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USMNT opens 2025 with victory over Venezuela

The U.S. men’s national team’s 2025 schedule began with a flying start.

Mauricio Pochettino’s squad earned a 3-1 friendly win over Venezuela in Fort Lauderdale. Jack McGlynn, Patrick Agyemang, and Matko Miljevic all scored their first senior goals while eight players total earned their USMNT debuts.

Despite the overall nature of the victory, the match got off to a rocky beginning for the hosts when Miljevic saw his shocking third-minute penalty easily saved.

The debutant midfielder defiantly grabbed the ball, seemingly denying an inquiring McGlynn the opportunity to try from the penalty spot. Miljevic’s incident raised eyebrows due to his past history of contract terminations by CF Montreal and Newell’s Old Boys for off-field behavior, but the 23-year-old would soon make his impact known.

Before that, McGlynn capitalized on mounting USMNT pressure in the 37th minute with a thunderbolt from distance off to snatch the lead. It marked McGlynn’s first goal in his second international appearance.

Next up was the debutant striker, Agyemang, who got his opportunity two minutes later. A ricochet off Miljevic played the Charlotte FC man into a foot race with his defender leading to a one-versus-one against Venezuelan goalkeeper Wuilker Garinez. Unfortunately for Garinez, that situation is Agyemang’s specialty which he proved once again by slotting the ball into the back of the net for his debut USMNT goal. The Agyemang hive is buzzing with growth.

In the second half, Miljevic responded to any doubters by capitalizing on his continually intelligent positioning to extend the USMNT lead in the 64th minute. Upon arrival at the top of the Venezuelan box on the counterattack, Miljevic delivered clinical control and poise for the 3-0 advantage before promptly being substituted.

Venezuela would continue the trend of first-time goalscorers themselves four minutes later. Debutant Jorge Yriarte took advantage of a lack of defensive concentration from the USMNT to erase the potential clean sheet with a smart header from a corner.

Second-half substitutes Emeka Eneli of Real Salt Lake and Indiana Vassilev St. Louis CITY SC’s would join starters Max Arfsten (Columbus Crew), George Cambell (CF Montreal), Caden Clark (CF Montreal), and Brian Gutierrez (Chicago Fire) among the eight USMNT debutants on the day. January camp has always been a time to search the depth of the player pool and Pochettino took advantage in his first friendly of the year.

The players rewarded their manager’s trust with three first-time goalscorers (two debutants) en route to a comfortable victory in the Florida afternoon sun. The team will hope to continue laying a strong foundation for the new year in Orlando on Wednesday night when they close out January camp against Costa Rica.

Comments

  1. I liked the way they played. A number of well played through balls created chances and put pressure on the Venezuelan defense. It looked to me like they played more positively than the US did under Berhalter, but I’ll leave that up to the stat experts to figure out if that is true.

    Reply
    • GB just generally didn’t seem to have thought through where the goals were going to come from. he would even use the word “vertical,” but Poch seems to have put more thought into, we’re gonna get behind defenses, or we’re gonna deliver groundball service from wide, or we’re gonna bomb some shots in top of the D. then pick at least some of the team well to execute.

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      • to give an example, we seem to hold the ball up earlier in the field, do our wall ball there, defense sucks up, then we can pass behind them. where before, we’d let the defense get back, try to create deeper downfield against a half court defense, then end up whacking lofted crosses in.

      • I haven’t listened to it yet but Ream was on the Scuffed pod this week. Apparently he had a quote about how prescribed all the actions were under Gregg. Saying under Poch he has his actions he wants but if you see something you just play and take what’s there instead of thinking about well I’m supposed to pass it somewhere else so I can’t make that play.

  2. Well Miljevic showed skeptics like myself why Poch took a chance on him with that strike. Agyemang reminds me of Dike, even down to his backstory. I don’t see anyone that’s ready to step into the starting eleven for March but we’re really looking her for guys that are number 20-30 when everyone is healthy. Poch hinted that just about all the field players will get starts so we should see rotation for the next match.

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    • Miljevic shows well for the ball
      It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him play but but Agyemang struck me as a little more of a nightmare then Daryl was. The problem for a defender facing big guys like Agyemang is their length.. If they are any good, getting the ball away from them is always painful.

      The question to ask of these guys is not whether they are better than whoever is above them in the pecking order.
      None of them are or will be ( at least before the World Cup).

      The question is if whoever is above them in the pecking order is not fit or healthy or has been suspended or arrested, can Cupcake guy, for however long they are needed, put in a competent replacement shift if they are called upon?

      I’ve watched almost all of the Cupcake After Party games and one thing you can say about this edition of the USMNT, they looked very organized and played quite freely.

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    • i think mcglynn and gutierrez offer stuff that would be more useful run of play with the A team against a better opponent. one can shoot and the other can dribble in tight spaces. both have holes in their game but you can use that specific strength. miljevic, to me, managed a goal out of several chances being fairly ball hoggy against a poor opponent. a bouncing ball that sits up just right for a volley is not something you can sub him onto the field to expect. and i thought he was just ok for all the aggression at this level game. i don’t see it transferring to bigtime opponents.

      to be fair, all better than luna.

      but to me the common sense check on this talk, is are they better than regulars. maybe some of the crap like LDLT. but better than aaronson or mckennie or reyna? heck no.

      even agyemang faces a long list of productive strikers including ferreira, who i like but just got sent to a team where he won’t be available for gold cup.

      i thought it was some of the backliners who helped themselves more, in practical terms, because their positions are more open to contest.

      Reply
      • Let’s be honest almost any of these guys looks good if you slot them into the first team against weaker opponents (Lleget, Arriola). Would they do well against Germany? Would they even look good against Venezuela’s A team? I’m interested to see Luna get a start it’s hard to come in in a friendly with 3-0 lead and coming in with four subs at once. Working with Eneli, Vassilev, and White didn’t leave him much to work with either. Eneli and Vassilev left a lot to be desired.

      • IV look up Miljevic Golazo on YouTube of him vs Lanus. I mean it’s clearly not something in his bag because he doesn’t have a ton of goals but he can strike a ball.

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