Iran officials reacted angrily to the gesture from U.S. Soccer
AL-RAYYAN, Qatar – An already-contentious occasion with massive stakes got even spicier for the U.S. men’s national team on Sunday, as a social-media squabble turned up the heat on Tuesday’s must-win World Cup match versus Iran.
Fierce, women-led street protests have rumbled on in Iranian streets for weeks, with the nation’s hardline Islamic government responding with violent crackdowns that have reportedly killed hundreds and led to thousands of arrests. Amid that backdrop, U.S. Soccer officials decided to show support for Iran’s human-rights activists by using an Iranian flag without the Emblem of Iran on the USMNT’s Twitter header and some social-media posts.
The emblem was added to the flag’s center after the Iranian Revolution of 1979; it is a stylized depiction of the word Allah that represents the phrase “There is no god but God” and has become associated with the country’s fundamentalist religious leadership.
“The intent of the post was to show support for women’s rights, it was meant to be a moment,” said USMNT press officer Michael Kammarman at a Sunday media availability at the team’s Al-Gharafa training base. “We made the posts at the time, all the other representations of the flag remain consistent, and will continue to.”
The flag on the USMNT’s Twitter header was soon adjusted to reflect the official Iranian flag and the social-media posts have been taken down amid rapid blowback. Iranian officials and state-associated media have reacted with anger, accusing USSF of removing God from their flag and attempting to disrupt their national team before a crucial game for both sides.
“We know that this game isn’t isn’t played in a bubble,” said U.S. defender Tim Ream. “There are a lot of things that happen around the world and people want our opinions, but our opinion is that we want to play the game. And the game is for everyone. And that’s what we’re focused on.”
U.S. Soccer officials had consulted with Iranian experts on the gesture of support, but did not inform USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter or his players before posting the images of the altered flag.
“We’re huge supporters of women’s rights,” said USMNT defender Walker Zimmerman. “We didn’t know anything about the post, but we are supporters of women’s rights. We always have been. We’re focused a lot on Tuesday from the sporting side as well, so you [a reporter] mentioned it’s a distraction. I think this is such a focused group on the task at hand. But at the same time we empathize, and we are firm believers in women’s rights and support them.”
The USMNT are on two points and must win Tuesday’s match at Al Thumama Stadium to advance to the World Cup’s knockout phase, while Iran enter with three points and need only a draw to advance. The game is a redux of the nations’ meeting at the 1998 World Cup in France, where Iran won 2-1 amid similar political tensions owing to their tangled history over the decades.
The USMNT officially has its World Cup controversy
You’re not playing at a World Cup without some controversy, so it’s time to offer congratulations to the U.S. men’s national team for officially making it as a soccer nation.
The USMNT’s issue is the status of Gio Reyna, who has surprisingly played just seven minutes out of a possible 180. Even with the quality Gregg Berhalter has at his disposal on the wings, Reyna was widely expected to have played a more important role in Qatar than he has.
Reyna’s lack of playing time has sparked some speculation on whether he has an injury or if something else is up. Former USMNT forward Eric Wynalda thinks he knows what’s going on, offering claims of “a rift” between player and coach on social media following the team’s 0-0 draw with England.
Wynalda alleged “a massive controversy within the team” in a Twitter Space hosted by the LA Times, adding that there is now “internal strife with the manager, Gregg Berhalter.”
“I don’t know how much I should comment on that,” said Wynalda, before immediately commenting on that. “I’ve been trying to console Gio’s father, Claudio (his former USMNT teammate), for the last couple of hours and days with everything going on.”
Wynalda went on to allege that Berhalter “did lie to the media” in saying that Reyna was injured. “He asked the player to go along with that story, which caused a rift between the two of them and now he’s on the bench, which is really unfortunate,” said Wynalda. “This situation should have been handled very differently.”
If true — and that “if” is massive given the off-the-cuff nature of these quotes — Wynalda’s claims would be fairly explosive stuff. Reyna is among the best USMNT players, and given that he’s only 20 years old, he figures to be a foundational part of the squad for many years to come. In particular, Wynalda’s allegation that Reyna’s teammates are also upset with Berhalter over the lineup choices would point to a real problem for Berhalter and U.S. Soccer.
There was some confused messaging on this topic coming out of the team’s draw with Wales. Berhalter cited sporting reasons to explain why he opted to bring Jordan Morris on for the final minutes rather than Reyna, but also said that Reyna had felt “tightness” in the days leading up to the game.
With Reyna’s unfortunate injury history, it wasn’t surprising to hear that he had suffered some kind of knock, but Reyna told reporters that he “felt ready to go” after acknowledging “a little bit of tightness over the last few days.”
Tactically, it’s not all that difficult to parse how the USMNT has ended up leaving Reyna out of the starting 11. Berhalter’s 4-3-3 formation against Wales only had two positions that Reyna truly fits into, at least as long as the game state doesn’t dictate major risk-taking in central midfield. The starters in the spots that made sense for Reyna were Christian Pulisic and Tim Weah, two of the team’s other attacking stars.
Against England, Berhalter switched to a 4-4-2, adding to the number of spots where Reyna would be at his best, but those places went to Pulisic, Weah, Weston McKennie (a player that will start in any formation), and Haji Wright. Reyna is a bigger talent than Wright, but he can’t lead the line in the same way; they’re not really in direct competition with one another.
There are angles you could take to circumvent this: a move to a 4-2-3-1 formation, or shifting Weah into a center forward role. All of those would be big decisions, though, just as Berhalter is making a huge choice when he leaves Reyna out.
Things are different once you turn to Berhalter’s substitutions. The USMNT made five moves against Wales. Reyna’s not a perfect fit in the midfield when the USMNT plays 4-3-3, or as a striker, but it was possible to adjust and make room for Reyna, and Berhalter didn’t do it. Even taking a generous read, that’s a curious choice from the manager.
(Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images)
Fans took issue with Berhalter bringing Jordan Morris on, but the coach’s post-game analysis — that the game had become so direct that Morris’ straight-line speed and physicality were more suited to the situation — does hold some water. Still, it’s not like Reyna is slow or easily pushed around, and you can argue that Berhalter over-thought that particular choice.
Against England, there was another head-scratcher: Berhalter went 77 minutes before making any substitutions, even as the team began to show fatigue.
It’s hard to quibble with Brenden Aaronson coming on for McKennie, though that is certainly a spot that Reyna would have fit into with no issues. Reyna had to wait until the 83rd minute to take the field as a forward as Berhalter stuck with the 4-4-2 look that had flummoxed England, giving him little time to make much of an impact.
It is strange that Reyna hasn’t played more. Berhalter is facing the most bizarre World Cup ever, slammed right into the middle of the European club season, and has minutes to manage. Reyna is one of his best players, and has declared himself fit, so it stands to reason that he’d have seen more playing time.
On the other hand, it just so happens that the USMNT is deeper on the wings than they are anywhere else. Aaronson is right up there with Reyna in terms of talent, and he’s not starting either. Coaches call this a “good problem,” but it is still a problem, because you have more players who rightly feel they’ve earned time than you have starting positions to give out. Someone’s going to be unhappy when the lineup comes out.
It could also be that fans and ex-USMNT forwards are overreacting in act two of a three-act story. Berhalter has repeatedly talked about how you have to tackle the whole group stage, and Tuesday’s match against Iran — who figure to play out of a low block — stacks up as the best game of the trio for Reyna’s clever, shifty style of play. Reyna, if he ends up playing a major role against Iran, could be Berhalter’s “Chekhov’s Gun,” particularly if the USMNT gets the win they need to advance.
If not, though, the choice to bring one of the best young players the USMNT has ever had to a World Cup, not use him very much, and struggle for goals is the kind of thing that tends to take up a lot of time when your employer brings you in for a performance evaluation.
The USMNT had the better of the game, but was unable to find a breakthrough goal
AL-RAYYAN, Qatar – Earning respect is one thing. Inspiring fear is quite another.
That’s one of the sobering lessons the U.S. men’s national team is learning during the first World Cup experience for all but one member of its 26-player squad. By broad acclaim of opponents and pundits alike, the young Yanks have on balance been the better side in their meetings with Wales and England, yet still find themselves in a win-or-else situation in their Group B finale against Iran on Tuesday.
“They were good. I thought they made it difficult, as we knew they would,” said Three Lions and Liverpool midfielder Jordan Henderson after Friday’s 0-0 draw with England, where the United States bossed the majority of play and were superior in terms of expected goals. “They have some good players in the team, well-organized, make it very difficult and created some half-chances as well.”
All that said, the USMNT have now played 34 World Cup games in their history. They’ve won just eight of them. England, on the other hand, have 29 wins all time. It remains to be seen whether the U.S. will regret their lack of ruthlessness thus far in Qatar.
“Yeah, it’s obviously a different beast when you get to a big tournament like this,” admitted striker Josh Sargent postgame on Friday. “So definitely you’ve got to learn how to close out games.”
Coach Gregg Berhalter, himself a World Cup veteran twice over, has spoken of the stiff difficulty of both scoring goals and winning matches in this competition. On first blush that might sound bleedingly obvious, yet Friday’s encounter with the 2018 semifinalists and Euro 2020 runners-up was a vivid case in point.
“It’s definitely mixed emotions,” said USMNT left back Antonee “Jedi” Robinson. “I’d say it feels a little bit better to draw this game than the Wales game, because I feel like we should have won that one. This game, I feel like it was a pretty even battle, any team could have come away feeling like they should have won the game.
“We feel a little bit hard done by, but a clean sheet against a top side is nothing to be upset about. And now we get to go into the last game with it all in our hands.”
Credit: Yukihito Taguchi-USA TODAY Sports
History offers a mixed bag on this front. The USMNT also drew their first two games at South Africa 2010. They were a bit lucky that Rob Green’s howler helped them snatch a 1-1 draw against England but felt brutally wronged after the 2-2 draw with Slovenia, where a late Maurice Edu goal was waved off by a baffling refereeing decision. They wound up group winners, however, when Landon Donovan’s memorable late winner versus Algeria took them to five points from three matches.
It was a different story in Germany four years prior, where a hard-earned draw with eventual champions Italy kept the U.S. in contention heading into their third game against Ghana after an opening defeat at the hands of the Czech Republic. But the Black Stars expertly exploited American mistakes for a 2-1 win that ended the USMNT’s tournament early.
“Every play matters [in the] World Cup. You’ve got to be focused, and every single play can have a potential outcome on the game,” said Berhalter after Gareth Bale earned, then dispatched a late penalty kick to peg back the Yanks on Monday. “It’s a high level that we’re playing in, really high intensity.”
As was so often the case during qualifying, the USMNT created a respectable proportion of decent scoring chances, only to spurn them repeatedly, with the absence of a dependable finisher at the No. 9 position still a nagging concern.
As Bale’s moment of magic reminded them, games are often won and lost inside the penalty boxes. Those small details could determine whether they produce the necessary win over Iran, or have to settle for moral victories as they jet home early.
“You’ve got to score to really [not] let them off the hook,” said Berhalter after the England draw. “We had a lot of close opportunities. We played well, I think we showed what type of team we are, what we’re capable of. But it’s also difficult for me to say that we should have won the game, because you need to score to win the game and we didn’t do that.”
Some clever tactical tweaks helped the USMNT control much of the game in a 0-0 draw
AL KHOR, Qatar – While they’ve cooled things off for a while as they compete head-to-head at the World Cup, Gregg Berhalter and Gareth Southgate have developed a friendship in recent years, sharing ideas and fellowship as they implement youth-driven overhauls of their respective national teams.
“I’ve enjoyed my interactions with Gregg,” Southgate told reporters the day before his England side faced off against Berhalter’s United States in their Group B clash at Al-Bayt Stadium. “Over the last few years I’ve learned a lot from him.”
At the time that sounded mostly like politeness. Southgate led the Three Lions to the semifinal of World Cup 2018 and the final of Euro 2020, and they currently sit fifth in the FIFA World Rankings. Berhalter’s Gold Cup and Concacaf Nations League titles just don’t hold quite the same cachet for most observers.
Berhalter doesn’t seem like the sort to rub it in his face. But next time they link up out of range of the cameras and microphones, Southgate might just have to admit he got a lesson from his North American mate in the Qatari desert on Friday.
Berhalter made several tactical tweaks that blunted the threat posed by England’s talent-laden XI, starting with targeted pressing and an unexpected move to a 4-4-2 formation while defending. Christian Pulisic paired up top with surprise starter Haji Wright ahead of a mostly flat midfield shape with Tyler Adams and Yunus Musah central and Weston McKennie flared out to one flank while Tim Weah manned the other.
“Obviously it worked,” said McKennie, one of his side’s top performers in a scoreless draw. “You guys saw, we had the ball often, they weren’t able to really break through so many times, I don’t think we gave them a lot of chances to get in behind and to get goalscoring opportunities. And it worked for us as well, we were able to break them down, have space out wide.”
(AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
It continued with a number of subtle shape shifts as the game played out, keeping the English side guessing.
“We wanted to highlight our defensive shape that would change from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3. If we did that, effectively, we wanted to hit them in transition, offensive transition, and we think we gave them some problems in that,” explained Berhalter in his postgame press conference.
“We wanted to make it compact. We want to work from a compact block in the beginning of the game. And throughout the game, we switched it up a little bit just to keep giving them different looks. And give them credit, they kept adapting as well. They moved from, four on one to four on two to three on one and it was a handful for us, for sure.”
The tweaks unsettled England, as the flowing moves forward that tore Iran apart occurred only in fits and starts. A managerial game of cat and mouse unfolded over the course of the match, and by the final whistle both the statistical data and the general run of play favored the USMNT.
“It was a really tough opponent. They defended incredibly well,” said Southgate after his side were largely outplayed and out-thought in a game that boosts U.S. confidence ahead of a must-win against Iran. “To come off the high of the performance the other day [a 6-2 win over Iran] and find that same energy, level of quality, was always going to be a challenge. Their front six make it so difficult to play through and get at their defense.”
Adams claimed that he and his teammates weren’t informed of the shape shift until the day before the match. The organization and fluidity with which they executed the plan — and the details shared by their coach — stretched the credibility of that statement, however.
(Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images)
“That was something that we saw with their defending in the last game and we wanted to key in on it. Basically triple-stacking the right side of the field, Serge [Sergiño Dest] getting the ball, being able to bypass his defender to find Weston free and then [English left back] Luke Shaw would have a decision to make,” Adams said.
“He’s either going to leave Timmy [Weah] and release to Weston or he’s going get held by Timmy, and that was a focus of ours. So glad to see that. England did that a little bit in the second half with Mason Mount also popping wide, and it’s difficult to deal with. You’ve got to be smart about it. You got to understand when to pressure, when not to pressure, but it definitely put us in some good positions to continue advancing the attack.”
Southgate shared a glimpse of his side of the chess match, which leaves both squads in need of a positive result on Group B’s final matchday in order to move on to the round of 16.
“We didn’t quite get our pressure right. [Yunus] Musah was dropping low and we got a little bit stretched without the ball, and McKennie pulling a little bit wider caused us a bit of a problem, which we needed to resolve at halftime,” he said. “So we needed to be more aggressive on our pressure, bit more compact as a team. Obviously Pulisic comes into clever areas with [Antonee] Robinson going outside him as well. So there’s lots of questions for the players to answer within the game.”
After two games at the World Cup, the U.S. men’s national team hasn’t lost, and as such has kept themselves in the frame to advance from Group B. Sure, it feels like they left points on the board against both Wales and England, but by not losing, …
After two games at the World Cup, the U.S. men’s national team hasn’t lost, and as such has kept themselves in the frame to advance from Group B.
Sure, it feels like they left points on the board against both Wales and England, but by not losing, the door is still wide open for the USMNT to get into the knockout stage, which is an altogether pretty good scenario. However, it comes with pressure: the USMNT’s match against Iran is effectively a one-game playoff to get into the round of 16.
First, let’s settle the terms here: there’s no scenario in which two points is enough to get out of a four-team group in the round-robin format used at the World Cup. That means a loss to Iran ends the USMNT’s tournament.
This young U.S. team also heads home early if they get a draw. They’d be undefeated, but ending the group on three points would leave them stuck behind England, who have already collected four, and Iran (who would get their fourth point by securing a tie against the USMNT).
As such, there’s only one way through: a win. Anything less and USMNT fans will be ruing the thickness of the Al Bayt Stadium crossbar that Christian Pulisic’s shot thwacked against in the first half against England, or wondering what might have been had Walker Zimmerman kept his feet against Wales. So it goes at the World Cup.
As such, all the scenarios below depend on the United States winning on Tuesday.
Musah and his teammates put in a strong performance against one of the pre-tournament favorites, only lacking a final touch in a match it could have easily won.
The Valencia midfielder spent much of his life in England and came up through the country’s youth international setup before making the switch over to the U.S.
Facing some of his former teammates with England and the Arsenal academy, Musah was part of a midfield that controlled much of the match, outplaying some of the Premier League’s biggest names.
“I feel like the team played really well today and showed how good they are. Most of them play in great teams, high level. And I felt like today the whole world will see that the U.S. can do big things,” Musah told reporters.
“But I guess time will tell. You can’t just do it for one game, you have to be consistent.”
With some of the USMNT’s top players featuring for big clubs in Europe, Musah believes the team’s ascent is not going unnoticed with fans back home.
“I know that the audience back home supports us so much,” Musah said. “And as you can see in the U.S., football is growing a lot. A lot of us are playing in Europe, they see big stars — Christian [Pulisic] for example — and it’s just nice to inspire the future generations.
“This World Cup is going to be there forever. And future generations are going to watch this and want to be like us. So now I’m very grateful for the place I’m in right now to be doing that.”
The USMNT will close out Group B with a game against Iran on Tuesday, needing no less than a win to advance to the last 16.
A smart adjustment from Gregg Berhalter ends with an impressive draw
The U.S. men’s national team stepped it up against England, securing a 0-0 draw in which they had the better of the game’s few chances.
The USMNT may have been slightly disappointed with one point against Wales, after dominating in the first half and leading until the final stages, but it’s hard to have too many serious complaints after they held the Three Lions to virtually no serious chances.
We’ll have deeper analysis in the future, but during the World Cup we’ll be giving a quick breakdown of each USMNT player’s performance.
Our scale:
1: Abysmal. Literally any member of Pro Soccer Wire’s staff would have been been able to play at this level.
6: Adequate. This is our base score.
10: Transcendent, era-defining performance. This is Maradona vs. England in 1986.
The midfielder was happy with his team’s display but knew they left some chances on the table
Weston McKennie was proud of the U.S. national team’s display in a 0-0 draw against England on Friday, but admitted it “sucks” that his team was unable to find a winner.
The USMNT controlled much of the game against vaunted opposition, going toe to toe with a team many consider to be among the World Cup favorites.
But Gregg Berhalter’s men were unable to find a winner, and now go into their final group-stage game knowing only a win against Iran will get them into the last 16.
Despite playing an overall excellent game, McKennie was one of the guiltiest parties when he missed an excellent chance to score the opener in the first half.
Speaking to Fox Sports after the game, the midfielder said his team couldn’t be disappointed with their performance, but conceded that they did leave some chances on the table.
“I don’t think we’re really disappointed. I think we knew that we would come out here and put up a fight. And as you guys could see, I think we felt it, I think the fans felt it,” McKennie said.
“We were all in, we held the ball really well. I think we had the majority of the chances. We were more dangerous and it just sucks we couldn’t get it in the back of the net. But obviously our goal is to try and play our best. And I think that’s what we did.
“That was the one thing that was missing, just putting the ball in the back of the net. The final passes were there. But unlucky and we take away the point. The most important thing is that it’s in our hands.”
It was an outstanding display for the USMNT, but it will still all come down to Tuesday’s game versus Iran
The U.S. men’s national team put in an outstanding performance against England, proving they can go toe-to-toe against one of the tournament favorites on the biggest stage.
And yet, after a 0-0 draw, the U.S. faces a stark reality: They’ll be going home after the group stage if they don’t beat Iran on Tuesday.
Gregg Berhalter’s men will be able to take plenty from their performance though, as they made an England side that looked unstoppable in its opener look pedestrian.
After a shaky opening 10 minutes or so, which saw Walker Zimmerman save a sure goal with a crucial block on Harry Kane, the USMNT grew into the game against its vaunted opponent.
Berhalter changed his setup from the opening draw against Wales, shifting to a 4-4-2 that reduced the team’s central midfield presence but gave them an additional attacker up top that seemed to work to their benefit.
As the match entered the break scoreless, the USMNT would have felt it should have been in front. McKennie was the guiltiest party, wasting an open look off a half-volley that he could only sky over Jordan Pickford’s goal.
But McKennie was still one of the standout performers for the U.S., driving forward with confidence and helping set up a chance that Christian Pulisic drove off the crossbar 32 minutes in.
The U.S continued to pressure England in the second half, but was unable to make Jordan Pickford work much. Matt Turner had similarly few difficult saves to make.
Both Berhalter and Gareth Southgate were reluctant to ring the changes, with the latter knowing his side was almost certainly through despite a draw that would earn plenty of criticism back home.
Marcus Rashford and Jack Grealish did eventually enter for England, while Berhalter was a bit slower to bring on the likes of Brenden Aaronson, Gio Reyna and Josh Sargent as the U.S. looked for a winner.
But in truth, neither side came close to scoring in the second half. With one goal and three good halves out of four at this World Cup so far, the USMNT will need to convert their displays into more goals against Iran.
If not, their strong performance against England will be just another example of what could have been.
Gregg Berhalter has opted for continuity in his team’s second World Cup game
The U.S. men’s national team has unveiled its lineup for a Black Friday showdown against England, and Gregg Berhalter has opted not to rock the boat.
Berhalter named 10 of the same starters that began the team’s opener against Wales, with Haji Wright starting in place of Josh Sargent in the only change.
Three U.S. starters enter the game having picked up yellow cards against Wales: Weston McKennie, Sergiño Dest and Tim Ream, with Kellyn Acosta also drawing a yellow late in the game.
Should any of those four pick up a yellow card against England, they would be suspended for Tuesday’s group finale against Iran.
For England, Gareth Southgate has named an unchanged team from a 6-2 win against Iran to open the tournament. Star forward Harry Kane passed a late fitness test after a slight injury scare with his ankle.
The flag on the USMNT’s Twitter header was soon adjusted to reflect the official Iranian flag and the social-media posts have been taken down amid rapid blowback. Iranian officials and state-associated media have reacted with anger, accusing USSF of removing God from their flag and attempting to disrupt their national team before a crucial game for both sides.
