Chelsea star Christian Pulisic played a leading role as the United States launched its final preparations for the World Cup with a convincing 3-0 friendly win over fellow qualifier Morocco on Wednesday.
Pulisic created a goal for new Leeds signing Brenden Aaronson and won a penalty converted by debutant Haji Wright as the USA claimed a first-ever win over Morocco at Cincinnati’s TQL Stadium.
Lille forward Timothy Weah scored the other U.S. goal in a torrid outing for Morocco, which also missed a dubiously awarded second-half penalty when Selim Amallah hit the crossbar.
“Christian was in a position where he could hurt them, he was our man of the match, the way he led with intensity and also his performance on the field,” U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter said.
Berhalter meanwhile was happy with his team’s display as they build towards Qatar, where their first round opponents will be England, Iran and either Ukraine or Wales.
“We talked before the game about having a baseline about how we can perform against World Cup opponents and they showed how good we can be although sometimes we were vulnerable,” Berhalter said. “We need to keep improving, they were a dangerous opponent but we controlled the match well and created a number of chances.”
Berhalter had demanded an aggressive performance, and the hosts delivered with a bright opening, striker Jesus Ferreira and Weah forcing saves Morocco’s Sevilla goalkeeper Yassine Bounou early on.
Morocco, which will play Belgium, Canada and Croatia in the first round of the World Cup, should have taken the lead on 12 minutes, when Watford left back Adam Masina exposed the U.S. defense only to see his shot parried away by new Arsenal goalkeeper Matt Turner.
Tarik Tissoudali pounced on the follow-up but his effort was blocked by Aaron Long for a corner.
Morocco continued to look dangerous on the counterattack, and another flowing move saw Masina advance down the left flank and pass inside for Tissoudali but his effort failed to trouble Turner.
The American breakthrough came on 26 minutes with a goal crafted by Pulisic.
A hopeful long ball forward from defender Walker Zimmerman sent Pulisic clear and the Chelsea forward controlled superbly, danced away from Samy Mmae and Romain Seiss before squaring to Aaronson who buried a low finish into the empty net.
The USA doubled their tally six minutes later with an individual strike from Weah. The France-based forward was given too much space on the edge of the Morocco area and thumped a firm shot through the hands of Bounou, who should have done better.
The USA could have made it 3-0 on the stroke of halftime, when Aaronson threaded a pass through to Ferreira, whose shot was saved by Bounou.
Berhalter rang the changes at half-time with Wright replacing Ferreira, Cameron Carter-Vickers coming on for Zimmerman and Joe Scally stepping in for Antonee Robinson.
The USA effectively sealed the win midway through the half when Pulisic cleverly drew a clumsy foul from Achraf Hakimi for a clear penalty.
The U.S. skipper could have added to his international goal tally but instead handed the spot-kick duties to former youth international teammate and debutant Wright, who duly stroked home the finish.
“Haji and me go way back so I think he needed that goal and he said he was confident to go step up and take it, so I wanted him to get that confidence. I’m happy he scored,” said Pulisic.
There was still time for drama at the other end when Scally was harshly adjudged to have fouled Soufiane Rahimi.
But Amallah crashed his penalty against the bar.
The USA’s World Cup preparations continue on Sunday with a friendly against Uruguay in Kansas City.
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© Agence France-Presse
PHoto: John Dorton/ISI Photos
In the first half I didn’t like the way every time the left back overlapped Pulisic who played inside. It is a big tactical mistake.
I would like to see more of the 3 first cap players.
Overall impression, we have players with decent ball skills in the midfield and front lines. We fall short, however, in the fullbacks. They basically are one-trick ponies when attacking and they aren’t very good at their one trick. Finally I am not seeing players connecting with Pulisic (I don’t count when he is in our defensive half).
I need to see Scully more to get a sense of his ball skills. Can he cross accurately?
I enjoyed the Game very much… Such “Twitch”, Touch and Tenacity…
If Ggg can just “Wind Them Up” and STAY OUT OF THE WAY, They will Carry him FAR…
All the Way to Winning the World Cup in 2026.!!! …
EVERYTHING MUST BE DONE WITH THAT GOAL IN MIND…
Trust NO One Over 25 on this Roster (Except GKs)
As Hugo Perez said; “USA is 3 teams Deep”
Bob, I concur with you and I have said this time and again that our fullback pool just plain sucks. Was anyone else shocked to see the US playing a 3 Back? Albiet it was with Cannon as the RCB? So GB finally does a 3 back, but with the wrong players and the chances created by Morocco demonstrated. Zimmerman and Long in a 3 back. Way wrong answer. In a normal game Long would have got a Red Card for his break away foul. You could see the clear difference in passing and overall play whem Carter-Vickers came in.
If you have seen Scally play at all you can see he is the clear choice over Robinson. Passing, control vision and movement are all superior. He is not as fast as Robinson, but I will take the other skill sets over speed. Scally as a wingback could be very dangerous (as well as Dest) for us to add to our offense.
Aaronson showed how he can play the #10 pretty effectively, so we don’t need to sweat Reyna as much. Haji showed he could be a key component as he can play with back to goal and has pace with size. A great combination that no one in our striker pool has at the moment. Still need to bring in Sargeant over Ferriera. Just more skills in the tool kit.
Santi, I enjoyed the game as well very much. It was great to see the midfield play well, despite not having McKennie. Luca and Aaronson showed we are more than capable with those guys playing the #8 or #10. I liked what I saw from Tillman, but that is not surprising since he is in the Bayern Munich system. He is another one who can play an effective #8. His size with McKennie and Musah gives us a formidable midfield to control the center. The backline needs so much more work. This should not be the case since we have a defensive coach right?!?!?! Who am I kidding. We to stick with the three back alignment, as this allows us to press much better. Just need our athletic CBs to cover the long ball switch cross field. Our Right center back did not release to go contain the attack. Uriguay will be a tougher test. Looking forward to it. At least it will be 11pm instead of me getting up at 1:30am 🙂