The Mauricio Pochettino-era might only be one match in, but excitement is certainly high among U.S. men’s national team players and fans.
Yunus Musah and Ricardo Pepi both scored on Saturday night as the USMNT defeated CONCACAF rivals Panama 2-0. It marked the USMNT’s first victory since June 23 in all competitions and was a complete overall performance after a disappointing September window.
Panama did its best to try and break the USMNT down, but defensively the Americans did well to limit the visitors to only three shots on target. Goalkeeper Matt Turner was up to the task while the collective unit worked tirelessly to register their first shutout since the Copa America group stage.
“He wants us to be solid defensively, and then have guys play the way they are comfortable playing and being confident going forward with the ball,” veteran defender Tim Ream said. “And everybody saw that, especially in the first 15 minutes. Guys were moving, [there was] intricate passing and getting the ball, moving quick and getting in and around their box. When he tells guys to go and be themselves, it’s a sign that he has confidence in you, and you can see that come out with all the guys out here.”
Offensively, the USMNT used a strong pair of team moves to break down Thomas Christiansen’s men. Christian Pulisic connected with his AC Milan teammate Musah for the opening goal four minutes into the second half before Pepi came off the bench to ice the result in stoppage time.
Josh Sargent missed a few opportunities to boost the Americans in front in the first half, as well as the second half, but overall the USMNT did well to claim a needed victory. Plenty of players looked full of confidence and energy, which is a complete turnaround from the winless September window.
While Saturday’s match is only the first of many under Pochettino, it’s a great first step for the program who now turns their attention towards Mexico on Tuesday.
“I looked back at our recent form, and I was thinking, ‘Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve won’,” Turner said postmatch. “Since the Bolivia game right, since we’ve won a game and had a clean sheet? So, yeah, it’s nice to set off this era with a win and a clean sheet. It goes in waves, but winning is something that you learn. You can’t just take it for granted. It takes energy and focus for 90 minutes, especially at this level.”
“We know it’s going to be a tough match, going to Mexico and dealing with the atmosphere and the altitude is tough, but we will be ready for it,” Antonee Robinson said on the TNT broadcast Saturday.
The USMNT will be seeking their second-ever win on Mexican soil in all competitions.
Pepi, Weston, Pulisic, Fossey, and Steffen all returning to clubs early. Pulisic the only one for load management everyone else minor injuries.
That takes the shine of the game a bit. We shall see how the team does without Puli.
I either figured Mckennie had a slight injury or Poch was saving him for the Mexico game.
Wright for Puli. Or maybe Poch throws another formation wrinkle.
Good.
Mexico will be more challenging that way. It will be important to see how they handle life without Captain Sheetz.
Curious about Steffen.
Not good. Dumb. Keep everyone healthy in camp working on the new system even if they aren’t going to play. Also, dumb because who cares about Panama?! Seriously if you are going to manage his load have him play against Mexico. I’m sure if Poch was Argentina’s coach he would play Messi against Bolivia and send him away from camp before playing Brazil. Not good. Dumb.
– I was watching on my phone so I might have missed some things. I agree with IV. I think really was just a 4-3-3 and Scally was told to stay home and Jedi push up, but I’d have to go back and look at the few times Panama had everyone in place in the attacking third to see where our defensive lines were.
– Busio and Morris had some bad giveaways in first half where either they weren’t used to the new patterns or just not used to each other. I thought they both grew into the game and made fewer mistakes as the night went. Those mistakes came back when Tillman and Tessmann came on. Tanner for me still hasn’t adjusted to the speed of international play and just holds the ball too long.
– overall I thought Pulisic’s free kicks/corners were better.
– Panama is a solid team, they are strong, winning most of the second balls by just muscling us out. The get a lot of deflections and close down passing/shooting windows quickly. I think they’ll be the favorite to get a WC qualifier spot out of Concacaf.
“Panama is a solid team, they are strong, winning most of the second balls by just muscling us out.”
Agreed! I’ll also make note of the amazing the disparity in their strength when they beat us to the ball, stand strong, muscle us off- opposed to when we would get there first or attempt to muscle them and they’d go weak kneed, crumple to the ground and get the call.
The ref did a fairly decent job of ignoring a lot of those flops from Panama.
That was the thing that stuck out most for me and something that I think has been a long standing problem with the US. We lose too many 50/50 balls and second balls and over the length of a game that adds up and makes a difference. I have pointed out before that we sometimes play like we want to win fair play awards in tournaments more than the championships. Fair play award teams rarely win championships. We need an enforcer like Jermaine Jones and a tougher mentality. At least, I noticed, when Pulisic is knocked down now he doesn’t sit there and wave his arms, futilely hoping for a call.
their coach has impressed me
You could tell Poch respected him with his handshake. On the broadcast the announcers said the two talked for a long time during warmups. Their playing time in Spain overlapped so maybe they knew each other from way back or Christiansen’s time at Leeds and Poch at Spurs.
the debate about formations and who was playing precisely where, to me, speak to the fuzziness of poch’s approach, that we definitely were not in GB’s rigid slots. and at least early along running out of slots and with varied movements, more what i expect from an organized team anyway. we’d gotten where we just stood around in the 433.
couple other reasons it wasn’t GB ball, a willingness to hit the diagonal or over the top, and what i saw as an assymetrical pivoting of jedi forward. like as we’d knock it around the back, he’d push jedi further upfield.
it also looked to me like the wing interchange seemed to be set up about 10 yards back upfield than before, less by the flag, which then lets you play an overlap behind the offsides line.
however, initially they defaulted back to lofted crosses from which nothing happened, only as the game progressed did they get the service on the floor, at which point we started geting backside goals.
and in the middle 30′, end of the first half and start of the second before subs, it felt a lot more like usual, more standing around, more farting around the back, more giveaways. i felt like we were a little more willing to pull back out and reset, which is good.
i didn’t see much of the advertised transition ball, because we weren’t winning the ball that much upfield in the first half. maybe panama was too athletic, maybe poch decided not to press on a warm day. and poch also started a fairly hardhat midfield where when we did hit a transition ball forward it was pulisic helping back. which to me speaks to our need for a 10 or work rate mids who can hit a long ball forward accurately.
Definitely liked the look of a 3 man backline. Scally is best as a defender. Musah looks really good as a RWB wonder if Fonseca starts to look at using him as a RB. Emerson Royal isn’t exactly lighting it up. He has Dest like abilities on the ball.
Will be interesting to see how this all plays out when other players get healthy i.e. Dest, Adams, Weah, Reyna, Balogun.
it wasn’t really a 3 man backline. it was 4 backs and then push jedi high on offense as we fart around with it in the back and defensive midfield.
i didn’t mean the fart around as a diss in that context. i meant while the other team watches the trio and DM mess around, jedi steadily pushes up the side.
When attacking it shifted into a 3-4-2-1. But defending it was more of a 4-3-3.
The first time I saw Musah play, he was playing winger/wide midfielder for Valencia and he scored a goal.
The Valencia manager said he played him out wide in the beginning because they think it is easier on new/young players before moving them inside, which was supposedly the plan for Musah.
It would probably be a good idea for Milan to figure out Yunus’ “best” role and stick with it for a while
– It’s just the first game, but you have to like the tactics. Lots of timely pressure to win the ball back in transition, and a string emphasis on quick, timely passing to keep possession after a turnover. It looked promising.
– We like to always give MOTM to a goal scorer, but Aiden Morris really put in a great shift in the midfield. Granted this was Panama, but he displayed a lot of poise and confidence in the game. It never hurts to have depth at a crucial position on the team.
– Looking forward to a bigger test Tuesday against Mexico in Mexico.
did you watch the game? first half we had maybe one interior transition play when pulisic came back, won a ball, wall passed out of tight space, then hit a pass to the forward.
more happened second half as the game seemed to open up, but it wasn’t really in the style of the press or transition game advertised.
i am going to be curious to see what happens as this midfield gets churned on personnel and maybe he asks some forwards to help back more. i thought first half the MF was sloppy on offense and they were getting chances on us. i wouldn’t be surprised if he tries new people next time.
i did like that the runs seemed more varied, and players were less chained to positional slots. that they weren’t just standing around. but that also lasted maybe 30-35′.
they started out lofting crosses but go more joy from simply playing ground balls behind the backline.
and a lot of the offense, to me, seemed to be to lull them to sleep then play over the top, either down a wing to jedi or diagonals. to the wing forwards or jedi. goal 2 was also a long kick, 4 passes total.
i’m not going to trumpet tactics much because i thought that was a work ethic game and i am not sure what the intended endgame looks like, either style or personnel. i didn’t think we looked so hot that everyone out there is now a lock. i didn’t feel like we were settling into one style yet.
i did like the result.