AUSTIN, Texas – On the eve of the US men's national team's friendly against Ecuador, head coach Mauricio Pochettino wasted no time in reminding everyone that his focus at the moment is on performance rather than results. On Friday night at the Q2 Stadium he received a game that reflected exactly that sentiment. The USMNT came from behind and settled for a 1-1 draw.showing some genuine signs of progress and confirming Pochettino's idea that the team is finally moving in the right direction.
Pochettino's first year in the job was marked by underwhelming and at times uninspiring results, but as he marks his first year in the job, the USMNT has swapped the feeling of doom and gloom for a sense of normalcy. In some ways, they were just the latest victims of Ecuador's flagrantly defensive approach, which saw them finish second in CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying despite scoring just 14 goals in 18 games, with 35-year-old (or ageless) Enner Valencia scoring on a quick counter-attack before the half-hour mark. Team USA wasn't perfect throughout, with midfield trio Weston McKennie, Tanner Tessman and Aidan Morris not always performing after months away from the new-look group, while the hosts were a bit wasteful in attack as the game wore on. However, none of the USMNT's struggles on Friday night seemed out of character for a team still eight months away from its first World Cup game.
As Pochettino marks his first anniversary, the mark he is beginning to leave on the team is clear and was on full display against Ecuador. Bye newfound competitiveness With playing time evident since the squad was cut last week, Pochettino's version of the USMNT has tactical flexibility that was missing from the previous version under his predecessor Gregg Berhalter. The back three he debuted last month in friendlies against South Korea and Japan returned against Ecuador, this time with some new changes, or rather, a different outlook on and off the ball.
“I think we will continue to play as we plan,” Pochettino said after the match. “I think we defend with four defenders, two midfielders, three and one and of course the goalkeeper – 1-4-2-3-1 – but then our formation is from [the] back we [were] building with three, two and then five.”
The personnel choices were equally intriguing, with Miles Robinson joining anchors Chris Richards and Tim Ream at centre-back, while Max Arfsten and Tim Weah balanced each other out in their respective positions on the left and right flanks. Before the match, Weah described his role as a “fake full-back” and then simply explained that “I would defend less because Miles covered all the time and in attack I played like a regular striker.” Pochettino noted that Arfsten, a more traditional defender, and Weah's distinctive style added new aspects to Friday's game plan.
“It's about hav[ing] different dimensions, but this change also depends on how we want to attack, how we want to use channels, how vigilant we want to be, if [the opponents] play with one striker, two strikers,” Pochettino said. “It's really important and we're starting to understand how [to] change the setting depending[ing] on top [of the defensive line] opposition – low block, middle block – or when you are on the opposite half, different situations can arise. My assessment and my opinion of his performance is that I think he did well. He excelled when he was a striker, trying to go diagonally and create chances. He had a few shots from outside the box and then he looked like a full-back because: [Pervis] First Estupinan, and then when [Yaimar] Medina [was switched] in to force him to defend a little closer than Miles, and then close to [substitute] Alex Freeman.”
There was still a controversial element to the USMNT lineup, with the team openly admitting it could have turned more of its 11 shots into clear-cut opportunities. However, the game had a clear idea. Whenever the USMNT had possession (which was often in a game in which they had nearly 65% of the ball), the emphasis was on attacking as quickly and as cohesively as possible. Their attacking play itself has been impressive given the circumstances: Sebastian Beccacece's Ecuadorian side have conceded just five goals in 18 World Cup qualifying matches, and it's not too hard to imagine a reality in which a more clinical USMNT would have given them a few goals. Even if a draw is a fairly fair result for both sides, the game began to tilt in the US's favor in the second half.
“As the game went on, we started looking at the fresher team and listening to them as someone who's been on the other side, you know, and you feel it,” Rome said. “You're like, okay, these guys… are starting to get a little nervous, and you actually feel more energetic, and it allows you to get on top of them more and start making more little plays, being connected better. “I thought we connected pretty well in the first half, but we connected even better in the second half, and I’ll tell you what, it takes a toll on teams, and that happened today.”
This version of the team felt incomplete in part because Christian Pulisic, Anthony Robinson and Tyler Adams weren't in the starting lineup for various reasons – Pulisic came off the bench, Robinson wasn't fully ready yet, and Adams didn't show up because he and his wife are expecting the birth of their second child. None of this is a surprise at this point, and there are still questions to be answered about what the USMNT is capable of without these players on the field, especially Adams. However, it appears that the pieces of the puzzle are finally starting to come together thanks to several outstanding individual performances led by Malik Tillman, who continued to prove his worth as one of Pochettino's breakout players by helping the USMNT score a goal in the second half. The credit ultimately goes to Folarin Balogun, who has now scored two goals and provided one assist in three games under Pochettino, re-establishing himself as Pochettino's number nine.
The normality of the moment was not lost on Pochettino.
“I thought the performance was very, very serious, very professional,” he said. “I think what works the most is that we're here talking about actions, concepts, formations and things like that, that for me, a year later, I'm so, so, so happy that we're not talking about other things like commitments, relationships or things that we used to talk about in the past. [about]. I think this is a huge step forward because I think we need to forget that whether we win or lose always depends on [on] our performance. If we are better and [if] we are confident that we are better than our opponent, we can win. If we don't show it, it's because it's a football problem, not [that] This is another dangerous problem when things like this happen in a team.”
