6/8/2024 - USMNT vs. Colombia - Upon Further Review
Summary
For just the second time since the 2022 World Cup, the USMNT was matched up against a team with as much or more individual talent than them, and had a chance to make a statement ahead of the Copa America. The USMNT came out flat in the first half, conceding two goals in roughly two Colombian chances on mostly individual mistakes from Robinson and Turner. While the offense remained sluggish well into the second half, a moment of brilliant play between Balogun and Weah lead to a US goal. This was short-lived however, as inexplicable errors in possession by Musah, Weah, and Carter-Vikers collectively lead to three chances and three goals for Colombia in the final 15 minutes. Final score, Colombia 5 - USMNT 1.
Line-ups and Formation
The USMNT came out in the 4-3-3 that is typical under Berhalter, with one holding defensive midfielder (Cardoso), one box-to-box midfielder (McKinnie), and one attacking midfielder (Reyna). It appears that the MMA midfield from the past cycle has been replaced by a Reyna-Mckinnie-CDM midfield on a more permanent basis. Scally comes in for an injured Dest, Cardoso for Adams. Outside of these two injuries (and perhaps regardless in Cardoso's case) this appears to be the favored starting XI:
As is typical under Berhalter, the initial phase morph's into a 2-1-4-3, with Cardoso dropping in to link play and the fullbacks pushing far upfield:
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As the ball moves into the opponents half, we often see one of Reyna or McKinnie push up next to Balogun, forming a quasi-2-4-4:
Defensively, the USMNT alternated between a flat 4-3-3, and an almost 4-4-2 shape when two of the front three would initiate the press. In my opinion, this pressing structure was not effective, as Colombia was able to consistently find the open space and break through.
Goal by Goal Analysis
0-1 Colombia, 5:30
USMNT has decent defensive shape here, defending in to out, and leaving a narrow lane wide to Colombia's right wing. The pass is speculative at best, and hit with too much pace, tracking to go out of bounds. By the time it gets near Robinson, the Colombia winger has not moved, expecting the ball to go out of play. Robinson inexplicably goes to ground, knocking the ball directly into the path of a Colombian player at the top of the box. Perhaps he was unsure of where the player to his back was, but this is inexcusable from a Premier League-level defender. Tim Ream does all that you can reasonably expect to cut off the angle of the Colombia player, who is able to get a shot off near post past Turner for an opening goal. Turner must be held at least partially accountable for getting beat near post given how tight the angle was.
Blame: 75% Robinson, 25% Turner
0-2 Colombia, 18:42
This play start with the concession of a corner by the US off of a terrible Team Ream give away in his own 3rd. Cardoso's beautiful block saves the USMNT from a goal in open play, but it is all in vain, as Ream's partial clearance on the corner is won back by Colombia as Scally and Cardoso are unable to challenge. The ball then finds a Colombian player who bike's the ball past turner, who again is beaten from a very narrow angle. I would expect Turner to make this save all things considered. The unmarked man is Cardoso's, who is free because Cardoso went to support Scally in winning the header.
Blame: 20% Ream (for ceding possession contributing to corner), 15% each Scally and Cardoso for failing to win a header, 50% Turner for failing to make a debatably routine save.
1-2 Colombia, 57:07
This goal is created solely by individual brilliance from Weah and Balogun. Colombia has 8 behind the ball vs 3 for USMNT, as the USMNT is struggling to break down Colombia's mid block defense. Weah is able to get out of pressure from two Colombians and bend a beautiful ball around a third defender to find Balogun in space. Balogun see's Weah continue his run through the gap between the centerback (drawn out by Wright) and the left back (drawn out by Balogun), and perfectly weights a pass by the fulback to Weah, who is able to collect and shoot far post, beating the keeper.
Praise: 75% Weah, 25% Balogun
1-3 Colombia, 76:29
This play starts a sloppy giveaway by Cardoso near midfield. The US initially has 5 players behind the ball vs. 2 for Colombia, but Colombia has support arriving through the middle. By the time the winger is able to carry the ball into the box, there are 6 defenders for 5 Colombia attackers. Scally has the far post. Carter-Vikers has the central striker, with Richards in front of him to support Musah, who has the winger. Tilman is trailing to cover the Colombian at the edge of the box. This leaves Cardoso to cover the Colombian at the top of the box. Cardoso instead shades the attacker in possession, effectively leading to three USMNT players (Cardoso, Musah, Richards) defending one Colombian. In the end, it is Cardoso, who fails to cover the player at the top of the box, and Carter-Vikers, who is late to pass off the striker to Richards, who share responsibility for this goal.
Blame: 75% Cardso (giveaway + primary defender), 25% Carter-Vikers
1-4 Colombia, 84:03
Not a lot needs to be said here. Weah make's an inexplicable decision to try and dribble past a defender in his own 3rd when he does not immediately see an outlet (Scally is pressed high up and off the bottom right of the screen). You cannot lose the ball here. In doing so, Colombia are immediately in on a 3 vs. 2, and they finish clinically past a helpless Turner.
Blame: 100% Weah
1-5 Colombia, 87:23
Despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that the US are down 4-1 late in the game, they remain insistent on attempting to play out of the back. Carter-Vikers has time but decides to try and lace a ball in through two defenders to Pepi, who is coming short but has a man hot on his heels. Pepi does not feel pressure and Carter-Vikers pass is not hit with enough pace, and is easily intercepted by Colombia. Despite this dangerous giveaway, the USMNT theoretically still has numbers behind the ball. However, due to Robinson's offensive positioning (high and wide), the Colombia winger is going to be able to win the race to the top of the box. Musah need to recognize danger and quickly track back to cover the inside of Robinson. Musah instead slowly jogs, allowing Colombia in for another routine goal.
Blame: 40% Carter Vikers, 20% Pepi, 40% Musah
Detailed Scoring:
See the Scoring Methodology page for information about how scores are calculated. Also note that this still a work in progress. While I want 0 points to be indicative of an "average" performance, scores are coming in much higher for what was a terrible game. For now, consider scores of +6 or less as "bad" performances.
- Reyna continues to impress, often delivering incisive, forward progressing passes and demonstrating a passing range no other player in the pool seems to possess. He rarely lost the ball in this game and had a few nice combination plays with Pulisic and McKinnie.
- Cardoso turned in a solid performance coming off of an impressive debut campaign with Real Betis. Cardoso was strong on the ball and was able to maintain and recycle possession when pressured. He also had several nice defensive plays to break up dangerous Colombia counters. However, he had a few poor moments on the ball, including a bad giveaway directly leading to Colombia's 3rd goal.
- Scally turned an extremely impressive performance given that he was tasked with defending Luis Diaz. Not only did he manage to keep Diaz in check all game, but he was surprisingly effective on the ball. Scally is no Sergino Dest, but he is noticeable better on the ball (both in maintaining possession and in link up play) than Robinson. I have not watched many of his games at Monchengladbach this season, but came away quite impressed.
Scally is able to force Diaz back from this position 
Scally is able to dribble around the pressure when no passing lane exists, dropping a pass off to Robinson and continuing forward into the attack
- Balogun was hardly involved, but did a good job of settling tough passes and maintaining possession, and delivered a perfectly weighted assist to Weah. It's hard to be involved in the game as a striker when you aren't getting consistent service, something that has been endemic of Berhalter's tenure as manager.
- Weah is an enigma, combining moments of brilliance (e.g. the goal he created by himself) with frequent losses of possession (including the awful giveaway for the 4th goal). I am of the opinion that Weah is not a great 1v1 dribbler, but wants to be. His stepovers are rarely effective, and he does not have the ability to shift and go by defenders in the same way that Pulisic of Reyna do. He remains the locked in RW for the USMNT, but he may be best used as a combination play winger with pace, who can whip in a decent cross on his right foot. Too many 1v1 situations that he finds himself in do not end up favorably.
- Robinson as mentioned, looked the much weaker of the two fullbacks. Simply put, Robinson cannot reliably progress the ball forward under pressure or combine when put in tight spaces. He is extremely one footed, often refusing to pass with his right when spacing dictates. What was more troublesome were the defensive mistakes in this game. His decision to touch the through ball directly lead to the first goal. Additionally, he was caught several times overplaying one side of the defender, forcing helpside defense.
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| Robinson losing possession in a very bad area |
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| Robinson unable to find Pulisic or progress the ball from this position |
- Musah turned in a bit of a shocker once he came on in the second half. Musah's main attribute is his ability to carry the ball through midfield in tight spaces and progress the ball to the final 3rd. In this game he showed several glimpses of this, but also his limitations: 1) Once he breaks through midfield, he struggles immensely to find the next pass, losing possession several time in this scenario. 2) While he is good at carrying the ball, I'm not convinced that he is a good press-resistant, back-to-goal midfielder. His first touch when receiving the ball is often clunky, and he lost possession several times to this. 3) When he (or someone around him) loses possession, he can be guilty of switching off and not covering defensively (e.g. Colombia's 5th goal).
- Turner, by my count, let in two goals that I would expect the USMNT keeper to make. He had one nice saved on a Luis Diaz chance in the 2nd half but otherwise did not perform up to expectations. He remains extremely shaky playing out of the back when any pressure exists.
- Carter-Vikers also turned in a shocker when he was subbed on. Almost everything that could have gone wrong did for him, including the giveaway leading to goal #5. The drop-off from Richards and Ream to Carter-Vikers is vast and troublesome. I do not think he is a step up from Austin Trusty or possibly even Miles Robinson, as he never looks confident on the ball. CB #3 is a big question mark moving forward.
- The USMNT cannot play out of the back against world class competition: Three goals were directly conceded in situations where the USMNT failed to play out of the back. While they can get away with it in CONCACAF, more clinical teams will punish the USMNT for these mistakes. While I am a huge proponent of playing out of the back whenever possible, I think the US need to be more pragmatic when the situation calls for it. Turner especially is poor with his feet, but even players like Musah do not instill me with confidence when dropping deep to receive the ball in their own 3rd with players on their back.
- Center back depth behind Richards moving forward is scary thin: In addition to an aging Tim Ream making uncharacteristic mistakes, Carter-Vikers, often considered the heir apparent at center back, looked horrendous. I don't think there is a large difference between Carter-Vikers and Miles Robinson, which says more about my distaste of Carter-Vikers than my appreciation for Miles. While I would love for the USMNT to try a back 3 formation, the US only has 2 viable center backs for international (read: outside of CONCACAF) competitions at the moment.
- Scally is a better and more technical fullback than Antonee Robinson: This might be a hot take, and maybe not a very high bar. But I am continually annoyed by Robinson giving the ball a way in the attacking half, as well as flat our refusing to use his right foot. There were several scenarios clipped above where Scally dribbled his way out pressure, combined with teammates, and kept the ball moving forward. I am cautiously optimistic about Scally replacing Dest for the time being, and wish we had more depth at left back to challenge Robinson.
- Point values may need adjustment: In what was the worst game in recent history for the USMNT, only 5 players came out with a negative score. As mentioned above, consider score of 6 or less as bad scores.
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