Post-match: USA v Senegal - May 31, 2026 - International Friendly [R]

I may be in the minority but I liked Poch rotating almost everyone at the half. We’re 12 days out from Paraguay. Let’s keep people fresh while also fostering the kind of competition that keeps the intensity up while guys are out there.

 

Fortunately, in the first two games of the group stage, neither Paraguay or Australia have Sadio Mane or Nicholas Jackson. Beyond that....

 

Perfect scenario with Pulisic getting the goal and assist. Should grease the skids for a big WC for him.

Pepi played really well, but Balo is going to make some noise in this WC. He is a very dangerous player right now. Having a player of Ricardo's caliber coming off the bench would not be the worst problem to have IMO.

Dest and Tillman were very good and Wes was solid. Timo was dangerous. Gio was fine, good in possession, which helped control the game in the first half. Worked well with Dest on the right. Wanted to see more dangerous moments from him but I'm one that values his skillset. Afsten was decent.

Pray Richards is close to 100%. He's going to be needed. Freeman was very good IMO.

It was a friendly, and I get the feeling that some of our guys are still auditioning for a starting spot and were taking this game very seriously, but Sengal are no joke. Our attack will probably be the best we have ever fielded at a WC.

 

the match was worth happening if only to see puli get loose.

i get working up a sweat and everyone walking off the pitch uninjured as a goal, but not having the first damn clue what our team is going to be makes that a bit harder to swallow. it just feels like a waste of time.

there is less than zero value given to reps, chemistry, growing into roles, etc. would this team be any different if we had hired poch yesterday rather than a year and a half ago? or two weeks from now?

 

Senegal's attack is orders of magnitude better than Paraguay's or Australia's. We absolutely should not be giving up 2 goals to either of them, Turkey is definitely a different story, but if we're leaking multiple goals on match day 1 or 2, we'll be going home early. The question about those games for me is if we can break down those teams, especially Paraguay, we should be able to restrict those guys to zero, or 1 at worst, anything more is largely inexcusable.

 

Pretty bizarre that he set up his wedding day for two weeks before the WC opener. That is clinically insane.

 

We overlook the importance of Dest. We are a different team without him.

 

or had more pace than ream. or a right foot.

 

Barring injuries, I think he’s unlikely to play in the World Cup.

 

I’m concerned about the central area. If Adams doesn’t have a career tournament we are toast.

And thats with the assumption someone like McKenzie steps up at CB.

We can press pretty well but the best teams won’t flinch.

 

Still plenty of negativity. Lighten up guys. We won barely trying.

 

So it’s all AC Milan’s fault

 

Give it a freaking break. The date was set 2 years ago. Before the final WC dates were known. Sheesh. Find something else to bitch about.

 

Fans are always nasty and demanding. Not something new…lol

 

I think if Richards is 50/50 next weekend, he'll be held out. The last thing that Pochettino wants to do is to re-injure Richards. Going into the World Cup without ever playing a "first choice" back line together really sucks, but re-injuring the most important guy in the back would be the one thing even worse than that.

I'm giving it a think as to who our best back line is with and without Richards, and in which matches. We should probably begin that debate in earnest right now.

 

Good lord. We beat a very good Senegal side. Both our 9s played great. Pulisic was fantastic. We got 21 field players significant minutes. A very positive result.
We threw out an entirely different starting lineup except 1 player to start the 2nd half and we still won against a top 15 team. When could we ever have done that in the past?

 

In the "old days" of 3 max subs, the limit for international friendlies used to be 6. Now teams can decide before the match how many subs to allow for friendlies, and a lot of teams have recently chosen 11.

 

in what be my only concession to what poch is doing, i did think malik looked more active pressing high/hungrier in general than he has in a while- though i dont know that sitting for one half is entirely to credit. senegals defense (also missing their cornerstone) wasnt exactly firing on all cylinders.

def should have had an assist though. i think balo was no so great today (standing offside, the foul in the box, wasted 2-3 golden chances).

but i cant take a lot from an adult jamboree.

 

No kidding. We out played the #14 team in the world with two totally different lineups. And the game was not as close as the score. I waited a couple of hours before getting on this post game thread just to see the negatives already going at it.

Was it perfect? No. But holy crap guys this was Senegal not Jamaica.

As for ratings. I am giving Poch an 8. The game plan and lineup was just terrific and all without our best, by far, defender.

 

It looked to me that after the last sub (Zendejas for Berhalter) Weah played DM, and played better than either Adams or Berhalter. Is Poch trying him there?

 

That’s a good decision and he does not care about results. A win is nice but otherwise it won’t matter. I got a feeling that everyone will be playing in the WC. Some got more minutes.

 

Neither team was 100 percent for sure. But even at 80 percent the problems are there.

 

I made a certain point about GB’s tactics, which is that when we are in possession, we move around as if each player is trying to get in the right place when we lose the ball. That helped our defending a lot but hurt our attacking a lot too.

Poch has let the boys run free, and that’s the cost…poor transition defense

 

I remember seeing Zendejas in person at a game in St. Louis. His physicality at this level is going to be tested.

 

We were great. Against Portugal, we got early opportunities and didn't capitalize. Today we got them and buried them. I never felt like this game was going to slip away.