Well, it was the Wales B team, with the coach saving their best players for the 2 Nations League games to come.
That said, I have never seen a US midfield play that well. They harassed the ball all over the park, never let Wales get into their offense. Real swag on the ball, confident handles in tight spaces. Really unlike anything we have ever seen from the US. Sure, we've had teams that had bulldozers in midfield, but our best guy dribbling the ball was someone like Darlington Nagbe, and he would be the only guy who could do it.
This team has so much young midfield and attacking talent that it kind of reminded me of Chelsea from earlier in the season, as the players were getting to know each other. Like Chelsea, the US is questionable at the back, but not against Wales.
Brooks and Miazga played well together. Handled the ball well, good distribution from Brooks most of the time. (He missed a few long balls, but those were mostly early in the game.)
Antonee Robinson is not a fit on this team. He can run and put in a cross, but he lacks good close control, he's too loose with his passing, and he loses concentration too often defensively, forced to sprint back to cover a man who just blew past him. He's just not that good defensively, and he's not sound enough on the ball to ever be an important player on this team. The opening at Left Back persists.
We still lack a proper number 9. Lletgett was terrible. He is kind of an Adam Lallana style midfielder, and there are times that could be useful coming off the bench in the 2nd half, but him playing as a false 9 just meant that he, Gio Reyna and Konrad were all looking to occupy the same space that would usually be taken up by your number 10. The attack got all bunched up, lacked open space and made our attacking line easier to defend.
I hope Musah chooses the US permanently in June, because, wow, him, Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams were the best US midfield I have seen. They allow us to play a 4-3-3, whereas Michael Bradley and Jermaine Jones forced us to play a more defensive 4-2-3-1 and lacked the ability to possess the ball and make quality box-to-box runs that these guys consistently showed.
THIS WAS MODERN FOOTBALL!!
A great step forward. Very pleased. Very optimistic.
Was finally able to watch the game yesterday. This post nails it. I literally got chills at points watching us ping the ball around like we were Germany or Spain. Never, ever seen that from a US team.
Only small quibble is that Lleget was bad because he was playing out of position. I do not understand that tactic at all. We had a group of guys who barely know each other and you play with a false nine? Having a true number nine allows the team to play more simply, which is exactly what a group of guys who do not know each other need. Playing with a false nine, and doing it well, is hard. And IM nailed why it did not work. Too many guys occupying the same space.
Agree on Robinson. Not on the same level as the rest of the team. Maybe move Dest to the left so Cannon can play RB?
Musah is a beast.
Dest is sick.
So young. So much talent. The future looks really bright.
Regarding Berhalter, I tend to give coaches more rope than most, regardless of sport. I just think "Get rid of the coach" is an overly simplistic solution.
I will say that the concerns I had about Berhalter, and which are elucidated in the USMNT 2018 thread, remain. He is a club and a system coach. Club coaches get lots of time with their teams to implement their system. A National team coach is a whole different ball of wax.
A National team coach needs to be able to make decisions with much more limited information and has to be able to translate club-level skills to the national team level taking into account the differences in personnel around that player at the club level vs the National Team. Not easy. I believe it requires more of a feel. Does Berhalter have that? Don't know.
This team is also brutally young. How does Berhalter keep these guys on an even keel when things are not going well? Reyna had a tough game and he lost it and should have gotten a yellow when he went after the Wales player. In a World Cup, a stupid yellow can be the difference between playing in, and watching, a quarterfinal match.
In Concacaf, the fields are terrible; the refs are terrible; the other teams, other than Mexico and Costa Rica, want to play Rugby. Guys need to keep their cool and composure and be smart. If Dest starts dancing on the ball against Honduras, somebody will take him out with a two-footed, studs-up tackle - and the ref will just call it a simple foul.
Lots of talent. Lots of questions. Stay tuned. Unfortunately, I don't think Panama will tell us anything. Like to see us play an "A" team from a Poland, Sweden or Norway to get a better idea of where this young group stands.
