Malik Tillman entered the June international window seeking to deliver on the international stage and the PSV attacker stole the show in San Jose for the U.S. men’s national team.
Tillman scored twice as Mauricio Pochettino’s squad earned a 5-0 victory over Trinidad & Tobago in their CONCACAF Gold Cup opener. The 23-year-old earned SBI USMNT Man of the Match honors, celebrating his best performance yet for his country.
Tillman opened the scoring in the 16th minute, receiving a cross from Jack McGlynn before slotting home his first senior goal. The midfielder was left open at the back post, making no mistake from close range.
Tillman’s second goal came in the 41st minute, this time with him tapping home Diego Luna’s pass into the back of the net. Luna’s pressure led to a T&T turnover before the Real Salt Lake attacker connected with Tillman on a breakaway.
Patrick Agyemang added a third goal for the USMNT, benefitting from his redirection of Diego Luna’s shot in the 44th minute.
Brenden Aaronson and Haji Wright both added goals off the bench to pad the USMNT’s victory at 5-0.
As for Tillman, he finished the match with four offensive chances created, four duels won, and a 91% passing completion rate.
Tillman edged Diego Luna, Jack McGlynn, and Max Arfsten for Man of the Match honors.
“I think he’s one of the most talented players that we have in the USA,” Mauricio Pochettino said about Tillman postmatch.
What did you think of Tillman’s performance? Are you hoping to see more of him in Pochettino’s starting lineup?
Share your thoughts below.
biggest difference in his play to me has been defensively, where he’s mixing it up, helping to win the ball further up the field, not waiting to get into the game until the ball is played to him, really asserting himself on that side of the ball, and it feeds into his confidence and feeling comfortable with his teammates on the field with those kinds of contributions, and boom
Hopefully this will boost his confidence. Still don’t think we have seen his best yet.
I don’t think so either. I’ve always thought he was one of the 2-3 most talented guys in our pool. Guy is just so incredibly smooth, and you don’t realize how fast he is and how insane his change of pace is until he hits the jets because he just sort of glides around, and he’s got elite touch and elite skill on the ball.
He’s apparently really, really shy and soft-spoken, and I wonder if he sort of got buried by some of the bigger egos in the locker room. Poch has had a lot of luck unlocking midfielders like that in the past; Harry Winks at Tottenham comes to mind.
His coaches at Bayern felt that ultimately his best position was striker. He has said that he models his game after Pogba.
It will be interesting to see where PSV ultimately use him.
He must have been responding to my disappointment in him that I wrote about after the loss to Turkey, so you can thank me, LOL.