My 3 Thoughts: El Salvador 0, USMNT 0
U.S. Players Had Talked About A 9-Point Week, But That Won't Happen Now
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SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — The USMNT tied El Salvador 0-0 here on Thursday night in the first match of the 14-match World Cup qualifying campaign. Here are my three thoughts on the game:
• The U.S. was more about what it was missing than what it had on Thursday. So often in soccer it’s important to analyze not just what you’re seeing but what you’re not seeing in a game. And there were several things missing here. The obvious one was Christian Pulisic, who stayed in Nashville trying to get fit for Sunday. Strangely, the response to losing Pulisic before the game was mostly mild, and coach Gregg Berhalter spun it as “an opportunity.” But that chance was wasted. Nobody provided the kind of unbalancing threat in the attacking third from wide and central positions that Pulisic can bring to a game.
Another big thing missing with the U.S. was solid play from the fullback positions. Sergiño Dest and DeAndre Yedlin had stinkers, let’s be honest. In the modern game, you need your fullbacks to get forward, and neither one did with any effectiveness. Dest, in particular, looked too lax on both sides of the ball, losing it casually while being too cute and being a liability defending. Nor was Yedlin able to mesh with the attack. He looked like a guy who hasn’t played much for the USMNT in a while, which he hasn’t.
• A lot of U.S. fans are going to overreact to getting a point on the road in CONCACAF. The good news is the USMNT has added a lot of new fans in the last decade. The bad news is they often don’t have the historical context to know much about the challenges of qualifying in CONCACAF. So expect a lot of angst in the next two days. Yes, the U.S. players talked beforehand of wanting this to be a nine-point week, i.e., winning all three qualifiers. But that would be nearly unprecedented for the USMNT, which didn’t win a single game on the road in the final round of qualifying (five games) the last cycle. Getting a point in El Salvador is no reason to celebrate, but it’s also no reason to despair, either. Now, not getting three points at home on Sunday against Canada? That would be a significant problem.
• The U.S.’s best hopes for scoring usually took place on set-pieces. One of the prime scoring chances of the night came in the ninth minute, when Miles Robinson nearly produced a carbon copy of the free-kick header goal that he scored to beat Mexico in the Gold Cup final. But this time Robinson nodded Gio Reyna’s sterling free kick just over the bar, squandering a chance to silence the Salvadoran crowd early. There’s nothing wrong with the U.S. being dangerous on set-pieces, but too often on Thursday they looked like the only way the Americans would be able to score a goal. On the few occasions they created chances in the run of play, the poise was lacking to put the ball in the net. A team can be threatening both on set-pieces and in the run of play. The U.S. needs to start doing that.
What are your thoughts on the game? Put them in the comments below. And be sure to come back at 9 am ET for my longer magazine-style story on the game!
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Young team. The qualifiers are an opportunity for them to learn each other and gel as a team. I think there’s a lot of quality there, they just have to learn to be creative as a group in the final third and work together.
The result isn’t nearly as disappointing as the performance. Too often the US slowed the ball down when getting into the final third and failed to threaten. Reyna ran at defenders a few times creating a couple of chances, but overall the team lacked pace in ball movement leading to very few opportunities.