Watching the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team is excruciating
The U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team (USMNT) is in the middle of a campaign to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the largest upcoming soccer tournament that has been embroiled in scandal over appalling working conditions and corrupt funding. The anticipation for the Cup, and for the slew of qualifying games, is immense. The men’s national team failed to qualify for the World Cup in 2018, a disappointment after qualifying for the past seven previous; competing among the world’s best countries in Qatar is a necessity.
Now, after their first two qualifying matches against El Salvador and Canada, that goal looks shakier than ever. This is in spite of a team full of young talent, the type of players not seen since the likes of Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey guided the U.S. to consecutive round of 16 finishes in 2010 and 2014. It seems that there is something missing from this current group of American talent, something that was present in those other successful teams. Individual talent alone can’t define a soccer team; it takes another ingredient or two for that to happen, ingredients the Americans seem to be missing.
It would be difficult to defend such a negative position two weeks ago. On August 1st, the U.S. defeated Mexico 1-0 to win the Gold Cup, a regional competition among North American national teams. The result felt cathartic. Beating Mexico, a perennial North American soccer powerhouse, is always celebrated in the U.S. But there was something extra to this particular success. The team that took the field for the cup final in Denver was a squad of second-strings, an ostensible group of back-ups that have been serving the team nobly for many years but have recently taken the back-seat in favor of a younger generation. This group of reserves, led by the likes of Paul Arriola, Gyasi Zardes, and Sebastian Lletget, had a chip on their shoulders. They had something to prove. They wanted to earn a spot as part of the team that would attempt to qualify for the World Cup and, hopefully, find themselves competing in Qatar in 2022.
Off the back of this success, and with the reemergence of this group of players, fans were excited for the qualifying campaign. The U.S. would bring in more players from the “new generation” in combination with the old guard that had just proven themselves more than capable of finding success. The energy was palpable as the team traveled to San Salvador.
Then, after 90 minutes and a 0-0 draw, the tone began to shift. And now, several days later and after failing to hold a 1-0 lead and coming away with only 1 point against Canada on home soil, worry and doubt have wholeheartedly replaced energy and anticipation.
Where has it gone wrong? It seems that there are a few key factors to these recent disappointing performances in World Cup qualifying.
The most tangible is the exclusion of important players. Against El Salvador the U.S. was missing Christian Pulisic due to COVID complications. Against Canada Pulisic returned but Giovanni Reyna and Weston McKennie had to be sidelined, the first due to injury and the second due to breaking team COVID protocols. Zack Steffen, the team’s usual first-choice goalkeeper, has been out for several weeks with an injury. While much of the core is still in place, and while goalie Matt Turner has proven himself more than capable between the sticks, missing these players surely affected the team’s on-field performance, especially when those exclusions had to be made last-minute, mere hours before the matches started.
But more prescient than injuries is the lack of unity and focus among the “new generation.” A gutsy combination of grit and determination, coalesced through the lens of always being viewed as the underdog, has usually pulled the USMNT together. Sharing the moniker of a nation more occupied with its own brand of football and basketball than with the rest of the world’s sport created a natural chip on the shoulder of each player. And coupled with this chip was the fact that the majority of stars in the past had never tasted individual or club success, fueling a need to always prove themselves on the national stage.
This is no longer the case. Several members of this new soccer generation have found individual or club success, or both. Reyna, Pulisic, McKennie, Steffen, and Sergino Dest play for some of the largest, most historically successful clubs in Europe, not as outsiders but as important parts of their respective teams. Pulisic, with English club Chelsea, just recently won the Champions League, the most prestigious European club competition. Steffen has made numerous appearance for Chelsea rival Manchester City in important games. The USMNT is now furnished with a group of core players that know what it’s like to play with some of the best footballers in the world, and even more, to find success with them. Carrying this spirit to the national team has bred high expectations.
But despite all of these individual and club accolades, this American core lacks coherence when playing together. This is where the lack of a team identity really comes into play. Part of the blame for missing an identity goes to the players themselves, but a larger share goes to the team’s coaching staff, led by recently-appointed head coach Gregg Berhalter.
Berhalter, formerly the coach of Columbus Crew SC and Swedish club Hammarby IF, has failed to instill a consistent style of play to the national team, instead choosing to allow individual performances to miraculously lead to wins. When the likes of Pulisic, Dest, or Reyna have an off-game, or are playing tired, the team simply doesn’t function. The lack of identity has been more than evident in the first two qualifying games.
El Salvador was always going to be a difficult match, the USMNT having to travel into an intense South American environment and play against a rugged, defensive El Salvador team. But this game was certainly winnable — in fact, a win should have been the expected result. However, as the minutes ticked by, it became more and more evident that the low, defensive block El Salvador had set up was going to be enough to stymie the U.S. offense. While the U.S. maintained more possession of the ball, there was no creativity. In fact, El Salvador found the better chances at goal throughout the game, hitting the U.S. on the counter attack after the USMNT found themselves too far out of position, lured in by the El Salvador defense. The game was simply difficult to watch as a U.S. fan, as time and time again the team would hold the ball for several minutes without making any meaningful chances or simply giving it away without so much as a shot toward goal. But, despite these unappealing aesthetics, the draw wasn’t too bad. Again, the game was always going to be difficult on the road. At least it wasn’t a loss.
The U.S. carried much of this same discombobulated energy into the game against Canada. Although now on home soil and backed by almost 40,000 fans in Nashville, Canada looked like they were playing with more intensity and determination.
Going into half-time, the U.S. was on the back foot. When they found a goal early in the second half courtesy of an excellent cross from Miles Robinson to Brandon Aaronson, who put the ball in the back of the net, the tide could have shifted. But Canada continued pressing on, and less than ten minutes later found their own goal in a similar way, with verifiable superstar Alphonso Davies crossing to forward Cyle Larin for an easy tap-in. Davies had tormented the U.S. throughout the game, with U.S. left back Dest unable to properly defend against the power and pace of the Bayern Munich winger. It seemed inevitable that at some point one of Davies’s bursts down the wing would lead to a solid chance at goal, and in the 62nd minute that finally happened.
While not every coach can inspire a team’s passion and identity, those that can’t often make up for it with tactical expertise, being able to shift their game plan from match-to-match, expertly countering the opposition while making timely substitutions to properly impact the game. It is on this count that Berhalter doubly failed his duty as head coach.
It became clear, as the game wore on after Canada equalized, that many of the U.S. attackers were tired, unable to come up with the types of attacking runs that led to the first goal. At this point Canada had already made a number of substitutions, reinforcing their own attack in an effort to steal a win from the U.S. Where Canada had used all of their five substitutions, the U.S. had only used one — replacing an injured Dest late in the first half.
Finally, near the 80th minute, the U.S. substitutions finally came, with Josh Sargent, Konrad de la Fuente, and Deandre Yedlin entering the game. This would prove to be too little, too late for the team, as they failed to find the second goal that would give them all 3 points at home against Canada. Berhalter was critiqued heavily after the game for failing to properly utilize his subs, especially as Pulisic was low on energy after having just recovered from his bout with COVID. Missing McKennie certainly hurt the team, but in the face of this, Berhalter’s tactical prowess lacked significantly.
The USMNT now find themselves with their backs heavily against the wall, only finding two points from two games so far in World Cup qualifying. But even more worrying besides these lackluster results is the lack of coherence on the pitch. Poor results can be excused if a team is playing with passion and vigor, really going for it. This isn’t the case for the U.S. team at the moment. It’s a team that feels, despite all their individual talent and success, like they have no identity. Their Gold Cup success was merely an illusion, a false look into a soccer program that finds itself simultaneously at its most promising and its most disappointing.
There’s no easy answer to the current plight of team. It would be extremely difficult to get rid of Berhalter at this moment, as it could fracture the team so much that qualifying for the World Cup becomes out of the question. It’s going to be up to the coach and to the players to find some coherence within the next couple of games, next against Honduras. This should be possible, especially if the COVID and injury situation levels out. A more consistent team on the pitch could contribute significantly to a more consistent performance on the pitch.
But it’s going to take more from Berhalter to find an identity for this group of players as the qualifying campaign presses on. If not qualifying for the World Cup in 2018 was a massive disappointment, not qualifying in 2022 would be an utter catastrophe for a soccer program that is looking to take itself from perennial underdogs to contenders. I don’t know if it’s time for #BerhalterOUT, but something must change quickly, or else every game for the U.S. will continue to be an excruciating combination of eager excitement and anticipation leading to bitter disappointment.
