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

Imagine you are Berhalter and co. sitting around before the Gold Cup planning out strategy for the tournament. You know there isn’t a lot of attacking talent available (let’s leave roster construction alone for a minute), but it looks like there’s the potential for a pretty strong defense. How do you maximize that situation?

Imo, Berhalter has decided to play keep away, wear teams down, and try to win matches 1-0 or in the last 30 minutes. They scored early against Haiti and Canada, but have followed this formula in the knockout rounds against Jamaica and Qatar. The game plan for Mexico is going to have to be different since keeping possession against El Tri is out of the question. I’d imagine this Michael Bradley quote is going to be relevant on Sunday evening:

"This is the World Cup of suffering… and we want to be the team that can suffer the most" Michael Bradley

— roger bennett (@rogbennett) June 23, 2014

The USMNT is going to have to buckle up and prepare to be the ones running this time. I don’t expect them to win, but a gutty performance with more Matt Turner heroics feels at least possible.

That’s the big picture stuff. Now let’s take a look at the individual performances against Qatar.

Grading Beverage: A Hot Toddy – my 5 year old daughter managed to pass her sore throat on to me and it’s also a good way to use up that Remus Bourbon that isn’t great. Playing through pain for y’all here.🤣

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

Grades

MOTM – Matt Turner (+9)

The USMNT could easily have been down 2-0 going into halftime and we are having a very different discussion about this game. The impotent possession from the first half is a lot easier to see as “body blows” when it goes into the half 0-0 and the US wins on a late goal. Turner made two really good saves to keep things level.

Matt Turner man.. really good half and tournament from him so far.. 🇺🇸🧤 #USMNT pic.twitter.com/dNvIWlZpfC

— USMNT 🇺🇸🐝 (@USMNTTAKES) July 30, 2021

He wasn’t nearly as busy in the second half as he was the first, but he did manage to outwait the penalty taker. No idea how much that contributed to Al-Haydos missing the penalty, but it sure didn’t hurt.

We are now in sort of a strange situation with the goal keepers on the USMNT. I suspect that most fans will have Horvath or Tuner #1 at this point, but I also suspect that Berhalter still has Steffen on top of the depth chart. That’ll be an interesting subplot to keep an eye on in September.

Other Positive Performances

Miles Robinson (+8.5)

I’m planning on doing a Gold Cup recap-type article after all this settles down and when I do I think Miles Robinson may be the big winner. The #2 spot next to John Brooks is wide open. Chris Richards is probably the most talented option there, and Mark McKenzie has gotten the most time, but Robinson is the best defender of the three. Berhalter has preferred to have an athletic defender as one of his two center backs and Robinson might just be the best one of those in the pool.

In this match, Robinson again barely put a foot wrong. I dinged him half a point for sliding over to cover a little too slowly in the 40th minute…and that was it. He was excellent in the air and played his usual suffocating defense all over the field. Even if an attacker is able to turn him Robinson is fast enough to recover and neutralize the situation. Not to sound like a broken record, but Robinson is a superior defender at a position where the primary responsibility is defending. Not a bad situation.

Matthew Hoppe (+8.5)

Hoppe has consistently surprised me throughout this tournament. He scored five goals in three games during January and then only one more for the rest of the Bundesliga season. I figured he’d had a nice little hot streak and now could spend a season in the 2. Bundesliga with Schalke. Hoppe has other plans. He’s having the Gold Cup Orlando hoped Dike would be having. Not in terms of goals scored, but Hoppe is nearly the only spark of creativity that exists in the USMNT lineup. The pass in the gif below really deserved to be an assist:

I don’t think there’s much to the Everton/Arsenal transfer rumors, but he’s certainly doing his part to make himself more attractive to potential bidders. It would also be really nice if the US had one more viable winger so we could get a look at Hoppe playing center forward. That ain’t happening this tournament though.

Sam Vines (+6.5)

His score isn‘t that great, but let’s spend a spare a moment for Mr. Vines. Sam Vines is a competent left back. Think about that for a second. He’s not exactly Marcelo, but how often has the USMNT had even a halfway decent left back?

Vines had a rough first half, but really turned it around on the back nine. Check out his +/- over the course of the match:

He had a couple defensive lapses in the first 45 including one weird moment (13′) where he let the Qatari attacker cut in front of him to head the ball on goal. However, once halftime rolled around he was a different player. His defense was on point and his passing really went up a level. Really liked this cheeky little backheel.

The US could (and has done) do much worse at left back.

Room to Improve

Daryl Dike (-2)

Dike didn’t do much and sadly the noteworthy events were mostly negative. It got to the point where I felt bad for him. His arm was hanging weirdly and nothing was coming off. You could see the frustration when he played this pass behind Sam Vines to ruin a promising counterattack.

I don’t know what exactly is going on with Dike, but he doesn’t have “it” this tourney. After playing 56 games in a year maybe he just needs a break for a couple/few weeks.

James Sands (-0.5)

I really thought this was going to be worse after watching the game live. However, as usual, there were quite a few small positive moments that were easy to forget. The problem is that there were also a couple really glaring mistakes (TO in 9′, PK foul in 53′). Forwards can screw up and the consequences aren’t so severe since they are usually a long way from their own goal. When a center back makes a mistake it hurts. I’m still bullish on Sands in the long run, but I’m also very interested in how he holds up against Mexico in the final. If I were in charge of Mexico, I’d be scheming up ways to get Sands isolated with one of my tricky attackers. Sunday could be very informative one way or the other.

Busio (-0.5)

Busio’s passing was just off in this match. There were four different passes that I noted as negative and these are the comments I put in the notes with them: needed to be more accurate, just off, just off again, and slightly under-hit. A couple of those might have even been positives if they were better. His transition defense was pretty good again – so he wasn’t getting pushed around. Just an odd match.

I wonder if his move to Venezia is weighing on him. He’s a 19 year old kid about to move across the world. That’s got to be on your mind a bit.

Mexico in the Final

CONCACAF made sure Mexico got through so here we are again. The last time the US played a B side against Mexico it didn’t go so well. To the tune of 5-0. A close match would be a success, but I’m holding out a little hope for a “smash and grab” style win with Matt Turner donning the Superman cape. A respectable showing against a much better opponent is the goal.

If we beat Mexico with this group though…

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