The United States men’s national team, fielding a sloping estimate of their best XI, skillfully beat Morocco in Cincinnati on Wednesday. The summer friendly match before the Winter World Cup was technically meaningless, although as one of the team’s last six matches before Qatar, a 3-0 win was an effective opportunity for the coaching staff to tinker with new tactics and judge the boundary players. Before deciding to cut a list. The team’s performance was impressive in itself, and any fan who was impressed with the fine points of the Barhalterball would recognize it as the team’s most comprehensive performance this year, despite the absence of several key starters.
That same fan will probably welcome a four-year respite from the endless play of the same dozen or more CONCACAF opponents. Since Greg Barhalter took office, USMNT has been dramatically blockaded and the program has created its youth pivot: two Gold Cups, the entire Nations League, a tough World Cup qualifying process and an epidemic-induced Western Hemisphere-centric friendly match. Before playing Morocco, USMNT had not played against an African opponent in almost five years. Since the start of 2020, they have played only four non-CONCACAF opponents, none of whom have faced the A-Team. Morocco are a good African team going to the World Cup, which is a perfect matchup for their comparatively USMNT. The 3-0 win showed the team’s talent in a way that is not possible in the process of losing to Panama.
It further highlights how little we actually know about the quality of USMNT against the best teams in the world, as this group has not yet been tested by any of them. This version of USMNT is stockpiled with ambition, a Champions League winner and a bunch of players on a very good club team. This is a version that should not necessarily be judged by how well they performed against Costa Rica in their five-year annual matchup, but by how they stacked against the world’s elite. You get no point in sending Honduras more efficiently and taking it to Mexico in Azteca, since this rearrangement of the team’s ambitions is to reduce their provincial propensity. It’s not their fault they couldn’t play in one of the top 10 teams in the world because of the epidemic, although after watching USMNT’s Morocco performance, I’m equally excited about the brutality of the win and we’ll have to wait until Thanksgiving for them to set foot in England.
Victory should not be ignored here. Morocco built a strong lineup under PSG right back Acharaf Hakimi, yet USMNT forced their style into the game. Barhalter switched the backline to a hybrid three- and four-man backline, with Reggie Cannon acting as the third center-back and Anthony Robinson giving the space to fly over the field. Yunus Musa and Tyler Adams pushed and ran as effectively as they normally would, and Christian Policeman was consistently given space balls with options in front of him. The policeman was clearly scrambling to play for the USMNT again, and he used his freedom to make a tremendous impact, drawing a penalty, scoring at least one goal and controlling the USMNT opener with a slight jolt. The last time he played for the national team, he and his teammates closed the door on Panama in front of an exciting crowd of USMNT die-harders, so I can understand his postgame callout from his team supporters. Also, I don’t really care at all, From US Soccer Carries more blame than the fans, and the incomplete vote for Wednesday evening game in Cincinnati in June seems to be a dubious piece of data to create a coherent tech. This shit is annoying in contrast to this nut game of the police to set up the first goal of the game.
Tim Weh scored the second goal six minutes into the game.It was a banger), And USMNT has reached a comfortable win. Joe Scully, Haji Wright and Tilman, the owner of Bayern Munich, were among those who got a little angry in the second half as Barhalter tried to get some more data to decide who would go to Qatar. Matt Turner made some nice saves and Brendan Aaron returned to midfield with great impact. The team looked sick, I mean, and now I really want to see how well they stack up against a team that doesn’t let their speed dictate and control the ball so easily. The USMNT is set up to counter pressure and create space with their athletic midfield, but that strategic fullcrum cannot be meaningfully tested unless they play a truly elite team. We have to wait until Black Friday, but that opportunity is coming.