I’m sure Freese gets the full 90 against Germany, and then starts against Paraguay. But I cannot get over the fact that I feel more confident with Turner in goal than I do with Freese. Just a subjective gut feeling.Nice showing today (tough to take much from the second half, though even that was positive). Really clicked with the attack and high press in the first half.
My predicted 11 heading into Paraguay would be (while being optimistic that Richards is good)…
Freese
Freeman-Richards-Ream
Dest-Adams-McKinnie-A Robinson
Tillman-Pulisic
Balogun
No Richards, and McKenzie gets the nod.
Tillman is a bit of a guess, as Aaronson or Reyna could also be the pick.
From both halves, we have multiple attacking threats to create chances on goal. Balogun is in great form, and Pepi showed very good chemistry with Pulisic. Getting Dest high into the attack is a factor that has been missing often under Poch, but we are going to need him there.
Not entirely sure what Berhalter provides in the run of play. While not perfect, I’m more comfortable with Roldan than Berhalter. McKennie in the second half was being asked to play a little deeper than he is at Juve, and honestly he’s less impactful when he’s not able to get involved in the attack as much. If we want the best out of him, then we need to see him with a little more freedom with Tyler Adams anchoring things behind him. However, getting stretched in the midfield with a suspect back line is not exactly a good recipe for tactics that like to get the wings involved far up the pitch, so I’m not sure we will see McKennie as tactically advanced as he might like to be. We need far fewer turnovers in the midfield than we saw yesterday and I think McKennie will be an important asset in that regard.
The Miles Robinson blunder aside, allowing free runners to remain free right through our back line is about as frustrating as can be for a fan to watch. Richards needs to be living in an oxygen bubble for the next week.