That was more enjoyable to re-watch and grade. Before I get into the minutiae of the individual performances let me say one thing about the overall tactics of the game. Sure. You can hold it over Gregg’s head that his goal was to play possession football and they couldn’t even manage it against Canada.

On the other hand, the team didn’t beat its head against the wall trying to play out like they did against Mexico in the last friendly window. The US tried to play through Canada’s press a few times (generally unsuccessfully), but once it became clear Canada was going to commit numbers forward to prevent this…the US kicked it over their heads. The USMNT had numerical superiority in the attack and scored four goals. Not bad. I’d rather have 37% possession and 4 goals than the slow, impotent possession we’ve been seeing.

On to the player grades. (Here’s the grades from the last game if you want to make yourself depressed real quick)

If you haven’t read one of these before click here for an explanation of the grading system.

The Notes

Plus/Minus Grades

Guidelines for Interpreting the Numbers

15+ Excellent game 9-14 Played well to very well 5-8 Solid 0-4 Not great, Bob Below 0 Sailing by Christopher Cross (this is aimed at a very specific person)

*The Adjusted Total uses the Elo ratings to take into account opponent and competition factors.*

MOTM – Sergiño Dest (+16)

Dest was solid all game long. He has a level of comfort on the ball that I’ve never seen from a USMNT player. There was the one eye catching dribble where he pants-ed Davies, but he mostly didn’t mess up and piled up +1s. The US has one fullback spot filled until 2034 or so. Crazy. And please take that, “He’s not a good defender” take and shove it up your…nose. (What’d you think I was going to say?😏)

Sergino Dest vs Canada



pic.twitter.com/Yqzll6PcPV — Sanjiv (@USMNTvideos) November 16, 2019

Other Notable Positives

Jordan Morris (+14)

I have a confession to make. As recently as 6(?) months ago Morris’ name in the lineup made me roll my eyes and grumble. Now? He’s the best non-Pulisic winger available and he’s probably actually played a little better than Pulisic himself for the NT lately. Morris contributed everywhere for the team. He’s the only player that scored above 0 in all four game phases. I’m still hopeful that Weah or Llanez break through and become game changers, but in the meantime the US could do a lot worse than Morris. (Go to Europe now please 🙏)

Love the track back, knock a dude down thing. He’s also definitely got a Cuauhtémoc Blanco no neck situation.

Gyasi Zardes (+11)

How many people got irrationally angry when they saw Zardes’ name in the starting lineup? I’m guessing I wasn’t the only one. And then he went out there and played the best game I’ve ever seen him play with the US. I’m not entirely sure what to make of it. It doesn’t erase all the other “not as good” performances we’ve seen, but he apparently has this in him. 🤷‍♂️ I still think Sargent is the future of the position, but Gyasi was excellent. Good on him.

Look at that delicate little touch to put McKennie into space. This is the play that ended with Morris biffing the cross btw.

Long, McKennie, Yueill (all +8)

Long ends up differentiating himself from Brooks basically because he scored that header. Long played his usual solid (he’s remarkably fast) defense and mostly (had one in the 3′) avoided the turnovers that drag his score down on occasion.

I feel like people were a little down on McKennie and it’s sorta deserved. He had two really bad turnovers. Those two plays cost him a -5 from me. But other than that he was pretty good. He won the ball several times, put in ton of work, and generally made the middle of the field harder for Canada to play through.

I don’t know if Yueill has passed Bradley, but he is definitely in front of Trapp. He was good in this game. He didn’t do anything exceptional in possession, but he kept the ball moving well enough. It was on defense where he caught my eye. He looked quicker and more agile than Bradley. It could be some sort of confirmation bias on my part, but I don’t think so. Berhalter at least has something to think about at the #6 now.

It’s possible I’m being unfair, but I don’t think Bradley gets this ball.

Room to Improve?

To be honest, I don’t think anyone played particularly poorly. Technically, Brooks had the lowest score from a starter, but that was because he didn’t have much to do. If he scores the set piece instead of Long their scores flip. I also really liked the leadership I saw from him.

I don’t recall seeing things like this from Brooks before

The one position I do think could have been improved was Arriola at right wing. He does a ton of work, makes good runs, etc. but when he gets on the end of something…

Need a winger that can get that on target more times than not (also…another great little pass from Zardes)

Conclusion

All in all, I’m encouraged. It was nice to see that in a “competitive” game Berhalter was willing to change things up. I would still like to see better possession when the team does try to play out of the back, but in this game at least, it did enough to draw Canada in. Also, haste the day when we finally get to see this team play with Pulisic, Adams, Altidore, Weah, Dest, Brooks…with a full complement of players this team might actually be able to give Mexico a real game.

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Totally Random P.S.

Did you know that the third Property Brother plays soccer for Canada?

Right?