USMNT - ‘23 and beyond

Beast said

Hercules Gomez made the point that if you're going to play someone like Ferreira up top, you don't want someone like Gressel always crossing the ball in against bigger CBs like Canada has. You'd want Vasquez out there.

I wouldn't mind a Cowell Vasquez Ferreira front 3. Cowell can break down the left on the dribble, Vasquez there for the crosses, and Ferreira crosses well (was even taking corners and free kicks in the second half).

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Agreed, but not all crosses have to be flighted. He had a few worm burners that no one got on the end of. His cross game has both attributes.

Unfortunately this game was totally set up for quick, 1 pass attacking play and we didnt do much of that. When we did, we would completely collapse that Canadian defense and someone was open ( we just didnt do a good job of finding them or getting shots off ). It wasnt until Cowell was introduced in the 70th that he would take on first defender, beat him and now Canadian back line had decision to make- either allow him space or close down ( which then leaves the next attacker open ) - they would have to shift across - and if we were quick enough in pass/decision making, 3 taps from left to right would always leave whomever on right wing, wide open.

And aside from Vasquez header, none of our guys were really on target most of the night. Busio had several great looks and flubbed. Shoot, his goal was saved...just St. Clair parried it too hard off own player.

Panama will be another big test for them. After last night, they gots their work cut out to get to finals.