Pressure was on the U.S. men’s national team to deliver a victory against Japan on Tuesday night and Mauricio Pochettino’s squad answered the call.
Alex Zendejas and Folarin Balogun both scored goals as the USMNT defeated a rotated Japan squad 2-0 at Lower.com Field in Columbus, Ohio. Christian Pulisic and Max Arfsten registered assists in the result, and goalkeeper Matt Freese finished the match with a five-save shutout.
It is the USMNT’s first victory over a Top-25 ranked team since defeating Mexico 2-0 in the 2024 CONCACAF Nations League Final and the result also marked Pochettino’s 10th victory in charge of the program.
Freese was up to the test early, denying Junya Ito’s dangerous cross from nestling into the bottom-left corner. Ito was waiting for a Japanese teammate to finish off the cross, but instead almost came close to celebrating a breakthrough goal.
Balogun was denied twice by Japan goalkeeper Keisuke Osako, coming close to finding the back of the net. Pulisic’s through-ball pass led to Balogun’s pair of powerful efforts but Osako repelled both of them to keep the score level.
The USMNT’s growing pressure though would lead to a first-half lead in the 30th minute. Arfsten created room on the left flank before delivering a cross into the box, allowing Zendejas’ one-time volley to fall into the bottom-left corner.
It marked Zendejas’ second international goal.
Freese kept the USMNT in front with a point-blank save in the 35th minute, denying Ito’s redirected effort in the middle of the box.
After being denied by Osako early in the second half, Pulisic would have a say in the USMNT’s second goal, teeing up Balogun for a 2-0 lead. The 26-year-old’s upfield pass snuck behind the Japan backline, allowing Balogun to drill a low shot across Osako and into the bottom-right corner.
It was Balogun’s first goal since the 2024 Copa America.
Substitutes Jack McGlynn and Damion Downs were denied efforts to add to the scoring with the crossbar repelling McGlynn’s left-footed curler and Osako stretching to reject Downs’ potential first international goal.
However, the USMNT would hang on for its first win since the Gold Cup semifinals, claiming a second all-time victory over Japan.
After a 1-1-0 September window, the Americans will return to action this October against Ecuador and Australia respectively.
Would have been nice to see the US tested against Japan’s A squad but a win was needed and the got it.
Looking forward to “next window” (again) when the experimenting is over. Fun to see a win but not sure how the experiment will translate into “the plan”. Time will tell.
Nice exhibition against a fully rotated team of back ups fighting for their WC roster spots.
Double pivot of Roldan and Adams was beast.
Now that this window is closed and Poch has basically said the experimental call ups are done:
Lightning round who gets called in next camp:
( I’m assuming Jedi & Weston automatically)
Turner
Steffen
CCV
Mckenzie
Trusty
Scally
Tillman
Musah
Cardoso
Gio
Roldan
De La Torre
Aaronson
Zendejas
Pepi
Sargent
Dempsey
?
The 2 goals were the result of excellent plays by the assist maker and the scorer. They were individual excellence rather than real team play. There didn’t seem to be a good interchange among the players like I have seen in the past (before this year). When the first group of subs came on–McGlynn, Luna, DLT and Dest, I thought we played better as a team. McGlynn was just unlucky not to score and the give and go in the box that led to Downs almost scoring was nice to see. Freese was excellent and it was troubling to see 2 such bad turnovers deep in our territory, one by Richards (before that I had been thinking how Richards was such a rock in defense) and I didn’t see who was responsible for the other. We were lucky they didn’t turn those turnovers into goals. I think we still need to work on dealing with a high press. All in all, a much better performance.
As far as subs playing better as a team, I’d say on Saturday we looked generally better when most of tonight’s starters came on for tonight’s subs. So maybe it’s just game state, how the staff prep the subs, or just random. As far as facing the press. I think if you switch Blackmon for McKenzie, Dest for Freeman, Jedi for Freeman, and Musah/Wes for Roldan you take care of a lot of that problem.
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When you look at 3-4-3 playing against a 3-4-3 you are going to end up looking like a lot of one on one. Especially if their pressing, it’s going to basically turn man to man all over and Puli was definitely feeling like no one could stop him driving thru the midfield.
To my eyes Roldan actually did shockingly well against the press and he stayed connected to Adams the whole game. He wasn’t flashy but that wasn’t his job, he was supposed to shuttle it and sync with Adams defensively and he did both really well.
I kind of get the sense this is actually what Poch wants from the shuttler. I wouldn’t write off Roldan as a potential starter…and I cannot believe I’m saying those words, but here we are.
No doubt, the improvement we’ve seen from him with Seattle is legit. It definitely translated tonight. He was definitely not playing like an “eyes and vibes” guy, whatever.
quozzel,
“No doubt, the improvement we’ve seen from him with Seattle is legit. It definitely translated tonight. ”
Impossible. Club form is a mirage. Once you do badly for the USMNT you can’t improve. His entire USMNT career invalidates what Roldan allegedly did tonight.
Better game from the team tonight. Mcglynns left foot is something special. To be honest he seems to have increased his physical speed a bit.
Was that Preki in a McGlynn jersey?
Whew …should be able to sleep tonight. Well done. Let’s build off of it.
I only saw the second half after my kids volleyball game.
-Our speed of play especially with Pulisic was so much better.
– Funny how some people came in hating players found reasons to still hate them even if they had goal contributions.
– Sargent doesn’t get to the ball Balogun scored.
– Probably should have been 4 or 5 to 1. But this wasn’t Japan’s best lineup either, but they brought in their bigger weapons in the 62 and our subs the last 25-30 minutes still were better.
– Too bad Banks hurt his foot, he dressed so hopefully he won’t miss any club time. He needs minutes at Augsburg.
– 3 CBs with Roldan allowed Adams to be more aggressive in the counter press which was effective in the 2nd half. Whereas the full press when they built out from their GK was still fairly Swiss cheese. But the initial immediately press when we lose the ball forces problems.
JR,
1. I know Max can’t play Fullback or Wing back but every time I see him he looks better and better. I think it’s his haircut. He’s more stream lined. There was a time when if you wanted to be a top keeper you needed to shave your head . Same concept.
If Turner want’s back in, he needs to shave his head.
2. I don’t think Pochettino is getting fired now.
Finally a serious and strong game vs a serious and strong opponent. Hopefully this launches the team positively. To be confirmed in the next window but still promising. What a game from Balogun. He’s a special talent.
He’s definitely what we’ve been missing up top. Especially against teams that actually want to come out and play, he’s lethal because he’s so fast and uses space so well…and while he’s not a huge guy, he’s strong as hell and can hold up the ball shockingly well.
He pretty definitively made a case for the #9 shirt, for sure.
1. Alot more fun to watch when they win
2. Games means as much as 2-0 loss to Korea which is probably not very much
3. When Japan presses, they set first and then press as a unit and it is very effective; when US presses they don’t set first, it is usually very disorganize, pretty unsuccessful, and usually gets them in trouble when the press is broken
4. Balogan is strong
5. When US is pressed and it falls apart it is usually when the wingbacks end up on the touch line and get trapped
Tele57,
When this series was was announced most people saw the Japan game, not Korea, as the big one, probably because they creamed us just before Qatar.
I’m a little surprised at how so many seem surprised by Balogun. It was pretty obvious that he was clearly the best #9 we had.
He should rank above Pepi for one simple reason, Flo usually starts and goes for most of the game whilst Ricardo’s exploits are mostly based on being a supersub. To me in the World Cup Pepi should be the supersub. He’s one hell of an ace in the hole. Or you could play them together
I see South Korea and El Tri tied 2-2. Mexico foolishly left Son pretty much unmarked on the left side of box and he rocketed his volley into the net. This guy manages to get himself open a lot.
Does anyone know if it will be a 23 or 26 man roster yet?