A tale of two halves for US soccer

Well, the U.S. started off with the draw against Wales, 1-1. But man oh man, the U.S. was this close to pulling off a huge win, one that almost certainly would have sent it through to the next stage.

Never has a tie felt so much like a loss. The U.S. scored in the 36th minute and held a 1-0 lead for nearly 45 minutes. But a silly penalty and successful spot kick gave Wales the tie in the 80th minute.

Wales came out of its defensive shell that it stayed in for the first half and were on much more level footing in the second half. So much so that Wales has to feel just as disappointed as the U.S. for not pulling out the win and all three points.

If you watched only the final 15-20 minutes of the match, you would have thought the U.S. was lucky to come out with the tie. You’d be right. Several shaky moments from the U.S. defense left Sam’s Army nervously biting their nails and it was more a sigh of relief than celebration when the final whistle finally blew.

At the end of the day, the U.S. got what it needed out of the game. But now it has no margin for error.

Here’s a closer look at how I saw the game:

Offense

The first half was as good a performance from the U.S., as whole, as I’ve seen in a while. Certainly might have been different if Wales played the first half like it did the second, but the U.S. dominated possession, were confident and patient on the ball and made decisive passes. With Wales playing packing its defensive end, there wasn’t a lot of space to be found. But the U.S. captured a moment of brilliance when Christian Pulisic had time and space in the middle of the field and ran at the Wales defense. He dropped off a perfect pass into the penalty box, right into the path of a charging Timothy Weah who, on first touch, used the outside of a right foot for a perfectly weighted one-timer past the goalkeeper.

That was about as good as it got for Pulisic, however, who may have been trying to do too much in his World Cup debut as the face of the U.S. team. He misfired on several crossing opportunities until finally finding the range late, but no one was there to finish. He took all five of the corners for the U.S., none of which were particularly dangerous.

Brenden Aaronson, who has had a breakout season at Leeds in the English Premier League, came on as a second-half sub and instantly sparked the U.S. attack as the game had opened up. Wales came out flying in the second half and the U.S. needed someone to counter that energy. Aaronson was that guy, but they went away from him the final 10-15 minutes and the offense stagnated a bit.

The U.S. had several opportunities to get into dangerous scoring positions because as Wales was pressing forward for the equalizer, it was leaving all kinds of space in its defensive end. Several times the U.S. came down on a counter and seemingly every time, they pulled the ball back out. It’s like stopping a fastbreak in basketball to set up the half-court offense. I would have liked to see the U.S. continue those attacks and put real pressure on the defense.

I give the U.S. offense an “A” in the first half and a “C-minus” in the second. The U.S. still has its work cut out for it, especially with England on Friday morning. But the U.S. looked (mostly) confident and at least acted like it belonged in the World Cup.

Defense

The U.S. defense was basically perfect in the first half — because Wales very seldom went on the attack. The U.S. defense was reduced to distribution and pressure relief for the offense.

The second half was a completely different story and all the defensive nightmare scenarios that have kept U.S. fans up at night, came to life over the final 60 minutes.

Wales went on the attack and the U.S. was clinging to, first, the lead and then the tie, as the Welsh seemingly came at the U.S. in waves.

Goalkeeper Matt Turner was fine with the ball at his feet, which had been a concern, and he managed to make one, big reaction save. But he was shaky on corner crosses. Overall, though, Turner was fine. Can’t blame him for giving up a penalty kick.

And speaking of the penalty kick, what was U.S. center back Walker Zimmerman thinking? It was one of the clumsiest fouls I’ve seen in a while in which he tried to go through Welsh striker Gareth Bale to play the ball, missing it entirely and clattering Bale to the ground in the easiest penalty call that center ref will ever make.

While Zimmerman will shoulder a lot of the blame for giving up the penalty, my bigger concern was left back Antonee Robinson, who did very little when he pressed up into the attack.

In fact, a number of those counter-attack opportunities in the second half? Usually it was Robinson who was pulling up and moving the ball backward.

If the left back is going to factor that much into the offense, the U.S. needs a more offensive-minded defender. Robinson showed no imagination on the ball and seemed reluctant to try to swing passes into the box, opting instead to pull back on the attack.

In the end, the scrambling American side did just enough defensively in the second half to salvage the draw and move on to England, still very much in the race to be one of two teams to advance out of Pool B.

It was an “A” performance in the first half, based on the fact the defense didn’t have to do much. In the second half? Oof. “C-minus” if I’m being generous, but really, closer to a “D.” Another effort like that will get punished by England Friday.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: 344-5200 ext. 117. To report scores or tips, email sports@smdailyjournal.com.