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A year ago, even the brave Zlatan Ibrahimovic didn’t believe the United States could compete in the World Cup. His opinion changed after the cohosts they won their first two games to take the top spot in Group D within 10 days of the tournament.
“If you didn’t believe before, I’ll say it again: start believing,” Ibrahimovic said in a recent televised interview.
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Ibra – as the icon of Swedish football is known – and the USA was given a real check 3-2 loss to Turkey Thursday night in Inglewood, California. However, the result did not dampen the team’s enthusiasm.
“The next line is a good slate,” United States defender Mark McKenzie said. “Also, we want to go far in this, we want to win it all. We know there is work to be done. We have a team full of hungry people ready to make it happen.”
The USA has a chance to regain momentum and confidence against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Round of 32 in Santa Clara, California, on Wednesday.
Face, design and beauty
However, last June, the USA was in the midst of a four-game losing streak when they lost 2-1 to Turkey in front of a Turkish crowd of 34,023 in East Hartford, Connecticut. Although the USA could not defeat the Turks, they did not face any problems against Paraguay and Australia, winning their first two World Cup games for the first time since 1930.
So, what changed?
First, Mauricio Pochettino decided his list. Only four players remain in the starting XI from last year: goalkeeper Matt Freese, defenders Alex Freeman and Chris Richards, and midfielder Malik Tillman.
Pochettino prefers a 4-2-3-1 formation on the pitch but has used three options at the back, allowing Freeman and Antonee Robinson to add support to the wings of Christian Pulisic and Sergino Dest. Freeman earned his first cap at right-back against Turkiye last year, and has rarely been out of the lineup since.
Robinson, hampered by injury a year ago, is coming off a strong English Premier League season with Fulham. In central defence, veteran Tim Ream, 38, adds stability, joined by Richards. Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie team with Tillman in the middle. In front, it is Folarin Balogun, on his side is Dest and Pulisic, or Ricardo Pepi.
Also, Pochettino changed the system to staff. Forget building backs or playing patiently through the middle. This USA team shows its full, hard-working approach from the start.
The goal is to accept the throw, brave opponents to try the way out of the press. Pochettino copied the start-it-over-the-touchline concept from his former club, Paris Saint-Germain.
So, it’s an extreme chase, an aggressive chase, a combination of doubles and triples. And this brings threats, chief among them, players being victims of nutmeg.
Several times against Paraguay, USA players were left on the ground as the ball went under their feet, but it didn’t matter, because a teammate or two was usually there to help them.
Are Pochettino’s team in danger of forming a permanent habit? It happened in the series against Turkiye, when Arda Guler went past Christian Pulisic to help set up Kaan Ayhan’s winner.
It ended in a second loss in a year against Turkiye, this time in front of a famous crowd, 70,492 waiting for another victory in the USA.
One way to go
The hosts will need to change gears, show patience, and change the pace of the game. Big power and high pressure are not enough to take down a better competitor.
The USA has now won three, lost 15 and drawn seven against European teams, with only one victory since 1950.
The Americans won’t be able to avoid European enemies for much longer, starting in Bosnia on Wednesday.
They can look to the 2002 team for inspiration, which made a strong start to the tournament in Qatar and reached the quarterfinals.
In the group stage then, the USA surprised Portugal (3-2), drew with South Korea (1-1), then fell to Poland (3-1). In the round of 16, they shut out their southern neighbors Mexico (2-0), before falling to Germany (1-0), the likes of Gregg Berhalter off the line from Torsten Frings’ handball.
Winning all of these would be a stretch, and the views of former US, Everton and Manchester United Tim Howard should be considered.
“The US cannot, without a doubt, win the World Cup,” Howard said on the Unfiltered Soccer podcast.
“The United States has to play the biggest tournament they’ve ever played, four games in a row: round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals, finals. It’s impossible for the USA to win the World Cup. That’s a fact.”
There is a clear and obvious threat to support this team, and it has put an extra spring in the USA’s stride. All the yelling, screaming and cheering is encouraging, but it doesn’t encourage skillful play or intellectual awareness.
And, all kinds of change or not, loss should be a wake-up call.
