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Mauricio Pochettino and his players tried their best to spin things positively after Tuesday’s 2-0 defeat to Portugal.
And, fair enough that if Christian Pulisic — a streaky player whose current scoreless streak hung over both U.S men’s national team games this window — had things going, maybe the Americans would have gotten a result to their liking over the last few days in Atlanta.
You figure that part of the equation will solve itself by the time the USMNT regathers May 26 in New York when the World Cup roster is announced, the first step of a winding, cross-country journey that will eventually land at SoFi Stadium for the Group D opener against Paraguay on June 12. Water finds its level, and Pulisic is a good enough player that he will find his.
What’s more worrying after these two underwhelming performances is that the U.S. does not have much clearer an idea of how it ought to play and who it ought to play than it did a week ago. These were questions this camp — which, save for a few injured players such as Tyler Adams and Sergiño Dest, featured a full complement of stars — was supposed to answer.
Pochettino seemed to have settled on a 3-4-3 in the fall, then surprisingly went back to a more attacking 4-2-3-1 in both games here. It did not work.
The reasoning is easy enough to understand. Playing three at the back puts more players on the field at a position — center back — that is the Americans’ lightest in terms of depth, at the likely expense of attacking roles where it is deeper and better. In a World Cup, though, and in particular against teams with more talent than them, such as the two they faced in Atlanta, the U.S. will need to dig in and defend.
That gets at an issue which is in the middle of nearly every decision Pochettino faces, whether it’s who to start or merely who should be in the 26-man roster: when is the most talented option the best option, and when is it not?
For example, any lineup that doesn’t include one of Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Malik Tillman would be leaving out someone who is obviously one of the most talented 11 players in the pool.
But if there’s a good configuration that includes all three of them, it’s tough to argue Pochettino found it in either game this window.
Ditto defensive midfield, where Johnny Cardoso’s club performances at Atletico Madrid surely warrant inclusion in the lineup, let alone the 26-man roster, on talent alone. But Adams has a chokehold on one of those starting spots, Tanner Tessmann will surely at least be on the roster, and both Cristian Roldan and Sebastian Berhalter have thoroughly outplayed Cardoso for the national team. It doesn’t help matters that Adams missed the last three windows with injury, so it’s not at all clear who works best alongside him specifically.
Cardoso did little to change that in the 45 minutes he played against Belgium, so where does he stand? Berhalter, for what it’s worth, was one of the better USMNT players Tuesday night, though Aidan Morris — who’s also in the mix — didn’t do much to help himself alongside him.
Pochettino, wanting to give Tim Weah some defensive cover Tuesday, played him as a right wing with Alex Freeman behind him as a right back. A fine idea that worked well enough — though Freeman was too adventurous at times and caught out on Portugal’s first goal — but when Dest is here, can he and Weah both be in the lineup without sacrificing too much defense?
All that is without even getting into questions like center back, Gio Reyna’s inclusion, the Americans losing momentum after the hydration break in both games or the decision to play Pulisic as the No. 9 on Tuesday.
You can’t help but wonder whether the U.S. was hurt by automatically qualifying to this World Cup as a host nation, meaning it hasn’t played a single truly competitive game with its best players since the 2024 Copa America. Needing to go through a grueling qualifying campaign in CONCACAF may have forced the group to build up some calluses and forced it to confront questions it was allowed to punt.
Instead, it will need to use these games, as well as two more high-level friendlies against Senegal and Germany, to do so before the World Cup. If they can, then everyone will forget about this camp in short order.
“I remember people were doubting us after [September] camp [in 2022],” Pulisic said. “Maybe we didn’t have a great camp. At the end of the day, we go in, have a great World Cup. It’s all behind us, so better now [than later] and we’re gonna figure it out when it really counts.”
English (US)