LANDOVER, Md. — The U.S. men’s national team entered its June window seeking to gain valuable experience against two of CONMEBOL’s best, but Gregg Berhalter’s side instead began with their worst defeat in recent time.
A 5-1 blowout loss to Colombia at Commanders Field marked the first time since 2009 that the Americans conceded five goals in a match. It also was the largest margin of defeat for the USMNT during Berhalter’s two spells as head coach and one that won’t have fans too excited heading into the upcoming Copa America.
“Really disappointed, obviously, with the result,” Berhalter said in his postmatch press conference. “We’re not framing it as a lesson learned, we’re actually framing it as a wake-up call.
“Really poor performance against a top team, and if you give a team like that the opportunities we gave them, you’re going to have no chance to win. It’s never going to happen From the 75th minute on, I think it was I think a lack of respect for our opponents [and] for the game of soccer,” he added.
There were mistakes galore from the USMNT, who never really got into sync in the full 90 minutes. Jhon Arias’ sixth-minute opener came off a missed Antonee Robinson clearance while Rafael Borre’s overhead finish in the 19th minute occurred after Jefferson Lerma beat both Johnny Cardoso and Joe Scally to a header off a corner kick.
Despite Tim Weah’s clinical finish in the second half to cut the USMNT’s deficit in half, the errors and mental breakdowns continued. Richard Rios’ right-footed strike with 13 minutes to play came after Yunus Musah was a step behind Luis Sinisterra’s cut back cross.
Weah’s turnover in the 84th minute allowed Jorge Carrascal to curl home Colombia’s fourth goal of the match before Cameron Carter-Vickers’ errant pass four minutes later allowed Sinisterra to deliver his first international goal since 2022.
It was a shocking performance from the USMNT defensively, who admitted their performance needs to improve majorly if they want to avoid an early exit from the Copa America.
“We were nowhere near the level that we need to play at if we want to win games, coming into Copa América,” said USMNT captain Christian Pulisic. “Absolutely, yeah, for sure it’s better that it happened now. But we can’t be anywhere near playing like that and expect to win games.”
Attacking wise, the USMNT also struggled to offer much in the match despite cutting the deficit in half at 2-1. Folarin Balogun, Ricardo Pepi, and Haji Wright were held in check while Malik Tillman and Luca De La Torre didn’t offer much off the bench.
Colombia’s stubborn defense held the USMNT to only one shot on target, another trend that needs to change, starting with Wednesday’s final tune-up vs. No. 5 ranked Brazil. Improving on the defensive end needs to be a starting point against La Seleção, but also not being afraid to try things in the final third is also a must.
“For us, it’s just about respecting the game,” goalkeeper Matt Turner said. “I think we’re a good team, no doubt about that. We had some bright moments within the game, fought back, 2-1 down, really pushing forward. But then it’s just a bit of a naivety, respecting the game, respecting what the opponent brings. We really just opened up and allowed them to do exactly what they were planning on doing to us.”
“There were some positive chunks in the match, but overall at 5-1 it’s hard to truly say it was a good performance,” Berhalter said. “We will look back at it and try to see what we can fix for Wednesday because it will be another tough opponent in Brazil.”
Posted this below but it’s kind of lost:
-Lozano’s (Colombia) record against Top 20 FIFA teams 4-1-0 W-T-L (7-2-0 if you count out of window matches)
-Uruguay under Bielsa is 3-1-0 against teams ranked higher than them (that Mexico win we know shouldn’t count).
-Japan last two years 4-2-2 against teams ranked above them. So yes teams do punch above their weight.
-Just not Gregg Berhalter, teams counting Morocco that wasn’t top 20 when we played. 6-4-7 under Berhalter. Take out Mexico 2-3-5. Iran, Morocco, and Mexico those are Gregg’s top 20 wins.
-those teams above wins were against Spain, Germany, Argentina, and Brazil.
Moving on from Saturday.
-disorganizing the opponent with the ball
– verticality
Two keys points Gregg has consistently said is the goal.
-Five years in, do we see either of these in play?
-the attack is slow, it is predictable, and doesn’t bring out the skills of our best attackers
– the goal from Weah came from him coming all the way across the field from his RW to get the ball, dribbling across the field and then playing the ball to Balo who slipped it behind the defense back to Weah. It was unpredictable, at pace, and actually required defenders to make decisions on who to cover. But we don’t see this type of play often enough.
first, i generally think the man spouts buzzwords he has limited clue how to put into effect in a high level contest. most of our high level contests instead seem to be premised on blood and guts when you should really have a more sorted offense that gets you some cheaper goals that don’t involve a jillion passes and a heap of low percentage crosses.
second, his idea of verticality seems to be to get into half court then play someone behind the defense. that requires a lot of possession and luck. weah’s goal was a rare chance where colombia wasn’t fully back and the incisive passing started closer to midfield instead of down by the flag. i thought, per usual, we were more effective when it was a “counter” transition type play where we win the ball mid-third and race into the attack against fewer guys. you are then looking to play behind the backline earlier, more open grass behind them, fewer numbers back. i generally think the man is deeply confused that any good NT is going to let a team our level pass them to death in the final third, or score a bunch of crosses the whole defense sees coming. particularly when we seem disinterested in calling a target specialist. in which sense, to me, the carpet doesn’t match the drapes. if you don’t want a big lunk target striker on instead of the more agile 9s, then quit playing a crossing and deadball offense so much. common sense, match personnel to style.
re disorganization, the tempo has to go up, more switches, more wall-ball type plays where the offense starts left then quickly back right. as i said on vertical, win it higher, get on your horse quicker, don’t let it become half court.
personally i am more a fan of a “midfield trap” than a “press.” pressing pulls you out of shape. trap, to me, you get back and then play passing angles and swarm MF getting the ball. this better suits a team with technical athletic attackers but players like adams in the MF. we don’t tend to win it high. we tend to win it forcing bad passes or having adams and others slide to the ball.
If we just picked up the speed of our passing I think we could break down defenses in possession but it’s so slow and only focused on the edges. There is literally no one in the center of the field. I watch Columbus every week, they will play slow at times but when they get the advantage they go and there are always options in the middle. The US tries to lull people asleep but then we actually end up asleep too waiting for our teammate to do something.
It’s telling that the most fluid the team’s attack has looked is during the time BJ was coaching the NL. What did he do? Put the best players on the field as close to their most comfortable positions as possible together, and let them play. In short, he simplified things, and the guys blossomed. We haven’t seen that freedom since. And what’s worse, the defense has regressed. I’m starting to come around to IVs thinking, either go all out attacking and count on Turner to make saves, or set up more defensively and try to win close. Personally I would play defend and counter with this group of players, believe they are custom made for it.
JR, but all of that was true on Friday before the game. What about that game broke the camels back? It’s like Vac said, it was pretty much what we have seen except Columbia was “ruthless” in punishing mistakes in the back. The US was very much still in the game at the 60th minute when Reyna came out. Did anything that happened in that game surprise you?
Tele: You’ll know when it happens to you. I can’t defend it anymore. It’s bad soccer and it’s bad man management.
Turner’s issues with his feet leaked out to all and his lack of PT at club was brutally exposed and he was not ready for the pressure. plain as day. he already is suspect with his feet, so no PT set him up to stumble under pressure, my opinion. He needs a starting gig, anywhere
the substitution of CBs, which won’t happen in a non-friendly, caused incredible chaos as CCV had a nightmare game; the first time he touched the ball, he miscontrolled it and never recovered his composure, and then the middle channel turnovers went into overdrive. Subbing CBs is always super risky, and after the USMNT worked to get back into the game, poof, that subbing ended it
anyway, that won’t happen in a non-friendly and hard for me to blame CCV. GB said he was going to play a bunch of players, lineups etc. Well, he did, and it backfired, but that sub pattern won’t be used in non-friendlies
thank goodness, what a mess. No guarantees a mess won’t ensue without that CB sub pattern, but we shouldn’t see it again at least
If Schulte has a good Olympics we need to see him with the full team. Honestly Matty is even pretty bad when he plays it long and we almost always lose the ball then too.
Hmmm….headline change
“With Berhalter at the helm for 5+ years, USMNT still getting “wake-up calls” in worst blowout loss to Colombia……while US snubbed coach Marsch and Canada Tie France in dramatic fashion in Bordeaux, in only his second game with the Canadian National team” …….. CONCACAF rivalry just got much much more interesting. No pressure GB, lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di_Ouv_S2m8
I think we react a bit much to friendly results, but there’s no doubt early returns show Canada’s improved under Marsch, at least from where they were after Herdman left. They lost 4-0 to the Dutch a few days ago but IMHO they did show something against the Dutch and had some chances, but they didn’t convert them, whereas the Dutch were clinical…as usual. And a lot of the goals Canada ultimately gave up to the Dutch were self-inflicted gaffes.
That result against France was certainly eyebrow-raising, though Crepeau did have to stand on his head at times and France peppered Canada’s goal relentlessly the first 25 minutes or so and probably should have been up two or three to zip…after that the French seemingly fell asleep and really didn’t wake up again until the last 15 minutes.
I still say to folks: stop freaking out about a friendly loss. It was embarrassing, yes, but it was also a very necessary lesson. We’ve been a sloppy, overconfident team for awhile now and we’ve mostly gotten away with it because we were playing in CONCACAF…whereas Colombia’s been swimming with sharks. And nothing teaches you to clean things up more than a good spanking.
We’ll see what Gregg and the players learned against Brazil. If we get bombed out again it might be time to start worrying, but I personally think we’ll clean it up some and show better.
How many more “necessary lessons” are necessary?
GGG has had 5 years with this team. Our core players have had 5+ years in Europe. When is enough enough?
Friendly… Colombia also knows it was a friendly. Mexico knew they were playing a friendly against Brazil.
Bad games are bad games are… bad games. And we haven’t had a good one against non-CONCACAF competition at any point during this “Golden Generation.”
No one is freaking out about a friendly. People are pissed off about a clear pattern of mediocrity and weakness.
Why should a team of professionals from top 5 leagues need a wake up call? Why should a team that took 80 minutes to score on TnT then lost 4 days later to them need a wake up call, why should a team that nearly lost after an opening minute goal to Jamaica need a wake up call? Why should a team that got smashed by Netherlands need a wake up call? Gregg wrote off all these events as “learning experiences” until now. Guess what we didn’t learn anything from those? Our golf games have gotten better and our hair cuts are fire but we’re still making the same mistakes. The average number of caps for the US Saturday was 33 and no one had less than 10 so we shouldn’t have needed wake up calls. Colombia played the game the way you described France playing against Canada, hard for the first 20 and the last 15. We didn’t control the game in the middle as people suggested they put it in cruise control. I understand the press conference is coach speak but just once in the 10 minutes did he mention the staff needs to do better, and I might have missed but I didn’t hear him say “I need to do better”.
Quozzel,
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We’ll see come Wednesday. I like your points and assessment of things but IMO friendlies do matter, because they show the CURRENT state, cohesiveness and level of understanding of the training received by the team as a whole. The result is irrelevant true but the strategy, tactics, individual plays .etc mean a lot. Look at what pulisic said
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“It just felt like they were waiting for us to make a mistake and then kill us in transition. That’s just what happened over and over again. We were nowhere near the level we need to play at if we want to win games coming into Copa America.”
– Christian Pulisic after 🇺🇸 USMNT 1-5 Colombia 🇨🇴
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That comment speaks for itself. The team is nowhere near the level they need to be (given the talent we have) and we should not have to for go embarrassing “wake up calls” this late in the game to motivate the team……. especially not after 5+ years of this coach / player relationship
Quaker, you don’t consider tying England in WC, beating Iran in WC, beating Morroco 3-0, and Ghana 4-0 to be good games? If you set the bar for a”good” team being a team that should beat the US they will have a very low win percentage regardless of the coach.
If it was just this friendly match, I could agree. But it’s not. Far, far from it. It’s the same issues plaguing this team over 5 years with no signs of improvement. It’s that other than the Mexico match, this team has actually regressed and looked putrid since his return. T&T match comes to mind. Gregg has shown zero indication that he has any answers. It’s even the cringeworthy messaging that comes from GB indicating underselling accountability/expectations and misplaced priorities. No one…. no one looks at this team and thinks to themselves “well managed.” It’s clearly not. It’s a talented young team that has chronically underperformed, failed to improve- looks directionless. What NT team manger gets this long a leash anywhere to try and figure it out? It’s not remotely personal, it’s professional- an aspirational professional organization would see its time for a change. But for US Soccer…. it clearly is and was personal, starting with… the selection process. He’s “their guy”.
We saw it in the WC against the Netherlands. We saw in the friendly against Germany. We saw it against Colombia. Talent-wise, we are a notch below these other teams. For the US to compete, there needs to be intensity and focus the entire game, and they need to stay organized. Against Colombia, the intensity was clearly lacking, and the team did not adjust to Colombia’s defensive tactics. Now we know why Colombia is unbeaten in the last 23 games: talent, focus, commitment.
Consider this ugly friendly a wake-up call for the Copa. I’d expect a renewed level of commitment, and much better tactics and teamwork going forward.
People can keep saying “Greg needs to go”, and there maybe some truth to that, but I don’t know how anyone watched that game yesterday and didn’t say to themselves “maybe we overhyped this group”! The inability to deal with basic crosses coming into the box, stupid turnovers in our own half, staying on the ball too long and seemingly having this cavalier attitude like we’ve made it was beyond frustrating. Jedi and Ream were atrocious, Jedi has been bad for several games, and I don’t know how Matt Turner starts Copa with his pitiful performance.
The players that haven’t been playing regularly reared its head last night as well. I’ll question Greg for starting Turner in goal, but being at that game I saw a lot.of things that troubled me from the players that were soccer 101, leading me to believe that this ain’t no golden generation
Ronnie, it’s quite simple. When the US lost the Gold Cup finals in 2019, it was Gregg’s fault. When they won the first Nations League and the Gold Cup, it was the players. When BJ won Nations League, it was him but when he lost to Panama in the Gold Cup it was the players. When they beat Mexico this year in the Gold Cup it was the players. When they beat Morocco 3-0 in a meaningless friendly, it was the players and when they lost yesterday it was Gregg and that game was important. Got it?
Tele: for a majority of the Never-Berhalter’s that’s true. But there’s a growing number of people like me. I’m a Crew guy, when Gregg was hired I bought in, Gregg had gotten us to the MLS Cup when Precourt was trying to underspend so the city would let them go. He was going to lift the squad out of the ashes of Couva and play real football. Fulfill the promises that JK had made but never had a plan to implement besides “go out there and express yourself!” Gregg deserves a lot of credit for getting us to the WC and out of a much tougher group than people want to admit. Bringing a young in experience group together in the middle of the largest global pandemic in 100 yrs was no small accomplishment. Mexico entered Covid one of the hottest teams in the world and under veteran proven champ Tata collapsed at the end of the cycle. I didn’t want 3G brought back because 2 cycle coaches can tend to get old fast, but I understood that Marsch, Henry, and Viera all had deficiencies as well. In Gregg’s reintroduction we heard paraphrasing “I’ve learned from last cycle and I’m going to make changes to take us to the next level.” We’ve seen very little change. After 5 years if the team is playing with a snail like pace in transition it’s because Gregg wants them to. If they continue to come out and not put in efforts it’s because Gregg has set the tone that it’s ok. Golf outings, private barbers, and crossword tournaments are cool and all but that’s supposed to build a bond so that when you face adversity you are willing to lay it all out for each other. Not try dribbling tricks in your own third, not don’t attempt to get open so your teammate has no pass, not pointing fingers at everyone else when it goes wrong. Half the squad looked like they were playing a post season testimonial. Yes, the players deserve criticism for that. But Gregg sets the tone and there is very little evidence that the team is still in tune with their leader. They’ve seen seen so many power points they not listening anymore. Maybe Gregg switches to Canva and turns it around for Copa but this teams destined for quarterfinal blowout loss.
LOL I’m hip to it! And it’s crazy that these “fans” think that people who aren’t “scared”, or unwilling to hold the players accountable for any failures can’t see the hypocrisy and them wanting to have it both ways. The people who have never liked Greg will never give him credit, and will always absolve the players of any responsibility, and it’s sad that it’s come to this but yet here we are!
@Johnnyrazor while I agree that in sports a coach can and should set the tone for the players to adhere to, but all the same we’re talking about professionals that should be self motivated, are millionaires, and more importantly we never stop hearing how they play in the best leagues in the world. If Greg has to give motivational speeches for this bunch to lay to their level, and if the tactics have to be perfect every time they touch the field, then we don’t have the group in tow that we think we do. Greg was adamant that the players didn’t do the things thewy ere coached to do, so again we can say that nothings changed tactically, but Greg is saying something else!
If where one plays for a club has any importance, and most coaches seem to think so, then the present US team has much more talent than any past US team. Not only do we have many players starting in a top 5 league, many of them are on Championship League teams. If you don’t think that makes a difference, then you are saying that GM’s and coaches don’t know what they are doing when they shell out large amounts of money to sign and then pay players. Stop with the excuses. This team is not playing up to its ability. You don’t see these players making such simple and stupid mistakes when they are playing for their club team in games that count. If they did, they wouldn’t be playing for that team.
Comparing this team to the 2002 WC team that started against Portugal: Friedel better than Turner, Hejduk better than Arob, Pope better than any current CB, Ream better than Agoos, Sannah better than Scally. 1 of 5 defenders now is better. Mastroeni and Adams/Johnny – debatable. O’Brian and Gio – debatable. Pulisic better than Beasley, Donovan better than McKennie, McBride better than Balogan, Weah better than Stewart. On the bench in 2002 Reyna, Mathis, Moore, Keller. You can match them up however you want but the 2002 collection of players was better than this group and the bench was about twice as good. Opportunities for Americans to play in Europe was very different back then and has only recently changed but that team was still loaded with successful Eoropean players.
Tele: I generally agree with you on that 2002 comparison. If those guys came through now most would have opportunities that they didn’t back then. I love me some Frankie but I don’t know that I’d rate him above Jedi but Jedi has had 2 bad matches in his last 3 so easy to get caught in that. Mastroeni at that moment in his career to Johnny now is debatable if it was Tyler not even close. The 2002 team individually is debatably better but they were better than the sum of their parts. We saw that in the 2021 NL final and we saw it against England in Qatar but we don’t see it regularly.
JR, Jedi has had way more than 3 bad games. He can’t figure out what to do against a bunker and how to keep out of Pulisic’s way and the giveaways are just terrible. I have to watch barefooted so I can count all of them. Mastroeni had a lot of bite and teams couldn’t game plan around forcing him to play the ball. He had a stupid red card against Italy so that counts against him so I’ll give you Adams.
Excuse me, but at club level they are playing with “better players” around them, and the tactics are drilled into their play, and are more fluid because these guys practice together everyday. If anyone is making excuses its the people who fail to hold the players responsible for their egregious play with the NT. It’s okay to say that these players might not be who we thought they would be to this point, and that may be down to Greg, but from where I’m standing I don’t see Greg turning the ball over in our own half, unable to head dangerous crosses out of the box to safety and late to react to simple shots on goal! If all of that is Greg’s fault then we don’t think of soccer the same way, and I’d be fine with that!
“ I’m prepared to change things. I’m not stubborn about tactics. Formations are merely numbers. It’s all about space and who is hurting us where. That’s how I view the game.” Just going to leave this Emma Hayes quote here.
Should have been the USMNT coach
JR, what makes you think Gregg doesn’t have the same opinion. He did not defend in a 433 at the WC. Her advantage in her 1 game so far is that every player on her team was better than every player on S. Korea. A vastly different story yesterday for the men.
We’ve defended in a 4-4-2 for most of Berhalter’s tenure it hasn’t been effective against better teams except England (Southgate doesn’t really understand these principles either). “ It’s all about space and who is hurting us where. That’s how I view the game.” Gregg, if he understands this he doesn’t know how to use the knowledge or communicate it. That Hayes in a few days was able to convey her ideas in a way that was understandable and implementable and Gregg can’t do that in 5 yrs speaks volumes.
JR, he didn’t defend in a 442 in any of the games leading up to the WC. In qualifying he defended with 2 CBs and a 6 because he didn’t “respect” his opponents which completely backfired. Against what teams did defending in a 442 not work? The complete collapse yesterday was all by the bench players that he already didn’t trust and now really doesn’t trust. Maybe now he’ll call in Julian Green and then they will be able to beat teams with better players.
Tele two goals in the first 20 minutes wasn’t on subs. Yikes, if you thought Colombia was running past Johnny, put Green out there.
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Gregg’s response at half “we just need to slow down” is so telling. The offense is so mired in mud, when there is space we are so risk adverse we don’t use it. I’m so tired of watching our attackers make the right run only to watch their teammates just hit it back to the CBs. If your plan is just eventually get it wide and hit in crosses, then just run out a 4-4-2 empty bucket with Wright and Vazquez who might finish them.
JR, so the only game the 442 didn’t work was yesterday? It didn’t work against Holland either; I’ll spot you that one. The first goal was an incredibly poor decision by Arob. The 2nd goal was an equally poor decision by Scally to foul Johnny so he couldn’t clear the ball and an amazing finish by a very talented player. No one on the US would score that goal. Again, it was 2-1 when Reyna came out and the US was very much still in the game at that point.
The way the defense completely fell apart at the end was dreadful, and the reason for the ugly scoreline. But it does overshadow a more mixed bag of a game the first 60 some minutes. I actually thought we were kinda unlucky on their first two goals, although the defense not clearing balls in the danger zone is becoming a trend. But up through Weah’s goal, and the next couple minutes afterword I would have called it an even game. I thought Scally handled Diaz pretty darned well considering the challenge, and how many times he got isolated. Johnny is a clever player on the ball but the defensive duties against a top team seemed a road too far, at least for right now. If Adams can’t go, it has to be Musah there for me for this tournament. I am still waiting for the manager to try something a little different, and haven’t seen anything except the same plodding ideas from the last 5 years. I’m not going to panic after one bad 15 minute stretch, we roll with Berhalter thru the Copa, but some trends are obvious. A lack of ideas when the original gameplan isn’t working, inability to correct course, inability to score goals against midlevel to top teams. These apply to every Berhalter team I’ve seen. The recent trend of defensive mistakes and turnovers in the midfield leading to counters would be the nail in the coffin of most managers. I am rooting for him to get the defense fixed and find a way to score more goals, but he has to show his methods can work against a top team. It is true that previous USMNT managers have occasionally got results against top teams, usually by setting up more defensively, and Berhalter has yet to beat a top team. His best game managing for me was the WC game against England, where we sat back a little more defensively, conceded possession but pressed relentlessly in the middle third, and hit on the counter. Why have we not tried that since? Especially against these SA teams that are often vulnerable to counterattacks. Baffles me.
Copa America is the test. If the US disappoints then Gregg needs to go. No more excuses.
We’d still have 2 years to try and get some fresh ideas in before the unique opportunity 2026 offers.
If the YS cannot advance out of its group on home soil then yes the USSF should relieve him of his duties. In fact if there is another blowout vs Brasil then I hope they start formulating a backup plan that goes beyond having BJ Callahan step in during the interim. Cherundolo, David Wagner and names is have to research who might be free of coaching duties at the current time.
Sure Jesse Marsch might crack a little smile over the score yesterday.
Mat, depends on what you consider disappointing to be. If they get out of their group and lose in the quarterfinals to either Brazil or Columbia, he isn’t going to get fired. If they don’t make it out of group play, he probably will get fired.
Tele57 – I guess disappointing is certainly results based (for example not getting out of group and/or losing to beatable opponent in knockouts), but for me if I’m the federation I need to make a judgment call after the Copa to answer the question: based on what we’ve seen in the US in the Copa (results, team performances, tactics, “fire” / hunger , etc…), do we believe this team is going in the direction of achieving something historical in 2026? Or is it just more of the same lukewarm stuff and folding fast vs good teams in which case please let’s get new ideas in there.
Tele: since Gregg’s return the US is 6-4 and three of those wins were less than impressive (Uzbekistan 2 of 3g in added time, TnT at home 3g in final 10 minutes, Jamaica scoring on last kick to make ET). We’ve arguably looked good in 3 of those 10 matches. The team is not playing as well as they were the previous cycle. We went through this before in 2016 USSF was ready to fire Klinsmann but didn’t pull the trigger because CEO Dan Flynn needed heart surgery, which just prolonged the struggles leading to a 4-0 beat down at Costa Rica (probably a worse performance than last night) and Klinsmann’s firing. We’re likely playing Colombia or Brazil in the quarterfinals if that quarterfinal is another 3 or 4 goal beating it’s time. The goal for 2026 has got to be quarters or semis. If you can’t compete with the top 4 or 5 in South America how is that realistic with 10 European teams mixed in?
JR, of the 4 losses, 1 was in the January camp when he had a D team roster available, 1 to Germany and Columbia, who are unfortunately teams with better players, and 1 to Trinidad when the team needed to not lose by 3 goals to advance, which they did. What should a good coaches winning percentage be against better teams? What is Pep’s? He hardly ever plays against a team with better players? He doesn’t win every game, so is he a bad coach?
Tele: talent wise Colombia isn’t better though. Yet Lozano who is a career assistant with 18 months as a manager in Peru.
14-5-0 (W-T-L)
Record against Top 20 FIFA teams 4-1-0 (7-2-0 if you count out of window matches)
Uruguay under Bielsa is 3-1-0 against teams ranked higher than them (that Mexico win we know shouldn’t count).
Japan last two years 4-2-2 against teams ranked above them. So yes teams do punch above their weight. Just not Gregg Berhalter teams counting Morocco that wasn’t top 20 when we played. 6-4-7 under Berhalter. Take out Mexico 2-3-5. Iran, Morocco, and Mexico those are Gregg’s top 20 wins, is that going to change the way the world sees American soccer?
dear mr. pulisic: yeah, and i remember you throwing your support behind GB during the hiring process so hmmmmm about this whole “not good enough” theory of yours
to be fair, i don’t know if that was voting GB over marsch when it was time for a final decision from the last candidates.
but, anyhow, how many “that’s as bad as i have seen a US team look,” does this man get.
“Must be patient and continue crossing the ball”!!!! ….WTF!!!
I stop watching this game and stop support such “lifeless” team.
But you still come here to tell everyone?
While the offense wasn’t spectacular games involving South American teams are often drawn out low scoring affairs. I was never expecting us to score a lot of goals yesterday. Our defense however completely failed and it is up to Gregg to better coach his players in his system, find players that can defend in his system, change his system, or (my preferred option) do the right thing and resign.
that was simply kickball with mano a mano athletic battles we were losing. colombian defender plays a diagonal long ball to a wing who wins the trap and then runs by us. we simply couldn’t win either the aerial or speed battles.
it was similar to how holland made us look silly. we prepared for a technical battle, or for a physical short passing contest. the personnel seemed poorly selected and prepared for a more direct longball approach with isolated defenders trying to stop players sent over the top.
Gregg needs to go.. Offense is largely a matter of inspiration defense is largely a matter of organization and preparation. A coach can be forgiven to a point if his attackers fail to find the magic to unlock a well prepared and organized defense like Colombia, but can not be forgiven for having a disorganized defense like ours yesterday.
This is a horrible time to write this, but I kind of liked the Johnny, Gio, McKennie thing in the middle of the pitch. It looked progressive. I sort of look at the game in thirds. Back third, awful. Front third, meh. Middle, kinda good.
If I were king, I’d play a 3 5 2 or a 4 4 2
Agree with most of that. Defensively I thought Chris Richards had a couple shaky moments but was overall good. That was by far the best game I’ve ever seen Joe Scally play for the Nats; he really put his foot down and made a very strong case the RB spot is his at least until Dest gets back to challenge him. The others…well, the less said the better. Mostly a bad game for Jedi. Ream was shaky. If CCV shows like that again against Brazil he’s going home. Turner showed once again he’s a very good shot-stopper…and lousy with his feet, and that shows up big against a high-pressing team like Colombia just as it did with Forest this past year. And at almost 30, what you see there seems like it’s probably what you’re going to get at this stage.
Weston McKennie’s jumped to a whole new level this year with Juventus. He was the best player on the pitch for good stretches of the game and while I still love Musah there’s no doubt McKennie has put some daylight between himself and Yunus right now. Johnny Cardoso had at least one Oh-My-God-That-Was-Awful type turnover, but then again, so did almost everybody yesterday, and overall Cardoso really impressed and looked very much like a guy the top teams in Spain would indeed be looking at. Gio definitely flashed some stuff.
Weah got his butt handed to him for most of the game, and you could see him getting more and more frustrated…but it seemed to focus him. I loved how he responded – with competitive fury – and that goal was beautiful. The other forwards – including Pulisic – had some moments but were largely way too anonymous. But Colombia’s also got some really, really strong defenders. I definitely saw why they’re so hard to beat right now.
DiBo, I agree; against tops teams, it seems like 3 in the midfield is too few. They can get away with it against CONCACAF but not likely against COMEBOL.
i thought johnny with exceptions was being shredded. some of the goals were balls played back in front of the defensive line. he was often in no man’s land, half out to the crosser, but also not tracking the interior runners.
I did notice the mids seemed a little disjointed defensively. Johnny didn’t shield the backline well at times, especially in comparison to Tyler. I thought he was really good on the ball for the most part but his positioning and awareness did seem to need some work, and in particular he and McKennie sometimes did not seem to be communicating well.
Especially in the second half, though, Colombia didn’t really generate much on their own, they just pounced all over the freebies when we kept turning the ball over in the middle of the park in our own half.
Maybe this
Balogan Pepi CP
Musah GReyna J Cardoso Weah
Weston Richards TAdams
It looked toothless in defense lacking any bite or ability to close down guys approaching the 18. They were back peddling matadors.
I didn’t at all. Mckennie looked lost and barely touched the ball and Gio needs to be an attacking midfielder.
This result depressed my soul. Glad the frozen rum Pina colada and fireball whiskey shots worked in my favor. Bad result but great time pregaming. I have faith we will come back stronger against Brazil.
It is just a freindly. In the grand scheme of things it means very little. Now if they go out and play in the tournament like that, it would be a different story.
where is the upside in the grander scheme of things. you’re implying this is a blip i can weigh against upside games. or throw out as meaningless in some broader pattern.
rather than a pattern of getting trashed by good teams. which follows world cup, friendly, or not.
But somehow, if the US thrashes a team and a friendly, we puff out our chest and say they’re on the right path so how can you disregard this? It’s part of the process shitting the bed is never a good thing unless you learn a lesson from it to be determined versus Brazil.
Glove, who is we?
IV, tell me how many good teams they have played under Gregg’s tenure, which of those teams has better players, and the result.
glove: the deal is if system and personnel are effectively non-negotiable then you can’t actually learn from what happens, even when change would ordinarily be expected. normally if germany TnT this game happened, heads would roll. this is what happens when we believe in a cult that forever needs more time.
tele: are you kidding me???? GB has lost over the years to swiss, japan, holland, germany, colombia. the real question is when have we ever beat a good team. this usually involves gymnastics like, well, we beat morocco before anyone realized what they were.
IV, you didn’t answer my question. Should be simple enough for you to name what good teams they have played, which team had better players, and what the result was. Three of the five 5 teams you mentioned clearly had better players and four of those games were friendlies. The US beat Morocco (the 6th team you mentioned) and that win meant as much h as Columbia’s win yesterday, which is nothing.
I dunno if anybody recalls but I did call this one. I thought the US was going to get crushed in this first friendly and I was right. And it wasn’t prescience, just experience. You coach enough teams, you know how it goes initially when you bump up a level. And we were indeed bumping up a very significant level. Actually more like two.
Dominating CONCACAF is one thing, but even against CONCACAF opposition, we were sloppy. CONCACAF teams (generally) just weren’t good enough (though Germany assuredly was) to punish us for switching off on defense, lazy turnovers, impatience, and carelessness with the ball…and if you go back and watch our prior games we were constantly guilty of all that. And running inferior teams off the field impels absolutely no motivation to clean up your game.
And so we didn’t. No harm, no foul, amiright?
And of course, we pulled our usual sloppy sh!t again last night, with exactly the results you’d expect against a team like Colombia. And here’s where I’ll diverge sharply with the Gregg haters: there was nothing he could have done about this and it had to happen. As we constantly say in coaching: the game is the best teacher…and you don’t learn your lessons without a certain amount of pain in the bank. Ass-kickings, unfortunately, are what get you better. Sharp, humiliating, painful lessons are what get you better. There is literally no other way.
Gregg was extraordinarily wise to schedule games against Colombia and Brazil before the tournament. We need as many games like this as we can get. I’d schedule Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia every friendly window if I was a coach and I could, in between trips to England, Italy, Spain, and France.
We were always going to lose this one and badly because we were playing CONCACAF ball, and that just doesn’t fly against top-end South American teams. We get another one in a couple days.
But if you look past the freebies we constantly gifted Colombia, one thing jumps out at you – Colombia wasn’t generating their own chances, they were just waiting for us to eff up. We dominated the second half until the last fifteen minutes, and the momentum of the game had swung sharply towards us. And Colombia was visibly wilting. We were on pace to at least walk away with a draw…and then the wince-worthy inexcusable turnovers started.
If this reminds anyone of the way we lost to Germany a few months back and the Dutch in the World Cup, it absolutely should. We weren’t out of our league at all, in any of those games. We were just sloppy, naive, and unaware of the holes in our game. And Colombia duly punished us for every bit of it, just as Germany and the Netherlands did.
It’ll be fascinating to see how much we learned against Brazil. I still doubt we’ll get a result – though I’d be thrilled if we did – there’s still far too much to clean up. But we’ll do better, though experience, again, tells me we’re not done with our lessons. And I do think we’ll have at least a puncher’s chance against Uruguay in a couple weeks.
And more to the point, I think our team will arrive at Copa America in exactly the right frame of mind to compete – frustrated, humbled, and hopefully, focused…and absolutely aware what we’re going to be up against. There’s too much talent on this team for them to stay on the mat. But getting better is a process…and humiliation is a part of it, unfortunately.
So I say: put down the knives everyone has out for Gregg Berhalter right now. He did exactly the right thing in scheduling these friendlies before Copa. And the only way to get the sloppy sh!t out of our game, unfortunately, is to have it beat right on out of us.
So bring on Brazil, and let the lessons resume. We need ’em.
Gregg is an awful coach the fact your a Gregg apologist is just; ewww! He should have played with 3 in the back. Instead he trotts out the same lifeless 433 that has us looking like we are not confident nor dominant.
If he plans to play 3 in the back, why would he show that now so people have video footage to prepare for it? These games are scrimmages. If they lose 10-0 to Brazil they still start with 0 pts when the tournament starts just like Panama, Bolivia, and Uruguay.
Trots*
setting aside the coach is the problem, i felt like recent results were mediocre and the opposition was about to dramatically improve. i figured we’d whoop bolivia but this is going to be harsh in general. this roster was arrogant. this schedule was arrogant. the system is arrogant. the personnel is arrogant. this isn’t that good.
like you said, jamaica, tnt away, germany. the problem is we buy our own headlines. pure luck they turn around jamaica becomes a positive instead of a mess. which is fine if it’s an isolated mess but it’s not.
i think we keep thinking it’s fixed every time we do something concacaf. we should know better. but all the concacaf went out in the world cup pretty quick. but all the good concacaf have been getting trashed in tough friendlies this week. concacaf isn’t worth crap right now. i think they think since berhalter can win concacaf he’s sufficient. i think the level has to go up to get this competitive outside the region and he can’t do it. been saying this years and have to listen to the cult shout me down.
and the deal is if we play brazil closer and beat bolivia the cult will start up again. but bolivia is no good and we can’t beat anyone any good. you either see the bigger pattern or not.
Expecting to whip Bolivia would be an example of disrespecting the opponent. What has happened in the past 50 years that would make you think they should whip Bolivia?
Tele: 4-0 in 2016, 3-0 in 2018 and Boliva being ranked 85th in the world. A 2-1-9 record since 2023 a home win over Peru and a neutral site win over Andorra. They’ll likely bunker and try to hit us on the counter.
tele: sorry on no planet do i have to play by GB Rules. my approach to life was my teammates would ask how i would handle the guy i have to mark next week and i’d say i got this even if he was conference player of the year. then i would handle it.
bolivia is currently next to last in conmebol, 1-0-5, 4 GF 14 GA. i think we have played them twice in recent years with Ws and even the disappearing act Sargent scoring. we had better win that game. my concern is every other contest.
it ain’t arrogant if you back it up.
IV, unfortunately, in this world, you do have to live by Gregg’s rules since he is the coach. I’m quite sure you were the best defender ever in your world.
JR, both wins over Bolivia that you mentioned were freindlies. Once again, the results of freindlies don’t mean anything. They lost to similarly ranked T and T in games that mattered in 2017 and 2023. Thinking a team that can lose to Trinidad can’t lose to Bolivia is arrogant. Besides, they only beat Bolivia one of those times because Julian Green was on the roster.
“And here’s where I’ll diverge sharply with the Gregg haters: there was nothing he could have done about this and it had to happen. As we constantly say in coaching: the game is the best teacher…and you don’t learn your lessons without a certain amount of pain in the bank.”
That’s a bit dramatic. Unless Brazil rips them open 5-0 ( that’s possible) no one is firing anyone.
And if 5-0 happens, I’m keeping Gregg and telling him, this is your broke car, you make it run. And I’m telling the players, you made this bed, sleep in it.
Unless you can think of a way to replace all 26 players before Bolivia?
This game was same old, same old. Same team, same tactics, blah ,blah. blah. I promise you they will be better vs Brazil because they always are in the second game.
But losing 2-1 or even 3-1 isn’t why everyone is freaking out. It’s the three in a row where the team looked like IV’s high school team and fell apart against a Copa America contender.. When the wheels fall off the cart so dramatically and so emphatically; now you’ve got everyone’s attention.
We haven’t seen this before.
And the timing is terrible. We play Bolivia on Sunday June 23rd in our Copa America opener.
I’m sure Gregg was pleased to have these two big time games to test the team. But don’t tell me that Gregg was happy to see his team completely deconstructed. They went down and then got back into the game and looked like they might make something of it. But then Colombia just went into another gear and left the boys eating their dust. Boys vs men.
And it was done is such a way as to suggest that Gregg may not have the time to address this properly before Bolivia. Brazil is maybe not the best team to play when you are looking to “recover”.
The biggest difference between this game, Gregg’s #70, and every other one is that the USMNT ran up against a better team that, for whatever reason, was already in Copa America “mode”. They were better than the USMNT, were firing on all cylinders and they were looking for blood.
I think most of y’all saw that and realize that Copa America may have tougher teams than a retired Wales and an overmatched Iran. And we will be facing them very soon.
Gregg should be pleased. This is his big chance to prove everyone is wrong about him.
dude, my select team won state twice and my HS team lost in the state final 8. i didn’t play for losers. and part of that — if it explains anything — is when my teams got eliminated, players got swapped out. attention was paid to how the team and its components coped with the toughest contests. we didn’t believe because we won a regular league game our offense worked and that was the perfect lineup. half the US’ problem is picking tactical concepts and personnel off easy games instead of how well they function when, say, germany or colombia comes to town.
eg, jedi is typically fun in easy games; jedi gives up the goals in the ones we need to win to get better. this has been true dating back to 2018, when he first broke in — and then soon after got pastured for bad games with brazil and england.
if you want to win the big ones, you can’t make excuses for them, you have to learn why they happened, change systems and/or personnel, and act like you learned some lesson.
as i said elsewhere on here, the problem is when the system seems set and the personnel were picked by analytics or paper, it seems hard for them to admit they have it wrong and learn any lesson. either the coach cannot change or it’s a challenge to his ego. so this team doesn’t make logical, game-driven responses.
Arena was failing in his last years at the Revolution and had trouble with some hanky panky. We’d be better off with Bob Bradley, or maybe if we could get David Wagner. Wagner might not be a great choice, but at least he is American, has coached in several different countries and knows a lot of our players. I would also prefer Cherundolo to Arena. He not only has done pretty well at LAFC, he did some coaching in Germany, has a lot of USMNT experience and knows the international game well.
This was supposed to be a reply to 2tone from below.
No he wasn’t. Revolution were trending up when he was released don’t know what you are talking about. In fact most of the Revolution players were pissed he was let go.
I guess I misunderstood the mission statement. I guess Gregg’s proposed change in how people view US Soccer was to demonstrate that it’s not developing at the rate we thought?
No more obfuscation, B.S. platitudes, excuses and underselling expectations.
If this is truly a wake up call, I hope the alarm went off loud and clear in the offices of US Soccer. They’ve hit the snooze button a few too many times already… it’s well past the hour to wake the hell up and put an end to the Berhalter era. I ain’t holding my breath. Meanwhile, back in Chicago: zzzzzZZZZZZzzzzzzzZZZZZZ
😂😂😂 rico
but he swears his project gon’ be catchin’ up to ’em next thursday, he swears, maybe couple weeks…..baby just give me a chance……snooze button indeed…..accountability never catches up……
99% of NT do not operate on “maybe this project works in a few years, give it time.” they don’t fight the players’ natural style. and if they try something, you better start paying off in results or prettier soccer, and quick. that’s how you keep away the snake oil salesman, is accountability at some milestones rather than neverending projects.
we aren’t often going to have this good a bunch of kids and soon enough it’ll be about 1/2 or 2/3 wasted. next world cup after this some of the core will be pushing 30. this won’t last forever and people should know from that last crappy cowell U20 team — or the 2010s — that it’s not an endless money tree.
i always thought this project stuff was nonsense. you want different style players go back to U5. you can’t change players that much past 20. and the idea GB fired by hammarby was the man to do it, that’s funny.
The crazy thing is with Klinsmann we cut the cord after two bad qualifying games. There is a set precedent. A loss yesterday another tragic loss to Brazil and failure to get past the first knockout game in the Copa to me would constitute just as much failure as what Klinsmann exhibited. Look at the 2002 World Cup and the players we had and what we accomplished. Soccer has grown in this country, but the national team honestly seems to be stagnant and possibly even going backwards directly at the USSF and the poor choices they make in leading the team. Any other team in CONCACAF would not put up with this from their coach why in God‘s name are we being patient? There is no football club in this earth that shows this much patient 5+ years of lateral movement.
Glove69 yep and even though it was a friendly we beat Italy under Klinsmann and Italy men’s nat team is hella hard to beat. We have beat no top 15 yes in friendly nor tournament under Berhalther.
We have beat no top 15 team in friendly nor tournament under Berhalther*.
The trend of a lack of attacking thrust and shots ans shots on target has been Berhalters entire tenure. It’s not a trend anymore it’s a flat out problem with his preferred formation. In fact this permeates to the youth teams as well who generally play the same formation.
Lack.of respect for the opponent? What.?.?.? Better be a wake up call for you to change formation and tactics. And a wake up call to the players to start playing like men.
Yes, I think that “lack of respect for the opponent”is a strange way to express that they stunk and a lot of it was due to sloppy play, lack of concentration and lack of effort. Berhalter has a lot to answer for, too. The team was not ready to play and although they scored early in the second half, they were much worse on defense in the second half and Berhalter didn’t seem to make any adjustments to counter Colombia’s game plan.
the coach is the one who is supposed to call enough players for camp competition, call the right people, scout the opposition, and convey to the team what they face. in short, prepare. they didn’t seem to see this coming minute 1.
they had some bad giveaways at the end but the man is also teaching them play from the back. sloppy but also what he’s asking them to try. you tell CCV to play from the back then moan when he mentally quits and tries to thread a ball out he shouldn’t.
i did think they — as at the end of canada 19 and holland — actually quit end of that colombia game. and that’s the one thing he didn’t say. hinted at maybe with the 75′ comment. and that’s unique to this coach. i have rarely seen US teams quit like this.
personally i don’t like that a coach this poorly prepared is blaming player effort. game plan simply didn’t work or match the opposition. eg didn’t have fast enough backs to stay with their runners.
I would prefer to call it a Jurgen Klopp call…
After today there is no amount of money that would make him take that call.
Lol. True. Would be hard to find a new coach. Bruce Arena? Remember he did take the US to the best result at a WC. Would be interesting to se what he would do with this team. Also remember USSF can’t afford someone expensive. They would have to pay out Berhalter and pay a new coach.
If Berhalter gets fired USSF doesn’t have the money to buy someone expensive. They would have to pay out Berhalter and hire a new coach for two years. At that point you just need a coach that can properly manage the team effectively and implement an easy system. With that being said that leaves very few coaches. Arena, Bradley, Klinsmann, BJ Callahan, Tab Ramos. For me Arena fits the bill the best. Experience and his ability to get players on the same page. Yes he failed to qualify, but people forget the US was second to last in that qualifying cycle before Arena took over and probably should have pulled it off. No qualifying this time around, so Arena can get this team fighting and playing hard before the WC. We know this team has the ability to play, and pass the ball, but they lack fight.
Obviously, you never saw the USMNT play at Couva in 2017.
did arena get the only emergency batphone for USSF? couva indeed. that plus whatever the heck he said in new england to get fired.
personally i want a big time coach. i think the problem is we spend half what klinsi cost. pay the going rate and get us a real coach. to me the problem here started with getting rid of the flynn rule ie you have to have won something. standards have slipped and all the fanboys do is make excuses.
failing that, if it’s cheap and domestic, at least try someone new. i like trophy winners with fundamentally sound defenses. that’s dolo. both arena and bradley in recent years look past it.
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