3-0 would have worked too, kids.

The perception of the USMNT before this cycle, both inside and outside the country for the longest time, was that it was tough to beat. They could run a lot, they would never think they were out of it, and they could treat any situation like it was the Alamo. They were severely limited, and couldn’t really win games that they couldn’t turn into a battle of physicality instead of skill and technique. But they would work really hard, and that’s about it.

This USMNT is about more than that, but they did have to roll back into the files for that old profile a bit this afternoon to escape Group B with a 1-0 win over Iran. Over the next day or two you’ll hear all about “digging deep,” and “heart,” and “wanting it more” and all those phrases. And there was some of that, especially in the last 10 minutes when the U.S. simply had to batten down the hatches (partially due to their manager, but we’ll get to that). However, the reason the U.S. had enough in the tank, just enough, to close this one out is just how professional they were in the first half to 60 minutes. And no previous U.S. team could have done that.

In the first half, the U.S. could not have played it any better, except for maybe getting multiple goals, of course. While they applied pressure, suffocated Iran, and rarely let them break out even of their own half much less into any meaningful counter, the U.S. never looked like they had their hair on fire. They were controlled, they varied their plan of attack, and they never looked like they thought they weren’t going to find the goal or leave themselves open.

The U.S. was in their usual 4-3-3, but with Tim Weah and Christian Pulisic under specific instructions to tuck in behind the Iran midfield, which allowed for two things: Space for both Sergino Dest and Antonee Robinson to get forward into the space vacated, and to be available for through balls breaking the Iranian defensive line. And also left them in prime pressing areas to get the ball back when it was lost. Both Weston McKennie and Yunus Musah would also pull wide to form triangles with the fullbacks and wide attackers, and to be there to thread those balls in behind. It should have left the U.S. vulnerable through the middle on the counter, but that’s less of a risk when you have Tyler Adams glitching his way all over the field to break things up and recycle possession again and again.

The U.S.’s most dangerous opportunities, before the goal, was when they opened up either Dest or Robinson to lace crosses through the six-yard box with multiple runners. Josh Sargent kept the Iranian defense guessing by sometimes dropping into midfield and sometimes running off the last shoulder. The goal was the result of that, as well as Pulisic and McKennie switching roles, as Sargent dropped off, the Iran central defenders followed him, and Pulisic’s late run into the box was into the space they vacated. McKennie played a gorgeous cross-field switch to Dest to set it up, and Pulisic was the one making the late run into the box that couldn’t be tracked. It’s how you draw it up. It’s the least the U.S. deserved.

The hope was that the U.S. would learn from the Wales game. The fear is that they’d fall into a similar pattern. They didn’t really, at least not until the end. As big as hearing Pulisic had to leave the game feels, he still plays the one spot that the U.S. has tons of options at. While he scored the most famous goal of his career, Brendan Aaronson actually looked more vibrant and dangerous in the early part of the second half than Pulisic has for the most part. And he was able to pack his usual ridiculous amount of running into just 45 minutes. He popped up between the lines more, brought down or chased down more long balls, and got into the box more often. The U.S. can ride it out if Pulisic has to miss the Round of 16.

And still, the U.S.’s biggest bugaboo, the final ball, the final shot, nearly cost them. Before halftime was upon them Tim Weah had blown a great chance on the counter. There were one or two others that should have been buried with just a better pass or shot. They could have made this easier on themselves. Not their way though, is it? Not in the DNA.

Still, even as the U.S. began to tire and couldn’t quite get up the field in the same way, they restricted Iran to one shot from way outside the box, a header from Ghoddos that went over, and one big chance in the 52nd minute that wrapped around the post (and the ref may have blown that one dead anyway for a foul on Cameron Carter-Vickers). Even trailing the entire time, Iran mustered just 0.49 in xG (expected goals). Part of that is their own limitations. Part of that was the U.S.’s exemplary defending.

Still, they were put under the crush in injury time, partly due to their coach. Look, Gregg Berhalter has been a positive more than a negative. His initial game plans against England and Iran got them the four points that took them out of the group. The U.S. deserved to win all three matches. That didn’t happen without him. However, his substitutions have been bewildering. It’s unclear what it is Shaq Moore does for a living, but protecting leads late in a soccer game very clearly is not part of it. He got beat, he couldn’t complete a pass, and was just a constant check engine light in both of his appearances.

With 10 minutes of normal time to go, knowing there would be a ton of injury time because that’s how this tournament works, Berhalter went completely park-the-bus and hauled off a forward to bring on Walker Zimmerman and go to a 5-4-1. Zimmerman won all his headers, but it was far too early to do that and the organization went a little zany thanks to the introduction of a third centerback. That’s something you do with five minutes left, not 20.

Which meant the U.S. didn’t have any threat going forward. You can see out a game by carrying some threat of getting out on the counter. This is where Gio Reyna would have been a help, or even Jesus Ferreira. That’s because Haji Wright did nothing, including not even chasing down defenders or pressing to make their travels up the field that much harder. And he fluffed the one chance he got on the counter, one he could have just taken to the corner and ended the game. You need a forward in that spot who is going to run around a lot. If that’s not what Ferreira does, why’s he here? Why’s Deandre Yedlin here if we’re going to see Moore ahead of him?

But these questions are easier to ask when you win and advance. Who knows what the U.S. will have left in the tank for Saturday, but we can worry about that later. And Berhalter can say he took the youngest team in the tournament, the youngest team the U.S. has ever sported by far, and they can look as composed and in control as they did, as well as combining it with some old fashioned, U.S., fuck you attitude. That’s hardly nothing. That’s quite a big deal, in fact. CCV was excellent in his introduction to the lineup. Sargent was as well before getting hurt.

And it’s not over yet. The Americans get the Dutch next on Saturday, and they haven’t been impressive at all, and their midfield can be overrun. Just so happens the U.S. midfield has been playing out of its mind all tournament. The ride still has some turns to go, my fellow babies.

Rudy Gobert is NBA fans’ favorite punching bag. Whenever something goes wrong on his team, he’s the first person people blame. It could be that he’s French, whiny, overrated, overpaid — or all four — and that’s fine. You’re not going to hear me argue with Minnesota Timberwolves fans about how bad the trade was, or his fit is.

Be that as it may, I would like to point out that Anthony Edwards hasn’t exactly taken the leap we thought he might. The third-year guard and former No. 1 overall pick ended last season on a trajectory on par with other great, young players.

Ja Morant went from 19 points per game to 27 in his third year. Jayson Tatum improved his scoring average by almost eight points from his second to third seasons. Ant gave us a taste late last season and into the playoffs, dropping 49 in the second to last game of the year, 30 in the play-in, and 25 ppg over during the first round.

Well, marginal upticks in points (21.3 to 22.6), rebounds (4.8 to 5.9), and turnovers (2.6 to 3.2) aren’t what people envisioned out of Edwards this season. He’s taking fewer threes and also hitting fewer of them, isn’t passing the ball better, and even though he’s shooting more freebies, his percentage from the line has dipped.

Minnesota’s start to this season has sucked the joy out of the game, and it’s been evident on and off the court. The Wolves are a game below .500, with an above-average offense and a below-average defense. The team boasted a top 13 defense by rating a season ago, and that’s dropped to 19th this year. On the other side of the ball, the rating has sunk from eighth to 17th. And 2021’s numbers came in a year when they fired their head coach midseason.

Rarely able to take advantage of mismatches, Karl-Anthony Towns is a shell of the player we saw a year ago. He hasn’t figured out how to play alongside Gobert, as the two have a negative 1.5 point differential in 400-plus minutes together, and now KAT is sidelined for four to six weeks with a calf strain.

The state of the Western Conference is such that Minnesota can probably survive with a middling performance sans Towns. That’s not what anyone wants though, and Minnesota is capable of more solely because Edwards isn’t maximizing his potential.

This isn’t D’Angelo Russell’s time to take over, and we know Gobert isn’t capable of getting his own offense. The guy with the best tools to go nuts for a month stretch is Edwards. It would be easy for him to get the same stats in KAT’s absence because everything comes easy when you have the kind of talent Edwards has displayed.

He’s sleepwalking to 23, 6, and 4, but we know the ceiling is infinitely higher.

The biggest knock on Ant coming out of Georgia, and one that Jay Bilas constantly harped on, was his maturity. While I would never get mad at someone for eating too much Popeyes, I’ve never been on an NBA roster. Luka Dončić sucked down sweet tea like it was lifeblood and still put up 28, 9, and 8.

That said, it’s not the only story to make me question Edwards’ headspace. He had to apologize earlier this year for posting a video featuring homophobic language, which primarily tells me he needs to educate himself, but also that he hasn’t grasped how important he is to the Timberwolves organization.

It seems as if the 21-year-old guard saw all the backlash to the Gobert trade and let it affect him, which is understandable. Well, there are no excuses anymore. The problems when KAT and Gobert share the floor are gone, and lanes and opportunities will be there for him if he feels like exploiting them.

When Tyler Herro said he considers Dončić, Morant, and Trae Young his peers, we got a good laugh. If Edwards talked like that, NBA fans would nod in agreement because he possesses all the physical traits necessary to be on the level of those young stars, and we’ve seen him go toe to toe with one. The Memphis-Minnesota series could’ve gone either way in April, and it left NBA supporters in agreement that Ant-Man was one of the game’s next superstars.

Well, my guy, it’s time to put down the extra crispy, get off Instagram, and go to work.

Fans of the Denver Broncos went from reluctantly embracing #LetsRide in the early weeks of the season to forcing Russell Wilson to stop using, uttering, or even thinking about it by early October.

There are endless regrettable team mantras that look horrible in hindsight — and also foresight. I don’t blame those who still used “#LetsRide” after it went viral before the year because it was mostly in jest and lighthearted considering the expectations for the Donkos.

However, now Denver supporters have had enough with the curators of the quarterback’s supremely filtered and maintained social media accounts across the board. A former Bronco lineman even tweeted that he’d love to see Wilson’s PR people hunker down in a bomb shelter until the offense is fixed rather than sharing shit like this.

While that’s a reasonable request at first glance, I don’t think an indefinite ban is realistic seeing as no one knows how long it’ll take to rectify the situation, or if it’s even salvageable at all. There have been a few pieces about possible options for the organization to part ways with the guy they signed to a massive guaranteed contract, and none of them are good.

The Broncos don’t have a realistic exit strategy, and they don’t have a draft pick in the first two rounds in 2023 either. What they do have, though, is a defense that’s mauling teams despite having zero room for error every Sunday.

The 17.6 points allowed per game is third best, and if Denver had an offense that was in the top 28, the team would be flirting with .500. Their 14.3 scoring average is dead last, and if it finishes at that mark, it would be the worst output for an offense since Arizona in 2018 when Josh Rosen was under center most of the season, and no Cardinal quarterback threw for more than 300 yards in a game.

Had it not been for Wilson’s 340-yard night in Week 1 against Seattle, Nathaniel Hackett’s group would hold that same distinction, which is probably why the first-year coach is heading for a one-and-done season, according to Peter King.

The blame in the Mile High City has been spread evenly across the offense’s slice of bread, and you’d be right to cite the play-calling, the quarterback, injuries, skill players not performing up to projections, an offensive line that’s given up the fourth-most sacks, or the team leading the league in penalties per game.

Some of those flags come on the defensive side of the ball, but, again, that unit isn’t doing much of anything wrong. Fans hoping new ownership can lure in Sean Payton to help Wilson flambé are fucking mile high. The 34-year-old quarterback couldn’t cook an omelet with the tutelage of Paul Bocuse. (Mostly because the legendary French chef died in 2018, but you get the joke.)

The 12th Man in Seattle endlessly criticized Pete Carroll for putting a governor on his former QB’s game, yet Pom Pom Pete clearly knew how to win with Wilson, and in general. (That’s neither here nor there, even though I’m interested in what happens to his love affair with Geno Smith if the pick the Seahawks got from Denver ends up in the top four like it is now.) Trust me, the fact that the Broncos’ best path forward is to only let Russ use the microwave is not lost on anyone in the Pacific Northwest.

That’s why I don’t think Colorado’s favorite team is that far away from respectability if they employ the same kid gloves used by Carroll. Denver paired a bottom eight running game with an anemic passing attack even though it’s evident that Wilson is most effective in a balanced scheme.

Neither of the top two backs before the year are active after Javonte Williams tore his ACL early in October, and Melvin Gordon got cut recently after his fumbling persisted. Latavius Murray is now the No. 1 guy. And just like in fantasy football, when Latavius Murray is your best option, something went horribly, horribly wrong.

After acquiring the apparent next face of the franchise in March, horribly, horribly wrong is precisely how I’d describe the Broncos’ run.

The Dallas Mavericks have limped out of the starting blocks in this marathon known as the NBA season to a 9-10 record after nearly one quarter of the year. Luka Dončić is off to another MVP-caliber tear, but he’ll still finish empty-handed without much team success. Coming off the team’s conference finals run last postseason, the Mavs have looked nothing like the squad that blew out the Suns in Game 7 of the semifinals.

Obviously, Dallas needs help, so you’d expect them to go out and find another player to compliment Dončić. So, that’s what they’re doing. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Mavs plan to sign 32-year-old point guard Kemba Walker to help bolster their backcourt.

Dallas is hoping Walker still has enough left in the tank to give that backcourt a boost. A New York City product, Walker, was once a 20-plus ppg scorer in the NBA, but those days have passed him by. That’s evident from his time spent with his hometown Knicks last year, where he played in just 37 games and averaged just 11.6 points, the lowest of his career. In fact, it’s always felt like Walker lived off that successful 2011 NCAA March Madness title run at UConn.

An even bigger issue is that Walker isn’t the type of player these Mavs need. Walker’s played with the ball in his hands since he was a kid. He’s probably been the primary ball handler/point guard on every team he’s been on up until recently. Undoubtedly, Walker knows it isn’t going down that way in Dallas playing alongside Luka.

Walker will likely come off the bench, but at some point, you’d think he and Dončić will occupy the court together. There’s already tremendous concern around Dončić not trusting teammates, so Walker will inevitably end up being another guy standing around watching “the grill master” cook. (And for the record, that is the wackest nickname ever uttered. I know he’s playing in Texas but… come on. Go back to the drawing board on that one, please.)

It’s been rough for the Mavs this year, shooting from deep as they’re 20th in the NBA in 3-point percentage. Dallas shoots 34.5 percent from behind the arc, and Walker is a career 36 percent three-point shooter. But Walker has never been a stand in the corner and wait for the ball to come around style of player. So, this signing is a little mind-boggling.

It’s understandable for Dallas to seek another consistent scoring threat and ball handler, but at this stage, there’s only so much Walker will be able to change about this team. If Luka isn’t willing to relinquish a little control and get his mates more involved, this signing, like many others, won’t matter in the end. 

Monday night was bigger than a game between two bad teams. It was proof of how confusing the process is of becoming an NFL head coach.

When the Pittsburgh Steelers and Indianapolis Colts met in the Week 12 finale, it provided us with an evening in which Jeff Saturday, Mike Tomlin, and Brian Flores all coached in the same game. It meant that ESPN’s weekly crown jewel of programming featured the symbol of the Rooney Rule (Tomlin), the new model for white privilege (Saturday), and the guy who’s suing the league for its history of not hiring Black coaches (Flores).

Yup, that happened.

Pittsburgh defeated Indianapolis 24-17, in part, due to Saturday showing Jim Irsay why we all thought he was crazy for hiring a coach whose “experience” before this job was teaching the game to high school kids that hadn’t been to prom yet. Saturday’s horrific clock management skills, with timeouts to burn, had Twitter laughing at him before his team eventually turned it over on downs.

“I thought we had a good play,” Saturday claimed. “And I felt like we would get it. Obviously, we didn’t do a great job [blocking] on the backside, so it’s worse. But I felt good about the call before. Felt like we had time, we would have timeouts afterwards. We were in striking distance. So, I never felt like the pressure of needing the timeout.

“We just didn’t execute it.”

But beyond Saturday showing us that he’s bad at doing a job smart people knew he’d be bad at Monday Night Football was a microcosm of the shit show that the NFL head coaching selection process has become.

On the winner’s side were Tomlin and Flores. In case you forgot, Tomlin was the second-youngest coach to ever win a Super Bowl until Sean McVay did it with the Los Angeles Rams last season. Tomlin is also a man that could be on the brink of his first losing season after going 15 consecutive years in which his Steelers were at least .500 or better. But yet, this doesn’t end the constant doubt that seems to surround him, and it didn’t stop reporters from asking him about the USC job opening last year, as if someone of his race and with his resume should have been excited about a job that would have been a demotion.

Tomlin is also the man that threw Flores a bone by hiring him as Pittsburgh’s senior defensive assistant/linebackers coach, just weeks after he filed a 58-page class-action lawsuit against the NFL, Miami Dolphins, New York Giants, and the Denver Broncos alleging their racist hiring practices. Between off-the-field stories about how disgusting Deshaun Watson is and the drama around Tom Brady’s marriage, and the multitude of headlines that are strictly dedicated to football, many have tried to ignore how one of the league’s three permanent African-American coaches hired the man that’s still suing the NFL, while another member of the lawsuit — Steve Wilks — is serving as the interim head coach of the Carolina Panthers.

On the loser’s side was Saturday, the man who will go down in history as a Jeopardy question when the answer is “He went from being a bad high school coach and a TV personality to an NFL coach overnight.” Peyton Manning’s former center was chosen as the Colts’ interim head coach after a conversation with Irsay. The hire was so mind-blowing that Saturday admitted that he asked Irsay, “Why am I a candidate for this?” when it was offered to him. Instead of promoting one of the white or Black assistants who had been with the team all season, Irsay picked the guy from ESPN to run his football team.

The blueprint for coaches in the NFL was ruined the day Irsay chose Saturday. In the past, if you were white, there were two avenues to success: Be a younger copycat version of one of the most successful coaches of that era, like Bill Belichick, Mike Shanahan, or Sean McVay. Or, check the boxes as a respected veteran with experience. If you were Black, being a defensive coordinator was the way to go. But, that changed recently when an emphasis was put on offense, even though Kansas City’s Eric Bieniemy and Tampa’s Byron Leftwich are still coordinators. As flawed as those options were, they served as the best chances for upward mobility in the NFL. But thanks to Irsay and Saturday, that’s over now.

Saturday’s first game was against Josh McDaniel’s Las Vegas Raiders, as both coaches took part in the NFL’s first-ever “White Privilege Bowl,” given that their race was the lone reason why both men were head coaches. The Colts won that game before they would go on losing to the Eagles, who have the best record in the league. In his first three games as an NFL head coach, Saturday has a 1-2 record and a Monday Night Football blunder on his resume.

The conversation around who does and doesn’t get selected to become a head coach in the NFL has been going on for decades. Usually, it takes center stage on Black Monday — the day after the final week of the regular season when coaches are given their walking papers. It’s an annual tradition that reminds us which franchises are bad at hiring coaches, which teams never/rarely hire Black candidates — or fire them too soon— and which owners have a history of doing all of the above. But on Monday night, an AFC matchup became a foreshadower for just how dark the 2023 version of Black Monday will be.

The Steelers’ run game mainly saved Pittsburgh last night against the Indianapolis Colts on Monday Night Football. The Steelers have struggled on the ground for much of the last two seasons, but Pittsburgh pounded the ball against Indy all night for 172 yards.

On defense, Pittsburgh kept Matt Ryan and the Colts handcuffed for much of the night. Until Indy’s second drive of the third quarter, the return game was their best source of offense. The game ended in a 24-17 win for the Steelers, but the score was closer than the play on the field.

While Pittsburgh certainly asserted itself physically, the finesse part of the Steelers’ game showed a promising future. The connection between rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett and wide receiver George Pickens might be blossoming before our eyes.

During training camp, Pickens was one of the Steelers’ most impressive players. He had missed much of Georgia’s 2021 National Championship season due to an ACL injury. However, this past summer, Pickens showed why he was a highly touted recruit. The rookie wideout has also shown from that start that he doesn’t shy away from contact, which will always score brownie points with coach Mike Tomlin.

Pickett has gradually improved after struggling early in camp. The Steelers rolled with free-agent acquisition Mitchell Trubisky as the starter for the first four weeks of the season. Trubisky was benched in favor of Kenny Pickett after halftime against the New York Jets. Pittsburgh dropped that one, and four of the next seven.

The losses weren’t solely on the QBs. For the second consecutive season, the offensive line was subpar at opening up holes in the running game. That part of the offense was ineffective until the Steelers rushed for 212 yards against the New Orleans Saints following a bye week. Najee Harris averaged more than four yards per carry in a 37-30 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 11, but Pickens caught a touchdown and averaged nearly 21 yards per reception.

Last night, Pickens caught four passes for a second consecutive game, but one didn’t count toward his stat line. It was a successful 2-point conversion attempt that he hauled in on one knee in the back of the end zone. That is the play that put the Steelers up for good — a seven point lead — in the fourth quarter.

While Pickens made a great play to haul in the catch, Pickett was equally as good at moving around in the pocket and locating his target with an accurate pass. Outside of an overthrown pass to Pickens in the endzone late in the first half, Pickett appeared to be in command of the Steelers’ offense for a third consecutive week.

He used his legs when necessary, which allowed him to buy more time on his pass attempts, while also averaging 5.3 yards on rush attempts. Pickett only threw for 174 yards, but again, his ball placement and pocket awareness improved. The 6-foot-3, 220-pound signal-caller also hasn’t thrown an interception since before the Steelers’ bye week.

Improvement becomes easier with a physically gifted player like Pickens in the pass patterns. The Steelers’ second-rounder displayed his physical prowess early by blocking, but that 2-point conversion and 35-yard back-shoulder catch last night showed that he can snatch a football out of the air when necessary.

This has become a rebuilding year for Pittsburgh. The Steelers still need some offensive line help, and more bodies on defense, and had better hope that Harris’ best years weren’t wasted. The quarterback/wide receiver duo of Pickett and Pickens, though, could be a pair that gets the Steelers back into AFC North contention quickly. 

It would be hard to convince everyone that USMNT manager Gregg Berhalter was preparing for exactly this, last spring. I would like to believe he was, just because I would like to believe fully in Berhalter. Maybe he sensed it was a possibility. Maybe it’s just a coincidence.

You’ll recall last March, the Stars and Stripes were faced with something of a dilemma. They had one of those hellish three-game windows. It included their two toughest away matches (at Mexico and at Costa Rica), sandwiching a home game against Panama. The home game against Panama was the must-have, the three points that would pretty much guarantee passage to Qatar.

There were a fair amount of voices that said Berhalter should punt on the match at Azteca. Save the legs for the Panama match, because they would surely be drained by the high altitude and high intensity of a match against Mexico (not to mention the high level of smog). Sure, a result against Mexico always looks and feels shiny, but there are no “statements.” There’s only qualifying and not qualifying.

Berhalter said “fuck that” and sent his strongest team out to beat Mexico on their own turf. And they should have, but only got a scoreless draw. The U.S. then rode the buzz from that to a 5-1 pounding of Panama in Orlando, which rendered the last of the three games pretty meaningless.

Here we are again. While hardly as loud or numerous, there was a school of thought that said the U.S. didn’t need anything from the match against England on Friday. Everything was going to come down to the match against Iran, regardless. Save the guys on yellows from the Wales game, and anyone else whose legs wouldn’t be up for three games in eight days. No matter how badly that might have turned out against England, the U.S. could always save itself with a win against Iran, which they would now be more prepared for, so went the thinking.

Again, Berhalter said, “Fuck that.” He sent his best team out with a clear plan to beat England. They should have, but only got a scoreless draw. Has it all been the perfect prep?

There are differences. The Panama match was at home. Against Iran today is basically an away match. Panama actually ended up having more of the ball that match. That will not be the case against Iran. The U.S. has never looked comfortable trying to break down a determined, bunkered-down defense. Their only goal against Wales was one of the few times they got to play on the counter. The noise around this match is much louder considering the opponent, and the issues at home and at the tournament. You need only look at yesterday’s press conference with Tyler Adams for evidence. And this is the World Cup, not the qualifying period.

Berhalter’s biggest call is how and when to get Gio Reyna on the field. The U.S. will need to score, and in order to score a team should have its most offensively gifted player out there. Should they not score, this will almost certainly be Berhalter’s last match in charge. Is he going to go down holding Reyna in reserve?

So where to put him? You’ll hear little call for it to be ahead of Weston McKennie, who is the best candidate to score the type of goal England opened their scoring against Iran with, using Jude Bellingham, the midfielder arriving late and meeting a cross. And against a team that will have as many people packed into their own box as Iran will, having a player who’s an expert at finding space no matter what is as valuable as it gets.

Yunus Musah? Hard to take out the side’s best dribbler and one of its best passers. Tim Weah on the right? His ability to get in behind a defense and speed to stretch both vertically and horizontally will be crucial, too. It’s not so easy, is it? There’s been a push to start Weah as a central striker to allow Reyna to come into the startling lineup. It’s a thought, but it’s not a role we’ve seen Weah play for the national team in a long while, if ever, and one he rarely plays at the club level either. This really isn’t the time to try shit.

The first two games have seen a more reserved Sergino Dest, letting Antonee Robinson on the other side be the marauding fullback. Perhaps if Dest is let off the leash you don’t need Weah as much as Dest will be the wide outlet. Maybe that’s where Reyna goes. The vote here is for McKennie, as Reyna’s ability to weave through traffic will be more needed in the middle right outside the 18-yard box where Iran is sure to pack with defenders. You need intricacy there. Reyna is intricacy; McKennie is not. Whatever Berhalter decides, he must pull the trigger quickly if Plan A isn’t working. He’s been slow to react in the first two matches (no sub before the 66th minute and only one before the 76th).

The U.S. doesn’t need to be in a rush. Yes, they need to win, but they have 90 minutes to do so. Scoring early would completely flip the game on its head, but if they head to panic stations if they haven’t scored in the first 20 minutes, there’s going to be less and less air to find around them.

It’s hard to know what faces the U.S. Iran was awful against England. And England is really good. They were much better against Wales, but Wales was also terrible. The U.S. is not terrible…but also couldn’t put Wales away. They also couldn’t put away England, but it’s an accomplishment that they were in a position to at all.

The main problem to solve will be keeping Mehdi Taremi from creating havoc down the U.S.’s right, which may mean the more conservative Dest we’ve seen. He had an assist and created eight chances against Wales. Limit Taremi and the U.S. will have cut off one of Iran’s legs.

They’ve been here before. Whether by design or not, they’ve run this drill. Step right up.