The USMNT were woeful with and without the ball as they lost to a better organized Korea side – and improvement won't be easy
Diego Luna inadvertently encapsulated it all, in the end. It was the 58th minute of the USMNT's clash with South Korea on Saturday night and the Real Salt Lake midfielder decided he wanted to run. The Koreans were stroking the ball around their own 18-yard box, and while the rest of the U.S. dropped into a mid block, Luna went on an adventure.
He sprinted at every defender, tried to cut every passing lane, and then could only watch as his teammates didn't follow. The whole sequence ended with a run through for Korea – which might have concluded with a goal had Sergino Dest not scampered back to cut off a slightly overhit pass.
That sequence summarized what was a confusing 90 minutes for the U.S. in their 2-0 loss to Son Heung-Min and South Korea. Nothing about it was outwardly bad. There could be no critiques of effort, desire or passion. Instead, their defeat was defined by a lack of cohesion for Mauricio Pochettino's side. The team seemed to be doing five things at once, and none of them particularly well. It was too frantic at times, and too languid at others.
In short, one team looked immensely well-drilled, united by tactical principles. The other was a series of individual expressions that never quite coalesced. The result was a USMNT that was thoroughly outplayed – and, at least for the moment, looking short on ideas as their 2026 World Cup preparations ramp up.
Getty ImagesThe result – and what the manager claimed
It's first worth examining what, exactly, happened on against South Korea. The obvious answer is that, well, the U.S. lost. They didn't score. They had four chances, and conceded two fairly preventable goals. Son bagged the first inside 20 minutes. Lee Don-Gyeong added a second on the stroke of half time.
Korea spent the next 45 minutes sitting back, occasionally hitting on the break, but mostly watching as the U.S. tried various things but created no clear cut looks on goal. Pochettino did a pretty good job of breaking the USMNT social media sphere after the final whistle by claiming that his side were "better" than South Korea.
And in some ways, it's easy to see the logic there. The U.S. had more shots. They had more of the ball. In the last 20 or so minutes, with a few tactical tweaks, they looked the more likely team to score. A couple of nice saves saw Folarin Balogun – a clear bright spot on the night – denied of what would have been a potentially game-changing late goal.
But that summary misses the wider point: Pochettino's men were outcoached and outplayed.
AdvertisementGetty ImagesWith the ball
The U.S. lined up in what looked loosely like a 4-2-3-1. Matt Freese was in goal. Sergino Dest and Max Arfsten played in the fullback slots. Tim Ream – 37 and getting older – partnered with at centerback with Tristan Blackmon, who at 29 was making his first senior team start – and was out of his depth at the international level.
In front of them sat Tyler Adams and Sebastian Berhalter as a double pivot of sorts – although Berhalter pushed a higher up. An attacking trio of Tim Weah, Diego Luna and Christian Pulisic offered creativity, while Josh Sargent – who, in case you haven't been paying attention, has not scored a USMNT goal for a time – was handed the starting job through the middle.
There were, admittedly, a couple of puzzling picks. Throwing Blackmon into the fire against the electric Son seemed odd. Berhalter, too, was a curious call. And though Sargent has been on fire for Norwich, Balogun would seem the better option through the middle. Team selection notwithstanding, though, this was a system issue.
When the U.S. had possession, it was clear that there was a policy – get it to Christian Pulisic. There is nothing wrong with that. Pulisic is a unique talent, the best player in this side, and perhaps the most accomplished footballer to ever wear a USMNT kit. Ghosts of summers past can be exorcised here.
Pulisic is the main man and should be treated as such. He started on the right, but drifted everywhere, dropping into pockets of space and asking for the ball. It is no surprise that he ended the game with 76 touches. Luna and Weah managed 78 combined.
Everyone else, in such a system, has to move around him, show for passes, find the best angles and create the right spaces by moving cleverly off the ball. It was something that Dest, admittedly, did a fine job of in his return, holding width, darting into the box, and playing some tidy combinations. Everything else, though, was frightfully static.
Luna and Weah had nowhere to go. Sargent relies on having the ball in the air. Berhalter and Adams – both agreeable passers of the ball – didn't shuffle it forward quickly enough. The result was Pulisic constantly dribbling into traffic, and muted by a well-drilled Korean back five.
The USMNT's four best chances came from a set piece, a lackadaisical turnover, a moment of individual inspiration from Dest and a freak rebound into Balogun's feet. None of those looks offered a clear, coherent state of play.
AFPWithout the ball
But perhaps more worrying was the lack of clarity off the ball. Part of the calling card of Pochettino when he was hired was his affinity for high-pressure, exciting soccer. It was, after all, why many fell in love with his Tottenham team in the Premier League. Spurs were a nightmare to play against because they always wanted the ball, and fought relentlessly to win it back.
Led by the pressing of – and this one hurts – Son, Pochettino pieced together a pressing machine. Off-ball structure isn't flashy, but it's what wins games. Many assumed that Pochettino's side would bring the same kind of swagger and verve to international soccer.
It was certainly possible. Pochettino has a group of tactically intelligent players. The U.S. are athletic enough, in theory, to be able to execute this kind of thing. But there were some early warning signs that this might not be the off-ball-soccer-hipster-fairytale that some dreamed of.
In Pochettino's first fixture in charge – a 2-0 win over Panama – the USMNT looked loose at times. Pulisic didn't seem to know when to press and when to drop. On a few occasions, he was simply caught flat-footed, in the middle of nowhere. A better side would have punished them. It's a trend that has continued since then.
It's how Panama snagged a late win in the Nations League semifinal in March, and was also exploited by Mexico in the Gold Cup. And it showed up on Saturday, too.
Getty Images SportSystems, systems, systems
This is where it can get dry. To vastly oversimplify things, there are, typically, and very generically, three options for defending off the ball.
The first is to press high, commit as many men forward as possible, and cut off all passing lanes. That typically means putting all 10 outfield players in the opponent's half, asking the goalkeeper to come off his line to "sweep" and trusting that the defensive line will be brave enough to step up and give up, effectively, half of the field for the opponent to exploit. This is typically what you do if you are a better team against an opponent that likely won't do much with the ball.
The second is a low block. It's the whole Jose Mourinho thing – sit in, allow nothing in behind, squeeze spaces. The third is a "mid block",which is sort of a combination of the two. It requires a certain amount of pressure on the ball, but doesn't rely on man-to-man, out-and-out "pressing" in a typical sense.
But the piece of a mid block is to ensure, at all costs, that the three lines move coherently. If the defense steps up, so does the midfield, if the attackers push, so does everyone else. No one breaks lines outright, and everyone knows which lanes to cut off – without charging for the ball.
In theory, the U.S. try to play a mid block. No one overcommits, but no one drops back. The defensive line pushes up, but doesn't play recklessly. On Saturday, that system broke down altogether on a handful of occasions – and led directly to the two South Korea goals. On the first, Pulisic didn't track back. Then Blackmon stepped. Son ran in behind and scored.
On the second, neither center midfielder stepped to an open man. A quick interchange around Ream finished with a fine backheeled finish.