CHARLOTTE, N.C. — If you weren’t excited about the U.S. men’s national team before, you ought to be now.
Sure, it was just a tune-up game before the World Cup starts in just under two weeks.
But Sunday’s 3-2 win over Senegal in front of 57,741 at Bank of America Stadium marked a statement win — and more importantly, a genuinely convincing 90 minutes — for Mauricio Pochettino’s side against as good of opposition as it’s faced under the Argentine manager.
Facing the African champions — or, at least, the team that won it on the field — the U.S. took the initiative.
They played in possession, pushed the ball up the field and looked connected.
Not just in the first half, when the USMNT’s lineup more closely resembled its best.
But even in the second, after Pochettino pulled 10 of 11 starters, his side looked largely unfazed, save for one particularly brutal sequence from Miles Robinson and Chris Brady.
That dog’s breakfast of a giveaway from Robinson, combined with the misplay from Brady, who had relieved Matt Turner in goal, allowed Sadio Mané to tie the game at two and for Senegal to seize the momentum after a highly encouraging first half for the U.S.
Nevertheless, and after Folarin Balogun caused two goals to be ruled out — one, his own, for offside, and one by Malik Tillman due to a 50/50 foul call on Balogun — the striker made it 3-2 off Tim Weah’s 63rd-minute cross.
Still, after another sequence in which Balogun left a goal on the table, twice failing to score on either side of Weston McKennie hitting the post in the 75th minute, it felt like he’d left something on the table.
In any case, as much as everyone insists results in such games mean little, it’s hard to imagine this won’t be a major confidence boost for a USMNT that probably needed one.
In particular, the first 30 minutes were as good as this team has played, against as good of an opponent as it has faced, in this World Cup cycle.
While we can assume this wasn’t Pochettino’s preferred starting 11 in the World Cup, the USMNT started well enough that it might make him think about it.
Just seven minutes in, a sequence of 20 passes ended with Christian Pulisic playing the ball across to Sergiño Dest arriving late in the box to make it 1-0.
Ricardo Pepi, whose turn and subsequent pass to a running Pulisic had keyed the latter into open space, reprised his role 17 minutes later on the second American goal.
After Alex Freeman’s pass broke Senegal’s lines, Pepi fed Pulisic, who coolly slotted in the finish to break a scoring drought of over five months and get the USMNT out to a 2-0 lead.
The confidence with which Pulisic played was exactly what Pochettino would have wanted to see.
So too was the confidence with which the Americans carried themselves as a whole.
Pepi, who started ahead of Balogun, put forth a convincing case for more playing time.
So too did Matt Turner in goal, with good shot-stopping and distribution alike.
If there was a concern here, it’s the same thing that was the USMNT’s biggest question coming into Sunday.
Without Chris Richards, the back line is prone to moments where it looks too slow and too shaky.
Granted, this aspect wasn’t helped by the aggression with which Pochettino set up.
Sebastian Berhalter, nominally a defensive midfielder, was level with Pulisic and Gio Reyna in attack at points.
Alex Freeman, playing on the right side of a back three — the US initially set up in a 3-4-2-1 that looked more like a 4-2-3-1 after halftime — was happy to go forward too, leaving Mark McKenzie and Tim Ream to defend counterattacks in what always looked like a risk.
Indeed, Mané’s 2-1 goal in the 44th minute came from a Senegalese counter in which Habib Diarra surged into space off Jedi Robinson’s giveaway, turning Ream around and making things easy for the Teranga Lions’ captain.
The duo of Robinson and Auston Trusty, which took over in the second half, wasn’t much more convincing.
That Pochettino felt comfortable at all playing so aggressively, though, and that his team largely executed, was a statement unto itself.