My 3 Thoughts: Honduras 1, USMNT 4
Pepi Completes the Comeback on His Senior Debut as U.S. Rebounds for a Huge Win and a 5-Point Week
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SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras — The USMNT came from behind to beat Honduras 4-1 here on Wednesday night in the third game of the 14-match World Cup qualifying campaign. Here are my three thoughts on the game:
• This could be a defining win in this cycle for the USMNT. The U.S. looked miserable in the first half, going down 1-0, but coach Gregg Berhalter made several changes to start the second half (bringing on Sebastian Lletget, Antonee Robinson and Brenden Aaronson) and the team responded. Robinson, who’s had a marvelous week, scored the equalizer early in the second half, but a tie or worse looked likely when Christian Pulisic went out with an injury in the 62nd minute. But the kid, 18-year-old forward Ricardo Pepi, making his first appearance at senior level, scored on a deadly header in the 75th minute from a terrific DeAndre Yedlin cross, and the U.S. added two more in the waning minutes and found a way to get three points on the road. Pepi had a role in the first U.S. goal too, holding up the ball well and then getting himself forward in the box to create some havoc. Berhalter rolled the dice to start Pepi in a high-pressure road World Cup qualifier, and the risk paid off.
• The U.S. players didn’t quit. When Jurgen Klinsmann was fired after losing two straight games to start the final round in the last cycle, the decision was made not just because of results but because the U.S. players had clearly quit on Klinsmann in a 4-0 qualifying loss at Costa Rica. These U.S. players tonight did not quit, not even when they were missing Pulisic, Gio Reyna, Weston McKennie or Sergiño Dest. That says something about them, and it says something about Berhalter and the coaching staff. Honduras was gassed in the second half, that much was obvious, but the U.S. took advantage of it in a hostile environment and left these Honduran fans jeering their own team. So much can change so quickly in World Cup qualifying. Wednesday night was just one more example.
• Starting Tyler Adams at right back made no sense. When I saw the U.S. lineup, I just assumed that meant Adams would start centrally and Kellyn Acosta would start at right wingback (where Berhalter has occasionally put him). But I was wrong! Why would Berhalter put the team’s best central midfielder from the last two games on the right side? It made no sense. From the opening minutes, Adams was maniacally trying to direct traffic for his teammates instead of playing centrally and dictating things with his actions. Meanwhile, James Sands was playing in the central midfield and was completely overmatched there. It’s totally understandable that without Reyna, McKennie and Dest there was going to be a makeshift element of the lineup, but Berhalter gave himself a self-inflicted wound by starting Adams on the right.
What are your thoughts on the game? Put them in the comments below. Be sure to come back at 9 am ET for my longer magazine-style story on the game. And subscribe for free to my podcast. We’ll have Landon Donovan on tomorrow and after every USMNT World Cup qualifier to discuss the game with Chris Wittyngham and me.
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It was definitely a tale of two halves. The question I'm left with is this: Do the fantastic substitutions make up for the first half blunders, or did they just shed more light on how atrocious the blunders were to begin with? Gregg's been quite confusing as of late. I sat not too far away from where he stood in Nashville, and although I clearly yelled at him for subs, he just had to wait until the 80th. It made no sense! I appreciate his willingness to course correct, and assess tonight's mess at halftime, but it just seems so disjointed.
The team looks like they don't have a true direction at times, and they play like they don't know where the attack should come from. There's no real pivots between the lines, and taking Adams out of the middle only made that worse. Our strikers can't hold the ball up (though Pepi did well tonight), and our movement in the final third is lacking.
Optimistic take: This will be the turning point, and this big win will finally get some momentum going our way.
Pessimistic take: The second half was just an example of a more talented side taking advantage of a lesser side that was fatigued. One goal just allowed things to open up.
We shall see!
On one hand Berhalter made some great tactical changes that helped set the team up for success.
On the other hand those were largely to fix his horrible tactical mistakes with the starting line-up.