The US men’s national team started their Gold Cup campaign in 2021 with a 1-0 victory over Haiti, when Sam Vines scored their first international senior goal.
New England Revolution goalkeeper Matt Turner kept clean sheets, while Major League Soccer players Gianluca Busio, James Sands and Eryk Williamson maintained stability during their debut at USMNT. Despite the result, the USA did not dominate as expected and head coach Gregg Berhalter left disappointed with the team’s performance.
“We still need to go to another tool. You can see that we are a bit rusty, the movements were not as clean as they normally were, and we did not create enough and we did not finish enough chances, “he said before digging into the criticism.
“I missed the urgency to score more goals, be dangerous, play the first pass forward and be aggressive.
“For me, it was way too slow, way too backward and not enough of an intention to turn Haiti and get them to defend in the penalty area. And once we were in the penalty area, I did not like the runs and the movement into the box – I did not like So from the attacking end, we were disappointed with the intention we showed tonight. “
Before the tournament, Berhalter admitted to having called a squad with limited offensive depth in hopes of seeing Nicholas Gioacchini and Matthew Hoppe thrive on the wings. During the match against Haiti, the team’s limited resources proved to be a problem, especially after Paul Arriola limped off the field in the 14th minute with an obvious hoarding complication.
14 ‘| Early change … @PaulArriola leaves the game with an injury and is replaced by Overland Park, Kansas, @Nicholas_gioacc.
?? 1-0 ?? | #USAvHAI | # GoldCup21
– US Soccer MNT (@USMNT) July 12, 2021
“So it was mixed and matched a bit, and I thought we lost our efficiency – Paul is really bored about how we want our wingers to play. So it was a big loss in the game, you could see how effective he was early “commented Berhalter.
Going forward, USMNT needs to improve when facing a tougher Canadian side and potentially the Mexican national team further down the competition.
