U.S. men's soccer team shows its best in the first half as it beats Jamaica 4-2
Four games into the Mauricio Pochettino era of the U.S. national soccer team, the first half of the United States' 4-2 win over Jamaica in the second leg of their quarterfinal series in the CONCACAF Nations League on Monday night at CityPark answered a lot of questions about how things are going.
The first half provided an excellent display of attractive, attacking soccer, with precise passing that created plenty of scoring chances and kept Jamaica from doing much in the way of attacking the U.S. goal. The U.S. led 3-0 after 45 minutes and could have had more.
"Just about perfect," said center back Tim Ream, the St. Louisan who captained the team. "We spoke about that at halftime. Just the movements, the dynamic, getting everybody involved from the getgo, it was exactly the way we talked about it the last couple of days. Really just imprinting our own way on the game. To score three goals and go into halftime feeling good, feeling on top, you've got 45 minutes to wrap it up was nice."
The second half may not have been the template for what the team wants to do, as the team clicked into cruise control and Jamaica threatened to score and, on two occasions, did. But the first half was so overpowering, it was mostly just a matter of when the game would end.
Combined with its 1-0 win in Jamaica on Thursday, the United States won the total-goal series on aggregate 5-2 and advanced to the semifinals of the Nations League, to be played in March in Los Angeles. Panama also qualified for the semifinals on Monday and the other two spots will be determined on Tuesday when Mexico plays Honduras and Canada plays Suriname. The semifinal pairings will be announced after Tuesday's action is completed.
Christian Pulisic scored a goal and took another shot that deflected into the Jamaica net for an own goal. Both of those shots came off passes from Weston McKennie, and Ricardo Pepi and Tim Weah also scored for the Americans. Those three also scored the goals when the U.S. team was in St. Louis last year to play a friendly match against Uzbekistan.
"The way we want to play," Pochettino said, "I am so pleased the first 45 minutes is in the way that we want to grow, build our journey together. And I think it was fantastic to see the players perform. Yes, that is, for me, the way that we need to follow, continuous growing, improving, because in a short period, and we're not too much time to work, in the way that they adapt and receive all the concepts and the way that we try to play, shows that we have unbelievable players with the capacity to understand quick, learn quick, and that is because of our talented players."
"That first half was dominant," Pulisic said. "We did some really good things and put the game away. We can improve for sure on the second, but a really good step for this team.
"I think (the team's) in a good place. Just a new coach, learning some things and it's not easy, especially with national teams, to come in and really train. You don't have a lot of time, so I thought we did a good job of getting the point across. We put on a really good performance, we're in a good spot now but we've got some bigger games ahead and we need to continue to improve."
Along with two goals by the team's top player, the other goals had their own back stories. Pepi's goal in 42nd minute was his second in as many games as Pochettino gives an attacker who is used to coming off the bench a spot in the starting lineup. Weah's goal in the 56th minute, three minutes after a Jamaica goal had cut the deficit to 3-1, came in his first game with the national team since getting a red card and a two-game suspension in the game with Panama in the Copa America in June. His ejection from the Panama game was a major factor in the U.S. team's early exit from the tournament. He credited Pochettino for how well things are going.
"It's the coach," said Weah. "We listen to his instructions in training and we applied it to the field. He gives us the freedom to play. As you saw, Antonee (Robinson) was coming in and getting the ball, which we haven't really tried before, so trying something new and getting the feel. Everyone has quality, so it was good to see that."
Weah, who played on the left side rather than the right because the team identified his left eye as being stronger, almost scored in the fourth minute and was dangerous early though it took him until the 56th minute to score. Yunus Musah sent a long cross to Weah in the box that he had time to stop, control and then fire it into the net.
"I think I was more excited when the other guys scored," Weah said. "I think just being out with them was wonderful. After missing the previous camps and what happened this summer, for me I just wanted to be on the pitch with them again. It was fun tonight. We played well tonight."
Pulisic's first goal was a beauty, a volley at ground level of a cross from McKennie and chipped it over charging goalkeeper Andre Blake. The second included another pass from McKennie that Tanner Tessmann, who had a breakout two games, let run to Pulisic, whose shot hit Jamaica's Di'Shon Bernard and radically changed course, leaving Blake helpless.
Pulisic also had a role in Pepi's goal, making a run that pulled a defender away and gave Pepi space to shoot and score.
The second half was not as picturesque as the first. Jamaica had plenty of scoring chances as the U.S. defense was not as sharp as it needed to be. Pochettino didn't even wait to be asked about it.
"We didn't approach the game in the way that we wanted," he said. "We were talking about that the challenge was in the second half is to win the second half. And that was only the thing that I was a little bit worried, not to go to the second half with the same mentality and same aggressiveness and the approach that we started in the first half, and that happened. We can call it mentality, or we can call it a different word, but I what I saw is things that we still need to improve. We need to in that moment to realize and be a strong in our mind and change the tempo of the game, and not to give one chance, second chance, third chance, and then concede the goal, and then realize that we need to increase our level."
"We made some mistakes and they capitalized on us and that's on us," Ream said. "The coaches will analyze that and I'm sure send us clips and talk to us about it. I think overall, you can't be pleased with the second half but to come away with four goals scored and five over the two games and moving on to the semifinals, you have to be pretty happy."
The attendance of 21,080 on a pleasant but rainy November night marked the third time more than 20,000 fans have shown up for a U.S. national team match in St. Louis in 18 months. There were 21,216 for the Gold Cup match with St. Kitts and Nevis last summer, and 22,294 for a women's match with Ireland. The other national team appearance here, by the men against Uzbekistan for a friendly, drew 15,569.
Soccer reporter
