Let's Get Down To Brass Tacks With The USMNT, How Much For The Ape?

For the last time, we try to filter out the noise around the B-team's efforts in the Gold Cup and what it means for the only thing that matters, next year's World Cup.

It gets harder to drill through the noise when it follows a loss to Mexico. They hurt a little more, the mainstream comes in and ignores the details and mitigating factors, it's a final, etc. It's not really a surprise that the USMNT's B-Team wasn't really up to beating Mexico's mostly A-team, and nor should it have been. Fans and media alike can bemoan the depth of the squad, but that's life in the tier both the US and Mexico are in.

At this juncture, I thought it would be best to go position by positions, see what we learned from the Gold Cup, and what that means for the World Cup next summer, which is all that matters.

Goalkeeper - Still feels like if Matt Turner can find any club and play regularly, he'll be the starter, unless he spends his club season regularly hurling the ball into his own net. Seeing as how he was rumored to be heading to Lyon, who then got relegated to Ligue 2 for financial mishegas, getting to a club where he can play is still proving tricky. That's the problem for keepers. Teams only play one at a time.

Matt Freese wasn't horrible, and he's got penalty shootout heroics to his name, but he wasn't great. He was hesitant in clearing out his box at times, which made the defense shakier, especially behind a pace-less Tim Ream. While his shot-stopping was fine, his poor rebound control let Costa Rica equalize and that wasn't the only instance of that.

No one's going to feel great about the US's keeping situation when they kick off next June 12th, but Turner finding regular playing time would help. At least he's been on the stage before.

Fullback - It was worrying that the US had the lead in all three knockout games, blew it twice and did its best to blow the other one against Guatemala. But the biggest reasons that the US couldn't hold those leads was their fullbacks at this tournament, Alex Freeman and Max Arfsten, just aren't up to this level.

Against Costa Rica, Arfsten gave away a braindead penalty and then got walked for Costa Rica's second. Against Guatemala, Freeman was slow on the uptake (though he had help), and he was in position to put a stop to Mexico's equalizer and just whiffed on it. He also kept Alvarez onside for the winner.

These guys are, at best, #4 and #5 on the depth chart. Antonee Robinson and Sergino Dest are the starters, Joe Scally is the back up for both, and don't be shocked if the staff looks for another solution to keep Freeman and Arfsten even farther from the field. That could be Tyler Adams or Tim Weah playing fullback.

And that's fine! Robinson and Dest are really good, and the team was going to be up against it if either aren't available come next summer. Any team in the B- or C-tier of international football is not going to go six deep at fullback. Fuck, only England does and they get laughed at for having like five right-backs. If Dest or Robinson are hurt next April, then we'll worry.

Centerback - So there's good news and bad news. Chris Richards looked every bit the linchpin of the backline all tournament, even more so when under siege by Mexico. It's his defense now, and at least for the moment, everyone can feel good about that.

The issue is his partner. Tim Ream had a decent to good tournament, but at times looked every bit of his 37 years. He was put in a bad spot for Mexico's equalizer, but also he might have reacted quick enough if he was 33 instead of 37. Freese's antsiness left his pace exposed with balls over the top, and that's not going to get better in the next year. That said, he was the best bet for the US when it came to ball progression and getting it between lines from deep, and we'll get to that. There will be opponents next summer where that will be very useful.

It's also hard to know where else Richards's partner might come from. If it were going to be the Celtic duo of either Auston Trusty or Cameron Carter-Vickers, wouldn't we know that by now? Miles Robinson might have the biggest sliding doors career of any USMNT player. Had he not blown his achilles before the last World Cup, and started every game in Qatar as he would have, he's probably not only in a top five league right now but high up in one. But the fact that he didn't displace Ream at any point in this tournament, it's hard to see how he zooms up the depth chart in two half-MLS seasons that he'll have in Cincinnati before the World Cup.

Ream at 38 trying to start three group games in a sweltering World Cup? Doesn't feel great!

Central midfield - Here's another worrying aspect. The US needed a dominant tournament, and especially final, from Tyler Adams. They didn't get it. Adams wasn't even really the world class destroyer he has been with the national team. Maybe he was tired after actually playing for most of a season again in the Premier League. Maybe playing in a 4-4-2, which is how the US mostly defended, doesn't accentuate his game in the best way. Maybe it was just an odd tournament.

It's not that part of the game we really have to worry about with Adams. We've seen him do it before, he's done it in the Premier League, it'll come good again. The real problem is that Adams isn't much of a solution to the US's biggest issue, and that's ball progression/chance-creation. Adams isn't press-resistant, and was a giveaway machine against Mexico. It's just not really what he does, and he's never been asked to at club level, either. He's a ball-winner, and then a guy who gives it to someone more equipped to create.

But who is that? I've been waiting for four years for Luca De La Torre to make himself that guy, and he just hasn't grabbed that chance with both hands. He was, at best, fine in this tournament, but didn't announce himself or anything. Yunus Musah can't pass, and also can't dribble his way out of every jam (though he'll try!). Weston McKennie is asked to do a lot of things for Juventus, but never one thing consistently, and it's hard to know if he can be counted on. Seb Berhalter? Get the fuck outta here. He's Kellyn Acosta II, and he might not even be that good. It was weird that Tanner Tessman wasn't here, and Poch has called him up before.

When the US gets pressed aggressively, as Mexico did, the US just didn't have the guys who could receive and pass under pressure and get the ball to Luna and Tillman in space to attack. It's hard to identify who those guys will be in a year who can do that. This tournament didn't provide enough answers to feel good about it.

#10 - Still not quite sure if Pochettino will use a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 when the big show starts, but it was mostly a 4-2-3-1 for the Gold Cup, so that's what we'll go with. Malik Tillman was mostly that #10. Much like Adams, the US needed a great match from him against Mexico, and they didn't get it. He was far more edgy with the ball than we'd seen the rest of the tournament, when he wasn't getting the time and space he had been. There were some moments, but not enough. This was a match where he could have cemented a starting place in the first 11. He didn't.

Who else might? Gio Reyna will have to prove he exists firsts. Diego Luna can play there, but the fact that he was stationed on the left for this tournament suggests the manager doesn't see him there. It's not Pulisic's position.

Tillman's move to Leverkusen will play a huge role in what goes on here next summer. If he flourishes in the Bundesliga, he could still yet start for the US come Group Game 1. If he flattens out after leaving PSV, then maybe it's a 4-3-3 that day. At least we did see Tillman and Luna unlock some packed defenses, and the US will see one or two next June.

Wide attackers - We know this is Pulisic +1. Some would say that it's Weah and Pulisic locked in. I'm not so sure, as Weah loses a lot of value when there isn't space behind a defense. The US will have a group game or two like we saw against Iran three years ago or Saudi Arabia this summer. Especially with the expanded tournament, the teams coming out of Pot 4 could be really shit and unadventurous and looking to strangle things to a 0-0.

This is where Luna might be the choice. He's just better in tight spaces and trying to combine on the edge of the area against packed defenses. He's unpredictable in his positioning. He had to defend too much against Mexico to make a real impact, but with better players around him he shouldn't have to. Perhaps he's only a bench option against the big boys and/or in knockout round games come next summer, but he's in the first 14, if not 11.

Please stop torturing me with Brenden Aaronson. He's a try-hard who was really meant to be the backup point guard at Duke. There will be a day for Jack McGlynn, but it isn't this one.

Striker - Oy. The fact that the two strikers the US mostly used here, Patrick Agyemang and Damian Downs, are both about to move to the English Championship, kind of gives you an idea of what we've been dealing with. Agyemang certainly is a trier, and his hold-up play and physicality is probably something neither Folarin Balogun or Ricardo Pepi provide. But there isn't nearly enough nous in the box, and there were a couple half-chances that both Downs and Agyemang got last night that more have to be done with at this level. We already have a Josh Sargent, and Poch has already hung the "I'm Not Interested" sign on Sargent.

Manager - It was not the best tournament for Poch. There was a lot of noise about Arfsten playing fullback when he's a wingback for Columbus. But the US doesn't play with wingbacks. Except, why can't they at times? Poch hasn't been averse to playing with three at the back at both Spurs and Chelsea. Arfsten, Freeman, Weah, Dest, Robinson, all seem like they could be good to very good wingbacks. Wasn't it worth a look in a tournament with few consequences?

The holding back of Freeman into a three-man central defense with the ball early in the tournament was strange. It's not how he'll use either Dest or Robinson, so why was Freeman used so? He seemed to not know there would be no extra time against Costa Rica. Jack McGlynn isn't a winger, though hard to know where else to play him this structure.

There was some criticism of how late and what fashion Poch used his subs. But his bench kinda sucked. What's Aaronson going to solve? Downs? Brian White? There just wasn't much there.

That said, Poch did understand that this tournament was basically about Luna and Tillman, and he mostly got what he came for from that. He got some fight from his team, he got some players experience in environments they hadn't seen before.

How he gets Tillman and Luna involved with the full squad, and how he solves who lines up next to Adams in central midfield are basically the two questions he has to solve in the next year. He can't make Turner find playing time. He can't de-age Ream.

There's still a "we'll see" feeling about Poch with the US. Which is not where we thought we'd be. But the USMNT experience is always reconciling where we are with what we hoped for.