By Giuseppe Palmer and Miles Eller, staff writers
As a fan of the United States Men’s Soccer Team, I have been looking forward to the World Cup since even before we qualified for it. With American players climbing the ranks of the biggest teams worldwide including Chelsea, AC Milan, Juventus, and more, the USMNT looked really promising this year.
I watched every qualifying game and every friendly game leading up to the World Cup and could not wait for the team to prove themselves to all of the doubters around the world who counted the USA out. I believed we had the quality to go toe to toe with the biggest countries like England, which to an extent we did and for that I’m thankful. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, my ambitions did not fully come to fruition and the USA took an early exit from the Cup with a Round of 16 loss to the Netherlands.
The main problem I saw with the USA team is the lack of a solid target forward who can really score goals. We squandered so many great chances in all of our games and against the Netherlands we paid the price. But every time the Netherlands found themselves with even a slight opening, they scored it. The USA just don’t have players who can do that and it really showed in that game.
Another problem that arose for the USMNT was the squad that head coach Gregg Berhalter called up to bring to the World Cup. Berhalter snubbed several players who have established themselves as successful players in major European Leagues such as Ricardo Pepi, who has 8 goal contributions in 9 games for Dutch team FC Groningen, and Jordan Pefok, a Union Berlin striker who had 27 goals in 45 games last season.Instead, Berhalter selected players such as Jesus Ferreira, an MLS player who is essentially a mediocre player in a bad league and isn’t ready to play on the biggest stage in the sport. The same can be said about New York Red Bulls defender Aaron Long and Nashville SC’s Shaq Moore.
The team’s next big issue came from the coach’s poor in game management skills. Berhalter waited too long to make substitutions and when he did, they were the wrong ones. He left clearly exhausted players in the game for too long before bringing in players who ultimately had a negative impact on the team’s performance such as when he brought on Shaq Moore against England when the team needed some creative and fresh attacking play to stay in the game.
Berhalter also refused to use Dortmund attacker Gio Reyna, arguably one of the United States’ best players, giving him a total of 7 minutes throughout the entire group stage of the World Cup. Reyna is one of the most creative, threatening, and experienced players on the team and in my opinion he is second only to Christian Pulisic, the USA star, in terms of quality.
For us fans, it is extremely frustrating. I can’t even describe the anger I feel when I see Aaron Long preparing to start a game where he’ll be defending some of the best players in the world or how crushed I am when I hear that there’s about to be a substitution and I’m hoping to see Gio Reyna warming up but instead it’s Jordan Morris. We USA fans have struggled through watching Ferreira run around like a headless chicken too much and witnessed far too many defensive mistakes and misplaced passes from Aaron Long to accept them in the squad anymore.
Subs aren’t the only example of bad game management from Berhalter, as his tactics require questioning as well. The team thrives on a fast paced and attacking style of play and yet once they score they stop playing that way and shift to a more defensive tactic to try and see off the game. They paid the price for it against Wales when they allowed Wales to have too much possession and to test the US defense until finally they tied the game. I wanted to smash the TV when I noticed that we had shifted our 4-3-3 formation into a bland, defensive, and weak 4-4-2.
The US is a team that has tremendous potential. There are a variety of likable young players who are very good and who are continuously improving. With more experience playing against better teams and a better coach, the USMNT could be one of the best national teams in the game, and they might even bring it home as hosts of the 2026 World Cup. I certainly hope we do better than we did this year.
