The U.S. men’s national team are in a free fall heading into the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Mauricio Pochettino’s squad suffered a 4-0 hammering at the hands of Switzerland on Tuesday night in Nashville, continuing a worrying run of form for the squad. The USMNT have now lost four matches in a row for the first time since 2007.
Dan Ndoye propelled Switzerland in front after 11 minutes, as the left winger curled a shot past Matt Turner. A deflected pass snuck between Nathan Harriel and Walker Zimmerman, allowing Ndoye to sneak behind the USMNT backline and score.
It marked the third international goal for the 24-year-old.
Switzerland kept its foot on the gas and eventually doubled its lead before the half hour mark. 19-year-old Johan Manzambi raced past left back Max Arfsten on the right wing before cutting a pass into the middle of the box for Michel Aebischer to slam home.
Things got worse for the USMNT in the 32nd minute as Breel Embolo extended the Swiss’ lead to 3-0. A long-range shot from Ricardo Rodriguez was parried by Turner but Embolo was in the right spot to tap home the rebound.
A Quinn Sullivan turnover eventually led to Switzerland’s fourth goal of the opening half. Manzambi picked up possession deep in the USMNT’s half before racing upfield and unleashing a left-footed shot into the top-left corner.
Turner got a hand to it, but didn’t have enough power to keep out the effort.
Pochettino made five halftime substitutions with the hopes of seeing improved fight from his team. Diego Luna, Malik Tillman, and Patrick Agyemang were among the introductions who showed some life in the second half.
Dual-national forward Damion Downs also made his long-awaited senior debut, playing the final 15 minutes of the match.
However, the USMNT would finish the night suffering their worst home shutout loss since 2016 (Argentina and Costa Rica both handed the USMNT 4-0 defeats that year).
There will be little time for Pochettino and his players to rest ahead of the start of the Gold Cup schedule. Rivals Trinidad & Tobago await on June 15 in the group stage opener for both nations before the USMNT also faces Saudi Arabia and Haiti over a seven-day period.
to me formation and tactics are the primary problem. you can put the As out there and we sputter through tournaments exiting early. you can put the A/Bs out there for these friendlies and we can barely create chances, and routinely give easy ones up to the opposition they work for much less than we do. and if you put the Cs out there, lord help you. a solid set of tactics should protect the team somewhat.
to me this should be 451 with twin 6s and a 10. we have not earned the right to be cute. counter soccer. fall back to the center circle. gang tackle anything that moves our side of the half. win the ball. feed the wings. ground pass to the striker on the break. technical 10 if we need to play half court.
and then this selection is just off. the CB choices are mostly perseveration except richards. the wingback choices were pitiful. not enough 6s. not enough wings. too many strikers. too many AM. when we badly need a 6 other than adams to lean on. when we need other wide options when the starters are hurt. the wing presence this unit is just crap because the wingbacks are no good and the wide attacking players are AMs or strikers playing pretend. normally if you give up something on defense you’ve set up an aggressive true wing approach of some benefit other end. we just have nothing doing wide at all.
and then full circle, the tactics don’t bail the team out on a hard day. you think counter soccer is caveman ball? this crap is not that pretty — we rarely go to goal or try much of anything — then we’re not defensively sound. but i guess i am to be glad this bs is “aesthetician approved.” who cares if this is some of the worst competitive efforts i have seen since the 80s.
that game reeked of contractual obligation. the first half he stuck his poorly chosen C team out there for tryout purposes and it sucked. i have seen games like this before eg venezuela a few years back. i do think if the “bench of the bench” sucks this bad as a unit you have tactical and selection issues.
the second half past a point we didn’t try very hard, like we were saving energy. there’s a play about 80′ where both wings are open and they both put their foot on the ball when they get it.
my concern is in the fed and popular imagination this game will be used to cutt off experiments when i just think this was all the wrong trialists, and this needs a shot of something, eg, reyna, campbell, some fresh 6s, a functioning defense, some new keeper options, maybe koleosho and some other dual nationals. we should be shopping more based on sustained failure and will instead a la bruce arena start going in narrower circles among already frustrating known choices.
that’s how you get 2017 is you can’t think of any LB but villafana and your idea of CB tinkering is rotating cameron omar besler as each one annoys you.
we are in the odd position of constantly reaching for a security blanket that got shredded two tournaments straight. weird.
i would have done something like
celentano frei kochen
blackmon banks EPB trusty moore tolkin fossey brown
luna green ferreira mcglynn tessmann eneli dietz sands
yow ledezma koleosho aaronson
downs vazquez agyemang
that team would whoop this team’s butt. that team is not a bunch of age group kids.
you can make fun of “fresh faces” but there are people we have we’re just not using, who have played well this level. and then some specific kids and dual nationals. i’d also like to see campbell and reyna.
IMO you drop the stupid tactics. couple of these guys break the lineup. some lineup guys get dropped. more competition for the bench. this has become very “2018 cycle,” very stuck on a set of guys, tendency to rotate among them when frustrated as opposed to seek anything else out.
I think first we need to understand the assignment. Switzerland. A solid European team. Their spine in this game was excellent – Kobel, Akanji, Xhaka, Mbolo. All major pieces of Champions League teams. The rest of the squad are Europa league players at minimum. The only experiment was Manzambi who was the breakthrough player at SC Freiburg this season who nearly propelled them into the CL for their first time ever. The subs for Switzerland were no less impressive on paper.
I’ve always used Switzerland’s roster level as the response to the delusional USMNT fan expecting semifinals or more at Qatar or the coming World Cup. The US usual roster and the Swiss roster – on paper – seem about equal. I was stoked to see this friendly scheduled. It would be a great measure where the team stood.
Alas we got Camp Cupcake II. (Actual Camp Cupcake can barely handle the b/c squads they face). Not only that but we got treated to an incredibly weak and experimental line up from the thread bare camp against what is likely to be the stiffest test (due to availability) before the next world cup – in a game that would test the the regulars to their limits…
Of course this team got throttled! It was like playing a near the top of the table team versus a third division team. What in the world was Pochettino thinking with that line up given what he was facing? What in the world was he thinking with those tactics given what he was facing?
This was feeding meat to sharks. He alone is to blame for this embarrassment of an exhibition. To expect more from these players versus that team is an exercise is willful ignorance or a Trump sized ego.
Ok, so the positive? Two things. We finally got to see three CBs. Also, this Cupcake team held this Swiss team to 4 goals. The same as a Mexico team that had a good amount of their regulars. So if we still care about that rivalry – which I’m not sure if we do – maybe we can still measure up? Not much of a positive is it?
Takeaways for me:
Johnny – take a seats next to Sargent. He should have been a leveler. Instead he was invisible.
Luna – needs to be an inked in member of any camp
Tolkien – needs more looks. He has Clint Dempsey swagger at LB. Love it.
Freeman – is way better than Harriel. The way he handled Yildiz v how Harriel was a pylon dealing with Ndoye was stark. Yildiz > Ndoye = Freeman > Harriel.
US Soccer – crapping the bed in the lead up one year from a home WC in all areas – promotion (send off series??), ticket cost (scrambling to offer discount “day of” pricing), team prep (camp cupcake – the sequal), messaging (this gets rest, that guy doesn’t, this guy has a niggles, that guy can play, the GC matters bit this is the squad)…. Although scheduling these two teams for friendlies was great…execution receives a F-
The team is mirroring our country at large. Literally out of control on fire (it’s left the dumpster folks and is loose on the streets)
LA is on fire not the country. Don’t mistake LA or California for the country.
2tone as always love your optimism, but … most of the rest of the country is an ethanol fire you’ve got to be in the right light conditions to see it. In LA people just throwing old tires on top of that ethanol fire so everyone can see it.
do you really think this almost neverending scheduling of top opponents does us any good? we haven’t won a good team friendly in ages. it only tends to expose problem areas, which we don’t fix. if scheduling brazil made us better then copa doesn’t happen last summer.
the historical US scheduling model was premised on this being a much better team than now, well organized, who had a chance at winning. that level team deserves a test. this is a mess. we need to take this quietly off in a corner and tinker. you can’t work on subtlety or try new players if you’re just trying to survive colombia or the swiss without embarrassing yourself even worse.
and it will get no better in the fall — japan and south korea.
it’s schizophrenic. the results are crap but we schedule like a top team.
For those who don’t know LA or California, and that seems to be those who have commented on this subject, The County of LA has 10 million, with many suburbs being closer to downtown LA than outer reaches of the city are. The area of the protest rarely has a lot of people visiting and hardly anyone lives nearby. The 3 adjoining counties next to LA County have a population of about 8 million. Protestors could have come from any of the 3 adjoining counties. The total population of the 3 counties and LA county is more than all but 3 other states. The protests have taken up maybe 4 or, at most, 8 square blocks. The city of LA has an area of 502 square miles, by way of comparison. After 5 days, a total of 450 people have been arrested, mostly for failure to disperse. Compared to the size of the area and the population of the area, this event is a pinprick. The area is close to New York state in population. Do you think the state of New York has 450 people arrested over a weekend plus 2 days? Don’t be fooled by the propaganda.
Tolken reminded me a bit of Hejduk in his competitive play. That play was instrumental in getting the US into the 2010 WC finals, I can’t remember the opponent, but Frankie created a goal out of a game the US otherwise would have lost.
Tolken reminded me a bit of Hejduk in his competitive play. That play was instrumental in getting the US into the 2010 WC finals, I can’t remember the opponent, but Frankie created a goal out of a game the US otherwise would have lost.
excellent post, except one disagreement: considering the what Poch did, how can anyone evaluate players? he set them up to fail.
i think my transitive property theory of soccer works fine on this one. we lost to mexico 0-2 last fall. 2 goal margin. mexico lost to the swiss 2-4. 2 goal margin. combine the two, 4-0.
people are forgetting, however, that we played the swiss last cycle and the result was much more contested, 1-2. we had a lead. it was more the dynamic of the turkey game.
you can do that analysis with any number of regional opponents as well. we’d gotten where we’d crush panama. they own the recent series. we’d started beating mexico. ditto. we’d started beating canada. ditto.
we used to whoop TnT and jamaica. those are now close.
this is regressing. period.
the scheme choice, an anvil dragging behind this team constantly, does not help, and is off the table as a change.
and either poch is lazy or taking analytics department advice or cannot scout but this team was horribly selected.
first off, mexico beat turkey 1-0. i think people are finessing how much of this is simply how bad a team he picked. the teams we are applauding should not be that much better than us. on paper turkey should have been about a tie.
second, the swiss, while slightly better, just got relegated from League A UEFA NL in a group with the spanish, serbs, and denmark. we were able to play them 2-1 a cycle ago. we are eroding backwards.
if you look at the swiss results, they ship goals about every game. mexico 2, luxembourg 1, northern ireland 1, spain 3, spain 4, serbia 1, serbia 2, denmark 2, denmark 2. we are the first team they have shut out in a year. some of the teams that scored on the swiss are fairly rubbish. mexico scored on them. we made their sieve look solid. this should cause more concern.
and then like i said, setting this window aside, our competitiveness with about every regional rival has eroded from a peak c. 2020-21. this would be a marginal qualification odds team — like 2017 — if it had to qualify for 3 hex spots like it used to.
Didn’t ANYONE on the US coaching staff get the memo…..LOL??? Mexico, the best team in CONCACAF, got RUN OVER, again and again. by Switzerland…..playing close to full strength, with Raúl Jiménez, Santiago Giménez, César Huerta etc……that are currently playing better than our A+ Team…..and Poch starts Quinn Sullivan, Brian White, Sebastian Berhalter and the AARONSON BROTHERS in a regular 4-2-3-1 ???? Haha, Like WHAT???? The lack of quality was CLEARLY evident and really painful to watch. That starting line-up couldn’t even press or pressure the Swiss back line……Bbbbruuh
I guess that upside is now we all know that some players just do not have what it takes at the elite level. Maybe this is Poch’s idea of “separating the rice from the chaff”
Talk about an butt whooping from hell……Lol, somebody please go do a wellness check on our boys
Hmmmm …..I wonder if US coaching staff though lets double up on AARONSONS to INCREASE the pressure and persistence on the field…..Hahaha
Bizzy you got me freaking cracking up needed that laugh, with the depressing loss.
I turned the game off after the 3rd goal. Wow, I could have coached the team to defeats like that and I would have done it for only a million $$….what a joke. Having been a fan and watching the US since the mid-80s – yes, from the last Century – it is abundantly clear that for whatever reason, and with few exceptions, we do not produce players with high soccer IQs.
2tone,
“Still to see legit players that will definitely push the starters.”
Has it occurred to you that you may have to wait quite a while, probably until after the World Cup is over?
” Luna potentially, but if Reyna gets back to his best this up coming season he is still better than Luna.”
If Diego was everything all his groupies on SBI said he was then they shouldn’t be missing CP at all should they?
If Gio “gets back to his best” ?
We have all been saying that for a few years now BVB just signed Jobe Bellingham and he is playing in the CWC. Guess who could lose playing time because of that ?
And even if those two turn out to be legit you still need legit keepers, defenders and midfielders. You have a lot more faith in Reynolds and Fossey than their performance so far has earned.
Still to see legit players that will definitely push the starters. Luna potentially, but if Reyna gets back to his best this up coming season he is still better than Luna. Still lack quality wing options behind Pulisic and Weah. Depth at RB and LB is a bit laughable eventhough I do think Tolkin has a lot of tools. CM Musah, Mckennie are still a cut above. If I’m selecting between Cardoso or Tessman to be Adams back up 6 I am choosing Tessman. Strikers are still Pepi and Balo and everyone else. GK I want to see more of Freese. If I’m Cole Campbell, Noakhai Banks, hell even Mathis Albert this next season I am doing everything I can to push at the club level. Hell Zavier Gozo RW has a shot if he continues to perform at RSL. Looking forward to seeing Kevin Paredes healthy again too.
2tone,
“Still to see legit players that will definitely push the starters.”
Has it occurred to you that you may have to wait quite a while, probably until after the World Cup is over?
” Luna potentially, but if Reyna gets back to his best this up coming season he is still better than Luna.”
If Diego was everything all his groupies on SBI said he was then they shouldn’t be missing CP at all should they?
If Gio “gets back to his best” ?
We have all been saying that for a few years now BVB just signed Jobe Bellingham and he is playing in the CWC. Guess who could lose playing time because of that ?
And even if those two turn out to be legit you still need legit keepers, defenders and midfielders. You have a lot more faith in Reynolds and Fossey than their performance so far has earned.
I miss Dest and Jedi. Those two make this team much more dangerous. Quite frankly Bryan Reynolds and Marlon Fossey are much better than Harriel. The fact thise two weren’t called in is a gross mistake.
Clearly Tolkin is better than Arfsten.
I assume I’m not the only one here who has followed the USMNT since 19090. This first half might be the worst defensive performance I have ever seen from our national team. The Swiss had players open all the time and there were gaping holes in our defense. Our team seems to be getting worse by the game. Underachieving, too often lacking intensity and,maybe worst of all, they often seem disorganized, especially on defense. One has to wonder about the coaching, or lack of coaching.
Ive been a fan since 98 world cup and yes this was pathetic. But it looked like a team that hadnt played together before and largely that group of players hadnt. Making 9 changes was so naive of Poch. Maybe if we had won against Turkey or had better vibes coming in you can afford to try so many new players out against a too team like the Swiss but this was not the moment nor the team to make drastic changes. Poch at this point if he didnt have a big name would be lambasted as one of the worst US coaches weve had
if you go back and watch 1980s US soccer it was almost naively offensive. it was as the 90s arrived we landed on playing defend/counter. that turned this from a team just getting qualified into a potential knockout team. the counter approach allowed us to negate opposing team strengths then counterpunch. that peaked 2002 and 2010. the skill level actually improved and the ball stayed more and more on the ground, but the stereotype is negative kickball.
the aesthetes didn’t like “negative” soccer of that era, and set to dismantling it. klinsi tried to make this a passing team but abandoned it right before 2014 brazil due to meh results. back to the knockouts. GB brought “cute” in, and the post 2018 teams have been flattered by the talent level. we had a brief blip as we incorporated the stellar 2019 U20 class. we are now for odd political reasons trying to yank reyna out. talent was flattering the tactics. you start taking talent back out and this is a rubbish concept team.
we no longer negate opposing team strengths with our tactics, so you are seeing some absolute whoopings. holland, colombia, swiss, england, etc. and the offense is good for a goal on a normal night, maybe 2. we’re basically playing keepaway BEFORE WE HAVE THE LEAD.
it’s keeping away wins nicely.
we need to sit down and come up with tactics that stop teams like last night, and then an attacking approach where we can get a couple, three goals if it works right. something besides have 9s picked for throughballs getting aerial crosses hit to them by wings who aren’t that good at crossing.
what will blow peoples’ minds in the future is how long we perseverated down this tactical road. GB1, GB2, the caretakers, poch. we are literally on, what, year 8? 9? of trying this crap.
the fed should not be ordering tactics or picking teams.
With our recent run of form and what seems to be a clear lack of cohesion, can US soccer afford not to?
US soccer can’t afford to fire and hire another coach. Unless Bruce Arena does it for free.
You forgot Bob Bradley… if shit goes seriously sideways we may very well see a former USMNT coach or player installed. That would be par for the course. Crocker couldn’t get a cockroach to take over this mess.
Absolutely the worst half I’ve ever seen in my 30+ years of following the US men’s national team hot garbage like many here. I turned off after the third goal and didn’t even bother that it tune back in.
Glove69,
“You forgot Bob Bradley”
Based on everything I’ve seen or read, Bob and the USSF get along about as well as Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni.
Maybe Dolo but more likely Jason Kries, the “other” JK.
Well safe to say that wasn’t good. US Soccer needs to know that the continued failure of tye men’s program at all levels is not acceptable anymore. MLS may be trying to put better youth programs together now, but its still not good enough. Quite frankly I see a regression in aggressiveness, athleticism, and heart in this generation.
Maybe just maybe their are some younger players out there that see this and sparks a drive in them. If I’m 17 to 20 year old I am pushing this next year at club level because its plain to see that there are spots up for grabs for the 2026 WC team.
The problem was those triggers. If you don’t press as a unit you create gaping holes everywhere and I’d have to take a look at the film – not that I really want to because Oh God My Eyes – and see who was breaking but it seemed to be pretty much everybody up top. But that was as cartoonishly bad a press as I’ve ever seen from a US side.
I was left scratching my head, for sure. Given that the team executed a lot better the other day I’m somewhat mystified. Certain guys definitely appeared to Not Be Getting It, for sure. I actually had Quinn Sullivan as one of the worst offenders but for whatever reason Poch left him on.
The defense wasn’t squeezing up that’s why which left a massive gap everytime.
Yeah, way too much space between the lines. There was no cohesion whatsoever. But there was also no coordination between the guys who SHOULD have been pressing…you’d see somebody press, and then somebody on the other side would just sort of la-dee-da jog in slow motion, and then the Swiss would switch the field to a wide-open guy and the break was on. I was…unimpressed. I’d have lit up one of my high school teams for that shit.
My takeaway the other day was: you know, there’s not any appreciable difference anymore between MLS players and Euro-league guys. That Turkish team was loaded with guys 8 of the 11 starters, in fact – who were either players on teams that have been in the Champions League the last couple years, and another guy was in Saudi who used to be. Other than two really bad minutes, I thought we were better.
Then along came today. Like, wow, man. Now I’m back thinking MLS is a Sunday League, though even the European players out there today absolutely stunk. Safe to assume that except for a handful of defenders none of the starters today seems, uhm, at all likely to make the 26 for the World Cup.
i thought it was far more simple than that. the wings were wide open. he picked AM types as faux wings (think mcglynn) who want to tuck in. so there is no high coverage wide. he then picked wingbacks who couldn’t mark their grandmother. so you can just truck it down the wings, flank them, square it back. and then the second game exposed the CBs aren’t all that hot either.
That’s a great point Q, if you can’t press together then just don’t do it.
hey Bac, below is what I posted in the Musah thread at halftime
the problem right now is the lack of pressure from the front line and midfield. every Swiss player has 10 yards and all day to make a play. a high schooler could play a beautiful ball like the Swiss have been over and over again with all the time and space afforded to them. the lack of just basic hustle and intensity in the simplest stuff–pressure cover balance–is revealing; this group doesn’t know what everyone is doing, they do not defend as a unit; if one guy goes, all must go, basic stuff, and we are not doing even that in our pressure
I was thinking the same thing! You’d see one USA player press and others just standing there and only press after the ball was passed to a wide open Swiss player. They were chasing shadows all game. Absolutely amateur hour. That defense was beyond nonexistent. It was everything you’re not supposed to do. It’s going to be a long summer for USA soccer and probably beyond.
“I actually had Quinn Sullivan as one of the worst offenders but for whatever reason Poch left him on.”
Because you want to be sure he’s as bad as he looks.
The game was lost. What you want from Sullivan is to see if he has any balls. Does he have the self respect to suck it up and finish strong?
It looks like he doesn’t. That’s one more “fresh face” we don’t have to worry about. He’s not ready for this level at this time.
Next.
that and if you can’t press right maybe those shouldn’t be the tactics. i have seen near zero value to the whole tactical suite besides the assymetry shifting (AM-RF, LB to LM) we only try if jedi is available. without jedi it’s berhalter ball.
even on a good day — wales first half — we proved and reproved we aren’t fit enough to keep that up for 90′. if you can’t do it first choice on a good day why are those the tactics, ever? everyone else in our group beat wales. england clobbered iran. the thing is an anvil dragging behind us.
we have turned into derivative followers of fashion as opposed to a team — like, say, panama — that sits down and thinks how it’s going to beat an opponent each game. which is what this used to be. because we did our own thing.
and the irony is a team clobbered by switzerland 4-0 isn’t being allowed in the European Membership Club any sooner than bradley in 2010, who had the results but was bemoaned as not pretty enough. those complaints at least reeked of jealousy or frustration at our success. i prefer that to probably being mocked on the plane as uncompetitive and second rate.
results over aesthetics.
If Poch can’t get out of the group in the Gold Cup does he get fired? I know this isn’t our A team. But Gregg won the 2021 Gold Cup with a B team.
No he doesn’t. US soccer can’t afford it.
how much does a coach for roughly one year possibly cost? i get we’d have to pay 2 coaches but we’re down to about a year to the world cup, so the added expense wouldn’t actually be that long.
i wouldn’t be surprised if they did something right before the world cup if this continues to suck. but that would be backwards. you want real change you do it now. and we want real change. you do it in march next year and the coach can’t do much more than mess some with tactics and take a couple selection flyers.
but anyhow, point is, poch was hired for 2 years and has just 1 left. so any overlap is not like a full cycle. it’s, say, july to june.
if we don’t do it it’s because this whole system is scared of its shadow and stuck on the status quo. they want to believe we can’t possibly do better than the choices being made now. the results should question that. eg setting aside how panama briefly looked, this looks just like GB and worse results actually.
meanwhile canada beat ukraine and tied ivory coast. with marsch as coach.
If the USMNT and Pocjh can’t get out of the group in the Gold Cup, he should definitely get fired, but he won’t.
dit,
Okay we get grouped in the Gold Cup .
Pochettino gets fired..
Now what?
Our A team is a bunch of lazy worthless unpatriotic good for nothings.
Our B and C teams ( today’s lineup), IV’s “fresh faces” suck and even if they didn’t they clearly haven’t had enough practice time to learn how to work with each other when executing a basic press.
This team with 5 “fresh faces” has never played a game together and they get to face a Switzerland that just pushed Mexico around.
What did you think was going to happen?
Tell me who your Pochettino replacement miracle worker is and what you think they are going to do with this useless player pool?
Bring in a bunch of “fresh faces”? Yeah that ought to work.
Think of the bright side . We got to see the Medford Messis play together.
And we got to see Gregg’s kid wear the shirt. Yay for family values. All we need now are CP’s and Gio’s parents in the stands.
these are not the people i would pick. liar.
IV,
“these are not the people i would pick. liar.”
Who then ?
Ask the Oligarch who hired him. Only he knows.
As far as I can tell, Pochettino was hired because Emma Hayes had such a spectacular debut.
No one will ever admit it but it looks like it was an attempt to match that hiring.
I’m sure at the time it probably helped convince sponsors who were on the fence that the World Cup would be a great event.
World Cup 2026 looks a lot shakier right now what with foreigners afraid to come to the US and the team not looking so hot. Unless you can guarantee that his replacement can do a whole lot better, a panic move like firing Pochettino would just make things worse.
On the other hand, I can see Pochettino resigning.