The U.S. men's national team were demoralized in a 4–0 loss to Switzerland on Tuesday in their send-off match before the Concacaf Gold Cup.
Mauricio Pochettino heavily rotated his side from Saturday's friendly starting brothers Brenden and Paxten Aaronson in attack. Pochettino also brought in Matt Turner while giving Brian White an opportunity to lead the line.
Tuesday's challenge provided a different test given Switzerland retained much more of the ball and controlled the tempo of the game. Granit Xhaka was free to dictate play with simple switches. Dan Ndoye opened the scoring in the 12th minute and the Swiss never really looked in trouble from there on out. Michel Aebischer scored 10 minutes later and a Matt Turner mistake led to a third 10 minutes after that. Then, Johan Manzambi scored the best of the bunch in the 36th minute.
Four goals in 36 minutes. A training session for the 20th ranked team in the world against a USMNT side that's been demoralized before the Gold Cup. Pochettino's team simply did not compete, nor did they look like they could in the first half.
A chorus of boos rained down on the team at halftime.
Changes made things a bit better, at least in the effort department, but the USMNT still failed to register a shot on target. The pressure and heat is going to turn up now on Pochettino. Gold Cup represents the final tournament opportunity to prepare for the World Cup. He's already without most of his stars for a myriad of reasons. Pochettino cannot afford a slow start. Otherwise, uncomfortable conversations are going to start taking place.
Takeaways from the game below.
