The US Males’s Nationwide Crew fell 2-1 to Türkiye in East Hartford, Connecticut, on Saturday. It is the USMNT’s third straight defeat of 2025, following losses to Panama and Canada within the Nations League finals in March.
If that feels like unhealthy information for the USMNT, it’s; the crew would relatively not be scrabbling for outcomes on house soil only one yr out from internet hosting the World Cup. However this efficiency in opposition to Türkiye was filled with moments that show the USMNT’s future stays shiny. With the likes of Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Tim Weah, Yunus Musah and Antonee Robinson all unavailable, the USMNT B-team put in a spirited efficiency that appeared way more coherent than what the A-team managed just a few quick months in the past.
Video games like this one deserve context. Whereas the USMNT clearly needs to win each match it enters, its under-resourced B-team in all probability needs to be taking part in out a closely-run loss in opposition to a powerful European opponent like Türkiye. Something higher than that may be distinctive; something worse than that may be insufficient. Which means this specific loss is not a disaster for the USMNT: it is merely an extension of the crew’s established order. (Whether or not or not that could be a disaster in and of itself, nevertheless, stays an open query.)
Who stood out throughout this efficiency? Who fell quick? And who is perhaps working their manner into Pochettino’s A-team because the World Cup looms? Listed here are our ideas on the USMNT’s winners and losers in opposition to Türkiye:
Winner: Jack McGlynn
McGlynn is a polarizing determine inside the USMNT fandom. To his supporters, McGlynn is without doubt one of the crew’s few true line-breaking passers. To his detractors, although, McGlynn is one thing of a defensive legal responsibility: the form of participant who has neither the pace nor the positional consciousness to trace again and canopy for his teammates. If he is not scoring bangers, his detractors purpose, he is not doing something in any respect.
Nicely. On Saturday, McGlynn scored a kind of trademark jaw-dropping left-footed targets, and he managed to do it simply 59 seconds after kickoff. His stunning curled shot knocked the air clear out of Türkiye’s lungs and tilted the opening twenty minutes firmly within the USMNT’s favor. McGlynn could by no means be the all-around midfielder USMNT followers want him to be, however performances like this one present simply how world-class he’s as a goalscorer.
