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

Hmm... I dunno. I think he had time enough to get a bit further out.

It was a nice ball to Wright. Too bad he couldn't make a similarly nice pass himself.

 

Pretty sure McKennie put Balogun through nicely down the left in first half, but Balogun got caught by defense and centered the ball with Morris making late run to misplay the shot. Weston was not the one making that run because he had sprung the attack from back the other side of midfield line.

 

The thing about Arfsten and to an extent Frreman is that they don't give up the ball. Freeman a little bit, still, but its fun to watch guys bounce off him and that's the big thing. Poch values avoiding turnovers to 1v1 defense. Which is antithetical to traditional American thinking.

 

Tillman also played a really nice through pass (little bender with the outside of his right boot) to Balogun in the first half.

On that early Balogun chance on goal, I noticed somebody (looked like Weston) sort of jogging toward the area. As it turned out, he should have been on his horse, because there was a long rebound that he might have been able to hit.

This reminds me that Weston was interviewed by Beas, Dunseth and Martino after the game. He went into some detail about having gotten himself into better shape recently (went on a diet, lost a lot of weight, "stopped eating too many snacks"...). I just thought, "Wow, NOW you're getting yourself into better shape?" Better late than never, I guess...

 

He didn't misplay the shot, it hit Weah.

 

Freeman improved pretty steadily through the course of the game, but early on he was a turnover machine (three of the first four times he passed it, iirc). Hopefully he will continue to improve that aspect of his game.

 

Is James Sands better than Roldan? I assume so. Would have liked to see him as the sub for Morris.

And is Brendan better than Luna? Would have like to see him as the sub for McKennie.

 

Yes and no. We were missing at least three starters - Dest, Robinson, and Adams. Cardoso could also start.

 

Why did Robinson start ahead of McKenzie and CCV?

 

If that were a WC game, and that was the effort the US was putting forward in the group we're gonna see -- which, spoiler, is gonna be pretty easy -- US would be headed to the 2nd round and hopeful of maybe a good matchup to be able to plausibly get to the quarters.

It's not so much that it was perfect or anything, but I think that's maybe the most focused US performance I've seen in awhile. Japan was good I guess. This felt better to me. Even with the mistakes, this was a pretty comprehensive performance. I don't think anyone was below par... which is pretty damn rare for this team, at least when they're not beating up on an Oman or whatever.

We can't know what's going on behind the scenes obviously, but whatever you can say about Poch his job of motivating some of these guys and getting them to take to his system sure seems to be working to my eyes.

No doubt. 3 great takeaways. Encouraging.

Balogun was a menace.

 

Yeah, all it took was us looking like we had a good plan. If we look like crap against Australia, those questions will come back.

 

Just a great game to watch and an even better showing from the team as a cohesive unit, running for each other off the ball, looking to play quickly and like several have already mentioned, covering for each other defensively when the play demands.
And hats off to all the folks in Austin tonight, great atmosphere and backing for our guys all game long!
Looking forward to what the team can build on tonight when we lock horns with the Socceroos.

 

Along with the obviously good performances, like Balogun, I was impressed with Morris. I felt like he gave us needed bite in the midfield and really helped. Weston didn't impress me much - faded in and out of the game.

I'll also mention Arfsten. He was giving Ecuador's RB problems. At first he cheated him to his left, thinking he was a stock left-footed player, but quickly learned how comfortable Arfsten is going to his right (and shooting with his right as well). Arfsten also played a couple of nice long passes into the box late in the game.

 

There are times when we have some good play on the right (and tonight we did at times both with Weah and with Freeman), but there is never a time when I would genuinely prefer any of them (or Scally, or anyone else) to Dest. We aren't TOTALLY at full strength minus Dest.

 

I feel that there are times when other teams will situationally overload us in the midfield and with flank play while we're in the back 3, and we can't be too tightly wedded to it. Perhaps we should be having this discussion in more detail in the "Back 3 vs Back 4" thread, but briefly, this back 3 benefits Ream, Arfsten if Jedi's a no-go, Dest, and Freeman if we need him, and in general a somewhat more direct approach in attack. It plays out of the back until usually Ream springs something over the top.

 

Yeah, Ecuador had us cooked 3v2 there, and Freese did the one thing that could could've possibly salvaged the play.

 

I still want to see Kris Lund at left back.

 

Whatever the formation is, it’s really working and it seems tactically flexible.

So many good performances. So very encouraging. I thought Luna was actually quite good. He’s like a high tempo metronome that can pitch in with a goal or assist here and there.

I have to say if the World Cup was tomorrow I think I’d want Tessman starting.

Haji Wright was quite poor in his minutes. He had several opportunities and made waste of most of them.

 

Cross posting from one of the positional threads

So we’ve reached a place where the “starters” or the “A” lineup really are/is fluid depending on what Poch wants to do tactically based on the team we’re playing against. I’ve been very critical of Poch. I thought he had no plan. His experimentation made no sense to me. But the fact that Morris, Tessmann and Malik could all start in an A team match, all not only not look out of place but play so well, playing with the confidence that the each 100% belong on the pitch at the start of a match…that I have myself legitimately questioning whether their alternates are upgrades….if that was the plan over the last 6 months(rather than Poch simply throwing shit on the wall so many times that he as eventually gonna get it right)….then Poch is a ********ing genius.

 

It looked to me like the basic defensive shape was a 4-2-3-1 with Robinson playing a mostly stay-at-home right back, similar to how Scally played it back in some of the first games after Poch took over. (Technically, Robinson has played more RB than RCB under Pochettino) But the most common pressing shape had McKennie step up high next to Balogun, with either Tessman or Morris stepping into Wes's midfield space.
When the team transitioned to attack, it turned into a 3-2-4-1, with Balogun out ahead of the attacking 4 line of Arsten-McKennie-Tillman-Weah.

So the shift from a 4-2-3-1 to a 3-2-4-1 from defense to attack is what I think we've mostly played under Pochettino? But he likes to vary how the shift from defense to offense works.

 

My standouts were Balo, Tillman, and Arfsten, good effort all around though. Only complaint was that a second chance or half chance couldn’t be taken, at the World Cup that will be the difference between business as usual or a next step.

 

Solid performance by the men.

The ref - not so much.

Tillman has such insane skills on the ball …

Tessman looked very strong composed and thoughtful on the ball.

Pretty clear who our number one striker is.

Ecuador is so hard to break down but were it not for some poor final pass ball decisions (Wright etc) a fair result would have been 2-1 in our favor.

I wonder if Musah is simply below Tessman and Cardoso now.

Yes love that term - Luna is a high tempo metronome - he just keeps the ball moving quickly which is very important.

Can start to see Poch’s mark in the squad - and now he is finally starting to refine his roster.

Looking brighter for sure.

 

every cup for the most part, the usa typically has a good game, a mediocre game, and a bad game in the first round. so, this would not have guaranteed anything with three games; it would likely mean battling it out for 4 points and hoping some things go our way.

 

Overall a superb game for us. Poch had them well prepared and they probably should have won that game. Best US showing in a long time.

All the Poch doesn't know what he's doing crowd I have a question for you. Did you enjoy your crow for breakfast this morning? J/K but I think he's known from day one how he was going to build this team and how he wanted to approach each window. Showed in spades last night.

Just so fun and can't wait for Tuesday!!

Now the "bad news": There are some pretty good players who are not going to make the final roster.

I had a big question going into last night and that was if every body is healthy who is the odd man out. After last night I think its Weah. Just not going to sit Tillman, he's just too good. Now the flip side is that for next summer's group stage we have enough depth that we will be able to rotate a good number of players and not run the top guys into the ground.

 

If we are going to 3 in the back, Richards is the right side CB. I do believe McKenzie is the center and we need to find a left side. Ream is still hanging in there, but it's inevitable. I see why Scally was not called in. I hope that was Miles' last chance. I was disappointed by our inability to create more chances in the final third as well as 7-8 corners and nothing.