USMNT facing the heat as road to World Cup remains rocky: Can USA soccer rebound vs. Japan?
Hello! The international break will come to a close with another round of matches at the beginning of this week, offering, among other things, a chance for the U.S. men's national team to bounce back after yet another disappointing outing on Saturday. I'm Pardeep Cattry with the latest.
📺 Footy fixAll times U.S./Eastern
Monday, Sept. 8🌍 WCQ: Israel vs. Italy, 2:45 p.m. ➡️ FS2🌍 WCQ: Greece vs. Denmark, 2:45 p.m. ➡️ Fubo🌎 WCQ: El Salvador vs. Suriname 8:25 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+🌎 WCQ: Panama vs. Guatemala 9:25 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+
Tuesday, Sept. 9🌍 WCQ: Serbia vs. England 2:45 p.m. ➡️ ViX🌍 WCQ: France vs. Iceland, 2:45 p.m. ➡️ FS2🌎 WCQ: Ecuador vs. Argentina, 7 p.m. ➡️ Fanatiz🌎 Friendly: USMNT vs. Japan, 7:30 p.m. ➡️ TNT🌎 WCQ: Bolivia vs. Brazil, 7:30 p.m. ➡️ Fanatiz🌎 WCQ: Jamaica vs. Trinidad and Tobago, 8 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+🌎 WCQ: Honduras vs. Nicaragua, 10 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+🌎 WCQ: Costa Rica vs. Haiti, 10 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+
⚽ The Forward Line🇺🇸⏪ USMNT stumble again, this time against South KoreaThe U.S. men's national team marked their return to play with a 2-0 loss to South Korea on Saturday, with Mauricio Pochettino notching his seventh defeat in 17 matches since taking the job roughly a year ago.
As has frequently been the case, Pochettino went with a lineup that featured a mix of established players and fresh faces in the hopes of learning something new about the player pool, but Saturday's loss was the latest in a familiar stretch of unexciting results. The USMNT were doomed by defensive disorganization on both goals, thanks in part to a rough outing for center back Tristan Blackmon on his debut and right back Sergino Dest in his first international game since sustaining an ACL injury last year.
The game also offered a stark reminder that some of the issues predate Pochettino, who has just one win in seven games against opponents ranked in FIFA's top 30. His predecessor, Gregg Berhalter, had only five wins against top 20 opponents, and four of them came against Mexico, while the USMNT have been outscored 11-2 in their last seven matches against top 25 teams. It raises questions about whether or not the team have gotten better under Pochettino and has landed them in 26th place in James Benge's latest World Cup power rankings, one spot below fellow World Cup co-hosts Canada.
- Benge: "It's not looking good. Mauricio Pochettino's insistence that the USA had had the better of South Korea falls apart after one crucial fact: this was a friendly that they were chasing for 72 minutes. Across most of that time, the USA's only great chance fell to substitute Chris Richards, and it was only a string of scrappy late misses by Folarin Balogun that bumped the [expected goals] tally up."
Pochettino's experimental version of the USMNT will get one final run out on Tuesday in Columbus against Japan, the head coach deeming next month's matches as his deadline to select a core group of players – even if that means going down to the wire.
Every Goal. All in One ShowMauricio Pochettino may have given a handful of fringe USMNT players a chance to impress on Saturday, but like several before them, few really made a case for themselves against South Korea. Tuesday's friendly against Japan marks one final opportunity to pull off that feat, even if it means long-lasting lineup questions – some of which existed well before Pochettino showed up – are up in the air for another few weeks.
Considering the defensive issues that led the USMNT to concede two first-half goals against South Korea, personnel changes may not be the only thing in store. Pochettino opted for a back three midway through the second half, bringing on Chris Richards to join starters Tim Ream and Blackmon, a tactic that the head coach teased could come back in the future.
- Pochettino: "I think it's a good moment to do some tests, no? We can be more stronger sometimes, some games to use three center backs because [of] our characteristics and players like Sergino Dest or Alex Freeman or Max Arfsten, they are wingbacks. They are players that can cover the distance there and they have quality and then players that play on the half space in between the lines like [Christian] Pulisic, Diego Luna, [Alex] Zendejas, [Luca] de la Torre – too many players that can play in that space. We can create superiority and dominate and that's really important."
Who starts in those defensive positions, though, is another question entirely. The USMNT's backline always looks its best when Richards is on the field, the Crystal Palace defender missing out on a starting role with a small issue he had before arriving to camp. The lineup, in all honesty, might be full of question marks – Dest is skilled with the ball at his feet and in attack but has defensive lapses, while no one has convincingly stepped in while fellow wingback Antonee Robinson is out of the group.
That's all without discussing the No. 9 role, which has perhaps been the greatest of all question marks in the USMNT's lineup. Josh Sargent had another go at the role on Saturday after starting the Championship season with five goals in four games. Once again, it did not go according to plan – Sargent took zero shots and had just 17 touches in 62 minutes, still yet to break an international goalless drought that stretches back to November 2019. Balogun came on in Sargent's place for his first game under Pochettino after an injury-plagued year and was much more present – he had four shots and 22 touches in 28 minutes, the shot tally on that day equal to Sargent's shot count in his last six games for the national team. Balogun may have quickly reasserted himself as the USMNT's first choice in that role, and a strong outing on Tuesday may finally bring an end to a years-long search for the team's starting striker.
🔗 Top Stories🇺🇸 New coach, same issues?: It's been nearly a year since Pochettino took the USMNT job, and things have flatlined.
😡 Reaction to USMNT loss: The Call It What You Want crew reacted to the USMNT's loss to South Korea, and they did not hold back.
💰 No sale for Spurs: Tottenham Hotspur are not for sale as the board rejects two moves for the Premier League club.
❤ Shelton interviews Rodman: Washington Spirit star Trinity Rodman was interviewed on Sunday by somebody she knows very well.
👏 Alex Morgan's jersey retired: The San Diego Wave retired the USWNT legend's No. 13 jersey on Sunday night.
💰 The Back Line💵 Best bets- Friendly: USMNT vs. Japan, Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. ET💰 THE PICK: Japan moneyline (+125) -- Look, friendlies can go either way, but this is strictly based on form. The United States were quite awful against South Korea, their attacking numbers only boosted by a flurry of late chances that they did nothing with. This team is as far from a true team as they have been in a while, and that's saying something. Disconnected, uninspiring and on the verge of being unsalvageable, this is the moment they need to put forth a performance that makes fans believe. They haven't done it in a long, long time. Japan, meanwhile, have attacking quality, are organized and can cause some big problems. It's just hard to see the U.S. winning here. -- Roger Gonzalez
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