Play it Again, Sam – Canada vs USA (10/15/19)

Hello, fellow masochists. If you’re reading this then I assume you are into that or you’re still mad and up for a hate read. Either way, welcome. I’m not going to spend much time on the state of the federation or Berhalter’s job status…

I will say this though. I’m not a soccer writer. This is just a fun (right???) hobby for me. I’m a teacher. Every once in a while I’ll give a test and a large majority of my students don’t do as well as I expected. That means I did a bad job as their teacher. I’m especially concerned if a good student performs poorly. (How have our best players performed under Berhalter?) If the students perform that way consistently it means I’m a bad teacher. At what point do we conclude Berhalter isn’t a very good coach? If it’s not now, it’s getting close.

Moving on.

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

This is the worst performance I’ve ever graded. I started doing this over the summer during the U20 World Cup and I’ve done quite a few games now. Any player score under 5 is pretty bad. The USMNT averaged -0.5 for this game…

I’m even more bummed than the game should have made me because I’d also come up with a new tweak to the grading system. I’ve organized the events into four categories: In Possession, Out of Possession, Transition Offense, and Transition Defense. So in addition to total score, players get a score in each of those four game phases as well. I think I like it, but the game certainly didn’t help make it any more interesting to do. Let me know what you think @blharreld

Anyhow…to the grades

The Notes

Completed +/- Grades

How to Gauge the Scores

15+	Excellent game
9-14	Played well to very well
5-8	Solid
0-4	Not great, Bob
Below 0	Listening to my kids argue 😑

*The Adjusted Total uses the Elo ratings to take into account opponent and competition factors.*

MOTM…if I have to…I guess…Zack Steffen (+6)

The fact that Steffen was the highest scoring player tells you all you need to know about this game. He made a couple really nice saves and wasn’t at fault on either goal. His distribution wasn’t notably good or bad. I suppose I’ll put a highlight in here. Enjoy it. It’s the last positive thing you’re going to see in this mess.

Long (+4) and Morris (+3) weren’t totally dreadful. That’s about it.

Room for Improvement (everyone else)

Cristian Roldan (-10)

I take no pleasure writing the same thing over and over again. I’m sure he’s a really nice guy…but he’s not good enough to play international soccer against any nation with a pulse. He also isn’t what you’d call “press resistant.” Of the 13 negative I docked him, -11 of it was while in possession. This includes the lowlight/highlight above. He gave the ball away in some way, shape, or form seven times by my count while the US was in solid possession of the ball. He should be behind at least Holmes, Pomykal, and Morales on the depth chart for that right sided 8/10 spot.

Weston McKennie (-3)

Weston was invisible. And when he wasn’t invisible he was taking bad touches and/or giving the ball away. Gone were the late runs into the box and the sexy slip passes I enjoyed so much during several games of the Gold Cup. He never got into the game. I enjoyed his toughness and not taking any crap from anyone attitude, but the performance wasn’t there. He has become very Jekyll and Hyde for the USMNT. We got the bad version against Canada (tbf everyone was the Hyde version of themselves though).

Josh Sargent (-3)

This was a kick in the crotch. I, like everyone else, was excited to see Sargent get a shot with the 1st team against a real opponent. It wasn’t all his fault, but it was a resounding thud of a performance. He was very uninvolved and the few events he was a part of were more negative than positive. I still think he should get every non-Jozy minute available at forward, but this wasn’t great.

DeAndre Yedlin (-3)

If the team is going to play a possession style system, Yedlin is not the man for the job. I haven’t been a fan for a while now (*I DON’T CARE THAT HE PLAYS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE) due to his lack of defensive awareness and technical ability, but I was fine with him starting this game. However, he contributed very little to the attack (there were three nice-ish crosses 58′, 70′, 71′), but also at least four notably bad turnovers. He also did his fall asleep at the back post routine for the first goal. Cannon is the first choice right back for me.

What about Pulisic? (+1)

Pulisic was criticized after the game and that’s fair enough. The kid is clearly going through a rough patch and I’m sure this dumpster fire of a national team is the last thing he needs right now. The US creates nothing offensively. When we aren’t playing a vastly inferior opponent scoring is pure luck.

Pulisic didn’t have many chances to help the team. He did have a ball fall to him that he should have done better with, but whatever. The concerning thing to me is how many negatives I gave him on “Transition Offense.” When I think of CP, I think of a player that is terrifying running at the defense with space behind them. He’s turning those balls over on the regular now. Look at the play below. There is acres of space to play the ball into and he doesn’t see it or can’t get it off in time.

The whole team seems to have forgotten how to counterattack. We were good at that once upon a time.

Pulisic is Exhibit A for what I mean when I referenced a good student performing poorly at the start of this.

Any hope for the future?

Not much. I’m looking forward to watching the U17 World Cup in a couple weeks, but the senior team seems mired in this funk for the foreseeable future. I don’t think there’s any real chance of a coaching change (it seems doubtful even if they lose to Canada again in November). The only hope I see is that the guys coming back from injury and the young players coming up are so good that they can make Berhalter’s system work. The current crop of players certainly can’t.

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*NOTE* I generally prefer players in Europe to MLS players, but it is a case by case basis. I think Cannon > Yedlin despite the European pedigree. Conversely I think Aaronson > Green even though Green plays in Europe.