There’s only so much to get out of games like the US men’s national team on Sunday, when the Yanks blew out Trinidad and Tobago 7-0 in their friendly game in Orlando.
USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter is well aware of the caveats: The T&T side the US played on hadn’t taken the field by storm for nearly a year, leaving them far behind in fitness and chemistry, which is the whole night was clear. But as the program gears up for a jam-packed 2021, Berhalter said after the game that taking the score with a little salt shouldn’t lead to a reduction in some of the positive takeaways.
“You can only play against you against the opponent on the field,” said Berhalter. “What I really liked about the boys was the focus and the intensity. After three weeks of training with a relatively new group, a young group, it is good to be able to see those elements on the playing field against a real opponent.
“We know it wasn’t a World Cup qualifying team based on who they had available. But still it was good to see the focus of the team.”
The Yanks were dominant from the opening whistle on Sunday, scoring the first goal of the game just two minutes after the game courtesy of Jonathan Lewis and never looking back. FC Dallas native Jesus Ferreira was arguably the biggest star on the show with two goals and three assists, but Berhalter said it was the collective effort that impressed him the most, not just on Sunday, but during the camp in January.
Sam Vines, Aaron Herrera, Miles Robinson and Lewis all joined Ferreira as young players with outstanding performances. Even New England Revolution goalkeeper Matt Turner found a way to make his mark on a night when there was virtually nothing else to do, by stopping a second-half penalty to ensure the USMNT ended with a zero.
“The whole team over the past three weeks has impressed me: the attitude, the mindset, the focus, the intensity was all there for three weeks,” said Berhalter. “When I look at today, when you talk about Jonathan Lewis and Jesus Ferreira, they’ve gotten excellent assists and goals. Sam Vines did a great job. The center-backs were strong throughout the game, Aaron Herrera played well.
“It’s very difficult to pick a player who didn’t play well from the starting XI, so generally happy with the guys, happy with the effort of the group and especially the concentration and focus they showed.”
The games promise to get much more difficult for the program later in a huge year, but Berhalter said the camp and friendly on Sunday were all about building blocks, whether it was for young entrants looking to make their case for more hats. moving forward, or the more established players who have already been part of the rotation.
In that sense, Berhalter said, he considers the team’s first mission a success.
“There are players in this camp who are very much part of the entire team,” said the coach. ‘When you look at Sebastian Lletget, Aaron Long, Paul Arriola, Walker [Zimmerman] was part of it, Jackson [Yueill] has been a big part of what we’ve been doing lately.
“So for us we used this camp as an integration camp where we could mix the senior players with the U-23 players and really work with both teams and prepare both teams for what lies ahead this year. Looking at that, when I look at the purpose of the camp, based on that it was a success. “