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

the ironic thing is that Blake had stretched out along the turf and Pepi's foot drove the ball down so that it bounced up and over Blake ... if he had it cleanly as a worm burner - Blake might have deflected it ....

 

It's crazy to me, and I heard it elsewhere too, before game and after on Pepi and all I could think is.
#1 I get that there are a lot of things strikers are asked to do in modern soccer beyond score goals.
#2 If said player scores a goal in a game, it almost always trumps whatever else he was less inspiring in because this is a game (international soccer at the WC level) where usually games feature 2-2.5 goals total. If your striker sucks for 89 minutes, but also scores a goal, that is a WIN.

Now when you're playing Jamaica at home on a great field, I'd expect more. But away, on that potato patch w/the usual crappy concacrappery reffing and what not, if a striker scores, thats more than they usually do, away, in concacrap, so I'm taking it and running.

 

Just a sidenote, England had 15 players missing yesterday, 6 with known long-term injuries, the rest with last minute withdrawals, which Harry Kane criticized then started on the bench.

Two things:
a. the USMNT isn't the only team suffering a rash of injuries and,
b. I have a feeling these "precautionary" late withdrawals may become a thing for everything but WCQ.

 

yes and hence when Wes got his yellow - it should have not been for that shirt pull but it should have been for the two footed tackle he or Tessman should have done on Leon Bailey. Exactly to your point about protecting your teammate. Oh I do miss the days of Gooch and Jermaine ....

 

Well England is England. Best XI vs Best XI and we can hold our own (England is obviously significantly better, but we can make them earn it). But we are still developing as a soccer nation and the drop off from our Top 15 to Top 30 is massive. We've made some strides here, but a long ways to go. I expect 10-15 years from now we will have 10+ players in the Weah/McKennie/Adams range. (Harder to tell if we will have more in the Pulisic level or even one Top 30 type player).

 

This is something that I think Poch is doing well. We are setting up in a way that allows us to utilize more players, increase competition for spots and withstand more injuries than what we had been doing. Against a better opponent like a very motivated Mexico in Mexico it wasn't enough with so many hurt, but there are a lot of guys who can fill in spots all over the field the way we are playing now more than what we had been seeing, even if we do still have a couple trouble spots.

 

Agree but it is also true that you aren't dangerous when you don't shoot, so if the question is who was more dangerous, than that has to be factored in as well.

Who was more dangerous, who scored more and who got into more dangerous positions, etc are all questions that, while related, don't necessarily have the same answers.

Your conclusion about xg being only part of the picture is 100% correct.

 

That stray pass in that Mexico game is stuck in my memory. He seems to have improved since then which is good news.

 

I don’t dislike Pepi. But I think his movement in the box could’ve been better when we had the ball down the line looking to cross in. He also seemed to get tired around the 60th minute mark and we stopped winning as many balls up top and we really should’ve subbed Vasquez in a little sooner.

 

The field was a major factor, as it almost always is in away matches. I'll be interested to see them in St. Louis.

That said, the offense was pretty mediocre at best. It was a feast or famine type offense without a lot of choices or wrinkles. It did a decent job of generating some good chances, but I don't think it ever had a chance to generate a lot of chances or control the game.

Which is fine -- again, road match, etc. So I am intrigued to see what effects a home match on a better field plus Tim Weah have. And how Pochettino opens it up a bit or not.

 

Busio does get pushed around a bit, but everytime he got hit yesterday would have been a foul in La Liga.

 

Self-belief is certainly up and that is a relief. When cohesion problems inevitably appeared individuals came up strong. This is was a low but crucial bar to pass. Mistakes are normal in international games and there is no more crucial quality. We were sucky at this since CA and I was worried that we were screwed up permanently.

Intensity was a mixed bag but generally positive. That is partially due to the early goal and Cardoso's injury. I think that In a home and away series it is fine to save energy when up a goal away in a hot and humid environment. However, if some guys are not intense enough in the right moments someone else has to cover. Pulisic and McKennie were not at the intensity that we've seen in previous years. I thought that some transition opportunities were wasted because of this. This might be because of load management but Musah, Cardoso and Tessmann had to pick up a lot of that slack and Cardoso left with an injury. Tillman was ok but he is a downgrade defensively. I thought that McKenzie was too slow to react in multiple plays including the crucial penalty play. I haven't seen him enough to know if this is a one off.

Cohesion and game play is understandably a work in progress. Under Poch the players execute quicker with less doubts but there are plenty of mistakes. That said it was far from a disaster with the US having 60% possession and 83% pass accuracy. Since I picked on McKenzie for lack of intensity I will also say that with the ball he was quite decent.

 

There was no gaffe, he recovered and got feet to the ball without fouling but had the bad luck that the loose ball fell between the attacker and the GK. 19/20 that tackle solves the problem.

I don’t count tackling a ball loose and not securing it as a gaffe. That’s just the nature of the game IMO. They were all scrambling after a terrible turnover.

 

Everyone got pushed around a bit. I didn’t see too many guys avoid a tumble to the turf.

 

Our injuries are minuscule when compared with other teams in the world. England (who I basically dislike as a team) whet into Greece with a need to win even greater than ours and an injury list of 6-10 possible/probable starters and having lost to Greece at home earlier and they were facing a home team with a great home record that also needed to win and won handedly 3-0. While we struggled to win 1-0.
We did NOT play as well as we should have even factoring in the field conditions and CONCACAF lack of quality refereeing. I am happy about the win but we are not, at least yet, even partially recovered from the damage done by our previous so called coach. We still do not play like we deserve to win away matches and therefore we allow bad teams to get to us and stay in matches that should be over in the first half.
Our new coach is better but he has not had nearly enough time to change our attitude from a team that was afraid to win to one that expects to win. He has made a bit of a good start but we barely have three players who actually play well for the most of the time they are on the field.
I hope we do not treat this as a win that shows we are better but rather as an experience that shows exactly how far we have to go before we can go into any away match expecting to win. We are on track to get better but, right now, the track is only temporally laid and the ties are quite likely to be loosened quite easily if the coach does not maintain a firm hand. If something happens or the wrong thing gets said at the right time our "train" could end up a the bottom of a ravine with the boiler exploded.
We need a good performance at home now and I do not mean just a win. We need to step onto the field and each player play the best match of their career for the full time they are on the field.
I am confidant that our coach know what he is doing but a well delivered pre-match psyche up speech well delivered should be his aim so that the team is really fired up from the start could be just the ticket. The only real note of caution is that, since this team has never really been "fired up" we could go over the top and get a few unnecessary cards but I am quite sure no coach of his level would fail to implant a hint of control in his "fire em up" speech. We don't need cards but wwe do need to learn how to make the other team feel hopeless when we play at home. Maybe a little play like that will also give us back our home crowd advantage.
We are not, yet, a really good team but I see the germs of a beginning toward that goal. We just need to keep moving in the direction we have started walking even if that means taking little baby steps for a while.

 

You've really hit upon why I've loved him and why I think that skill set is so important.

1. The backpasses aren't just neutral; they are actually particularly problematic for this team. When someone like Tillman passes back unnecessarily, the ball is (a) moving towards our goal so if it intercepted, the opponent is at advantage (b) almost certainly going to someone who is poor with the ball who can be more easily pressed. A forward pass that turns over still leaves 5 guys between the ball and goal plus the keeper -- I'd rather turn over 3+ longer forward passes than 1 backpass. Especially against Jamaica, who generated almost nothing on their own.
2. Generating offense from a pure counterattack or a forced turnover high up the field are very effective but rarely occur and aren't in your control. We aren't great at route one. Trying to score against a set defense is very hard, especially for this team. So we get much of our offense -- and even more of our controllable offense -- from breaking pressure. You create that sort of fast break once you break lines, and it's very hard to do on the dribble or inching up the field. Right now, most of our players don't even try, but Tessman created quite a bit yesterday with some really nice passes.

And I love that he doesn't pass backwards out of reflex. This is where some of the guys on better teams are disadvantaged -- Tillman is used to passing to other guys on PSV; McKennie does it a ton, as well. Every time you do a lazy pass back to McKenzie is a chance to press us.

 

IMO, his best contribution last night was a play in which he came all the way back to our own byline on the right side and won a duel which snuffed out a potential quality chance by the 6 in the making for Jamaica.

In terms of attack, he did very little yesterday. But the issues with the field, of course, apply.

 

Basically, the PK is the difference.

 

I think I was the first person to criticize Pepi's build up game. I'm not weighing on whether this made it a good game or a bad game or anything. I'm not trying to take a particular side on the depth chart here.

Just saying that (a) I understand PSV's reservations on that part of his game and (b) it has a bigger impact than people think.

It's just something he needs to work on. It's not even like we have any other strikers in the pool who are even that good at that.

But reasonably dangerous attacks died on his foot a lot. And the number of times he backpassed when Pulisic was streaking past was a lot.

Developing that little back to the goal flick that Jozy would do, as well as a reliable turn, opens up a whole new world for him.

 

THIS is really the scourge of the Berhalter era. Some of it is on Berhalter, and some of it is the tendencies from club play of the players themselves. Backpassing while playing for PSV isn't the same thing as backpassing while playing for us. The backpass to center back from our midfielders as the default option has hampered us, and it's become impossible to ignore.

Let it be noted that Pulisic created our goal because he wasn't afraid to turn, and then found joy. I wouldn't expect Tillman or McKennie or anyone else to create as much as Pulisic did after the turn, but I expect guys like that to be able to turn, especially on this level of opposition, which in the back and midfield is... not terrible, but they're not elite.

 

I think Berhalter tried to force it with players who couldn't and changed fairly quickly. I wonder if he thought Bradley could recover and had a few placeholders try it until it was obvious Bradley was done. I think if Tessmann is back there he needs a partner. maybe after a few years being deep he can handle it alone but not yet.

I now expect him to look good. he impressed with Olympic team and his injury was a huge blow. He is actually pretty fast now which most haven't seemed to recognize and he rides challenges decently enough that when he does go down he gets the call. Last night the ref allowed a lot of shoving in the back that he didn't call and even the Tank got knocked down by that a few times and got calls about half the time. I never understand why coaches don't play teammates together but I've seen it enough to have given up.

Don't forget the pass McKennie laid back to Pulisic that he skied.

 

This is an example of what separates the elite from the non-elite teams (and players), I think. When that play unfolded, I was desperately hoping that Jedi would look to his right and see Pulisic (as well as Pepi, in fact) running unmarked into the top of the area. The window for a pass was pretty wide, too. There are moments like this pretty consistently in U.S. matches, where we fail to have the composure to make the right choices, and end up failing to take advantage of opportunities to get great chances to finish.

 

agree with your overall point but I think Pepi, and now possibly a few others disagree (some strongly) on the ranking at forward. Also, I think that as far as Reyna is concerned, and perhaps to a lesser extent Adams. We have to plan with the hope they will be there but with the expectation that they won’t. If you look at it that way, we were missing two starters: Weah, and Dest. Your Point still stands

 

Yeah, you'd definitely like to see a play like that finished off. The one thing I will say is that when I watched the highlights, you could really see the ball get stuck in the crappy turf. That balls rolls true and it's on Antonee's left foot and he's clear of the defense. But, if held up and he had to turn in and use his right and the defense was closing fast. I'd still like to see that finished, but the way it got stuck on that shit field didn't help at all.