Harder Than It Needs To Be, While Also Not That Meaningful

The USMNT gets through to the Gold Cup final, and what mattered really mattered, and what didn't matter didn't matter.
As I've repeatedly stressed during the Gold Cup, it can be a weird experience to watch. It's not just watching a game and hoping your team wins. It's not even just figuring what matters beyond the scoreline, as we scout out possible subs and bench players (with maybe one or two surprise starters) for the World Cup. There are many layers within the scouting.
So I could here and worry about just how stressed I was watching Seb Berhalter and...well, SOMEONE, in central midfield closing out a one-goal game. Except, next summer, Seb Berhalter and a jamoke-to-be-named later won't be closing out a one- or two-goal lead against, say, Austria or Japan. Alex Freeman and Max Arfsten may be defensively woeful, and they were, but if Freeman or Arfsten make an appearance during the World Cup, we'll know we were fucked anyway. Patrick Agyemang blowing chances to seal this game well before the 90th minute is frustrating. But any nation getting to their third- or fourth-choice #9 is probably thinking that doofus is going to blow some chances. Fuck, I don't even know who England's fourth-choice striker would be.
Look, in a knockout match, when the game goes 2-0 so early, things get strange in a hurry. It's something Matthew Doyle of MLSSoccer.com would call the tactics-free zone. Guatemala, playing for their lives, just went hair-on-fire and turned the match into kindergarten recess. For a team as inexperienced and unused to each other as this version of the USMNT is, it's hard to get a grip of all of it when it feels like it should be comfortable but is being made into a science experiment on a very hot and bumpy field. Getting through it becomes the only objective.
So we'll just try and sift through what matters...again.
-First and foremost, Diego Luna. I don't know if MLS has produced a more I-ain't-here-for-yo'-shit player, at least for the USMNT, than Luna. Clint Dempsey is probably the only other contender, and I never got the impression that Deuce would headbutt a buffalo for sport the way I do from Luna.
This was a tournament that was basically set up for Luna and Malik Tillman to combine and create as dueling #10s, and they've done that. Luna danced, flicked, and shimmied all around Guatemala, at least for the first half before fatigue set in on a scorching night in St. Louis (is there any other kind?). He's always available in that space in front of the fullback and centerback and behind the midfield. Even when the other team knows he's going to be there, they can't pick him up. And he's a guy at the edge of the box who doesn't just try the obvious pass. At worst, he tries to draw a defender to him before spraying a pass to the fullback or winger. More likely, he's trying to thread something or combine through the middle, which leads to bigger things.
Both his goals showed something. The first sprang from his clever switch of play out to Freeman on the right before being in position for a rebound. The second was pure bravado, getting the ball in space facing goal and sneering at however many defenders were between him and the net, knowing he was going to sit them all on their ass. The US squad is short on that kind of fuck-you.
I'm not exactly sure how he gets on the field in the full A-squad. It's hard to see Pochettino shifting Pulisic over to the right to let Luna play from the left, even though Pulisic plays on the right for Milan. That would bounce Tim Weah from the starting lineup, and that isn't happening yet. But it should be discussed.
-This tournament can be used to see how Poch wants to run things, and well...there's been some truly iffy moments. Against Costa Rica, he left his subs way too long when it was clear that some were running out of gas while holding a 2-1 lead. It almost felt like Poch thought there was extra-time to come, and there wasn't.
On Wednesday night, protecting a two-goal lead, he subbed out Tyler Adams, the squad's best (and maybe only) defensive midfielder in the 77th minute. Guatemala scored three minutes later from the exact spot where Adams would be, as Olger Escobar simply waltzed by Berhalter, Freeman, and John Tolkin. Maybe Adams just isn't fit to keep getting 90 minutes right now and Poch thought with a two-goal lead this was a chance to conserve something for the final. That's the best hope.
It gets weirder. Tolkin was brought on as a...left-winger? Central midfielder? He's a fullback for his day job, not any of those other things. After Adams was brought off, the central midfield was Berhalter and...Jack McGlynn? Who's a #10? That's not exactly how a game is shut down.
I was also very curious Luca de la Torre was brought off for Brenden Aaronson. The US had struggled to calm the game down, kind of wilting under the furiousness and chaotic way that Guatemala was playing.The game needed calm, and de la Torre is one of the few US players who doesn't treat the ball like a hand grenade. Aaronson is the opposite of calm, running every direction except the one he's supposed to and trying to speed the game up.
So of course Guatemala didn't have a shot from the time de la Torre was subbed out in the 57th minute until their goal in the 80th when Adams was removed. Soccer is weird.
That said, we would all feel better if Pochettino demonstrated a better handle on what it is his players do and their strengths. Maybe he's just putting guys into spots to see what they can out of their comfort zone. That's all we can cling to.
-I still don't know what the total appeal of Berhalter is. He didn't create anything from his set-pieces, which is supposed to be his strength. He had a couple nice tackles, but he also lost the most duels on the pitch. He doesn't create much from open play, and he was as big of a culprit as any of crumbling at times with the ball when under a press.
But again, Berhalter isn't going to be trying to control the ball under a World Cup team's press. He's behind Adams, McKennie, Musah, de la Torre at least, and that may be for only two spots on the field.
-Tim Ream is going to start the World Cup opener, and we're all just going to have to come to terms with that.
-I'm not sure I've seen a striker turn the wrong way or get caught flat-footed by his teammates more than Agyemang. At least four or five times a game, Tillman or Luna or someone will send a ball through the defense and Agyemang is either looking the wrong way, bent his run the wrong way, or wanted the ball played to where he was instead of where he should have been going.
What's more frustrating about it is that all usually comes right after he links up beautifully with his midfield after holding the ball up or physically imposing himself on the defense and winning the ball back. There's so much he does right, but a forward who does all the little things right and doesn't do the big things right is another term for Josh Sargent. And Poch has already hung the "I'm Not Interested" sign on Sargent.
One game left. It's probably against Mexico (they're up 1-0 at the time of writing). It'll be a different game for the US, as they'll have to play against the ball for the majority of a match (by plan this time, at least) for the first time. They're probably outclassed by a full Mexican side. But so was the 2021 team. Know how that one went.