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The United States men’s national team made it the World Cup knockout stage despite scoring just two goals in its three group stage games, tied for the fewest goals scored by a team that advanced the Round of 16 (Poland also scored two). Of the two goals it scored in the group stage, zero came from a striker.
The only goal scored by a U.S. striker came in the Americans’ 3-1 loss to the Netherlands on Friday. Christian Pulisic crossed the ball into the box and it rolled across Haji Wight’s foot and into the net. It resembled a deflection more than a goal.
“If he did that 1,000 times and tried to, he wouldn’t do it once,” U.S. Soccer legend Landon Donovan said on Saturday’s episode of Alexi Lalas’ “State of the Union” podcast. “I can’t tell you how impossible that goal was — I don’t know how that made it in.”
Watch: USA’s Haji Wright scores vs. Netherlands
Scoring goals is hard; it’s even harder at the World Cup; but what makes it nearly impossible is the absence of a true goal-scoring threat at the No. 9 position. Donovan, the U.S. men’s team’s joint all-time leading goalscorer, explained what his former team needs to do to overcome its struggles in front of goal.
“It’s a hard position for a lot of teams to find,” Donovan said. “And the modern game has changed a lot to where there’s a lot more intricate passing and developing the play into positions — No. 9s or strikers are used a little bit less except in front of the goal and in the box. The problem with our team in this tournament was, while we created some chances through other guys, we didn’t create enough chances where a No. 9 would be impactful.
“What we absolutely don’t have is someone who can take the ball, spin someone, roll them in the box, dribble through someone and then score a goal. Christian can from deeper, Gio [Reyna] can from deeper at times, Brenden Aaronson can from deeper, [Tim] Weah can, but we don’t have a No. 9 that can just take the ball. I saw Belgium play Croatia; now, [Romelu] Lukaku had a tough game that night, but he just created chances by just being in the right spot. To be honest, we’re not even close to that right now.”
[Related: Christian Pulisic’s greatness shouldn’t be expected to patch USA’s most glaring hole]
The good news for the U.S. is that it has four years to find that player, and it can do so without the stress of qualifying for the World Cup — the Americans will automatically qualify as a co-host of the tournament. It also has a promising young striker in 19-year-old Ricardo Pepi, who was left off the 26-man World Cup roster despite a good run of form in the lead-up to the tournament. The search won’t be without its hiccups, but it’s a worthwhile endeavor for a team that has talent at every other position.
Was USMNT’s striker position the BIGGEST ISSUE?
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