It’s a weird time to be a US men's national team fan. Tuesday night’s game against Mexico matters, but it also doesn’t really matter. We don’t have a coach; they don’t have a coach. We’re transitioning through generations; they’re transitioning through generations. The next competitive game isn’t for a year. Yet, it’s still USA vs. Mexico. It’s still our USMNT.
What does matter, then?
Here are the three things I’ll be most interested in tonight (8:30 pm ET | ESPN, Univision), because a) they will impact the result tonight and b) they have worthwhile implications on the future:
1) Does the team keep the courage to press?
The US came out of the gate pressing Brazil on Friday. When Brazil tried to pass from their back, even as deep as their own 18-yard-box, the US stepped to the ball.
Tyler Adams functioned as a second forward to close down Brazil center backs with Bobby Wood, Paul Arriola pressed Felipe Luis on Brazil’s left, Julian Green pressured Fabinho on Brazil’s right, and Weston McKennie stepped to Casemiro in the middle. It was exciting to watch.
About eight minutes into the game, though, the pressing got less intense. The US continued to close down high up the field, but it didn’t have as much energy to it. Brazil had passed through the press a few times — Brazil’s composure on the ball was incredible in itself — and the US players seemed to get discouraged.
US head coach Dave Sarachan noticed something similar, too. He used the word “nervy” to describe the team’s start to the game. He told reporters postgame, “We want to see a team that’s not afraid, that will compete and challenge on plays and when it’s not good enough, you get punished by good teams.”
I saw a group that seemed a little afraid after the first few minutes. I want to see the young kids deal with the frustration of getting broken down — Mexico has nearly as much ability to play out of the back as Brazil — and fight through it.
I’ve said since the beginning that these friendlies are solely about the experience the players gain. Well, they gained a hell of an experience against Brazil. How are they going to take that emotional lesson into tonight?
2) Tyler Adams receiving the ball with Mexican players on his back
I think the world of Adams’ ability, but I’ve had concerns about his ability to play as a defensive midfielder. I wasn’t sure if he had the composure on the ball under duress. The defensive midfielder often has to receive the ball under pressure from all angles. You think you know where one opponent is, then another comes in and picks off your touch. You need both the awareness to know what’s around you and the composure to deal with the unexpected.
Whereas a box-to-box midfielder has players behind him if he loses that ball, the defensive midfielder doesn’t have protection; he simply can’t give those balls away. Adams doesn’t get the ball in those spots very often for Red Bulls, so I didn’t know if he could handle it for the national team.
Against Brazil, Adams started to change my mind. He took the ball in a couple minutes with pressure around him and didn’t look phased at all. He read the pressure, stayed calm and protected his touch or made a smart one-touch pass. This pass made me giggle out loud!
I think this is the final frontier for Adams as a player, and I’m more excited to see how it develops than anything since Jozy Altidore's development a decade ago. If Adams develops Wil Trapp-esqe awareness and composure, then what’s Adams ceiling as a player?
3) The distribution of the center backs
John Brooks and Matt Miazga received high marks for their performance against Brazil, and rightfully so. They were excellent defensively. But I want to talk about their distribution. And this might be a matter of taste, but it’s worth bringing up. Both players were tidy on the ball, as the graphic below shows, and both made passes that broke the lines — I don’t want to devalue either of those — yet I didn’t love what I saw when they were on the ball.
I didn’t see them help the team get into a rhythm in possession. When a team gets a rhythm in possession, they are moving the ball quickly, everyone is getting touches, and when everyone is getting touches, everyone feels good. When everyone feels good, exciting things start to happen. The feeling of “rhythm” is the backbone of possession.
I would have liked to see the center backs make more quick, meaningless passes. The best possession teams make dozens of passes that don’t appear to have any point, but they all build to something bigger. Sometimes you skip the more dangerous pass because your team needs that feeling of control. I thought that Miazga and Brooks’ passing was excellent in itself, but didn’t help the team build possession as a whole. If we want to dominate the ball in games, we need our center backs to help build the rhythm.
Nitpicking, absolutely; but still important.
Brooks departed camp to go back to Wolfsburg, meaning Cameron Carter-Vickers, Aaron Long, or Tim Parker will start (if not two of the three). I’ll be watching to see how they evaluate their options when they get on the ball.
