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

Hello again, sports fans. The USMNT beat Morocco 3-0 on Wednesday night in a thoroughly enjoyable (for us) match. Before we get into all that though…I want to make sure no one missed this major news from Thursday:

That’s right. Christian Pulisic is growing a mullet. I know they are sort of “in style” again these days, but that’s gotta be ironic, right? Anyhow, I am unreasonably excited to see how it turns out and hopeful that it will be accompanied by a bad mustache. I assume Christian knows that mullets and mustaches go together?

Pulisic now needs to start evangelizing on behalf of the mullet. Convincing a couple/few more teammates to show up to the World Cup rocking a mullet would be a force multiplier.

I’ll stop now. I’m sure you didn’t click on a “Player Grades” article to read about bad/glorious hair styles, but if you aren’t excited about Pulisic’s camaro cut then I don’t think I want you reading my work. Anyhow, to the grades…

Grading Beverage: Larceny Bourbon – Brown sugar on the nose and hints of licorice, chai, and toasted walnuts on…I’m sorry I can’t do this lol. Those tasting note descriptions are ridiculous. Larceny is pretty good. Burned a little more than I remembered.

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

Grades

MOTM – Brenden Aaronson (+12.5)

I’ll admit that I was not excited when news broke that Aaronson would be starting in the midfield. I’ve enjoyed his work on the wing and I believe he’s the best presser on the team, but he’s been underwhelming in his other starts there. This game was a different matter though. He pressed very well, as usual, but also pushed the game forward. He loves trying to fit it in there. Many of the passes get picked, but you also get these once in while:

You can see why RB-style teams covet this kid. In the past, his physicality has been a limitation. He has gotten knocked off the ball (“big brother-ed” to quote the gents at Scuffed) easily and generally pushed around. I didn’t notice any of that on Wednesday and thought that he even did some bullying of his own.

Having someone with more playmaking skills/offensive inclination as part of the midfield was very helpful and made the offensive display we saw possible. If he’s a legit option in midfield and not just a “pocket winger” than suddenly the USMNT has viable depth in midfield. We’re going to need to see it more than once, but it was a very encouraging performance.

Other Positive Performances

Matt Turner (+7.5)

This is a grade that improved in my mind after I graded/re-watched. I didn’t think he was bad by any stretch of the imagination, but I remembered his distribution being rough (if you listened to the post-match pod you might notice I’ve reversed a couple opinions from there).

And it did start out a little iffy, but it looked like his confidence grew throughout the match. There were a couple balls like this one:

No one is going to confuse Turner with Ederson, but this is fine given his shot-stopping abilities. At this point, I’d like Turner to get the majority of the next three matches to get more comfortable. If we are going to steal a match at the World Cup, the keeper may very well need to stand on his head. My money would be on Turner being the one being able to pull that off.

Tyler Adams (+7)

If you’ve been reading for a while, you probably know that Tyler is my favorite player. I love the attitude, the tackles, the range. All of it. But I’ve been a little worried about him. He fell out of favor at Leipzig under Tedesco and he looked rusty with the ball at the conclusion of WC qualifying. This was his best match for the US in a minute. He did his usual defensive Tyler Adams thing:

He also looked the best I’ve seen him in a while on the ball too:

Adams is the starting #6 for the foreseeable future no matter what because of his defensive abilities, but if he can be decent with the ball it raises the ceiling of the team. Adams covering ground and killing attacks is going to be critical to the team’s success at the World Cup. It’ll be interesting to see if he gets a move over the summer or sticks at RB Leipzig.

Haji Wright (+5.5)

Pulisic had a good game too, but I’ve written about him quite a bit. We know he’s good. Wright on the other hand is a bit of a mystery. A talented youth player that has bounced around Europe getting a shot is interesting. This grade gets a slightly unfair +2 bump for the penalty, but there were some intriguing signs from the performance.

At 6’4″ and 180 lbs, Wright offers something different. Pefok is similar, but doesn’t have the athleticism to press, while I think Wright does. Reading too much into 45 minutes in a friendly against Morocco is dangerous, but I liked the what I saw. One of these forwards needs to start putting the ball in the back of the net. Ferreira is on the plane, but after that it’s a royal rumble for one or maybe two more spots. Haji is in with a shout.

Room to Improve

Jedi Robinson (0)

I don’t actually think this was a bad performance, but this was the lowest grade from a starter. Jedi is always going to be a little “messy” out there and there were moments like this:

On the other hand, he went toe-to-toe with Hakimi and didn’t come out too badly. It felt like they were going at each other for that first half and Robinson mostly held his own. Hakimi got him at least twice, but Robinson also got in behind him and made him work defensively while he was out there. So even though the grade was low, I don’t have a ton of complaints about the showing.

Yunus Musah (+0.5)

This is getting to be a theme with Musah. I love the kid and he’s super talented, but the wow moments tend to cover up some of the warts.

Adams and Long helped him out here, but this easily could have turned into a goal for Morocco. His defensive awareness needs some work and he still looks to be struggling with fitness. Then you see moments like this and remember the tools:

The abilities make it worth waiting, but he needs to play consistently in the midfield somewhere to grow. Valencia just fired their coach, so maybe he’ll get a shot there next season. That would be very helpful for the USMNT.

Next Up Uruguay

Uruguay is the best(?) counter-attacking team in the world. That’s not a great stylistic matchup for the US, but it should be interesting. Tabarez, their coach for 15 years, is gone, but I can’t imagine their identity has changed much. They could be in the semi-finals of the World Cup and no one would bat an eye. These are the kind of games the US needs to play and experience to get ready. Should be a fun one.

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PS – I didn’t get time to proof read this one much so apologies for awkward wording, typos/mistakes. We’ve got ballet and soccer matches going on. Fun, but busy times.