The U.S. men’s national team is very much searching for its go-to goalscorer, but for Haji Wright, Tuesday’s muddy 1-1 draw with El Salvador didn’t do much to advance his cause.
Wright—on fire with Antalyaspor in Turkey and having scored in his USMNT debut against Morocco earlier this month— started up top at Estadio Cuscátlan, a move Gregg Berhalter said in the build-up was due to it being the more valuable CONCACAF Nations League game in this window from an analysis perspective.
However, trailing 1-0 and having had few real looks as a team in the first half, Berhalter substituted Wright at halftime, bringing in Jesús Ferreira in his place.
“It’s always difficult when players get an opportunity and don’t fully capitalize on it. It’s not nice for a coach, it’s not nice for the player, it’s not nice for the group,” Berhalter told reporters following the match. “We’re all rooting for Haji to be a force. We purposely played more direct in the first half, because we thought he could be the force that would unsettle them. And it just wasn’t his night tonight.”
Berhalter’s choice to be more direct went as far as a formation change, with the 4-3-3 commonly used being ditched for an old-school 4-4-2, with Wright operating as a target man ahead of Christian Pulisic. The conditions apparently dictated that change, with Fox Sports 1 saying on their broadcast that the team had planned to make that shift if the field was too sloppy to approach the game in a normal fashion.
That proved to be the case, as the water-logged pitch was a mud pit at kickoff and got worse from there. With both teams going long on a regular basis, the USMNT never really got their attack in gear, and Wright departed the game having had just one look at goal (a contested 31st-minute opportunity that he skewed wide of the frame).
Berhalter indicated that those circumstances were on his mind, and made clear that he doesn’t think this was the one and only audition for Wright or anyone else.
“It doesn’t rule him out for anything in the future. We don’t work like that,” explained Berhalter. “Now it’s about him going back to his club and continue to score goals and do his thing. But you know, it was an unlucky night for him tonight for sure.”
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