A New Era: It Took One Game And One Win To Show Why Mauricio Pochettino Should Be Viewed As The Savior For This US Soccer Generation
I know it's one match. I know it's one match at home vs Panama (do they even have, nevermind y'all remember the KFC tweet) but I don't care. This is what we've been waiting to see. You know why? We lost to Panama this very year, in America, during Copa America. I don't care about circumstances or anything like that, we finally have a team that looks like we should. They were composed, they did what they were supposed to and it's not like we had our true top roster. Yeah, I think Tim Weah is that important. But it didn't matter. 2-0 is what matters.
It started with Musah:
Of course Pulisic was involved. It's America playing, Pulisic does something good. That's how it goes. But it also showed 3 of the most important players of this era. Antonee Robinson, Pulisic and Musah linking up for that goal. Also makes you think that Musah didn't score with Gregggg in charge and scored game 1 here. No reason for him not to have a goal and if we add him doing things like this and we have a whole different look. I don't care how it happens or, again, it's Panama. We struggled in shit like this before. It was scoring and then bringing Pepi on to double up:
We need to lock down that 9 spot as much as anything else. You have Balogun hurt for this match, he's expected to be up top. Then it's Pepi, Sargent, Vazquez, Wright and probably in that order. If you want to say Sargent over Pepi I won't argue. Poch has made it clear he prioritizes who is playing minutes and doing well in club too since he has a limited amount of time with the US team. Again, whoever can score. I want to see Brandon Vazquez get some run because he's a different look up top. See what he can do and figure out the top-3 as you head into 2025.
It's been talked about, blogged about, podcasted about. Shit is different. We're running real practices, Pochettino has a real strategy and not just eh you guys are good enough, go score. Tonight proved that. We should beat Panama and 2-0 is fine. I know people will freak out that it's not 5-0 or whatever, you win 2-0 and keep figuring it all out. Hell, it's better than what we saw in the last window at home.
Next up is Mexico. Beat them and then figure out the roster. Get guys healthy, figure out who is next to take over in Tim Ream's spot and let's start building for 2026. All I know is shit is different. You can see it watching them play.