Coming into the Nations League semifinal, with his full (or close to it) USMNT lineup assembled for the first time in months, the questions for manager Mauricio Pochettino were pretty clear. Who would score the goals? Was the midfield creative enough to get through an organized and determined defense? Can they figure out a central defensive pairing? And maybe whether or not if it's a problem that the No. 1 goalkeeper isn't playing for his club. But that was sort of a minor one. "Was" being the operative word.
The good news is those are still the questions. Y'know, in the sense that there aren't new ones. Look, we're trying here. That's what happens when the USMNT plods through 90 minutes against a Panamanian blockade and then gives up a doofus goal in injury time to lose.
The US was dealing with a couple injuries, but that's always the story with a national team. No manager ever gets the first shoice 23 or 26. The US was particularly afflicted at fullback, with Sergino Dest a long-term absentee and Antonee Robinson missing this go-around. So much of the US's creativity is through their fullbacks, so this was a puzzle to be worked out.
Pochettino opted to move Yunus Musah to "right-back," but he was rarely aligned with the defense. With the ball, the US lined up in a 3-2-5 formation, with Musah pushing wide into the forward line, and Joe Scally tucking from the left-back spot to form the back three. Tyler Adams and Tanner Tessmann formed the "2," which was a little curious. Both are good holding midfielders, and while Adams's passing has gotten better at Bournemouth, it's usually in a counter-attacking side where the field in front of him is more open. He's not unlocking packed defenses. It's the same story for Tessmann, and having two "stoppers" in a game where Panama was always going to bunker down felt off.
So it proved, as Tessmann misfired on a couple big switches, meant to catch the Panama defense clumped to one side of the field and open up the other. These are the kinds of passes a team needs to open up a tight defense, and the US didn't really have anyone in midfield to play it for 60 minutes until Jack McGlynn replaced Tessmann.
That wasn't the only issue. Weston McKennie and Christian Pulisiic were meant to form a box midfield with Adams and Tessman, but ended up just sitting in line with the other three forwards. There isn't a lot of variance here, not a lot of difference in depth on the field to try and pick passes to between lines. It's just butting up against the back-five of Panama. Adams or Tessman or Tim Ream or Chris Richards would look up with the ball at their feet and just see two lines of five ahead of them.
That doesn't mean the US didn't create chances, and their biggest issue, the issue they've had for pretty much the past 10 years, is they're just not clinical enough. Josh Sargent got yet another audition. He's unlucky here, but this is also a chance that at this level has to go in:
Weston McKennie has to bury this header:
Patrick Agyemang came on in the second half, and gets this chance:
Sorry gents, one of these has to go in. The US had nine corners. Pulisic didn't generate any looks for his teammates off of them. In fact, Pulisic was off color all match, resorting to the "hero ball" he was guilty of early in his international career where the ball would just die at his feet as he attempted to dribble his way from Sofi Stadium to Venice Beach. James Harden-ing isn't something the US attack needs.
Another concern was that Matt Turner barely ever plays at Crystal Palace these days. If you're a scamp, you might argue that this is the angle of a goalie who is a little rusty and doesn't have quite the feel for his game right now:
It's more than structural. In order to overcome the tight spaces and doggedness of a defense like Panama's, there has to be movement and bite and effort. The US was plodding for most of the match, not snarling to recover the ball when lost or consistently moving in and out of spaces to get the Panama players out of position or moving the ball with some zip. It isn't that hard to defend a static attack. Some of that is due to it being impossible to create that kind of chemistry and anticipation with only three days of practice on an international break. Some of it is want-to, though.
The lineup could be called into question, too, though Pochettino can claim to still be experimenting while he still has time to do so. The US don't have a wealth of players comfortable in the tightest of spaces, weaving their way between raindrops or picking out a nifty pass to get over or through it, either. There's one, Gio Reyna, who never got off the bench. But he rarely gets off the bench these days for Dortmund, either. Diego Luna, who plays as a straight No. 10 in MLS, could have warranted a look in a match where the US needed someone to work some magic in the crawlspace of the middle of the field.
A little more than a year out from the World Cup, Pochettino doesn't seem to have any more answers than his predecessor did. Weston McKennie remains an extremely weird player, feeling indispensable but not really contributing much other than arriving late in the box for chances. He doesn't help knit things together in midfield when the US has more of the ball, even when he can be bothered to try. Which isn't always true. Adams and Tessman aren't really ball progressors. Pulisic tries to do too much. There is no striker proving to be ruthless to be found.
It's easy to dismiss as just the Nations League or that the US will have to play in a different fashion in the bigger matches in the summer of 2026. Yes and no. The US will be seeded come the World Cup, which means they'll have one or two games just in the group stage against teams that they're likely to dominate the ball against. As we saw in 2022, the Netherlands undid them by just letting them have the ball. The US couldn't do enough with it. It's a familiar song now.
Three years later, that problem remains.