Three major differences: The Dutch experience. They created chances and put them away. We looked nervous and tentative and missed two really great chances (Puli at the beginning and Ream to start the 2nd half). We lacked conviction. The Dutch didn’t. They looked comfortable. The coaching. Van Gaal gave us the ball knowing we have trouble creating open play chances. He clogged passing lanes and forced us to make mistakes. Hit us in the counter. The bench. Reyna and Aaronson are fantastic players but they don’t compare to what the Dutch brought in and WHEN these subs occurred. Humbling game for our boys and for Berhalter. We may be good, but we’re not top 8 good. That’s okay. Let’s work on finding a more experience coach and for the love of god, a #9!!!!
Never really looked in it. Lots of huff and puff, but no real threat. The two best chances of the game came from Dutch mistakes and Wright probably couldn’t score that goal again if you gave him a thousand tries. Absolutely brilliant and definite skill, but a large amount of fortune as well.
To dream even for a while was fun. We have great energy, stamina and good skill level but against a better team with better tactical direction, well, you can see the cracks. This team should mature well. I liked that they played without any qualms against a well known Dutch team with a strong history. The players need more time in the oven of their respective club teams and the tactical direction of a dude that is not learning on the job at this level. Back to the old drawing board. The Dutch have no superstar players but their collective is balanced and strong. It indeed looked like a team of men playing against teens. Let's see how they look against a team like Argentina and see if they look this strong.
Technically we were much improved. Quite good even, except for finishing where we were quite bad. Our biggest problem continues to be tactical naïveté as we gave up 3 goals to unmarked players shooting from close range. This is a tie game or even a US win if we take tactical fouls on their counterattacks and we track late runners. Tactical weaknesses falls on the coach. Nice job Gregg, but time to go.
Robinson was awesome going forward, until he wore himself out. But then he pulled an “Ashley Cole” — unnecessarily pinching to center of field while paying zero attention to the space behind him. He allowed a couple goals during the qualifiers in the exact same fashion.
Me watching World Cup games is even worse. Love you guys. Can’t wait for the Olympics and 2026. This team has a bright future.
Well. Find out our team's been cheating and Klein isn't going to be held accountable for it. Then USC loses the Pac-12 championship and a chance at the playoffs. Then the US forgets basic defending principles like "mark a man and stay goal-side of him". Sigh.
It was 2011! I’m hoping I’ll still be working at Visa at the time in 2026. We should have some major stuff going on at the tournament. I read Matt Doyle saying the US should try hard to get into Copa America. Couldn’t agree more.
So we have some nice pieces on our team, and I enjoyed watching them make a go at this WC, but we are not at the level of the top 8 teams. Sure, there could have been an upset if if if... but it was not to be today. An expected loss to a much better team, better size, talent and coaching. We did actually improve the number of chances at goal, and there was some progress through the tournament. But the defensive mistakes were SO naive to be almost laughable. Dest and Robinson wore themselves out as wingers, and didn't have anything left to provide basic defending. We should have kept a stay at home dmid in this game to organize and pick up loose runners. Tyler Adams is a fantastic player, but I think you put Acosta in that position today, probably for Ferreira, and let Pulisic and Weah and Aaronson and Reyna play the false 9. The way we attacked was also naive - left too many holes for the inevitable missed passes and Dutch counters. We played the same gung ho style that we threw at Iran - I think we should have adjusted and played more defensively for longer stretches. Admire how Japan plays conservatively in the first halves, then throws everything forward in the second. Rooting for them to continue their hot streak. The next coach needs to find the right position and role for Pulisic. He's talented no doubt, but I'm not happy with how he'll dribble with his head down, can't perform a give and go, doesn't pass well enough in general, questionable decision-making. Since he was a failure at corners, we should have tried someone else. Appreciate his goal and assist - they were both fantastic. This was a great experience for the young players, and I'm sure several of them will play a big part in the next cycle. Proud of USA - they did their best. I'm embarrassed for Concacaf overall, though.
Excellent analysis and overview. Agree with all points. I also noted Adams failure to carry out his defensive responsibilities but few pundits seemed to notice. And agree 100% that Japan’s approach to playing a better team was far superior to Gregg’s naive one (which played right into our opponents plans).
So far there’s been a major gap in quality (and multiple goals) between the elite teams (Netherlands, Argentina, France, England) and the good teams (US, Australia, Poland, Senegal). None of this is surprising, but I find it interesting especially because so many US fans are saying getting out of the group is no longer good enough. It’s a GIANT leap between the round of 16 and the final 8. Can the US get there someday consistently? Yeah, maybe, but it’ll be a long, long time.
This was always gonna be a WC to blood what turned out to be the second youngest team of the entire tournament and the youngest that made it into single elimination. I thought that a decent outing and elimination in group would have also been a step up from not even qualifying last time around. I think there is something to be said about a young team that plays with the old piss and vinegar against bigger rivals. Gotta give credit to the youngsters and to Berhalter also for not showing great inexperience at coaching at this level. Nobody else in Conca got that 4th game. Costa Rica came in through the back door and after getting completely slammed by Spain they rebounded to win their match vs Japan who are not an easy team to beat as Berhalter will tell you. Mexico was a combination of stubborn coach and old players that had no business in this WC. Lots of blame to go around including the FMF. Canada had a great run in qualifying and did not fold or seem way out of it in these matches but lost all three of their games but definitely a better overall run than they have ever had especially considering the players they had to work with. In the end the lack of experience both at the player and coaching level plus the exhaustion of playing all out tripped the USA up. But now they are all more experience and we had a cold hard look at how each player responded and performed under load and of course with a base of these players and a coach who has experience at this level plus which ever players will break in to the team by 2026 we should be much better. The thing that is of concern is there will be no qualifying run for 2026 and those are lots of matches that help a coach mold a team and players to get to know each other and polish their system and play. What will replace that? Having said all that the first couple matches are looking extremely juicy. Neitherlands vs Argentina and now England vs France. That second one being the juiciest.
They say (don’t know if stats back up) that a team’s most vulnerable time to be scored on is in the 2 minutes after scoring and the 2 minutes before the end of either half. We sure are seeing a lot of the latter? I can think of 3 or 4 recent games with a killer goal scored in final couple minutes of halftime.
I tend to think the measure of success in 2026 should be the quarterfinal. Win the group and get through to a quarterfinal. I agree with your earlier post when you referenced Berhalter being naive. It was also a tactical masterclass by Van Gaal. I’d really like to see us go after a tactician for the next cycle which Gregg is not. This group was good and met expectations for this tournament but if we want it to be able to take the next step in 4 years it’s going to require a coaching staff that is much better able to get that talent into situations for which it is best suited. I think it was also abundantly clear that we lack a true #9 able to play consistently at the international level. At least that’s how I’m unpacking this World Cup for the U.S.
Absolutely this. We (with my American hat on) were singing the praises of Tim Ream and Tyler Adams. The former plays for Fulham and the latter got absolutely manhandled by Tottenham on the last game before the World Cup. England fans were complaining because Foden and Grealish weren’t getting minutes. The US has come a long, long way from they days of Lalas playing in Italy and Harkes playing for Coventry(?), but there’s still a quite a lot of growth before we can say our bench players are starters for top four teams.
I love Adams as a person (what a great piece by Fox on his life) but he does seem a bit over-praised by many USMNT fans. He has a great work rate but he isn’t that big or strong and his defense leaves a bit to be desired.
My husband wasn't impressed, either. I think he's very, very good and had a great tournament that should raise his value in the soccer world. He also took on leadership responsibilities, which can be a drain, with apparent ease. The thing I noticed about his game that I didn't know before was that he looks very fast. I think he will be our captain in the next world cup as well, but we'll see.
Finally getting around to sharing my thoughts on the USA. vs NED match. My honest kneejerk reaction is one of extreme disappointment with both the performance and result. This feels like one of the most underwhelming knock-out round performances I can remember, with the US trailing most of the match and, worse, never really looking like they had a chance. In the past, US teams have seemed more likely to scrap together a goal by hook or crook to get themselves back in a game, even when out-matched. In this game, especially once the 2nd goal came, it just never felt like this US team was gonna pull out a tie, let alone a win. This team seems proficient, but lacks something special, an x-factor that past US teams have had. As complimentary as I was for the first three games, which I still stand by, the R16 game almost feels like a collapse. That is, if I'm praising how well-prepared, focused and defensively sound the US was in the first 3 matches, the inability to bring that to bear in the knockouts feels a bit like a mission failure.
There's a lot to unpack about the Netherlands result and how they contextualize the US results overall. Did most of the starters need to run into the ground in the group? I get there's a steep drop-off at many positions, but couldn't we get more utility from Reyna and Aaronson over these 4 games? Do we have the ability to adjust tactically? The elite teams are showing their quality so far in the knockouts. 4 / 6 of the KO round victors so far will have scored 3 or more on their opponents, which makes our loss sting a bit less.
Do you think so? I mean, they finished 3rd in 2018, losing only to champions France in the KOs, which I think is a fair result. Most days, Belgium should not defeat France, but they did defeat Brazil along the way.