CHICAGO – Between the last World Cup and the one that starts in a matter of days, the U.S. men’s national team have truly tested the power of positive thinking, and 11 days into a pre-tournament training camp defined by good vibes, they seemed ready to undergo another batch of trials and tribulations. Two minutes after a sold-out Soldier Field crowd gave them as much encouragement as they possibly could, Germany‘s Kai Havertz had a free header and the visitors were up a goal before everyone could even settle into their positions.
“I was upset, of course,” head coach Mauricio Pochettino said as he remembered the less-than-ideal start to Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Germany. “But after that, I said it’s lucky because I think it’s good for us to see the reaction of the team. The reaction was amazing, was really positive and that is why it’s good that some things [that are] not so good happened to see the reaction to create the atmosphere that we can deal with these types of situations that we can find in the future and during the competition, the World Cup.”
The scoreline was a fair reflection of a game in which Germany were the better side – their 12 shots totalled 1.47 expected goals, while the USMNT came up with 16 shots that amounted to 0.99 expected goals. It means they enter the World Cup with a losing record to European sides, which maybe does not bode well for their group stage finale against Turkiye on June 26. It is hard not to see their outing against Germany as a sign of progress, with their World Cup opener against Paraguay just six days away at SoFi Stadium in the Los Angeles suburbs.
Between Saturday’s outing, the 3-2 win over Senegal a week earlier, and Pochettino’s historic tendencies as a coach, the USMNT seem to have decided that their greatest defense is a strong offense. It did not quite pan out against Germany – the early goal was an example of making things a little too easy for the opposition – but there is credence to the idea, especially with defender Chris Richards still battling back from an ankle injury. The U.S. did not hesitate to create chances and got back into the game before the hydration break in the 23rd minute and did not waver in their resolve even after the visitors scored a second in the 57th minute through Leroy Sane.
“Sometimes when you get punched in the mouth, you got to stand back up and punch back,” captain Tim Ream said. “Just all the conversations, the work, the messaging from the staff. We all always talk about things are going to happen. Mistakes are going to happen. Sometimes things don’t go the way you want them to. It’s about the next play. What do you do next? How do you respond next? That’s a big message that Mauricio and his staff have hammered home over the past almost two years. It was just a matter of we don’t have a choice. If we don’t respond. If we don’t punch back, the game’s going to get out of hand.”
It helped that an example of a game that went out of hand was not a distant memory – March’s 5-2 defeat to Belgium started well, the USMNT actually taking the lead and entering the halftime break level, before things unraveled quickly in the second half. A full embrace of the attack was hard to miss, just as it was against Senegal. Antonee Robinson, the USMNT’s goalscorer on Saturday, fully embraced the attack-minded skillset outside backs frequently boast, down to his exuberant celebration. Pochettino joked afterwards that the cramps he suffered midway through the second half might have been the result of his overexertion.
“I think all the energy was in his shot and that goal because after, cramps,” Pochettino said in jest. “Maybe we spend too much energy. We were so excited in the presentation of the players before the game. They were sometimes overexcited and we know very well that you drain the energy in these moments but I think it’s a great opportunity and to live that experience for sure helps in the first game of the World Cup.”
Robinson downplayed the issue despite the fact that he limped off the field, though the team is not certain about the specifics just yet.
“Not 100% sure but it feels fine now,” Robinson said. “More just really didn’t feel like I could continue so I just needed to get off the pitch and try to get it right.”
The real embrace of the all-out attack, though, came in Pochettino’s selection of Malik Tillman in the midfield. Tyler Adams remains the go-to pick at the base of midfield, the only true defensive midfielder in the squad, while the multitalented Weston McKennie was more advanced. Tillman, another player with plenty of range, was their go-between and much like Robinson, though, his standout quality is his attack-focused tendencies. Pochettino cited October’s UEFA Champions League game between Tillman’s Bayer Leverkusen and his former club PSV as an example of why he selected the player for a best-of-both-worlds role.
“It was him in front [of] the back four,” he recalled. “He’s a player that can because his physical condition, his technical condition, his capacity to go in different spaces, go higher, I think he’s a player that can play in every space on the pitch. Today, I am happy with him. He finished a little bit tired because it’s normal. He suffered a little bit in the last few months, didn’t play too much, didn’t compete but now I think he’s doing well and I am happy with his performance and in the evolution after not to play too much in the last few months in his club, in Leverkusen.”
Tillman, deeply introverted in off-pitch settings but fully in his element on the field, made a noticeable difference and remains as well-positioned as any to be a secret key as the USMNT target an impressive World Cup run.
“It’s good because we get another attack-minded player on the field.” Adams said. “I think that he helps us break lines, find solutions. Him and Weston had a good balance there as well. There’s probably some things that we need to tune up a little bit defensively to not get as exposed but when you play against Germany, where they overload the midfield, it’s always difficult against teams like that. They have so many guys that can play in those pockets so I think he did really well.”
The game marked one final experiment of the Pochettino era, a batch of 26 games building up to the World Cup that have been defined by tinkering – sometimes simply for the sake of it. Saturday’s team, though, looked as close to a World Cup starting lineup as he might have been able to envision considering Richards’ injury specifically. After 18 months of wondering what exactly Pochettino’s version of the U.S. team might look like, we seem to finally have our answer. The team has trended much like a group project that was assigned well in advance but was only completed right before the deadline, which is perfectly fine for an assignment in which the destination matters much, much more than the journey.
As Pochettino put it shortly before the team began their trip to their World Cup base of Irvine, Calif., “We are going to go [into] a decisive week.”
