Play it Again, Sam – USA vs Guyana (Gold Cup: 6/18/19)

Hello, again. If you haven’t read one of these it would probably be a good idea to take a look at an explanation of what these grades are. If you don’t feel like it here’s a quick explanation:

I re-watch the game and assign a positive or negative value to each play that I find notably good or bad. I’m aware that this is a subjective exercise, but I think most people would be in the same general ballpark. (If you think I’m wrong – feel free to tell me about it @blharreld)

At the end of the game each player comes out with a value that indicates how well or poorly they played. Here are the notes from the USA-Guyana game.

Those notes turn into these +/- scores.

MOTM – Tyler Boyd (+21)

This was a pretty obvious one. A lot of times the guy who scores a goal (or two) automatically gets man of the match and you think…was he really the best player though? This was not one of those instances. The US has been crying out for a goal dangerous winger forever (since Donovan?) and Boyd looks like he might be it. The competition caveat with Guyana is the caution. They couldn’t handle him. I had Boyd +10 at halftime before he even scored a goal. He was making good runs in behind, harassing people on defense, switching the field, and playing dangerous crosses all game long. Honestly, he could’ve/should’ve scored four goals. We’ll see how he plays as the competition gets better, but this was a very encouraging start.

Tyler Boyd vs Guyana

pic.twitter.com/ktm9bCYuFF

— USMNT Videos (@USMNTvideos) June 19, 2019

Other Notable Positives

Weston McKennie (+13)

I was a little surprised by how good McKennie was on re-watch. I thought he’d had a pretty good game, but I didn’t realize how influential he had been. I had him down for nine(!) different pluses for passes, some of them of a very dangerous variety. If/when the US was opening up Guyana the odds are that McKennie was starting the move. He did lose the ball/pass it to the other team a couple times, but the positives far outweighed the negatives for McKennie.

Walker Zimmerman (+9)

Walker had me worried there for a minute. In a six nine (math is hard) minute stretch (from 16′-25′) he passed the ball to the wrong team three times. He reminded me a little bit of Aboubacar Keita (U20 defender if you didn’t watch the U20 WC). However, he settled down and played quite a few nice line-breaking passes over the course of the game. He was also solid defensively and in the air. Good performance overall.

That’s about it. Lima played fairly well (+6), but there were no other outstanding performers.

Room to Improve

Tim Ream (-6)

This feels harsh, but go back and watch the game. He let a guy get across him for what should have been a good chance in the 33rd minute, got megged to create a half chance for Guyana in the 54th minute, and turned the ball over in a real bad spot in the 66th minute. Those are just the larger negatives. I’ve always had a soft spot for Ream, but this LB/CB spot is becoming a problem for the team. I don’t love Lovitz, but it might be time for him to get a shot if he’s the only other option (*cough* Alvarado *cough*).

Gyasi Zardes (-2)

I’m not even sure what to say about Zardes anymore. It’s beyond clear he’s not a good enough player for the national team. I’m sure he’s a nice guy, he obviously knows Berhalter’s system, and he tries really hard. He’s just not very good. Pulisic should have scored this header, but how does Zardes get megged and barely even touch the ball? *sigh*

Aaron Long (-1)

To be fair, Long didn’t have a whole lot to do. I only had him down for six graded events. Guyana didn’t do a lot of attacking. Unfortunately, he didn’t do all that well in the defending he did do. For example:

I’m not sure if that was miscommunication, a poorly judged ball, or what, but it wasn’t good whatever it was. He hasn’t played for a while with NYRB, so maybe he’s just rusty, but if he doesn’t get un-rusty quickly there’s going to be trouble.

What about Bradley?

I had Bradley at (+2) which isn’t great, especially against Guyana. He doesn’t defend well anymore and his passing wasn’t anything to write home about. He just wasn’t awful compared to a couple of his teammates. Even the assist wasn’t that great. Call me mean if you’d like but he should have played it a beat or two earlier and given Boyd an easier chance to score. What do you think?

Why so low on Arriola?

Arriola came in at (+1). The announcers were pretty high on both wingers, but I had Arriola down for a bunch (seven) of small negatives. There were no glaring errors, but there were bad crosses, a loose touch, a couple bad shots, etc. There were seven positive events as well, but it wasn’t a great performance imo.

Conclusions

The team won 4-0 against a bad team they were supposed to beat. Job done. They didn’t play that well as a team though. You could see poor communication, people not on the same page, etc…all indicative of a team that hasn’t played together a lot and still learning a new system. I don’t think there’s cause for alarm yet. I do think the lack of defensive ability/range from the available d-mids and the LB/CB spot are going to be an issue against better teams, but probably not in the group stage.

It’s the beginning of a tournament and you’d like to see the team grow and play better as it goes along. That’s what teams that win tournaments do. I’ll do one of these for each game in the Gold Cup and hopefully at the end we are talking about a good, cohesive performance (win or lose) in the final.

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