USMNT Friendlies Are Never Easy: Belgium Reaction, Please Win A Game

Declaring that there was plenty good in the USMNT's 5-2 loss to Belgium in Atlanta on Saturday is a reasonable thing to do that is nevertheless something of a tough sell. The number "5" causes discomfort.

"Discomfort" is a good word to describe how I'm feeling about this team. I can't bring myself to label the squad a lost cause (because they're not) but I'm not going to sit here and try to convince you that Saturday's match somehow showed us a group ready to take a home World Cup by the huevos.

The optics of that scoreline are tough to ignore. I want to be someone who can fairly assess a game that changed dramatically from one half to another, featured a set of perfectly-placed shots sandwiching a dose of bad luck (Tim Ream's hand ball), and had a USMNT playing toe-to-toe with the Belgians while Mauricio Pochettino's first-choice group was on the field. The Americans didn't create enough good chances from open play, but they didn't play from their heels.

I don't think it takes an apologist to spot the good in the game, but I understand while some fans find it difficult to see the sunlight through the clouds.

As I post this edition of Soccer Eagle, it's the morning of USA v. Portugal. I don't expect Tuesday's game will do much to clarify how we're supposed to feel about our team with two-and-a-half-months to go until kickoff of the biggest event in American soccer history. It's a friendly (no matter what Poch wants to call it), so it can never possess the stakes necessary to make it a good barometer of how the team will perform in a few months. No matter the issue that the roster in June is going to look different from the roster in March.

I did pose some questions for the Belgium match in last Friday's newsletter, so let's review to see if we got any answers:

1. Will there be any positional surprises?

The simple answer here is "no", though the issue of shape is in conversation with the issue of positions. Despite the formation notation that threw people off, nothing dramatic changed with players' starting positions. As is always that case in this sport of ours, the inherent fluid of the game means a starting position is almost inconsequential. Read the smart tactical people for further discussion of how the Americans (particularly in the first half) played on- and off-the-ball without a couple of key figures (Richards and Adams) on the field.

1. Does Weston bring his Juventus level to the national team?

Again, simple answer he is "yes". McKennie's goal from a corner delivered by Antonee Robinson speaks for itself and otherwise the Juventus man provided the kind of clever, in-the-right-place-at-the-right-time kind of presence the USMNT needs from him when he's on the field. Pochettino has resolved to get Weston higher up the pitch (where I think he's always been most effective for the national team) and playing in the front three gives him the license to find the most dangerous space.

1. Can Matt Freese build more confidence that he's the guy in goal?

Matt Turner started and played 90 minutes against Belgium and while I think many of the reviews on 2022's World Cup starter performance are overly harsh, the answer to this question is "yes" because of it. Turner's quick reaction traits remain well above average, but his lack of quality on the ball and a few moments when I thought he could have avoided punches back in front of goal stand out as reasons to think Freese isn't going anywhere as the number one.

I'm not going to go any deeper into the Belgian weeds three days after the fact and there's a decent chance you might read this after the Portugal game, so that's where I leave the analysis of the on-field action.

But I can't leave without a word about the importance of the Americans winning on the way to the games that matter in June. It's Portugal tonight, then Senegal on May 31 and a final warmup friendly against Germany on June 6. Three very tough opponents in games that have no competitive importance but are crucial to building a sense of confidence for the program and a sense of hope for the fans.

Pochettino is trying his damndest to impart upon his players the importance of getting up for every game, even the "unofficial matches".

“Do you think that the coach of Colombia, losing the game, is going to complain about some players?” Pochettino asked. “They played like this was the final of the World Cup. And France, when they saw the intensity and the aggression of Colombia said: ‘If we don’t play as intense, they will kill us.’ That is intensity.”

Friendlies are a bitch.

“One of the things that worried us most when we compared the last two matches — Uruguay and Paraguay — with Belgium (it) was what I mentioned before: the lack of intensity,” he said. “Where? In both boxes, box to box. The numbers — how much we dropped in our ability to be aggressive, in that intensity when recovering the ball, in not allowing the opponent to transition — if you compare it to Paraguay or Uruguay, we’re at about half. We’ve given the opponent far too much space.”

American soccer fans love to wallow. No one wallows like USMNT fans wallow. Saturday's scoreline prompted declarations of doom across the soccer fan base, with statements like "we're getting grouped" and "we're not going to win a World Cup game" infecting all of my spaces. Off a friendly.

I get it. Our history isn't much of a backstop against feelings of despair. Bad scorelines, even contextualized, have an insidious impact on hope an expectation. I really, really, really don't think we're getting grouped this summer. But I understand where the bad vibes originate.

The warmup games matter more than these March matches for inspiring a little confidence in the fan base and sparking some exciting among the normies, but any win will do. Just win, or the doom and gloom is going to ruin a lot of buildup—even for those of us doing our best to see these games for what they are.

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Thanks for reading. Up the soccers.