The U.S. men’s national team was mere minutes away from snapping its winless run on Tuesday night until the unthinkable struck and handed New Zealand a draw on the road.
Christian Pulisic and Ben Waine traded goals as the USMNT tied the All Whites 1-1 at TQL Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. Pulisic delivered the opening goal off the bench for the USMNT in the second half, but Mark McKenzie’s attempted clearance in the 89th minute deflected off of Waine and into the back of the U.S. net.
The result concluded a disappointing window for Mikey Varas’ men, who learned of Mauricio Pochettino’s official hiring as head coach earlier in the day.
After New Zealand created a pair of opening chances, the USMNT thought they struck first in the 21st minute when Ricardo Pepi found the back of the net. However, Pepi was ruled offsides in the build-up play, which ruled out the potential opening goal of the match.
Liberato Cacace was denied by Matt Turner in the 39th minute before Yunus Musah’s long range strike was punched away by Max Crocrombe.
Turner was up to the task a second time before the hour mark, denying Elijah Just from point blank range.
The USMNT continued to pick up their pressure as the second half pushed forward, with Brenden Aaronson testing his luck inside of the box. Aaronson’s left-footed strike was repelled by Crocrombe, keeping the score level.
However, the Americans would find their breakthrough goal in the 68th minute through a stellar team play. Aidan Morris, Marlon Fossey, Luca De La Torre, Ricardo Pepi and Folarin Balogun all connected with passes before Balogun’s layoff pass allowed Pulisic to drill home for a 1-0 lead.
It marked Pulisic’s 31st international goal for the USMNT, moving him one behind Eric Wynalda for fourth all-time in program history.
Despite several efforts from the USMNT to pad their advantage, it was New Zealand who delivered the final goal of the match through a freakish deflection. Mark McKenzie’s clearance deflected off of Waine and into the back of the U.S. net for a 1-1 equalizer.
Several boos rained down at the final whistle from TQL Stadium as the USMNT failed to close the match out in front of their home supporters. Fossey, Aaronson and Aidan Morris were among the positive performers for the Americans.
The USMNT will return to action on October 12 in Austin, Texas against Panama before traveling to rivals Mexico three days later.
By the time Pochettino manages his first game, no one will remember this or the Canada game.
to be crystal clear, canada tied mexico 0-0, and mexico beat NZ 3-0, so in a quasi round robin we would have finished T-last with NZ on a single point from 2 games, behind mexico and canada on 4 points each — and not based on just one game. and as i listed out on another comment, i think this has been in the gutter since about the japan friendly summer of ’22. it was bad for those friendlies like this. it was passable at the world cup. it went back to bad under the first caretakers, with a brief NL blip, it didn’t go well last fall with TNT and Germany, brief NL blip again this year, we haven’t won a friendly this year and were miserable in the copa.
i hope poch is the man to fix it but i would pay close attention to call sheets and whether this seems like it’s going in a new direction with some tactical and personnel changes. if it’s the same people and pinch the forwards, GB tried that. and if you want to win em in transition you need some ball winners, and probably not named adams.
i am also somewhat concerned whether poch has his own scouting capabilities or obsession, or will be dependent on the same apparatus currently stuttering along. klinsi lives here, would make the rounds of california practices and find people like morris, knew our players, and could even bring in some germans. poch would be well placed to watch european based players, but does he? or does he defer to scouts, and the scouting apparatus of the moment seems to drag its feet and wait on players to make european first teams.
Probably will just watch YouTube highlight videos, I’d imagine.
JR: surely you get my point. is he obsessively studying and watching our players in europe or even here, or is just working off some list analytics sends him. he’s new to a lot of our team and pool, has only coached CCV as i understand it, and a coach can only call who he knows.
point being if he works from the USSF song sheet on who to call, not a lot of new faces, and the same ol’ pecking order/progression.
if he does his own homework, then this gets shaken up. klinsi could bring in morris and the germans because he did his own homework and had his own connections.
so which one are we getting? to me this got very stale a roster for about 4-5 years, since roughly covid. hurt guys came and went, some guys got doghoused for periods, but a fairly steady core.
According to Crocker, when they met with Pochettino the first time in July. Poch and his lead assistant Jesus Perez came with their plan including specific players they saw as important to the project. Although he’s only worked with CCV he’s coached against a number of NT players and likely scouted others as potential transfer targets. His CV opens up a lot of dual nat targets that may not have considered the Us previously. Gregg had a lot of contacts in Europe that brought in guys like Dest and Musah, Poch has more and in higher places.
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I still doubt there will be a huge turnover in the roster. The bigger key to me is can Poch turn up players that have plateaued. It’s telling to me that the best players in the window Fossey, Morris, and Pulisic are three guys playing regularly with their clubs. What effect will Poch have on getting guys into better club situations thru his many contacts? Poch in the past has favored guys who run? Does that light a fire under Weston, Reyna, and Pulisic who have all been criticized at times for a lack of defensive work rate? This is the most experienced at a high level manager we’ve ever had. It seems fairly unlikely that he’s had the success he’s had in Spain, England, and France by just listening to others. I don’t see him calling Thomas Rongen and asking what he thinks of Cole Campbell.
It was an unfortunate mistake by Wiley. I thought he was playing well up to that point. He will continue to get better. He is only 19 years old.
Takeaways for me were, Fossey (of course), Morris and Aaronson showed they can play.
Especially in the first half, none of the attacking 3 showed very well; despite our supposed glut of forwards it seems that none of them are good enough. Pulisic is the only one who can score consistently. Reminds me of 2006 team where only McBride could.
The center backs seem to have made a pact to concede goals (or maybe it is just that we have no settled CB pairing).
Turner is a liability with the ball at his feet, he made a weak, hospital-ball pass that averted being turned into a goal only by NZ’s ineffectiveness.
Pochettino has a lot of work to do, both in player selection and in determining how he can find tactics that will maximize the players’ strengths and minimize the weaknesses.
i think we have eroded 2-3 goals in margin from our peak. example — mexico beat that same NZ team 3-0. i can’t say exactly “what” changed but i think the “when” was roughly september 2022. that window went roughly like this one, we got stomped one game (japan) then tied a winnable game the other. (saudi). we went to the world cup and could barely win a game (1), did just enough to advance, turned into a road pattie by holland first knockout round. in 2023 we start with caretakers and other than NL have a miserable start. eliminated in gold cup, lose to germany and trinidad in the fall. this year, setting aside NL weirdness (and we tried to lose that first game out and almost did), we literally have not won a friendly all year, plus 1W 2L at copa, including another brutal caretaker window.
on offense, we don’t run off the ball, we stand around, we play a lot of keepaway, and only certain players can deliver accurate service into the box. on defense, we make routine giveaways, we seem to play a soft zone where no one is responsible for opposing players, they are just vaguely shuffled along, and we react to loose balls like scared outfielders who let a ball drop saying, “you got it,” as opposed to someone takes charge and ends that play. on neither end of the field do we act like a unit, show to each other, play off each other, or mop up each other’s defensive messes. on the NZ goal it’s like one of you either head it back or kick it out. on the canada goals it’s like yeah, we messed up, but someone trip the guy on the ball and take your yellow, end the play.
conversely, on offense, rarely do we like NZ work the ball into the box to feet, it’s perimeter keepaway then something hopeful across. i even came to prefer fossey cutting it across on the ground, a refreshing change from lofted crosses, except some of them i think he’s just hitting it to a spot just the same. we lack focal points who set up their teammates (pulisic generally works for himself) and the 9 with rare exceptions is disconnected from the offense.
my general impression from looking at some game logs is we missed weah and adams this time. that they have some intermittent injury problems but usually when they play we do well, with exceptions. reyna and dest seemed to have a more uneven impact on success, win some, lose some. and personally i’d yank ream and jedi. ream got brought back roughly when this went south. jedi actually played 1 game the summer we swept the 2021 tournaments, which was roughly the peak of this. he was not in the mexico final we won. he was responsible for some of the world cup goals. etc. etc.
i need to sit down at some point and turn my vague sense into ppg or +/- about how well the team plays with certain guys in the lineup. my sense is for a team overly concerned with club form numbers we are careless about USMNT productivity or association with our more successful games.
last, bears reminding we should probably have won last night 2-1, that was a bad negated goal, no foul. but mexico beat them 3-0 and you put 3 past them and the ref matters less. that’s where 2-3 goals less margin makes all the difference. that’s wins become ties and ties become losses.
“on offense, we don’t run off the ball, we stand around”— uh huh. Noticed the same thing. We are stagnant a lot of the time. I have no idea how we expect to break lines by threading passes through miniscule passing lanes, with stagnant targets. When we get the ball near the 18 there are 4 guys standing next to defenders—- standing. No running across the face of the defense by anyone trying to get in behind. We are not penetrating or taking risks. Offensively — taking risks is a good thing. Its like they have been conditioned to not take risks——– and just back it up and re-set it every time. VERY PREDICTABLE.
I agree how hard can it be to make a run without the ball. Even a simplistic pattern like center player furn towards far post, farpost guy runs to near post and near post guy moves to a deeper central position would bi a big improvement. Instead we have 3 guys standing clogging up the box, in effect doing the work for the opponent’s defense.
Some soccer genius can explain a more effective pattern of runs, but I will wager it will not include simply standing next to a defender.
i should add, what i saw this last window was we play dangerous balls straight vertically upfield, no chip, no swerve, to the standing target. you have maybe 2 layers of defense who can step across and intercept. you have the markers whose guy is a sitting duck.
we didn’t play a ton of diagonals, even when upfield, and even when we did, we often turned back. like you’re saying. we avoid hoofing as NZ did on its one fair easy goal. we get a free kick and most of the time just tap the ball back into run of play. only occasionally did we take a long shot. they’re emphasizing possession for its own sake and avoiding about every cheap way of creating chances out there.
i’d hoped when they wheeled out a 433 it would be positionless stuff with creativity but what we have is the opposite, rigid position holes and risk aversion.
and the thing is if we’re playing controlled 1-0 type soccer, few chances but high possession and low risk, then the defense has to hold.
if the defense isn’t going to hold, drop the 2 way hustlers and put some real offense out there and go for 3-4 goals and assume we will ship some. just outscore them.
i keep saying it’s neither fish nor fowl. what is this supposed to be “good” at? how are we to score goals? what is the team defense concept? this reminds me of my meh HS coach running us through rote drills and conditioning but with zero work on rapport or here’s how we’re gonna score our goals or defend as a unit.
it was maybe briefly when LDLT and fossey were on together (who both played youth ball at FFC) that a pairing just seemed to know each other. we’re 7 years into a team of kids about the same age, we should have some unspoken understandings between the guys. you pass here, i flick you to there, i peel off and make a run to there, you feed it back.
like i said the other day, i think some sort of highly structured regime has been put in place, which takes the soul out of the thing. precisely when we want players to get creative like morris on the goal the other day, they tend to get cold feet and back out. which ironically is the opposite reaction i think the snobs wanted when they preached playing skill soccer. i think we wanted more dribbling and got instead more passing. and not the slice and dice kind, the cautious nibble then retreat kind.
Imperative my friend—SPOT ON———“they’re emphasizing possession for its own sake and avoiding about every cheap way of creating chances out there”.
I don’t think as a team, that we have ever possessed the ball as well as the current team does. We can keep the ball—– but what’s the end goal of the entire match—- not to out possess the other side right? It is cool and pretty amazing to see us be able to keep the thing—— but when dangerous opportunities arise the team has to take them and recognize that risk-reward.
Part of the fun and the excitement of the game is those half chances right? “Cheap chances”—— I like that terminology—— if that’s how they are viewed— can surely produce results— results that are not nearly as expected or predictable.
there is a whole cluster of things we should want more of. guys ever getting the ball in the box to get tripped for a PK or. their shot handled for one. free kicks into the box any time we’re within about 40-50 yards. shots from about 25-30 out like adams vs. mexico. transition goals off winning the ball.
this has kind of dwindled down to low percentage crosses, long builds, and corner kicks. and our set pieces have been crap since pulisic got to take them all.
goals are always work but turning our attacks on purpose into the scrimmage with constraints where you deliberately have to string 15-20 passes or have every player touch it is absurdly limiting. how many teams you think let us make those 3-4 sideways passes to finally get it to pulisic for the finish? you want some cheaper goals so it’s not 1 goal a night we work very hard for.
the keepaway might be fine up 2-0 or 3-0 but doing it 0-0 is keeping your own goals away.
Courey,
““Cheap chances”—— I like that terminology—— if that’s how they are viewed— can surely produce results— results that are not nearly as expected or predictable.”
I don’t believe in cheap chances. The term makes people think you don’t have to work to score, or that if you just have the right “system” you will have more “cheap chances” than you know what to do with.
The best teams strive to play a system where they can create more chances than the other team as well as stifle the chances the other team creates, if not stop them from being created at all.
And even if you can do that, you’re not done yet, Because to actually win a game you have to score a goal and finishing a chance is the single hardest thing to do in soccer. Look at what all those great scorers cost and what they make.
Money talks.
That’s why previous editions of the USMNT, the ones that featured Clint, Landon and Jozy, especially if they were all together, may not have been as “good” as the current edition, whatever the fuck good means, but they were more deadly because they had more reliable scoring.
The only consistently reliable scoring threat on this current edition is CP 22/10/11.
The reality is that for the most part , the scorer and his team work very hard to create goals that may, at the end look like simple tap ins that any moron could score on.
The New Zealand goal for example, happened because they kept working hard, kept attacking, even when everyone was sure the USMNT had it firmly under control. And they sort of did. McKenzie got to the ball before the NZ forward did, and hits a clearance that, under normal circumstances, winds up in the NZ half. Instead it hits the NZ attacker in the face, something that guy had nothing to do with and had no intention of doing, and it bounces into the USMNT goal.
Fluke? Sheer dumb luck? Yes but it doesn’t happen if NZ aren’t working their asses of until the very end.
NZ gave Mckenzie a chance to be unlucky.
They didn’t give up, attacking hard till the end.
“VERY PREDICTABLE.”
Where have you been? They’ve been this way for years. It’s now their DNA. With Gregg gone and Mikey halfway out the door, they are just reverting to what they, as a select unit, know best.
Which is what you saw vs. NZ and Canada. A select unit is by definition an all star team. As you know, they don’t have a lot of time for Gregg to introduce much nuance into their game. I’m sure Gregg is very knowledgeable ,certainly more than anyone on SBI, but finding the system and tactics most suitable to this player pool and then getting buy in from them, that’s where you separate the Cats from the kittens.
Hopefully Pochettino is a Cat. For what we are paying him, he better be.
JR: are you serious you don’t want cheap chances? think about the 5-1 panama qualifier if you’re confused why. 2 PKs. a tap in. a header. game is 3-0 at half and over.
or we can do it the new way, NZ, work very hard for 1 goal that counts, which can be evened out by a complete fluke. which fluke was NZ’s cheap one. they didn’t end the game trying to string passes. their keeper whacked it long and some bouncing around later, goal. period.
the more passes a build takes, the more likely it gets stopped or messed up. this doesn’t have to turn into kickball but it doesn’t have to be so belabored and cautious. and some of the “good” teams beating us are 10x more direct. it is not a sign of sloppiness or bad soccer to want to get the ball more often in danger areas.
IV: love how you just automatically disagreed with me but that was Vacqui.
JR,
Now that you know how to bait him, you and IV should debate.
Flukes happen, but you can’t build an offense that relies on getting the center back to clear the ball into your face in such a way that it bounces into the bad guy’s goal.
Other than flukes the vast majority of goals require hard work so I don’t believe there are “cheap” chances.
people have been touting wiley and then i watch him flub what should have been a roughly 10 yard header back to the keeper off a ball bouncing over head level off the ground. he instead hot-potatoes the ball barely ahead of a central teammate running a couple yards away which to me is roughly as bright as a U12 defender under pressure hitting a risky pass across the goal.
as with colombia we appear completely unprepared for direct soccer.
not a fan of turner being out at the top of the 18 (it’s like 2 on 3 in front of him, and we’re goal side), which results in him being out of position for the ricochet, but my guess is he thought he was going to receive a nod back. we even win the ball after NZ flubs the trap and yet screw up the decision what to do with the header.
speaking of mentality — but the real version of it — curious if the finesse-driven “spread em out and pass it around” concept of how the defense is taught to try to play offense (or perhaps the soft zone on defense, where marks are just passed around) results in an atomized response on defense. like i feel like i am watching a group of guys running back thinking “no, you get it” and hot-potatoing the ball to a teammate — like they do in the build — instead of emphatically sweeping through with either a strong header back to the keeper or i chest that ball then whack it over a sideline. a take charge attitude.
i keep hearing vague “mentality” discussions but that’s a “soccer decision,” not just hustle. and in my era when we had no compunction about using keeper’s hands or clearing the ball out to end the danger, you would get yanked and yelled at for seemingly trying to bring that ball down and turn it back into keepaway. you want to get back to ground ball passing you head it back then reset.
for comparison, there’s a play where fossey sweeps in blind side on a guy, steals it, pass back and we’re on offense. and that’s ball-winning skills, not just vague “mentality.” “mentality” to me sounds like a HS JV team with a football coach.
Well at least Fossey showed he can potentially be a better RB option versus Scally. I do think Scally is better suited in a 3 man backline.
Yep I agree, nice comment 2tone.
Also whoever idea it was to put Pepi on the wing, that was a very bad idea. He is a striker.
Yeah putting Pepi at RW was ridiculous. But IMO he was the USMNT best attacker in the first half. Just more system nonsense. Should have rolled out a two striker system in that first half. Literally no reason to roll out a 4-3-3 yet again.
Basing that on the basis of one game against New Zealand is not terribly wise, IMO.
@Gary Page, I see your point. The RB options are thin. Scally has been questionable with recent performances, Dest is still recovering. I always knew wasting a roster spot on Shaq Moore was very dubious, especially after that awful 2022 WC he had. Fossey is a tank like Diego Luna. Takes a hit and pops back up. You are right one game is not enough evidence, but to get Man of the Match your first cap against a scrappy NZ shows good promise for Pooch and Company.
2tone literally no reason to change formation for a one match friendly if Poch doesn’t use 2 strikers. The general theme from the players this window (with the exception of Morris, Fossey, and Schulte hmmm the new guys) was let’s just get thru this.
Do you think Aiden Morris looks like Samwise Gamgee or Rudy?
Well, I thought it was fitting that NZ scored the equalizer off a stupid US mistake. There was a sequence near the end of the first half that I thought was telling. The US had a free kick about 30 yards away from the NZ goal and Aaronson made a decent entry pass. NZ headed it out, the US controlled. Rather than send it back in, the US passed back to midfield and then the CB passed back to Turner. Turner then passed to a US player and there may have been another pass, but the ball turned over to NZ about 20 yards from goal and NZ almost scored. So, the ball went from the NZ box all the way to a shot on the US goal within less than a minute without NZ touching the ball before the shot. The first 15 minutes of the game, it was one US give away after another before they at least managed to hold on to the ball. I don’t know how the team can get any worse, but they may find a way. Pochettino has a lot of work to do. There were so many things that could be commented on, but I don’t feel like taking the time right now.
I have never been so happy that I was traveling and missed a game.
Amen. Prison meditation and dharma group night for me. Don’t even want to watch it on the Fubo recording. I was expecting at least 3 goals. Disappointing night. Well at least Poch got signed and rolled out official, finally, like I said he would, a month ago. Plenty of time to pick up the pieces and right the ship.
This will be intriguing. Onward.
By the time Pochettino manages his first game, no one will remember this or the Canada game.