CNL ’24 takeaways for USMNT

By Charles Boehm – WASHINGTON, DC (Mar 25, 2024) US Soccer Players -The Concacaf Nations League belongs to the USMNT. The Yanks maintained a tight grip on the competition with Sunday’s 2-0 championship final win over Mexico at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, extending their streak of winning all three editions of the CNL so far.

At the start of last week, Antonee “Jedi” Robinson said the US aspired to win Nations League so reliably that outsiders got bored by it. The team and its supporters thoroughly enjoyed the evening, though, and can pivot back to club action with confidence and momentum as a big summer beckons.

Here are some takeaways from another championship weekend.

Winning with style

The scoreline was extremely familiar, continuing a long, proud tradition. Yet this Dos a Cero felt different from the many that came before. The USMNT didn’t just beat Mexico in this final. It did so in a fashion that was both comprehensive and expected, leaving all sides of the border rivalry without a shadow of a doubt about which program tops the region at present.

El Tri’s approach was to sit deep, absorb pressure, and hunt for openings to counterattack, conceding possession with a cautious approach that would once have been unheard of in these clashes. Afterwards, coach Jaime Lozano framed it as Mexico’s best option, and it helped make for a tight, hectic first-half until Tyler Adams’s long-range golazo shifted the game state just before the intermission.

The deficit in confidence and fluidity between the two sides grew more noticeable with the passage of time. The underdogs had no way back after Gio Reyna doubled the lead in the 63rd minute. The US is now unbeaten in its last seven matches vs Mexico with five wins and two draws, outscoring El Tri 9-1 in the last six.

“They were better. I think they were a little bit better in everything,” said Lozano. “In quality, how they pressured us and the chances at goal. They won fair and square today. For me these experiences should teach you as much as possible, and then you turn it around quickly and continue forward.”

Recovery and redemption

There was poetry in the identity of the two goalscorers. Adams and Reyna have been core members of the group for essentially all of Berhalter’s tenure and bring rare, special qualities on and off the pitch. Both looked thrilled to be reunited with their MNT comrades after weathering different manners of adversity at club level in recent months.

Beyond their clinical finishes, the duo struck up a useful understanding with one another in central midfield, Adams in his usual #6 role and Reyna as the two-way attacking mid that Berhalter envisions him growing into so well. Their successful returns increased the overall vibes that much further.

“I love him to death,” said Reyna of Adams, who is finally back after a frustrating battle with hamstring issues. “I’ve had my tough moments through injuries a few years ago. So I know what it takes and I know how hard it is. And I’m just so happy for him. He’s a great guy, so important for the team and for the group as a leader. And obviously as a player, you saw the performance he did tonight…. Hopefully we can just go on and keep continuing with our relationship on and off the pitch for the next ten years.”

Entering this international window, questions circled about how much they’d even be able to play in these two games. Reyna came in with limited action under his belt at Nottingham Forest, and Adams worked under a cap, predetermined by USMNT and AFC Bournemouth staff, on how long he’d play. It’s safe to say they and the coaching staff made the very most of those minutes.

Responding to expectations

The final answered some of the questions raised by the flaws in Thursday’s comeback win over Jamaica and the uneven segments of the quarterfinal win over Trinidad and Tobago in November.

As the clock ticks down towards Copa America, widely pegged as the single most important data point for progress and evolution along the path towards the North American World Cup, scrutiny has increased on Berhalter in particular. It was a form of response to those rising expectations that the spirit of the group was evident as they celebrated the goals, final whistle, and latest hardware hoist together.

“It’s something that we do respond to,” said Berhalter. “When the guys feel like we’re pressured, then we come out with good, really good performances. For me it’s really focusing on that type of performance every game, and that’s what it’s going to take to be successful at an event like the World Cup. But I know the guys, in the last World Cup, as soon as they got to camp, it was like focus, focus, focus, they were on it. Same thing in this camp as the camp went on. So I know that focus for me, it’s about really taking advantage of every single opportunity we have, because before we know it, 2026 is going to be here.”

Many in this collective grew up together in the youth national teams system. Still more came of age together during the ’22 cycle. They seem to sense that defining moments of their time together will soon be at hand.

“These guys are like brothers to me,” said Adams. “I grew up with a lot of them. I’ve known them all for such a long time. And if I didn’t grow up with them, I was watching them from afar, keeping track on their development and what they were doing. So to bring this group together and see how far we’ve come in the past couple of years, says a lot. You know, people have a lot of question marks about this, about that. But to see what we do week in week out, when we have the opportunity to work together, we continue to grow. So it’s special.”

Coming into focus

Aside from major tournaments, national teams get such limited time together. The buildup to this CNL semifinal involved as little as one training session before gameday for some of the squad. Incumbent familiarity can be an advantage against opponents in a state of transition and construction.

Once Thursday’s tricky hurdle had been surmounted, albeit with a great deal of unwelcome nerves along the way, the combined effect of the USMNT’s years together began to show itself. Rivalry matches always demand commitment and intensity. Amid that, the team gradually knitted together familiar patterns of play and leveraged their qualities in decisive areas.

“Well, I think it’s clear who we are,” said Berhalter. “We’re high intensity, high pressing, with the ball we’ve evolved a little, we had a lot more control today at times. In the game, I think in the end of the game we lost a little bit of control, but we’re dynamic. We’re fast, we can get behind teams. You know, I think if you watch our team, there’s really things that you’d be concerned about if you’re our opponent.”

Much will be learned about the state of this USMNT in the group stage of Copa America when that tournament begins in June, particularly in the much-anticipated duel with Uruguay in Kansas City. In the meantime, Nations League success represents wind in the sails for both individuals and the whole.

“It’s good for momentum. I think we’ve been together with our core group for a while now and I think we know what it takes to win big games and tournaments,” said Reyna. “Hopefully we can carry that into Copa America and have a great run there and maybe even lift a trophy.”

Photo by Robin Alam – ISIPhotos.com