Post-match: USA vs Jamaica CONCACAF Nations League (leg 1)

I didn't devote my normal attention to this because I was in a tournament at a sports bar, but it looked like a hack fest on a shit Pitch.

It looked like our hold up play was God-awful and our passing was worse...

Due to our lack of hold up play I don't like the formation with Christian so far from the goal, especially on a Pitch where it's hard to run at people.

One of these days, the first guy that hacks Christian is going to get kicked up into the air the next time down the field by his teammate, and so on with the next guy that hacks him.

I fail to understand that professional players don't understand this, but maybe I'm just too old school.

We'll see what happens on a real Pitch next game.

 

For context, a penalty kick has something like 0.7 or 0.75 XG. I get that the penalty kick is a part of the game, but Jamaica's xG from open play was probably closer to 0.7 or 0.65.

 

One thing that is notable is that this match has a reasonable chance of being Pochettino's only ever away match while leading the US, unless he and the US decide to continue beyond the 2026 World Cup.

Berhalter got his 1 away win in something like 10 matches, since he had qualifying and Nations League matches. Klinsmann and Arena just had qualifying in the abysmal 2018 cycle, and that was the case for the prior few cycles also.

 

No professional who makes a living out of their athletic performance is going to be enthusiastic about playing on such an unsafe pitch. I wouldn't blame any of the players for trying to avoid injury, but I thought that the game was played quite competitively and physically. That being said, I think both sides were very much handicapped and unable to play their best football.
This is on the Jamaican federation. They need to host their games on an international standard pitch if they want to have a serious program with players from the premier league. The “office” was a bush league venue last night.

 

Making the correctly timed run and finding the space is a talent. Pepi has that, and so does Haaland.

I'm not one of those who think finishing isn't a skill; it is. But it's a highly variable skill that has much less differentiation between top players than the former, whatever you want to call it (a lot of stats will call it receiving).

 

SOG tends to be a terrible metric because of the whole "on goal" thing rarely is all that indicative of chance quality.

xG also has that issue, but it's at least a step back on the process (SOG doesn't includes shots that didn't go on goal; xG doesn't include chances that don't end in a shot).

@Bob Morocco do you have the xG for this game?

 

I see 1.04 - .97 in favor of Jamaica. Your numbers do seem more right, though. .72 or so of the Jamaica one is going to be the pen, FWIW, and I feel like maybe they aren't getting credit for the Olympico or something.

https://footystats.org/internationa...onal-team-vs-jamaica-national-team-h2h-stats#

We had four great chances and a couple other mediocre ones. We only got a shot on 3 of the great chances, IIRC -- on the Pulisic heavy pass to Vazquez he didn't shoot. So the goal, the Jedi shot, the Pulisic to Vazquez mentioned and the Vazquez open shot that he hit like I would ... plus there were a couple of good but not great chances early.

There was also the Pulisic volley he skied with no one on him. I thought for sure that was 2-0.

 

Jedi stuck up for him a bit but I also wonder why this doesn't happen. I would change it what JJ did when Brazil fouled Donovan hard in a friendly - do it against there best player instead of the one who hacked. Jones took out Neymar and voila no more cheap shots - so message was received.

 

I like Pepi. I respect his story and appreciate his decision to play for the USA. I want him to succeed.

I do wonder how more he can develop as a striker. He’s still got a ways to go to be a real threat at the international level. Unfortunately, it seems the defense of any top 10 country will keep him contained for 90 minutes of any game that matters.

What does he need to do to improve? Would welcome feedback from the group on that question.

 

Message received​

 

There was a blurb posted on Facebook, I think, where Turner told the team that they should expect Christian to get hacked, and they need to stand up for him!

I can't vouch for its authenticity.

 

Jamaica had the PK as well. That more than accounts for the gap.

We had few shots this game, but the shots we did have were good chances. Jamaica had a couple of good ones of their own in that 15-minute span, but not much outside of it, really, except for the PK.

 

I can't bring myself to criticize Jedi - even if I should. I know he could have done better on his goal chance, and he made some mistakes here and there, but I realized when watching last night how thankful I am to have that guy in our squad, and we should enjoy him while we can.

Imagine if we did not have him as one of our backs? Oof. When he steps on the field with 21 other guys, he almost always is instantly the best all-around athlete out there. That is even true on some of his Prem matchdays. Antonee has solved so many of our problems over the years, that I think we have started to take him for granted sometimes.

Ream, for his age and flaws, is still WAY more valuable than not for us - but we need to find replacements fast, as I too think having him start at the next WC is a bridge too far.

I think we should not understate how horrible the ref was last night. That sequence in which Wes got a yellow for pulling shorts to stop a counter (fair), and literally 2 minutes later Pulisic is dragged back by his arm to prevent a counter in similar fashion, and ref does not even think about a card, was high comedy. He was extremely inconsistent and lost control of the game early. I was proud to see our guys step up and fight back and commit some of their own shithousery. After all, if the ref won't protect us, we will do it ourselves.

Anyway, the US will play much better Monday night on a proper pitch, although beware, I think Jamaica will fare better as well on a decent surface.

 

I just love Tessman's passing. I want to see him get more confident because we need someone who can break a line.

I don't mind Tillman there, actually. His biggest adjustment from PSV needs to be realizing that he's one of the more skilled guys out there and shouldn't be constantly immediately passing back to much worse passers.

Both he and Tessman could definitely learn to turn better -- would make both more dangerous in that spot. I'm sure Tillman can so it's more about do -- or maybe sensing danger. He got hit a couple of times and it was clear he didn't see them coming.

But I think, after watching this, his biggest weakness is just moving? He was pretty good there just occupying space. But in the last game, we asked him to move between midfield and attack like Christian or Reyna would do, and he simply ... didn't. Here he could camp and actually was decent. Weird.

He's a starter for me right now until he proves he can't defend. No one else who has played there so far is as capable getting the ball forward. And with our CBs, GK and current FBs (Dest accepted), that's a massively valuable skill for us.

I'm also really looking forward to seeing how an almost A team plays on a real field.

I really love how focused we were offensively -- we had really one plan and just powered through it. Of course, it's only one goal, so the level of success is debatable. But we had a few more chances ...

... and more importantly, the other options weren't good. I know there was a lot of complaining about Musah at wing and between him and Scally, yep, the RW was a wasteland of nothing offensive. But I don't think Zendejas or Cowell change that. I suppose the former might have hit a banger and the latter would stretch the field further (and both would defend and control far worse) but I appreciate the "it's on the road on a shitty field and so we're going to Pulisic and a little McKennie and we're just going to try and brute force a result."

And so we did.

I don't expect formations or roles to change much in St. Louis, but I am very curious to see if that element of the gameplan changes on a real field, at home and with Tim Weah out there.

A better team that's stronger centrally isn't going to allow us to try and ram it up the gut almost exclusively (although some of that was Jedi being hopeless with the ball for much of the game). We'll need to expand our scoring options and I think we might see those signs come in St. Louis. We did a LOT more triangles on the edge of the box versus Panama; I'm interested to see those with Weah and McKennie and maybe a roaming Pulisic overloading the right.

 

Actually just 1. Both Jamaica and us had two SOGs in the 1-1 tie in WCQ.

People need to get over the comparison, but I actually think we played better in that game. Just an Antonio worldie versus us getting a bit lucky on a pen save and not called pen here.

That defense was miles better.

 

Then he's never going to touch the ball.

The reason why we're doing this is simple: our GK and CBs can't be relied upon to progress the ball more than a simple pass. Even Ream is struggling to do anything.

So we're anchoring back two CDMs very close to them. Aside from a bit from Tessman this last game and when McKennie or Reyna is back there, none of our CDMs can be relied upon to consistently progress the ball, especially not through a line breaking pass.

Which is why our CAMs are coming back so far for the ball. Because no one else can get the ball forward.

Why couldn't we advance the ball against Mexico? No Pulisic.

Find a CDM or CB or two who can pass, and get Reyna and Dest back and I suspect we don't see Christian so far back. But right now, we're getting our best player a lot of touches and no one else can really do it.

 

I wanted to see him and Johnny but it ended quickly. I am really intrigued by Tessmann paired with Adams as they seem to have complimentary skills. I also like that we don't just have three possible midfield starters now and the coach can game plan around opponents and have multiple choices even with injuries.

 

I think this is an interesting observation about Tillman. He really does seem very static. Even when I see him make good plays, they are very often of the variety where he pulls a ball out of a tight spot and finds a good pass, but it is often in a crowded area where he's basically just standing still. Partly I think he is secure knowing he is going to keep the ball, even if someone is right against him. He doesn't feel the need to run away, he still feels like he is keeping the ball no matter how closely he is marked. He can move with the ball, his most recent goal for PSV showed him slipping into the area with the ball at his feet and scoring after a nice run. But, more often I see him making good plays from a stationary position. I think both can be useful, but ideally you'd want him finding a good balance of when to move himself and when to move the ball.

I think Poch using him shows that Poch really values players who are good on the ball in midfield and this to me is the biggest thing he is bringing to improve this team. Your players in midfield need to be good in tight spaces simply because that's a crowded area. Too often we've fielded guys for their ability to cover space, press and tackle, and often dribble but most don't pass well in tight spaces so our midfield has bogged down. Adams is about the only good short passer we've seen a lot of in midfield when healthy and we always look better with him. But, if you look at the list of guys Poch has played in those central midfield spots, he's always picked passers. I could be wrong, but to me this is why he moved Musah and I'm not sure we should expect to see Wes in those spots, although the injury list may mean we see one of those guys back there in the next game. If we have multiple injuries to logical picks for those spots (no Adams, Johnny or Morris) and neither Wes nor Musah moves into one of them, I think we will be getting a pretty big clue that they aren't likely options there anymore. I would not be surprised or disappointed to see Busio and Tessman man those places next game, but maybe Tillman plays in one of them, should be interesting to see.

 

Good point about both the Jamaica XG and how the US likely had more opportunities than XG shows. As many like to say, XG for a game isn't a great metric. Over a season, it becomes a lot more relevant.

Maybe this is just my biases, but I honestly thought we were a little better than average overall on attack. Factor the field (I admit I'm beating the horse to the glue factory, but that field was a MAJOR factor in how ugly the game was overall and how it likely drug down how the attack looked aethetically and how it may have looked in the stats. Overall, I thought the attack looked pretty good. I liked some of the movement, and I hope we see that same movement on a real soccer field Monday night.

Defense wasn't awful. Again, I think the field caused some issues in distribution. Jamaica also has some talent on the attacking end. There were a few really nervy moments, but I also liked some of the 1:1 defending during the game. Thought there were a couple of times where McKenzie was very solid in a 1:1 situation near the top of the area. He'll never be a fantastic defender in the air or in a lot of space, but if he can do well in some 1:1 situations that's a help.

 

Funny thing about Tessman, and I say this knowing I risk the conversation going off the rails with mention of the previous coach, but Tessman looks very much the deep playmaker Berhalter wished for in his early days. Kind of funny that he's looking ready to get into the team now.

 

Interesting to compare matches. The US scored early goals in both. Jamaica equalized in one match not long after and blew a chance to equalize in the other around a similar time. Jamaica arguably had second half calls go against it in both matches. The US looked decent but never totally comfortable in either match, though in yesterday's match, Jamaica sort of imploded in the final 10 minutes.

The difference in results may simply come down to the goalkeepers. I recall the Antonio shot as being central and saveable for Steffen, while Turner saved the PK last night. This was one of the final matches were Berhalter used Steffen before fully switching to Turner, a move that Berhalter deserves credit for and one that Pochettino seems to be continuing.

 

Yes, it's not about nailing the guy who hacked our best player. You nail THEIR best player.

When Gretzky had guys like Mark Messier and Marty McSorley "enforcing" for him with the early 80s Edmonton Oilers, the unwritten rule was if you took liberties with Gretzky that you'd see one of those two (after fighting the guy who lined up Gretzky) line up the other team's best offensive player.

Of course, I'm not sure I'd want to go after Antonio when he's playing. That is a large, physical, imposing guy for a soccer player. Definitely not a slightly built guy like Pulisic is.

 

I don't know how much this is going to change w/so many players based in Europe, and MLS, and UEFA busy with NL. Just seems like its harder to book away matches to other continents these days with UEFA busy for instance. I wonder if this is an unfortunate permanent reality, that we just don't play many away matches historically.

FTR, not surprised, I took Jamaica +.5 because historically, especially since I've been watching, these away matches in Jamaica have usually been draws. They were one blown PK, and another one that should have been called away from losing, but we also grinded. Not sure how I felt about it, but I wasn't surprised. FTR, I was splitting time between cooking 2 dinners, and watching this and the Commanders game, so i missed chunks. Looking forward to reading the collective thoughts in here.

 

He had more time and space than he realized.

 

The broadcast showed it in the stats screen at the end of the match. They had it:

1.62 to 0.88 in Jamaica's favor.