State of the USMNT & USWNT Address!

 > I’ve been trying to patient, but I can’t hold my fingers any longer.  What the hell is Mauricio Pochettino doing?  To my eyes he is failing to meet expectations on multiple levels.  So much so that I’m questioning how seriously he’s taking this job.  I’m starting to feel like this is his $6 million vacation before he returns to club ball after the 2026 World Cup.

For starters, let’s look at the roster he called in.  Our keeper situation is a mess and I don’t really know what the answer is, so he gets a pass there.  When it comes to defenders Tim Ream continues to get called in for “leadership” even though others have clearly passed him and we have younger options in the pipeline.  Then we look at the fullbacks and Poch only called in three, which was made worse when Antonee Robinson had to withdraw due to knee tendinopathy.  Auston Trusty also had to withdraw with a calf injury.

Instead of bring five central defenders, Ream should have been left off and then Noahkai Banks, who has been getting minutes for Augsburg this season, could have been Trusty’s replacement.  The fullback situation is even more confusing.  Sergiño Dest has just returned from injury and isn’t ready and Joe Scally is a no-brainer as his backup.  After that Poch seems to favor Marlon Fossey over Bryan Reynolds, even though Reynolds is statistically superior in the same league (Belgium).

Left back is where it really gets frustrating.  The cupboard has long been bare after Jedi.  Making matters worse is that Caleb Wiley and John Tolkin are just returning from injury.  HOWEVER, Nathaniel Brown is a regular starter for Eintracht Frankfurt (4th in the Bundesliga).  He’s left-footed and very athletic.  He’s also a dual-national defender like Banks and Anrie Chase (Stuttgart).  Instead, he called in Max Arfsten from MLS, a guy who is by no means ready for this level.

This leads me to a quick sidebar about recruiting, something Gregg Berhalter was very good at.  From what I know it seems like Poch doesn’t care at all.  His stance is "We don't need to convince they want to help us.  USA is massive.”  While I appreciate that sentiment it’s both naïve and uniformed.  First off, the USA is not massive in world football.  We are not Argentina, who has probably never had a dual-nat play for them.  Second, the list of important dual-nat contributors in our history is very long.  This reeks of a guy who doesn’t care about our future and is out of here post the World Cup.  Meanwhile, he’s cutting off his nose to spite his face with guys that could actually help him in the moment.

Back to the midfield roster.  I had no problems with the initial call-ups, including Diego Luna.  I know he plays in MLS, but this guy has that it-factor about him and I’ve wanted to see with the A-team for a while now.  Then when Johnny Cardoso had to withdraw with a muscle injury, Poch calls in Jack McGlynn and Brian Gutiérrez?  Both of them are from MLS and Gutiérrez was terrible in the January camp.  Dude is not even close to an international-level player.  McGlynn has some potential, but to call him in over Aidan Morris, Brenden and Paxten Aaronson is egregiously bad.  I’d have called in Morris myself who has been playing really well for Middlesbrough lately.

The forward situation had no injuries, but contains by far the most head-scratchers.  First off, Yunus Musah is NOT a forward.  Never has been, and never will be.  Next, he called in only two wingers in Christian Pulisic and Tim Weah.  That’s it.  When it comes to strikers Josh Sargent was an easy call, but Patrick Agyemang and Brian White from MLS?  Um…no!  Haji Wright scored a hattrick right before the international break and went 90 minutes in his last two matches.  He could not have even been called in as injury replacement though because he wasn’t on the 60-man provisional roster.  Let that one sink in for a bit.  Was Poch even talking to the Coventry City medical staff?  That is just so, so bad.  Then there is Alejandro Zendejas who by all accounts has been Club América’s best player so far this season.  Not to mention he is a natural winger as well.  I’d have brought Wright and Zendejas for Agyemang and White.  We’ll deal with Musah in a bit here.  Why do I get so worked over roster selections?  Because it always ends up mattering in the end.

The way Poch setup his starting XI made me wonder if and his staff had scouted Panama at all?  If they had, they would have known Los Canaleros were going to park the bus on us for the entire match.  When a team is going to sit in a 5-4-1 and cede possession there is no need to have two defensive midfielders in Tyler Adams and Tanner Tessmann.  Then you are playing Musah at right back which shifts Scally to his weaker left side.  There is a reason Panama manager Thomas Christiansen consistently left Yunus open down the right flank.  That is where our attack went to die.

Those are the two biggest tactical mistakes, but there are more.  For most of the first half Pulisic and Weston McKennie were playing as kind of dual #10s in the middle of the park.  This clogged the middle since neither of them are tight-space creators.  Poch also had Weah on the left wing, when all his of best USMNT performances have come on the right (the space Yunus was in).  I also don’t get starting Ream when Mark McKenzie is a locked-in starter for Toulouse, which has the third best defense in Ligue 1.

As soon as this match kicked off and all we did was pass the ball around the back for the first 10 minutes with no urgency I thought I was watching GGG’s “horseshoe of death” offense again.  It felt to me like the players were not prepared with the proper gameplan to break down a low block.  There were just no ideas or movement along the frontline.  There was nobody in the midfield connecting the backline to the front.  It was like a combination of GGG’s nonexistent tactics combined with Jürgen Klinsmann’s propensity to play guys out of their natural positions.

In the second half Poch moved Pulisic out wide right where he plays for club and had Weah move further out left.  That helped a little, but not much since McKennie is not a #10 and Tim doesn’t like to cross with his left foot.  The subs that he made where completely tone deaf too.  He just doubled down on the tactics that weren’t working with Agyemang for Sargent and McGlynn for Tessmann.

Look, I understand that Josh hasn’t scored for the USMNT since 2019.  The dude is about to be sold to the Premier League this summer for £20-30 million, but he is completely snakebitten for the USMNT.  He had two decent chances, and he barely touched the ball otherwise.  On the first he was unlucky to get a deflection that ricocheted off the post.  He buried the second on very nice finish, but of course Weah was offside in the buildup.  People always act like he plays terrible, but in the first half I have to point out that Pulisic and Weah were both invisible too.  When what I consider our best frontline, all look lost at the same time that is on the coach and his tactics.  Given our options I’d have played Sargent the full 90, and I think he buries one of the two clear chances Agyemang missed.

The McGlynn for Tessmann sub is absolutely inexcusable though.  Other than Jack now being cap-tied, this match was SCREAMING for a real playmaking #10.  Putting in another defensive midfielder was the definition of insanity.  Does Poch even know how to break down a low block?  Gio Reyna would have been my choice, but had Poch chosen Luna (cap-tying him) I would have been fine with that too.  In his postgame press conference Poch said he was waiting until extra time to insert Gio and Diego.  WHAT?  WHY?

I would have taken out McKennie and Tessman at halftime and put in both Reyna and Luna.  I would have also moved Weah to right back for Musah and put Agyemang or White up top with Josh and CP.  We needed to throw all the offense we had at the game.  I would have also put McKenzie in for Ream since going all in we would have needed more speed at back.

Then of course comes the comedy of errors that lead to the goal.  Poor back pass from Pulisic starts it.  Then Ream doesn’t step forward and get touch tight to the goal scorer.  Finally, Matt Turner’s rust shows by being out of position and off balance when the shot is hit.  Truthfully it wasn’t even struck with much pace.  Game over.

There is a lot of talk about how this generation, never EVER call them golden, doesn’t seem to play with the fire and grit of their predecessors.  That’s definitely true.  No doubt about it.  For some reason these guys are able to play hard every 3 days at their clubs and perform well.  Then when they all come together, they don’t play better than the sum of their parts.  Poch was supposed to fix this, but this man is all about winning the press conference with a bunch of nonsense lip service.  He has yet to prove to me that he has the ability to do the job that is required of a national team manager.

At this point it seems to me that the only way we don’t get embarrassed on home soil in the World Cup is that everyone is healthy and played in their best positions.  Otherwise, it’s going to be Copa America, Nations League and likely this summer’s Gold Cup all over again.  CP on the left, Weah on the right and Sargent/Folarin Balogun/Ricardo Pepi/Wright up top.  Adams at the #6, McKennie at the #8 and Gio/Malik Tillman/Luna at the #10.  A backline of Jedi/McKenzie/Chris Richards/Dest with who knows in goal.  Even then you can forget about a deep run the knockout round.  We should advance from the new Round of 32, but after that it’s cross your fingers and hope time.  Or in other words, same as always.

 

> Oh no, I’m not done yet.  Now it’s the USWNT’s turn.  After watching the She Believes Cup I have some serious concerns about them too.  In the short term we need to find a striker to replace Sophia Wilson (Smith).  Maybe Mia Fishel returning from injury will be the answer there.  I think we are fine on the wing with Trinity Rodman, Mallory Swanson, Alyssa Thompson and Ally Sentnor.  I also think the #10 is set with Jaedyn Shaw and Catarina Macario.

After that though, there are a lot of questions to answer prior to the 2027 World Cup in Brazil. 

I think Lily Yohannes is clearly the #8 of the future.  Her backup is less certain though.  Maybe it’s Korbin Albert or possibly Olivia Moultrie?  But Korbin plays too fast and Moultrie too slow.  One thing is for certain though, Lindsey Heaps (Horan) is DONE.  I know coach Emma Hayes loves her, but the longer Heaps is a prominent player for us the longer it will take for us to reach our full potential.

The #6 spot is also more of a question than I think people want to admit.  Ever since Julie Ertz left, we really haven’t had a world class replacement for her.  I’m sorry, but Sam Coffey’s lack of athleticism and propensity to play the ball backwards means she isn’t it.  Maybe it can be Claire Hutton, but I’m not totally sold on her yet.  Someone new needs to emerge in the next two years.

When we move to our back five, after Naomi Girma as CB1, there are questions literally everywhere.  I think I still prefer Tierna Davidson to partner with Girma, but I’m not sure Hayes does.  I like the little I’ve seen of Emily Sams, but she doesn’t have me totally convinced either.  Maybe Sam Staab returning from injury might have something to say too.  One thing I do know is that Emily Sonnett and Tara McKeown are definitely not it.

Our fullback situation is completely up in the air as well.  Emily Fox hasn’t really improved tactically since moving to Arsenal, but she is still very athletic.  Jenna Nighswonger followed her to Arsenal but isn’t playing at all, so that doesn’t help her develop.  Crystal Dunn can no longer be the answer with her move to France.  Gisele Thompson looks promising, but needs more seasoning.  To my eyes these positions are wide open for 2027.

After Alyssa Naeher’s retirement, the keeper predicament for the women is no better than the men.  Casey Murphy seemed like heir apparent but Emma doesn’t seem to rate her.  Neither Jane Campbell nor Mandy McGlynn has impressed me yet.  Some people really seem to like Phallon Tullis-Joyce, but I haven’t seen enough of her to say one way or the other.

The sky is not falling by any means for the USWNT, but it must be acknowledged that Hayes has some tough roster decisions to make.  All this while trying to deepen the player pool and instituting her tactically nuanced style of play.  I just hope she doesn’t fall into the same trap that her predecessors did by relying on the old guard a cycle too long.