Post-match: USA vs Uzbekistan Post-Match analysis

I see a lot of people saying Berhalter ball is back and that the team was rigid and boring... and while there are criticisms for the team I didn't think tactics were the big issue?

I saw early on very much the same type of build up attempted that Pioli's Milan is doing. Keep 2 CBs and the keeper to pass around move the outside backs into the midfield in build up or keep one back as a 3rd back. Keep wingers wide and rely on strong dribbling in the midfield. There was some sloppiness for sure but I thought early the build up was good...

... then Luca broke his nose and Tessman came in. I was happy to see Tessman get a chance but boy that was one of the worst games I've ever seen from a midfielder for the US and I honestly think he was so bad that it killed a lot of what the US wanted to do.

I also think Musah and Richards clearly looked like players not getting a lot of time currently and Ream was uncharacteristically bad with the ball at his feet.

Team looked much better when Aaronson and then Tillman came in.

If anything I think where Gregg got it wrong was deciding to use Tessman in build up when Luca came out rather than using Musah or Wes

 

Disjointed midfield barfarama. Every place Pulisic got the ball he was sure to be neutralized. They seemed locked into a really bad system.

 

Tessman didn't took advantage of his chances.
Aaronson and Tillman came to play. props to them.
Pepi didn't do much but score when he got his chance.

Puli and Musah had a below average game.

Oh, and DLT looked legit.

 

Those golden days of BJ Callaghan.

 

Agree about Tessman - only major player point I got from this game is that Tessman simply isn’t good enough to be called in right now.

Tillman is a real talent.
Set pieces were horrible.
Flo has not yet integrated in.
Musah played like crap or disinterested.
Pulisic needs to stop assuming it is all on his shoulders - it is his job to help Flo and others integrate well.
I miss Callahan and Tyler.
Wes does have serious tech skills.
It was a FRIENDLY.

 

Him and GB were sitting together at the laptop all game. I wonder what the dynamic was.

 

Once again, just when i'm starting to think we're building depth, we get a rather lacklustre performance, after Luca went out. Goes to show how important Reyna and Adams are to this team. I thought LDLT was doing okay until his busted nose, but bringing in Tessman was the wrong move. If Greg wanted the team to keep doing what it was doing, he should have brought in Aaronson. Heck, Tillman would have made more sense that Tessman.
There's class on this team- Weahs goal was well taken- but for long stretches they struggled to get in a rythmn and attack with purpose.

 

a bad showing overall against a focused team. Moreso everything surrounding the match seems to be an indicator of what the USMNT social media footprint will look like… If the team fails to excel then expect the flood of “egg-bashers” to pounce non-stop. If the team does well then expect the “the competition was low level or an island nation”…

Next match will be interesting to see, our set piece execution continues to be a challenge.

 

Main negatives were mental errors could have been very costly, Pulisic couldn’t find the game, center backs were shaky, and we still don’t know how to get our 9 more involved.

Main positives were Turner was a stud, Weah was a stud, McKennie was mostly good, De la Torre was very good offensively until he broke his nose, Tessman started out very poor but got better, Malik looks good, Aaronson offered energy, Pepi is great when he’s mad, and McKenzie looked more polished.

Overall, not a bad result. But we need to make some improvements. And yes, I’m not the biggest Gregg fan, but I’ll allow him to have some rope since this was technically his first match back with the team and it was an experimental friendly game and there was no one on the field, who obviously should have never been there.

 

I was fine with the starting lineup but we really did seem to look better when Tillman came on. The double pivot with a playmaker above it just seems to be what we are, especially when Reyna comes back.

 

The optimist in me will believe Tillman wasn’t preferred simply because he isn’t completely fit to go 60-70 minutes, and therefore we got Tessman.

The pessimist in me will say there’s the universe Gregg Berhalter inhabits that believes Tessman is actually superior to Tillman.

 

I don’t mind Tessman finishing out this window, he could still be promising, but I’ll say, overall, this next year should be him focusing on the Olympic team. He got better in the second half. But he needs to mature more before I’m ready to throw him into a competitive match against a better team. Still, we should not be pessimistic about his possible ceiling. He’s still young. And he has the right tools.

 

Bring Back BJ!!!

Works on a lot of immature levels and reflects my dislike of sub par coaching.

 

Tillman: Showed the benefits of having a creative player in central midfield. On a break, he had a terrific past to Pulisic whose heavy touch killed a prime chance on goal. Of course, he earned the pk.

Lund: dude was super happy to be there. You have to appreciate the enthusiasm.

Tessman: maybe he shows more in the next match. The d l Torre injury should give Tessman more minutes. Well, no, Gregg should just start Tillman in front of McKennie and Musah.

Pulisic: lackluster all around. He seems to lack the ability to change up his game to impact the play.

Pepi: nice to have two good strikers.

Musah: looked rusty. looked indecisive.

McKennie: looks to have recovered the sharpness that had been missing after the foot injury.

Aaronson: there's the saying that quantity is a quality all its own. In his case, substitute 'effort' for quality. Even Gregg gave him dapp for an effort play.

 

The team struggled in properly weighting the passes. There were too many passes into feet and not enough into space. The lack of a creative presence in central midfield killed a number of breaks.

 

All in all, we're still good. We lack creativity, and frankly by now Pulisic should be evidently not the brains of the team. He's a great player, but when he's left alone to command the attack, well, he's not the brains type. He needs someone else to take on that side of the job.

Midfield didn't create enough. Kudos to the Uzbeks for plugging the lanes and knowing how to keep Musah and McKennie out of the action for the most part. Weah is a baller. For the NT, he may be my favorite player right now. Balogun, we're going to make excuses for him for a while, but I think he's going to be another guy who does better for club than for country.

Since Copa is at home, I think we have enough to make the semis. Uzbekistan is stronger than Oman, and all in all a good test. Will Berhalter adapt? That is the question.

 

For me, the key moment in the game was LDLT breaking his nose. I didn't expect to be impressed by him playing the regista, and I don't think I'd really use the word "impressed," but while he was in the role we were clearly playing very well collectively through the midfield. After he came off and Tessman replaced him, that advantage evaporated, and the numerous duels that they were winning on the flanks became a real problem instead of a mere annoyance.

We had more quality to bring off the bench than they did late, hence the 3-0 scoreline instead of a 1-0 scoreline. And they lacked a bit of something special in attack, hence the clean sheet (that, and another Turner-like performance from Matt Turner).

 

Outside of the really bad giveaway did Ream make any other mistakes?

 

I was really impressed with de la Torre's minutes, gliding with the ball past multiple defenders before finding the open man. Any confirmation on whether his nose is broken or not?

And it's Tessmann with the double N, folks.

 

I think this game is an additional piece of evidence of something that has been apparent for a long time: we need a creative midfielder (call it an 8/10) in central midfield. Reyna should be first choice when available, and I think we should groom Tillman as competition/backup.

 

de la Torre didn't face much pressure. This was a good opponent for him at the 6.

 

After this performance, he’s going to be Bench-mann, with the double-N. (I’ll be here all week)

I got so annoyed I let my son play 2K24 on the PS5 midway through the second half. Not a lot of good performances, except for Matt Turner.

 

To me it was disappointing that we didn’t see a different approach from Berhalter. I was hoping that he would try out a new formation or scheme, drawing on lessons learned from the World Cup and watching the team as an outsider/inactive coach over the past several months. Something to show that this cycle is going to be different. Maybe a 4-2-3-1 or two up top.

Instead he went with the 4-3-3, same as last the last time we saw him. He just rotated the players a little bit - DLT in place of the injured Adams, upgrading to Balogun, a healthy Richards in place of Zimmerman. And we saw a lot of the exact same issues arise as in last cycle. It gave the impression that the plan to improve is to use the same approach with better players, either through individual development, health or upgrade like Balogun. I’m afraid that is not going to be enough.

 

Yep. It's a broken nose, confirmed from the US locker room.