There’s a line in the song ‘Only Happy When It Rains’ when Garbage front-woman Shirley Manson sings ‘Pour your misery down on me’. For 80 minutes, rain and misery drenched the United States’ men’s national team.
An early goal put the USMNT ahead of visitors Turkey at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut. But the sloppy weather reflected the American’s play as consistent mistakes on the backline lead to two cheap goals and a loss.
In the first of two warm-up matches before this summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup, the USMNT attacked in fits and spurts while constantly being exposed on the backline.
It’s a performance reflective of the squad that head coach Mauricio Pochettino selected. Multiple USMNT starters are recovering from injuries or tied to clubs competing in the Club World Cup. Others, like Christian Pulisic, asked the USMNT to not be included in this summer’s proceedings.
The result is a squad made up of only seven members of the 2022 FIFA World Cup team which reached the knockout stages. While the USMNT hasn’t sent its best to the Gold Cup in over a decade, the performance in Connecticut showed that the depth in this team is shallow.
For Pochettino, his rocky start atop US men’s soccer continued on home soil –
Mauricio Pochettino’s United States fell 2-1 in a tuneup match against Turkey in Hartford
Jack McGlynn (6) scored the only American goal just two minutes into the match
But two American blunders led to goals for the Turks to send the US fans home sad
White smoke popped up right behind the benches the moment the match began – likely Turkish fans who smuggled it in past the security guards.
What wasn’t smuggled in was fireworks – those were provided just two minutes in by Jack McGlynn, who curled a sublime shot with his left foot to beat Berke Özer for the opening goal of the match.
Unfortunately for the US, those were the only real firecrackers they displayed for the rest of the game as the national team was frequently exposed by Turkey.
The visitors’ first great chance came on the wings as Juventus’ Kenan Yildiz was sprung free with a long ball down the left side. He placed a perfectly weighted ball in the middle for Real Madrid’s Arda Güler, whose finished betrayed the effort set up for him.
A breakthrough did eventually come for the visitors. While the credit goes to Güler, it was essentially an own goal from Johnny Cardoso. The Real Betis midfielder was too careless with the ball just nine yards from his own net and the pass he tried playing to a teammate careened off the Madrid man’s feet and into his own net.
Not even three whole minutes later, the Turks took advantage of an American backline white-knuckling its way through the pressure.
Another breakthrough down the left wing led to an initial chance across that found no one. A second ball hit by Oguz Aydin went into a disorganized USMNT backline.
Miles Robinson either made a half-hearted clearance attempt or had the ball take a hard touch off his feet. Either way, it fell to Kerem Akturkoglu – whose shot took an awkward bounce, but crossed the line to make it 2-1 to the visitors.
Johnny Cardoso (15) essentially scored an own goal as his pass deflected into his own net
Kerem Akturkoglu also cleaned up a bungled clearance attempt to take the lead
The American backline looked perfectly acceptable in their own attacking buildup – with Max Arfsten often finding space on the US’ left flank.
But when tasked with holding back the Turks, the USMNT was frequently out-of-position and unable to keep up with the pace of their opposition.
Granted, the nation they played against sent their ‘A-minus’ squad. The attack was all their usual suspects, but other starters were missing elsewhere.
For Saturday, the squad Pochettino fielded could be fittingly assessed a grade of ‘C-minus’. The 26-man roster named for the Gold Cup is on the ‘B-minus/C-plus’ borderline, but starters like Tyler Adams, Matt Turner, Brenden Aaronson, and Mark McKenzie didn’t play for the first 45 minutes.
When Adams and McKenzie eventually did come on at the half, they showed their quality. At the 61st minute, Adams picked up the ball in the box and chipped a ball into Chris Richards – whose header went right at Özer, but was the best US chance in the early stages of the second half.
Adams, the USMNT captain at that 2022 World Cup, looked incensed – frustrated with the display put on in front of 34,023 in the muggy weather.
The attack often led to nothing. Patrick Agyemang, the Charlotte FC striker playing in his hometown of East Hartford, had chances rarely come his way. McGlynn attempted more strikes, but they never even threatened rattling the net.
Turkish attackers often exposed the American’s backline throughout the game
Meanwhile the USA’s attack was often snuffed out – reflecting the squad’s quality
Saturday’s result does need to come with the caveat that this is not the USA’s best team. Using this performance as an outlook for the World Cup to come in almost one-year’s time would be irresponsible.
But this does come at a time where momentum surrounding this team appears to have halted since the hiring of Pochettino.
The result does, however, paint a bleak picture for the continental competition beginning next Sunday. Every year, the United States comes into the CONCACAF Gold Cup with expectations of winning – regardless of the caliber of squad they send.
Those expectations should not be placed on this team. And that’s a problem.
