Christian Polanco and Alexis Guerreros of The Cooligans are joined by former United States team captain Marcelo Balboa to discuss what went wrong for the U.S. in its international friendly against Belgium. Check out the full conversation on the “The Cooligans” podcast – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
I was happy with 30 minutes, maybe 35 of the first half.
After that, it was just like, “Okay, let’s just let off the gas.
We’re good.
We’re good, and, and welcome to Belgium, 5-2.”
You know what I mean?
When you don’t wanna defend, when you don’t wanna move the ball fast enough, when you don’t wanna try to create spaces and move the ball and break lines, yeah, it’s just frustrating, man.
Frustrating the last half.
you know, yeah, we got a goal back, great.
But a- at the end of the day- Well, well, you gotcha, man you, you gave up five, man.
And that’s the biggest problem we have is, is defensively right now.
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Yeah.
Yeah.
I- and it also just seemed like the team was, for the lack of a better term, discombobulated.
It felt like we couldn’t play in unison, even for the f- for the 35, the first 30, 35.
There were moments where seemed like it was missed passes or, or passes to, to players that didn’t make a run, so I think it got fully exploited, especially once Doku kinda turned it on.
Well, and, and I’ll just add this to Alexis’s comments, ’cause I think may- I don’t know if we’re necessarily seeing a pattern, but I really don’t love the body language after the US give up a goal.
There’s something, it’s not, it’s not great.
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It’s not super, motivating.
I don’t, I don’t, I don’t have the sense like- “Oh, we’re gonna get back into this.”
And I don’t know who is- Yeah the, the, the leadership group that kind of leads that, that- Yeah but it’s, it’s a little bit concerning.
I don’t know how you feel about it.
it’s still some time.
Yeah.
it’s frustrating because, I mean, I get it.
For a coach, you’ve gotta put this group together.
You get three or four days of training.
You’re playing some of the top caliber teams in the world, but man, we’re better than that.
You know, we can keep giving excuses.
We can keep saying the players this.
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We’re better than what we showed today.
Yeah.
100 times better.
So I’m waiting for it to click in.
I’m waiting for Are we gonna wait till the World Cup to the very first game, then we’re gonna kick it?
You know, I don’t know.
I, I don’t know.
I’m ju- I just, the performance today was just kinda like blah.
And it, you know what?
And it pisses me off more than anything, is guys are fighting for their spot.
Could you tell who was fighting for a spot today?
Right.
Yeah.
Other than McKennie?
Yeah.
Yeah.
But okay, listen, McKennie’s our best player right now.
Let’s, let’s just be straight up and honest.
No doubt.
Which is great for, for Pulisic.
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Maybe takes a little bit of pressure off him.
But let me ask you this.
Where was Tilman today?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just that one- Where was Tilman?
If you wanna be a, if you wanna be a starter, if you wanna be a starter, where were you today in the big game?
Yeah.
That’s my question.
Tim Weah- Of, of some of the, of some of the new-