Post-match: USA v. Australia [R] - October 14, 2025 - International Friendly

I haven't seen too many mention it, but McKennie had a positive performance after a quiet first 20 minutes. He had to go looking for the game, but he was a driving force from a few minutes after we went down a goal until he was taken off after the 70th.

 

Sands and Morris are fighting for a spot.

Johnny should be able to outplay these two.

Very crowded midfield( a great thing).

 

Among CBs the biggest winner is Ream. Richards is a lock even after subpar games, but still don't see anyone solid after them.

 

McKennie was great. Definitely non-Haji/Roldan MOTM.

Best game he's played for the US in a while.

 

Naw bud most players are not that different. 2019 Pulisic, McKennie, Weah etc were good. They are also still very good in 2025. I prefer not to get to a WC match with Roldan playing and then he decides to revert back to his mean, which is probably closer to 2019 Roldan, rather than this brief 6 month period in 2025 where he has been pretty good.

 

Talked too much for my taste.

 

Right now, the "fringe" midfielder who is earning it most is Roldan, frankly. I'd put him fractionally ahead of Morris. But behind Adams, McKennie, Tessman (and Tillman), at least.

 

two players have stood out to me this window, in terms of wc roster spots.

it seems like it getting away from luna. not being a believer (on any level) of either zendejas or mcglynn ive seen luna as having earned the pole position at least (along with his poch merit badge). hes struggled to make any impact at all.

i think hes a skilled player, and clearly he meets the run a lot threshold but hes not...doing anything. hes just raw and incredibly inconsistent, and he cant find his footing at this level. the gc was sub-mls level other than mex, and australia is not an impressive team (qualifiers and unbeaten streak and all). im not expecting a ton, but im seeing nothing.

that came into stark relief when aaronson stepped on the pitch tonight. in a match/appearance he was essentially lights out, ironically, luna should have been the biggest beneficiary. and this isnt a fair comparison, but i saw people saying balos goal the other day wasnt "special", or "impressive" but luna showed in a far better position that tap-ins arent as sure a thing as people think they are.

the other guy who deeply disappointed tonight/fri was freeman. this after i got completely comfortable with him (in finally seeing a full upside over the last window), but good grief was he a complete and utter non-factor.

my next "roster" update is going to be trickier than i thought it would be. i still think scally being exiled keeps freeman in the mix but im not feeling real good about that right now. that level of inconsistency is dangerous on a wc roster and hes not going to be a twenty-something guy who "wont even play" if dest/jedi/arfsten are the only dedicated fb/wbs. he not close to the picture at all as a cb option (however nominal).

and whats really sucks about that (their primary effect in the team being inconsistency) is theyre both about to be out of action for 3 months.

anywho, good for haji for a nice, hard push to pat. i still think he lacks the ability to keep the shape, vertically, that balo/pepi/pat do, but full credit to him.

and one more gc flashback- full credit to the first assist from roldan, but the second was like that pair of assists arfsten had in a match this summer; just balls played into space for guys (brendan and haji) to run on to, where those guys then completely created the goal themselves.

 

Six years is a very long time, and he's improved. The idea that we'd ignore current performances because of something over a decade ago is poor logic and leads to very bad decisions.

If he declines over the next year, we will see. But for now, he's absolutely earned a spot.

 

That's the sad thing. I was really, really hoping that someone would grab it.

And let's just put this out there: CCV is at best a fringe candidate. I give Roldan a better chance of making the squad at a more crowded position.

 

I was prepared to see Morris outplay Roldan over the window for what is clearly the same role. And nope. Roldan was very good today.

I was having a discussion with someone that said that "High 6s" is the highest rating we could ever expect from Roldan, and that's clearly wrong. Good for him.

Agree that Tessman is ahead just on certain skillsets, but it's also a different role, I think.

I'm really curious to see Adams back in the mix, just to see how he fits into a much more active and aggressive midfield.

 

Thrilled with Haji's in-form play. The dude's a beast - can be both a hold-up/back to the goal 9 and is good enough with the ball to be a finesse 9. We haven't had 2 such effective strikers with Haji and Balogun since I don't know when - and I've been following the US for 15+ years.

You want Pulisic on the field as a withdrawn striker but if he's ever unavailable, you could roll Haji, with Balogun and Tillman underneath in a 3-4-2-1 and we'd do well.

Australia was underwhelming and not particularly threatening. Very chippy, CONCACAF-type play from them. Ecuador on the other hand is #9 on the ELO rankings and a tie with them is a real accomplishment.

I'm going to grab a ticket for the US v Uruguay game in Tampa - I suspect US fans will be in the minority.

 

i agree with the bolded.

 

I don't have anything against CCV and I hope if we have to play him, he plays well. But I've never understood what anyone sees in him as a plus.

Like Ream, he's subpar in the air and weak in space. He's not overly fast. He's an okay passer, more reliable than line breaking; so he's worse than Ream. If he's going to excel, it's going to be reading the opponent and playing smart ball ... that's not different than Ream. I guess he's a bit stronger, maybe?

I can understand wanting Miles -- he's fast, he's great in the air. He doesn't have the passing or the experience of Ream, but at least there's give and take. Not sure what the give is for CCV versus Ream.

 

So, Poch was flat out lying when he said the experimenting was ending in the last window?

I personally am sick and tired of him giving priority to keeping the players healthy and rested for their clubs, as opposed to preparing for the ********ing World Cup!

I'm going to be even more pissed if Pulisic and Jedi start their next club games.

That said, we didn't play too badly, but we sure continue to give up bad goals, was everybody watching TV or something instead of going to the ball?

Wright took his chances well, obviously, but other than that, the finishing by everyone else was pretty crap.

He and Roldan might have booked their tickets.

Hard pass on Morris and Sands.

I really don't like the Robinsons on the right side, either defensively, nor offensively…

Does anyone else think our press is pretty bad? We keep running towards a guy, and he easily sidesteps or passes around us. Luna is the worst offender.

It's hard to believe but Freese might be worse with his feet than Turner!

 

To me, the most important takeaway from this window has nothing to do with whether a particular player's stock went up or down.

Instead, it's this...

We came from behind to get a result. Twice.

Call it The Return of Grit.

We've been begging for that for over a year now. I think we got it.

 

Roldan is our WC26 glue guy - great attitude, understands what Poch is trying to do, smart. Agree that he'll be on the WC roster. He may not see a lot of the field but you need players like him on the bench.

 

Yeah, like players don't improve.

 

Ideally, given their respective ceilings, Johnny and Musah get it together and take over central midfield. But if they don't, there's still plenty of talent.

 

if only your logic applied to everyone...

 

And he was at worst our third best player today, and probably better than that.

 

I'm not ignoring his performance, he was very good today. But lets try not being a prisoner of the moment my man. And 6 months of being pretty good is not that impressive for a 30 y/o. I have no problem with him being on the team right now.

 

I have to admit I've never rated the guy in his past national team life, but he's been pretty good, playing more defensively(despite the 2 assists LOL) the last 2 windows.

 

I'll take Roldan as the end of the 23 guy if someone like Sands or Morris can't grab the spot. Johnny gotta play up to his talent next window.

All of our middies love playing with Wright due to the way he runs the channels. He has some problems finding the hold up game compared to Balo. Also, he's a finisher. Big Pat's raw physicality isn't overcoming that.

 

And how am I doing that? I simply said he was very good today. And he was.

His age is irrelevant. We don't get points for being younger at the World Cup.

So what is your issue exactly then?