There’s no way to sugarcoat it, the U.S. men’s national team knows an improved performance is needed on Tuesday night against New Zealand.
Only three days after a 2-1 loss to CONCACAF rivals Canada, the USMNT will try and close their September window on a high with a friendly victory over the All Whites. Mikey Varas’ squad lacked fight and intensity in Saturday’s loss in Kansas City, the first for the USMNT at home against Canada since 1957.
Defensive errors from Tim Ream and Johnny Cardoso paired with a lack of fluidity in the final third doomed the Americans at Children’s Mercy Park. Luca De La Torre and Aidan Morris were among the bright spots off the bench in the second half, but ultimately a lot of the USMNT’s stars delivered quiet performances in the result.
Star attacker Christian Pulisic was one of those players who didn’t have much of an impact in the final third, creating just one offensive chance and failing to register a single shot on goal.
The 25-year-old will be expected to lead a rejuvenated squad at TQL Stadium on Tuesday night and admitted that him and his teammates will be ready to fight to get things back on track.
“You’re going to see a team that’s hungry and is not happy about the last result, a team that is going to want to go out and fight and take this game very seriously,” Pulisic said Monday in a pre-match press conference in Ohio. “It’s an opponent who’s not going to give it to us. It’s going to be a tough matchup. We need to be at our best…Hopefully, we have some guys that are really gonna step up.”
The USMNT’s current three match losing streak is their first since 2015 while Tuesday’s showdown will be the first against New Zealand since 2016. A strong conclusion to September’s window would be a major positive ahead of the potential signing of Mauricio Pochettino as head coach.
OK, but how will the USA play?
Of course I want to believe, support this group, and CP, but…
don’t tell me, show me
that’s what I say to anyone who criticizes me when I coach. I take criticism for my whole life as a coach, no problem, par for the course…but if you are dishing without doing, please be quiet
no need to talk about anything after that debacle…do
DO IT
Hungry? Then eat today!! OK? Eat 🙂
Go USMNT
Why do they even interview these players? Literally every quote from this team is a sports platitude. Every one, every time. “It’s going to be a tough matchup”. Thanks, Christian. Good talk.
my deal is i have rarely seen, for years, something like what we did to cuba in nations league. where it looked like we had scouted something about their LB’s positioning on tape, and we went after and after it until the score was lopsided and weston had 4 goals. like specifically thought about, how are we going to play the game of soccer and beat this specific opponent with soccer IQ and quality.
to me our scheme offers a fake version of this. this is supposed to unlock teams and constrain them and it doesn’t.
and, worse, we’re now putting pure effort/”mentality” on a pedestal, which should be basic professionalism or part of some grander game plan with more specific ideas. weak soccer teams game plan for a contest, like every one that season, by telling the kids, go out there and play hard.
you want to actually win these, you need puli and balogun sitting down thinking up how they will set each other up in games, free kick ideas, practiced combo or flick plays, scouting of specific weaknesses. x plays too narrow and you can get down his wing, just play the ball here. y comes out of position, when he does, combo ball into that CB hole.
or, conversely, we are going to mark x, y, and z canadians out of the game.
people pretend we have that sort of discussion going on but we don’t play or cut. people like we do. we rarely just jump on someone like we knew something or like our players just know each other. and maybe the premise of this offense being scared to take risks or do anything but perimeter pass relates to that. you don’t need game planning, scouting, or in-game subs or adjustments, you already have The Scheme TM, patent pending, do you not trust The Scheme?
“….“It’s an opponent who’s not going to give it to us. It’s going to be a tough matchup.”
Hahahaha…..of course you all are going to “LOOK HUNGRY”, as you are playing a team that had ZERO SHOTS ON GOAL against MEXICO….
————MEXICO———————-NEW ZEALAND—–
————-13————–SHOTS—————–2—————-
—————6———SHOTS ON TARGET——-0————–
—————56%——–POSSESSION———–44%————
————–83%——-PASS ACCURACY——-78%——–
Like that’s going to erase the fact that THE WHOLE TEAM LOOKED LAZY AND CLUELESS, being with Gregg Berhalter for 6+ years, playing the same 4-3-3 system, WITH THE SAME ASSISTANT COACH MIKEY VARAS…….and you all showed us the huge disconnect between players and coaching staff. It showed you didn’t understand how to play together because you couldn’t “fix” what you didn’t “know”. In other words……YOU ALL DIDN’T UNDERSTAND THE TACTICS OR BUY INTO THE STRATEGY hence couldn’t default to what you are suppose to know……..in 6+ years of being together.
Where as Jesse Marsch (say what you may) was able to do that INSTANTAINIOUSLY, in less than 6 months, which resulted in making a name for himself and the team in COPA and at the expense of the USMNT (Canada was NEVER able to do that until he got there).
But now you all want to show us motivation and grit against a ZERO SHOTS ON GOAL, 2 SHOTS ALL GAME New Zealand team, in order to reignite our faith in the team???? HAHAHAHA
I just want to see anything diff besides that 4-3-3. Also Marsch bringing up we make to many center passes is right and Canada did punish us for that. Both goals were because we passed it in the middle and our guys were in no mans land.
re your 6 months comment, it is amusing the fanboys still seem to think you can take years to implement a scheme and it’s not that it just doesn’t work. to me it’s more a stalling tactic as they really badly don’t want this to have any longball or pure speed elements, even if we don’t have the pool of skill guys to do what they dream up. yeah, if we had a team of reynas we could pass opponents to death. but reyna is blatant in how unlike the team he generally is. and he can’t pass to himself all over the field.
as such, this is not really a scheme, it’s a political slogan or faith. i think we are literally going to burn 2-3 cycles, most of this generation’s careers, on this crap.
i mean from what i was reading, poch’s “innovation” on this is pinch the wings in, rely more on the wingbacks wide, get the forwards working together on offense in closer quarters, and tighter in the middle to press centrally and cover passing lanes. that sounds fairly like GB a few years back, maybe 21-ish. pinched wings, etc. and an emphasis on dragging the defense even further back towards the backline, to begin the build spread out in back, sounds even worse than what i just watched. if we can’t pass out from top of the box you think passing from in front of the net is more effective or less risky?
this isn’t working, we should be so much better on paper. we need to get out of this channel.
channel is too nice. more like a rut.
I am a fan of Christian Pulisic but taking it to New Zealand will do nothing for the fanbase. It’s too little too late for this group and I want to see new faces. Jesse Marsch isn’t the end all be all but reminds two important truths: 1) Klinsmann’s reign took us on a downward spiral and 2) you don’t need players playing in Europe to have a successful National Team. You need a coach who demands nothing less than your best and instills pride in the National Team.
also, we have a pretty clear mental pattern of losing the tough ones, talking big about how we’ll fix the technical or effort issues, do well in some blowout, throw a parade for winning games we should, then repeat the problems next tough contest. this isn’t fixed until it starts beating germany, france, argentina, holland, japan, etc.
“You’re going to see a team that’s hungry and is not happy about the last result, a team that is going to want to go out and fight and take this game very seriously.”
Let’s hope that team isn’t New Zealand.
LOL
hahaha
Agree 100%!
Sure…
This team has all the talent to be special but does not have the mentality. I really don’t think it matters tactics or strategy this team just doesn’t have grit.
One of the criticisms of the English national team in the past was that their players were pampered, well paid, and self-satisfied because of the high pay and public adulation they got from the Premier League. I suspect there was truth to that as they often under performed. Perhaps we see some of that with the current US National Team now that a number have “made it” by making it to top European leagues. There is certainly is something lacking in the way of intensity. For those who have seen the movie, Stand and Deliver, they are lacking ganas, or desire, and that is often the difference between success and failure.
i see our problem as double-entitlement. they think they are hot stuff from their club situations, and then the NT acts like they are unaccountable. there is little roster churn, position competition, or concern with NT game performance. the mere fact you are on, say, PSV, playing for our former GM, suffices to bring you back again. even if we silver platter you a throughball and you hit it right in the keeper’s gut, and then you take the rebound and make an offsides pass.
we have the most competition at striker and that’s not because sargent or pepi score at a similar rate to balogun or wright, it’s because strikers have the most blatant statistical cases they can make — “blah blah has 15 goals this season in england” — and because we keep letting “club form” arguments reopen the debate, in spite of feckless NT performances.
to varas’ limited credit, he did open keeper up a little this week, but we need competition everywhere. the team doesn’t play well enough to be off limits. and a lot of individuals routinely called have barely had a “good” game i can remember. this used to be if you didn’t “shine” you went away. it’s instead become the coach picks favorites off incumbency, analytics (ie how club went), anything but how the recent US games went. when this becomes about how US games go, it will be fixed.
everything is way too abstracted. the scheme is supposed to work but doesn’t. this lineup is what someone thought would maximize wins but doesn’t. ream is the prime example. cold blooded the dude associates with a lot of losses. but someone got in their head the opposite is true and here we are. probably because he used to play for FFC. the irony is he doesn’t even play there anymore and yet the aura follows.
mentality is created by cutting people. you keep bringing in people until you get the attitude and effort and play you want. you have to ignore names and where they play ball. the poster other thread was right the coach bears responsibility, other than say how turner got dropped. you have to be willing to throw out club driven analytics, names, and their club locations, and say you, you, and you play the way i want. you start today. if you other guys want to start, or get called, you will play like them. if not, i will yank your butt 5 seconds later.
this was what was actually done to reyna, remember? we just decided to send that message worst possible team-defeating point. you send this message at friendlies. friendlies are harmless. we should care a little less if we win them and more that the right team of players and ideas is being built, to win the big ones. and you get to that end by teaching scheme, mentality, and the rest in these small fry games.
and you do that by cutting people and making everyone fight for a spot even if they play at ACM. we have too many sacred cows for a team this bad.
last point, i am not going to oversell mentality. mentality matters more in close games. i’ve been on an old man soccer team that beat a bunch of kids by technical execution and holding together as a defense. we didn’t outrun them. we outplayed them. some of this mentality and effort talk, sorry, that’s how the bottom half of a college conference plays. emphasize effort, come out hard first 30. the best teams outplay the opponent, skill, speed, heading, and they just play hard in general and not because they “have to.” we start to sound like scrubs with all the mentality talk. if players are loafing you cut or bench or sub people until you get the effort. but if that’s all you’re worried about that doesn’t sound like good soccer. good soccer teams are thinking about free kick ideas, finishing, combo plays, flicks, how to work with their teammates. effort is just a given and not the sole focus.