There is a line in the song 'Only happy when it rains' when Garbage Front-Woman Shirley Manson sings 'pours your misery on me'. For 80 minutes of drunk rain and misery the national team of the United States through.
An early goal brought the USMNT for visitors Turkey to Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut. But the sloppy weather reflected the game of the American as consistent mistakes on the backline lead to two cheap goals and a loss.
In the first of two warm-up competitions before this summer's conacaf Gold Cup, the USMNT attacked in attacks and sprints while constantly exposed to the backline.
It is a performance of the team that has selected head coach Mauricio Pochettino. Multiple USMNT starters recover from injuries or connected to clubs participating in the club World Cup. Others, such as Christian Pulisic, asked the USMNT not to be included in this summer's procedure.
The result is a team consisting of only seven members of the 2022 FIFA World Cup team that reached the knockout phases. Although the USMNT has sent its best to the Gold Cup for more than ten years, the performance in Connecticut showed that the depth in this team is shallow.
For Pochettino, his rocky start continued on top of our men's football on home floor –
White smoke appeared immediately behind the benches when the game started – probably Turkish fans who smuggled it in security protectors.
What was not smuggled was fireworks – they were only provided for two minutes by Jack McGlynn, who curled a sublime shot with his left foot to beat Berke Özer for the opening goal of the game.
Unfortunately for the US, these were the only real bangers they showed for the rest of the game, because the national team was often exposed by Turkey.
The first big chance of the visitors came on the wings when Kenan Yildiz from Juventus was free with a long ball along the left. He placed a perfectly weighted ball in the middle for Arda Güler of Real Madrid, whose finished betrayed the efforts for him.
A breakthrough eventually came for the visitors. Although the credit goes to Güler, it was essentially the goal of Johnny Cardoso. The real betis -midfielder was too carefree with the ball just nine meters from his own network and the pass he tried to play for a teammate who took the feet of the Madrid man and in his own net.
Even three minutes later, the Turks did not use an American backline that make their way through the pressure.
Another breakthrough of the left wing led to a first chance that nobody found. A second ball hit by Oguz Aydin went into an unorganized USMNT backline.
Miles Robinson made a half -hearted attempt or let the ball take a hard touch off his feet. Anyway, it fell on Kerem Akturkoglu – whose shot took an uncomfortable bouncing, but crossed the line to bring the visitors 2-1.
The American backline looked perfectly acceptable in their own attacking structure – where Max Arfsten often found room on the left flank of the US.
But when he stopped the Turks, the USMNT was often unable and he could not keep track of the pace of their opposition.
Admittedly, the nation they played against sent their 'A-Minus' team. The attack was all their usual suspects, but other starters missed elsewhere.
For Saturday, the Pochettino Fielded team could be appropriately assessed a degree of 'C-Minus'. The 26-man selection named after the Gold Cup is on the borderline of the 'B-Minus/C-Plus', but starters such as Tyler Adams, Matt Turner, Brenden Aaronson and Mark McKenzie did not play the first 45 minutes.
When Adams and McKenzie finally came halfway, they showed their quality. At the 61st minute, Adams took the ball in the box and broke a ball in Chris Richards – whose header went directly in Özer, but was the best American chance in the early stages of the second half.
Adams, the USMNT captain on that World Cup 2022, looked furious – frustrated by the display for 34,023 in the stuffy weather.
The attack often led to nothing. Patrick Agyemang, the striker of Charlotte FC who played in his hometown East Hartford, rarely had opportunities in his own way. McGlynn tried more strikes, but they never even threatened to rattle the net.
The result of Saturday must come with the reservation that this is not the best team of the US. The use of this version as a prospect for the World Cup to come in almost a year would be irresponsible.
But this comes at a time when the momentum around this team seems to have stopped since hiring Pochettino.
However, the result paints a bleak picture for the continental competition that starts next Sunday. Every year the United States enter the Concacaf Gold Cup with expectations of winning – regardless of the caliber of the team they send.
Those expectations may not be set in this team. And that's a problem.