Going into the World Cup we’d mentioned that one of the biggest concerns for the USMNT was the lack of experience in the manager’s chair. With any squad it’s usually easy to point at the manager and pin the blame on them for the loss. In this particular case there’s certainly plenty of blame to go around, and some of the USMNT players share the blame with their coach Gregg Berhalter. However, some of the worst fears that we had coming into the tournament seemed to be on full display in the team’s first game against Wales.
The US started the game strong, pressing Wales, and not even allowing them to get across midfield with adequate ball possession for almost the entire first half. There were two key plays early in the game in which the US could’ve found the first goal of the match. One play was almost an own goal after a US cross. Then Josh Sargent had a chance right in front of the goalkeeper which he wasn’t able to convert. The inclusion of Sargent in the starting 11 in the first place was a surprise because he hadn’t started many games for the USMNT as of late. The goal did come in the first half after a great Pulisic run down the middle which ended in a perfect through ball to Tim Weah who poached it past the keeper.
Once the second half got started though, virtually everything that the US was doing well vanished!
Added Pressure In The Midfield Kills The 4-3-3
In the second half Wales was able to shake off the USMNT pressure. The addition of Kieffer Moore was really important to Wales because it allowed them to play long balls to someone who would actually find a way to come down with them and distribute to the rest of the team. This allowed more of the Wales midfielders to get up field and outnumber the US’s 3-man midfield. Gregg Berhalter tried to counter by adding fresh legs, and ridding his team of booked players, but the loss of Weston McKennie, and then Yunus Musah did not do the team any favors. Their replacements just never got into the peace of the game, and were on their heels more often than not.
This is one of the reasons why Berhalter needs to shoulder a large portion of the blame for the loss. He never adjusted his formation even when it was clear that Wales had the US on the ropes. All he did was put fresh legs in the midfield and remove Dest as well who was booked. As Wales moved routinely further and further up field the US seemed to have no answer. Pulisic and Weah were no longer overly effective on the wings either in the second half. They could’ve had perfect opportunities to finish the game off with a counter, but that never materialized.
Were Many US Players Faking Injuries Or Is There A Conditioning Issue?
Weston McKennie’s substitution did seem to be due to a physical issue. At certain points in the game though multiple US players went to the ground trying to waste some time. If the physical issues are for real, then Berhalter’s got a real problem on his hands because at least 4 different guys went down with apparent injuries. What seems to be more likely is that in multiple cases the US players were just trying to bleed time off the clock.
Which would be ok if this was happening in stoppage time, or maybe from the 80th minute onward. There were American players though going down from the 65th minute onward. It was a true sign of a lack of ideas on the field and especially coming from the bench to try and sneak out the win. Now the US needs to beat Iran and potentially scrape at least a point from their game against England if they want to make it to the second round. The lack of creativity coming from the bench, and the injuries are a real concern!
