The U.S. men’s national team’s first match of the Mauricio Pochettino-era takes place tonight in Austin, Texas.
Panama opposes the Americans at Q2 Stadium in the first of two matches for both teams this October window. The USMNT will travel to Guadalajara three days later for a rivalry showdown with Mexico.
Christian Pulisic, Antonee Robinson, and Weston McKennie headline Pochettino’s squad for tonight’s showdown, with all three delivering solid club campaigns so far. Zack Steffen and Gianluca Busio are back in the squad after lengthy absences away while Alex Zendejas and Brandon Vazquez are injury replacements.
SBI will be providing coverage of the showdown throughout the day so be sure to stay tuned as we provide updates, and analysis before and after the match.
Here is a rundown of SBI’s pre-match coverage:
- Josh Sargent admits that he’s “in a really good place” heading into USMNT duty. (LINK)
- USMNT midfielder Malik Tillman revealed that Bayern Munich “did not want him” which led to his permanent transfer to PSV. (LINK)
- Brenden Aaronson has “unfinished business” with Leeds United after returning to the club this summer. (LINK)
- SBI takes a closer look at the four strikers in this month’s window following Folarin Balogun’s absence. (LINK)
- SBI breaks down who should start for the USMNT vs. Panama. (LINK)
- USMNT players admit that the first few training sessions under Mauricio Pochettino have been intense. (LINK)
- Mauricio Pochettino stuck with the familiar faces for his first USMNT roster. (LINK)
SBI’s editorial staff will provide insight and analysis throughout the day in the comments section below. You are welcome to share your own pre-game and in-game thoughts and opinions as well.
Enjoy the Match.
Pepi at the end — no Pepi, no party indeed! (-: 2-0. I’m happy for him, and for Musah.
Still, it came just a couple of seconds after Ramos and Sol had been saying the US had been disappointing overall and wouldn’t get much out of this game except a W on their record.
And just a while after Panama had some amazing chances and should have had the 1-1 … *ulp*
Well, at least it was time the US had some good luck?
That win does not gloss over some poor play. My guess Mckennie will be starting against Mexico. Busio nor Morris really did much. Aaronson was subpar. Didn’t really create much of anything. Wouldn’t mind seeing Wright on the left and Pulisic on the RW which may now be his best position.
what was that, 4 passes and in the net? delightful.
as his clearance heads aimlessly over the sideline, turner’s distribution has been crap
until……
Thanks, I.V. (-:
Ramos: still too big a gap between Scally & McKenzie …
More changes …
Lots of plugs for WCQ in Conmebol, but games only on streaming … what else is new. )-:
i think the spacing is on purpose. they are deliberately pivoting the defense leftward on offense. like 3 across the back and the LB pushes way upfield. mckenzie as sweeper of sorts. so 3 of the backs are one side.
and then send jedi down that wing.
Oh, there you all are; guess I didn’t refresh enough.
Finally a really nice team goal for 1-0 — just when I had gone to the kitchen for a Shiner bock. (-:
What’s a “contención” — a midfielder? Manuel Sol said in the first half the US was basically playing with 3 of them, but it just wasn’t helping them enough.
Another bad missed chance, this time from Aaronson. Sol is saying you don’t have the luxury of trying to control and then shoot, you just have to shoot.
Turner has made some good saves. If this is all part of Pochettino’s plan, you could say he played a shaky back line to give Turner more footage for his highlight reel. /-;
Changes coming up …
contencion = DM. like i said, a banger MF. underpowered offense and panama was actually managing to get the ball downfield and get chances despite it.
we’re having a bad habit of energetically tracking wide and meanwhile leaving the interior run to the box corner behind them wide open.
if you notice a lot of the actual chances are whacking diagonals or playing kickball behind the defense. we had the one long ground pass when pulisic came back and a couple early overlaps down the wing but a lot of the joy is simply whack it behind panama’s wingbacks and run on it.
we should know from past panama history they are too fast to press. what you do with them and jamaica is fall back to midblock in numbers and dare them to try and complete a pass. then counter when they turn it over. horses for courses.
describing what pulisic did as dual 10 is odd. what really happened is he doubled back and helped the mids with defense, and having won the ball we then finally had someone in MF who could hit a long, quick transition ball.
we’re reproving we need an actual 10. or for some of the Fs to help back on defense where we ballwin more, and can transition up.
Ramos: hole on the left in the US defense
Sol: very even game so far, but Panama has actually created more chances
Ramos & Sol both disappointed in the US so far, had hoped to see more intensity, more forward movement
But I would say it’s just still Very Hot, and Pochettino will already have been tiring them out all week in this heat. /-: If they were sensible, they might even be waiting until it gets a little cooler to do more running. (I notice they’re now all wearing those thingies on their backs — what are those exactly?)
42′ bad miss from Sargent, after a nice center from Busio. )-:
Amazing how those nice, intelligent Telemundo guys can read the plugs for their network’s horrible telenovelas with a completely straight face. (-:
Sad that a sponsor of USA soccer in English is now a gambling app. Ugh.
So, is anyone else out there watching, or is there just not much to say about this game?
This team is bad playing between the lines. They really don’t have an idea how to do it.
I can pretty confidently say Pulisic is better on the RW.
That’s a bad miss by Sargent.
finally some quick transition play when pulisic tracked back and won a ball.
This team gives me a headache
people chuckled at my expense but they’re expecting dramatic improvement from the same guys. it’s even more tentative because poch does seem to have drilled into them what GB never did, that a possession team can just send it back out and reset. but beyond hitting a diagonal or working a ball down the wing and playing an overlap behind the defense, it’s still my beef about how are we planning to score.
I think they got ot wrong. MUsah is playing on the wing. Aronson is in at the 10.
Sargent needs to get more involved.
that’s and we have had some decent service between the spot and 6 and AWOL.
this is part of why i keep saying discount club form is players don’t change that much and people don’t explain how he’s changed to get on the ball and help us more.
what dude is much better at is receiving a lead ball and running at a defense. but this is mostly back to goal stuff and he’s a slow technical kid not particularly gifted as a target.
you can hopefully see where my beefs came from. similar bunch of guys, even taught to play the system better, similar basic problems.
Manuel Sol comments that (if I understood correctly) …
• Busio & Morris seemed too static starting out, weren’t interchanging / moving around enough
• USA needs to come out with more speed & pass the ball faster, otherwise Panama will just park the bus
• they’re still sort of missing / lacking the change of pace to start going forward faster
Tab Ramos is also commenting, something about the backs getting forward on the wings, but I find his Spanish a little harder to follow, sorry. Finding holes when looking for Aaronson & Pulisic … but Panama defending well, forcing the US to make riskier passes …
who is going to make the risky passes? i called it a banger midfield not to be a twerp but to describe their skillsets. it’s kinda like the weston/adams/musah MFs before reyna got promoted. no small spaces guys. basically hustling ballwinners.
because there’s no MF and we’re trying to play 1-2 touch we end up passing around the back a lot and the offense is coming from long diagonal balls when panama falls asleep.
we, then, when we do get that far forward are whacking crosses in. it’s not quite like usual because we’re setting up shop further out and making them play a higher defensive line so the wing is played behind the defense and the crossing is less contested.
give them some credit there are more runs and of varied types between the players than before. but you’re trying to get possession and build out of diesel mids still.
and people chuckled at vazquez but playing like this it’s a vazquez night. we’ve gotten some ok service in and no one’s getting on the balls. this is my deal with sargent is he can just disappear for long stretches while he earns snob praise for pressing workrate.
Mexican refs … but 3 women assistants (! (-: ) might come down harder on the typical Concacaf violent play? *hoping*
Gosh … the local Telemundo anchor sang a very country-western version of the anthem. Um … (I watch Univisión, but not usually local news …)
I’m sorry the upper tier didn’t seem completely filled (oder doch?), but I wasn’t able to get there. But the fans are making noise fairly well. (-:
Anyone who is at the game, go down to the TNT broadcast booth at halftime and tell Damarcus Beasley where he can get maté in Austin. (-: I don’t know the answer, but I would guess there’s bound to be someplace.
Telemundo showed 86° at kickoff. Hope the guys are all hydrated, but at least it isn’t humid.
U! S! A! (-:
We shall see how this goes. Looks like an interesting midfield.
At this point it might be safe to say Ream may be starting at the 2026 WC.
too sloppy. i didn’t want to be too negative immediately before the game but my initial reaction was those mids will be terriers on defense but crap possession. the creation is still coming from the wings because the mids struggle to keep the ball.
the passing tempo is better but we’re turning it over and over and over that way.
1-Matt Turner, 4-Mark McKenzie, 5-Antonee Robinson, 6-Yunus Musah, 7-Aidan Morris, 10-Christian Pulisic, 11-Brenden Aaronson, 13-Tim Ream (Capt.), 14-Gianluca Busio, 22-Joe Scally, 24-Josh Sargent
good, some churn front 2 lines
defense is default and vulnerable but it’s. a start
kind of a technical frontline meets a banger midfield
U20s up 3-0 at half in Chile. Cremanschi with the opener, Zambrano with a brace.
Nice
Lets go USA, I am ready for the Poch era!