“We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.”
~C.S. Lewis
This is an odd quote to start a piece about the USMNT, no? After the most recent “lowpoint” for US Soccer Gregg Berhalter lamented his team’s lack of desire. Canada’s intensity was to be expected since a win got them closer to the Hex, but that doesn’t explain the flatness of the USMNT.
There are a couple factors that do, however…
Factor #1 – Player Selection
To steal a term from American football…the US is lacking players with some “dawg” in them. Bullies, killers, whatever. Why do you think coaches loved Jermaine Jones so much? I remember watching a Chile-Portugal game in the Confederations Cup a couple years ago where you could visibly see Portuguese players hesitate around Arturo Vidal. Who in the lineup versus Canada has any sort of presence like that? (I know Vidal is a pretty high bar btw) Here’s the eleven that started against Canada:
- Steffen – not a dawg, but I don’t think keepers matter much there anyway
- Lovitz – umm no
- Ream – definitely not
- Long – villainous haircut, but still no
- Yedlin – nope
- Bradley – “Michael Bradley, the U.S. does not need you to be Zen, the U.S. needs you to play better.” ~from Alexi Lalas’ infamous rant
- Roldan – nope
- McKennie – yeah, there’s some dawg there
- Pulisic – maybe a little? not a lot though
- Morris – a bit
- Sargent – doesn’t look like it
So if almost none of the players you have selected have that fight as part of their DNA…why are you surprised when they don’t show it on the field? Even if the team doesn’t have a bunch of those players is there one or two with a strong enough personality to demand it out of the rest of the team? The answer seems to be no right now for the US. Remember this quote from Josef Martinez a couple days ago?
“If someone shows up with a flat mentality, I’ll kick their ass,” Martínez said with a stern look on his face. “You should’ve been prepared from the time our first game against New England ended. Whoever messes with my job, I’ll kick them. Nobody plays with my money or my family. I’m here to win. I’m here to demonstrate who we are. No one can relax. You can relax after Nov. 14.”
Is there anyone on the USMNT you can imagine saying that? Maaayyybee Weston in a few years. Maybe Tyler Adams has the cojones to say it even now, but he’s played for the team once in the last year. Plus, if you’re pinning your hopes on a 20 year old kid that has barely played…maybe you’ve got deeper problems.
Factor #2 – Leadership
How would you describe Gregg Berhalter? Cerebral? Intelligent? Detail-oriented, maybe? All good things, but if a team really is a reflection of their coach then maybe “in over his head” would be a good description.
Berhalter has had two prior head coaching stops before the USMNT. He was 18-11-17 (39% wins) with Hammarby and 74-69-59 (38% wins) with Columbus. I know he was working with a limited budget in Columbus and his team generally made the playoffs (and made 1 MLS Cup), but it’s not like he was Simeone winning La Liga with Atletico or Mourinho winning the Champions League with Porto.
Klinsmann, for all his tactical ignorance, begged the team to be nastier. Bob Bradley is one intense S.O.B. and had that team playing hard (I wish I’d appreciated him more back then). Arena (version 1.0) was an arrogant, Jersey a-hole and employed people like Clint Mathis and Pablo Mastroeni. Berhalter wants to make sure you know the right patterns before he lets you step on the field.
Even the #6 role that is famous for “hard men” is played by a group of milquetoast passers with zero defensive bite for Berhalter’s version of the USMNT. I know that the positional play system Berhalter is implementing needs a good controlling passer there, but at what cost? Even Pep Guardiola, the positional play master himself, employs a midfielder like Fernandinho that’s an excellent passer, but also has never seen a cynical foul he didn’t like.
Conclusion?
Perhaps all this is unfair. I’m observing and inferring from the outside. The team has been without their best defender (Brooks), best midfielder (Adams), and best forward (Altidore) for basically the entirety of Berhalter’s tenure. Add in the fact that he’s trying to implement a completely new style of play with a player pool that’s not very good and it could just be that fans have unrealistic expectations.
On the other hand beating Canada and playing competently/competitively against legitimate opposition isn’t that high a bar to clear. The November fixture dates are coming and I’m hoping for a roster refresh. Names like Tyler Adams, Sergiño Dest (🤞), Timothy Weah, Duane Holmes, Richie Ledezma and maybe a couple more should be on it. The US is playing Cuba away and Canada at home so they will likely look good no matter who gets called in, but if it’s the same old guys…it might be time for a change.
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