Post-match: USA v. Ecuador [R] - October 10, 2025 - International Friendly

Overall, if that were a WC game, we would have found it acceptable. Especially without Pilisic, Adams, Jedi and Dest.

 

I would have been thrilled. Ecuador is idiotically ranked 24th by FIFA's still botched rankings, but 9th by ELO, outplaying the 9th best team in the world, as we did tonight, is the best performance we've seen in 2 years, and probably the best performance since we tied England at the WC nearly 3 years ago in terms of quality of opposition.

xG had it 1.09 to 0.49 for us on flash score, not sure about other sites.

 

It was a good game. We attacked more than ECU.
I continue to be impressed with Freeman. He is putting Robinson out to pasture.
Arfsten had a solid second half, you can't complain about his game, for now.
The player that did better than expected is Tessmann. You need an enforcer with forward vision. He is making it tough to start Adams for all the games.
Morris did well.
Tillman had his usual game. Good assist by him.
The man of the match...Balo. He is the 9. period. Now who is going to back him up is up for grabs.

 

Agree. I am feeling much better. I have always thought this group is much better suited to a semi direct counterattacking style with a three man back.

 

My thoughts:
Tillman = boss
Balo = also boss
Fabio = can't be boxed. don't box Fabio

This was a really good game. I'd have felt good even if it had ended 1-0. And while 1-1 is the most fair result, I think we were the better team

 

Repped but I think you undersold Tillman a bit.

 

This is it for me. We have legit options. We don’t have to run players into the ground.

The eye opener for me was Tessman. Drew in Pacho, released Tillman for the goal. Composed throughout.

Tillman and Balo are a different level of class. I thought McKennie was okay until he got sloppy. Arfsten was great. Richards was very good except for the goal. Morris, Ream, and Miles were fine. Weah had some good plays, and some garbage.

 

Things are looking up. We look like we play with purpose now.

Balo translates well with this team. Regardless of what he is doing at club, we are going to need his skillset. We really need to have both Balo and Pepi healthy next summer.

I'm kinda surprised that Puli did not have more of an impact when he came on. It's not really a slam as much as it is that he has been sooo good for club this year. Maybe the ankle slowed him down but I have to believe that if he was really significantly hurt, they would not have sent him in there at all.

Arfsten and Freeman are growing on me. I think they may be the backups next summer.

Missed Dest in this one. Always miss Dest when he doesn't play.

 

The first part of that has been so obvious to me for like 4 years now, I figured it was only obvious to me b/c GGG and Poch are smarter than me. Turns out they aren’t.

The back 3 was something I’ve wanted to see us try, and yeah, that looks like a winner too.

 

Against the A-Team of a top non-Concacaf team--2nd in Conmebol Qualifying-- this was the best performance since France in 2018. Yeah, Ecuador were missing a few guys from the starting lineup. We were also missing a few guys.

1. The guys looked like they got paid to play for a living.
2. The team shape was excellent throughout the match
3. The team defended well against a good, energetic, athletic, and physical press
4. The goal against came from an outstanding counter and individual effort, rather than a WTF lapse.

Progress.

 

Tessmann translated his Venezia and Lyon form to the USMNT for the first time I've ever seen. Worth noting, dude has only started 5 games EVER for the USMNT. Five, oddly a couple in a row winter '24-'25, but that's it. Hard to make firm judgements on a guy based on all of four career starts heading into tonight (and 380 career minutes lol).

Sometimes the lack of patience is kind of nuts, vividness bias is real, sometimes on my part, sometimes on others. Tillman suffered the same firm judgements from day 1, took forever for some to change their minds. Happily with Tillman, I see people changing their minds after only a couple of starts.

Of course this is just 1 game, but it's of a piece w/him playing absolutely dominant soccer with a Lyon side that's playing in Europa League and currently in a 3 way tie for 2nd place in Ligue 1.

 

Probably one of the best games we have seen from the US in a long time considering the opponent and who we had on the bench/injured. Balo, Tillman and Tessmann were my big winners on the night.

 

This game could've used his sauce.

 

A quality match. Didn’t have the feel of a friendly. I hope all our remaining friendlies are that intense. Not Ecuador’s full first XI but damn close. Most of you already made the comments I would have made.
Canadian ref was atrocious.
glad Pulisic got a run out for fitness but we just as well could have rested him for the duration. I would have liked to have seen Haji sub in at LW instead of him but I liked the runout at striker. Interested to see what happens when Pepi is fit but Balo is the clear starter regardless.
Poch is on the road to redemption as far as I’m concerned.


Edit: oh, and Tessman was a revelation. I follow him at Lyon but it’s good to see him adapt to the NT

 

Tess has been playing out of his mind for club, but this is the first time he has done it for country. If he keeps it up, even Musah may not make the final 23.

 

No argument on Tessman.

 

What I as a fan like is that these 3 performances provided a lot of clarity. Yes, we can rely on Balogun. Yes, Tillman is a clear starter. Yes, Tessman is a viable hedge against Musah’s form.

 

Not quite their A team. But it wasn't ours either.

 

Pretty happy, thought the win was gettable but we were down 4 starters and outplayed a top 20 team in the World. Also an incredibly difficult team to come back from a 1-0 deficit to. Ecuador goal was 3 forgivable mistakes players than unfortunately happened at the same time and were combined with an incredible strike.

Freese didn't have much to do for the first hour and got beat on a not angle, but I thought was really solid in the last 30 minutes.

Wasn't Weah's best game, but his quality showed in moments. Arfsten still scares me defensively and it was shaky in the early part of the match but you can't deny his peskyness going forward, I'm fine with him being Antonee's backup. It was a short stint but Freeman was really good defensively and was great at creating counters, but he was just a tad wasteful on some passes.

CB's had me sweating bullets in the opening few minutes when Ecuador was pressing like crazy, but I thought it was a pretty solid trio.

Morris was probably the worst part of the first half, but he did get better. I though this might have been Tessman's best game for us and it was really nice to have McKennie back. Tillman was a little quiet for stretches, but found himself involved in nearly every dangerous moment we had.

Balo could have been a hair more clinical, but the dude was an absolute handful for one of the best CB's in the world tonight and was rewarded with the goal. I'm a little worried about him not getting a ton of minutes at Monaco, but he's been the star of the last couple games so far.

 

We suddenly have a lot of credible CM options: Adams & Tessman. Wes & Tillman can certainly play back there. Morris, Musah, LDLT, Cardoso, Roldan, McGlynn. Eveeybody is a little different.

 

That was a great performance. The ecuador goal was avoidable and i dont expect those types of options to be available typically.

 

Super intense fun game. I think besides a system that brings out the best in our players, Poch has created a true sense of competition for spots. It took time and was awful to watch, but it might be bearing fruit.

 

Even the guys who were poorest amongst the starters in my view (Freese, Robinson, Weah) had good moments. Everyone was perfectly fine or better.

MOTM: Balo
Next Best: Tillman, Tessman, McKennie

 

He may have gotten Angulo, the living foul machine, tossed from the game.