HalfSpaces Player (+/-) Grades: USMNT vs Japan

Not exactly an ideal tune up preparing for the World Cup in nine weeks was it? The takes and reactions to matches like this in the immediate aftermath are rarely accurate. When I was a teacher I frequently would pull two kids having a disagreement out in the hall and have them each give me their side of the story. The truth was nearly always somewhere in the middle.

When the US beat Mexico back in November – it probably wasn’t as good as you remember. This loss to Japan probably isn’t as bad as it seems right now either. Was it good? No. They played terribly and the grades reflect that. Does it mean they are going to lose every game at the World Cup? No – it doesn’t mean that either.

Best Case Scenario: this was a wake up call for the team, it fires the players/coaches up before a nice WC run, and we barely remember this friendly in January.

Worst Case Scenario: this reveals that Berhalter’s “system” isn’t going to work with the available players come November and we crash out of the World Cup after a poor group stage showing.

The Reality: somewhere in between these two scenarios.

Grading Beverage: The Classic Laddie from Bruichladdich – possibly my favorite Scotch. Watch Scotch: A Golden Dream on Prime video and you’ll want to run out a buy a bottle of this too.

If you haven’t read one of these USMNT (+/-) Player Grades articles before click here for an explanation of the system.

The Grades

MOTM – Matt Turner (+8.5)

This isn’t a shock to anyone that watched the match. Turner had five good saves and commanded his box well. His distribution was meh, but that’s the sort of performance that steals you a point if Aaronson’s shot in the 80th minute is a couple feet lower. The worry about rust from not playing at Arsenal didn’t seem to be a problem. Do you really want your goalkeeper to be man of the match though?

Not much has been sharp for the #USMNT thus far, but Matt Turner has been on top of his game in goal

(via @TUDNUSA) pic.twitter.com/jQLZC9ffhH

— SI Soccer (@si_soccer) September 23, 2022

Turner is the only keeper in the pool that I think has a chance of standing on his head and getting us a game/undeserved result at the World Cup. He’s the guy for a while (have to wait and see if Slonina’s ascent continues).

Other Positive Performances

Walker Zimmerman (+5)

Is this controversial? I think a lot of the post match dialogue has been about how poor the center backs were, but I don’t completely agree. Zimmerman had a couple “loud” errors, but was solid for the most part. This is probably his biggest mistake:

This is a terrible pass and I gave him a -2 for it. However, Luca de la Torre (h/t to Joe Lowery for pointing this out on Twitter during the match) has to get wider here to give Zimmerman a better option or at least to drag the defender away from the passing lane. That doesn’t excuse the bad pass, but it does matter that the midfield wasn’t making things any easier on him.

Zimmerman also had a few decent moments that you probably don’t remember because everything was bad and we all felt bad. I had him down for seven other passes that were “notably” good in some way and he was the only CB (especially in the first half) bailing water from the sinking ship that was the USS MNT.

Zimmerman isn’t Ruben Dias and will never play for Bayern Munich. He is however a competent, professional center back. The other center back spot is the issue.

Room to Improve

Aaron Long (-3.5)

This feels like the sections I used to write about Jackson Yuiell. What am I supposed to say anymore? Long was pretty good for the team three years ago. He hasn’t been up to the standard for quite some time and I feel bad that he keeps getting run out there. These are my last five grades for him:

• -3.5 vs Japan 9/23/22
• -3 vs Uruguay 6/5/22
• 1.5 vs Morocco 6/1/22
• -1.5 vs Panama 3/27/22 *sub
• 0.5 vs Mexico 3/24/22 *sub

You can cut him some slack for the sub appearances I guess, but this isn’t a player you want starting at the World Cup. Gregg is rolling the dice that he’ll get back to the player he was (as a defender) in 2019 and that’s looking like a bad bet.

Weston McKennie (-3)

Weston needs to get dragged over the coals or something. This performance was sloppy, lazy, and not what the US needs from their most offensively talented midfielder. He needs to stir the drink in possession and win the ball on defense for the team to be at it’s best. This was bad. Look at this:

McKennie is a leader and one of the best players on the team. If this is the type of performance/effort we are going to get out of him then we are sunk.

Brenden Aaronson (-1)

Aaronson has gotten off to a great start with Leeds and he’s a lot of fun to watch. This was a frustrating performance though. He didn’t get involved much in the game (other than getting kicked and rolling around a lot) and a couple chances he had to get involved looked like this:

This could have been a Leeds clip – Adams wins a ball and gets it quickly to Aaronson to counter. Unfortunately, Aaronson’s pass is so far behind Ferreira that the play is dead. Back to slowly recycling the ball around until we give it away. *depressed sigh*

Conclusion

I’ve written this before but, when everyone looks bad it’s difficult to draw broad conclusions. We know there are good players on this team and we’ve seen them play well in the past. It’s also a young team coached by a manager with questionable chops in creating offense. We’re also way past the point of no return on this stuff and are just going to have to cross our fingers for a good performance in November. More data incoming on Tuesday though. See you then.

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