The US national team lost control of matters early on Friday night, suffering an irksome 3-0 friendly defeat to border war nemesis Mexico in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
The hosts raced out of the blocks terrifically thanks to about 20 minutes of gutsy ball movement, but a Javier Hernandez goal ended the fun and completely changed the tenor of the match.The Nats had their positive spells of play here and there, but never fully recovered and missed the chance to gain quick revenge for their Gold Cup final loss to Tata Martino's swarming crew.
Zack Steffen (3) — There's no reason to fault the netminder on Mexico's opener or capper, but his distribution was rather spotty even before he gifted their back-breaking second with a horrid pass up the middle. Steffen is a fine 'keeper, but damaging decisions with the ball at his feet have become a concerning trend now.
Reggie Cannon (4.5) — The FC Dallas youngster picked some good moments to get forward, but was ineffective when the delivery moment of truth came. Though Cannon also had his moments defensively, a few dangerous crosses did emanate from his corner.
Walker Zimmerman (5) — While he committed no major errors at the back, one would expect the LAFC defender to come up with more stops, especially when the opponent spends a large portion of the game swarming the US end. More distressingly, there were simply too many risky, errant passes coming off his boot.
Aaron Long (3) — It was an off night from the Red Bulls center back, to say the least. On the first Mexico tally, Long wandered into no man's land, forcing near post cover from Zimmerman that left tons of goalmouth space for Chicharito to exploit. He was also ineffectual when the team needed an intervention on El Tri's third and uncharacteristically whiffed on a couple of clearances. Finally, no one needs him rushing out to commit a yellow card foul on a player facing the crowd next to the sideline near midfield.
Sergino Dest (5) — Like the team as a whole, the debutant was pretty terrific during the first 20 minutes. Dest showed no fear in handling business up and down the flank, and even drew a decent save from long range. After getting ruthlessly nutmegged on the opening goal play, he faded a good deal. Still, it was a fairly encouraging first US outing.
Wil Trapp (3) — When he's not pinging diagonal leads to speeding wingers, the Columbus skipper struggles. Trapp did not do that in this game, which only makes his defensive frailties stand out all the more. His biggest demerit comes for neglecting to pick up the Hernandez run on Mexico's first. It was a big no-no.
Alfredo Morales (4.5) — Back in the team after a long absence, Morales certainly came to play. He was stuck in all night, and definitely had some solid episodes. The problem is, he's a lot better as a disrupter around or across the midfield stripe than he is in his own end. With that being the case, the limitations in his passing game tend to stick out like a sore thumb.
Weston McKennie (4) — Stop me if you've heard this before: we need more consistent activity on and near the ball from the Schalke talent. McKennie made zero defensive stops in the middle of the field and did not drive play forward as much as he usually does.
Tyler Boyd (5) — It's hard to ding the Besiktas winger too much because he went long stretches without seeing the ball. Even so, Boyd was much more of a possession facilitator/track-back helper than an attacking headache for the opponent in this one. Just because the volume of touches drop, there's no need for his aggression to do the same.
Christian Pulisic (4.5) — The Chelsea ace had a threatening look about him early, and contributed some strong pressure valve work throughout the contest. That said, he was oddly hesitant in the final third over the last hour. The bigger problem, though, was repeated instances of checking out defensively on Mexico advances down his side, such as on the first goal.
Gyasi Zardes (5.5) — Some may gripe over the Columbus striker's performance, but there's not a whole lot he can do when the team doesn't get him any touches within, say, javelin-throwing distance of the goal. They weren't even trying to use him for hold-up play. To his credit, Zardes did work his tail off defensively.
Coach Gregg Berhalter (3) — I could air a few objections about construction of the lineup (and the selection, for that matter), but let's instead focus on in-game decisions. The match started well enough, but there was never a real tactical reaction from the boss after Mexico pushed their pressure line deep into the US end and grabbed the opening goal. Yes, it was a friendly and the players need to drill things. But Berhalter needs to drill things, too, like game management and putting your charges in an ideal position to succeed.
Subs:
Miles Robinson (6) — I'm not going to fault the debutant defender for his step into traffic on Mexico's jailbreak for the third goal, as some might. From my view, there was nothing overly constructive or calamitous in Robinson's half-hour-and-change on the field.
Jordan Morris (6.5) — The Seattle speedster looked lively and more full of intent than his right wing predecessor, and his expert body shaping to a lead pass earned the penalty.
Daniel Lovitz (5.5) — The Montreal left back got away with failing to track a back post runner. Other than that, there was nothing especially noteworthy about his 22 minutes of action.
Josh Sargent (5) — The sub striker pitched in with a few nice link touches, but he has to do better than a weak penalty try to the direction the 'keeper is already cheating.
Sebastian Lletget (6.5) — Not everything he tried worked, but the LA Galaxy man provided nearly as many true moments of impact as all three starting midfielders combined. Lletget's excellent entry pass led to the spot kick.
Jackson Yueill (-) — Stoppage time cameos generally don't merit grades, but the San Jose midfielder did manage one positive attacking half pass completion per minute played.
