That was not a magical performance from the US U-23 national team in Barranquilla against their Colombian counterparts. There was nothing of the beautiful game, and nothing of sophistication, and nothing of inventiveness save for an audacious, outside-of-the-boot second-half strike from Jordan Morris that rang the crossbar.
And none of that really matters, because the US got the result they were looking for. A 1-1 draw on the road in a two-leg, aggregate goals series in which away goals matter? Anyone in US camp would have signed up for that, as would a large majority of fans.
Let's take a look:
The Third Man
The US came out in a 4-3-1-2 formation, a gambit designed to concede the flanks while flooding the central third defensively. This seemed to take los Cafeteros by surprise, and far too often they took one too many extra touches in midfield instead of playing direct down the flanks and trying to open the US up.
On the flip side, the US had no compunction about extra touches in midfield. Everything they did was direct, including the only goal. This is a work of art:
Dream start for the U.S. Under-23s as Luis Gil makes it 1-0 in Colombia. #RoadToRiohttps://t.co/XF3Tnjc7eN
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) March 25, 2016
Two-forward lineups have largely gone out of style over the past 10 years as teams have gotten smarter about turning midfield possession into penetration. Here, however, we see one of the strengths of a two-forward system, as A) Mario Rodriguez finds the gap between the center back and fullback, confusing the Colombian backline's spacing, and B) because of the threat of Morris on the back post, nobody is available to step up and cut off Luis Gil's third-man run.
This whole sequence repeated itself, though on the other wing, about 15 minutes later when it was Morris who got wide and found Gil in the box. Both of these moments played to the strengths of all three American attackers – they're mobile, they move intelligently and aggressively in attack, and they didn't have to do any grunt work in possession. Gil wears the No. 10, but he's not a guy who controls the game; he's a guy who finds and exploits gaps created by others. Morris and Rodriguez, with their speed and aggressiveness, brought those gaps to life.
Citizen Kellyn
Let's all take a minute to feel bad for Kellyn Acosta, who was (again) asked to play out of position as a fullback. He doesn't play that spot for FC Dallas, but at all levels with the US program – the U-20s, the full national team and today with the U-23s – he's been shunted out wide.
He can do that work for a little bit, but Colombia went at him early and often. Even when switching to his side of the field was the wrong call, they did stuff like this:
Quintero keeps ignoring the first run & waiting for the US to get sucked in. Tough choices for Acosta & Polster. pic.twitter.com/tVprSYCQwt
— Matthew Doyle (@MLSAnalyst) March 25, 2016
The US eventually conceded a penalty, and yes, it was Acosta's tug that brought down Rafael Santos Borre. It's worth saying, though, that a loose touch from Wil Trapp at midfield and a mess of a clearance from Matt Miazga were equally to blame for the Colombian breakthrough.
Still, if Acosta is slotted in at fullback once more on Tuesday, you'll know where the yellow team is going to attack. Andi Herzog gambled a bit in this one and it paid off, but going to the well again is a huge, huge risk.
Touch Of Evil
If the space created by Morris and Rodriguez was the good part of playing two mobile forwards together, here's the bad part:
We're not simpletons, and we know that there is no correlation between winning possession and winning the game. We also know that game states have a profound effect on what these numbers tend to look like. An early goal against a technically superior opponent on the road? Yeah... you'll be lucky to get 40%
But a sub-25% share of possession is... yikes. Even in the BoraBall days, the US didn't approach that number. Against Spain in 2009 at the Confederations Cup back in 2009, the US had 44%. What we saw today was off the charts.
Playing a direct style and multiple d-mids was partially to blame. So too was this:
Morris was very much an asset today, but he remains one-dimensional as an attacker. He'll have to bring a little more to the table with his hold-up play on Tuesday for the US to advance.
