The USMNT’s approach in possession

The two 10’s would either receive the ball in the half space, or they would rotate positions with the wingers and receive the ball out wide and play a pass behind the defense.

Panama fielded a simple, low-pressure 4-4-2 in defense. Gregg Berhalter most certainly anticipated that Panama would play this way, because Panama is also in a period of transition with an interim manager and a lot of new, young faces in the squad. To take advantage of this and create some numerical superiorities, the USMNT played a 3-2-2-3 when in possession.

When the US gained possession, Nick Lima would step into the midfield alongside Michael Bradley. In defense, Lima played on his stronger right side, but his role in possession was very similar to that of an inverted or false fullback. Bradley and Lima would look to break Panama’s midfield block with passes up the field to the 10s. The additional central midfielder allowed the 10s, Cristian Roldan and Djordje Mihailovic, to occupy the half spaces further up the pitch.

Finally, the trio of Jeremy Ebobisse, Gyasi Zardes, and Corey Baird made up the front line. In Berhalter’s 4-2-3-1 in Columbus, he gave the team width by pushing the fullbacks up the pitch in possession and having Wil Trapp drop into a back 3 with the center backs. In his first game with the US, he accomplished this in a different way. The two wingers, Ebobisse and Baird, gave the US width when in possession. This helped pin Panama’s fullbacks and at times opened up space for the 10s to receive the ball in wide areas.

10s and wide players: the key to getting behind Panama’s defense

At halftime, Berhalter gave us a little bit of insight into his game plan in an interview. “Our focus is finding the 10s and activating our wingers to get behind their back line. When we did that, we’re extremely dangerous. When we’re just playing in front of them, we’re pretty easy to play against,” he said.

To accomplish this initial goal of finding the 10s (Roldan and Mihailovic) in possession, the US employed a couple different movements and rotations that allowed them to find space. When the defenders circulated the ball around the back, the wingers and the 10s would rotate positions, and the 10 would receive the ball on the touchline. The goal of this rotation was to pin Panama’s defenders and give a 10 the space and the opportunity to play a ball behind the defense to one of the wingers.

Another common movement from the 10s would be that they would drop back in the half space to receive the ball, and then try and find either Michael Bradley or Nick Lima, or look to play a forward pass.

Pressing and Counterpressing

#USMNT counterpressing under Berhalter in #USAvPAN: – Mihailovic, Zardes, Lima, and Bradley immediately find a man and mark them upon losing the ball

– Successfully congest playing space around the ball, forcing it towards the sideline pic.twitter.com/XoV63Qlzqv — Anay (@anayfutbol) February 6, 2019

Here is the full thread of tweets related to this article:

Was planning on posting a write up on #USAvPAN, but since it's been so long, just going to share bits of it in some tweets. #USMNT — Anay (@anayfutbol) February 6, 2019