AL-RAYYAN, Qatar – For United States soccer watchers of a certain age, some of the counterattacks are burned into the memory.Landon Donovan’s header on an Eddie Lewis cross to clinch the round-of-16 win over Mexico in the 2002 World Cup. Or his iconic 90th-minute game (and group) winner vs. Algeria in South Africa eight years later. The lightning-quick move finished by Clint Dempsey in the shocking 2-0 upset of Spain in the 2009 Confederations Cup. Gregg Berhalter himself was part of many of those sides.The U.S. men’s national team rose into the international consciousness this century in large part via effective transition play. Speed, organized team shape and opportunistic forays forward helped the Yanks punch above their weight, and earned them a reputation for ruthlessness within their region.Jurgen Klinsmann was hired to lead the program after the limitations of that style became more evident, and Berhalter’s meticulous possession system was intended to reinvigorate that evolution after the disastrous 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign. Eventually, the thinking went, a more sophisticated game model would enable the USMNT to go toe to toe with the global elite.But watching the U.S. tease open big gaps as Wales took more risks — only to fail again and again to take advantage of those transition moments to double their lead on Monday — raised the question:Did the USMNT forget how to counterattack?“When we won the ball in midfield and counterattacked, our decision making in the final third, that final pass just wasn’t quite there,” said center back Tim Ream after the frustrating 1-1 draw. “At the end of the day, when you have those opportunities and you don’t take advantage, you leave yourself a little bit susceptible. It’s disappointing.”Christian Pulisic and Brenden Aaronson probably had the most chances to play incisive through balls to runners, often missing the timing or electing to keep possession and wait for numbers to arrive. Was it just a few subtle details missed on a nerve-jangling first night on this massive stage, or a soft spot in the team’s tactical toolkit?“Listen, in a game like this it’s hard, because you’re 1-0 up, you don’t know if you should come back, you should go more forward, keep playing the way you’re playing,” said Aaronson. “It’s just tough in the moment.”
On Wednesday Pro Soccer Wire caught up with one of the chief architects of those USMNT teams of old, DaMarcus Beasley, who has arrived in Doha to serve as an ambassador for Major League Soccer and also join Fox’s broadcast coverage. He noticed those missed opportunities to counter against Wales, yet gives this highly talented group the benefit of the doubt, particularly after their high-intensity control of the first half.“Christian had the ball a couple of times where you thought he was going, it was somewhat of a counterattack, but kind of slowed it down and brought it back and was more a bit more conservative. But if that’s the way that Gregg wants me to play, that’s what it is,” said the retired winger. “In the second half, there were a lot more chances because the game opened up. But I just think it didn’t happen. I just think that we weren’t as clinical and as clean in the final third as we could have been.“I give them a lot of credit … this is their first World Cup, you have to take that into account, and I know they put a lot into that first 45 minutes. I think that’s why they died a bit in the second half.”Friday’s clash with England promises to force the Americans to focus more on transitions, at least if they want to trouble the early Group B leaders and popular picks to win the tournament. Carrying huge momentum from their 6-2 disassembling of Iran, the Three Lions are expected to dominate the ball and could leave space in behind their often-adventurous fullbacks.“In any of these games, there’s going to be ebbs and flows. And for a large part of the first half, we were on top,” said Berhalter after the Wales draw. “But we knew there was going to be a moment where Wales were going to change their tactics, they were going to be more aggressive and they were going to throw caution to the wind. So, we knew that was going to be part of it. The message was ‘keep going’ at halftime. We made a couple of little adjustments that we thought could help us.“But there were times where we were on the back foot; that’s completely normal at this level.”Controlling the tempo of the match to guard against Welsh breakouts was obviously a priority on Monday. Now will Berhalter adjust his approach in light of the overwhelming wealth of talent on an England side he’s repeatedly called “a billion-dollar squad”?He could drop the line of confrontation to pack numbers around the likes of Harry Kane, Bukayo Saka and Raheem Sterling, or lean into his own team’s pressing abilities and let them push high to disrupt the favorites.
Whatever the case, being swift and clinical with any final-third openings that present themselves will be essential. As goalkeeper Matt Turner said after the Wales game, the U.S. won’t have any margin of error when it comes to taking advantage of chances to break against England.
“We missed some opportunities in transition against Wales in the second half,” Turner said. “I think we had chances where we just weren’t particularly clean in the final third, maybe a pass was a little off or the timing was wrong. And it took away the small windows that you have in a World Cup where the margins are so thin to score a goal.
“So I think we know that we’re going to have to be better in transition against England if we want to score goals. And yeah, I think we’ve learned a lot.”
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