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

Don’t believe SK subbed any CB’s out of the game but could look again.

 

Reyna and Zendejas are completely different type of players. I don't think they compete for the same spot. I think Zendejas will compete with Aaronson, and Aaronson is in the outside looking in.
But anything can happen with this crazy coach.

 

Ummm, I would be more specific and say, it's a rotated side, and getting a result, even against a ---- side, while performing well is always a good thing, and most of the squad performed well, and earned the result. But was this a good team? I don't know, it's definitely not their A, as their coach said before the game, it's a rotated side. It was interesting to listen to a Japan fan on scuffed say that fans haven't been super happy with the team in the past year before the window, looking at the results, I'm not quite sure why, maybe just the Australia results (1 point out of home and home qualifiers), and the home draw with an underperforming Saudi side? I guess that is a dip, 3 bad qualifying results for Japan standards (October, March, and June Windows in qualifying had some missteps, September of '24 looked great).

So it's a really hard game to parse beyond, we played well and performed well against a substandard team, w/only 4 of our for sure starters starting (Pulisic, Adams, Balo, Richards), another guy in a competition for the gig (Freese) and another guy who shouldn't be starting, but Poch insists on for leadership reasons (Ream). So that's basically essentially a rotated US as well with only 4 of my best 10 field players. Good news in terms of results, and performance and much better news than the S. Korea performance, but also, we shouldn't dance over clubbing Bermuda, or T&T and we shouldn't dance over beating Japan's backups with 40% of our starters either, we should just be, mostly, satisfied. So quibbling disagreement, but not huge disagreement.

 

Feels like for now:
1. Balo
2. Pepi
3. Downs
4. Agyemang
5. Wright

Sargent just got tossed overboard.

he won't be relevant again until fall '26, at the earliest, or a gigantic array of injuries smash the position. Again, I say this as a fan and supporter, but you can't lay an egg like he did this window, and have meh performances in fall '24, and March '25 for Poch and have a chance really, and that's fair.

 

I didn't mean they're similar types of players.

Simply that after you lock in the guys who aren't actually at this camp, like a Malik Tillman..............there aren't actually that many open spots. There are roster slots up for grabs that players such as Zendejas, Aaronson, and Reyna are fighting for (regardless of role). Has Luna locked up a spot? Depends on who you ask.

 

Yep, you take Pepi, and Balo, both of whom have been hurt repeatedly or seriously once, in the past two years, and you figure out who to take between Downs, Haji, and <gag>, agyemang. Needless to say, the latter I'm leaving at home, Haji I take for the postional versatility unless he's hurt and/or Downs has a monster season in England.

 

The next two windows include THREE teams from Conmebol that were essentially tied, a tier below Argentine that finished 10 points ahead of everyone save Ecuador. It's interesting actually to dig into the details as Argentina was clearly the best side, 9 points clear of Ecuador in 2nd with 29 points, and with twice the GD of everyone else (+21), but Ecuador did produce something astonishing, a goals surrendered number orders of magnitude better than anyone else (only 5 GA in 18 Conmebol qualifiers, the next best defenses in Argentina and Paraguay gave up twice as many goals).

Anyway, we get Ecuador and that monster defense, a Uruguay side that I've viewed as generally as tough as Argentina, but they didn't show it finishing 10 points behind, and 11 behind in GD, but we play them too, and then Paraguay, who had an identical record to Uruguay and Colombia in qualifying, w/the one key difference being, they had a much better defense than Colombia and slightly better than Uruguay, but a vastly inferior attack (14 goals scored compared to Colombia's 28 and Uruguay's 22) which is why they were significantly worse in GD.

We are gonna learn a ton in that window, we play an excellent team in Uruguay, an outstanding defense and solid team in Ecuador that outperformed that Uruguay, and a solid Paraguay with a great defense, as well as an Australia side that finished ahead of some decent AFC teams to qualify directly rather than cope with a playoff like the Saudi's will have too.

We'll learn the next two windows the story of where this team is at and the scale of panic, or lack of panic, some of us like me, may start to indulge again (or not).

 

I'd be "happy" to see some US boys who are true international level quality. That precludes BOTH Berhalter and Roldan.

I share your frustration of the true fan.

 

Look, everyone enjoys winning more than losing.

But this is an analysis forum, and to analyze the team's prospects and the player's abilities, you need context.

It's different if they're playing a first choice top 25 team, and a backup top 25 team.

You can tell this by comparing our allegedly top 25 team's starters, to its backups…

Edit: beaten to this by nbarbour

 

I do see results, but we were also playing a team without Son, and we just generally were more organized. We started Richards, which is our best CB. Roldan is a better defensive player than Berhalter and Blackmon was over some of his likely first minute jitters.

So the level of difficulty went down and our defensive personnel got better.

More importantly, when we have a more full team, it's very likely that going 3 ATB will exclude two of: McKennie, Tillman, Weah, Musah, Reyna and Johnny. I don't know why you are even mentioning guys like Tessman and Morris, here, btw, I don't think they'd be better than Roldan really and there's no spot on the roster for them anyway in a 3 ATB.

I don't think that's the end of the world, but it's a lot of talent to keep off the field and it's a lot of talent to keep off the center of the field, where Pochettino's system often requires numbers. We did struggle early on to really progress the ball against even a Japan B team -- I don't know that this set up can really get the ball forward against better teams.

And with Jedi playing, that means that we don't really need to protect both wingbacks.

I'm not opposed to it and we shouldn't definitely keep it in the rotation, but I'm neither sold it is best for a more complete A team not am I sold it was the driving factor in a game that played a Japan squad without a killer attacker and started Richards and up top Balogun (who isn't much of a defender but absolutely changed the game).

It clearly helped our wingbacks affect the game, which is great. I am certain Tristan Blackmon and Ream are really better in it, so I'm there on that. But when we have more CMs back, or the opponent has a different set up, etc., I'm not sure it's the best set up.

 

Near the bottom. I'd have Jedi, Dest, and Arfsten ahead of him. That's it. Scally, Tolkein, Lund, .....are all below him IMO.

 

It depends what your baseline is. I think we definitely played better, period, than against South Korea. I think, talent wise, this Japan team was probably better on average than South Korea, with the exception of Son. A very talented attacked changes this a lot. I do think South Korea was a bit more organized due to experience.

But this was a good performance against a team that probably is in the ELO Top 50? Which is right around us in current ELO, and we really did control much of the game aside from the very early minutes.

I would even argue aside from some very fixable mistakes and an inability to finish, we otherwise outplayed #30, South Korea.

If you are saying, oh, we're ready to take on the Netherlands again, no, this isn't an indication of that. But we've lost to #35 ranked Panama and looked clueless against #27 Canada with a roster people seemed to think is better in March ...

... I don't think this performance here is JUST levels of competition. I actually think that South Korea is more of the outlier with putting new faces on the field and a lot of confusion from that.

 

Yes, you are not wrong. In related news: what skillset is missing from nearly all our center midfielders?

 

The biggest problem against South Korea was disorganization and lack of players working well with each other. The tactical defensive disorganization can be solved, even in an international team. The offensive confusion was mitigated by not playing Christian and Luna on top of each other, they are very similar players.

Starting Balogun generated a ton more space. It wasn't Blackmon's first minutes in a cap ever. We replaced Berhalter with a better defensive CM (and we'll upgrade a lot next window).

The only issue that I think we really had against South Korea that I don't know if it goes away is the relative inability to really convert chances to goals. But that's most every team without an elite scorer.

I'm not saying this team is ready in any way, but I think if we re-played South Korea tomorrow, we win that game.

 

I don’t think you use a 3 ATB to “protect the fullbacks”. It’s what a lot of our CB’s have played in quite a bit with their clubs including our best CB’s. It is putting another “weaker player” on the field but it provides a lot more cover for a mistake at the CB spot. Ball progression will happen the same it did the last 2 games even against good comp. Free reigning 10’s essentially and dual 8’s to go along with stretching the field wide with the FB’s is how you do it. I’ve been wanting a 3 ATB since Berhalter days but Poch seems like he can really teach the intricacies of it and how to make it work. Exemplified by last night ball progression against a high, intense press like Japan, no matter who they have out there.

 

What was the major complaint at WC 2022?

GGG didn't rotate enough and when we got to the Dutch we were out of gas.

Now fast forward to Sept 2025.

What is the complaint we get over and over and over and over about Poch?

He doesn't know what he's doing. Keeps brining in these nobodies and leaving key players at their clubs. Yet Blackmon, Arfsted, and Freeman are improving by leaps and bounds. Guys three moths ago were in the "what the hell is Poch doing" bunch.

He changes formation and the team plays well, very well, against a top team in Japan. Oh but it was their B team blah blah blah.

This is just all too funny. he is doing EXACTLY what he should be doing,.

1. Looking at fringe players and trying to develop them.
2. Varying formation and tactics to see what works and what doesn't.
3. Preparing to build a cohesive set of 23 or 26 players for next summer that ALL can be used depending on match circumstances.

Keep it up Poch and don't listen to the idiots.

 

Lots of options. McKennie is the obvious one -- he's not much better at the short passing but he has a better long ball and he's an absolute wrecking ball when he's motoring. He will definitely make his errors like Roldan and he can be a bit blase at the back -- we need the McKennie back that doesn't act like he's still in Italy.

Tillman is a more refined option but I think he's the RW if McKennie is in. But if McKennie isn't there do we mind if Weah or if Reyna breaks back through, etc., and Tillman is there? He might actually be the best exact fit.

I don't think Johnny can do the run all the way to the front and press, but he could stay home more and defend.

Of the less talented crew, Aidan Morris is probably the closest like for like with Roldan but I think Cristian is better today. But not by enough for me to care too much.

 

Protect might not be the right word but the big benefit of playing 3 ATB last night was to allow Freeman and Arfsten to play very far forward and provide both vertical stretching and attacking width without worrying so much about getting back on defense.

That's especially important since Poch wants his wingers to come back for the ball and play more centrally. They basically provide zero verticality or width. It's one of the reasons why I think Weah looked so bad against South Korea -- Weah is about vertical player and sending him back isn't that.

 

I don't know what team's fullbacks you are watching, but it's not the US fullbacks, I assume.

 

At his worst Musah is better at the than DLT's best...

 

3ATB as a wrinkle we can go to is fine, should always have a plan B, even if it’s just because plan A is on fire.

What I’m concerned about and see many people echoing, is thinking 3ATB should be our plan A based on this evidence vs a Japan b/c squad.

We can’t reliably deploy 2 competent CBs, let alone 3 and the obvious need for a 4th in that scenario. I also don’t live in a reality where having the likes of McKinnie/Weah level players on the bench, so a McKenzie/CCV/Blackmon/honestly don’t even know who level dude can play 90 in ANY meaningful game.

As for Freeman I didn’t see anything resembling competence going forward and haven’t at any point in a U.S. shirt, although as mentioned earlier I remain hopeful and view him as the only potentially competent back up on both sides of the ball, with Scally being ok defensively (probably should convert to CB for us) useless going forward and Arfsten being the antithesis of that, I HOPE Freeman becomes the synthesis, but this game was a step back, not forward for me.

 

I think Pochettino's casting of Haji as more of a winger is odd (and not at all right for what Poch does), but I would not be shocked if Haji is otherwise on Poch's bad side. He's never, ever, ever been close to a high work rate guy. There are times he looks straight lazy out there. This isn't a new malaise for Haji, either, he was the worst presser under Berhalter as well. If he doesn't see a ball coming his way, he's not moving.

I would also say this about Big Pat -- he uses his size and Haji's never actually realized he's a big guy.

This comment is interesting. I don't disagree, but (a) that definitely isn't something Poch is going to love and (b) ironically, I really do think it's fairly common to national team coaches to fill out the back end of their roster with guys who don't have to fly far / who won't feel this way exactly for this reason and I think the fanbase has a shitfit about it every. single. time.

Nathan Harriel is a good example for me. I just think he's convenient more than anything.

 

Scally's ahead of him, for now, defensively, but if we want that last FB to be a weapon in the attack, than Freeman goes.

I think you just have to figure out what kind of FB's you want to take: Jedi, Dest, and Freeman are and ARF all attacking types (along with Reynolds), Scally, Tolkein and a couple of others are more defensively oriented. The only attacking style type we have that is strong defensively is Jedi, Dest is erratic, though capable, Freeman is a project (admittedly on both sides).

Poch will have to figure out first how many to take, and second how many defense only options, if any, he brings. If you are determined to take an Arf and Freeman, we will basically leave mostly mid CB's exposed twice as much, particularly if Adams form continues to suck. You've got to take at least one stay at home FB, right? I would assume so. Injuries of course, could make these decisions for us, they usually are decisive for question marks in at least one position group.

 

That’s exactly why 3 ATB works for the pool of players that the US has. Weah can be a substitute WB or try him at forward but the strength of the pool is wingbacks who can get forward and provide width, creative attackers who don’t necessarily fit a traditional position role, 8’s who are essentially good not great at both sides of the ball. CB’s who don’t have a lot of depth but some stay at home FB’s who can play a 3 man or some CB’s who have played in 3 ATB more traditionally than 2 ATB and try to learn the intricacies of doing so. Not to mention the inconsistency of CB’s who we may never know who Richards partner is. That’s why 3 ATB is the most viable option for this pool IMO.

 

This is a bit drastic. On rewatch, Sargent wasn't bad against SK. The fact that he had zero shots isn't on him. He was moving, but the midfield and width were not able to get the ball into good positions to give him service.

I agree that he's behind Balo and Pepi, but it's crazy to jump to the conclusion that Downs and Agyemang are ahead of him. Wright, maybe, but I don't think so.

Fans do this all of the time with anointing guys based on the wrong context. The context of Balo's minutes compared to Sargent's minutes this camp were night and day giving a huge advantage to Balo.