The U.S. men’s national team’s first match after the CONCACAF Gold Cup ended in losing fashion.
South Korea defeated the Americans 2-0 at Sports Illustrated Arena on Saturday afternoon thanks to first-half goals from Son Heung-Min and Dong-Gyeong Lee.
It marked the Americans’ second-straight loss and their sixth against a Top-25 nation in the past eight attempts.
Son broke the deadlock in the 19th minute after being brilliantly down the left flank by Jae-Sung Lee. The former Tottenham forward celebrated his 52nd international goal, coming back to haunt his former boss Mauricio Pochettino.
Gyeong Lee would double South Korea’s lead before halftime after a nice 1-2 from Son and Sung Lee led to Geyong tapping home. Son pushed a pass past Matt Freese but watched as Gyeong finished off the play for a 2-0 lead.
The USMNT created several scoring opportunities late in the match but South Korea goalkeeper Hyeon-Woo Jo was up to the task. Jo denied Chris Richards’ effort in the 73rd minute before also repelling fellow substitute Folarin Balogun twice in stoppage time.
Jo also received help from his crossbar as the 33-year-old held on for the shutout.
The loss marked the USMNT’s sixth home loss of 2025, making only the fourth time in which the program has lost six home matches or more in a single year.
Pochettino’s squad will close out their September schedule on Sept. 10 in Columbus, Ohio against Japan.
Quozzel,
There’s a good chance, an excellent chance actually, that there isn’t one more CB out there.
fatalism posing as analysis. if you want to be sure, you trial your options, then you “know” you are fielding the best you can manage. we just “assume” most of the time. i do not understand “assuming” we are sure when we’re not even winning. this is not arena goes on an undefeated run then blows it at the end in 2017. this is we flat suck.
based on results and GA any sane coach would be auditioning backline players to accompany richards. not ream. and to be fair blackmon just blew his audition. only a dumb team with only one functioning CB would end auditions because a candidate flubbed their lines.
one of the reasons i keep beefing about the halfhearted experiments is we need to run more head count through the team quickly. again all we figured out yesterday is richards can do his job. his presence, while letting poch argue this isn’t a total mess he’s created, makes it harder to find his pair.
IV,
That’s a load of bullshit
Zimmerman, MRobinson, McKenzie, Blackmon, Carter-Vickers, Trusty, GCampbell and Banks have all gotten time with Poch. All have played match minutes for him except Banks who injured his foot Friday so he didn’t dress. That leaves EPB as the only slightly reasonable guy missing, which isn’t surprising since he didn’t play for 15 months.
IV,
Name the CB saviour? Save everyone the agony of having to search for him.
Fairly soon, Pochettino is going to start shutting down the auditions and focus more intensely on drilling the team and installing whatever schemes they plan on installing. It’s not a particularly outstanding bunch but shutting down auditions and focusing on schemes, formations and rules of engagement should sharpen up the players and increase the speed and quickness of the ball movement and their overall play.
Is Trusty good enough to be in the mix? I haven’t seen him play but a couple of times, and unless Miles regains his pre-injury form (which probably isn’t ever gonna happen) I think we’re gonna be with Ream & Richards.
When Poch was hired, the US was in need of a back line that could defend together.
It still does.
no doubt, see my reply to q just below. your thoughts on it Dennis?
Dennis,
That’s been true since 2017.
i thought it was like watching berhalter (poppa) and conrad in march 2006 trying to play a high line on germany, on the way to losing 4-1. as a defender i believe in having athletes back there and always wanted an athletic pair.
i thought we had 2 slow stick figures back there, a poorly chosen pair, desperate for the offsides trap to work, and physically unable to mop up each other’s errors.
like, i gave up one goal on offsides trap my whole college career and with foot speed i got back to the guy and put him down for a PK rather than a goal outright.
more broadly, i thought we had a slow @$$ 9 starter and a slow pair of CBs and none were worth a crap. they are all supposed to be skilled guys but nothing came of that. you put on richards and balogun and it magically fixes itself and we’re peppering their keeper for a change.
what does this tell you. this is not exactly a SAT difficulty question.
so is Poch setting the bar for intensity? if that’s the belief, why is that needed in the first place?
he’s either doing that because it’s needed, or that’s not what he’s doing because it’s not needed.
either way it sucks but I think intensity…meaning in one’s preparations, a focus and desire and a willingness to suffer for the result…can’t fake that stuff on game day.
just watch CP’s game and intensity yesterday and if you think that eqauates to the teams before Klinsmann ruined our locker room from within, we disagree 100%. our locker room had a brief spell of having that same love for each other under GB in his first term, that’s it. maybe Poch’s way will work, we’ll see, but not yet
the whole clamour for all of this supposed high level comp for all positions all the time to carve out the best of the best…still a pile of BS for us until proven otherwise. we need cohesion, a central core that works together as a team, not a bunch of so called all star lineups or constantly changing personnel…especially not when Poch is always rolling out different ideas game to game for these guys to execute. this is my strong opinion.
even if we do get our supposed A team together, how much time together will they have? maybe it’ll be enough and ok.
we’ll see I guess, hope I’m wrong
I’m not going to try and analyze Pochettino but the irony of the situation is the last players added to the roster (Balogun, Zendejas and Roldan) AND MOST OF THE MLS PLAYERS ON THE TEAM (Luna, Freeman, Berhalter) ended up being the highest rated players (by ESPN, Pro soccer wire, Goal.com, NBC Sports) in that game for the USMNT.
It always seems, from a fans point of view, that we do not know what we are doing in terms of correctly analyzing the capabilities and limitation of our entire player pool, correct player selection and proper player assessment.
An example of correct player selection – Look at the leagues they play in but somehow shut us down and beat us 2 – 0
Lee Jae-sung – plays for Mainz 05 – Bundesliga
Paik Seung-ho – plays for EFL club Birmingham City
Kim Jin-Kyu – Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors – K league 1
Lee Dong-gyeong – Gimcheon Sangmu – K League 1
Lee Tae-seok – FK Austria Wien – Austrian Bundesliga
Kim Ju-sung – Sanfrecce Hiroshima – J1 League
Kim Min-jae – Bayern Munich – Bundesliga
Lee Han-beom – Midtjylland – Danish Superliga club
Seol Young-woo – Red Star Belgrade – Serbian SuperLiga club
You look at the Korean line-up and WHERE THEY PLAY and it makes you wonder….like WTF lol. After the display by Freeman, Roldan, Berhalter and Zendejas and looking at the leagues of the Korean players…….it begs to ask the question is it about the Quality of the League or THE RIGHT PLAYERS FROM CERTAIN LEAGUE
I guess somehow we just need to trust the process
If you plan to play a 4 back in a WC you need excellent center backs we only have one.
The more expansive soccer you play the more you expose weak links
Our weak link is at CB and has been for quite some time
No chance that way
I really like Chris Richardson and despite the incessant “he’s old!” knock on Ream (and let’s not forget he’s not real big either), when he’s got an athletic partner those knocks don’t matter as much because he’s got cover, and he reads the game extraordinarily well and his passing out of the back and cleanliness on the ball are really good. I’d be fine with those as a starting duo, the problem is, guys get hurt and Ream will be 39 when the World Cup is here; any plan that involves relying upon him every minute the entire tournament has some problems right from the jump. Right now the dropoff between those two and everyone else is steep and it was glaring yesterday.
We desperately need to find at least one more to have any chance of making a deep run into the tournament and so far we haven’t.
so q, McKenzie, CCV, who is it? If what you say is accurate, and I think it is, then whoever the third is needs all the minutes in the buildup here, right? Ream doesn’t. he is literally plug and play, a true luxury on this team that gets dow jones from way too many.
seems to me that whoever it is needs to play and make mistakes while it doesn’t matter yet, get more comfy and confidant with the group knowing he’s the guy. maybe that’s coming, idk, we’ll see
your thoughts on it please?
Beachbum-
We’ll see how smart I am but I’d bet Chris Richards starts this game and most likely Noahki Banks starts alongside him if Poch sticks to usual form. I’d definitely expect Ream on the bench. I could also see Poch starting Blackmon again and getting Banks some minutes late but I think there’s a strong chance Banks starts.
Banks injured his foot Thursday or Friday and had an MRI. He’s still hoping to play Tuesday but I’ll be surprised if he starts.
thank you for your thoughts and we’ll see, but sounds right to me
thanks for the update JR, man you are on it
Here’s a novel idea: PLAY ONLY EUROPEAN-BASED PLAYERS. Same conversation that was on this board years ago same thing. You don’t need to experiment put your best players out there and shut up
Aside from the obvious- no qualifying = reduced urgency…
Aside from the obvious part 2 – there’s been such a lack of cohesion for so long…
Aside from the obvious part 3- coach is still experimenting to narrow the pool..
There seems to be a glaring problem:
For this team to have a chance at success we literally cannot get ONE position wrong. I know this is true with most teams, somewhere there’s a weak spot, a weak link in the chain, but the trickle down effect of just ONE guy not doing his job is devastating to this group. Not enough time together, inefficient movement off the ball, switching off for one second,
Adams made himself indispensable breaking up plays for a few years (that’s just one example from this current crew)
Another example is who are our subs on the wings?
If Tillman/Luna/Gio are the # 10s (I ain’t giving up on Gio) we really don’t have much if/when CP or Weah isn’t on the field.
Yes, the last 20 minutes was better, but was it good? It looked more like a freestyle approach with SK packing it in, but do we have to change formations when Weah goes out? Even if it were a different crew…
No way this group can play a 3 man backline, we don’t have the horses. Only way to do it to sacrifice either Jedi or Dest, I don’t see it being productive.
Poch has gotta figure out who’s next to Richards or we’re totally effed.
This must be the last experimental window Mr. Coach …
I’m gonna have to start drinking heavily again
Bac,
You’re saying we have no depth?
In an ideal world if this team had Jedi, Jonny, Weston, Pepi and , okay, Gio and maybe Malik, fit and in good form, suddenly things look a bit different don’t you think?
V: I think the issue is no one trusts that Poch sees it that way. I mean we all think it’s obvious. Even with Berhalter like he would bring Arriola, Roldan, Morris, and Acosta to every camp but they wouldn’t start or they’d rotate in one of three games. But Poch left healthy Weston, Johnny, and even Tessmann at home so now we don’t trust anything.
JR,
“V: I think the issue is no one trusts that Poch sees it that way.”
You only think that because it’s true.
I trust Pochettino to do what he sees as in being in his best interests. Typically that is good for the team
However, that probably is not in alignment with what many fans would do were they in charge. Everyone is setting their hair on fire over the six game losing streak. Well once the World Cup starts, if they do well no one is going to remember that.
Pochettino will do what he sees as the best thing for the team, However, English is not his first language and where he is from most managers are not overly concerned with transparency to the demanding fan base. And they have access to quite a bit more information than we would. So we’re left with an incommunicado manager and the rumor mill.
I think he might well be thinking about leaving behind Weston, Weah, Gio, Tyler, Turner, Dest and possibly Scally.
“But Poch left healthy Weston”
+ I obviously don’t know but Weston looks like he’s got all kinds of issues going on with the Juve management, . My guess is Pochettino left Weston there to get things sorted. Plus he has had some injuries and has not been playing regularly. Maybe he’s being Gio-ed. And of course, a lot of the new flavors of the minute, like Seba for example, are trying to take Weston’s job. When he’s on it, Weston is irreplaceable. But when he is not…..
+ Jonny has started all three league games for Simeone. Reports are that he is doing okay. DePaul is gone so they seem to have cleared the decks. Jonny is trying to nail down his place in what is arguably the best team that any American anywhere is playing for. I assume that Pochettino and Simeone communicate well. I think he won’t bring Jonny in until he’s established himself in Madrid.
* I don’t know about Tessman but if Tyler keeps playing this way, they will have to bring Tessman in. For now I assume Tanner is in the “we know what we have” category.
“we don’t trust anything.”
Again , that is only because there is no reason to trust these people.
They are interested in promoting and expanding the game mostly through MLS. My belief is that Pochettino and his people report directly to whoever the big money oligarch is who came up with the 6 million.
The single most significant difference between Maurico and every other USMNT manager is he took Cupcake seriously. No one else ever has. And now look where we are today. JK played plenty of MLS guys. He took 10 MLS players to the 2014 World Cup. And MLS has improved quite a bit in the intervening ten, eleven years. And I know Max can’t play left back but he seems better at it every time I see him. Plus he’s young, reasonably quick and can run forever when he tracks back. If he does make the WC roster he will be Pochettino’s Jony Bornstein.
Pochettino may be pushing the oligarch’s agenda with MLS or he may come to his admiration of MLS honestly but I remain cynical.
Nevertheless, I agree with the idea of the intangibles sometimes being more vital than just sheer talent.
It’s just that our sheer talent, isn’t all that compared to what’s coming our way next summer.
V, yes things would be better with the aforementioned guys,
Better yes, good? Not sure.
I know what I’m trying to say but putting it into words may not come out right. I mean there’s enough quality players to be better, but we have no margin for error.
I’d say we don’t have depth at each position, my winger example above is one, ie: (if Weston goes out we have Musah), but most importantly I think we have one CB on this squad and we can’t afford to miss
Bac,
“I know what I’m trying to say but putting it into words may not come out right. I mean there’s enough quality players to be better, but we have no margin for error.”
Unless it has to do with CONCACAF we usually do not have a margin of error. This edition of the USMNT is usually a paper bully. Beat up on weaklings and fold when faced with anyone halfway competent. This is not a good team. Actually they aren’t really a team yet. Tryouts are still ongoing.
The USMNT is and has been for a long time a Tier 2 team.
Tier 1= Argentina, Spain, , France, …..all the big boys and we all know who they are. These teams are consistently ranked as contenders for the title in any competition they are in.
Tier 2 = These are teams that, if the cycle has been kind to them in terms of player development, if the draw is right, if they have a decent manager, if the players are all in good form and are fit and healthy and if they are a bit lucky, they can beat any other team on a given day.
Sometimes an underdog team gets into a zone and then goes and tears off a bunch of games in the playoffs, In the NHL for example, this is often ignited by an outstanding individual performance such a keeper “standing on his head” for a game or two. For example, the USMNT always used to be, at minimum, completely comfortable with the keeper situation. Well, there’s no reason to worry about that today; if our keeper pool were a movie they would be a one degree above a JLo movie. The inspiration will have to come from somewhere else.
Having a good run in the World Cup , besides depending on the quality of your team, also relies on having a good draw, good luck with injuries, yours and your opponent’s, and just having good luck in general. In 2002 we were lucky that South Korea, needing only a draw vs Portugal for both teams to advance, instead went all out and beat them 1-0 knocking them out and advancing the USMNT.
For me there are three aspects about a team that have to be functioning well. Unless all three are doing well there is no success. That is non-negotiable.
The three are: Owner ( in this case the USSF) , manager , players
The USSF have been incompetent dickheads since Couva. They’ve spent most of the time since pissing on their shoes. However, this last slate of friendlies has shown a glimmer of competence. And after that it’s up to the manager and the players.
Pochettino has been a slight positive. He’s still setting up his preferred player pool, and his rules of engagement, so to speak. It’s not his fault that the fucking USSF fucked around with Gregg so long and left Pochettino with little to no margin of error in terms of un-poisoning the player pool’s golf club culture. Hopefully in the next game or two Pochettino will actually start to manage the players and the games. I haven’t seen that much of that yet. I expect him to simplify the games for a technically unsophisticated group.
Once that happens you can expect the players to be sharper and a lot less tentative. Generally, that tends to increase the speed of play. Hopefully the lightbulb will go off in their little heads. Do we have the talent necessary?
We have the talent we have. On paper they should be adequate. And it will have to do. To some extent this is a game of bait and switch.
The general non soccer American sports fans will be genuinely interested and show up forgetting that this is the USMNT not the USWNT .
Once they find out, it will be too late.
As a fan I’ve never felt good about the USMNT’s chances going into any of their World Cups. They have always been the least talented team in their group, at least that is how it looked going in.
At this point, I expect the USMNT will be grouped and humiliated. However, there are 9 games to go and things could change.
We should have a good reading on how things will go after the opening WC game.
I get it losses happen, but this is the 6th loss on home soil this calender year. Thats not good going into a home soil WC.
Stats aside its clear the team has some real problems.
Let’s look at those six losses. How many actually had pro US crowds? Both March matches were played in near empty SoFi before the 50,000 El Tri fans showed up for their match. I didn’t see the June friendlies but I’ll concede those (but I’m guessing there was a fair amount of Türkiye fans). El Tri in Houston is a road game. Today, Tom Bogart said after Son’s goal it was the loudest he’d ever heard Red Bull Arena. I think I saw one guy in a US shirt in all the crowd shots. I’m not making excuses I’m just not calling at a home game. Yeah no one shot fireworks at their hotel windows but there was no home field advantage. Next year will likely be different. The stadiums will be full of American casuals who would never think of dropping $150 bucks a ticket on game that is an exhibition but they’ll gladly fork over for the experience of the WC. It will depend on the draw of course but the crowds will be pro-US. Is the sicko crowd like us, dejected and angry, for sure. But the US casual doesn’t care, they haven’t watched a minute of soccer since Qatar and they won’t until next June. They won’t be able to sing one single chant from the American outlaws but they’ll chant “USA-USA-USA” tell the cows come home. Yes the team has problems but where the match was or will be ain’t one of them.
Its home soil. No matter how you slice it.
2tone but if there’s no advantage what difference does it make? The actual composition of the dirt doesn’t change the game. There’s enough real things to be annoyed by, that it was played in the United States in front of a 90% pro Korean crowd makes no difference to me.
2tone,
“Its home soil. No matter how you slice it.”
In all my years as a sports fan, the USMNT has the worst “home advantage” of any team I’ve seen.
The only real home field advantage I can see from 2026 is that some of the players might actually be playing near their actual home cities. Players might have an easier time of getting their friends and families to see the games. The good thing is that most of the USMNT is well aware of this and have no expectations.
CCV, McKenzie, Trusty and those other euro based center backs I’m forgetting.,.. don’t tell me they are less proficient then Blackmon? I really appreciate what Ream has done for the team and his longevity, but if he is our starting CB in the WC, it’s really not a good sign and would be a testament to a failure of the program to some extent.
Mat,
” don’t tell me they are less proficient then Blackmon?”
So you prefer Blackmon to Ream? Blackmon wasn’t trying out to replace Chris. Chris is as mortal a lock as they have.
As for CCV, Trusty and Mark replacing Ream, go for it, see what happens.
Disappointing result but felt this was a pretty even game. Tough team and place to debut Blackmon, feel for him but was not ready for the quality of Son. Feel like Richards probably snuffs out both plays that led to their goals. Subs definitely sparked the offense, especially Balogun. Sucks for Sargent, wanted him to succeed so bad but that might be his last rodeo. Thought Roldan looked better than Berhalter. Freeman didn’t look out of place.
Clearly Poch is still trialing some guys, and I’m fine with that. For now. But after Japan it’s time to tighten the roster and the roles of certain players. Where was Pulisic supposed to be? was all over the place. We really lack size in the midfield. And can we find someone who can send a decent corner, plz
We outshot Korea 17-5 and had the edge in possession, and frankly were the better team, despite the incessant negativity. The problem was we had two inexplicable busts. The first was mostly Blackmon though Dest made an odd decision to leave his defender and press the ball, but was real indecisive about it, which left Blackmon sort of dithering in no man’s land, worrying about the winger Dest had cut loose. Blackmon got caught ball-watching, Son snuck in behind him, and a simple through-ball sprung Son ridiculously wide open. The second was yet another bust, and the balance was completely off. The line should have shifted one man to the right, instead two guys – Blackmon and Arfsten – were watching the right wing, Ream stayed stuck to #10 when Blackmon should have shifted over and taken him, and Son was standing in space on the edge of the box without a man on him – that should have been Ream. There wasn’t adequate pressure on the ball (that looked like it was on Berhalter), and Son had all the time and space in the world to turn. (It’s like: are you kidding?) Clearly Blackmon and Ream were not communicating, but it is absolutely inexplicable Ream didn’t balance the line and stay on Son’s back. Other than a real nice header off a cross – which Blackmon flat missed (there’s a definite theme there, but that was yet another bust that would have resulted in a goal if not for a great save by Freese), Korea did pretty much nothing the rest of the game. Add at least two missed calls by the ref, one inside the box on Balogun that was clearly a foul and one just out of it when Pulisic got his shoulder yanked as he was letting fly, some not-great finishing, and there you go, a 2-0 win South Korea was gifted more than earned. They worked hard, their energy was awesome, and they didn’t make any goofy mistakes…but other than Son they showed little threat.
The good news is that it’s easier to tighten up your defending than it is to generate attacks, and in the attack the US was notably better…though it was hard not to notice how sluggish Josh Sargent looked in a US shirt – again. I have no idea what happens when he puts on a USMNT jersey…but Balogun came in and with his pace, explosiveness, and skill instantly showed what we’d been missing up top. It’s not close. In this system Balogun is miles ahead of Sargent against any team that doesn’t park the bus.
Honestly, though, I’m not really mad about Blackmon. It’s pretty clear Poch is looking for a third (and fourth!) CB he can trust and isn’t finding one – the dropoff between Richardson/Ream and everybody else is like falling off a cliff – and my guess would be Banks gets a similar run-out against Japan. So he’s going to trial guys…which is exactly how Poch should be using this time, IMHO.
The other main deficiency we keep showing is at the co-6 spot in the 4-2-3-1. Tyler Adams isn’t as press-resistant as you’d like and his passing can be meh, but he covers every blade of grass on the field and as a pure defensive destroyer he’s as good as it gets. But while the destroyer basically settles down between the CB’s and becomes almost a third CB as the team moves forward, the other 6 is supposed to be the shuttler, advancing the ball and breaking lines. The obvious pair for that job are McKennie and Musah, but Musah’s been scattershot (that’s putting it generously) and McKennie clearly got in the doghouse with that Nations League performance (it was real bad!) and he’s struggling for playing time with Juve early on this year, though if history repeats it’ll be late September before Juve’s latest new manager realizes he can’t make do without him. Berhalter’s sort of a poor man’s Michael Bradley – intense, competitive, ultra-fit, coachable – but his technical ability and ability to advance the ball aren’t great. McGlynn’s a specialty piece, and he is not a guy I see starting for us though he could make the World Cup…that left foot of his and his passing add something.
Hate to say it about Arfsten, but he’s growing on me. He definitely looked like he belonged with the top group and he definitely adds some danger, swagger, and skill going forwards, and he didn’t have any notable busts today defensively. Barring injury you have to think he’s a lock for the World Cup, and Alex Freeman looks like he’s solidifying his own roster spot too…other than Balogun he was the best athlete on the field today and he just sort of glides around with the ball at his feet. Europe’s going to notice him – soon.
Defensive busts I can live with, especially with players new to the system, because those are going to happen in early appearances as they acclimate. Those are mental – and fixable. And once Balogun got on the field, he definitely showed us where one of our biggest missing attacking pieces has been. What I’ve been looking for is progress in the attack, and I feel like there’s definitely been substantial progress there.
You are okay with defensive busts and think it’s okay that we didn’t score because we looked good? Boy, are you easy to please.
When you’re trialing guys and you’ve got two guys like Dest and Blackmon next to each other, yeah, busts happen. I’m not thrilled about it but all it takes is one moment of indecision, and boom – back of the net. But that’s a whole lot easier to fix than it is to generate attacking threat. Mental stuff just takes familiarity with assignment, attacking takes actual talent…and while nobody will mistake us for Argentina or France we definitely have some guys. I really liked the way Pulisic, Luna, and Weah interchanged and they were pinging the ball around quite nicely at times. And as usual I liked what I saw from Zendejas; he’s technical, he works his butt off, and he can operate in a shoebox.
Balogun also showed very clearly how bad our #9 spot has been. The team looked totally different with him out there. My guess would be Pepi, though not the same kind of player, similarly brings an edge. I suspect we’ll get a look at Damion Downs again against Japan, and I’m curious how he looks with the first group – there’s still a third striker spot open and it honestly looks like he or Agyemang are the two who could grab it. As for Sargent…I’ll shake my head. Again, not sure what’s up with him and the USMNT but he is not the same guy out there as he is for Norwich.
Lol. Exactly.
Q, you get an A for optimism buddy…
But after 15 years of back and forth on SBI there is one theme throughout all the different posters here that’s been consistent the last year or two….
Trying to make sense of what’s happening, or going to happen, with this group is like playing a game of scattergories.
Does anyone really know WTF is going on….
1. There’s still time under normal circumstances
2. we don’t have normal circumstances
3. We are on the downside of player cycle that failed to live up to expectations on the national team
4. The fact that weah took pains to call out Pulisic’s superior club career as a way to dismiss national team criticism just shows once again where this team is at mentally: they never had whatever intangibles are needed to succeed collectively for the USMNT
5. I’m sure there are some that have the right mentality but there are too many examples with this group of me > team, dating all the way back to pandemic behavior
6. Maybe this is just the natural progression of the program. We punched above our weight for a long time due to grit and some exceptionally talented players that lifted the team. Now we have many exceptionally talented players and the ship just drifts aimlessly.
7. Hopefully the next few cycles recognize that talent isn’t enough and cure the malaise.
8. US soccer deserves blame too. Culture starts at the top.
What former US team had those intangibles?
Squad from 2002. 1994 arguably did as well getting out of its group. 2010. Even 2010 and 2014. If you don’t think there’s a difference in mentality between these eras and today’s I don’t think there’s anything anyone can say to convince you there is… and it’s massive.
The 2002 team lost 3-1 to Poland in the 3rd game of group play, were down 2-0 after 5 minutes and were down 3-0 at 66 minutes in a game where they controlled their own destiny. They only made it our if the group because S. Korea scored late against Portugal (good fortune).
The 2010 team went to the 2009 Confederations Cup and got completely hammered by a weak Italian side 3-1 and then 3-0 to Brazil in the next group match. They advanced out of group play with a 1-2 record and a -2 goal differential (good fortune).
That same team just squeeked out of group play at the 2010 WC and were willed out of the group only by Donovan and Bradley (not Dempsey) who each were averaging more than 9 miles a game and were shot by the time they faced Ghana. I guess you can point to those two for having a different mentality but it was just those two and they didn’t run 9 miles a game during freindlies.
The 1994 team got third in their group and would not have even advanced if it weren’t for the 32 team format. Going into the 3rd game, they controlled their own destiny and lost 1-0 to Romania (good fortune).
They didn’t lose yesterday because of mentality, they lost because they played a team with a collective group of players that were faster, quicker, had a better touch on the ball, and executed much better. Most soccer games are won by the team that has better players and that is who won yesterday. Good fortune played a huge factor in what you are attributing to previous team’s mentality. All of those teams you mentioned lost in the round of 16 at the WC, just like the 2022 team except the 2002 team. In that game early when it was 0-0, O’Brien handled the ball in the penalty area and the ref missed it. If Mexico went up 1-0 early in that game, it probably would have played out pretty differently as that was likely the best Mexican team in the last 50 years. They had good fortune in that game just like in the first Nations League final against Mexico, the same against Jamaica in a Nations League semifinal, and the same against Iran in the 2022 WC when CCV could have been called for two penalties in the last 10 minutes. This current group of players wins when they have good fortune and loses when they don’t, just like all the US teams over the past 30 years that I have been watching them.
come on Tele, the 2009 Confederations Cup team beat Spain to break their record run of wins!! and not with more talented players!!!
sometimes more talented does lose in soccer, why I love it. sometimes the more talented win in soccer, also why I love it.
I’m very very much with Wva97 on this stuff
Beach, what does getting lucky and beating Spain have to do with mentality? The current group of players won three straight Nations Leagues. The US will probably never do that again in my lifetime. You can selectively pick games from any US team and say their mentality was great when they had success or their mentality sucked when they didn’t, but it really just comes down to the final score.
I know I’m not the only one, but I’ve been following US soccer since the 1990 World Cup, and maybe it’s just me, but I can’t remember when a US team at this late date has looked so unready. Certainly not when considering the number of good players that we have. Ideally, a team should be better than the sum of its parts, but I think we are less than the sum or our parts. The Pollyannas here apparently didn’t listen to either the commentators or the players themselves who admitted that they didn’t play well enough. As Tim Ream said, they weren’t even executing the basics well. And there was a lot of mix up about where some players should be, how they should rotate, etc. This is a team in disarray, IMO. Some here are engaging in the equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig. Its still a pig.
Gary
“Certainly not when considering the number of good players that we have.”
The players are good but not that good.
* We don’t have a world class keeper to cover our ass. If we had Kasey he probably stops at least one of those goals.
* We don’t have a good #6. Tyler plays well for Bournemouth but not for us. He’s been giving the ball away too much. Maybe he should take a page out of CP’s book and take a few games off. He looks stale.
* I see lots of “grit” but not much creativity. Seba is very aggressive but loses the ball a lot and can’t get past anyone. He actually reminds me of early MB90. We could use a Landon or a Fabian or even a Gio.
Like you said, it’s a pig, though pigs are very clean and quite intelligent. They make good pets depending on your circumstances.
“I can’t remember when a US team at this late date has looked so unready. ”
Yeah? At this late date? What did you expect?
When was the last time a manager, who had zero familiarity with the player pool, had 20 months to get the team ready for the World Cup?
Arena was dropped into the process about 11 months before Couva. And he had an established team and certainly knew the player pool about as well as anyone. He failed miserably. They should have fired him the moment the whistle blew, canceled his ticket, kicked him out of the team hotel and made him fly home on his own dime.
It is a process. Pochettino has been on the job almost exactly one year. He has about 8 months before he has to finalize a roster.
South Korea are a pretty tough team. Son is the best player in the stadium by some distance, better than anyone on the USMNT.
But if all goes well, we should get Jedi, Pepi, Jonny, Weston, Musah, Haji, Scally, and maybe even Gio back and hopefully all will be playing well.
It is interesting that they left out the one guy who might have been able to stop Son in Chris Richards. I’m pretty sure he’s covered him before and should know him well enough. It might have made for a very interesting first half.
They don’t have to “look ready” today.
They have to “BE READY ” around May 2026
Gary, you keep hedging your expectations on how good you think this group of players is because there are a bunch of guys playing in Europe. You are vastly over-rating this group of players. The opportunity for American players to play in Europe now is completely different than it was for most of the time you have been watching the US if you have been watching as long as you say. How many of the US starting 11 yesterday play against lesser competition regularly in their league than they faced yesterday? It’s not many – probably only Pulisic and Adams and definately not Sargent. Playing in Europe doesn’t automatically make people better than people not playing in Europe.
” can’t remember when a US team at this late date has looked so unready.” The 1998 team with home friendly 0-0s against Scotland and Macedonia looked plenty unready, and lost all the games in the WC and only scored one goal. Korea looked like a team that had played together and been through real qualifiers. I never expected a US win, though I was disappointed with the lack of goals.
If there was some hope that the new talent that emerged in the prior friendlies would boost the roster, that is in serious doubt. Blackmon is not a contender for a starting spot, so Tim Ream – stay healthy. I’d say McKennie, Musah and Cardoso all boosted their stock in this game, as Berhalter is clearly a notch below and not yet ready.
It also seems as if the quality of play of this US team overall has regressed. There were such high expectations after Berhalter, but the outcome just hasn’t been there. I’d just like to see some play that gives us confidence going into 2025. Right now, it is not there.
The US created 3 big chances to SK’s 2. South Korea has two real chances and punished the US. Game state certainly changes if the situation is different but if Richards connects on the free kick and Balo hits either of those rebounds an inch or two in any direction it’s a draw. I guess maybe I’m just not as angry as some because this result was kind of what I expected.
I don’t know man SK had 3 or 4 big chances and connected on two. Yes if the US scores it may have been different. But watching in real time SK was far more organized and really didnt seem.phased much by the US attack.
I don’t know what officially counts as a big chance but according to FotMob and SofaScore they had 2 Big chances and 0 big chances missed. They only had 5 shots all game. It wasn’t like this was first half of Switzerland. Upon further review all 3 big chances missed were Balo, I would assume in that one sequence. There were a couple times in the first half that the US threatened, including Dest got to the endline and played it towards the spot Weah had a couple cracks at it including relatively unmarked except by Luna but put it well wide. They were full scramble mode several times in the last 20 minutes but when they were scrambling they had 8 or 9 in the box to eat up space. The US defense seldom seemed to sense much urgency.
S. Korea being up 2-0 early makes for misleading statistics. The better team won today and that team had better players.
Sadly this was a somewhat experimental lineup from South Korea too apparently.
It seems to me that often the difference between winning and losing and good teams and bad teams is taking advantage of opportunities. The good teams do. S. Korea did and we didn’t. I don’t see how the fact that we had good chances and didn’t convert any of them is not a bad sign. Believe me, I hope that I am wrong, but our last 3 games we have looked pretty bad and the teams we have lost to are looking so much better. And those are the kind of teams we will play in the WC. A lot depends on the draw and with a larger field it is likely that some weaker teams will get in the field, but right now I’m not confident that if we keep playing like this that we can get out of any group.
Quite frankly this team hasn’t learned anything since the loss to the Netherlands. South Korea clogged the middle and hit with quick counters like Holland did.
Crocker better have some.names on speed dial. Especially if they pack it in against Japan.
It’s not happening.
USA federation knowing opposing team fans will pay the crazy ticket prices. USA has never had a “home” crowd in New Jersey…and now the November games of Uruguay and Paraguay will be in Florida, which is essentially perfect for South American fans. No good product to attract fans, so they figure to make money off the opposition fans.
We all know US Soccer on the men’s side will always take the money instead of putting games where American fans will show up. Its in their DNA.
Paraguay is in Philadelphia. I don’t think they’ll be a large Australian contingent in Denver in October either.
It really shouldn’t matter much. Those teams will be traveling a long way so that puts them at a disadvantage right there. Especially with Australia they face an incredible time shift, even for players traveling from Europe it’s tough.. I have traveled that far ( to and from Japan and China) and it takes your body several days to adjust and then there is the shifting sleep patterns. If you ask me, that is more important than crowd support.
At this point why would fans show up to these games. Players look disinterested, Poch isnt great, and is more focused on attacking US fan culture. Ticket prices are a bit crazy. I saw more fans show up during Bradley’s tenure. US Soccer needs to lower prices and reengage USMNT fans. This team obviously isnt playing for Poch. Get someone in who will whip these lads into shape before the WC. I don’t care if its Bradley, Klinsmann, or Bruce Arena. Go back to basics and stop with these culture nonesense. You create culture at the youth level.
Commentary at half time and post game covered it all. The US often didn’t do the basic things. My examples are simple give and gos. S. Korea was much better both and using them and defending them. S. Korea’s defending was much better. How do you leave a player like Son unmarked at the top of the box? We did that on both goals. South Korea looks like a team ready to play in the World Cup; the US doesn’t. As I referred to several weeks ago, Pochettino needs to recognize how close the WC is. It’s not like a club team where you play a 40 game season and practice together every week. We should have a pretty set line up by now and be building our team work. South Korea was much better in that regard, as were Switzerland and Turkiye.
Gary, the WC is still a long ways away. You can’t pick your team 9 months in advance; if you do, you won’t end up with your best team. He needs to pick his team based on the camp right before the WC based on who is playing the best at that time. I completely disagree with Vac that an international coach needs a long period of time to get their team ready for the WC. They need one camp before the tournament. They pick their players and figure out game plans and strategies based on the strengths and weaknesses of those players on the final roster. Since you don’t know who those players are going to be until right before the tournament, the previous 12 months + become irrelevant. The team will mostly pick itself because it will be obvious who is playing the best at that time because the US doesn’t have great depth. Probabaly only the last few roster selections will be up in the air and good players that are worn out from long European seasons might not make it.
Tele57,
“I completely disagree with Vac that an international coach needs a long period of time to get their team ready for the WC. They need one camp before the tournament.”
I’m not sure where you got that I think that. If that is the impression that I gave you then let me clarify it.
Mauricio does not have his team yet. If you doubt me, just watch the Korea game.
That wasn’t a team playing. It was a bunch of trialists. When any of these guys talk to the media, mostly they say all the right things but to me they look mostly confused and nervous. It’s because they are all in a holding pattern until Pochettino picks his 23-26. Hopefully the team will emerge in the remaining friendlies we have scheduled. Then he can install all the bells and whistles in that one camp you refer to.
I believe Pochettino was handed a shit sandwich of a job because he was given the team about one year and 8 months before he had to determine the final roster. He was arrogant and took the job anyway but I bet if he’s being honest when he writes his memoirs, he’ll regret having taken the job.
1- He had a couple of NL games, a Gold Cup and then nothing but friendlies. No WC Hex or Octagon qualifiers. Copa America was in the original schedule to replace the authentically high pressure of the WC qualifiers. Gregg pissed that away.
2- He was unfamiliar with the player pool. They turned out to be more problematic than was expected.
3- The way things were it took him a while to get his so called first choice 11 on the field.
These things are often issues for new managers but Bruce, Bob , JK and Gregg all had more WC cycle time than Mauricio and most important of all, they all had at least 8 WC qualifiers to really learn about their players. This is what you’re seeing him trying do now in this last round of friendlies.
It was Bruce who had the shortest amount of time to get a USMNT ready for a World Cup. Back in November of 2016 Arena took over from JK and in October of 2017 (11 month tenure) Safe Hands lost the game at Couva and got us knocked out of the 2018 World Cup.
The difference is Bruce did not have to build a new team. He took over an established team and was probably as familiar with the entire USMNT player pool as anyone could be i eh sought replacements or upgrades.
Also, he failed to get us into the World Cup.
What we have been watching Mauricio do from Day One until the Korea game is trying to learn as much as he can about the player pool.
I don’t care what he says, he’s not focused on getting a result in these games first and foremost. If he was, he would have started the Korea game with Richards on Son. Richards is the one guy who might have actually played against Son recently ( Son has not played Vancouver yet) and was best equipped to keep him quiet if that were even possible.
No one knows Sonny better than Mauricio and he knows Sonny is significantly better than any player on the USMNT. So why put Blackmon on Sonny? The only reason is to see just what Blackmon has. Some times you just have to throw them in the deep end and see if they drown. Blackmon drowned. Oh well, better here than at the World Cup.
I’m looking at the remaining friendlies as the new HEX.
Vac, I sort of understand what you are saying but probably don’t fully get it. You do refer to the short time he has to prepare for the WC even in this response which is what is probabaly throwing me off. I know winning wasn’t his most important thing just looking at the roster – which I agree with except I prob wouldn’t have taken any of the top European guys. It is hard now to field a competitive all MLS team because most of the top prospects are getting European contracts at a really young age so the pool of US MLS players probably isn’t that large. I don’t have time to watch any MLS but when I look at roster and lineups for games, it seems to me that less than 50% of starters in any given match are US eligible. I don’t think he can pick his team until the camp right before the cup. I also don’t think he would pick a team much different than most of the posters on the site and I don’t know how much impact he is going to be able to have as a coach. Prob in round of 32 (I expect them to get out of the group) they will probably face a team with better players and will only win if they are lucky but bad coaches can be as lucky as good coaches and sometimes luckier.
I mean can we really call it a home loss? I’m not sure I saw more than a handful of people wearing US stuff.
Does that make the loss more acceptable? Talk about grasping at straws.
No, but the manufactured outrage over the sixth home loss when the fans were 90% South Korean is disingenuous I guess.
Time to start thinking of a back up plan at coach. Quite frankly Poch is still talking about a lack of fan culture. I don’t care your job is to win games bud. I would take Bradley over this guy.
did he really talk about fan culture after this game? wow didn’t see that
Another game another loss with a lackluster showing. Highly questionable roster and lineups, technically and tactically outclassed. Pochettino’s tenure so far probably the worst in USMNT history aside from the Arena 2.0 fiasco.
US soccer acting like Poch had 4 years until the WC. Should have gotten a coach who had an international track record being an American or Foreign coach.
2Tone, Poch was a gamble since he had no international experience. I thought he would be much better than Gregg and it remains to be seen. He has only coached in one meaningful game so far and that was Panama where his team lost due to bad luck and an ability to break down a bunker, the latter being nothing new with this group of players. It didn’t have anything to do with lack of effort or the players mentality. Gregg and the team had a lot of good luck accomplishing what they did (3 Nations League titles, 1 gold cup title, and getting out of their group at the WC). Their accomplishments are already better than any other core group of players the US has had. What would you consider a successful 2026 WC?
bruce arena pt. 2 he won gold cup and lost 2 games out of 18. the problem was the 2 he lost.