The defender was nearly a corpse when he made an amazing first-half block
Good defenders can scramble over at the last minute to make a desperation block. Great defenders are a step ahead of the game, arriving at the perfect spot before the shot is even made.
Aaron Long may have vaulted into a category of his own on Wednesday night, as he managed to get injured and park his lifeless body exactly where a shot arrived several seconds later.
That allowed the LAFC defender to make the defensive play of the night (year?) in a CONCACAF Champions League match against the Vancouver Whitecaps.
With the game scoreless, Long went down injured early in a Vancouver attacking sequence. The ball eventually found its way to Javain Brown, who teed up an inviting first-time strike.
But there was Long, nearly a corpse, getting in front of the ball like any alive defender worth his salt is trained to do.
What a save! What a save! What a save! (Chat disabled for 4 seconds)#SCCL23 | @A_LoLo12
Long’s incredible anticipation set the stage for a second-half blitz by LAFC, who scored three goals to take a commanding 3-0 advantage into the second leg of the quarterfinal next week.
Too many USMNT arrows are pointing down rather than up
The U.S. men’s national team came into September’s international window hoping to find clarity and belief, but after two dispiriting performances, they certainly didn’t get the answers they wanted.
If anything, more players saw their stock drop, and in many cases there’s no recourse beyond hoping they go back to their clubs and tear it up. Gregg Berhalter has plenty to chew on over the next several weeks, but he was probably hoping to have more “good problems” than what he’s looking at right now.
Who hurt their chances of playing a major role at the World Cup? And who seems more important today than they did a few weeks ago? Let’s check the markets and see where the individuals are trending.
Stock down: Aaron Long
We have to start with the fact that the USMNT, against two very different systems, struggled with progressing the ball from their back line into the midfield. There were multiple causes for that problem, but the one that stood out more than the rest was that the center backs were both inaccurate with their passes, and very predictable with their intentions.
Walker Zimmerman wasn’t at his best, but for Long, the possession side of things was a major source of concern. Injuries to Chris Richards and Cameron Carter-Vickers didn’t help, and Berhalter ended up subbing Long off in both games to get a look at Mark McKenzie.
The fact that Long started both games seems to indicate that Berhalter holds him in esteem, but it’s not like he lacks for competition. With Richards vying for time in the Bundesliga and all of McKenzie, Carter-Vickers, and Palmer-Brown all getting regular minutes at European clubs, Long’s form with the New York Red Bulls will need to be much sharper than what we saw in this window to ensure his place on the plane to Qatar.
Stock up: Matt Turner
There’s a lot of talk at the moment about whether Berhalter simply prefers Steffen to the extent that the starting goalkeeper job is a settled issue. That seems unlikely, but either way, Turner was the best USMNT player in this window, and there’s not much more someone can do than that.
The worry for Turner coming into this camp was that he’d played just one competitive match since moving to Arsenal this summer. Those fears of lost sharpness or confidence ended up being unfounded, as Turner was precise, fundamentally sharp, and kept Japan from walking away with a bigger margin of victory. He had less to do in the second friendly, but still responded well when called upon.
Based on recent play with the USMNT, it’s Turner that should have the edge to start against Wales on November 21. If Steffen is going to win that job, he’s going to have to impress with Middlesbrough in very short order.
(AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Stock down: Gio Reyna
Reyna’s place in the USMNT squad isn’t in question, and when healthy, he’s obviously one of the best players in the entire pool. Berhalter is frankly lucky to have Reyna and Tim Weah possibly vying for one spot (we hear you, play-Weah-centrally advocates, but it really doesn’t seem like Berhalter is interested).
But despite some initial success with Borussia Dortmund’s cautious approach to his season, Reyna was once again having to come out of the game due to what Berhalter said post-game was some muscle tightness.
Dortmund boss Edin Terzić has since announced that Reyna’s recovery time is less than two weeks, which is the good news. The bad news is that on a team with several other key players who aren’t exactly the most durable, it’s now worth wondering whether the USMNT can lean on Reyna as a starter in a World Cup match. At the very least, they need to enter each game with a very specific plan on how they’ll adapt if he pulls up.
Stock up: Joe Scally
It’s not that Scally was a revelation against Saudi Arabia. Rather, the fact that he managed to get high and wide in the attack on a regular basis meant that he had to be accounted for, which had a positive ripple effect for the USMNT going forward.
The USMNT doesn’t function well without a fullback taking care of this task, and with Antonee Robinson missing out due to injury, no other fullback in camp was able to reliably get to the right places at the right time. Berhalter gave this responsibility to Sam Vines against Japan, and then to DeAndre Yedlin on the other side against Saudi Arabia, before Scally’s movement allowed for some more familiar patterns of play to take hold.
It wasn’t a good camp for the USMNT fullback pool in general, so Scally — who has had something of a difficult time getting call-ups, despite being a reliable starter at Borussia Mönchengladbach — is benefitting from simply not doing too badly while others disappointed. But then, that’s kind of the story of this entire international window, and being a player who didn’t run into some kind of problem means Scally’s odds of being on the final 26-man roster should be better today than they were two weeks ago.
Stock down: Ricardo Pepi
Progress isn’t linear, and anyone hoping that Pepi finally breaking his long goal drought meant that he’d come roaring into this USMNT camp was disappointed by how he struggled to really get enough touches to be a factor against Saudi Arabia.
(AP Photo/Jose Breton)
Some of that was simply the entire team struggling to break into the attacking third with consistency, and there’s only so much Pepi can do to fix that. He’s not a channel-running No. 9, and he’s not going to drop off the front line as a false nine either. If the team can’t get out of their own end, he’s not going to be involved.
But the real reason Pepi’s stock fell a bit is that Jesús Ferreira came in, and the USMNT attack instantly started finding angles it hadn’t been seeing earlier. Ferreira has taken some flack for jumping too early for a header against Japan, and he didn’t bury any looks against Saudi Arabia, but the entire attack was more lively once he came on. Not to get too into the weeds on modern soccer thinking, but an attack that is creating chances is believed to be better for winning games than a team that can’t get out of second gear going forward.
With Ferreira seeming to be the best fit for the players around him, Jordan Pefok being the hot hand as a finisher, and both Pepi and Josh Sargent skewing towards being best as pressing forwards, it feels like Berhalter has to sort through some tough questions. There’s a really good case to be made for there only being one spot for Pepi and Sargent, given that they’re the two most similar players in this group.
For Pepi, the best cure would be to light it up over the next few weeks at Groningen. If his profile becomes pressing/target man who is also scoring regularly, the questions here are not nearly as pointed. It’s just that, like we said, progress isn’t linear, and one goal in nearly a year could be a blip rather than the start of things to come.
The USMNT and Saudi Arabia sure did play a game of soccer
The U.S. men’s national team fanbase was hoping Tuesday’s friendly against Saudi Arabia would wash the taste of a dispiriting defeat to Japan out of their collective mouths.
We have three key takeaways to get into, but as you can probably guess if you watched the game or simply read the three paragraphs preceding this one, none of them is good news.
Opponents to USMNT center backs: Here, have the ball
Saudi Arabia plays a markedly different game from Japan: they attack in a 4-3-3 formation that becomes a 4-1-4-1 out of possession, maintaining a high defensive line without a corresponding high line of contention up front.
The object here is simple: let the other side’s defenders have the ball, stay compact from back to front, and leave teams few options other than to play perfect diagonal switches or balls into the space in behind. The10 Saudi field players, from the deepest defender to the highest attacker, were often only 30 or so yards apart, leaving no space to pass into the midfield and build that way.
Interestingly, this much different approach still left USMNT center backs Walker Zimmerman and Aaron Long (and eventually, in this game, Mark McKenzie) with the same problem they faced against Japan. They were on the ball, with an opponent who took all their simpler options off the table. The challenge, in both cases, was that the center backs had to play passes that solved a problem rather than simply finding a midfielder or fullback to do that.
While the turnovers weren’t as costly — Saudi Arabia has less athleticism than Japan, and were less forcing turnovers with tackles than they were intercepting errant passes at midfield — they were still a pretty regular factor in this game, and while the USMNT piled up possession, they were often completely muted when they tried to do anything with it.
Berhalter’s side has figured this problem out before. It’s not like teams in CONCACAF have never heard of “let the center backs have all of their possession” as a tactic before. Yes, Japan and Saudi Arabia would have also qualified out of the Octagonal, but there’s an issue with execution right now on the USMNT side.
For one, Zimmerman and (especially) Long seemed to struggle on some very straightforward passes that they have both probably completed literally thousands of times in professional games. Secondly, the USMNT seemed unable to shift the angles to open Saudi Arabia up, which means the problem extends to what movements are being offered by the other eight field players.
No Musah no party
Yunus Musah was in the stadium for this one, watching from the stands after making the trip down the Mediterranean coast to Murcia. Unfortunately for the USMNT, his stock ended up rising despite him being in street clothes, because for the second straight game, it became clear that the “MMA” midfield doesn’t function anywhere near its best without him.
Kellyn Acosta has had some fine moments with the USMNT, and his set piece taking ability actually makes him a pretty valuable member of the squad going into a tournament where prep time is low (side note: the USMNT wasn’t particularly threatening on dead balls in this window, but they probably didn’t want to show any of their designed plays off yet either).
However, he’s more suited for a game where the USMNT is going to be on the defensive, needing that extra ball-winning and positional sense more than other, more flashy traits. In a midfield with Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie, against a mid-block opponent who was always going to be a puzzle to solve, he was redundant.
Photo by JOSE JORDAN/AFP via Getty Images
The MMA midfield isn’t even a perfectly ideal balance of roles, as there’s no true playmaker and no true expert in terms of occupying spaces without the ball. Adams and McKennie make up for this latter issue with ferocious effort, but even when Musah — who thrives as a facilitator and ball-progressing midfielder rather than as a true No. 10 — is in, it’s a case of hoping the three can emphasize what their games do have to such an extent that what they lack isn’t a big deal.
When you take Musah out of the mix, that scenario doesn’t play out. The USMNT were sluggish in terms of their tempo, and so much of their time in possession saw Saudi Arabia keep their collective shape, herding possession back to the center backs or even to Turner. The USMNT wasn’t suited to play without their best player in terms of shifting an opposition shape in the middle third. Most teams will miss that player, but it feels like the U.S. learned today just how severe that absence is for them.
Berhalter more or less acknowledged this with his final pair of subs, with Brenden Aaronson coming into Acosta’s spot. Nothing much came of this spell, with the best USMNT chance largely coming down to the FC Dallas connection between Jesús Ferreira and Paul Arriola, but the moves alluded to what was missing in this one.
Right now, it’d be very smart for the USMNT to seriously look at making sure Aaronson has the reps to step in for Musah (or for that matter McKennie, as neither player has a spotless injury record). It could be that Musah, Adams, and McKennie are good to go for 270 minutes in eight days in a desert climate where temperatures are famously very hot, but you don’t want to walk into Group B with all your eggs in that particular basket.
Struggle for fullback balance
Musah wasn’t the only normal starter whose absence was keenly felt. Antonee Robinson may be back very soon for Fulham, but without their normal left back, the USMNT seemed to struggle with the balance between its two fullbacks.
Without Robinson, and after Sam Vines struggled to really make the same kind of impact that Robinson does against Japan, Berhalter moved that responsibility over to right back. Sergiño Dest, normally seen as an attack-first fullback, was asked to not push so high, and to dip inside to help change the angles in possession. DeAndre Yedlin had the job of providing that serious width on the other side.
The problem here is that the USMNT’s best attacking right back is, you know, Dest. He’d have thrived on the right with that kind of assignment, and ended up being the more dangerous attacking fullback despite having to pick and choose when he got forward.
Yedlin wasn’t poor, but he wasn’t influential either, and the USMNT system needs the player with this responsibility to be a constant factor. Particularly against a team playing a mid-block like this, this fullback role is a major factor in pulling the opposition out of their shape, and Saudi Arabia’s comfort without the ball starts with there being no true danger from Yedlin being higher up the field. The timing of his runs made him easy to defend, and he wasn’t getting much help from Acosta to open that space up either.
As with the midfield quandary, Berhalter addressed this with a sub. Joe Scally came in not long after Yedlin was caught by a bad tackle from Saud Abdulhamid that deserved a harsher punishment than the yellow card it got, and was pretty quickly more of a factor in the attacking third than Yedlin had been.
Perhaps that’s the benefit of the USMNT coaching staff having an hour-plus to analyze the game and tell Scally exactly what to look for, or perhaps it’s just a fresh player coming in against a tiring opponent.
Either way, the situation underlined how much the USMNT’s hopes hinge on unbalancing teams by using their fullbacks. It’s not good news that Robinson’s health is right up there with Musah’s, and Pulisic’s, and Reyna’s, but that’s where the USMNT is at right now.
We know they can hit a high enough level to be a serious threat to advance when everyone’s healthy, but is everyone going to be healthy in November? There are now 55 days for Berhalter to figure out how to make sure the answer to that question is positive.
Japan chewed an alarmingly flat USMNT up on Friday
The U.S. men’s national team’s final friendly window started off with a stumble, as a woefully flat performance ended with a 2-0 loss to Japan.
The USMNT and Japan are roughly at the same level on paper, and losing 2-0 to a peer is not in and of itself a reason to rend your new, unloved USMNT jersey. The way we got there, though? It was truly rough stuff for anyone with hopes of seeing a USMNT run deep in to the World Cup.
Mentality minnows
The biggest reason for alarm for the USMNT was what Gregg Berhalter described as a lack of “personality.” There are some badly outdated stereotypes that hold that Japan is a technical team with no little cutting edge, but the fact is that Hajime Moriyasu’s side chewed the USMNT up and spat them out. They were the more physical team, the more driven team, the more urgent team. In all the ways you can define aggression in soccer, Japan had the advantage over the USMNT.
That tepid vibe, more than players having a bad day passing and moving, is the big worry from this game. We’re less than 60 days from the World Cup, and several U.S. starters in this one are trying to establish that they should be moved up a level in the team’s hierarchy. Starters should be pushing to become stars, the first few guys off the bench should be trying to become starters, and so on.
A lack of intensity should flat-out not be a problem right now.
Berhalter tried to shake something loose, making four halftime subs and changing systems, but it only stirred the USMNT to a certain degree, and only for about half an hour. Kaoru Mitoma got Japan’s second in the closing minutes, and it wasn’t some lone chance on the counter, either. They were back to bossing the game, primarily through sheer effort.
Will this version of the USMNT show up against Wales? Probably not. They seem good at getting up for the truly big occasions (see: several consecutive matches against Mexico). And England, being so full of elite players, will probably also see a fully motivated USMNT.
It’s that Iran match, though, that people should have qualms about. Iran’s not Japan, they don’t play the same way, but they are the opponent in the group that the USMNT is most likely to overlook. Friday’s loss was a worrisome reminder that this is a team with no room for looking past anyone.
Handing it over
Japan’s press gave the USMNT fits. Some of this was simply a good team executing their plan cohesively and at a high level. Japan knew what it wanted to make the USMNT do — pin them in their own half and make center backs Aaron Long and Walker Zimmerman solve the problem in possession — and did so at an impressive level.
There are two things that should alarm USMNT fans that have nothing to do with how fluently Japan played. First, the obvious: the USMNT was simply abysmal with the ball. Maybe that’s a one-game problem that disappears against Saudi Arabia next week, or maybe the absences of Chris Richards and Cameron Carter-Vickers are a bigger deal than it initially seemed. No matter how you slice it, the number of telegraphed passes, or passes delivered with a laggardly pace, was a major disappointment.
Secondly, as much as Japan did what they set out to do at a really good level, we’re not talking about a complicated plan. Japan pressed out of a very straightforward 4-4-2 shape, something that every USMNT player has seen on a regular basis in recent years. If anything, you’ve been hearing the phrase “nine-ten press” more often over the past two years or so, with teams that on paper play 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 often opting to drop their wingers and move a central midfielder up when they’re out of possession.
And yet, the USMNT on Friday looked bewildered at times, unable to find good angles or make the right movements to open that shape up. Japan used their structure well, but they also weren’t really challenged. The USMNT midfield, who squandered an ostensible three-on-two numerical advantage by being out-fought for 90 minutes, wasn’t opening passing lanes with their movement. If the right run came, it arrived too late and at too slow a speed, and Japan could cut the passing lane off without anything else opening up.
Without Christian Pulisic (who per U.S. Soccer picked up some kind of minor injury in training) and Tim Weah, the front three featured two players that want to go narrow and a No. 9 that pretty notoriously checks back into the midfield. That gave the USMNT no vertical options, allowing Japan to push their line of contention higher. There was no easy outlet, and the USMNT didn’t play well enough to work through things the hard way either.
Now, we haven’t seen the USMNT struggle to this degree very often this year, and missing both Pulisic and Weah made a big difference. Zimmerman and Long have both established that they’re better passers than we saw in this game. Maybe getting the mentality side right fixes all of this, but if it doesn’t, it could undermine the plans of advancing from Group B, much less winning a knockout round game.
Turner time
The USMNT’s best player on the day, by far, was Matt Turner. The goals from Japan were well-taken and not his fault, and he wasn’t the one misplacing simple passes out of the back either.
Historically, the USMNT enters any given World Cup with goalkeeping as a strength, but it’s not entirely clear who Berhalter’s top three are, and who the starter is. There are concerns with every candidate: Zack Steffen has a knee issue and may or may not be first-choice at Middlesbrough. Ethan Horvath has had consistency problems. Sean Johnson’s ceiling might not be as high as the rest of the contenders.
For Turner, the issue has been a more straightforward question of whether he was going to play enough to stay sharp. Turner got a once-in-a-lifetime offer from Arsenal that he had to take, but the concern was that he might be vying for a World Cup spot without being able to show what he can do in games.
Against Japan at least, that issue didn’t appear to be a problem. Turner may have only one appearance since moving to London, but he looked like a full-time starter, showing no signs of rust or a lack of confidence. If not for three particularly good Turner stops, the scoreline would have been worse.
There may be questions at some other vital positions with this team right now, but at the moment Turner seems to be a very strong bet to be the No. 1 when the USMNT takes the field against Wales on November 21.
Berhalter revealed most of his defensive group for Friday’s friendly
We already know four of the starters for Gregg Berhalter in Friday’s U.S. men’s national team friendly against Japan (8 a.m. ET, ESPN2/UniMás).
Berhalter revealed no fewer than four starters for the match, which will be played in Düsseldorf, Germany. Arsenal goalkeeper Matt Turner will get the nod, while Berhalter said he will also give starts to Aaron Long, Sam Vines, and Walker Zimmerman.
“We’re focused right now on the Japan game, evaluating performances there, just looking to have a good team performance. That’s the most important thing,” Berhalter told reporters on Thursday. “We talked about putting the players at ease, focusing on the team performance rather than individual performances. And for tomorrow, we decided to go with Matt in goal.”
Berhalter is surely looking at how the entire group responds as a unit, but in Turner’s case, he may have something else on his mind: match fitness. Turner has appeared just once for Arsenal since his summer move, in a 2-1 Europa League win at FC Zurich. Turner’s last USMNT appearance came in a 5-0 win over Grenada back in June.
In Long, Vines, and Zimmerman, Berhalter in all likelihood announced 75% of his starting back line to face Japan. On Zimmerman, who seems likely to start for the USMNT in Qatar at this point, Berhalter highlighted how important his aerial ability will be for the group.
“He’s a warrior. I think that’s what you want in center backs, as a starting point,” said Berhalter. “That’s what you want as a teammate. So guys can rely on him to give 100% in everything he’s gonna do. Besides from that, a key quality that he has is exceptional in the air. There’s not many people that you see that are that good at heading, and it helps the team especially when we’re pressing and teams are playing long.”
Big praise for Vines
While Long and Zimmerman are a familiar partnership over the past few years, Vines only has eight caps, and his last appearance with the USMNT came in the semifinals of the 2021 Gold Cup.
However, since moving to the Belgian top flight with Royal Antwerp, Vines has become a virtual ever-present. With Antonee Robinson absent through injury, Berhalter has called in plenty of players who have spent time at left back, but only Vines plays the role full-time.
In Berhalter’s opinion, Vines has taken a noticeable step forward of late.
“What I’ve noticed from (Vines) in particular is the speed of his decision-making has gotten better, has improved. He looks a lot more sure of himself, (being) aggressive, attacking down the left wing,” said Berhalter. “He’s been coming inside a little bit with his club sometimes, and that helps give him flexibility.”
“I see a confident Sam Vines, a guy who has been embracing one-v-one duels, embracing getting the ball under pressure and being able to play out of pressure. Overall he’s a guy that I’ve been really pleased with this camp. He’s another one that’s gonna start tomorrow. So, really excited about him, and him getting this opportunity, because when he’s played with us, he’s played well. So excited to see him get this opportunity tomorrow.”
Berhalter isn’t having the online USMNT hot takes.
Aaron Long has taken some criticism from certain segments of the U.S. men’s national team fan base, but Gregg Berhalter isn’t having it.
A vocal set of USMNT fans have long held some degree of disdain for players based in MLS, as Long is, and his recent performances—despite both games ending with no goals conceded—have seen him singled out for some hot takes.
For Berhalter, though, the angle is one he completely rejects.
“That’s insane, to say something like that,” said Berhalter in a press conference ahead of the USMNT’s Nations League opener against Grenada on Friday. “The guy was Defender of the Year in MLS. He’s coming back from an Achilles injury, and we’re purposely putting him in these games to keep pushing him and keep improving him.”
Long missed nearly all of 2021 after tearing his Achilles tendon, but has returned for both the New York Red Bulls and the USMNT this year. In the current June international window, he has so far played the full 90 minutes in a 3-0 win against Morocco, and started in a 0-0 draw with Uruguay before coming off at halftime.
Berhalter added that for him, Long has “a great character. He’s got tremendous speed, you know, and he’s working his way back to this level, which is a different level. And I think he’s doing quite well and I’m pleased with his progress.”
With Miles Robinson suffering an Achilles tear of his own earlier this season, the center back position is one the USMNT is focusing on intently. While Walker Zimmerman’s place seems solid, Long is competing in this camp with Cameron Carter-Vickers and Erik Palmer-Brown. Chris Richards and Mark McKenzie have both been called up in 2022 as well, while John Brooks remains on Berhalter’s radar despite not being called in for the last few World Cup qualifiers.
