The USMNT welcomed Portugal to Mercedes-Benz Stadium here in Atlanta for the second of two friendlies in preparation for the World Cup. Following an absolute route by Belgium on Saturday, the USMNT needed to at least give a proper account of themselves against a high quality team, if for nothing else than to build some confidence. It ultimately wasn’t what fans really needed to see from their national team who happens to be hosting the world’s largest sporting event in less than three months, but it was admittedly better than the prior outing. Either way, the USMNT rolls out of this international break with a collective goals for/against of 1/7 and one can only hope Pochettino’s desire to have them learn the hard lessons now truly pays off. Here are the final whistle thoughts live from the Benz.
Buildup vs final product
By the first hydration break inside the air conditioned stadium (presented by Powerade) the USMNT had legitimately created tons of chaos getting into the final third. But while the act of arriving in the attacking side of the pitch looked good, everything else from there lacked any sort of quality you’d expect from national team players of this caliber. Multiple times within the first 15 minutes the U.S. won the ball deep into the attacking third and subsequently made a series of rushed and poor decisions.
To their credit, Portugal took a while to truly appear comfortable, and yes, soccer is a funny game that doesn’t always award the team who’s doing most of the better work. But the USMNT needed something more clinical. And as I type this, it would be Bruno Fernandes who laid off a simple ball in the box for Trincão to make it 1-0 to Portugal entirely against the run of play.
Pulisic
I mentioned it on Saturday’s initial reaction article, but the USMNT’s stars aren’t stepping up and doing star things. Is that unfair? Maybe, but “pressure is a privilege” and all that. Christian Pulisic has struggled in this international window and was directly responsible for quite a large percentage of the “what are we doing” moments in front of goal. He was pulled at halftime, likely more of a preplanned sub but still something that actually needed to happen. Pulisic has always tended to be a wavy player who rides peaks and valleys, so let’s hope he’s getting a valley out of his system now before the World Cup. Either way, he was unfortunately a net negative for this team during these two matches.
Shutting down players outside the box
Ok so let me cook. It’s appalling how much space the USMNT has collectively allowed opposition players to take just outside the US’s 18-yard box. Admittedly, shots from 20, 22 yards are considered low percentage, and that often holds in most league play the world over. But these international breaks, especially on the cusp of a World Cup, are always going to feature the best of the best, and those players tend to be able to take a hit on target from well outside the box. The second Portugal goal was another example of many such spatial mishaps by the U.S. during these two matches, as a ball landed outside the box to some dude named Joao Felix and he did what dudes named Joao Felix are capable of doing.
Felix quite literally had time to pour a galão, let it cool, sip it, and throw the cup away before taking the shot that would put Portugal up 2-0. It’s yet another tactical wrinkle that could quite literally be the difference in staying in the World Cup for any amount of time or exiting early.
Let us know below what you thought of the USMNT’s pre-World Cup home stand.
| Get Atlanta United and NWSL Atlanta training ground updates, audio and video content you won’t see anywhere else, Discord access, and more. Support us on Patreon and help support independent soccer coverage here in Atlanta! Click here to start a 7-day free trial. |
Plan Your World Cup 2026 Trip to Atlanta
Quick links to our Atlanta World Cup guides:
Well friends, I hate to admit it but we just don’t have the quality players to challenge the top teams. It was a joy to watch Portugal move the ball with fluidity, great technical skill, calmness and great passing vision. Can we improve? of course we can, but never to the level needed to play these teams.
We have the athletes, but most of them choose to play other sports due to overall better financial opportunity. Elsewhere in the world, soccer is the pinnacle for the male athlete.
I think the opposite is one of the reasons the U.S. Women’s team typically does well, much better results than the men’s team. There aren’t as many pro sports options that are clearly much more financially lucrative than soccer, so a lot of the better athletes among women will gravitate there.