Mauricio Pochettino’s first trip to Mexico as U.S. men’s national team head coach ended as a forgettable one.
Mexico handed the USMNT a 2-0 loss in Guadalajara on Tuesday night, which marked the first defeat of the Pochettino-era. Raul Jimenez scored the opening goal from a well-taken free kick in the first half before Cesar Huerta added an insurance goal for Javier Aguirre’s men four minutes after the interval.
El Tri legend Andres Guardado featured for the final time on the international level, earning his 182nd cap.
Jimenez broke the deadlock in the 21st minute, sending a right-footed free kick into the top-right corner. Matt Turner guessed correctly on his dive but was unable to deny Jimenez his 35th international goal for El Tri.
Aidan Morris’ foul on Roberto Alvarado led to Jimenez’s free kick opportunity.
Huerta extended El Tri’s lead to 2-0 four minutes into the second half. Jimenez’s sliding challenge on Tim Ream led to a loose ball finding Huerta, who made no mistake by drilling a low shot into the bottom-left corner.
It marked the Pumas winger’s third international goal.
Despite the second-half arrivals of Haji Wright, Brandon Vazquez, Tanner Tessmann, Alex Zendejas, and Kristoffer Lund, the USMNT failed to find the back of the net.
Vazquez’s near post effort in the 80th minute was punched away by Luis Malagon, serving as the USMNT’s best offensive chance of the night.
The result snapped the USMNT’s seven-match unbeaten run against El Tri across all competitions.
Pochettino’s men will return to action this November in the 2024-25 CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal round. While no official announcement has been made yet, it seems likely that Jamaica will oppose the Americans in the two-legged series this November.
Maybe it was because I was so overwhelmed by all the turnovers and poor play, but it was hard for me to evaluate the individual players. They all seemed to play poorly. However, as a general rule, I don’t think you really know unless and until you see a lot of video of the game over and over again, and focus on no more than 2 or 3 players at a time in order to evaluate individuals.
Thank goodness that is the staff’s job and not mine. I agree it would take a full film breakdown and probably from the tactical cameras not just the TV feed, but that would a brutal task.
meh. that team had elements of B/C in it. you want to know which of those folks belongs with the full-strength unit. i get there might be positional subtleties, particularly at mid, but i want to know who stood out or messed up. a lot of those are fairly obvious.
personally i think our selection comes across like a team that wants to keep the ideas in its head, and makes a lot of excuses. to me we need more bodies in and you either play well or not. so, from recent windows, jedi, fossey — in. lund — out. pepi — in. sargent — out. schulte — in.
i get you’re gonna say, but we should watch them closely for 90 and assess them on gestalt. except i feel like we strain to make excuses for players like sargent we badly want involved. and so i will be told about how he chased well or something else that you might see over 90 but really is a back handed compliment since he otherwise did jack squat.
i’d save the nitty gritty for practice work and for when we have a more settled unit. right now what this needs is a higher altitude version. what does the effort look like. do they get stuck in. do they make plays. do they play well. period.
that and the tv angle from akron was fairly high and wide. not as bad as the one this summer, but you can see more at a time. mind you, they should use their football-style 22 man cams but i don’t buy there’s endless more to unravel there. you want did they play well enough to be back in the future. and you want coaching points, either to shape future coaching/training, or to encourage it to be done different and better when they show up.
I think what Gary and I were saying is no one really stood out. So was everyone collectively bad or were people doing mostly the right thing but because a few were so poor you couldn’t tell. Especially the attacking players were they making the right run but the others were not being decisive in their passes or were midfielders positioned to pass but the attackers were stagnant. As you say your looking at most of those guys as backups or injury replacements so do they know how to augment the first team
without getting into i think a new coach should be much more openminded than you’re suggesting — lest he just repeat GB’s lineup and mistakes — a list of current “starters” either cannot stay healthy to get called or played poorly if given their role back this october. your very own list and mine. plus sargent, scally, ream, and busio. plus guys like turner who have to be monitored for what their club situation does to their country performance.
no, it’s kind of a status quo “tell” to be saying if Noob Player plays well all he gets is a bench role or in the rolodex for contingencies. it kind of — exactly as i keep arguing — assumes the lineup conclusion how GB understood it. GB got fired. i kind of hope the next guy is reconsidering what was taken for granted. plus, if we can’t keep half a dozen regulars healthy, we need half a dozen “starters” for them, perhaps permanently, but at least occasionally.
no, historically how this has been done is we built up about 25-30 people who played well when called upon, ditched the scrubs and the ones who have big names but don’t “show up” for the NT, and then they fought it out for time. we didn’t assume a job should be CP’s, or weston’s, or reyna’s, or turner’s, they had to win the gig. the other guy got about 1/3 to 1/2 the time.
if the other guy played better, they took their sandwich. “i drink your milkshake.”
and while we chatted up our best players, we rarely like gave them the deed to their slot. and we were quite willing to have keller and friedel battle right up to the tournament. the axe would only seriously come down at the end of world cup camp for who made the travel roster, and at game 1 of the world cup for who the starters would be. otherwise, show up and play or even landon could get left off.
so i am saying this is like january camp in that you either show something to stay or not. but i think it’s premature to say what role they stay in. i think this jumping ahead and assuming ideas off paper or one game is half our problem. let it play out over a year or so.
and if it turns out there are club vs. country surprises, quit doubting what our eyes can see. how many windows have we wasted this year giving sargent special treatment he does nothing about? move on. try other people. have an actual roster competition. good stats get you in the door. bad play sends you right back out that door.
we start keeping around the ones who actually play well in the shirt, we will find a team who has the right intensity and performances to win.
and i am sticking to my guns that the central spine of this team needs to be decided with smarts. i think the only team i have seen be this flip about who is up the middle is arena’s last bunch. like all he ever figured out was get dempsey on. if they can’t figure out spine players then start moving the stars to the middle to make them.
In order for Poch to pick better players you have to have better players. Take Cole Palmer yes he burst on the scene at 21 and has become a star at Chelsea. But all along his academy career he was a star. David Vazquez can’t score goals in Next Pro he’s not an untapped star. You aren’t going from a 20 min a game backup in the Championship to a NT star at age 30. Paredes is the age to have a breakout season but he’s a converted fullback who has never scored more than 3g in a season in any league so the likelihood he pushes Weah or Pulisic is small. As for the CMs we pretty much know what we’ve got. There’s nothing over age 20 we haven’t seen. So we need guys to get healthy and guys to get better. Cremeschi an option, Paxten Aaronson after that you’re down to Tsakiris, Pedro Soma is a couple years away. So until then you’ve got Luca, Busio, Tessmann, Morris, retreading Sands, Cardoso, and can only pass backwards Maloney, plus MMA. Don’t worry we’re only a couple years away from Cavan Sullivan. The 2005 class had a decent set of CMs but we’ve lost Buck (not completely yet) and Vargas. After that 2008 is supposed the next age group with depth at Cm/DM but these guys aren’t even playing next pro yet and haven’t gone thru a U17 WC cycle yet. ‘06, ‘07, and ‘09 CM/DM is thought to be a weakness. You could move Pulisic to the 10 and drop Reyna deeper but that was not great this summer either. Do you want to throw Brooklyn Raines out there? Like Busio and Morris were far better in MLS than he’s ever been in his short career, and they weren’t up for it.
Seven straight unbeaten streak over, sucks
big picture not sure it matters imho if the goal is World Cup glory at some level or bust, simply because we do not have to qualify so we don’t have to adjust our tactics to our region
and vs. Mexico, we didn’t
it was like we were playing just how they want us to play…so many wayward clearances into the middle channel, by Scally and by Turner, leading to immediate counter pressure and trouble. Morris and Aaronson and Busio had some troubles turning it over too, but again, we kept feeding and living in that middle channel; Mexico is going to challenge the physicality limits and the officials especially at home and especially int at middle channel, nothing to lose AND plenty of no calls will go down….They did exactly that.
and as the decades have shown to US fans, these CONCACAF games have to be played differently tactically than what we saw in this game imho
why would Poch understand this? He doesn’t KNOW this stuff even if he’s been told and explained and etc etc etc. I don’t blame him, he’s learning on the fly.
the good part is he doesn’t need to figure all this out (mostly) for the World Cup…if we care about CONCACAF stuff? then he does
not saying he is a bad coach, I think he’s great. I’m laying out what I see as challenges and choices for him and us soccer
oh, and I love Yunus, but he lived in the middle too, did not provide the width, and again, that plays right into Mexico’s hands
B,
“why would Poch understand this? He doesn’t KNOW this stuff even if he’s been told and explained and etc etc etc.”
I’m pretty sure he understands the rivalry perfectly. He and Rafa and Aguirre are tight. Aguirre succeeded him as manager of Espanyol. And I’m sure that normally he might do something different. But things aren’t normal right now so he’s not going to let some artificial rivalry get in the way of his agenda. Gregg could not have gotten away with doing this
but Pochettino has much more juice.
The USMNT has bigger fish to fry.
I’m biased because unlike you the only El Tri /USMNT game that I thought was worth a fuck was 2-0, 2002 World Cup.
The rest ; revenue cows scheduled whenever they need some walking around money.
For me it’s just a friendly. Besides, my favorite Mexican, Memo, didn’t play.
i think hayes’ USWNT miracle propped up the USMNT aura of arrogance. you just swap out coaches and magic happens. but she changed 4/11 of their lineup in 2 friendlies and a major tournament. she earned it. we fired our coach for doing far worse than the women ever dwindled down to, the usual suspects stunk this summer, and yet there was this seeming arrogance that you run out the usual suspects with an EPL coach and magic happens.
no, if we want success, even for hayes, some heads had to roll. you will have to make hard decisions we refuse to make, and to identify new stars. you will have to be willing to say, who cares if you are at leeds or WBA or score a ton for norwich.
poch is going to get out of this what he puts in and if he lets USSF do his homework for him and pick his teams, i don’t trust them to do crap. the team will progress roughly as fast as USSF’s brass catch on to their new emerging prospects or dual nationals, which is slow as heck. USSF these days likes to fanboy their big club players abroad and ignore the results they get as a group together. it’s more of a fan level social media and stats hype machine than a deep grasp of soccer.
poch is going to have to weed out some of the old regulars and school up his team to get anywhere. and poch is going to have to push his tactics and this team in a direction that is a lot further removed from berhalter.
i looked at the history of US-mexico games and the analogues were to 2019. that’s roughly where i’d put us on the curve. based on who has been involved in the wins versus losses over the year, the specific players we missed would be richards, reyna, balogun, and adams. mckennie and dest were actually stalwarts on the 2019 team that lost to mexico twice, including the 3-0 drubbing that was the closest thing to what happened. they pre-dated richards and reyna’s arrival, and adams’ struggles to stay healthy over the years mean he tends to pop up when we win.
i do not buy it’s some elaborated list of 8 or so including crap like LDLT.
personally i think that was close to a C team midfield we ran out there, plus sargent who has literally never had a lead on mexico when he is on the field (lost twice, started and came off in the 3-2 final of NL when we were tied 1-1), which is an unforced error, poor defensive selection that give or take jedi was closer to B/C. guys coming off the bench like zendejas who had played themselves off of B duty in the gold cup.
we routinely managed at least ties in recent years at their place or in depleted friendlies. so depletion doesn’t explain it all.
i cannot quite explain it all but we’ve had key players with health problems, we are having trouble finding and promoting new stars, and we generally feel a bit stuck. setting aside the tactical stupidity that doesn’t help the unit grind out results regardless how healthy and perfectly chosen the call sheet is.
on further thought, balogun reyna weah gave this thing some more shared out pop it had lacked in the pulisic+? years. adams didn’t just make the odd morris tackle while allowing a lot of builds into our half, the dude anticipates plays and starts throwing a wrench in everything, and we lacked that when this started out as yeuill bradley mckennie etc. at 6. the US had gotten ridiclously bad at back in arena’s last year, and richards and a healthier miles had provided shut down ability.
that’s how you get this back to 2019, basically. you water the forwards down, put sargent back out there, promote zendejas who does nothing, start aaronson who was once a GB starting fetish. no adams was a 2019 issue, and even when healthy GB was considering RB. then it was an ineffective mckennie led MF. that was elevated when reyna gave us more of a 10 and then adams a good 6. and we’ve stripped back richards which takes this back towards 2019, miles got hurt, ream has stunk at everything but qatar but been concreted in the lineup. the affection for attacking backs remains with its vulnerabilities, scally is overrated. turner is off his game with his career situation.
meanwhile, around that, we seem to have stagnated in terms of identifying and getting involved any new generation of stars that helps buffer things. the failure of the 2014-2018 cycle was to find much more than pulisic to build around. you can’t just get content and stop. there are some wings, 10s, and backs we could try. less so 6s, though if we can’t pitch a shutout how is maloney so bad, can we try and do one thing right?
1-Pulisic
2-Reyna (that’s where I rank him when healthy others obviously don’t)
3- Adams
4- Dest
5- McKennie
6- Weah
7- Balogun
8- Richards
That’s 8 players that if healthy would/should start. I get some people are in the “don’t ever count Adams cause he’s glass crowd, or the Never-Gio movement but talent wise they are a top 10 player in our pool. I don’t see Luca helping in this match. I think Bizzy was going off Zendajas and Vazquez are Mexican/American so he just named off players thinking that was why they played more inspired, but Luca is Spanish/American not Mexican. I’d add Pepi probably goes in the top 10-12 range and he was also unavailable.
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We should have about half that list available for Jamaica. Anyone of those starters last night who struggled could fill a role if a regular is missing or for 20 minutes off the bench but none appeared to have the skill set to lead the offense and be the focal point to progress the ball either from defense to MF or MF to attack. Mexico put out a very experienced team, does anyone think Banks is able to shut down Jimenez or that David Vazquez is going get around Alvarez?
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Poch is known for intense training sessions. He’s been coaching for a long time in mild climates, mostly at sea level, with short travel. The staff may need to adjust a little because the team looked worn out. Certainly mentally they lost it but the physical part was also missing.
JR: you missed my argument i guess. we had dest and mckennie already in 2019. we lost to mexico anyway.
my point is essentially we have through injury or at CF and back choice, wandered back towards 2019. weak CF, no 10, no 6, questions about CB. we had better 9s we didn’t play on purpose, balogun or not. pepi came on and scored. we have some 10s and wings we could bring in. we have other CB options and are stuck.
for whatever reason USSF and the HC seem “off” on the spinal solutions. constantly. they want sargent for intangibles over the actual 9 scorers. they resisted reyna. we need 8s and not 10s. they wanted adams moved. there is constant beefing for a passing 6. they seem to want ream in the back. or someone else picked more for passing than marking.
nope, the list of people we truly “missed” is fewer than you say. pepi would have been fine for balogun, whose starting spot wasn’t even guaranteed. we have 10s and instead called DMs. we can call other CBs.
i dunno your list per usual is like that’s the endgame and that’s that. we had a lot of that list for the summer. didn’t work then.
nope, shorter list. reyna elevates the 10 spot. adams elevates the 6 spot. richards elevates CB. their elevation coincides with our success.
the rest, yeah, pulisic and mckennie help, but they were part of the 2019 core that wasn’t winning. my point isn’t they suck. it’s they matter less to whether this wins or loses. to me it has to do with their spinal roles. pulisic is great — probably the best of the bunch — but often a wide role that comes and goes. he was The Man in 2017 when this went right off the cliff.
you haven’t really though through precisely why we win or lose. and some of them, weston, weah, mckennie, we’ll see if they start in the future. and if they do, whether we win when they do.
if you want to make pulisic more consequential to do we win or not, move him to 9 or 10. to me by the time i see sargent at 9 or an empty bucket midfield, even in the absence of reyna, i am like, move christian inward. to me it reflects the USMNT tendency to mope instead of fix. we are oddly flip or cute about key spinal choices.
i mean, the spine last night was, what? sargent busio morris ream miles? really? and a lot of those you’re listing are the 2019 v.2 solutions. this had to get to v.3 to start winning things. this needs to get back to v.3 quality to win again. this needs v.4 to progress. that’s not get the gang back together.
for example, 2018 cycle, CBs omar/brooks/eroding center midfield/nagbe had a lot more to do with us not making it than pulisic did, and more often than not, it was CF dempsey not pulisic bailing us out or scoring goals in vain, than it was CP. MF couldn’t create stuff or stop anyone either.
likewise, 2022 cycle, a lot of that was the transition from zardes bradley etc. to the spine of pepi reyna adams miles richards, at which point we started winning things.
and we are lately, through a mix of injury and choice, abandoning that spine. and the CM the past couple windows has been trending back to empty bucket or double 8 crap.
McKennie was 21 in 2019 not the leader of the team he wasn’t a 6 either in 2019 Gregg was playing him as a 10. McKennie has won 4 in a row against Mexico so if you want to blame him for Bradley and Altidore’s team in 2019 or Daniel Lovitz going cooked by Chuky Lozano you should probably give credit to him for the victories since then. Wow I didn’t realize that Dest was a “stalwart” in his first cap, who again had a 1-0 lead when Serge was subbed out for Daniel Lovitz, Mexico quickly scored twice. He didn’t play in Gold Cup in 2019. Regardless if you like him or not Dest is better than every RB in our pool and it’s not even close. Mexico can’t pressure Serge, he’s going to dribble by or do a 1-2 and he’s broken the lines. He’s 3-1-0 (huh no losses) since losing his first USA vs El Tri, that draw when he played the El Cashico with the B Team. So yes we were missing our best 8 players last night and no Luca wasn’t one of them. Even if you can’t see how Dest and McKennie change that game and your bizarre Pulisic doesn’t matter because he lost to Mexico as a teenager, missing 5 starters makes a significant difference for any team.
—————-
By the way we didn’t choose to not play Pepi, either, he went back to PSV to be evaluated after being struck with the ball in the face.
per usual, you are going to nitpick my spelling, so to speak, moan about details, and miss the central thrust, that we have either lost to injury or benched every answer we had to the crappy 2017-2019 spine of this team — CF/10/6/CB. sargent up top is moving back towards zardes’ era. the mids i saw this weekend were like B or C stuff, a regression from reyna/adams. the backs are not richards and miles at their peak. and keeper our usual 1 doesn’t play regularly and hasn’t had to fiight for his gig much.
i know we had people out but to me this is getting cute and ineffective again which is why we are getting punished. a CF who would get on service and finish helped. a 10 helped create on their end. a 6 helped mop up. CBs helped us keep the scores down.
i literally can’t believe i am listening to people argue anyone MF was sufficient. that striker was handled right. that we have no other wing options. that the back is who it should be. setting aside get back the list of hurt people.
Betinho,
Thanks
Mexico games are usually pretty boring, either they pass us dizzy and make us look slow and foolish.
Or we beat the shit out of them.
This game had some points of interest:
Jimenez was the difference and was awesome. I hope this translates to Fulham for their sake.
Many here have been pushing Tillman as a Gio/CP successor. I can’t remember a thing he did all night. You know the expression men vs boys? He looked like he was 14 years old. Time for Ritchie to get back into playing attacking midfield for PSV. There is an opening with us..
The tall trees package of Wright, Vasquez, Tessman, big boys, fresh legs, looked promising.
Zendejas may have bought himself a little more time in terms of being considered. Not a lot of time but some.
About 99% of the time the USMNT player was unable to beat the Mexican player off the dribble all night long. They looked gassed and did not seem to be used to the pitch. Good thing the World Cup is all home games.
they did look rather tired. i check USSF’s social media an hour before the game to see the lineup. i saw this and was like dude are you kidding me. same unit minus pulisic. i expected them to be tired and get a poor result. hadn’t learned couva, basically. tie was my best hope.
i made my selection point because to me past the first handful of players the selections have been wrong for years, including a weak bench that doesn’t help us reverse results, and if you send guys home, ok, we’re straight to that poorly chosen bench now.
if poch just wants to collect his checks and then parachute in and coach a USSF list of guys, i don’t think USSF has a clue, and this will stall out where it is now. he needs to live the scouting during the off periods and familiarize himself with the full pool. and his tactics will probably have to evolve to reflect this team. eg either the mids get more technical so we can work through the middle some and create right up the gut, or the defense needs to be a lot more sound with a more stout formation.
we’re gonna see if he’s willing to put in the work a la klinsi and find the random guys in weird corners he used to keep this competitive his first cycle, the germans, morris, AJ. or if he’s gonna phone it in then blame the very people he let USSF pick.
if the answers were out there already, berhalter would have tripped over them and still have his job. poch is going to get out what he puts in. to me it was odd for us to take this scheduling so seriously, 2 tough regional opponents, then phone in the selection and send people home. it doesn’t feel like the brain trust of GM-USSF-HC-coaching staff is all on a page. and a jamaica draw doesn’t help that any. that’s another team you just show up and think it’s handed to you, you’ll look bad. and that tough an opponent only encourages more of the same crap. despite it not really working.
IV,
You should welcome this.
He’s saving The Man from a “meaningless friendly”. He did not play Weston, who it turns out is more hurt than we had been told.
Maybe this means it will be a very long time before we see Tyler and Gio, if ever.
He gave Tillman a real chance to make his case, which Tillman fucked up. So now how many more chances, if any, do you want to give the kid?
He put in the jumbo package, Wright, Vasquez and Tessman and they looked interesting for a few minutes.
Things you might not like:
There is no substitute for live in person performance.
Both teams were equally boring until Raul’s golazo. After that you could see the air go out of the USMNT players.
You want to evaluate players? Let’s see how they do when things are bad.
In the second half your boy Lund had a great chance to get the USMNT back in the game. Had he finished that off they might have revived and made it much more interesting. But he showed his quality and butchered it. He’s fine until it means something. Is that what you want?
I’m alright with not calling up some of these guys ever again.
We can dress it up all we want but this is dog eat dog.
So this game might turn out to be very important but just not in the way we all might have wanted.
V: i get what you’re saying re this can be a negative lesson, but i have been saying for years that the US’ difficult scheduling is pointless unless you learn from the results — and we never do. it depends on if USSF keeps writing the team sheets. the team sheets for years have included hurt people, or perseverated on fanboy club favorites who weren’t converting into serviceable country players, or looked xeroxed. why stop now? i mean i thought after copa surely that’s the end of it. or september. and here we are. if it’s the GM and analytics folks picking these, they need to be stripped.
the deal is we have this happen over and over, or at least have had it do so more often 2018-19, and then again 2022-24 (with the hurt or mercurial reyna and hurt adams plus perhaps richards propping it up in those middle improving years).
and part of what happened there is c. 2019 when GB was finishing second in gold cup to mexico, and getting clobbered in a mexico friendly, and losing to canada, he was not allowed to stagnate or he was going to lose his job. then came the promotion of reyna and richards.
i dunno, it’s like they are simultaneously jaded by the summer tournament wins sometimes since then, and yet the results in general are meh and starting to slide back towards 2019 without the guys who helped push it past that point. the call sheets are like we are undefeated in concacaf and top 10 in the world. this is barely top 20, can’t consistently beat any hex type team on down to ES and jamaica, and has all kinds of ugly Ls sitting there lately.
quit making arrogant xerox call sheets and act like it’s got issues. do what klinsi did when his team started to hollow out, and dig under every german or icelandic rock, find a college kid, whatever it takes.
very complacent which is how this gets every time we make it out of group in a world cup. i think we are seeing roster margins are thin. few injuries you don’t figure a creative way out of, not enough continuous development, back in the hole again. you’re basically running a B/C team out there and not admitting it.
i’ve suggested a couple dozen prospects but we are just very sure for some reason this is the gang. ok, gang sucks then.
I mean the under 20s split with Chile so clearly they would have beaten Mexico on the road!
Guadalajara is about the same elevation as Denver, so if they hadn’t prepared for that it could have been a contributing factor in the team looking tired. My alma mater college teams play in the Mountain West Conference and go to elevation all the time. We are at sea level, so what they do is drink beet juice for several days before. It is supposed to help because it contains nitric oxide which dilates the blood vessels.
i think the “jumbo package” worked because we quit trying to do a long winded build and just kicked it up to the forwards to chase. the overmatched MF then becomes supporting cast as opposed to the necessary creative engine or weak link. when i was a kid one year in select we had an english kickball style coach. everything went D->F and then maybe was left back to the M. playing M then was a lot of watching the ball go over your head and running for the Fs. or defending.
basically, bypass the MF. if we can’t string passes across the MF, so what. play it to the F directly. the other team’s defense then can’t press as easily because i am not playing short, nor can their mids sit on my mids. ball is going over their heads. this offends snobs because the ball may leave the ground. if you watch recent soccer, many good NT are willing to play it long.
we even occasionally did it game 1 but mostly to jedi down the line. if they are going to press us and get too high send jedi behind them. why do we have to do 20 passes through a high line pressing defense. “no, here, you can have it.”
what was actually working was the direct or counter soccer i have suggested. pulisic’s long pass after coming back and winning a turnover. balls over the top to jedi down the wing then we hit a wormburner cross back post. long balls to vazquez. direct, athletic soccer. attack against smaller numbers back. play into space behind the defense. beat teams with speed and finishing.
for some reason we are trying to turn into a 1 and 2 touch keepaway team. for that to work you need to be able to not just keep the ball but work those triangles all the way to the forward line. then start getting the other defense to dive in on the high tempo passing. we hand the ball over most of the time dozens of yards further upfield because we cannot string passes.
i was told poch would be different and more about transition. transition, to me, implies more emphasis on ball winning and quick longer passes to speed downfield. i barely saw any of that.
i did think i saw more of a concerted effort to pinball through the mids but we were no better at actually getting that done. i keep underlining this but we don’t have a bunch of pirlos. what seems to happen is we call DMs and then expect them to tiki taka like barca. i keep telling you, either the technical quality of the mids needs to go up so we can try to actually hold the ball and get to the other end and break down a defense, half court, or this needs to be more of a defend and counter team if it’s going to be so defensive in MF choice.
to me the schizophrenia reflects coaches scared of leaving our MF pool on its own in a 433 (or variation of same). which to me hints we shouldn’t be playing 433 then.
If Paxten keeps on playing as well as he has at CM, I won’t be surprised to see him in the next camp.
B. Aaronson better strengthen up. His brother is much better at riding challenges. A puff of wind seems to knock him off the ball.
i had raised the issue of scheduling before this. we scheduled good teams. we then did not get results for rankings for NL quarters. and thus a harder series in a month. which will provide further incentive for roster conservatism. who cares how good the schedule is if we lose so much?
and in terms of bedding in system, i thought i saw one half — first half panama — where we probably played like the coach meant. which went ok because panama is pretty good. the rest of the window we started to revert back into old habits while playing many of the same people.
we need more fresh faces and then we need them to get a schedule where they can work on doing what poch wants them to do. the current scheduling approach, we don’t actually win these marquee games right now, so you folks aren’t getting your little ego backpat reward for lining up mexico, and it gets in the way of personnel eval and scheme work where we get to the right players playing the right way so we can actually win a big game.
i mean, people made fun of playing some small island or asian team or whatever, but what was the point of last night? we made a big point of that game, then sent away a chunk of the roster. that to me sounds like the coach was never in a Big Game First Window mood. he wanted to run his team. he wanted to sort out their fitness and health. he wanted to work on style. and he then wanted to put the players in bubble wrap and go home. maybe schedule like we’re trying to accomplish that with the coach.
bluntly, this team needs to wander off by itself, no USSF-forced call sheets, no silly scheduling, fresh players, easy games, and reboot. and then play games like this when it’s sorted out better.
How would beating India with a bunch of mlsers and 4th division players help? Gregg beat up on Panama and CR B teams with Sebe Lleget, Will Trapp, and Daniel Lovitz. How’d did that work out? Oh yeah we wasted a year with players that couldn’t play at level because they did well against minnows
i see the revisionism beginning. a good chunk of the several injury omits were people we’d actually talked about replacing or moving someplace else. weston, reyna, LDLT, weah, etc. few of them are pulisic gold star players.
the underlying implication of the argument is just restore the lineup and we are fine, as though we didn’t lose a bunch of games and fire a coach over how “well” they just did. yes, it would be helpful to have some of them back, and play tinker toys with how to use them, but we’re pretending this wasn’t a mess with them just the same.
nah, i revert back to my comments when the call sheet came out. the call sheet was a lazy xerox. mexico is the result. that game felt like every other game most of this spring and summer. you should know better. for reasons beyond me we decided sargent, zendejas, and steffen needed another chance to disappoint, which they did. those are literally 2-3 year old stale lessons and a waste of time to relearn. the MF was plodding and struggled to possess, while not winning the battle. in this particular situation, for some reason we went B/C team. the defense turns the ball over and doesn’t pitch shutouts.
about all we got out of that is pulisic and jedi are useful pieces, duh. 2/11 of a team doesn’t win you much. that a short list of other players (eg vazquez tessmann morris aaronson wright turner) should at least be in the competition for bench.
i keep asking for fresh faces and naming a list. i am going to judge poch by whether some mix of this list being winnowed down for performance and my list getting a shot, happens.
if this is more of the same in november, then USSF owns the selection process and is running this in a ditch with the lineup xerox machine.
Why does Tillman look like a different player when he plays for his club when he plays for nats????????? He looks look lost, uninterested, no flair/intensity, jogs around makes non dangerous/creative passes, and takes no shots with nats. For club he does the opposite and has a ton of flair and goes off scoring or assisting. SMH!
first off, as with celtic, who drubs its league then may lose UCL badly, PSV is whooping up on no defense holland so bad that it may be a shock to tillman when he actually gets bodied or is expected to chase people.
second, you’re wandering into the sort of club form or player psychologizing where sargent gets called back every year or so to do the same disappearing act. i too have seen the tillman discrepancy. at a point what should happen — and historically did happen — is if you were useless for NT games we simply accepted that club and country were sometimes not the same, and called someone else.
we have regressed soccerwise where we think the 2 are the same. they clearly aren’t. the answer is simple. drop him for a year and call someone else. i have a list of others to join him.
you reward the ones who play hard and well in these games. you bring them back. you call new ones and test who also plays hard and well. eventually you have a team of NT gamers.
The Imperative Voice I like that drop him and give him a break. Holland is known for not playing D . I forgot when Bradley and Altidore played there that was mentioned.
S: PSV has 27 goals in 8 games. i can’t imagine the defending is anything like this week or usual concacaf.
but then i think our whole tactical premise of thinking teams will let us 1 and 2 tough them to death and pass through the middle even if we play DMs, and not counter back down our wings if we push wingbacks way up, is similar dutch league naivete. world soccer is not flag football. i think when these tactics were peaking you got a yellow for breathing on someone. that era passed. you can foul again without piling up cards.
IV,
I was ready to never call Tillman in again then I remembered Timmy Chandler.
He basically spent his whole life in Germany and when he would go to places like Honduras, he would wilt down to nothing.
Of course, Malik has not looked very good in any of his other USMNT games and in the summer of 2026, things may be just as hot and humid
wherever the USMNT is playing but it’s something for Pochettino to think about with his euros.
He is not the only one. Sargent or Wright can score in 3 or 4 games in a row with their club team and then disappear when playing with the nats. Is it that they aren’t up to international play or because their club teams do a better job of feeding their strikers? Or maybe it is a combination of both. Whatever, there are a number of players like this.
when i looked at his recent goals on SBI, or even pulisic’s, they got the ball on an outlet in open space facing goal and were running at the defense. there is no team defense of 11 back to defend half court. it’s like 3v1 or 3v3. you commit someone, play the ball behind the backs to the open runner, finish, goal.
there was more running half 1 game 1 but after that this defaulted back into standing around facing back to goal. defender can then body you, maybe you also get fronted. and if we cross the ball in, sargent is not that mobile unless service is perfect.
i think i can see what poch is trying to do but when GB tried the same thing, with the idea sargent would chase the backs, and would be combining with people at 9, he couldn’t get on the ball in the 9 slot, and he wouldn’t show way out in the gap between lines to find the ball. the offense then stagnates because it’s all perimeter no focal point. or we whack the ball in.
last point but the thing i noticed dating back to the cuba games was he got to start then, and i think we hoped he’d rack them up, and instead mckennie got 4 goals back post playing garbageman. ditto pulisic’s goal at the world cup, crashing into the box where the 9 should be.
that to me speaks to his lack of athleticism and mobility. he is in a slot. you either find him or not. the weak side wing might make out better than he does if he’s athletic enough to get on “his” service for him.
at which point, “why?”
Striker the talent disparity in the Eredivisie is so great. You have three teams that outspend everyone else by 5 to 6 times the payroll. PSV most other teams might have one or two players of Malik’s ability, Feynoord and Ajax will be around the same quality, you get a few like Utrecht and AZ which might have 4 or 5 good players. PSV just has so much talent that teams can’t defend everyone. Malik gets a lot of time on the ball and often with early leads he can play relaxed. The spine of that Mexican team was very experienced Alvarez, Romo, Montes, Vasquez tons of caps playing in Europe or top Mexican clubs. They weren’t going to give him time or space to operate freely.
JR, I am talking about all Maliks performances for the nats, not just the Mex game last night.
Striker1, sure but with the exception of a bench appearance against NZ every team we’ve played recently has had top 5 league defenders and DMs. Plus even mediocre NT play at a higher speed and close down space more than the Eredivisie. Some guys adapt to that others don’t.
maybe we can be extra sporting and start attacks 20 yards behind our endline just to show how Extra Special we are at building from the back. that it clearly does not lead to chance after chance against ourselves in counterproductive fashion. and i am dreaming that i saw ream as giveaway machine yesterday.
i see overly hopeful sorts spouting possession figures. but we barely won possession while trying to do that on purpose. and that possession number reflects — full circle — trying to play from the back and build 120 yards. most of those passes are ream to the wingback or miles. completely inconsequential unless you are creating and exploiting some sort of issue in the opposing formation. (eg, a skip pass across the back because the other team is narrow, exposing green space down the weak side)
i mean i was taught if a team wanted to pointlessly fart around like this, and we had the lead, let them. that the passes that mattered were to the danger areas. we barely saw the box extended for most of that game until the subs came on.
worst, and i tried to explain this half a decade ago to people, you can tell the scheme doesn’t fit the players, but we seem to be doing this aspirationally. like if we spend years trying to make people into a tiki taka team, maybe they get there by age 30. most sensible NT do not spend whole generations trying to fight the nature of their pool. if they even try to do 120 yard builds and give up some goals right back at them off turnovers, the idea is over. because they are practical and want to win as opposed to prove some point.
you watch the past 2 games and most of the offense was send jedi long down the wing — and then feed a ground ball to back post — or hit vazquez deep. literally none of it becomes one of those U14 30 pass build goal videos on social media that to me generally make me question if anyone teaches defense anymore.
nor does our pool seem that suited to trying it. heck, poch’s MF was as “banger” as klinsi or berhalter’s. there is a basic schizophrenia in trying to build through a bunch of DMs. hence, everything of consequence except pulisic’s long pass, was down a wing or over the top. which, if you have ever played on a team who likes to play long — is skipping the midfield.
I*n regards to your remarks, the US does not play enough positive football. They find any opposition/pressure and their first instinct is to pass back rather than forward, even if over the top on a hopeful ball. This is not just us, but here is the type of thing you see all the time that drives me crazy. Team A has a corner kick and the defense knocks it out about 25 or 30 years and team A recovers. Then those in the box on Team B rush at the Team A guy who has the ball. Rather than kicking the ball back in or going down the flank, Team A guy with the ball then passes back to a teammate at or near midfield. Then when team B rushes at that guy with the ball, he passes back to the GK. So team A goes from a corner kick to having it with their own GK without ever taking a shot or trying an entry pass again, even though they never gave up possession. If I were coach, I would tell them to pass back only if they are under extreme pressure and the goalie is the only one clearly open.
Should read “the defense knocks it about5 25 or 30 YARDS.” Don’t know how years got in there. My mind must be going or my typing fingers are very confused.
Stock up: Zendejas, Vasquez. Both brought new life and enough energy to get us back in the game, especially if Lund had finished his chance.
Stock down: Tillman, Wright. How are these guys constantly getting pushed off the ball despite being a foot taller than their opponents?
It’s ridiculous how much the refs let go, not that it’s anything new down there. They didn’t call fouls on us either at least, but only Zendejas and sometimes Morris would foul back. Best Mexico has played in a couple years.
lund looked unimpressive, which, i’d hoped better. but his first few balls he basically hit some blind pass under pressure right to the other color. one of those you were under duress and kicked it hopefully upfield. several and you’re not seeing the game.
zendejas to me is skinny arriola. all running. zero product. zero point considering i think we have some wing options who are either much more technical (yow, paredes, campbell) or run hard but create more chaos from it. (cowell).
personally i think if we’re gonna run around like chickens put this in a better formation than 433 to get defenders around balls and transition/counter. and i know we slide into 442 type stuff on defense but the general vibe is like watching overmatched kids with weak natural defensive brains chasing the ball in a 5 on (1 or 2) drill. which to me says you need more people back to compensate.
another way to compensate is instead of trying to passively play passing lanes you just double backwards and try to swarm teams. like pulisic helping back. and my experience if you double back the fact they are draped, particularly from the right angle, is more effective than trying to play angles 10 yards away but only having one marker to evade.
Ream, Aaronson, and Busio should stop being called for a while. I think Sargeant also went down the pecking order he didnt do much in either game.
We also tend to overrate players who start and somewhat perform in second divisions.
These 2 games kind of show why Sargeant, Morris, Wright, etc… are not starting in top tier first divisions, yet.
This said, I don’t mind us losing with fringe players because you get a lot of information and you can call new guys next time. I was also surprised how long it’s been since we played outside the US. This is a big reason we’ve grown soft and afraid as a player pool. It’s been years since we really pushed the team to play in challenging environments.
I want more away games against decent opponents, even if we lose most of them. Iron forges iron.
Cardoso, Ream, and Aaronson needs to top being called up BA gets knocked off the ball and falls like a rag doll then cries and pouts to ref about it. Pax is way better than Brendan.. So annoyed I created BA and Cardoso on my fifa 16 deluxe edition for ps3. Ream with his short Princeton parted haircut on there when he did that foul in box at 2011 GC against Panama that resulted in a penalty lol! Aaronson and Cardoso have been catfish dates for the national team. Will perform good at club and come to nats team camp and stink up the games by passing the ball to the opponent in our own half like Ream, Aaronson, and Cardoso like to do.
we confuse analytics and club snobbery with player eval and scouting. to me we have regressed from being able to sort out what type players we have, and set up a scheme to fit that, to wannabes trying to play styles we have no business trying, picking players not for how they fit what we’re aiming to do, but instead for their work addresses.
i agree that analytics should actually discount for x plays in the second division. we keep falling for players with numbers from weaker clubs. even when they have had US caps and failed. and since we’re obsessing about numbers and not play, we don’t get “why” it doesn’t work.
if i want to get real punchy, some analytics firm can sell us data and have zero clue about soccer itself. vs. scouting is someone with a clue about soccer saying you need to watch x play, he’s a star, here are his tools. and then we pick the ones with the right tools.
i keep hearing people advocate sargent or someone like that on raw numbers and no one is talking about how he has evolved to do anything any better with the NT. like, donovan went to FFC and found his shooting boots. ok, you are now 10x more useful than some dance on the ball college winger was.
that and there continues to be an emphasis on abstracted stuff like tempo, which was faster, but too little concern with do players X Y Z actually play together well and anticipate each other.
but then this is picked like an all star team.
i mean dempsey went to FFC. like players whose games evolve, or they get more fit. otherwise it should be fairly evident by now that x getting a transfer or loan to the championship, while good for their careers, and an emotive platform to sell them getting called up, doesn’t necessarily mean they have changed or improved any from their last lousy cap.
the fact we keep getting fooled on this makes me question the quality of the folks involved and their soccer knowledge. it’s international soccer 101 club doesn’t necessarily equal country play. they can either do it or not. and to me the perseverance suggests people reading spreadsheets or following hype as opposed to actually watching.
like i said the other day. it stood out to me on sargent’s recent goals he got ball to feet in open space facing goal and running at people. unless he’s tasked to do that here, so what about his norwich numbers?
Some of our players can‘t be counted on with regards to injuries. Our pool is shallower then we want to admit. We overrate success in secondary leagues and the bottom of top leagues. Time for some young fighters.
In an attempt to cultivate Euro soccer over the decades we have forgotten how to fight. It‘s been weaned out of us. We are soft and the book is out on us.
I have been telling folks Scally is a very limited players for years. Have watched him a boatload. Nope, he plays at BMG, he has to be real good just because of that.
Nope….not how it works.
These next 18 mths will be morbidly fascinating. Unless we can have a miracle like in 2002, great young players mixed with an unprecedented outbreak of health, it is gonna be wil.
I thought Sargent played well. He fed off literal scraps, but the few times the ball came his way, he won aerial duels, held up the ball decently well, and sent some useful passes to teammates. Wasn’t much more he could do given Mexico’s dominance of the midfield.
Of a starting midfield that was poor on the day, I thought Busio was the best of the bunch. based on a combination of staying on his feet, being competitive, and trying to be positive.
wut? that was two of the least effective out there. you couldn’t wedge tim ream in that presentation and go for the wooden spoon? vazquez comes on and we get a shot on cage and some life in the striker spot. tessmann similarly woke up the midfield.
Busio was good for the first 10-15 or so minutes. He had one play where he turned and drove thru the defense drawing a free kick. Then like everyone else went into a shell where they stood around waiting for someone else to do something about Mexico running over us. He had I think 20 passes the entire match, against Panama 43.
both 6s got in each other’s way, they did not move well together off the ball in the buildout imo, and the dual pivot build out is weird to me; I get it on D but they were both just standing there, no interchanging on depth or height or into gaps or between lines. it looked really uncoordinated
BB: yeah for good stretches Jimenez was covering both of them because they were so close together and stationary. Then they were just standing on the line and daring the fullbacks to dribble with their weak foot.
Stopped watching after the second goal. Thus team has many issues.
It seemed like the US didn’t want to play. It seemed like nobody wanted the ball. For most of the match it was basically one-way traffic towards Matt Turner EVEN THOUGH THE STATS ARE KINDA EVEN.
—————-USMNT—————–VS————–MEXICO——-
–
——————–5—————–SHOTS—————–17————
–
——————–1————SHOTS ON GOAL———5————-
–
——————-53%————-POSSESSION———47%———–
–
——————-388—————-PASSES————-343————-
–
——————-78%—————–PASS %————–77%———–
Stats show we didn’t know what to do when we had the ball. Mexico locked down the Midfield, blocked off all our passing lines which left Sargent stranded. The USMNT couldn’t muster anything going forward — not even a single shot in the first half. As I said before Brenden Aaronson doesn’t not have the physical attributes to be the focal point for the USMNT (as he spend the majority for the game on the turf!!!), his “harassing and energetic” style of play doesn’t work in a midfield with Busio (not physical / cannot hold off pressure) and Morris (not physical / cannot hold off pressure).
IT IS NO SURPRISE THAT THE BETTER PLAYERS (if you can even call it that) WERE:
Alejandro Zendejas – Was a livewire immediately upon setting cleats on the pitch and brought SOME life to the game in more ways than one.
Brandon Vazquez – Also made his presence felt almost immediately by winning a header on the edge of the box and then had the USMNT’s ONLY SHOT on goal in the 79th minute.
Tanner Tessmann – Was decent and showed this game needed a bonafide/dedicated/physical Defensive Midfielder, and when he replaced Busio immediately looked the better of the two. He brought SOME stability to the midfield when he did get the ball, showing off some composure
Antonee Robinson – Probably the only USMNT player that started that can say played well in the first half was Jedi. Even when most of the pieces around him were falling apart, he still seem to be some form of threat in defense and attack.
(throw in a fit Cade Cowell, a hungry Luca De La Torre, an-in-form Jesus Ferreira and a motivated Diego Luna…….with Vazguez, Tessmann, Zendejas and Jedi on the field and this is a different game)
I’m not too worried about the score-line as most of these players were probably pre-picked base off of USSoccer recommendations……but now it has, at the same time, shown player limitations in the pool, which is a start for actual player assessment and evaluation for Mauricio Pochettino and his coaching staff.
“throw in a fit Cade Cowell, a hungry Luca De La Torre, an-in-form Jesus Ferreira and a motivated Diego Luna…….with Vazguez, Tessmann, Zendejas and Jedi on the field and this is a different game)”
Luca, Ferreira, and Luna all are routinely pushed off the ball. As for Tessmann, Zendajas, and Vazquez. They all entered a very different game state in which Mexico had relaxed its game state up 2-0 and subbing in mostly younger players. They took advantage of what was offered to them but may not have looked passable had they been on the field from minute 22-60 when Mexico was going full tilt.
Jesus Ferreira is overrated and wont do anything against top 20 competition like Tim Ream. He can only score hatricks on Grenada and other weak minnow teams. He looked lost and scared in that Holland match.
“Luca, Ferreira, and Luna all are routinely pushed off the ball.”
It wouldn’t be the best (but we are taking about the best for a B-Team)………..but Luca and Tessmann from a defensive posture PLAYING OUT THE BACK would be better than a Busio / Morris midfield. I’m only bringing in Ferreira and Luna because they are better / quicker with the ball when in form than what was on the field yesterday.
“They all entered a very different game state in which Mexico had relaxed its game state up 2-0 and subbing in mostly younger players.”
BS, lol….Zendejas was subbed on in the 46th min and has an immediate impact. USMNT also made the second set of subs in the 63 min and IMMEDIATELY CALM THE PRESSURE. Mexico started making substitutions minutes after because the USMNT were suddenly turning the tide.
Striker
You are correct that why “Jesus Ferreira makes USMNT history with back-to-back hat tricks” and even though it’s against weaker opposition there is a reason it’s a record, BECAUSE NO OTHER USMNT PLAYER HAS DONE IT. Just saying…….
Hence the nickname – Pirate of the Caribbean, lol
15 goals in 23 appearances (a hattrick record to his resume) is nothing to dismiss
Bizzy: sorry you are right on Zendajas I forgot he didn’t come in with the rest in the 63rd minute. He did have the benefit of not wanting to hear about it from his friends and teammates on the other team as a motivation.
i like ferreira but as i was saying before this week, to me he has similar issues to sargent — though is perhaps more versatile. like if the idea is combine off him, we can’t seem to find a false 9 to actually ground pass to them. he can score some headers and volleys but the primary reason we would want him — that i suggested him also — doesn’t usually work.
to make him work, IMO, we have to run off the ball more and become more like clockwork orange. like he doesn’t even try to stay 9 hole and just shows all over the place until he gets a pass and tries to turn or flick it on. and someone else makes a run through that channel to cover him.
Musah is not a winger. In both games his side of this system was so bad it wasn’t an option. Without Pulisic this game, the left wasn’t much better and the middle of the pitch was even less of an option than either channel. Not one positive from this game. The 2-0 flatters us.
Tillman was shockingly terrible. Aaronson was on the ground more than upright. Morris was static and slow. Musah was virtually not there. Sargent as well. Busio at least tried to play positively but was bad. Same with Ream.
It almost seems like different players should have been selected to start. The subs did offer more but any life was smothered once Mexico’s subs came on so maybe the US would have fared similarly if they started the subs.
Wow. Really bad. Let’s go with all the excuses – new coach’s system, b squad, elevation, tired, amazing free kick – and look to forward to the next window and hope injuries and load management don’t limit the team from learning and implementing the new system. This window doesn’t count, ok?
If u want to go with ALL the excuses then u have to throw a jab at GB somehow for creating this. Then u have it all covered. 🙂
How could I have missed that?! Yeah, he was terrible too when he had a B squad playing Mexico.
Tillman did shock me too. I thought he’d be ready to grab his chance. He clearly wasn’t.
Vasquez and Zendejas did what I expected them to do. Tessmann did what I expected him to do. Those were all guys I thought were going to factor under Pochettino and I’m feeling smug about those predictions at the moment, though I thought Tillman was going to be far better and I missed there. I definitely think Ferreira is going to get a look and I think people might end up shocked what he can do when played to his strengths. (Being a #9 is not one of them.)
I was back on forth on Sargent. In a lot of ways it’s hard to judge because he almost never touched the ball; it just wasn’t reaching him. He still had a very quiet window and definitely didn’t put his stamp down on the position. Busio’s another one who did some good things but was also too quiet overall. He didn’t play himself off the roster but he certainly didn’t make an emphatic case either.
Aidan Morris was a train wreck. I think he’s got a future but he was in over his head last night; he’s not there yet.
The rest…meh, or worse. I don’t see any of them except maybe Aaronson, Scally, and Turner sticking as the injured guys return.
I thought Morris might do ok because he performed well in CCL against Monterrey and Tigres but I had forgotten he missed the Tigres away match do to a red card. He was really good at Monterrey when we won 3-1 on the road. He brought back his Pachuca performance however. The silly foul just outside the box gave Mexico the chance from a great location. If Jimenez doesn’t score there I think it’s a vastly different game. We never recovered and they never looked back. I do think Poch should convince Yunus to go on loan to Columbus to work with Wilfred from Jan-June, teach him to take risks and be decisive.
q, you’re not the only one to call both Vasquez and Zendejas 😉
and Ferreira
cheers
Credit to Vazquez for getting the one shot on goal, however he has to score that mostly uncontested header off the corner. He couldn’t even get it on frame.
I missed the first half and, considering how bad the second half was, I’m glad I missed the first half. You can’t change your talent, but you always can put in maximum effort. Mexico outfought us for just about every ball I saw. Probably 75% of the time that Mexico pressed the US player with the ball it resulted in a turnover. Poor control on hard hit passes, poor passes, and players not moving much off the ball. They couldn’t have beaten a poor MLS team. It’s hard to believe that some of those players are in top leagues. Kyle Martino lamented their passivity, something I have noted before, although I use the term lack of toughness. This was illustrated when there was maybe 15 or 20 minutes left in the game and we were down 2-0 and the CB’s spent about 2-3 minutes passing the ball back and forth to one another. They didn’t even try to advance the ball. This was just awful.
Gary,
“there was maybe 15 or 20 minutes left in the game and we were down 2-0 and the CB’s spent about 2-3 minutes passing the ball back and forth to one another. They didn’t even try to advance the ball. This was just awful.”
When I see that and I notice that they just played a game three days ago I ask what is the temperature and humidity. Best as I can find it was in the 80’s with 80% humidity.
If they were just passing back and forth like that it probably means there was no one running to get open which sounds like everyone was gassed.
I noticed that with Wright, Vasquez ,Tessman and later Trusty, fresh legs and size really livened them up for a minute or two.
Jimenez’s golazo was as unstoppable as it gets.
His sliding tackle on Ream that led to the goal was absolutely perfect
Lund missed a volley that he really should have done better on. Had he converted, that would have changed the game significantly.
Ironic than our most diminutive player was the chippiest player we had.
Otherwise it looked like a lot of USMNT vs El Tri games over the years.
Same shit, different score. I couldn’t hear, were the El Tri fans still chanting their usual stuff?
Vacqui – admirable attempt to put lipstick on a pig.
Betinho,
Thanks
Mexico games are usually pretty boring, either they pass us dizzy and make us look slow and foolish.
Or we beat the shit out of them.
This game had some points of interest:
Jimenez was the difference and was awesome. I hope this translates to Fulham for their sake.
Many here have been pushing Tillman as a Gio/CP successor. I can’t remember a thing he did all night. You know the expression men vs boys? He looked like he was 14 years old. Time for Ritchie to get back into playing attacking midfield for PSV. There is an opening with us..
The tall trees package of Wright, Vasquez, Tessman, big boys, fresh legs, looked promising.
Zendejas may have bought himself a little more time in terms of being considered. Not a lot of time but some.
About 99% of the time the USMNT player was unable to beat the Mexican player off the dribble all night long. They looked gassed and did not seem to be used to the pitch. Good thing the World Cup is all home games.
According to an article today, yes they still were chanting itand, I think it was Guadardo, who defended it saying it was no big deal; let the fans have fun.
– you could see a metaphorical weight lifted off Mexico when Jimenez scored. After that they looked like Mexico pre-2021. Hard to play thru, opportunistic when you make mistakes. Not the squad we’ve seen the last 3 years despite being a lot of the same players.
– It was pretty apparent we were missing our best 8 players.
– Aaronson tried but his energetic skill set is a nice compliment to Pulisic or Reyna he can’t lead an offense against a decent side.
– we continue to often look for the perfect shot opportunity which often means no shot opportunity
JR,
Clearly Aguirre seems to have lit a fire under them and he could not have asked for a more motivating occasion.
Jedi did warn us that Jimenez is on his way back. He was on fire and was the difference. Otherwise it was same old, same old.