Play it Again, Sam – USA vs. Trinidad and Tobago (Gold Cup: 6/22/19)

Revenge! Or maybe that’s just a lame, easy story line for this game…

This was the best the US has looked in the brief Berhalter era. The system was clear to see and it worked well. I was actually at this game so I didn’t have a real good idea of who I was going to be impressed by on re-watch. Lima only came out (+2) in the grades, but I thought he was one of the better performers from my seat in the corner. *shrug* Anyway, to the grades.

Here are the notes:

And here are the +/- grades they become:

MOTM – Weston McKennie (+19)

I try not to read/listen to too much before I write these things to avoid bias, but I did see a couple things about how well Weston played…and I obviously agree. After seeing him play a couple games in a row at CM I’m even more aggravated at Schalke for playing him at forward and right back for 2/3’s of the season. What a waste. His passing was excellent again this game. Those slipped through balls are becoming a signature move. I had him down for nine “notably good” passes last game and he had eight more this game. On top of that I wrote this in a “Running Diary” back in February:

52nd minute: Costa Rica even roughing up Mihailovic in a friendly. Very on brand there, Costa Rica. I need to see a US player clean out the best player on another CONCACAF team. Seriously. Don’t take a red, but if Costa Rica is gonna hack down Pulisic, I want one of our guys to take a nasty yellow on Bryan Ruiz. 

One of the lines I remember from Alexi Lalas’ rant back before the US bombed out of the WC was, “Michael Bradley we don’t need you to be zen…” Weston was not “zen.” McKennie saw his teammate getting pushed around and was having none of it. Go get em’ Wes.

Other Good Performers

Christian Pulisic (+12)

It looks like Pulisic is getting a better understanding of the role he’s being asked to play. Even though he is technically a midfielder he and Arriola switched a lot and he ended up one v one against a defender on the wing frequently. His combination of crossing and dribbling was near impossible for T&T to deal with. He also capped his evening with a nice “screw you” meg of a guy that had just “accidentally” hit him in the face.

Michael Bradley (+12)

Bradley was very good. This performance is what (I believe) Berhalter is looking for from the 6 position in his system. Bradley controlled the tempo of the game, started attacks, played nice long diagonal balls, and played his brand of defense. I think T&T made a huge tactical error by giving him so much time and space (Guyana man marked him), but he certainly took advantage of the room. His defense is very conservative. He takes away passing lanes, re-routes attackers, etc. but he doesn’t get aggressive and go win the ball very often.

Arriola/Zardes (+9)

I’m not a huge Arriola fan. I think he lacks speed and end product. However, he played well this game and is developing chemistry with Pulisic. He scored again, combined well with CP, and put in his usual high effort performance. I’m probably an idiot anyway. Lol.

Gyasi must have felt good in the locker room after this game. I still don’t think he’s good enough to play for the national team, but I’m happy for the guy on a human level. He had a rough first half, but he had himself a whale of a second half. Two nice goals and I still don’t know how he didn’t finish off that hat trick.

The Subs

Morris (+6) and Altidore (+2) were really good. Morris got a +4 for basically creating a goal on his own in the 73′, and Altidore’s touch was such a change from watching Zardes up there it was jarring. If Altidore is ready to play 90 minutes by the end of the tournament it’s going to help the offense immensely.

Negatives?

Tim Ream (-2)

Again, I don’t just want to bag on a guy, but Ream is not playing well. If I were the opposing coach I’d be attacking the left side of the US defense all. game. long. He barely had any defending to do and he still ended up with four different negative events. This was the worst of them in my opinion:

It comes to nothing because T&T is about as potent as Lord Varys, but a better pass puts that guy clean through on goal. Leon Bailey is licking his chops thinking about this match up.

Conclusions

Are we sure that Trinidad and Tobago are better than Guyana? I think level of competition caveats still apply, but the US looked much better as a team. Good teams improve as the tournament goes on, so hopefully by the time the US plays a team that can actually challenge them (semi-finals) they’ll be comfortable in the system and playing well. It was fun to sit back and watch the destruction of a team they were supposed to beat and to do it in some style. If you’re still unhappy…maybe you’re just not a very happy person.

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