The last match window before the USMNT all gather in Austin for Pochettino’s first camp was action packed.
Pulisic scored, and was Milan’s best player, again! It’s almost every game this year he’s been either the best player by the data or as voted by fans. …But we get some bad vibes from his teammates twice stripping him of the PK responsibility against the coach’s orders. Theo Hernandez and Tammy Abraham both had their PKs saved by David de Gea – so they probably should have let Pulisic, who is 10/10 in his career, take them.
Tillman kept cooking. We hope he starts at least 1 of the games this window. We’ll publish our recommended starting XI in the coming days.
Balogun…man what a mixed bag. First, he scored a great goal. His first touch was excellent on a ball rocketed into him at the top of the box, he sucked in the CB, pushed it past him, then chipped the keeper. Bad ass goal. But…then he injured his shoulder and will miss this camp with Poch. Really bummed for him, for the team, and for the fans not to get to see how Poch wants to use Balogun. Maybe in November we’ll get to find out…
Sargent is the big beneficiary of Balogun’s absence, and he got on the scoresheet again for Norwich. He also should have had an assist and played well overall. However, he did miss a PK. No big deal for the USMNT though, because Pulisic would be doing that for us anyway.
Poch needs to start learning about the younger Aaronson too, as he is on fire right now. The Eredivisie is a tough league, and his team FC Utrecht are 2nd in the table, on pace to qualify for Champions League. Aaronson has turned in back-to-back man of the match performances and we’d rather see him than many of the other midfield options next camp.
The defense didn’t have it’s best match window, as most of them were poor. Jedi was actually pretty good against Man City in our view though. Anyone else watch that game and think his ratings here are too low?
In goal – no one really distinguished themselves. From those who we track, everyone either rode the pine, had negative xGP, poor distribution, or both. It’s still a mess…
most recent usmnt Player Updates
September 2024 “team of the month”
This is basically how the USMNT would line up in our first matches under Pochettino – if he made his decisions based ONLY on current club form. He obviously won’t do that – but it’s a cool way to look at who is playing well, and who isn’t, for the USMNT.
10.4 – Weekend preview
Best matches of the weekend, brought to you by #DosACero. This is the final match window before the guys head to #Austin for the FIRST CAMP WITH POCHETTINO. Here’s hoping for a strong set of performances, with everyone coming in hot. LFG!
10.1 – Midweek Recap
Best midweek window yet this season for the USMNT.
Our top two choices in the CF battle both did well this window. Balogun won a vital PK that allowed Monaco to tie their match 2-2. He came on at half and honestly Monaco was under pressure most of the half so he was very quiet otherwise. Sargent converted a PK – though he was arguably lucky it wasn’t saved. Still he was the best Norwich player according to match event data and the fans.