USMNT handed reality check by Doku, Belgium ahead of World Cup

ATLANTA — The preparation of the United States men’s national team for the World Cup has entered its final phase. Not only will individual performances be scrutinized, but team-wide cohesion is as well.

As such, Saturday’s match against Belgium provided a sobering assessment of where the USMNT currently stands, with the Americans enduring a heavy 5-2 defeat. Granted, it was one game, but the U.S. doesn’t look remotely ready for when the games start for real in June.

The U.S. looked competitive in the first half. Weston McKennie continued his fine run of form, scoring the Americans’ goal to put them 1-0 up. But while the U.S. backline held up well into the second half, it had no answer for an electric performance from Belgian winger Jérémy Doku and saw its five-game unbeaten streak came to an abrupt end.

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It was a match where the deployment of the USMNT’s center backs was the main area of focus. FC Cincinnati’s Miles Robinson and Crystal Palace’s Chris Richards were both out injured with groin and knee ailments, respectively, while FC Augsburg defender Noahkai Banks remains non-committal to the U.S. squad. There are other reasons to be worried about the backline. Charlotte FC’s Tim Ream hasn’t been at his best so far this season, while Mark McKenzie still has a few levels to climb in terms of consistency with the USMNT. Those factors left manager Mauricio Pochettino to revert to the old standby formation of 4-3-3, with Ream and McKenzie anchoring the defense.

In the end, it wasn’t so much the center backs that were the issue. This was a team-wide humbling that will do little to inspire confidence in this U.S. side. In particular, the Americans’ defending on the flanks was abysmal. Belgium repeatedly found Doku isolated out wide either in transition or via a big switch of the point of attack and, even when he was double-teamed, he still found a way to torment the USMNT. Case in point was Amadou Onana’s go-ahead goal in the 53rd minute. McKenzie didn’t do badly to contain Doku’s run, but the Belgian managed to suck nearly the entire U.S. defense towards him, leaving space for others. Doku played the ball to Charles De Ketelaere, who laid the ball off to Onana to fire home.

To be fair, Doku is an outstanding player. He wouldn’t be on the books of Manchester City if he wasn’t. But this is a USMNT side that has set big goals for itself at this summer’s World Cup. If the U.S. is to make a deep run, it is going to have to beat a team of Belgium’s caliber, probably more than one. That Timothy Weah was the player usually victimized by Doku is somewhat surprising given he’s played as an outside back plenty of times this season. It leaves one to wonder if anyone on the U.S. squad could have done better. Alex Freeman certainly couldn’t have done any worse.

That said, the U.S. also needed to do a better job of providing help out wide while also picking up late runners into the box and not resort to just watching the ball. This falls on the entire team, not just the backline, and is a fairly basic defense concept. That the U.S. seemed so incapable of executing in this area is probably the most concerning aspect of the performance. A return to three at the back — even with the depleted complement of center backs — is probably in order.

There are questions to be answered about the U.S. midfield as well. With Tyler Adams not even making the trip stateside due to a quad injury, an opportunity beckoned for Johnny Cardoso. After a rough first five months of the season with Atletico Madrid due to some ailments of his own, Cardoso has ramped up his performance level at his club to the point that he now appears indispensable. The problem with the USMNT is that Cardoso has never come close to replicating that level of form.

On Saturday, Cardoso showed some flashes. He was a perfect 13 for 13 with his passes. His clever pick allowed McKenzie to break free on his goal and redirect Antonee Robinson’s corner. He also had a vital tackle in the 17th minute that thwarted a Belgian counterattack. It was a surprise then to see him substituted at half-time with Cristian Roldan taking his place, although Pochettino explained after the match that the change was pre-planned due to some discomfort the player felt earlier in the week.

For a team that didn’t possess the ball that well in the first half it was a strange decision, one that calls into question the level of the team’s depth. The second half witnessed a deluge of goals from Belgium with the U.S. continuing to show its inability to defend one-on-one situations. Goalkeeper Matt Turner, who was a surprise starter in place of Matt Freese, was continually left exposed. What will also give Pochettino pause is that he made liberal use of his bench, and things actually got worse. The only bright spot was when Ricardo Pepi deflected a pass out of the back that allowed Patrick Agyemang to score a consolation goal.

Is there reason to panic? Not yet. Four years ago, the U.S. fell 2-0 to Japan in its penultimate friendly prior to the 2022 World Cup that wasn’t nearly as close as the score indicated. In that instance, then-manager Gregg Berhalter got some data on who he could count on to deliver at the World Cup and who he couldn’t. Pochettino will need to do the same.