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LOS ANGELES - With one swing of the foot, Mauricio Pochettino and the U.S. men's national team were dealt a wake-up call. Yes, there's a new coach in charge. Yes, there is reason for optimism given the success of the player pool abroad. But no, this team isn't ready yet.
The same problems that plagued this group last summer remain, and not even Pochettino could fix them on Thursday night in Los Angeles.
After 94 minutes of smashing their heads into the wall, the USMNT lost to Panama. Again. The same team that knocked the U.S. out of the Copa America last summer in Atlanta handed them their first CONCACAF Nations League defeat, winning 1-0 at SoFi Stadium. All it took was one moment of brilliance from Cecelio Waterman - including a post-goal celebration with Thierry Henry - and a whole bunch of "what if" moments from the USMNT on the other side.
Waterman took a pass down the right side from Adalberto Carrasquilla in front of a packed-in U.S. defense and fired a perfect diagonal shot past Matt Turner into the far left corner for the game-winner.
The U.S. had won all three previous iterations of this tournament, and weren't without their chances. Josh Sargent started and had two, one off the post and one called back for offsides. Patrick Agyemang, Sargent's second-half replacement, had two as well. If any of those go in, this is a much different conversation. The USMNT outshot Panama 12-3 - putting five on target, to just one for Panama - earned nine corner kicks and enjoyed two-thirds of the possession.
All the U.S. needed was one real moment of quality. They didn't get it and Panama did. As a result, Panama will play for the Nations League trophy Sunday night against Mexico - 2-0 winners over Canada - while the USMNT are relegated to the third-place game against Jesse Marsch's Canadian side.
“I don't think we approached the game or started the game in the right way,” Pochettino said after the match. “That's why I feel so disappointed and we all feel disappointed. In the first half, we played too slow, too comfortable on the pitch. We didn't show aggression with the ball and there are consequences to not showing aggression with the ball.
“We also didn't show aggression in a defensive way. Even if we didn't concede too much, only two or three shots and one on target going into that last action, but we knew we had to be aggressive with the ball and have a mature approach to the game. I think we didn't show that.”
The margins shouldn't be this fine. The U.S. shouldn't be in this position again. Yet here they are. Even with a number of missing and injured players - including Antonee Robinson - this was unexpected. New coach or not, the U.S. once again walked off a field with Panama celebrating behind them, wondering where the hell it all went wrong.
With roughly 450 days to figure it out before the World Cup brings the USMNT back to this stadium, Pochettino has his work cut out for him. If that wasn't apparent before, it sure as hell is now.
GOAL rates the USMNT's players from SoFi Stadium..
