Sadly, and to me, unexpectedly, the USA’s run in the World Cup came to a crushing end today with a 3-1 defeat to The Netherlands. Perhaps it shouldn’t be a big surprise, but with an aging Holland team that had a flu bug raging through its ranks versus a young and athletic USA team, I fully expected the USA to win today. Alas, it didn’t happen.

Before we get into the ratings, here’s what we learned today.

The USA desperately needs a center forward, and there’s nobody currently in the player pool who looks the part. Josh Sargent is ok and works hard, but that’s about it. Jesus Ferreira is what he is, which is great against poor competition and anonymous against any sort of quality. Haji Wright is just a guy, and while he got a goal today, it’s unlikely he knew much about it. Unless you have someone, ideally more than just one, at the 9 who can be a consistent threat, all this possession the US can dominate is pretty meaningless. Tim Weah can play the 9, and probably be servicable, but it’s not his best position by a long stretch. We need to develop a center forward. Period, full stop.

Tyler Adams is human.

This team will never achieve its full potential with Gregg Berhalter as coach. And while the man deserves some credit for getting the team qualified, something his predecessors could not do for 2018, he has a long enough track record at offensive ineptness that expecting change at this point is insanity.

Matt Turner is world class goalie. You can win a World Cup with him.

There’s more, but we’ll get into it in greater detail with the individual ratings, which as always will include a half point scoring system because… reasons.

GK Matt Turner – 7.0

Pretty wild ride for Turner this tourney, but he was mostly excellent. He’s still an adventure with the ball at his feet, and at least once a game (he did it again today) he will have an awful touch or make some wildly unnecessary dribble. But the man can stop shots. He couldn’t have done a thing about any of the three goals scored by The Netherlands today, and made three solid saves to keep his team in it. There’s still a ton of upside with Turner and if Arsenal gives him a chance to play more often, he should be even better in 2026. In international circles the US has been largely known for excellent goalkeeping and there’s no reason to think that should change with Turner now the clear cut number 1.

LB Antonee Robinson – 3.5

Shockingly bad today. He’s still quite the talent and we shouldn’t make any rash judgments on his future on one bad performance. After all, Denzel Dumfries is an extraordinary player, but when the guy you’re essentially in charge of has a hand in all three goals your defense allows, you didn’t do your job. He still tried hard, ran forward and tried to create, which is nice. And his final balls into the box were better than they usually are, but when you’re a defender, you’ll be judged first on your defense, and his was woefully lacking today. Leaving Dumfries entirely alone at the far post for Holland’s third was criminal.

CB Tim Ream – 6.5

Just a brilliant tournament from the veteran Fulham captain. Smart in possession and accurate with his passes, he showed a steadiness in a massive game that was missing from his younger compatriots. His lack of footspeed got exposed a few times on Netherlands long balls into space, but he recovered each time into solid position. You’d like to see him actually get to the ball first, but speed isn’t something you can teach. In any case, if he’s still playing at age 39 when the World Cup comes back around again, it’s not crazy to think he might be one of the center backs for the US.

CB Walker Zimmerman – 6.5

Probably his best game of the tournament. Notably, he played smartly in one on one situations that could result in penalties pretty easily in the case of an unwise challenge. Despite their win, The Netherlands were entirely ineffective on set pieces and that’s largely due to Zim’s dominance in the air.

RB Sergino Dest – 5.0

Holland did little on their left flank and he too made wise decisions in one on one situations. But while he’s usually a menace on the right wing, he offered little in attack. Emblematic of his game was when he had a clear shot on goal from about 22 yards away and it ended up in a throw in. For the Netherlands. It would have taken a remarkable shot to score from that distance, especially with the excellent Andries Noppert in goal, but when you take a shot that’s meant to score… and it ends up being a throw in for the opposite team… dude…

CM Tyler Adams – 2.5

Woof. The captain and fearless leader of this team turned in a performance to forget. Not sure if it was fatigue or what, but Memphis Depay’s opener was from his office, the backbreaking second from Daley Blind was from almost the exact same spot. There’s not much else to say. Both goals were preventable with responsible defense and he wasn’t there to do it.

CM Yunus Musah – 5.0

Rendered mostly ineffective by Holland’s strategic defensive posture, you didn’t hear his name called enough. He didn’t do a ton wrong, but you’d like to see a creative player like him make some adjustments and utilize the spaces he’s given. It didn’t happen today, but he wasn’t awful.

CM Weston McKennie – 5.5

You can copy paste Musah’s summary above. Played a nice ball in to Pulisic on which he should have scored in the third minute but otherwise accomplished little, though not for lack of effort. Exhausted after an hour, was subbed off. Not a knock on him, he came into the tournament short on match fitness and gave it his best.

LF Christian Pulisic – 5.0

Spurned a golden opportunity to open the US accounts in the third minute by firing straight into Noppert’s leg when alone through on goal. You just have to score there, especially when your team doesn’t create much in terms of quality chances. Moreover, he found himself with space to shoot on several occasions, but rolled the ball harmlessly into Noppert’s gloves. It would be unfair to say he was poor, and the effort was once again there, but someone had to provide a spark and it wasn’t him.

RF Tim Weah – 5.0

Utilized space on the right wing well, but time after time was unable to provide a useful ball into the box. Overall there’s grounds for huge optimism for Weah’s future on the USMNT, and he should be everpresent. Today just wasn’t his day, though like most of his teammates, it wasn’t for lack of trying.

CF Jesus Ferreira – 1.5

Did nothing. And I mean nothing. As a Ferreira truther of sorts, I took this personally. Should have some work to do before wearing the US shirt again. Subbed off at half time, which was probably 44 minutes too late.

SUBS

Haji Wright – 5.5

Well, he got a goal, though it was pure luck. Should have had one before after smartly intercepting a back pass, but an abysmal first touch around Noppert put him too far towards the end line and his tame attempt on goal was easily cleared. There may be something there with Wright but for now, he’s a work in progress and if the US was going to advance farther than they did, they need better from the center forward position.

Gio Reyna – 5.0

Came on at halftime for Ferreira. While his paucity of minutes this tournament will be a subject of debate for quite some time, I imagine, he didn’t do a lot with his opportunity. He’s definitely a threat when he’s on the ball, and we saw that today, but the final quality – stop me if you’ve heard this before – was missing. Body language is also an issue. He tends to pout and slouch when the ball gets turned over rather than hustling back. That’s a problem.

Brenden Aaronson – 5.0

Came on for Weah. You’ll never fault the effort. And his rating today is purely on that. He will run relentlessly, and moreover, plug passing lanes on defense with admirable commitment. The problem is, a player of his profile needs to be offensively effective. He just isn’t good enough to beat guys one on one. He won’t run at anyone and try to win a penalty. His passing isn’t good. And that’s what we saw today. He may one day be good enough to be an international midfielder, but we aren’t there yet, and the hype train needs to pull the air brake.

DeAndre Yedlin – 5.0

Look, it’s not his fault that when in desperate need of a goal, Berhalter replaced the offensively capable Dest with the rugged and defensively inclined Yedlin. Did well recovering on the wing when the US threw resources forward, but as one of those resources, we again saw why he is still without a goal in 80something games as a US international. That’s fine. He’s a perfectly viable defender on the international level. Just not who you needed today.

Jordan Morris – N/A

Wasn’t out there long enough to calculate any rating of meaning. But in the few minutes he got, he ran hard, as he always does. After all he’s been through with injuries, it was nice to see him get a few minutes here and there this tournament. It’s hard to imagine he’ll be on the roster in 2026, but he’s an easy guy to cheer for.

Coach Gregg Berhalter – 4.0

It’s always easy to point fingers after a loss. Scapegoat. Call for heads, etc. Starting Ferreira today was a gamble, and it didn’t pay off. That’s ok, he pulled the sub string at halftime. Here’s the brass tacks. If you blame him for the team’s offensive ineptness at scoring goals, you would be well within your rights. You would also, however, have to give him some credit for their defensive excellence in this tournament. And if not for an uncharacteristically poor game from their excellent captain today, it could have been 1-1 after 90 minutes. But the bottom line is, he just lacks imagination. For Christ’s sake, needing to score, he replaced the offensive minded Dest with the defensive minded Yedlin. This team needs to score goals. And his coaching track record is flush with leading teams that struggle to score. Give him credit for what he got done. He got the team here. He got them through the group stage. But this is as far as they’ll ever get with him at the helm. A change is needed.

Thanks for reading.

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