A pair of sloppy defensive miscues paired with a lack of offensive urgency led to the U.S. men’s national team third-straight loss this summer and fifth overall defeat of 2024.
Jacob Shaffelburg and Jonathan David both scored for Jesse Marsch’s Canada squad in a 2-1 road win over the Americans at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas. Luca De La Torre’s first international goal cut the USMNT’s deficit after the hour mark but Canada would hang on for its first road win over the United States since 1957.
Patrick Schulte was tested early by Canada’s David from a left-footed volley attempt but the Columbus Crew man denied the Lille striker. Stephen Eustáquio’s over the top ball allowed David to sneak away from Tim Ream and Chris Richards, but Schulte was up to the task.
Canada struck first in the 17th minute through an errant giveaway from the USMNT. Johnny Cardoso’s heavy touch from a Tim Ream pass allowed David to tee up Shaffelburg for a 1-0 Canada lead.
It marked Shaffelburg’s fourth international goal for Canada.
Christian Pulisic came close to tying the match in the 23rd minute for the USMNT but skied his chipped effort wide of the Canada net. Malik Tillman’s over the top pass was helped along by Folarin Balogun, but Pulisic was unable to hit the target.
The USMNT’s intensity improved after halftime with Balogun testing Maxime Crepeau inside of the box. Pulisic played an upfield pass for Balogun, allowing him to get a shot on target.
Crepeau comfortably punched away the Monaco striker’s effort.
Canada doubled its lead in the 57th minute with Ream’s costly giveaway allowing David to extend the visitors lead. Ream’s errant pass was pounced on by David, who slotted home after a fortunate bounce in the box.
A pair of USMNT substitutes combined to cut the deficit in the 66th minute as Aidan Morris and De La Torre quickly made an impact.
Morris received a pass at the top of the box before spinning into the Canada box. Fortunately for De La Torre, Morris’ pass wasn’t cleared by the Canadian backline, allowing the Celta Vigo man to slot home his first senior goal.
Ricardo Pepi was denied a potential equalizer later in the half as Canada would eventually grind out the clock.
Yunus Musah, Joe Scally, Kristoffer Lund, and Brenden Aaronson were also among the USMNT starters in the match while Cade Cowell and Haji Wright featured off the bench.
The USMNT will close out their two-match window on Tuesday against New Zealand in Cincinnati. Canada will meet Mexico in Arlington, Texas on the same night.
This is a slap in the face for USSoccer……Gregg Berhalter, the entire coaching staff and the US Soccer federation, having coached this team from 2018 to 2024, are trash. Canada, with only months under Jesse Marsch, looked organized, motivated and structured.
USMNT couldn’t even fall back to a default setting in term of tactics, strategy and leadership AFTER ALMOST 6 YEARS OF BEING TOGETHER. This simply means that the players didn’t THOROUGHLY understand what was being asked of them. After years and years with a bogus 4-3-3 system, the players had no back-up plan in the first 65 minutes…..nothing to INSTINCTIVELY fall back on or digress to in order to overcome the immediate adversity on the field. No grit, no adaptability, no speed to the ball or with the ball, no comradery / fighting for each other…….nothing????
We were bullied by JESSE MARSCH with Bombito, David, Davis, Eustáquio, Shaffelburg, Ahmed…….etc
“I’d much rather coach Canada than the U.S. right now,” Marsch said. “You can see the mentality that’s been developed. You can see the way this team plays. You can see how much they love playing for the national team and they’re willing to put their careers and lives and the way they play on the line to be the best they can be for each other and for the team.” by Jesse Marsch (facts, a lot of what we didn’t have).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0EvG8i0urs
Let’s not lie, Herdman had these guys playing with passion and grit as well. The US looked today a lot like Canada did losing their quarterfinal series with Jamaica last year in Nations League under Biello. This team needs a manager and the anticipation that Pochettino is coming but he’s not here yet is hanging over the whole thing.
I hope everyone is aware that Pochettino is not going to turn “water” into “wine”. Players will need to step up physically and mentally for this collaboration to work. He will bring tactics, strategy, organization, motivation and structure…….but will not be able to EXECUTE IT OUT ON THE FIELD HIMSELF.
Bizzy 100% agree. Poch is kind of known for demanding and getting a lot out of players.
There’s a good chance, as JR says, that , if Herdman were still there, that Canada would have beaten them anyway.
A good team is a combination of the manager, his staff and the players. Trying to separate one from the other to assign blame is just bullshit.
This USMNT is a mediocre team at its best. Against Canada they were just a headless chicken.
Assuming Pochettino signs, that chicken will then have a head.
But it will still be a chicken.
USMNT needs shock therapy via the new coach. Much in the same way that Marsch made a big impact on the basically unchanged player pool at CAN; the new US coach needs to come in and do the same. This is not about talent its about attitude and intensity. As much as I love CP, I don’t think he’s the captain going forward either.
Pulisic might be a good leader off the pitch but on the pitch he doesn’t stay focused when it’s not going his way. We missed Tim, Tyler, and Wes’s voices to get guys organized yesterday.
Well, I know who we should play vs. New Zealand–some players who come out ready to play and play with passion and then keep it up for as long as they are on the field. A truly pitiful performance. They just about held their own the second half, but guys, the game is 90 minutes long.
And I think we are all realizing why Arteta didn’t really rate Balogun as a lone striker.
He is young, but it’s clear to me he isn’t a lone striker type. He needs a partner.
The definition of insanity, is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results -Albert Einstein
Exactly.
I think Pete Carril said it best: “Fast players do everything fast.”
I saw no one on today’s USMNT who looked fast in any sense of the word. It was simply plodding. No speed in running, no speed in passing, no speed of thought and no quick movements to support teammates.
It does not really matter what system, set of team tactics, formation or whatever you want to call it, when your play can best be described as plodding, a hustling opponent, even one that on average has players not as good as yours, they will defeat you nearly all the time.
i see this “baby barca” fetish we keep trying to work on as anti-speed, anti-height, anti-intensity, against anything but us trying to play tiki-taka ball at least the first 2/3 of the field. when we are not that good a skill team.
to me you win soccer games being a little more “something” than the next team. faster, better in the air, better at defense, better at keeper, better skills.
this is what happens when you start picking tactics aspirationally rather than based on what the pool is good at. this pool should be playing an athletic/speed transition game with aerial capabilities (but not that crosses all the time).
i don’t think canada is all that good but they have a guy or two who are excellent and they play intensely in a way that accentuates the value of their hustle. we seem to have picked some style we liked on TV rather than thought about how to make our team shine and set up the best players .
“baby barca” fetish. LOL TIV, it def does look like that.
I now have to laugh because all.of the pundits were angry that we couldn’t get better opponents. Bro we can’t beat CONCACAF anymore…. that’s two losses to two of the better CONCACAF teams. Panama now Canada. The US is slow physically and mentally on the pitch. People better reconfigure their expectations of this team for 2026.
and to underline something, i said we needed easier teams than this to tinker. that if we keep scheduling hard teams that if we don’t play well we lose, much less trying anything against them. that there is a nudge to pick the same people playing the same way because we are scared of losing — even though we now lose routinely playing that way with those people.
they either needed to say eff it and just try something, who cares what result, or we should have been in nations league with more varied opposition, or we need some easier friendlies to try things.
there is a snob element who thinks who you schedule is how good you are, which is complete bull. we play the games and learn nothing. playing good teams is only educational with introspection and the willingness to change.
Good: no one
Goodish: Schulte, Morris
Neither: Luca
A few moments but largely forgettable: Pulisic, Balo, Wright, Cowell, Lund, Scally, Pepi
Poor: Richards, Musah, Tillman, Aaronson
Bad: Ream
Appearing to never have played soccer before: Johnny
Imagine you finished watching that debacle then turned it over to watch your college football team blow a two touchdown halftime lead, and now I’m watching The Crew trying to beat Sounders with half the starters on international duty. It has not been a very good day.
Telling stats:
-Despite the US completing 151 more passes in total, Canada completed 39 more passes in the opposition half than the US.
– Tackles won Canada 22-7
-Duals won Canada 64-46
At least Women’s U20s found their scoring boots are 5-0 with 35 minutes left.
Ok clearly this is my fault I’ve angered the sports gods, because The Crews one goalkeeper was just given a red card. Columbus playing 45 minutes down a man, down a goal and with a DM as their keeper.
Look at the bright side.
Schulte seems to be in the picture now for the #1 job.
Johny’s bad day opens the door just a little for Aidan.
The USMNT generally sucks in the first game back after a long lay off, nearly two months. You can look it up.
Especially when it is a friendly.
They looked like someone told them, for the first time, early this morning that they had to play this game.
Sure people are saying just knowing Pochettino may be watching should be motivation enough but we don’t even know if the deal is done.
Absent Schulte and Aidan, no one was sharp.
They will be better vs. NZ. Shit teams are more their style.
They will be less rusty by then. Hopefully, Pochettino will have signed by then. In Delle Ali Pochettino proved he could motivate underachievers. But a whole team of underachievers? Maybe he’ll give Man U. a call after watching this game.
One of my first thoughts after the match was Poch is probably upping his asking price a couple million after that performance. As a Crew fan though I’d rather not have Schulte play Tuesday though since our one goalkeeper Ramirez is now on red card suspension. Hagen plays Monday but has to travel from Guatemala so the US should certainly give Kochen or someone else a try so Schulte can rest.
limp expression…limp
Canada played like a team who went in together, had each other’s backs, battle ready. the USMNT looked like a collection of individuals with no idea what they were trying to do TOGETHER
no movement off the ball to provide passing lanes…after Varas said he wanted us to play out vs. a predictable as the tides pressing defense from Marsch and Canada.
And you gotta go long vs. that crap, at least at times, to loosen it up. Marsch pressed with 6 players! And you gotta hold against that crap, hold and release to runners…impossible when the 9 turns it over every single time, literally, and then there’s no runners…Aaronson twice first half held strong in the middle 3rd with no runners as support, so no counter. not his fault
Balogun turned the ball over literally every single time he touched it in the 1st half, except when he fed CP in front of goal (Balogun’s lone pass completion) who misplayed the ball off his chest into a bad angle miss.
CP is going back to that crying and whining about everything. He is just not good enough to play like that. ENOUGH. Put on thew big boy pants, flipping take it, and produce something. When he starts whining the whole team slumps
who played with intensity 1st half? Aaronson, including turns in the midfield and playing CP thru so he could lose it right back immediately (Balogun was behind 3 times, and created not one chance out of them). Lund and Schulte were ready to go too, intensity was there. Tillman showed it.
But the rest? suspect. I give the subs a lot of credit, even Cowell, who was not good but played hard a least
Tough matchup for Cade. He tried to stretch the backline but when it’s Davies back there who can out run him there wasn’t much for Cowell to do.
This HAS to be Ream’s last international game. Too slow, terrible passing, and he brings zero “veteran leadership.”
Speaking of that, where was ANY leadership on the field? Are McKennie and Adams the only two capable of protecting Pulisic?
Any commentator who gives Cardoso anything higher than a 2 is drunk. He should have been pulled at halftime.
Why does Aaronson keep getting called up? I don’t question his ability to be a pest when trying to pressure opponents, but offensively he brings nothing. So he crushed it in Austria in a league with only one good team. Aside from some good first few months at Leeds, he has not been the same player since the end of 2021.
So many of these call-ups seem based on reputation or potential.
Finally, why are commentators on tv so reluctant to criticize the players and coaching? Kyle Martino went much further than most, but my hunch is he was itching to say more.
re the press response, we got the time warner crew that now owns the friendly rights for years and they seem to pull more punches. can you imagine if the fox bunch and lalas got to weigh in on that pitiful first half, the result in general, the cutesy ineffective youth team tactics running into a buzzsaw? i would have gotten yanked off the field in select walking around or trying to play passes literally straight up the field.
they looked different second half but they were so consistent how they tried to play first half that had to have been coached. and that basically decided the game, ineffective build from the back meets when we turned it over in the back they finished it. we played them 1-1 for the second half when we played normal soccer.
actually, now that i think of it, i thought that crappy first half looked like 70s-80s NASL type US soccer. no speed of play. play it to a mid. assume mid can literally turn in a half circle unimpeded and dribble downfield. there is a reason i think what we do lately is regressing the team. 90s-00s counter-soccer was we figured out that dog wouldn’t hunt, tightened up the defense, and looked for transitions or longballs. the defense then stopped people at which point we got more competitive in games with good teams.
it’s either that or they need to play a lot quicker or sneakier than this crap.
Varas is just another system guy that was implemented at all levels from Stewart. A very baseline 4-3-3. I saw these issues with Varas U20 team too.
the empire-building needs to end. klinsi started that crap and the irony is no senior team since then has looked very good despite we’re supposedly inculcating a style on down to U15. there is no evident system payoff where when we bring in a U23 or U20 they look well oiled to step in a role, like they have been playing in a version of this forever. which is the point to this kind of theoretical crap.
i think it’s far more important that A and B have a rapport they have been building for years — that we look like we’ve ever played together — than that we run system all the way down. we generally lack that unspoken rapport which is a lot of what soccer is about, the ability to play faster in general, higher tempo, or to strike quickly in sequence on specific attacks.
to be blunt, for all the system bs this in practice is highly “personalized” and reflects who shows up. one way with weah (vertical), another with pulisic (ballhogging), another with jedi (crossing), another with reyna (trying to thread needles). as such they aren’t really teaching the kids anything via system because the endgame varies depending who is around. eg the crossing was largely gone this time without jedi. you can’t teach some kid that because it’s more improvised than a system.
now, what the backs and keeper do is a system but it’s stupid and doesn’t work.
i also don’t understand why he was so eagerly wanted. his U20 team couldn’t shoot accurately, and would get victimized in transition for some of the easiest U20 goals i have seen. unlike say ramos — who himself has failed as a MLS or minor league head coach — varas got absolutely clobbered first good team he played.
it’s all very weird the people pimping some of the US age group coaches of late. the U23s looked out of their depth in the tough games. and of the last 3-4 U20 teams, varas’ was the worst. i liked the recent concacaf bunch and 2019. 2017 was also better than varas’ bunch. nothing about our age group efforts since 2019 has screamed, take a chance on that guy as not just a MLS head coach for a bad team, but the full national coach.
and we keep doing this crap, callaghan, hudson, this dude. these are not even D1 coaches at this point, it’s someone who coached FCD U18 or US U20, and was maybe an assistant at D3. no. no. no.
Mikey was under contract. That’s why he was there. Literally that’s the reason why. They could have paid him to not show up and then pay someone else to take the team for a week but who is showing up for a one week lame duck week. Don’t be mad at Mikey be mad at the lawyers that couldn’t get the Pochettino deal done in the last three weeks.
dude, i am not an idiot. that we “owe varas money as an overrated assistant” does not equal “he amazingly gets to head coach the team at least one window.” it’s the cheap solution, not the best one. as with GB, i can pay varas to sit in his garden and pull weeds, then get a real coach for a window. that costs me 2 september paychecks, yes, but that’s probably high 5 low 6 figures added.
bob bradley would not have dutifully run out his predecessor’s lineup (give or take a guy or two) and system, or put up with that crap yesterday. this is about the coach lacked resume or gravitas and the players saw no reason to take the game seriously, and apparently hoped they could walk to a tie or something. waste of a window.
I was looking at the lineup Varas trotted out and the tactics – if you can call them that – that they were trying and it was like: Broski, I dunno if you’d even be a good coach at CESA or GSA. And the team’s motivation…like, wow. “Complacency” does not even begin to describe it.
What on Earth was that shit?
All this overreaction is pretty normal.
It has been obvious to everyone for some time that, while they have lots of potential, when the rubber meets the road this team is mediocre or worse.
The only new negative we saw that we hadn’t seen before was Johny turning into Zardes. I have to think that is an outlier.
The only new positive that we hadn’t seen before was Schulte and a little bit of Aidan.
Otherwise, every negative comment here today about these guys has been posted before about these guys.
It seems as if everyone thought that the impending arrival of the new boss would somehow transform these guys. The players are thinking about what happens when he gets here. Varas is thinking about San Diego.
In the process everyone seems to have forgotten about Canada.
Anyone involved with the USMNT who tells you they were focused on the actual result of this game is a liar. They showed how things could have gone when they scored. But for the rest of the time the USMNT just couldn’t be bothered to get it up. Performance anxiety?
Regardless this result means means little.
As time goes on we are seeing that Gregg’s team was really a pretty fragile house of cards.
In the best of times the USMNT is usually shaky when coming back from a long lay off. It doesn’t help when the opponent is a hyper motivated power team run by a maniac bent of revenge.
Jesse should get down on his knees and thank God he got the Canada job. It is perfect for him and he is perfect for them.
If he can keep it up that is a great thing for the USMNT. With Mexico going into the toilet, they need a tough opponent in CONCACAF.
Canada can play the run fast, hit hard role and we can be Mexico.
lol the USA players looked like they didn’t want to be there. Slow, without ideas, predictable passing back and forth between centerbacks , then out wide with each line of players literally parallel with each other instead of movement into space…. It was all just don’t get injured play and get this over with mentality
my deal with the CB stuff is i don’t see where they are working the other team at all. pep’s theories, stuff i learned to do as a kid, you kind of move in diagonals, not stand still or just push it forward. like see if they overcommit wide or if your movement frees something up. all i see is people standing still, no runners first half, and then worst of all today, try and either dribble right up into the defender or hit passes straight upfield. you hit a pass straight vertical, no diagonal or swerve, layers of the other team have a shot at that. and when we don’t do that, it’s pass sideways, and we don’t seem to be doing that to any end.
football example comes to mind is the man in motion to see if they are playing zone or man. he’s not just running to run. you’re trying to expose soft spots, runs they don’t cover, stuff like that.
but yeah the team first half looked like they could give a crap less than be out there. which to me is what happens when the next guy is announced but not there, and they get handed a third rate babysitter. i saw some posters on the game thread saying x should be benched next time. but they know poch is probably ignoring this game tape unless you royally messed up, eg, ream.
and i mean not just passing in diagonals, but that you use your own dribbling movement and shifting around some, to make the other team either shift or commit where holes get exposed. like dribble at a diagonal. i learned at a point to dribble towards the wingback like it was going there, but watch how they reacted. if the backs went to sleep, maybe hit it downfield. if the opposing mids shifted too hard wide as i drifted there, play it in an alley to a central mid, or switch.
i don’t see some thought process. i literally see us either passing around the back aimlessly or trying to force a square ball to a static player everyone knows is getting it.
Only player that I felt good about was Schulte. Not for him this game would have been a blow out.
Morris I would like to see more. Brings a good intensity to the midfield and quite clear Nancy has progressed his game and Carrick will further help his development.
Going to be an interesting next two years until the WC.
i dunno on morris. canada was getting downfield pretty easy in transition in the second half. he did make some stops, and i liked where he just took people on and tried stuff on the goal, pull-across, spin-move, ball gets to LDLT all the attention has gone to morris, tap in.
lemme put it this way. that was a positive play. he had some positive defensive plays. a lot of that was a mess so yeah give him another cap or two and see. compared to some of the crap i watched, sure. he definitely outplayed johnny. but then i didn’t get that after copa america. we had a couple changes but for some reason people want to blame the coach and ignored the players that did it.
Houston…. we have a lot of problems.
Formation change continues to be what I want to see.
3-5-2 please. Defend and hit quickly.
None of these CM’s has MB’s presence and intensity mixed with equal amount of skill.
I do want to see more of Morris
It’s a broken record at this point.
i do agree if you watched when this looked lively first half was in transition. win balls, play quickly direct upfield. don’t let the other team get back, play small sided, see if we can get behind them, and score.
i have no idea other than snob appeal why we try and slowly build from the back 100+ yards like the defenders and keeper are any good at it or we have special technical skill to walk a build up.
352, meh, i am generally opposed to 3 backs with this bunch because we can’t even mark right with 4 back there. plus you’d have to find 2 wingers who can literally play 2 ways very well and not get burned caught up. dest, no. and we tend to encourage jedi to cheat up which is a good way to give up cheap goals in that formation.
the tactical genius of walk it up, pass it between CBs a couple times, try and force a square ball upfield to a central mid, if it’s not intercepted, turn in a circle then pass it sideways to the wingback. as though the CB couldn’t have made the same progression in 1 pass at less risk.
they mentioned pregame that varas believed in the snob maxim of not cranking the ball upfield short of emergency. and so how many times was i watching a build from the back giveaway, including for goals.
how do you expect to break a decent team down at walking pace standing around in your positions making no runs. i hope the basic idea was just run out the clock on this and wait for the new coach.
there is a reason i said hire a caretaker with some resume and gravitas and not some overrated lifetime age group coach with zero HC experience. either his ideas were bad or the effort was nil for him.
…… Jesse Marsch and the CanMNT indeed had us figured out. He even predicted the score lol, wow
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XdZYebUyztc