I think he was a little indecisive as it was on his weaker right. Looked like he might have been thinking how he could get it on to his left, then realized he couldn't and took an extra touch.

I just gotta say... hat's off to Poch. I've been critical this week with selections and Milan news, etc. But he's doing some neat things out there.

Obviously plenty of individual mistakes to clean up, but the formation and tactics have been very creative and I love it.

Vessel said:

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I think he was a little indecisive as it was on his weaker right. Looked like he might have been thinking how he could get it on to his left, then realized he couldn't and took an extra touch.

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Think he also just didn't have the pace to cut across the face of the chasing defender

Scally did a good job standing that dude up outside the box, hes looked dangerous this half

Yeah hopefully it doesn't take too long for the North American players to realize the quality and pace of opposition is going way up from what they see all year.

Fotmob top 5 ratings for us:

Pulisic 8.4
Dest 8.1
Pepi 7.5
Balogun 7.2
Reyna/Trusty/Robinson/Freeman 6.9

Bottom 5:
Brady 5.8
McKinnie 6.0
Roldan 6.2
Adams/Scally/Weah 6.3

Mane was POTM with 8.7 but the rest of their team rated pretty poorly outside a couple exceptions.

I am encouraged by the attacking nature vs decent opposition- from the players in both halves. Pepi, CP10, Dest, Flo stood out. Zendejas showed some skill.

I am afeared for defending and especially counter-killing- from the players in both halves. Ream not quick or fast enough. McKenzie not fast enough. Miles bad mistakes.

Yeah, MIles didn't look like he belonged. We better hope Adams and McKennie don't get injured and don't get any yellow cards.

TRM said:

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Yeah, MIles didn't look like he belonged. We better hope Adams and McKennie don't get injured and don't get any yellow cards.

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Miles should never see the field in the WC. His mistake caused the whole debacle and he's just terrible anyway. Him and Roland are miserable to watch!

I don't have much to add.
It was nice to see us dominate a pretty good team. Not sure it means much, but we were the better side.
I hope we don't have to use that 3rd keeper.
Is it too late for Jedi to change his hair? Nobody likes the peroxide blonded mop guy at the world cup. Don't be that guy, Jedi.

Interesting read and wild stat:
This is the first time Jedi and Dest have started together for Poch.

How wing-backs and chemistry helped the US break through against Senegal
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/01/usmnt-senegal-tactical-analysis-sergino-dest-antonee-robinson

One thing I noticed was how often we were big brothered off the ball in general in the midfield.

Nice read thanks for sharing.

I know it doesn't really matter - but I'm a nerd… The first half formation was really a 4 man back and Dest played as an asymmetric wide midfielder. At no point did we have a 5 man back. Dest was always with the midfield line when we were off the ball, but Robinson would fall back to the defensive line. Freeman was a FB. It created an immediate overload on the right side when we won the ball back, and this gave them fits…. Shift guys to cover and you provide openings on the left. Try and play balanced and you get beat by the overload. Loved seeing it.

But at the same time, unless Adams drops back, the Freeman, McKenzie, Ream line seemed too highly susceptible to counters, especially the one time Jedi got up high and gave the ball away. 34 year old Mane was dicing through that back line.

Paraguay and Turkey could exploit that with better skill than Senegal. But maybe they'll be so much more organized and patient in possession - not just living to counter - that we'll have everyone dropped back more of the time.

It was exciting seeing how attack-minded usmnt looked v Senegal though. Very promising.

I'd love to see Trusty get a lot of PT against Germany and see how he does in that setting.

I get that Ream is going to be steady and he's also good at playing long balls, but the CB pairings seem to have a higher defensive upside with Trusty back there. It's good to have that pace/athleticism back there when you expect to throw bodies forward and possibly get hit on the counter.

assuming we stick with 3 CBs all tournament long as Poch has been over the last year, I think we really need a healthy Chris Richards playing centrally in the sweeper role.

on the left, you have two left-foot dominant CBs in Ream and Trusty, each come with a trade-off with the other. Ream has the captain's arm band and is supposed to be trusted with his positional intelligence /decision-making and fully trustworthy accurate distribution, although I thought he was too overconfident with his two-touch change of speed and change of direction moves vs Senegal, wanting to beat a guy before distributing, and he was giving the ball away. I want central defenders to take the easy pass 100% of the time and complete their passes about 100% of the time unless sending it long for your guys to go win a 50-50 ball. Of course, his trade-off is speed and those counter-killing recovery runs. Trusty is faster, but not as trusted as Ream when playing out. I think McKenzie is right-foot dominant, but has played a lot of 5 at LCB for club, too.

Centrally, really feel like we need Richards, as McKenzie and Miles Robinson make me too nervous.

on the right, it looks like Poch will be playing a versatile player no matter what. Freeman can play RB, RWB, RCB. I suppose McKenzie or Miles R. are options. Tyler Adams has played the position for club. Weston McKinnie has played all over the pitch for club in his career from holding mid to #8 to #10 to RB, RWB, even as winger and striker this year. For now, I'll expect we see Freeman try to go full 90 all tournament long.

Tyler Adams didn't merely play it for club - he more infamously also played it in the early GGG days while some nasty MLS player played in midfield. And IIRC that was also when GGG refused to call up Scally even though he was a Bundesliga starter. Ahh the good old days.

That being said, our midfield is so shallow we need Adams always to be there (if he's not resting).

What did you guys think of the performances of the midfielders who played in the 6/8 roles vs senagal?

In the 10 role, I thought Tillman was a pretty good spark plug in the second half, while Reyna left more to be desired in the first half.

Adams looked pretty good to me- at least fit and looked like the Adams from years past. McKennie looked rusty. Roldan didn't do much and flubbed that chance to finish with his left foot. Berhalter received a ton of praise by the tv announcers, but I didn't see it other than some defensive hustle. He was trying to be involved and make himself available offensively but we very rarely played through him and he had a few bad touches and unnecessary fouls I thought. Zendejas looked shifty- very good touch on some passes and good ball moves and turns- maybe a lack of top end speed noticeable on that one breakaway when the Senegalese defender tracked him down.

At the risk of getting run out on a rail, I thought Berhalter looked better than Adams.

But I'll be honest, I was so enamored by the wing play my lazy eyes just ignored the middle.

We really didn't play through the midfield much all match. Tillman was aggressive at making himself involved in the second half though. I liked that.

The ball watching by the Senegal defense was frightening for them. They better clean that up before they face France and Mbappe or they will get torched.

Good showing by Pulisic and Balogun. Sometimes our ball movement by our defense in the back was a bit nervy even before all the changes at half. I hold my breath when we pass back to Turner. He is not the most consistent passer when he plays the ball forward.

I'm really glad Brady didn't have to do much in the 2nd half.

Hot take (maybe it isn't all that hot anymore): Mbappe should not be in the starting 11 for France.