Three takeaways from the United States’ loss in Olympic qualifying to Honduras | Charles Boehm

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All together now: time is a flat circle.

At least that’s when it comes to American men’s national teams in must-see matches over the past half-decade. Drop the McConaughey “True Detective” GIF wherever you want.

On Sunday, America’s Under-23s had one game to win, one opponent to go through to reach the Tokyo Olympics, and they failed. There really is no other way to tell. We can talk about circumstances, challenges, and disappointments – and there is an important context to consider – but for all the bumps and diversions on the road they’ve taken over the past couple of years, this was a workable claim. for the U-23.

And they shot each other in the foot and were defeated by a deserving Honduran team. Goalkeeper David Ochoa wears the goat horns for his horrific possession error right after half-time, but as you load up your slings and arrows remember: Ochoa, the youngest player on this list, has saved his team’s bacon in their vital opening victory over Costa Rica, without which the United States would never have been this far.

Here are three observations from another US Soccer Waterloo.

They got the details wrong

Coach Jason Kreis has made questionable choices with his rosters and could be accused of being too dogmatic with his team’s form and his insistence on building at the back. From where I’m sitting, however, he trotted the strongest and most sane starting XI available to him right now. Things got risky soon after, however.

For whatever reason, Andres Perea was preferred as the sole pivot at the base of the midfielder, while usual detention midfielder Jackson Yueil rose to a No.8 role, and the United States’ possession game in suffered, looking difficult and tentative for the first hour of the game.

Perea is a long and powerful engine room presence, while Yueill has the cropped range of the passage to set the tempo and change the point of attack. To me they would have made a lot more sense in the reverse deployment, but it was a deliberate wrinkle to try and catch up with Honduras.

“Andres is a great player, he disrupts the opponents’ transition game a lot and I think he is very cunning with the ball,” said a gloomy Yueil after the game. “I think our game plan was to put myself in higher positions and try to play good balls behind the runners.

“The first half was a bit slow in those moments, trying to break them, but as the game progressed I think the connection between Andrés and I improved and we were able to Find us. I think we could have used the outside wingers a bit better and been a bit more behind them.

It didn’t work, and it thwarted America’s hopes of taking the lead with a strong, forward-thinking start to the game.

The wisest and most mature team won

Football, it is often said, is a game of mistakes. The side that does the least usually wins. And it was the same at the Estadio Jalisco on Sunday.

The Catrachos did what they have been doing throughout this tournament and what their national teams have been doing for much of their modern football history: they were organized, tough, intense, engaged, quick and determined in transition. As the dying seconds of the first half rolled by, Honduras remained focused as the North Americans slipped and were rewarded with Juan Carlos Obregon’s scrappy finish from close range, a first goal with a weight huge.

Obregon is actually a product of the American system; he was born in New York and played college football before turning pro. His most recent club was USL Championship Club Rio Grande Valley Toros. He didn’t tip this game in his team’s favor with a transcendent display of skill; he sniffed out space at the back post on a speculative delivery to the US penalty bench, engaged at the right time and grabbed the house.

From there, the United States continued the game, and Ochoa’s gift across the intermission magnified it. Why was the Real Salt Lake keeper so relaxed with the ball at his feet? Why did he consider such a blatant risk with such a limited corresponding reward?

We know Jason Kreis and the coaching staff have a strong commitment to playing off the back, with a focus on long term gain, even with short term pain. But compound decision making is at the heart of this philosophy and at this crucial moment it was lacking. It’s both on Ochoa and the staff that put it together for times like this.

It is a developmental data point among many

There is no excuse for the US men’s latest Olympic failure, EVEN IF the U-23s were missing the top 20 players on the depths chart because their clubs chose not to voluntarily release them.

And even if that created a talent deficit compared to what an ideal American team could have been, the Guadalajara group puffed up its lines in an inescapable situation, just like the USMNT did on that last night. fateful 2018 Concacaf World Cup qualifier in Couva, Trinidad & Tobago.

It is a cause of self-criticism, even of recriminations, whenever a team of professionals fails in such scenarios. But the alarm bells aren’t ringing as loud this time as they did in 2012 and 2016, as over the past two years the senior national team has practically become an U-23 team itself so that a golden generation of young talent is climbing into some of the biggest leagues and clubs in Europe.

This month’s USMNT roster for friendlies against Jamaica and Northern Ireland had an average age of just over 23 and were the protagonists of both wins. We don’t yet know how this group will handle really high-pressure games – we’ll learn more when they play the Concacaf Nations League semi-finals and World Cup qualifiers later this year – but it doesn’t seem too optimistic to assume that they’ll handle it better than the olympic team.

If it’s not the case? This is where the panic strikes seriously.



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