United States of F#ck Yeah v. A Better Team | Friendly | 7 p.m. CT (FS1)

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The only silver lining to me is that the players seem to be supportive of the possession idea, judging by the post match interviews. Let’s see how long that lasts.

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The USMNT’s absolute insistence on playing through Mexico’s press was an extreme overcorrection for the Gold Cup final. Specifically, for the second half, when the U.S. neither possessed the ball nor progressed it into dangerous areas. Berhalter felt the answer was more possession. Some players felt otherwise. Berhalter, between then and now, evidently informed them that his answer was the right one. And so he set up a training session Friday. To correct the undesirable behavior of July – “in the Gold Cup, we were too direct” – he taught undesirable behavior at the other end of the spectrum – “in this game, we were not direct enough.” The idea is that the exercise will help yield desirable behavior as a long-term compromise. But the exercise was extremely flawed. Viewed as an experiment, it was unsuccessful. If coach did in fact instruct players to resist their own best judgement, refrain from playing long, and plunge into the teeth of the press at all costs, Friday was almost something less than soccer. It was blind adherence to ideals. Stubbornness that won’t serve the USMNT well in the long run.

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Mexico knew it had a talent advantage. It recognized that its rival had no scheme to neutralize that advantage, nor the technical ability to solve an aggressive press head-on. So it pushed its line of confrontation higher and higher, loosened its pressing triggers, and hunted the ball. In doing so, it left its defenders isolated. In other words, it dared the Americans to deviate from their predetermined commitment to the incremental build. And they refused.

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Which, frankly, is ridiculous. There is not a single rational soccer team in the world that commits to playing through a press, rather than bypassing it, no matter how high or hard that press arrives. Not even Manchester City. Oft-cited as the deans of possession-based attacking, City is actual a useful counterexample here. Yes, Pep Guardiola’s teams pass and move through pressure in their own defensive third. But that’s just part of their space-creating scheme. They stretch the field in one direction. If opponents follow, City will also stretch the field in the other.

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Any coach who outright renounces the long ball fundamentally misunderstands the objective of possession. The coveted endgame, no matter the attacking process or style, is a quality chance. And style isn’t binary. It’s not an absolute decision between direct and patient. Soccer is a near-infinite series of decisions, primed by philosophies and gameplans and instructions, but ultimately made based on an ever-evolving library of circumstantial factors. And no matter the gameplan, there are circumstances that make bypassing a press optimal. Far too often on Friday, the USMNT seemed to ignore circumstance. It would invite pressure. Mexicans would enthusiastically accept the invitation. But the U.S. rarely looked prepared for their arrival.

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