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

Arfsten is proving to be a plus player for us. I hope that ARob gets his body in order soon, but Arfsten has been a really good addition to the pool. At this point, with so many games under his belt, I'm feeling far less concerned about ARob's health status as regards the USMNT chances in the WC. Would absolutely love to have ARob as the starter in the WC, but I won't feel like there's a weakness if he's not. Fantastic! Props to Poch for scouting he and Freeman--both have shown that they are really good additions to the team.

 

Arfsten is a different kind of player than ARob. Both good but different, and we'd need to adjust. But yeah, ARob would have to be the starter if healthy. Really good player.

 

My main focus is to find out who is the backup #10 after Puli and Malik.
1. Aaronson who plays such role in Leeds but failed. When he tries to dribble through a ton of defenders, he IS NOT Puli. So he should try for wing back spot. Especially the right side one.
2. Reyna has a passing grade tonight, and maybe becoming the #3 in this spot.
3. Zendijas still in the picture.
4. Luna is fall behind. He fails at dribble over one single defender couple times.
5. Wes was auditing on this too last Camp, but he also failed to impress, so he also move to the wingback spot as he is in Juve now.
6. Last WC, this is Weah’s spot, but he also move to the wingback.

 

Yea it was a good fight. Love to see us standing up for each other.

 

Yes, he’s an impressive attacking player. He also made several steals/interceptions (often in the opponent’s half) and started counter attacks from them in this game.

Arfsten now has 1 goal and 5 assists in 14 appearances for the US. Several of those goal contributions have been important ones (like today’s chance creation for the go-ahead goal).

This is a really good player.

 

Wonder if he goes on loan somewhere in January.

 

Decided to dig into their results, because I'm suspicious of the quality of these guys....


Probably worth noting:

Paraguay was pretty wretched in qualifying for '14, and '18, and '22.

They also were absolute horse ---- at Copa America '24 (loss 2-1 to Colombia, loss 4-1 to Brazil, loss 2-1 to Costa Rica in the group stage).

So I'm not entirely convinced this is anything other than randomness in a cycle in which Chile, Peru, and Bolivia were all trash, Venezuela collapsed, Colombia went to ---- after Copa America only turning around their campaign in the last window or 2, and essentially it was a qualification in which Argentina was lethal and then there was a giant pile of meh, with Brazil, Paraguay, Colombia, Uruguay and Ecuador all essentially on 28 points (save for Ecuador on 29). It's telling that all the other teams were +7 to +10 in GD, and Paraguay is clearly lesser at 7-7-4 with +4 in GD.

I'm not convinced that they're good, I think what they were was just consistently meh/competent (seemingly every game they played in qualifying was either a tie or a 1 goal win or 1 goal loss (only one exception to that, a 2-0 win at home over Uruguay)) and at a crazy level. They were never awful, and never great beyond that Uruguay result (I have no idea if it was impressive or not).

So I tend to think the reality that they sucked at Copa America, 7-3-8 and -6 in GD and 7th in '22, and 9th in '18, 3-3-10 and -14 GD, 2 wins and 2 losses and an immediate knockout loss in the covid Copa America of '21, and 0-2-1 in '19, and an immediate knockout loss in '19 too.

They aren't Bolivia bad, nor collapsing Peru and Chile bad, nor Venezuela's mostly bad (though they were great for about 2/3's of this cycle), but they definitely are Colombia, Uruguay, or Ecuador level either....so?

I don't know what to think. I will be really interested to see how they do at the WC. They seem really solid, but not really good, just solid, even Stephen-ish, so how does that play in June, and does it even hold up? They were awful at Copa America after all. I guess we'll see. Super curious, needless to say.

 

The good thing about what Pochettino and Arfsten have done is that Arfsten is sufficiently strong, good, and integrated into the team that you can feel confident in him starting at the World Cup. So, you can rotate he and Jedi to preserve them both and take advantage of match ups. That is, of course, if Jedi can return.

 

I enjoy watching him even if it reminds me how the Quakes had him on their Next/Pro team and let him get away. First time I watched a Next/Pro game he stood out to me right away. Wilfried Nancy was smart to pick him up.

 

I was referring defensively. We kind of hid him and because Paraguay was all counter and no possession, he didn't really get put in a lot of tough positions defensively. Although I guess he was the guy who didn't pressure on the goal? I couldn't see.

My point isn't that he didn't play well; it's simply that if we're talking Gio versus Tillman, we must consider that Tillman is going to provide a lot more defense.

 

It was good to see some guys who were on the outside but probably should be on the World Cup roster, Reyna and Scally, start and get the bulk of the minutes. Musah should be called back in too, for the same reason.

 

Whatever the formation is, Arfsten and Dest are players who seem so much more protected. We can use their width and minimize their liabilities defensively.

 

I hear Celtic’s coach is a fan

 

It’s a bad idea to wrestle for the ball with Freeman. The Paraguayan got frustrated. The best thing was that we showed that, if you fight one of our guys, you will fight the whole team.
There’s not going to be a place for this at the World Cup, with real refs, and VAR and all, but Poch must be pleased

 

I disagree. Going back and watching the replay, I agree that Scally and Miles were at fault but Ream has blame as well. He doesn't seem to be aware of Arce at all, though I'm not sure who, between Ream and Miles, was responsible for him. As the veteran and captain, Ream shouldn't be turned off there.

 

Scaly and Miles were bad on that play…but if we played a keeper he would have collected the cross.


If this team breaks down like that and some of the other soft goals recently then the WC will end far too soon.

Luckily Richards will be in the back line then, but we don’t have anybody else on his level

 

Where did this come from?? Malik was an absolute rock star last year. He scored 16 goals as a middie last year, made the Eredivisie team of the season, and Bayer Leverkusen paid more for him than any player in their history.

 

Also, that was one hell of a cross from Almiron.

I mean, that was a thing of beauty from Paraguay. The whole thing happened so fast.
Long ball played out of the back from the Paraguayan centerback right into the stride of Almiron. It bounced once in front of him, and then he wacked an inch perfect cross to Arce.

On the replay that whole sequence took 7-8 seconds.

So yeah, American defenders were beaten. All of 'em. Heck, one could say that the American forward could have been closing down that Paraguayan centerback who started the play more aggressively as well. In hindsight. Who was that? Aaronson? Maybe Freese could have come out to punch the cross. Maybe not. But the whole thing happened in the blink of an eye. Sometimes we can say "whoa that was an effing fantastic play by Paraguay," and not have to find a scapegoat. That was just a beautiful moment of soccer.

 

I know everyone is pleased with the flight and grit we displayed - I don’t disagree - but I was happy to see Gio go 73 minutes and put in a slide tackle in minute 72 ….. I don’t see any obvious physical issue with him. I liked that tackle as much as his goal and assist - particularly in that it was minute 72.

 

I was at the game and some thoughts:

-Lots of Paraguayan supporters!
.Fine header by Gio for 1st goal
.Dest and Scally on same flank is no good. Joe was trying but just seemed to struggle in decisions and execution.
.Lots of difficulty getting Balo involved but had a lot to do with Paraguay’s mid block.
.Tessman is not quick but has a noticeable physical presence that we seem to lack in MF at times. Good at dishing off passes with his left.
. Gio likes to hang out in space. Nice touch, layoffs and chip passes.
. I continue to be intrigued by Freeman.
. 2nd goal doesn’t happen without Luna. Madman!
. Brendo ran his butt off. Is it enough? Somebody has to.
- Pepi???
- Ref appeared to let a lot go.
.

 

Brenden Aaronson is a real mystery of the pool. Still.
You can see why a coach like Pochettino likes him. If we're going to be a pressing team, he's a pressing monster. Just works his tail off for the team.

But you're always left wanting more in terms of the goal contributions, etc. etc.

................and by the way, the second most capped player on this roster.

That guy has 55 caps now. Once you get past 50, you've been a significant part of the program.
He'll pass guys like Fabian Johnson and Kyle Beckerman is his next few caps.

And yet, he's just a mystery of the pool. Will he make the roster? I don't know. But he always finds a way to make rosters and play. Cuz there are always injuries and he's usually healthy. He's in his prime RIGHT NOW.

 

At this point, the team has already adjusted to Arfsten. ARob needs to be available in March and play well, otherwise Arfsten may get the starting nod in the WC, even if ARob is healthy and on the roster.

 

Scally did not show that he should be on the WC roster last night. Maybe he makes it ultimately, but his already low stock dropped further yesterday.

 

Dest and Pepi are still a bit rusty. As long as hey stay healthy the rust will go away.

The moment I saw Scally half-assing it on the goal I knew it could be a dangerous cross. Of course many time teams don't get punished for that as everything has to be perfect and other players have to make some mistakes too. I immediately thought Freeman would have been much closer to him and he wouldn't have had time to make the perfect cross. I now will add that Richards would have done one of those horizontal tackles to knock it out of bounds. Not sure if Miles would have been any better playing that spot or if Dest was the RB if he would have been like glue on Almiron. But for Scally that very well might have been the play that keeps him out of the WC. Miles, Ream and Freese could have also done a lot better. Poch will have a lot of thoughts on the ideal defensive setup because a soft play like that with everyone mindlessly behind the play could be an elimination goal in the WC.

I mean he's usually the one taking the free kicks.

This is why a few other players playing CB in top leagues aren't being called in. If you are slower than Ream you aren't getting a cap (BTW, this isn't only a Poch feature as Crocker also laid out what he wanted from all US teams and one was CD's that were fast and could play 1v1 in space). So Poch says this was a 4-2-3-1 meaning Scally and later Freeman were the hybrid right back. It is a bit semantics because it's obvious Poch wants three sort of central defenders back at all times. So is it better to go with three actual CB's or two with a hybrid RB? Does that mean that Dest is no longer considered a RB or that one of the center kids would be the third CB if both outside backs attack?

 

Yes, it was a really great play by Paraguay, which required 3 great moments from 3 players in under 10 seconds--first on the pass by the CB (it was Reyna that didn't close down there), second by Almiron on the one-touch cross, and then the header slammed home appropriately.