Aside from injuries, the full USMNT was in action this weekend. The headline is that the guys who have been in great form continue to be, and those who have been struggling still are.
Pulisic continued his hot start for Milan with an assist on a perfectly placed corner. He could have had a few other assists if his teammates had finished better. He’s been one of few bright spots in a dismal start to the season in Milan. Notably, he started on the left, displacing Portuguese super star Rafa Leao from his starting role.
Tillman has been truly excellent for PSV so far this year, albeit against weaker competition as they’ve yet to play any of the other Eredivisie contenders. This week he had an assist and contributed directly to another goal. Surprisingly, he’s had close to a dozen defensive actions each game this year and we’d like to see him challenge Reyna for the 10 (attacking mid) role in the next friendlies.
Robinson tallied his second assist in as many matches for Fulham, and was named to the Premier League’s team of the month for August by WhoScored.com – a soccer data/analytics site.
McKennie was a mixed bag, we’re happy to see him get on the field after finally extending his contract at Juve, but he didn’t do much with the opportunity. The good news is that no one else in Juve’s central midfield did much either so at least he didn’t lose ground versus his competition.
We were surprised to see Balogun start after being an unused sub last weekend. However, we would have hoped for a more impactful appearance. We’re tired of including him in the “bad” section of this report and hoping he can turn things around during the upcoming camp with the USMNT.
Horvath still isn’t playing well. We’ve added a bunch of new keepers to our report and will be doing a deeper dive on options at that position shortly.
Other notable updates include Gio Reyna being an unused sub and Brenden Aaronson having a solid match for Leeds in his second straight start at the #10 spot. We’ll also note Mark McKenzie’s 15 defensive actions for his new side Toulouse, a season high for any USMNT player. Nice.
Up next are friendlies versus Canada (Saturday, 4pm ET) and New Zealand (Tuesday, 7pm ET).
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10.4 – Weekend Recap
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.
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!