Jeff Carlisle
HARRISON, New Jersey — You can say this about the United States men’s national team: They are singing from the same songbook of positivity, even as the players looked like they’re far from being on the same page in a 2-0 defeat to South Korea.
USMNT manager Mauricio Pochettino said his team was “better than South Korea” due to having created more chances and allowing just one shot on target in the second half. Tyler Adams added that getting new faces into the national team and bringing back some old standbys was a positive. “I don’t think it was a bad performance,” the U.S. captain added.
This isn’t to say that Pochettino & Co. should be ripping each other in front of the assembled press, but the public pronouncements flew in the face of the available evidence.
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The Taegeuk Warriors stretched the U.S. defense from the outset, going direct at first to Son Heung-Min but that only served to soften up the Americans’ midfield and backline and soon enough there was space underneath to be exploited. Lee Jae-Sung, under zero pressure, found U.S. defender Tristan Blackmon on an island, and his through ball found Son in stride to fire past goalkeeper Matt Freese in the 18th minute. Then just before halftime a clever combination put Son through on goal. He was upended by Freese, only for Lee Dong-Gyeong to backheel the loose ball into the net.
On both goals the U.S. backline was stretched too far apart along the back, leaving defenders isolated. U.S. defender Tim Ream didn’t dispute that assertion.
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“There were moments where guys were getting pulled [out] a little bit more than we usually do and a little bit more than we work on,” Ream said. “And again, it’s one of those things that you look at a few guys who it’s their first game back with the national team. Tristan [Blackmon], it’s his very first game, first cap, so it was bound to happen a little bit, I think a little bit of eagerness to try to get to areas that we maybe necessarily couldn’t get to.”
While Blackmon is deserving of criticism, this goes beyond one player making his USMNT debut. Sergiño Dest didn’t offer much help defensively, showing that for all of his attacking ability, he can still be a defensive liability. The midfield was at fault as well, offering little in terms of backline protection, and was much too passive.
“I think our roles got a little bit twisted,” midfielder Adams said. “They found solutions pretty easily in the first half. We talked about it at halftime … And I think we just missed our [defensive] triggers on a lot of them and we were a little bit too late to jump and when you’re too late to jump, you end up chasing shadows and that’s what it felt like at times.”
There was improvement in the second half, especially around the hour mark when the U.S. brought in defender Chris Richards — who Pochettino said wasn’t fully fit — and went to a three-man back line (a formation the coach hinted that he might use again in the future.) But the U.S. could never find the one goal to make South Korea sweat — with Richards and fellow substitute Folarin Balogun missing clear chances — even as the home side finished the match with a 17-5 shot advantage. The two-goal cushion meant South Korea never had to open up and have their defense exposed.
All of this is why it’s hard to take too many positives away from the match. It’s also difficult to not feel alarm over the direction this U.S. team is heading. Ask yourself, when was the last time the U.S. delivered an impressive performance against a FIFA World Cup-caliber opponent? The 0-0 draw against England at the 2022 World Cup? The subsequent 1-0 win over Iran? It’s hard to think of any match since then. Certainly not in the year that Pochettino has been in charge.
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Pochettino tried to explain the defeat by pointing out that players like Son are world-class. Indeed, the LAFC attacker is, and he tormented the U.S. defense on the night. But the 2026 World Cup will be littered with such players. It’s not like the U.S. will get a break from that kind of competition next summer.
Pochettino even went so far as to say that results won’t be important until next summer’s World Cup, recalling how the 2002 Argentina team he was part of entered the tournament on a roll, only to flame out in the group stage. Granted, pre-World Cup form isn’t a guarantee of anything. But hosting a World Cup on home soil is a rare opportunity to drive the sport forward in this country. Generating some momentum will not only do that, but also instill some confidence in a side that is at a low ebb.
“I mean I love the feeling of winning, so I would like to win games before the World Cup,” Adams said. “But I understand [Pochettino’s] thought process and we talked about it in there is you could still have good performances and not necessarily get the result. But yeah, I think at a certain time it’s important to have some results.”
Part of the issue is that preparation time for the World Cup is evaporating, yet Pochettino seems to think that there is time to still hunt for different players. That’s a laudable goal, and one that would make perfect sense in a normal World Cup cycle. But this cycle has been compressed from the get-go, given that the last World Cup didn’t happen until the end of 2022. Combined with the coaching change that saw Pochettino hired, this cycle is anything but normal.
The combinations of players aren’t always making sense either. Last cycle, the pairing of Tim Weah and Dest on the right side worked because Weah is a player willing to track back and provide some defensive protection. Pairing Christian Pulisic and Dest on the same side risks exposing the U.S. defense. You don’t want Pulisic having to track back anyway. But it was no accident that South Korea’s first goal came from Dest’s side. He was left ball-watching on the second.
In many ways, Pochettino is taking an immense gamble. He’s betting that he’ll find the necessary on-field chemistry before the clock on his World Cup preparations runs out. That runs the risk of encountering scenarios at the tournament that he didn’t prepare for with his first-choice players, all because he’s given reps to performers that are longshots to make the squad.
For now, Pochettino insists that wins are just around the corner. “I think the results will arrive soon for sure,” he said. What’s still unknown is which corner. The hope is that it starts on Tuesday against Japan.
