Pre-match: 2026 World Cup Roster

given Richards’ injury, Poch should have called in 1-2 extra players for fitnesss to be ready. Now if he brings in a Zimmerman or whomever last second, they are coming in cold with no real prep.

 

Nothing could be more obvious, which strongly suggests that Richards is a heavy favorite to recover in time to participate.

 

One of the best primers I have seen on how the US plays and why we could go far in the WC

Start at 1:40 which explains how we play and how the roster accommodates our flexible playing shape.

 

I would suggest that we have to think about what “by themselves” means. To me that really only occurs in offense to defense transition or in the quasi-transition of a press break. That’s when 6s are left on an island. Otherwise they have help screening in front of the backline from the other CMs. So to be a natural 6 a player has to be disciplined in their positioning and good at reading danger. They have to be good at weighing whether to step or hold tight. That package of skills is especially valuable in emergency situations and creating the foundation for an organized team defense. By virtue of where that role puts them the 6 is required to make a lot of decisions that are high leverage and have cascading effects.

I think Cardoso is absolutely that guy. La Liga is a higher level of competition than international play and his teams play him in the role that requires him to hold deepest of any of their CMs. Tessmann has also largely been asked to do that for Lyon but he is not as consistent and sharp in his reads. Specifically, he can be passive against the ball. Morris is more active on D but my qualms are more about his overall level than what style of player he is.

I don’t think you can list Pirlo as a natural 6 and insist on range as a requirement. All 3 of our guys listed above have more range. Range is a bonus that builds on top of intelligent positioning and sharp reads. Jones and Bradley had way more range than Beckerman but they had a deep need to ball hawk and roam. That meant that they did not provide the positional coverage and balance of a 6, Kyle did. This is an example of why I think positioning is more fundamental than ground coverage for the role. Adams has a lot of that ball hawk in him but he has learned to be more positional and his roaming was more contained to the defensive side of the ball. Tyler is lucky he was fast/quick enough to get on the field before he was savvy. He then got enough good reps (even though a bunch were at FB) to learn that side of the game.

If Tyler is the 6 “by himself” he is going to be flanked by two guys who defend as 8s. The weakside 8 will tuck-in and cover the 6 space in the middle while Tyler shifts ballside. In possession he’s going to have 1 or 2 guys next to him. That could be 1 or 2 of those 8s or a FB or both or a combination. We are not going to play a nonsensical formation without close support for the 6. Nobody does that anymore. What has happened is that all players are required to cover a little more ground (especially to defend), formations have gotten more compact, guys who attack as “10s” from CM defend like 8s (which means doing a lot of what a 6 does), and FBs are more likely to be called on to help out.

 

That's what Canada did. Admittedly, they have bigger injury issues.

 

4W1D0L in the last 5 in which the US started with 343 or the hybrid.

 

I mean...........................presumably he brought 5 natural CBs due to questions about Richards' injury. He didn't need to otherwise, because Freeman/Scally have also been playing there in the 3-4-3. The "victims" of that decision could have been Tessmann and Morris.

Could he have brought a few others in to train? Of course. A few nations are doing. The majority are not. England has that group of young players training with them. Reportedly, they're going to even paly in their last friendly. Might even start in the case of Alex Scott.

.....................because let's be honest: I'm not exactly sure the risk of player injury on the eve of this event is worth the match. Was the friendly against Nicaragua worth the Enciso injury for Paraguay???

I'd be just as happy not playing the Germany friendly at all.

 

Pulisic got 45 minutes on May 24 and 45 minutes on May 31. That’s not enough time for him to be ready to play 90 against Paraguay. Others are in a similar boat. This match is important.

 

“Match fitness is overrated.”

—Anonymous

 

It’s not just fitness I’m concerned about. I’d like for them to further develop some chemistry, particularly in the back.

 

I'm not surprised they stayed anonymous

We've seen how Tyler struggles to get to to speed in his first couple of games after an injury.

 

Yeah he loved Luna too until he didn't. Based on the evidence of this game, it looks like when the rubber actually meets the road, shifting is exactly what he'll do.