Cheat Sheet for what to watch for in the USMNT friendly vs. Senegal
The pre-World Cup friendlies seem more important than ever. How will we know if Poch is pulling the right strings?
First, an announcement: Me and Gass, and likely at least one special guest, will be live on Soccerwise immediately after the game this Sunday. We’ll post the link on all our socials, or you can bookmark the Soccerwise YouTube page and just meet us there right as the final whistle blows.
The US men’s national team will be taking on Senegal this Sunday, the first of two tune-ups ahead of the World Cup itself. That tourney kicks off on June 11 when Mexico host South Africa in Mexico City. For the US it kicks off one day later when the USMNT host Paraguay in Los Angeles, and it feels like we’ve got some hard yards to run between now and then.
These pre-tournament friendlies – which are always on the schedule, one way or another – have varied in importance over the decades. In 2010, with the roster set and chemistry among the key players long established, they served one big purpose: find out if anyone could replace what the injured Charlie Davies brought to the table (nobody could). Back in 1998, then-head coach Steve Sampson used the tune-ups to install an entirely new system (the famous 3-6-1, which really was just a 3-4-2-1; Sampson was kind of ahead of his time), and got a pretty resounding false positive with a 3-0 win over Austria. He put all his eggs into that basket, the basket broke, and the US finished dead last.
This time around we’re kind of in both those particular boats. Current head coach and future Milanista Mauricio Pochettino has yet to settle on an XI, and frankly, has yet to entirely settle on a system (or even, you could argue a formation). So there’s going to be some experimentation with personnel, 2010-style. And because Poch rarely does the same thing twice, there’s definitely going to be some formational, uh, let’s call it “trickery,” 1998-style.
There is a lot of angst in the fanbase about this and, well, you know, fuck it. Me too.
So what I want to see from these two games is good process from the coach, with an eye on nailing down clear starters at most positions, clear partnerships in all areas of the pitch, and crystal clear rotations in transition moments (the lack of those is what shredded us vs. Belgium and Portugal):
Just not the type of urgency to close down or awareness to keep guys in cover shadows (not helped by Tessmann being two steps late here).
— Matthew Doyle (@mattdoyle.bsky.social) March 29, 2026 at 1:58 PM
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