• Balogun (7) – Little bit of a mixed bag. The good: great goal (xG was only 0.11) and excellent finish on his goal that got called back for Weah’s offsides. Good movement created space for others. Holdup play was generally good, not great. Was much better after his goal. The bad: c/should have scored in first minute on Scally’s scuffed shot. Totally unnecessary and poorly hit trick cross. Wasted major opportunity in space late in 1H. Had a disappointing club season so could do with a confidence boosting goal. We take the improved play after his goal as a very good sign that he’s getting his swagger back.
• Pulisic (8.5) – Hardly put a foot wrong all night. Obviously the goal was great (xG was only 0.04), the pass for Balogun’s goal was great. Worked extremely hard in defense, and showed leadership pumping up the crowd early on. Excellent service on almost every free kick or corner he took. Good combination play with McKennie, Reyna, and Robinson down the left.
• Weah (7) – Solid game. Good crosses when he had the opportunity. Set tone literally 10 seconds in with an aggressive run down the right. Could have held his run a little longer on the goal that got called back for offsides but timing was thrown off by the foul on McKennie that he fought through.
• Pepi (5.5) – We hate to beat up on him, but he HAD to score on the chances he had this game. He had 6 shots with a total xG of 2.08. That’s crazy. We could give him credit for being involved in so many chances, but honestly we think it’s equally attributable to Bolivia having to open up defensively and chase the game late on. It’s hard to argue with the table below, and honestly we’d like to see Sargent get some time on the pitch versus Panama
• Aaronson (NR) – On late for Weah and didn’t have much opportunity. Brought the energy as always

• McKennie (6) – Was relatively quiet. When involved created chances but didn’t get on the ball much. Silly tackle for a yellow card could come back to bite us later. Hasn’t been at his best lately and we are a little worried that his club situation at Juve is affecting his play with the national team.
• Reyna (7) – Won the ball back a few times. Generally good passes and a LOT of line breaking passes. Made key pass to Pulisic that resulted in Pulisic’s assist on Balogun’s goal. Showed excellent passing range with several cross field balls
• Adams (6) – honestly looked rusty. Several poor passes gave away possession. Wasn’t really challenged in defense as Bolivia was quiet. We have no doubt he will get better as the tournament progresses
• Musah (7) – Excellent in second half after he came on for Adams. At least 5 important ball recoveries including one where he bailed out Chris Richards after a very poor giveaway. Made Bolivian midfield look like they were standing still as he glided past them to break pressure multiple times
• Cardoso (6) – Couple of good defensive pressures, but was extremely quiet in ~30 minutes after coming on for Reyna
• de la Torre (6) – Similarly quiet as Cardoso in ~15 minutes of action after replacing McKennie

• Robinson (8) – Excellent game for Robinson, both defensively and in attack. Especially in second half was constantly overlapping Pulisic and provided excellent service on those. As he said himself in his postgame interview, he could have had a couple of assists
• Ream (6) – Had at least 7 giveaways tonight, very uncharacteristically. 2 of them put us in extremely vulnerable positions but Bolivia let us off. It wasn’t all bad though as Ream also had several excellent long balls and made a key contribution in the buildup to Balogun’s goal
• Richards (6) – Solid defensively, especially in the air, but he better be against Bolivia. Passing was extremely inconsistent, had a few great long balls but those were more than offset by 5 careless giveaways
• Scally (6.5) – Relatively quiet game. Mixed bag offensively and was never seriously challenged defensively

• Turner (6.5) – As with most of the defense, a pretty quiet game. His goal was never seriously threatened. Distribution out of the back was okay, at least no bad giveaways. Had one save on a long shot that he bobbled that we’d have liked to see him catch cleanly

We said it in our Bolivia Match Fan Reaction and we’ll say it again. We are watching Christian Pulisic turn into a superstar for this country in this tournament (and the warm up friendlies). He has always been a big match player, but the confidence is just oozing out of him after his standout season in Milan. 

Antonee Robinson gets an honorable mention tonight. The USA may have the best left side of any team in this tournament actually (watch for a piece on that soon). 

Pulisic has to be Man of the Match given the phenomenal, plus the assist for the second. May his good form continue

Robinson, on average, was as high up the pitch as Reyna and McKennie. Scally, on average, was alongside Adams. 

3) Turner played long out of the back more often when he was under pressure, which we like. Playing out of the back isn’t his strong suit  

1) For some reason, Berhalter insists on having McKennie push high and wide on the right while Weah moves central. We hate this. It leaves midfield exposed if we turn the ball over (which we’ve done a lot lately). McKennie can play long crosses, but he’s better around the box playing one touch balls and finishing goals. Weah is one of our very fastest players, and when he stays wide, it pulls the defense with him and creates space for guys like McKennie and Reyna inside. 

2) For some reason, Berhalter has been instructing our holding mid to press higher up the field than McKennie and Reyna the past two games. Musah was doing it against Brazil, Adams against Bolivia. Sure, it gives us a better chance to win the ball high up the pitch, but Adams isn’t going to do much with it if he does. In exchange, we leave ourselves wide open with two relatively static central midfielders if they break our press, which better teams inevitably will. 

3) We’d have liked to see Pulisic get a breather at the end of this game. We need him to be at his best later in this tournament

We obviously should have won this game by a larger margin. It wouldn’t surprise us to see Uruguay beat Bolivia 4-0.

Pepi absolutely shoulders some of the blame, as he failed to finish our 2 best chances of the match. However, oddly enough our defense and Tyler Adams do too. They gave the ball away over a dozen times under minimal / no pressure, and allowed Bolivia to suck the energy out of the game for long stretches, especially in the first half. 

We REALLY liked the intensity and fast play from the start. It’s giving us increasing confidence that our mentality and spirit are recovered from the Colombia game. For decades, our team has been known for having great togetherness and a never-say-die attitude. This generation obviously has the togetherness, but it wasn’t entirely clear they have the mental strength. We like what we’ve seen since the Colombia game.

The Brazil draw doesn’t look quite as impressive after the Costa Rica game. It’s making us want to win our group worse than we did previously so we can avoid Colombia and (probably) get Brazil in the quarters. So long as Colombia is playing like they are powered by Juan Valdez…or maybe Pablo Escobar…they are going to be tough to beat.