This better second half thing is getting to be a trend for the USMNT. A few minutes into the second half I had this homemade meme all locked and loaded for Twitter:
Then Pepi scored and I had to shelve my witty picture. Sad really.🤣 The goal, when it finally came, was such a well-worked move too. It was one of those so perfect it looked easy goals. I mentioned this on the review podcast I did with the Touchlines and Touchdowns guys, but if you’re a golfer every once in a while you hit the fairway, hit the green, two-putt, and make a par. Pepi’s opener felt like that.
Canada’s success against the US in September practically guaranteed we were going to see low blocks and lots of possession going forward. We probably were anyhow, but I would guess that sealed it for some coaches that might have been on the fence. Jamaica might be worse at it than Canada, but seeing it over and over is going to allow the US chances to practice against it and improve. This scenario on the wings played out all match and the US was able to capitalize on it in the 2nd:
I’d also like to mention one more time that I’m super impressed with how good the US has been defensively under Berhalter. For as much as I complain about him needing an offensive coordinator, conceding 25 goals in 39 games (0.64 goals per game) is pretty dang good. For reference, here are the best defenses in the top 4 leagues last year:
- Bundesliga: RB Leipzig 0.94 goals allowed per game
- Premier League: Manchester City 0.84 goals allowed per game
- Serie A: Inter Milan 0.92 goals allowed per game
- La Liga: Atletico Madrid 0.66 goals allowed per game
I know the US has played a bunch of garbage teams to pump up those numbers, but if you limit it to just competitive matches it’s even lower at 0.5 goals allowed per game. I’ll stop there before I turn into Berhalter’s publicist or something, but the D has been good.
Anyway, for the grades:
If you haven’t read one of these USMNT (+/-) Player Grades articles before click here for an explanation of the system.
Grades
Grading Beverage: a Highball – Boubon (George Remus in this case) + ginger ale, quite refreshing
MOTM – Weston McKennie (+10.5)
Is this controversial? It feels a little like it is. I haven’t heard/read anyone say he was poor, but I don’t think I’ve seen many positive reviews of his play either. Wes didn’t do much that was flashy, but he was positive in all four game phases and showed up all over the field. Here’s a screen cap of his portion of the event log:
Weston has physical gifts that most midfielders do not. Watch him make some space for himself here and eventually get into the box:
Most (all?) of the midfielders in the US pool just tap that ball back to Robinson and we recycle possession. McKennie gets away and then finds space for himself in the box. I also don’t think McKennie gets enough credit for his recognition of space. That’s something you usually hear said about Zardes or Arriola, but McKennie sees spaces and gets into it very well. Even at Juventus this is an attribute that sticks out.
Other Positive Performances
Tyler Adams (+9.5)
Adams is not the Sergio Busquets-style #6 that I think Berhalter imagined when he took over, but the guy is so good at what he does. Look at this:
He doesn’t even touch the ball here, but he kills this attack before it can turn into anything even remotely dangerous. Adams recognizes danger and covers space better than any midfielder I can recall seeing play for the USMNT. He’s also a decent enough passer of the ball and an excellent communicator/leader on the field. Here’s another play where Aaronson plays a bad ball and gambles trying to get it back (he doesn’t), but Adams is there to clean it up (and let Brenden know about it).
Adams is the starting #6 and captain of the team for the foreseeable future. Kante is the upside here, and I don’t say that lightly.
Sergino Dest (+8.5)
Dest started a little slow (along with most of the team), but really picked it up in the second half. I’d also like to push back on the Dest is a bad defender thing that seems to be out there. When Dest is engaged (which tbf I think can be an issue) he is a very capable defender. There wasn’t a lot of defending to be done against Jamaica, but Dest took care of his side of the field while he was out there. Check out the tracking back here in the second half shortly before he comes off:
Getting the best out of Dest is going to be an important job for Berhalter in the coming matches. He’s at Barcelona for a reason. Seeing those reasons on the field will go a long way towards winning matches.
Timothy Weah (+5 in 22 minutes +20.5 per/90)
There are others that had higher totals (I’m sure you can read about Pepi all over the place), but Weah looked electric out there in his time on the field. He was fast, confident, and should really have had an assist for his troubles. The health issues have prevented us from seeing him with the USMNT very often, but if Berhalter is looking for verticality then Weah is his man. Very few players in CONCACAF are going to be able to keep up with him and he has actual skill to back up the pace. I really hope he gets a start against Panama.
Timothy Weah vs Jamaicapic.twitter.com/KoNdD0sWnu
— Sanjiv (@USMNTvideos) October 8, 2021
Room to Improve (nobody really)
Miles Robinson (+2)
This is harsh. A +2 isn’t even a bad score and Robinson didn’t have a lot to do with Jamaica’s anemic attack providing few chances to defend. However, his distribution was lacking and he did give too much space to Jamal Lowe in the 41′. He’s still the first CB on the team sheet for me and a guy who makes me feel safe when I watch the game. Jamaica had him 1v1 in the 21′ and I wasn’t even worried. That guy had no chance of beating Miles. Here’s a couple examples of plays that could use some cleaning up though:
On to Panama
Away to Panama doesn’t seem quite as scary after seeing them lose to El Salvador, but it is in Panama City. What are we expecting from Panama though? I’d expect another low block and some frustration, but more competent counterattacking from the Panamanians. From the US, the subs in the Jamaica match gave us a bit of a preview of the lineup against Panama. I’d bet it looks something like this:
Richards has to get a start at some point, right? I sorta doubt it’ll be in an away World Cup qualifier though. I know winning cures everything, but I’m feeling pretty positive right now (I guess that could be the 2 highballs talking😂). Looking forward to Sunday night.
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