INGLEWOOD, Calif. — After Thursday’s stunning loss to Panama, the U.S. men’s national team promised a response. Head coach Mauricio Pochettino assured fuming fans that a sleepy CONCACAF Nations League semifinal “didn’t describe, or doesn’t describe, how we are.” Players said they’d “look in the mirror” and “raise the bar.” And yet, in Sunday’s third-place match against Canada, they did none of that.
They lost 2-1 to their northern neighbors, and deserved every last ounce of the defeat.
They managed one solitary shot on goal over the game’s first 84 minutes.
In the face of criticism and doubts, they talked about how, “if we want to be praised, we have to give people something to praise us about,” as midfielder Tyler Adams said Saturday. Instead, they regressed, and further disillusioned their supporters, and inflamed doubts about their readiness for a World Cup on home soil next summer.
All involved promised that, after the 1-0 loss to Panama, Sunday’s performance would be better. This Nations League consolation match would “be an important game to see how we react,” Pochettino said Saturday.
“Mentality obviously needs to change,” Adams said hours later.
“We’re gonna come out with that fighting spirit,” Tim Weah added.
In the interim, they had one-on-one talks and a “beautiful meeting,” Weah said, in which Pochettino pleaded for “killer mentality” and more. The message, Weah said: “We have to want it. We have to want to be here 100%. We have to fight.”
But on Sunday, they floundered. For most of the first half, they didn’t take the risks nor show the “aggression” they said they would. In a stadium that was once again nine-tenths empty at kickoff, they played dull soccer, and conceded a 27th-minute goal before they’d even taken a shot of their own.
Soon thereafter, Diego Luna tried to inject life into the USMNT, and into another snoozefest. Playing in his first competitive match for the national team, he started an attacking move from the right side of midfield, and, with a driving off-ball run, propelled it into the penalty box. It was the exact type of initiative that the U.S. lacked Thursday — and has often lacked under multiple managers.
“The desire and the hunger that he showed is what we want,” Pochettino said postgame.
At the end of his run, Luna received a pass in stride. He poked a clever square ball to Patrick Agyemang, who equalized with a firm finish.
The two Major League Soccer attackers, two of five changes to the U.S. starting lineup, seemed to lift a lagging team back into the game.
Neither, though, could erase the mediocrity around them. Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie, the team’s two Italy-based stars, were quiet. Adams and Weah looked nothing like their typically active selves. The USMNT was once against stagnant. Why?
“I think we need to have every single person buy into exactly what we’re doing and what we’re trying to do,” Adams said postgame. “It’s just the little things … duels, tackles, leaving your mark on the field, not being naive in certain moments, being a little bit more clever — all the details of the game that, I feel like, when I watch people play with their clubs, we do. And then when we come here, sometimes I think we forget a little bit what the games are gonna give us.”
Not long after halftime, they receded again. They nearly conceded two penalties. (Canada head coach Jesse Marsch was red carded for protesting one of the no-calls.) Then, in the 59th minute, they conceded again. Jonathan David put Canada up 2-1.
And that’s how it ended, just as a friendly between these two teams ended in September, with the U.S. beaten — and with all sorts of questions swirling about the talent, passion, ceiling and capabilities of these U.S. players.
It ended with Pochettino “disappointed,” again, and reaching for reasons that the medium-term future, in 2026, could still be bright.
“I want to send the message to the fans: Don’t be pessimistic,” Pochettino said.
But he couldn’t offer clear rationale for why they shouldn’t be, other than: “In football, anything can happen.”
And as he rose to depart his postgame press conference, he apologized to everyone present, saying that he felt “shame” after the two losses, and promising, again, that “next time” would be different.
Later, as Pochettino slumped in his shotgun seat on the team bus, Adams was asked whether he, like fans, is concerned one year out from the World Cup.
“I’m never concerned, man. It’s football,” he said. “You gotta show up in big moments, when the moments matter. We didn’t show up in this window here. We’ve showed up in the past, in moments when we needed to.”
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