Post-match: USA vs Panama friendly 10/12 (R)

Saved for mexico

 

Initial impressions of the new era:

Poch is clearly at home in the American South, with the Johnny Cash impression.

A nicely worked first goal.

Seemed to have a little better intensity to start the match.

Lots for Poch to work on:

We still move the ball around the back way too much, way too laterally, and way too slowly.

We are still too one sided because Scally can't match Jedi's ability to overlap and contribute offensively.

The 4-3-2-1 strands our # 9 even more than the Berhalter 4-3-3.

And we need to find a # 9 that doesn't miss sitters in his first clear chance of the game.

While he had a nice 2nd assist Aaronson is still too light in the britches for my taste, and can't play in the middle of the pitch due to that.

The last 15 minutes was absolute rubbish, and we very well could have given away points in a tournament in this game ala New Zealand.

I agree with whichever commentator said our press is not very effective.

 

Tanner is probably the closest thing we got right now. But this team does lack that deep-lying midfield general.

I never saw a good replay but I thought Haji was on when TT hit it.

 

Poch isn't here for a long time, just a good time. So I'm not expecting him to bring in a bunch of youth. But looking at this roster, I can't help but feel there's a young guy or two that should get minutes over guys like Wright and Sargent. Even if Wright and Sargent are better right now. They just aren't going to move the needle. But maybe a young guy can if brought in early enough.

 

Losing Bajraktarevic hurts. There’s no way around it. He should be recruiting Koleosho hard as hell if he’s not already.

 

Overall the negativity in this thread is hilarious, yet expected. Personally I love when a player subbed on in the 84th minute is graded. Haha hahaha

For those who actually added some well thought out perspectives, thank you.

 

Really? That's not exactly the story of this match, I don't think....

 

Backups that push the starters are a must for every program. It's all just too comfortable and this game did not do much to take away that impression.

 

Didn't Panama have starters missing too?

 

I think Tillman fits CP better than Aaronson. Liked putting CP on the left with ARob. Makes the attack more dangerous as CP cheats in and leaves room.

We need to defend with more consistency. We get tired and rattled. Musah stayed on too long. He was gassed. Would have liked to have seen Wes out there for a bit. His distribution has gotten much more effective and dangerous in the last while.

 

That well-taken hockey assist was one of the first positive contributions by Tillman for this side ever.

 

I think Pepi pushed aside Sargent at least. Morris and Tessman will push each other, and they are already backups. Now Jonny should feel like there’s a base level to reach or there are competent players that may leave him behind.

 

As far as I’m concerned, Wes needs to sit for awhile. Dude hasn’t played well for the National team for a long while.

 

If Musah could ever figure out what he wants to do with the ball, he could just do it over and over again. His skill combined with athleticism is way up there.

 

loved the movement from Aaronson on the goal to show up for Pulisic at the right moment and then hold the ball till the correct moment and put Pulisic in behind the defense so he could cross it in for Musah.

 

Our forwards are Balogun and Pepi, so I don't want to get too hung up on striker #3. I prefer Wright, because he can play oo nthe wing as long as he's not dropping back too far into midfield too often and he's one of the few guys we have who can take a bump. The U20s Zambrano and Downs (Germany) could be there, as well as Vasquez. Unfortunately it's a short window.

 

Sargent had a decent opportunity to score today. And he sent the ball into the bleachers. Don’t these guys do this for a living? Like train full time shooting the ball?

FFS.

 

That was a very nice sequence of play all around, beginning right with Jedi showing the go route for Ream.

I was a bit surprised with Poch starting Musah at RW, and I don't really think that's where I want him to log most of his minutes for us, but I think of it in retrospect as probably a sort of confidence-building move. And he broke his international duck, which clearly did something for his confidence after a really bad summer. That smile of his...

 

I agree on Pepi. He has consistently done well do the number one thing a 9 should do.

 

Yeah, Pepi’s shot wasn’t great but it was on goal, Sargent has to do the bare minimum there and make the goalie save it.

 

maybe Yow?

 

There was nothing revolutionary, or anything particularly impressive or inspiring about rhid performance. But it sure beats losing.

 

Yes. Nearly everything that has come since the last NL win in March has been absolute garbage, so it's nice for a game to turn out better than absolute garbage for a change.

 

Wright at left-foward: Cade Cowell or Diego Luna or Koleosho.
Sargent; Cowell. It may be tad early for Logan Farrington or Patrick Agyemang.

 

My brain says the result doesn’t matter, but my heart can’t agree.