Post-match: Belgium 5, USA 2 Post Match Thread

I do think Aaronson should get a look in that 5–1-3-1 formation or whatever it is with McKennie and Pulisic. It allows Pulisic to run around as a free no responsibility ten, McKennie on the right, Aaronson on the left, 2 sector 8s with the ability to move forward which McKennie will mostly certainly do. Aaronson will be more cautious but it’s not a bad thing because Robinson has a tendency of wanting to get more forward so staying up at the top of the box is something Aaronson can do. With Gudmondson at Leeds, Aaronson plays a strategic forward movement and they seem to cover each other well. With A. Robinson I think the ambition is a little more there for Robinson to always be that person and I don’t think Aaronson minds being the safety net linkage and Brendan is now less likely to kick it back to the defense but actually give a more attacking oriented ball.

Aaronson’s game has grown considerably in breaking up redirects if the opposition counters quickly which is why he’s getting the nod over James, Gnoto, and so many other wingers at Leeds. He gets stuck in and really only loses the ball when he gets cute. Our little guy, Medford Messi has grown so much but as an Ineista (8) more than a 10.

 

I do too. I really want to see him do well as a Union homegrown, but I'm not at all convinced he's the answer. But he's definitely no worse than Miles and probably Ream at this point. But when Ream was protected in the first half hour he made a couple really impressive line breaking passes though. We'll see. If we are starting three true center backs this summer I think it really should be Richards, McKenzie and Zimmerman.

 

Bottom line:

Missing too many of our better defensive players. Richards and M. Robinson out and Adams not there just spread the rest too thin. Individually its ok to have guys like Roldan, Berhalter, Johnny etc on the roster. The problem arises when you have multiple guys from that secondary list all playing at once.

 

Agree with the first portion, but I will say that when Jonny left the match it was 1-1. Roldan and Berhalter were both equally not good yesterday, and Roldan might have played himself out of contention without an injury. I think we see Morris off the bunch against Portugal.

 

This is exactly what he does for Leeds. I’d go further in saying his offensive side and production has improved. We had no one effective in the middle space between deep mid and final third and it would have made sense to sub him at the least.

 

Tim Ream’s athletic ability is cratering right on schedule, just before the World Cup. As predicted four years ago.

 

There’s a thread dedicated to the always imminent collapse, never happened, decline of Ream. So I dispute the timing you put out there.

I’ll go back to what I’ve said a number of times…up to 2024, Ream was what I’d term MLS great, which status makes a player at least a candidate for the Nats. Last year I thought he deteriorated to MLS good. Players in that bucket, well, for me, they’re the kind of player we should be trying to upgrade via replacement.

He’s still got value if our line of confrontation is deep enough. I would be afraid of playing him if he’s expected to defend in space.

I would also add that he’s kinda sorta a companion for Tyler Adams. He makes up for Adam’s’ weaknesses and vice versa.

 

I am also in the Trusty camp. There are some that think since he hasn’t been called up and played so far he isn’t in Poch’s favorable graces. But I actually think Poch likes him a lot. Poch called him up for the gold cup but he also just had a baby like Musah or got married, I believe. Then in the fall camps he was injured or recovering.

In the Scottish league a CB-LB on a team like Celtic develops skills for pass breaking low blocks and breaking counters. Vickers vs Iran was a good example. They get their moment in the champions league-Europa and against Rangers (frenetic and fast Paced game) to show other skills as a defender marking talented players. To me Trusty can be utilized because he adds value passing like Richards, space to cover and also can play that LB position if there’s a mid game tactical switch. I’d say that one of the biggest. If teams like the Netherlands, Spain, France, and Belgium want to give us the ball more than players like Trusty would be helpful because he is comfortable on the ball, can make that line breaking pass, and has the athleticism to cover counters.

So the question is can he play at the frenetic speed of an international match like playing against rangers but against better quality. Can he actually play “that game” too impress to get himself in. I think he plays vs Portugal in a back 5 which means he’s going to be busy covering, so it’s make it or break it game for trusty

 

I am not gonna roast Weah for struggling with Doku. But I am uoset we did not help him more or have a better strategic plan.

I think we have to be in a 3 back vs top teams. Period. Even with Jedi/Dest healthy.

Pulisic & Tillman were both poor.

The first and fourth Belgium goals were both great shots. But Turner & Ream could have done better on the first and Arfsten on the fourth. The 2nd was a nice piece of play and Turner had no shot, but frustrating because the top of the box had been open too often. The 3rd was on Ream after Turner made a great stop on Doku. And the 5th was on Berhalter.

 

I think it might be time to consider an XI without Pulisic.

And I'd move Tillman back into CM. Not CAM. Not wide. CM.

 

I love that you picked one of the most overrated, barely involved, performances in USMNT history to make a point about another likely overvalued Celtic player.

 

No, the main goal of the friendlies in this window is to play the games as we would at the World Cup using our best available players for the starting 11, and using the most favorable substitutes. Of course this is situational and depends on the opponent, so there is some variance.

Turner played either because he wants to give the backup GK some reps or because he is unsure of whether Freese or Turner will start. I think it was the former. Tyler Adams and Dest being injured further muddied the waters.

 

The issue is that Belgium is a better team than the USA and Doku is better than any player we have. Adams, Dest, and Pulisic are injured.

 

What's that ditty about the three most important factors in buying / selling real estate?

Location, location, and location

Our equivalent for the US defense - which Poch needs to repeat, again and again:

3 in the back line
3 in the back line
3 in the back line

 

It seemed to me our game plan was wrong in that it tried to start very up-tempo and that actually seemed to work and we scored first and early. But that plan did not take into account who we were playing and how really good they could be if angered.
After we scored they changed a bit and we wee no longer even remotely dominate then, after halftime they simply took everything we did well in the first half and prevented it. We are not, and never have been, particularly good at adapting on the fly and that has not change and we did not adapt to anything Belgium tried to do so we went into a defensive shell and Belgium took us apart, totally apart.
Then came the subs and our subs were very sub par. That is with every sub for us our play went down hill and with every one of their subs their play went up or at least did not drop until the very end when Belgium was laughing so hard they lost concentration and gave up a late meaningless goal.

But this was only a friendly and it meant nothing and, hopefully, our coach learned who he could and could not trust. We were not really good enough to play Belgium straight up and, when they finally decided to play near their level we just gave in to their superior ability.
The team played a bit like the Month of march where we came in like a lion and went out like a lamb and Belgium enjoyed the roast mutton on a spit.

Given that we do have a decent starting lineup (albeit a wee bit toothless) this shows we badly need to find some subs that will not lower the level of play when they enter the match. But it is too late to continue to search for the missing pieces so we will just have to make do with what we have. I hope our coach turns out to be even better than we hoped he was and find a way to get both solid play out of this somewhat weak group of players and get a rotation that is useable against good teams.

My optimism about the WC is now at an all time low but I am open to the idea that we can do better that we showed against Belgium. I am hoping we were just overwhelmed by the opponent and that, when we play our next match we show it a bit.
I would hate to actually go into this WC with two losses playing friendlies on home turf.

BTW: I think having/allowing 11 subs in these matches and the fake water breaks are simply foolish at best and hurts us in our WC preparations.

Now to try and enjoy some other friendlies today and even an interesting NWSL match coming later.

 

Good Rant.

This line...

while our motherfreaking captain is cowering in the background, covering his man-bun with one hand and looking away.

damn.

 

Again, I’m not saying Roldan didn’t play hard, or well, for what he is capable of. I’m not saying there aren’t about a dozen culprits for the result we just had, Euros and MLS guys alike. I am saying Roldan is not good enough to hang with a team like Belgium on his best day. He is good enough to play against Australia. Not his fault, just the reality. Berhalter is worse. If we have those guys on the field in a knockout match we are cooked.

 

That is fair, the theory of the defensively sound Scally always seems to be questionable in a US shirt. Maybe I'm just giving him too much credit for locking down Vini nearly 2 years ago

 

im just going to say some things here.

tesserman (6'2) and cardoso (6'1) both play in "world class" leagues/competitions- which doesnt make them magically, inherently better than anyone else but does expose and give them experience against a much higher speed of play. thats an area of tessermans game ive addressed before (primarily in offensive terms)- that he isnt up to the speed of play (thought, if you) as our other euro-based guys. and notably neither are defensively-minded players.

conversely, roldan (5'8) and seb (5'9) dont have that experience against top level speed of play. yet. roldan has played glorified club friendlies and watched a world cup up close, with more intl friendlies against top teams than sebs handful. its a big jump up. while i wouldnt describe seb as a true 6 by any means, i would say both are more defensive-oriented than their counterparts. and while size isnt the end-all, be-all in any discussion it is a factor in a deeper lying cm.

i dont know if poch made his decisions based on size, defensive-ability or experience against the level of teams we are playing from here on out. but the analysis/comparisons here tend to overlook all of those factors for some vague "x was better than y, z shouldnt even be in the team". that applies both overall and acutely amplified per match.

yesterday i only saw one outlier from the four of them, and that was sebs passing (most surprisingly his set pieces) were atypically terrible. the outlying circumstance of course is johnnys thus-far inability to translate his ability to any national team role.

i thought tesserman, cardoso and roldan were both roughly the same level of "does it really matter when you ship 5 goals"? the idea that roldan was better than seb because none of the goals balls we couldnt keep out of the top of the box were closest to him is pretty weird.

its like oversimplifying pulis harder to miss than make chance from 4 yards by acting like anyone else would have finished when theres very clearly no one else who gets into positions like that to make or miss.

its not excusing not even getting that shot on frame, or sebs inability on the day to block a shot- if roldan is such a superior player why wasnt he is position to block, or not block, any shots?

its so weird to go this far into roldan vs seb (vs tesserman vs cardoso) but that seems to be a hot topic in this thread. mostly because all 4 should be "competing" for the same, right-sided 8 role (and all well behind wes) while the 6 role should be adams/morris/at least he primarily plays that position roldan, but lets hope to god we dont need a minute from him.

poch created an oh-so-modern, position/role-less slog (in the area we were absolutely abused in (2cb/2 cm) that suited absolutely no one last night. nit-picking the life out of it with zero nuance or actual analysis is just as dismissive of anything constructive.