi misses, I think Richards wasn’t very serene and had some bad turnovers that would have been costly vs a better team. Hopefully he got his first game jitters out the wag.
Uruguay is going to beat us like we stole something if we keep turning the ball over as cheaply and in as dangerous of areas as we saw today. We were as bad turning it over today as we were against Colombia, Bolivia just couldn’t punish us for it. They really were pretty awful. As in: as bad as Guatemala.
This US team is very talented. It is also extremely sloppy, sometimes dismally so, and it simply isn’t getting better under Gregg.
To their credit, the players were playing hard for the team today. That much was good. I saw both Pulisic and Reyna putting in end-to-end work defensively. But we’re going to need more than individual talent and good effort if we’re going to go anywhere in the tournament.
It was a W and I’ll take it, but I’ve yet to see any real sign we’re likely to pull a major upset at Copa. Hope I’m wrong.
quozzel,
” but I’ve yet to see any real sign we’re likely to pull a major upset at Copa.”
We still have a chance to upset someone major.
Colombia and Brazil remain in the mix for the later rounds and Uruguay is coming up.
Fortunately the schedule gets harder progressively so Gregg has a chance to build up to things.
It is possible that the Uruguay game won’t mean much besides choosing between Brazil or Colombia as an opponent.
Should we get past all that Argentina probably awaits.
Lots of upset possibilities remain for the USMNT, none of them likely.
Definitely have to factor in quality of opponent.
-Good: Pulisic, early goals, Adams/Musah, Bolivia keeper, got to rest a lot of players
-Bad: Bolivia field players, Richards and Ream give aways, Shots right at the keeper, pace in first half SO SLOW
– one game at a time, time to beat Panama.
JR, you missed the biggest good – 3 points.
Very true
I guess shooting the ball right at the keeper didn’t work for the second half. Decent win.