Post-match: USA v Paraguay friendly 11/15 (R)

Dominant win. They had to kick long balls to cross midfield. We ke0t isolating them along the sideline and double and tripling them.

 

The good thing is the weak links tonight have clear upgrades available in the pool. We’re in a good spot right now.

 

Scally shouldn't be seeing the field again for the US until he tightens his game up. Not good enough on defense and nothing going forward. Freeman was an instant upgrade.

Ream feel asleep on their goal. Besides that, he was decent.

I loved the vertical passing into central midfield for the players to turn and go. We haven't seen enough of that in the past.

 

Probably the worst match by a CONCACAF official I've seen in a long time.

How does Gomez not even get carded when he:

- delays the restart by picking up the ball and refusing to give it to the US player
- the puts the US player in a headlock

The first is a clear yellow card offense....the second a clear red.

 

And the two very obvious penalties for intentional fouls on Balogun.

 

Freeman MOTM

 

i blame gio for all the things that were bad, and give someone else credit for anything good.

but thats irrelevant- all that matters is that he effuses about how handsome and brave and awe-inspiring poch is post-match.

 

Gio and Dest in a class by themselves. But everyone showed up and played. Well done.

 

Solid, but until Balo jumped on the deflection, the second half looked like Berhalter-ball. About 25 minutes of passing around the back and wings with almost no entries to the box. At least Paraguay didn’t look as dangerous on the counter as they did in the first half.

Should be clear from how much of the ball Paraguay had from immediately after the second goal for the rest of the game that their strategy was to let the US have it. So I’m not sure anyone should think the US possession advantage was due to dominating midfield or anything.

Reyna has a lot of opportunity to help this team. He’s an incomplete player, but he has some good stuff in spades. Wish he hadn’t pointed at himself, but he is who he is.

Tessman had a very good game with one absolute brain fart pass. He’s like the old Ream of the midfield.

Not sure Dest and Scally work together, but glad it was tried.

Deserved win.

 

I think if we were playing Berhalter Ball we would have worn ourselves down and lost. Instead, we wore them down and got the result we deserved, even with Pepi having a pretty shocking miss and the ref missing two clear penalties.

 

Friendlies are lot of fun when world cup spots are on the line. That was real soccer.

a few random thoughts

• Gio with the cinderella goal. National anthem is barely faded away and he's scored the first header of his career. I want to say something wise-sounding about club and country soccer being different sports and use Scally and Gio as some sort of archetypes
• Because Scally. Oof. I'll give him credit for being a hard guy out there in the face of the shithousery, but that's about all the credit I've got for him.
• I loved Balo's goal. I loved the finish, and I loved the tricky give and go layoff to Gio just as much. With a real referee he's got a hat trick with 2 penalties.
• Referee should never be allowed to ref a US game again. That was disgraceful. He let violence go uncalled, and when he did call something he was wrong half the time. And he was always wrong to the benefit of Paraguay. This would've been good prep for a concacaf road game, but it's terrible prep for the usually-tight word cup games.
• Glad Arfsten didn't donkey kick that into our goal, because that would've ruined a pretty great feel good story.

 

1. Arfsten was great. So long as we don’t ask him to defend in a back 4, he’s a plus player for us.
2. Scally had a bad match. I don’t think we’ll be hearing from his stan for a while.
3. When Freeman replaced Scally I wondered if we would change tactics. We did not, which to me is an indicator that Poch is locked in in this 3-4-2-1 look.
4. Which brings me to Tessman. I didn’t like his game today. My sense from the PBP thread is, my take is out of step with the consensus. But to me he was a weakness. Further, his abilities are not well suited for a 2 man central midfield, I think he needs to play with 2 partners.
5. Ream didn’t fill me with confidence, but he didn’t lose his job either. A holding pattern.
6. Reyna made a statement today. He really planted his flag and is forcing Poch to find a role for him.

 

Gio booked his roster spot with that performance.

the tens are Pulisic, Tilman, and Gio. Luna, Zendejas, Aaronsen battling for last 10 spot.

 

I think you underestimate how solid Paraguay is defensively, especially when they're putting 9-10 men behind the ball. They only conceded 10 goals in 18 CONMEBOL qualifiers and beat both Argentina & Brazil in Asuncion. We scored more goals against them today (2) than Argentina or Brazil did in any of their four WC qualifiers against Paraguay (0,1,1,1).

 

Still don’t understand why McKennie wasn’t called in. He should have started instead of Brendan or Roldan.

 

Maybe Scally would have done better as the Freeman sub?

Really wishing we had called in Maloney for a CB spot.

 

Aaronson just isn't good enough (and never has been)....good work rate, but consistently dribbles into groups of defenders and loses the ball. Never creates any scoring chances despite being an attacking midfielder.

 

There are a ton of articles out there; Poch wants him to work with their new coach, to make sure McKennie continues to be a starter for Juve.

 

Does Sargent get another look after that Pepi miss? Haha, jk.

Haji should be second striker after Balogun.

 

I know that’s his explanation, I just think it’s stupid and dumb. No other national team is leaving their best players at their club 7 months before a home World Cup.

 

I can’t remember a post of yours, or pretty much anyone, I agreed with more. Nailed it.

 

Maybe. I’m not sure what kind of squad or intensity Paraguay brought. Regardless, I was a little disappointed in the lack of box entries, not goals during that segment.

 

Hate to bring it up, but Musah could have started ahead of Tessman or Roldan tonight as well.

 

I think McKennie needs to play regularly at his club more so than other players. At least that has historically been the case.