The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
The World Cup is near. Can Berhalter fix this?
Gregg Berhalter has just weeks to straighten out his wobbly U.S. men’s national soccer team before the World Cup.
He’ll have to do it without any players.
Following a second consecutive dud Tuesday — a lifeless 0-0 draw with Saudi Arabia in Murcia, Spain — the group scattered to rejoin clubs throughout Europe, MLS and, in one case, Brazil. Seasons resume this weekend and employers want their players back.
The U.S. team will not reconstitute again until about a week before the World Cup opener against Wales on Nov. 21 in Qatar, leaving Berhalter and his staff on its own to solve myriad problems that surfaced in the friendlies against Japan (a 2-0 defeat in Düsseldorf, Germany) and Saudi Arabia over a distressing five-day stretch.
Commonly, teams have a long runway to the sport’s ultimate competition following the conclusion of most league seasons. Bonds are strengthened, tactics are fine-tuned and players have time to heal from nine months of almost nonstop activity.
This year, the World Cup was moved to NovemberDecember from June-July because FIFA realized Qatar gets a tad warm in the summer. Now, though, the tournament has made a mess of the European league calendar.
Having already agreed to pause their seasons, the powerful entities running the Premier League, Bundesliga and others were not so inclined to also concede additional weeks for World Cup preparation.
So national teams will have to hit the ground running in Doha — or, in the U.S.’s case, try to avoid falling down the stairs.
“Now we have a fresh start,” attacker Christian Pulisic said, “and we’re going to go into that World Cup flying.”
Players will, in fact, fly to the World Cup. There was nothing to suggest in these last two tuneups the U.S. team will fly in the World Cup.
The nine-day camp in Europe promised to ready the Americans for the tournament, a final assembly to continue building momentum after a transformative few years. Instead, it exposed
problems and cast doubt about whether Berhalter and the roster — which is expected to be the youngest in Qatar — is ready for their greatest test.
Most troubling was not the failure to win either match. It was the sight of a team, fearless and free during much of its rebirth since missing the 2018 World Cup, performing tentatively, lacking ideas and failing to problem-solve.
That falls heavily on Berhalter, who acknowledged he was as responsible as the players for the Japan performance. It didn’t get much better, though, against the weaker Saudi team.
In both matches, there was an absence of chemistry in the attack and few quality scoring chances. The team didn’t seem prepared to handle high pressure or unlock deep-lying resistance.