They didn’t win the trophy, but they might’ve rediscovered something more important.
The US men’s national team’s 2-1 loss to Mexico in Sunday’s Concacaf Gold Cup final won’t be remembered for moments of brilliance in the final third – there weren’t many. And while the USMNT’s tournament performance had more of those overall, “final third magic” wasn’t the feature attraction at any point, save for the few times Diego Luna got loose.
What was, and what will linger as we continue to digest this past month’s festivities, is the way Mauricio Pochettino’s young, mostly MLS-based group fought. They fought for each other, they fought for the shirt, they fought for their chance to make an impression, and they occasionally fought (or at least shoved around a little bit) with opponents. They were organized, brave, bought in and up for the scrap in a way we haven’t seen from the full-strength A-team in, what, 16 months? Maybe more? The Gold Cup didn’t showcase the most talented version of the USMNT, but it may have shown the most committed.
That’s the first takeaway here. The biggest “Stock Up” is the vibes, which are much better than they were a month back.
They’re still not where they need to be, of course, and wouldn’t have been even if the US had won. The pool is deepening, but there are still questions. The spirit is strengthening, but there is still some obvious weakness. But while the margins still matter – final-third sharpness, composure under pressure and some basic tempo control in midfield, please – this run to the final felt like a very overdue step toward rebuilding the kind of team that’s more than the sum of its parts. The kind of team that can maybe make some noise at next summer's World Cup, when the spotlight hits for real.
So I’m feeling optimistic, if not exactly confident. Good enough for now.
Let’s dive in:
About a month ago I went on This is MLS and we talked about what would constitute success for this summer, framed around the question of “What do we need to see to give us some hope in the final year before the World Cup?”
My answer was that I’d sell out everything else for a tournament’s worth of excellence from Richards. There’s no question he’s the most talented all-around center back in the pool, but there’s also been no case to be made that he’s consistently shown as much for the US. The first thing Panama did last summer in the Copa América was truck him in a 50/50 challenge. The first thing Panama did this past spring in the Concacaf Nations League semifinals was truck him in a 50/50 challenge. Instead of our best CB setting a physical tone, regional opponents were setting the physical tone on him.
That’s not the Richards who showed up this summer. The Richards who showed up this summer played like a boss for basically every second he was on the pitch, and I’d feel that way even if he hadn’t scored two goals along the way.
He also talked the talk. I don’t think this is sour grapes – I think this is awesome:
My biggest concern about this team – that we don’t have a backline leader – has been allayed.
Mark McKenzie played 16 minutes in the group stage opener and that was it. Miles Robinson played five minutes across the first two games of the tournament and that was it. Walker Zimmerman came on for the final five minutes against Guatemala to play center field in a back five, just like he did against Iran in the World Cup three-and-a-half years ago. That’s a specialist’s role he performs well, but those were his only minutes.
When you factor in how poor Cameron Carter-Vickers was vs. Canada this spring in the Nations League, it really does look like there are only two CBs Poch trusts: Richards and 37-year-old Tim Ream.
Jackson Ragen – the best uncapped American center back – played extremely well in the Club World Cup for Seattle against Botafogo, Atlético Madrid and PSG. Does he get an invite to the next camp and an audition? Feels like it’s time. He’s got the size and his distribution is elite, more in line with Richards (if not Ream) than the other options, and Poch clearly values that.
Poch has made clear that guys who don’t get games won't automatically get minutes for the national team. Luca de la Torre spent two years in the wilderness, came to MLS, excelled and became a starter for the US this summer. Alex Freeman won the starting job with Orlando City, then won the starting job (at least until Sergiño Dest is healthy) with the US.
Luna. Sebastian Berhalter. Patrick Agyemang. Max Arfsten. These guys all played their way into the mix – and most of them will stay there, in the mix – based on their club form.
The biggest one to mention here: Matt Freese. The New York City FC ‘keeper has been one of the best in the league the past couple of years and played his way into previous camps because of it. Then when injuries took out Zack Steffen (who’d also played his way into the picture for Poch by just getting some club games) and Patrick Schulte, Freese took his chance.
Two things are true here:
- I still believe Matt Turner is our most talented goalkeeper.
- Matt Turner has justifiably lost his starting job for the US.
Let’s hope he gets actual minutes (and, uh, actual paychecks) from Lyon, rediscovers his form and gets the No. 1 kit back. Because as of right now he is just moral support from the bench.
I still believe Yunus Musah is an incredibly toolsy all-around central midfielder. He has, however, become something of an afterthought for Poch because he hasn’t really nailed down a role at the club level, and is now in limbo. If he doesn’t play in August, my hunch is we won’t see him in September.
And then there’s Gio Reyna. Gio is one of the two most talented players I’ve ever seen for the national team. He’s just 22, has spent most of his career hurt, and still has as many goal contributions in finals as Landon Donovan, and more than Clint Dempsey. He’s shown the ability to step up in big moments, eliminates defenders off the dribble like no one we’ve ever had, and is fearless.
And it’s very clear that if he doesn’t find a club this summer that’ll get him on the field every week to get real minutes, he will not be on the World Cup roster. Even if he’s healthy.
Say whatever you want about Reyna’s past conduct – I’m pretty sure we’ve all got opinions on that. But the fact remains that a healthy, committed version of him is the best ceiling-raiser in the pool, and the best possible outcome from the next year of club soccer is Gio proving he belongs in the US XI every single time it’s written down on paper.
In his first year as a top-flight pro, Freeman has acclimated – first to a pure attacking role with Orlando City, then to a purely defensive role with the US, then to a hybrid role – much more quickly than anyone anticipated. He wasn’t mistake-free, but if you weren’t impressed by the IQ he showed and the way he played, as a 20-year-old with 23 games of top-flight soccer under his belt, then your expectations are irrational.
I suspect he’s No. 2 on the right back depth chart.
De la Torre clearly played his way back into the mix. Berhalter might have the inside track on Kellyn Acosta’s role from the last cycle, as a reserve CM/DM who also serves as a set piece specialist (and s--thouser). Big Pat Agyemang is limited in some ways, and that makes him divisive among the fanbase, but he moves the chains like no other No. 9 in the pool, and virtually every good chance the US got in the final was downstream of his presence up top and the fear he strikes in opposing center backs. He will stay in the picture (my guess is he’s now no lower than No. 3 on the striker depth chart), and hopefully improve his off-ball work over the next 11 months (gotta find those one-touch finishes, Pat).
Arfsten’s not going to displace Jedi Robinson as the starting LB, but he brings a ton going forward and improved defensively as the tournament progressed. John Tolkin wasn’t great, but at least he got minutes and is clearly in the picture. Damion Downs was useful off the bench.
Jack McGlynn and the Aaronson brothers probably moved themselves in the other direction in Poch’s eyes, as did Brian White. That’s ok – that’s what happens in these tournaments sometimes.
Did Luna do enough to nail down a starting job for next year? I don’t think so.
That’s not to say he didn’t help himself this summer, as he very clearly did. The guy’s got xDAWG in ways the US have needed for a long time, and marries it with real skill and defensive work rate. But he also failed to impose himself on the game much against El Tri (this was at least partially Poch’s fault for the way the team was set up), when a strong performance would’ve gone a long way toward sealing a spot for him.
The same, I think, goes for Malik Tillman. He unquestionably had his best month in a US shirt this summer, scoring some goals and showing a good amount of toughness and fight. But at no point in the final did he look like the sort of game-controlling No. 8 (or No. 10, which is the spot he was playing) that could knit a midfield together and elevate a team, and in fact spent a lot of time behind the play. Same was true in the second half of the semis against Guatemala.
I thought de la Torre showed some of the “game-controlling 8” stuff, but what he didn’t show was the ability to change a game in the final third. He’s limited.
These guys, as of now, are all options, not answers.
What he did this summer as a No. 6 against some of the best clubs in the world can not be ignored. I’m not just talking about positioning, cover shadows, and diving into 50/50s (and 40/60s) and winning the ball, but about both setting the tempo and playing the kinds of progressive passes that tilt the field and get his team into the attack.
Adams’ inability to do the above was glaring in this tournament. I remain a big Adams fan, but El Tri actually targeted him in the final, preying on his inability to play on the half-turn and forcing him into one turnover after another.
Now, to be fair, Adams was carrying an injury. But that was a very worrying performance and wasn’t out of step with how he’d played against Guatemala and Costa Rica.
Cardoso missed most of the tournament with illness and injury. But he didn’t show much to speak of in the warm-up friendlies and didn’t make an impact in his 10 group-stage minutes.
Pochettino’s been in charge for just under a year now. In that time the US have played five games against teams in the top 30 of the FIFA rankings, and have lost all five. Even if the vibes are better – and I truly think they are – for them to actually be good this team has got to start winning some of those games. When you’ve made the knockout rounds of the World Cup in three of the past four tournaments and four of the past six, that’s the expectation. What happened in 2018 and 2006 are the exceptions.
To get there, Poch needs the guys who played well this summer to continue to improve, but he also needs to be realistic about getting Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Sergiño Dest, Ricardo Pepi and Jedi (and maybe Reyna, Musah, Folarin Balogun and Tim Weah, too) back into the mix – something he was kind of surly about in the postgame presser.
When asked how he's going to reintegrate those guys, he gave a long, rambling answer in which he was clearly trying to dodge the question. When the follow-up pressed Poch to answer the actual question, here’s a paraphrase of the exchange:
- Poch: "What players?"
- Reporter: "Christian, Wes, Sergino, Antonee Robinson..."
- Poch: "Oh you already made the list? Or did you just ask artificial intelligence and you do the roster for next time?”
Pressed once again, Pochettino seemed to dismiss the premise of the question almost entirely.
“I don't understand that question, because for different [reasons], we have the roster that we have,” Pochettino said. “All the American players have the possibility for September to be on the roster.
“It's up to us, now, to analyze. All the names that you told me, all are under scrutiny.”
I’m going to chalk that up to post-loss frustration. And I’m going to hope Pochettino’s frustration – and his willingness to at least partially air it outside the locker room – actually lights a fire and gets the fully integrated team playing with some passion again. And maybe even feeling like they’re playing for their jobs. Adams certainly sees it that way.
“I think it has to translate right away, or I think Mauricio probably just won't call people in,” he said when asked. “The culture that we have, it doesn't matter who you are. If it's guys here that played well, if it's guys coming back into the group, if you're coming back from injury… whatever it is, the culture and the emotion is the first thing that [Poch] wants to see.”
It’s what we saw from the US this summer, and I liked it. It was a good step to take and felt like a much-needed cultural reset.
Next summer will test their quality. This summer reminded us that some of them still care.
