More questions than answers following another USMNT loss

The U.S. Men’s Team lost to England in a friendly game on Thursday night at Wembley Stadium.  Despite lining up the best talent available, the US were outclassed by what was mostly England’s B-team.

The lame duck David Sarachan era trudged on with a 0-3 loss to England on Tuesday night. Following a lackluster effort, the glaring takeaway from this latest friendly is that the U.S. desperately needs a permanent head coach.

Although Sarachan’s selection and starting formation seem adequate, it can be argued that this team picks itself.  Once it became obvious that the chapter of the generation that failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup needs to be closed, the lineup choices became pretty obvious.

The problem with Sarachan’s tactics is the same problem that has seemed to haunt the US team for years. There is very little in terms of ingenuity and adjustments. The U.S. lined up in a 4-2-3-1, which ended up blending the most in-form players at the moment (John Brooks, DeAndre Yedlin, Weston McKennie, Bobby Wood) with the most promising players of this generation (Cristian Pulisic, Tim Weah, Matt Miazga). The selection seemed to aim to please and avoid ruffling any feathers, as opposed to aiming to achieve a particular tactical goal.

As a result, the US had trouble maintaining any kind of possession at the start, easily coughing up possession to the young English opponents. The US players seemed ill equipped to build from the back or try to open up England’s defensive line with precision passing and switching the field of play. Alternatively, the US did just a poor of a job pressuring their opponents into giving up the ball. Julian Green and Bobby Wood are not exactly suited for a high pressing game.

These problems were compounded by the fact that Cristian Pulisic, star and savior of the US team, seemed a bit unsettled at the start of the game, which may well be a factor of him seeing only limited action at Borussia Dortmund of late. Pulisic had a glorious chance to give the US the lead against the run of play and perhaps change the complexion of the game, but his shot was parried away by Jordan Pickford.

Immediately following Pulisic’s missed chance, England went on to score two goals in quick succession, on plays that were partly the result of defensive miscues by two the US’s most promising players – Pulisic easily giving up possession and failing to cover back in time and Tim Weah looking to  cheat and get a head start on the counter and leaving the eventual goal scorer, Trent Alexander-Arnold all alone.

In fact, if there is one lingering concern after this game is the fact that our most promising players gave one of their least inspiring, poor performances we have seen give. This could very well be due to the fact that of the three attacking midfielders only one is a regular starter at his club team. Unfortunately that club team is a Bundesliga2 club and it showed – as Julian Green was vastly overmatched by the young English players.

The second half started off better for the Sarachan’s men, although this was partly a function of England completely taking their foot off the gas. After he settled into the rhythm of the game, Pulisic was once again the bright spot for this US team, and perhaps the only one.

The USMNT is at a very delicate juncture at the moment. Following the loss to Colombia last month, this latest 0-3 drubbing is a clear indication that the young American players have hit a developmental wall on the national team stage. While this may well be due to not being regular starters at their clubs, the fact that USSF has botched the head coaching hire is not helping matters at all.

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The games against England, and Italy next Tuesday, should have been two very valuable tests. Instead we are left to guess what the level of motivation of these players is as they play for a lame duck coach whose tactics may very well be dismissed once a head coach is actually and finally in place.

More than a year following their disastrous failure to qualify for the World Cup, the USMNT is in the precarious position of lacking a settled, full-time coach and potentially having the growth of their young stars stunted. The fact that the US Soccer Federation has not been able to put this young, talented group in a position to develop and succeed is somewhat shameful.