Post-match: USA v. Japan - September 9, 2025 - International Friendly

Looked much better but a material reason is the drop off in quality of opponent. Hard to adjust for that, but I hope Poch can.

Japan had several good looks that just didn’t go in. If they score one of those, everything could feel very different. The 3atb worked pretty well, but it put Ream and Blackmon in more space than I think the team can really handle against good teams.

Balogun was quite good. Roldan is still Roldan. Freeman was the most interesting. Reminds me a little of Hedjuk. Motor. Hard nosed D. One trick O but it can work.

 

enjoy the win and buy yourself something nice.

to finally address your attempted bet with me (which i couldnt care about less), ill just refer you to sko pre-match thread (its locked so i cant quote, but im almost positive its two pages from the end at most). i said there poch was testing blackmon with ream (his #1 cb) while richards would get the start tonight. there was never anything to bet about.

and im more than happy to be wrong about this win.

 

Tonight the USMNT players--all of them--performed very well. I don't care if it was the Japanese 2nd team. The guys showed up, in unison, and everyone played up to the highest standard. I expected that before the game started (and I won $150 on that off a $10 bet!). I'm so proud of how they all comported today. Great props to the whole TEAM today.

 

There’s cringe stuff there in the attacking third.

 

Guess that's a no on Banks. Not surprising. 2, 3, 4, 5 however many CBs we play, I'm worried, there.

 

Japan could have scored. Yes. But for every goal that they could have scored, we could have scored two more. We killed it today. Fantastic showing from our guys. I'm even more excited for what next month will bring.

 

Kinda skeptical of that, I know he plays plenty of WF, but I don't think it makes sense for him to play there other than wide open games. If he's trying to break down set defenses, I just can see it working, otoh, Sargent is donezo, so for now anyway, it seems like him, Downs or Agyemang. For now, I'd take Wright and Downs, depending upon WF availability.

 

Side note - Mexico draws with Korea 2-2 on a near-last-minute goal from Santi Gimenez.

from the little I watched, Korea is no joke - not a surprise. They were excellent again, and Son is world class, as we all know. El Tri players seemed to be rushing to see who could get his jersey first.

I hope we don’t see Korea in the WC

 

He feels more steady than Turner. Maybe lower ceiling for a total standout performance but feels less likely to blow it and have a breakdown.

 

What's unfortunate is that the mls keepers won't really play much until the spring.

 

xG according to Footystats was 1.20 to 1.00 in the US favor

 

I appreciate our conversations on here (and I always have).

 

And if it is Ream as LCB, Arob has the lungs and wheels to help cover.

 

Reasons why 3 ATB makes sense: Weak overall CB crew puts less pressure on the players we start, frees us our fullbacks -- most of which aren't strong two way players -- to provide width in attack.

Reasons why 3 ATB does not make sense: Creates a potential ability to get outnumbered in the midfield in both directions which is exacerbated if the nominal winger pair to Pulisic is someone other than a real CM; gives us only two spots for McKennie, Tillman, Reyna, Weah, (Johnny) and Musah in order to put a subpar CB on the field.

I can see why it worked tonight. If we are injury ridden come the summer, it may make a lot of sense. A lot depends on how many of those five (six with Johnny) are playing well come the summer.

We'd have to bench quite a few of them anyway, but if, for example, we get good Reyna back, I don't think that trade-off works. If it is just Musah, though?

Freeman was murdering Maeda. He pushed Japan's wingback permanently up the field and repeated got the ball deep into Japanese territory. He had some good crosses that didn't come off, and had some less than good plays offensively, but the positive was that he threw off the Japanese defensive structure, created a ton of space and gave us a fairly reliable way to beat their press.

Once we figured out we could do this a lot, we started to progress the ball much better. Which was important, because Adams+Roldan is weak at that.

Freeman's not Dest and never will be, but when you compare him to what someone like Scally brings ... we get none of that. Just backpasses to Richards that are recycled.

It's very similar to the Sargent / Balogun debate. Balo's not getting better service and Freeman isn't getting better chances to get forward. They are creating them.

Defensively, Freeman largely took Maeda out of the game by pushed him, and when Mitoma came in, he stonewalled him at least a couple of times.

 

I'm just glad we won, and looked good doing it. We really needed that.

Does anybody know what Poch is going to do with the October roster? If they say they do, they are lying.

 

two positions of need, no less. im not the biggest fan (id say hes slightly rated overall by the fanbase/media)- but frankly he could be even a bit "worse" and still be in a very good position.

i think the real question is if luna, or possibly arfsten (as a winger) can make a compelling enough case to carry a 3rd third there, while i dont see any striker as likely at all to claim the "third" spot there (independently).

 

That's a surprising stat. Because it sure seemed like we COULD have scored 4. Freese had a few (or several) good saves, but it didn't seem like he was the decisive difference in this game. But also, props to Freese for being very solid today.

 

Obviously, a much better performance albeit against a not first choice Japan team.

2 nice goals, and should've had more with better finishing.

Still not at all happy with the chances we gave up, but credited to Freese for doing his job.

Anyone who thinks that Balogun is not our #1 # 9, must've missed this game.

He is head and shoulders above of all the other candidates.

If only Max had Freeman's athleticism to defend, he might actually help us against good teams, but…

And Freeman gets in dangerous positions but there's absolutely none of the end product Max offers.

Much better from Adams and Christian.

I thought Roldan was surprisingly good, but he still had a couple of scary giveaways, although Richards had the worst one in the entire game, and he was pretty good overall otherwise.

It would be nice to see if Zendejas can put in this type of performance consistently.

 

This seems kind of silly doesn't it? MLS produces the bulk of our best young players coming up in the academies after all. The only issue people have, generally speaking, is with players they don't perceive as good enough, getting called up, period. Paranoia from the Klinsy years, and early Berhalter years made that sentiment more MLS vs Europe, was it wrong? In 2019? Was that bizarre story in some book wrong (I'd assume so because it sounded insane)....but Sherman's march to the sea? Just sounds silly as hell doesn't it. I just don't want inferior players in the pool unless they genuinely add something beyond glue and chemistry, they have to be playable. I don't want Euro Klinsy, and I don't want MLS Arf, or Berhalter.

 

I think Reyna and Tillman can play one of the two winger/attacking mid roles in this formation with Pulisic. Really the two wingbacks are providing the width.

 

And the familiarity. I think poch is counting on the duo, not just Ream alone.

 

I'll take them in the World Cup. Not because I don't think they are good, but I do think our team was simply nowhere near as organized as we will be and we won't be debuting a CB against Son.

 

Call me a liar, but I know where Poch is going next month. Right in this moment I've been celebrating. I look forward to the next few weeks of discussion.

 

I would say we do. We lost a striker to injury in the last two world cups we made: Altidore in 2014 and Sargent in 2022. If the roster is 26, then one of the “extra” spots should be a striker