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.