In the two most recent friendlies the US played Mexico and Uruguay. Mexico pressed the US high and hard, beating the USMNT rather handily, 3-0. Uruguay pressed a little, but mostly sat back in their usual mid block and scored one on the counter, 1-1.
Which approach are the US more likely to see in their opponents?
Scenarios
The Opponent Presses
So let’s say Honduras (pick another random CONCACAF team in your head if you’d like) is watching the film of the Mexico game and says to themselves, “That worked well. Let’s press like Mexico.” I would call that playing left-handed for Honduras and almost every other team the US is going to play. Running a press like Mexico is not something a team can decide to do tomorrow and perfect three days later. Mexico has a very good coach (*sigh* let’s not go down that road right now…), the best player pool in the region, and has been practicing that system since he was hired in January of 2019.
The USMNT should be able to play through the press of a team that has decided to do it as an option to specifically trouble the US. If they can’t, then Berhalter isn’t teaching the system well, and it’s completely incompatible with the player pool.
That brings us to this:
At times, it feels like Berhalter watched #USAvCRC 2017 qualifier at RBA 100x and is trying to figure out how to not let history repeat itself. Not being able to play out of play killed U.S. He wouldn’t be wrong. Everyone remembers Couva but game that mattered was CRC game.
— Paul Kennedy (@pkedit) September 7, 2019
And here are a couple examples of the USMNT dealing with Costa Rica’s “press” in that ill-fated World Cup Qualifier (here’s a link to the game if you’re some sort of masochist – I only watched enough to find these examples, sickos):
In this game the US would boot it long (not always, but quite a bit) and fight for the second ball. Sometimes they got it, sometimes they didn’t. I know Costa Rica is a good CONCACAF team, but the US should really be able to hold the ball and possess against them, especially at home. The US may not ever be able to play through the well formulated press of a team as good as Mexico. They should absolutely be able to play out of something like that.
Costa Rica isn’t a pressing team. If they decide to press as a strategy…the USMNT should definitely be able to carve that up.
Norwich City Comparison
If you haven’t been on Twitter in the last few days you may have missed this compilation of Norwich City playing through the press of perhaps the best club team in the world, Manchester City. Watch. It’s worth your two minutes.
Norwich fans cheering their team playing out from the back, evading the press pic.twitter.com/6mL7w4TMvL
— James Nalton (@JDNalton) September 16, 2019
So obviously Daniel Farke (Norwich City’s manager) gets to spend every day training these guys and working on his system. It’s not an apples to apples situation. But how does the talent at Norwich compare to what’s available with the USMNT? Let’s take a look.
*Note* I am by no means a Norwich City expert. I’ve watched one of their games this season. The information below is based on internet research and that one game against Liverpool.
This is the eleven that started against Manchester City a few days ago
- GK – Tim Krul – 31 years old and has bounced around between Newcastle and Brighton before joining Norwich City prior to last season.
- RB – Sam Byram – 26 year old defender that played 18 games in the PL a couple years ago with West Ham. Other than that he’s been in the Championship.
- CB – Ibrahim Amadou – 26 year old defensive midfielder playing CB for Norwich. This guy is legitimately a better ball playing defender than anyone the USMNT can throw out there. He’s on loan from Sevilla and has played for a couple Ligue 1 teams.
- CB – Ben Godfrey – Another CB/DM Godfrey is 21 and has come up through the lower English leagues.
- LB – Jamal Lewis – 21 year old left back that has come through the Norwich City academy.
- DM – Alexander Tettey – 33 year old defensive midfielder . The best team he’s been on before this was Stade Rennais in Ligue 1. The most he’s ever been worth in Transfermarkt was 4.56m 10 years ago.
- CM – Kenny McLean – 27 year old that played in the Scottish league (and not with Celtic or Rangers) before joining Norwich prior to last season.
- RM/RW – Emiliano Buendia – 22 year old Argentine that came up through Getafe’s system in Spain. Currently worth 20.52m and rising. 👀
- AM – Marco Stiepermann – 28 year old German that has spent most of his career in the 2. Bundesliga.
- LM/LW – Todd Cantwell – 21 year old Englishman that has come up through the Norwich youth system.
- FWD – Teemu Pukki – 29 year old forward that has bounced around Europe his whole career (Denmark, Scotland, Germany, etc.). He appears to have made a deal with the devil and is now Jamie Vardy-ing his way into Premier League hearts.
IMO Norwich City has better players than the USMNT at one center back spot and forward. In the other positions the US is even or better. That could just be my rose-colored USMNT fan glasses typing, but with all hands on deck, I think that’s at least an arguable position.
That brings us back to time on task and quality of coach. Norwich certainly has the edge in time and who knows about the coach. Farke coached in the German 4th tier and was the coach of Dortmund II before landing the Norwich job. Berhalter’s resume was/is similarly thin.
The Future
The answer to the problem is time. The US hasn’t ever had an “official” style of play that has been integrated up and down the different teams. Assuming Earnie Stewart keeps his job and his nerve, the US will be playing this Dutch style throughout the youth teams for the foreseeable future. In 2025 when a US player gets called from the U20 team to the senior team he will have played the same (roughly at least) system since he became a part of the US youth pool.
The current crop of senior players are in the roughest shape learning the system that any team will ever be in. They didn’t play this way with the youth teams and basically none of them play a similar system with their club teams (Dest sure looked comfy with the senior team didn’t he? Coincidence?)
What if the Opponent Sits Back?
That’s generally what CONCACAF teams have done to the US and will continue to do assuming the team becomes nominally competent playing out of the back. This looks to be the part of the game the team is better at/more comfortable with. Even against Mexico, if the US could get the ball into midfield they could knock it around pretty well.
Against Uruguay the US won the expected goals battle 1.73 – 1.05. I know both teams were “B teams,” it was a real low intensity game, etc. However, the US is starting to look comfortable possessing the ball in those situations and creating a chance or two while doing so.
The Problem
Before I start getting accused of being too positive or something…let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Player selection. I’m not sure what to say anymore. I guess I could go out of my way to explain how guys like Trapp, Zardes, Lovitz, Roldan, etc. know the system and are useful pieces in teaching it to the players that are “sprinkled in” each camp. But I won’t.
I’m tired of seeing those guys. I’ve graded enough US games in the last few months to see that they aren’t good enough. And it’s not like having them out there allowed team to play beautiful football and beat Uruguay’s backups 3-1. If we’re going to do this thing…then do it. Take your lumps as younger, more talented guys learn the system and lose 3-0 against Uruguay too. As much as it’s no fun to watch the team get killed in friendlies…I’d understand.
The nations league games are coming up soon. Let’s hope we see even more guys “sprinkled in” to those rosters. Surely McKennie and Lletget know the system well enough that they could demonstrate things to players like…oh I don’t know….Richie Ledezma or Alex Mendez?
Probably not, but a guy can dream, right?
If you enjoyed this and would like to be informed of future articles type your email address in the box and you’ll be notified of each new post. Also, feel free to follow me on Twitter @blharreld 🤓
