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USMNT analysis

Analysis: Ugly 2-1 loss at home to Canada accurately reflects status of the USMNT

While the U.S. national team will soon have a new coach, the team's poor performance in a 2-1 loss to Canada is an accurate relection of a team that has a lot of work to do - specifically with its mentality. 
BY Brian Sciaretta Posted
September 08, 2024
6:00 AM

THE UNITED STATES national team lost to Canada by a 2-1 score in front of a sparse crowd of 10,523 in Kansas City on Saturday. It is easy to dismiss this game as a friendly played under an interim manager with no big games on the short-term horizon. But dismissing the dismal performance from the U.S. team is a mistake, it was an accurate reflection of the team.

It’s a poorly kept secret that Mauricio Pochettino is likely to be announced as the team’s head coach soon, but this game shows that he will have a lot of work to do.

Interim head coach Mikey Varas made a predictable starting lineup. His starting lineup consisted of all the team’s usual starters for the past 18 months. When one starter was not there, he started the main backup (for example, Kristoffer Lund started for Antonee Robinson, Johnny Cardoso started for Tyler Adams, Malik Tillman started for Gio Reyna, Brenden Aaronson started for Tim Weah, Yunus Musah started for Weston McKennie). The lone exception was Patrick Schulte who got the nod in goal over Matt Turner or Ethan Horvath.

The bottom-line is that the lineup was a mix of the usual starters and first-choice bench players – all of whom would have made a first-choice 26-player roster.

The first half was terrible. The U.S. team was outshot 11-1 and it required Turner making a pair of big saves to keep the game close.



The second half was slightly better as substitutes Luca de la Torre and Aidan Morris both played well. In the 66th minute, the pair combined to pull the U.S. team to within a goal. In the end, Morris and de la Torre were the only field players who played well (Schulte also acquitted himself well in goal). Through them, a few starters like Joe Scally and Christian Pulisic began to also improve. But the performances was a net negative for everyone else.

Breaking down this game requires taking a step away from tactics, formations, and game plans. This is 100% a question of mentality

 

Mentality and the on/off switch

 

This game should not be dismissed as a friendly played under an interim head coach. To do that would suggest that there is an on/off switch in that the players can suddenly start to care or raise the intensity based on the opponent, the stage, and who is their coach.

I am skeptical there is an on/off button, but if there is, that also reflects poorly on this team. First, the players for the national team should always be motivated when given the opportunity to represent their country. There are many good players who never get that honor.

"The mentality is on the players,” Varas said afterward. “Sorry, they know it. They know it. We speak the truth to each other, that's on them."

Tim Ream might be at the end of his international career, but he has seen more ups and downs than anyone else on the U.S. team. He has captained a Premier League team, and led teams to promotion in huge situations that require players to be motivated.

When Ream issues criticism, people should pay attention.

"I think there's a certain standard that we need to hold ourselves to we haven't been doing that," Ream said. "That's on us as individuals, as players, and it has to come from within us. You can't coach intensity."

The U.S. team is not nearly good enough to be at a level where they pick and choose the performances they want to give 100% effort. Good teams become good because they practice being good. They’re always good. If players don’t play well, they’re either benched or not called up.

One of Gregg Berhalter’s biggest problems is that he decided he was going to roll with a young lineup for the 2022 World Cup, and then keep most of that lineup together for an entire cycle ahead with no real change. The problem is that it created complacency. Players kept getting called up after poor international windows, or falling into positions with their club where they’re playing poorly or became benched. The U.S. team became stale and there was no urgency.

We saw that at the Copa America this past summer. The 2022 World Cup team with mostly the same players (just younger and more inexperienced) would have won that game.

But that also raises another troubling point. Wouldn’t a group of players naturally be motivated to put the Copa America behind them? They were playing against a neighboring country that is surging in their quest to become regionally dominant while being coached by an American who has wanted to coach the U.S. team.

Forget Pochettino for a second. Just playing for this team in a desperate moment should naturally bring out a sense of desperation in the U.S. team. It should be ingrained, and not dependent on whether they like the coach. These players are all professionals. At this stage, they should know how to not be complacent.

 

Pochettino is watching

 

Another big problem with the whole mentality issue is that while Pochettino is not the head coach right now, everyone knows he is watching. For those who think Pochettino’s presence will suddenly make players more intense, this should give some pause to that.

This will be the first time Pochettino has coached a national team. That will give him a unique power to not have to deal with difficult players who aren’t helpful to him. At big clubs like Tottenham, PSG, or Chelsea, if there was an expensive player on the squad who was a problem, Pochettino had to deal with him the best he could. With the national team, he doesn’t have to deal with players he is forced to keep due to their price tag. Now, he can just not call-them up and forget about them.

The players know Pochettino is watching and he will soon dictate whether they receive future call-ups. For the U.S. team, there aren’t as many untouchables as people think. It’s hard to think of a situation where Pulisic and Antonee Robinson aren’t in the plans. After that, everyone should be playing like their USMNT future is on the line – which is how it should always be.

Most of the players did not make a good impression and have only instead sent a signal to the new manager he needs to expand the player pool.

 

The choices ahead

 

Assuming Pochettino gets the job, his path forward lies somewhere between the extreme options of: 1) a complete rebuild with many new players or 2) keeping the entire existing team while simply changing tactics.

The degree between these two options will be up to Pochettino, but after this game and the Copa America, its clear the USMNT is not in a good place right now. The fact that the core has been together for 4-6 years and the talking points are mentality (and showing up motivated) is not good.

It’s hard to think Pochettino will rewatch the performances over the past year and think he just needs to tinker here or there.

Right away, Pochettino is going to be looking for players he can trust to play hard and execute his game plan. Everyone except Schulte, de la Torre, and Morris was poor against Canada (and it shouldn't be surprising that those three USMNT players were the best as all three probably had the most to prove). It’s hard to think Pochettino is watching this game (or rewatching the Copa America) thinking he saw players he can trust. He might take a wrecking ball to the concept of automatic call-ups/starters. After all, if Weston McKennie is going to play like he did at the Copa America, is he useful to the team? At what point does Reyna’s lack of club minutes make him someone who can’t be dependable? The same with Tyler Adams. Malik Tillman and Johny Cardoso have been doing well for their clubs, but how long does he wait for that to finally transfer over to the USMNT (which is yet to happen after a few years)?

 

Watching the game on Saturday, it’s hard to not think that the U.S. team is chasing Canada in many regards. Collectively, the players function much better aa a team. I particularly enjoyed watching a player like Jacob Shaffelburg who is coming off a great Copa America. Canada had a poor 2022 World Cup, but is now in a much better place. They’ve found players who make their overall team better. Shaffelburg, a winger for Nashville, was better than any of the U.S. players in either this game or at the Copa.  

It's good that the program will be getting a fresh set of eyes. But don’t be surprised if the Canada game is just more indication that big changes are needed.

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