The U.S. men’s national team started slow but finished strong on Tuesday night in Commerce City.
Haji Wright’s brace helped Mauricio Pochettino’s squad rally to defeat visiting Australia 2-1 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. It marked the Americans’ first comeback regulation/extra time victory since the 2024 CONCACAF Nations League semifinal round.
It was a disappointing start for the hosts as Australia struck first in the 19th minute with its first shot on target.
James Sands’ defensive clearance flew up in the air and the rest of the USMNT backline was a step behind as Jordan Bos pounced on the loose ball. The Feyenoord fullback delivered a left-footed shot into the bottom-right corner for a 1-0 lead.
It marked Bos’ second international goal in his 20th cap.
Pochettino was forced into an early substitution in the 30th minute mark as star attacker Christian Pulisic was substituted off. Pulisic was the victim of a heavy challenge from Australia defender Jason Geria and seemed to be in discomfort following the tackle.
However, the USMNT answered back in quick fashion as Wright delivered his sixth international goal in the 33rd minute. Chris Richards won possession at midfield before Weston McKennie and Cristian Roldan led the counter attack upfield.
Roldan’s through-ball pass allowed Wright to get in the box and rifle home for a 1-1 equalizer.
Wright’s productive night continued with the in-form forward doubling his tally and the USMNT’s lead six minutes into the second half. Roldan’s quick restart led to an over-the-top pass for Wright to race onto before the 27-year-old cut onto his left foot and drilled a shot into the left corner.
It marked Wright’s second international brace of his career.
Despite added pressure from Australia in the second half, the USMNT bunkered down and held on for their ninth win of the calendar year. Brenden Aaronson, Tim Weah, Folarin Balogun, Aidan Morris, and Max Arfsten all featured off of the bench.
Goalkeeper Matt Freese made two saves, including a key stop in the 90th minute to help preserve the Top-25 victory.
The USMNT will return to action this November against CONMEBOL sides Paraguay and Uruguay respectively.
Australia and Ecuador are exactly the kind of teams we need to get points from to get out of the group at WC. Also with the new added teams, you’ll have teams at least on paper that are not as good as those two. Both teams came into the week on hot streaks and the US was the better side each night.
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There is no doubt that the team can be more aggressive at times. What I’ve liked about Aidan Morris (since his Nancy era) is he always looking to progress the ball. Weston is also usually looking to move forward. Unfortunately that can lead to costly turnovers that get those two often criticized.
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Love the team finally has looked like their understanding the concept and people are saying “you know what let’s just completely change the concept because when I played in 80s we won a lot of AAU games by playing this other way.”
dude, that was 80+ minutes of blah sitting on the ball punctuated by a handful of positive chances and us shipping a goal and occasionally being slalomed in the back.
it was nice to watch a win but those games were not a template.
Better than 80 minutes of watching the other team running us all over the field just praying our keeper makes 18 saves and that we make our one chance. Neither goal was the fault of the offensive tactics. I must have missed your long winded derision of Richards and demands he be put out to pasture since he was largely responsible for both goals this window. I mean all that matters is what he does in the shirt right?
first, off, richards is a non sequitur response to your own post or mine. this is just pick a fight for some reason.
second, i did notice richards stunk. i put up a list of winners and losers and he wasn’t on the winners, was he?
third, i kind of said can we get some more CBs some time, and people chuckled at it. i mean competition for everyone.
fourth, it’s hypocritical to let ream who actually routinely sucks off that same hook, then suddenly get after richards, who is at least a mixed bag. like i said pregame, are we applying this across the board or what.
last, you neglect that richards has fairly regularly scored goals, which makes him — if he is having issues — more like “dest” or arfsten — dangerous at a recent price that one has to calculate its worth — and less a flat out scrub. ream is closer to useless scrub. he doesn’t score headers. he doesn’t mark well. he just supposedly passes well in some sense that then doesn’t manifest on any box score.
i played back. i was good for 2-3 assists a season. ream has zero G or A for charlotte all year. ream has “a” goal for the US ever. ream’s last recorded assist for the nats was 2021 against northern ireland. he has 2 more assists in a career spanning back to 2010.
re richards, the situation bears monitoring. it was noticed, however only a silly person knee jerk yanks what had until now been their best CB. you get that, right? someone who scores goals and usually marks well gets indulged a bad window. someone who isn’t regularly starting and has no track record gets less slack.
now, yes, if he keeps shipping goals, you drop richards along with ream. i am about performance. but i am not down for the political, knee jerk, “he’s up then he’s down then he’s up” roller coaster of the fanboys.
last, you’re kind of pretending this is wynder getting beat near post on a long throw — which is about his marking in particular — when there was a whole sequence of howlers and bad defense on that aussie goal.
-of course I’m being provocative when I ask about Richard’s play, which was mostly good with the exception of those two moments. I don’t think you “not mentioning” him as the same as when you go on and on about mistakes of others. However, if Chris wants to be a leader as he says he does he has to be stronger in those two moments. I think he is better and the team is better if he’s at LCB, he’s more comfortable and the team is much smoother with his passing out of that space.
Somewhat surprisingly to most folks is that Princeton is at the top of the RPI rankings. When coach Barlow was asked something like, what separates great teams from good teams, he said it’s what you do in front of the net.
i personally think we should switch from “press” — coming out of shape and chasing way upfield — to “trap” — drop back some in shape, play passing angles and mark men, and swarm passes. when the US MF defense has worked in recent years, it’s been something like adams picking off passes, not a forward stripping a back. and then having dropped off some, there is green space to play into when you win.
this also deals with our basic transition defense issues. both the U20s and this bunch you can routinely find times where the shape is stretched and you can get any small mistake then get box to box in like 10 seconds. if you sit a little more back and ballhawk passes, you aren’t stretched from box to box and handing endless green space to transition into. if we’re already swarming MF, even if you “strip the stripper,” you’re banging into more swarming players.
that and based on recent games i am not sold we have landed on a 3 man backfield capable of doing their job in a 343. and i don’t get why you line up aggressively in a 343 then play tentative offensive soccer.
as i said on the other article, after watching the U20s and our games, it becomes apparent that the telling activity is when an AM or wing gets the ball upfield, does he look to positively attack, and, say, send wright behind the backs? or does he put his foot on the ball and pass backwards and in 15 seconds we have turned an attack into freese kicking it out of bounds or the defenders passing it back and forth racking up pointless possession.
on the U20 morocco game or this one, you can literally chart our competitiveness by whether we “are trying to attack” or not. in the U20 game, we tried early on, we bracketed halftime with a sequence of corners that netted a PK and goal, and there was then a late push down a goal. in this game, we were inert early and went down a goal. there were a handful of actual attempts to do something including the throughball and quick free kick that scored. and then a lot of pointless unwatchable trash.
i don’t see how this benefitted either team. and the thing is, people will say, “but the press” or somesuch excuse for the tentativeness. but if i am 20 yards out at the penalty box extended, near the chalk, or 30 out foot on the ball, i am past the press. and playing the ball behind the defense does not risk a press counter.
it’s we get to an open spot, where oz’s fast winger might slalom half our defense then cross, and our instinct is caution instead.
and the thing is, it’s not like we just hold onto that ball forever, or push it side to side and run the other team to wear them down. we aren’t actually that possessive. eventually we just get impatient and give it away — just not going to goal. nor do we put them to sleep then do something. i don’t get it.
in the scheme’s context, we need more chances, for volume, to increase the odds of more goals. and just in general this continues to look chained up. we had more talent than that oz team. most of that game, though, they were the aggressor. so we barely beat a fairly mediocre hardhat and some skill opponent.
last point, but i’d swear back in 2011 when we had this scheme discussion, and the anti-bradley revolt was peak intensity, the discussion was, take the handcuffs off, let them play. that we needed more brazil and individual initiative. less organization.
this might be even more robotic than before. minus the team defense and sometimes inspired offense that used to win more games.
this has evolved the wrong way.
IV—with you all the way in this. Get the ball in behind. Take risks I. The final 3rd. It’s worth it. The game has changed quite a bit from the “olden days”. Keeping possession for possessions sake is overrated. Especially when you can get behind the D with penetration!
C- subtle thing, but you can argue tiki taka peaked in 2006-2010 when the refs were aggressively handing out cards for physical play. eg holland/portugal 2006 w/ 16 yellows and 4 reds in a single game. the game has trended back physical (and lenient in reffing like last night) and teams are more likely to tackle you hard since there is less consequence.
that and i get particularly annoyed with our direction because bradley 2009 gave a template how to beat peak spain. we had already created the exploit against our new scheme. a bunch of teams are designed to stop precisely what we’re trying.
IMO we arrived late to the party but still think we’re clever, which results would suggest otherwise.
personally i grew out of being taught create chances and don’t just stand there with the ball. and that ending up with the ball standing by the flag was a sign you lacked aggression or ideas.
i personally don’t get how freese has become a lock in the net.
nor do i get how roster competition on the backline isn’t matching effort to fix DM or forward.
from the 2 games, i thought that helped roldan miles freeman wright arfsten balogun tillman. i thought that hurt sands and morris. jedi and pulisic are potential problems. zendejas picked a lousy time for him to get hurt, as we have plenty of attacking options who IMO are probably better. the lack of opportunity did not help the rest of the GKs CCV agyemang. now, we have to take some backup keepers but they aren’t getting a chance for top job. CCV and agyemang, meanwhile, might be in roster trouble. that being said, since they didn’t even play, that’s hardly their fault. for back i think we could actually use continued auditions.
I’m not sold on Freese yet either if the main knock on Turner is his feet.
Actually I’m not sold on any of em, which is something I thought I’d never say about a keeper for us
it kind of reeks of a classic US decontextualized talking point where a set of critics come up with some complaint about a player except we don’t apply it across the board, so the next guy is no better maybe worse. it’s kind of like we needed some rational excuse why change.
i dunno, does anyone actually know some sweeper-keeper type who Does the Thing? i assume barca is trying to teach kochen to play that way. the U20 kid flubbed the 3rd goal when he had to come out of the box. i don’t remember schulte being unusually good at it. steffen almost had a specialty in shipping giveaways.
part of what i am getting at where It Would Be Nice but you need the personnel who can play that way.
“i personally don’t get how freese has become a lock in the net.”
He’s not. He plays all the games BECAUSE HE NEEDS THE INTERNATIONAL PT. He’s a favorite , not a lock
“nor do i get how roster competition on the backline isn’t matching effort to fix DM or forward.”
That’s because you are prejudiced. You hate Ream’s guts and you expect an all hands on deck, 24/ 7/365 effort until the Ream threat has been eliminated.
The reality is that there are several worthy candidates to try out for the DM slot and the same can be said for the forward slots.
That is not currently true for the backline. The one candidate you have suggested in the past, Sands, was there and played.
from the 2 games, i thought thatBut there helped roldan miles freeman wright arfsten balogun tillman. i thought that hurt sands and morris. jedi and pulisic are potential problems. zendejas picked a lousy time for him to get hurt, as we have plenty of attacking options who IMO are probably better. the lack of opportunity did not help the rest of the GKs CCV agyemang. now, we have to take some backup keepers but they aren’t getting a chance for top job. CCV and agyemang, meanwhile, might be in roster trouble. that being said, since they didn’t even play, that’s hardly their fault. for back i think we could actually use continued auditions.
“i think we could actually use continued auditions.”
Why?
So Cole could wipe away the bad smell associated with his U20 performance and thus blow away Zendejas?
So Gio might still make the team?
So Zach can remerge and blow away Freese and Matt?
So that someone, anyone, could emerge and keep Ream off of this team?
After Paraguay and Uruguay there will be about 5 months before selection day. My understanding is that there will be a Cupcake game and they are trying to arrange some more friendlies ( Germany, Belgium, Portugal, etc.?) before selection day.
Regardless of what anyone says the audition process is still alive and kicking.
a) We all know you think club performances are irrelevant but with about 5 months and most of the Euro season still left, all of our euros have plenty of opportunity to draw attention either positive or negative.
b) Given the timeline, injuries are inevitable and we will have to hope that the situation remains manageable for us.
You guys talk about winners and losers. For me the TEAM won.. It showed the ability to maintain a consistent attacking menace even after going down a goal and facing quality, determined physical opposition.
(a) historically one keeper did not start all US games — you competed for the job and we settled on a first choice when the world cup arrived. it was keller AND friedel. we’d near the tournament and finally pick one.
(b) this forces the keepers to play their best and help us save goals and win games to fight for the job.
(c) freese for his club career is an average keeper, and even for this year is sitting on a middling 1.3 GAA for a middling team.
(d) freese didn’t so much earn the US job as get handed it starting gold cup. he didn’t dominate the tournament and win us the trophy. he made mistakes and we lost the final. usually you earn this job standing on your head and beating brazil or something.
(e) ream ships a goal about every time he plays, but we don’t even have to get into my opinion. his pattern for almost every 2 game window is he only plays 1 of the games. probably because he’s 38.
(f) and the funny thing is 3 of the 2 game windows he played 1 game of this eyar, we either lost or tied the game he played. and he started the NL semi and GC finals we lost both. wow, real advertisement there.
this is really not complicated. neither guy is playing very good. both guys have competition. i am merely shockingly saying, huh, maybe give someone else a shot. in particular. we’ve tried this “hand the keeper the 1 shirt” approach for a few years now without landing on a real winner. so maybe this is a dumb way to do things. (this is not exactly tim howard vs. horvath and yarborough.)
I liked watching the Universo feed as the Hispanic commentators are usually more insightful, more experienced, and have more background, and cultural depth when describing some of the key players. God bless my parents for deliberately raising me as a dual-native bilingual. Some of it even trickled down to the feet, for a while. Still, I am USMNT all the way.
Luis Omar Tapia, and Diego Balado were calling this one.
Especially in the first half, both were rather upset with the refereeing. When Sands was clattered into from behind with that vicious scissor tackle that hyperextended his ankle, Tapia was incredulous that the ref did not even stop the game with a whistle and allowed play to continue. “Ehhhh, arbitro!! Pero como es que no para el juego?!”
And then a few minutes later, again, Sands got totalled from behind, and no foul called.
It was clear that the ref was losing respect and letting the game get out of hand.
Truth be told he let the US also deal out some chopped wood, every now and then.
But, in the first half it really seemed to me that the referee, (from Trinidad and Tobago) was favoring the Socceroos.
The point I am trying to make is that I think it is harder as a player, and collectively as a team, when you are getting absolutely mugged, suffering through assault and battery from the opposition and the ref is NOT PROTECTING YOU or your teammates, and ignoring the rules of the game. It is difficult to not lose your cool, and then start looking over your shoulder, start hurrying your passes, to be shakier on your traps, and to start mishitting your one touch passes, etc. Australia is known to be a physically punishing side, they boss the field through intimidation and sheer physical pain meted out on their opponents. In friendlies, refs are generally more lenient, and the Aussies took full advantage time and time again. So, I thought: a) some of the USA’s sloppiness in the 2nd half could be chalked up to the the feeling that the ref was not going to be looking out for them, and b) that first vicious tackle from behind on Sands – in a World Cup, opening matches of the group stage – that would have potentially been a straight red. I think that is part of what Richards was animatedly communicating to the ref when nearly the entire US team surrounded him and said, wuuhhht?! Are you kidding me?
As far as the rest of it – if C. Roldan had bagged either of those sweet benders that just missed the upper corner he is MOM.
Diego Luna got robbed on the cheeky nutmeg feed form Aronson in the box. And by the way, Aronson looked way more composed, fluid, dynamic, solid and EXPERIENCED in his role as a sub. He is a work in progress but I see the improvement already. Good things, good things.
Haji Wright proved he belongs here with the big boys. Took his chances like a cold blooded assassin, like a pro, confidently. Poetry in motion.
And that 19 y/o from Australia, Irakunda. Wow! He almost smoked half the USMNT on that freight-train run, Kevin DeBruyne / Ruud von Nistleroy-esque drive down the L side of the box. Momma! And what I loved about him, as well as his tidiness on the ball, and his elusive silky dribbling, is that Luis Omar “el panda” Tapia and Diego Balado had the backstory on him. Family from Borneo and Burundi, refugees in Tanzania, and then accepted as asylum seekers in Australia, when he was only 3 months old, etc. Ahhhh, the beautiful game!
That’s all I got.
Im going to respond to the comment that: “in the first half it really seemed to me that the referee, (from Trinidad and Tobago) was favoring the Socceroos.”
A FIFA ref is not going to favor one team over another in a friendly. However, the ref, particularly a new-ish CONCACAF ref is not going to dish out cards in a friendly. Australia was playing physically – overly physically. When the ref didn’t card them, it simply gave them the right to do it again.
This is a CONCACAF issue and one we have had for a long time. Pulisic gets no protection from CONCACAF refs. I bet this is one reason he skipped out on the Gold Cup. Richards finally realized the ref wasn’t going to do anything, and basically told the ref “if you aren’t; I am”. He then proceeded to chop down a couple Australian players a few minutes later. Not a lot, but a little message.
Australia did not impress me. They looked at the level of a physical CONCACAF team – like a Panama or Jamaica. Even late in the game, there was a terrible collision involving Freeman caused by an Australian player. In a real World Cup game – that was a red. In this game, its a slow whistle foul because both players stayed down.
The ref was not prepared to deal with the physical play of the Australians in the friendly and the game suffered.
MWR — as i said on the in-game comments, i found oz underwhelming as well. they reminded me of a midtable SPL type team. industrious, some technicality, maybe a fast player or two, but generally not that fast, and often quite sloppy.
i personally think we were better off “trapping” instead of “pressing.” sit back and dare them to complete passes. then swarm their MF. we were picking off a lot of passes when we quit chasing everyone around like chickens and just played passing lanes.
beyond that, my barometer for the US these days is how often do we play positive soccer and how much do we turn it backwards and play defender keepaway. if you noticed, the goals were when we took risks and sent balls behind the defense. it was similar to the U20s vs. morocco in how little we actually tried to do that.
IV – As I think about the two-game window, the Ecuador game was much more enjoyable to watch – and a big reason was Balo. How many times did he take on players or make a great run behind? He was a difference maker – even without Pulisic in the lineup.
I was surprised by the line-up against Australia and the many changes. I think it did impact how the team attacked. The effort to control the ball by going backward incentivized the Aussies to play more physical. If we were turning up field maybe they wouldn’t have cracked poor Sands a couple times after their goal.
I like your comment about your barometer. Maybe it should be called the ClaudioRenya-meter. Back in the day, he was a great outlet but always slow and back – except for the dos-y-cero in the 2002 wc. crap I’m old.
Good stuff. Thanks for that.
i did think they were getting away with murder fouling sans many cards first half but was too depressed at the general state of the game at that point — easy goal allowed, tentative offense — to obsess about it much.
@ patabendita and MidWest Ref, good stuff, thank you
about the physicality, it’s typical what we get in the World Cup against us, unpunished, so good prep imo. he was terrible
Good point BB. I am trying to think of a World Cup game where the other team was physical with the US. Certainly we have had our share of bad calls and no calls. But, I can’t think of a game in the WC finals where I thought the other team was overtly physical against the US. . . .of course, I am excluding CONCACAF qualifiers.
Midwest… 2006 vs Italy was no walk in a valley of roses..
Since the game against Japan, it appears the team is starting to show improving signs of implementing Poch’s desired formations and tactics, and beginning to gel into a cohesive unit. Over the last two windows, we’re starting to see which players are adept at being a part of his planned system. The shifting of players during transition and quickness of ball movement has become noticeable, resulting in better overall possession.
– CCV interestingly got no playing time this window. Right now, the pool of CBs looks to be 4. I’m not sure who’s left that can make a case for inclusion.
– Freeman and Arfsten have both made a strong case for inclusion out wide. Call me surprised at how well they’ve done thus far.
– Here’s hoping Cardoso and Musah get their chance in MF. Tessman, Morris and Roldan have impressed, but those two, if given the opportunity, offer strong competition.
– Had hoped Sands would impress, as he is one of the only players in the pool with extensive experience at both CB and MF, and noticed he shifted to CB temporarily a few times in the Australia match from his MF role. But he did lot look ready for the speed of play at this level.
– Agyemang is still viewed as a raw talent who needs more playing time in England, and did not get any minutes. If Pepi can get healthy and impress at PSV, he may be the guy to fits into Poch’s systems and can offer competition at that spot.
i don’t think that version of the oz team, or japan, were any good. the offense remains mostly tentative. the defense gives away cheap ones. i mean, all that goal was, was an effort play. it was almost like one extended loose ball sequence and he wanted it and we weren’t sure if it was someone else’s problem, and buck passed until it was in the net.
sorry but that’s coaching. it was drilled in us by about U14 someone steps up, wins that ball, boots it out. and that each of us was to be that aggressive someone.
it generally lacks aggression of the right sort.
Have to say Colorado fans came out. Nearly full stadium.
The attack was humming today but yet again another game another easy goal.
First of all can we somehow get rid of Kyle Martino please…
It was nice to see Wright finish with confidence, so many times we’ve seen guys scrub those shots and those were confident finishes.
I’ll admit it, Roldan looked the part, pleasantly surprised.
I don’t think Sands did.
I also think Miles is making that RCB spot his.
I know I’m probably in the minority here, but I REALLY hope Musah gets a shot. I gotta think he’d be in the team over Sands and Morris, even Tessman.
Last thing, I’ll be awaiting the referee report from beachbum…
haha…F
You’re being too kind brother
Hey BAC – and everyone – I really thought Haji’s first goal was great. Took his time and beat the keeper near()ish) post. That was a tidy finish and not just a poacher goal.
Both were well taken, that’s a guy playing with confidence
Overall good game.
Roldan balled out. Keep on silencing these MLS haters. Yep looking right at Tac and 11 Yanks.
+1,000!!! Hope the MLS haters eat crow. They will probably come up with some excuse, as always. Such as “it was Australia, not Portugal”
Roldon played a good game, but then in the middle of the second half he played a terrible ball . . . from the center to the right. . .just kicked it out of bounds. He totally and inexplicitly missed Freeman. Most of the team looked disgusted.
That was just one moment, but he didn’t raise and had and say my fault or say he miskicked the ball. weird.
I would say overall a good result. This was such a change of pace and skill level from the Ecuador game.
I was astonished by the change in line-up, but after the game started it made sense. I wish we had some enforcers on the team to help Pulisic – and then later Sands who got run over twice in the first half. We need a Gattuso.
Mark McKenzie did the same exact thing…..he just hasn’t impressed me, and if there is one weak spot or troubling position that still needs sorting before the WC it’s CB.
I would like to see Auston Trusty and Noah Kai Banks(who has been starting in co seductively games and has looked good) called up in November bc we can’t rest on our laurels with what we’ve been bringing in the last 2 camps bc it hasn’t been good enough
The win is fun, but they are pretty bad in the back. Teams can pretty much just count on mistakes and horrible defending to get goals.
“Teams can pretty much just count on mistakes and horrible defending to get goals.
Yep. But “teams” still lost didn’t they?
And that is the point.
Beggars can’t be choosers. This is the fucking USMNT we’re talking about, not Liverpool or France. They are just beginning to learn how to get out of the locker room and the tunnel w/o issue.
What’s the old saying, ya dance with the one who brung ya…
Vac, your bar is lower than mine. You expect them to get grouped at the world cup; I expect them to better at finding the stage than Spinal Tap. I have never seen any team just hand over scoring opportunities and give away goals regularly like this team does. If they play in the back the way they did yesterday, they probably will get grouped at the world cup, but I am hoping for something better than that. Right now, the way they play, it is just hope.
tele — poch is not actually trying new options in the back. it’s about the same 4-5 guys, over and over. ream miles richards mckenzie. freese behind them. it’s not like we’re actually trying something new to fix the recurring leaks.
he had CCV there and he got 0′ for the weekend. ditto banks last window.
for example, compare it to striker or DM.
He’s gotta have options because if Richards went down due to injury or yellow card accumulation I don’t see any way of playing a back 3. We must have him back there.
Bac, I think he has a lot of options in a 3 back setup including Scalley and Arob when healthy both of whom I think Poch would play over CCV (I am assuming that is who you were talking about). I dont think we will see 4 in the back in WC which means Dest and Arob need to fight for spots.
-Banks was injured last window.
-Doesn’t that say something about CCV that he didn’t get any minutes? Maybe he had a slight knock or illness that they didn’t want to risk. But it’s kind of like Trusty and EPB that got multiple camps but would never play. Probably says all you need to know.
dude, tennis with the net down response — his choice of backs let the man who did a throw in follow the bouncing ball all the way across most of them to the 6 for a goal. i consider that ACTUAL PLAY by the backs he picked 10x more concerning and demonstrated than reading something into an absence.
for comparison, roldan, who i had criticized, gets a pair of assists. that choice “worked” and may end up constructive, which is a surprise. but if you start the other guy and he ships a laugher, that’s a critique of the guy who sat?
IV so you’re benching Richards because that was 75% his fault. Robinson was on his man and Sands kicked it over his head. Richards is the one who let the ball drop and then put in a weak tackle attempt. But that doesn’t fit your narrative so you blabber on about Ream who didn’t even play this match and wasn’t at fault for the Ecuador goal either.
Tele, I agree he has a number of options, but I think without Richards we’d get destroyed in a back 3