Soldier Field (CHICAGO) \u2014<\/strong> There are no more World Cup warm-ups for the U.S. men’s national team. Nothing left to do but blow the whistle next Friday and see how the team stacks up at the 48-team tournament it is co-hosting.\u00a0<\/p>\n Saturday’s defeat to Germany was the final pre-World Cup preparation match for a USA squad looking to make some history this summer. The Germans took the lead less than two minutes in on an unmarked header from Arsenal star Kai Havertz \u2014 a goal that was canceled out later in the first half by Antonee “Jedi” Robinson\u2019s spectacular full volley.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for the World Cup co-hosts, the U.S. wasn\u2019t able to capitalize on a number of good scoring opportunities before veteran Germany forward Leroy San\u00e9 put the four-time champions up for good with just over half an hour to play.<\/p>\n Here are my takeaways from Saturday\u2019s defeat.<\/p>\n Kai Havertz of Germany scored with ease. (Photo by Jacek Boczarski\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n It was a dreadful, almost unforgivable beginning from the hosts. Giving up a completely unmarked goal less than two minutes in against a team like Germany can be fatal, the type of error that loses teams games at the World Cup. Havertz \u2014 who a week ago was playing in the UEFA Champions League final with Arsenal \u2014 probably never scored an easier goal in his career.<\/p>\n Sure, the USA\u2019s response was good. We\u2019ll get to that. But the fact remains that Mauricio Pochettino\u2019s team needs to clean things up defensively, and quickly. It took an all-world strike by Jedi to cancel out Havertz\u2019s tap-in, but no team can count on an equalizer like that.\u00a0<\/p>\n Falling behind early puts any team in a terrible position, forcing them to take risks going forward that can leave them vulnerable to a second, possibly insurmountable, two-goal deficit. The U.S. will get scored on this summer. What this team can\u2019t do is give away goals. If that happens when it matters most, it\u2019s almost impossible to see Pochettino\u2019s squad making a deep run this summer.<\/p>\n USA’s Antonee Robinson provided some Jedi mastery at Soldier Field. (Photo by Jamie Squire\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n The thinking all along was that Pochettino would use last weekend\u2019s tune-up against Senegal as a glorified training session as far as personnel were concerned. That\u2019s exactly how it played out, with 10 players subbed out at halftime of that 3-2 victory in Charlotte and 22 players used overall.<\/p>\n Saturday\u2019s match was always going to be a dress rehearsal for the real thing. Sure enough, Pochettino went with what he almost certainly believes is his strongest possible lineup except for injured center back Chris Richards. The hope and expectation is that Richards will be ready to go when the World Cup kicks off on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pochettino made it clear he wasn\u2019t going to risk his best defender\u2019s health in a game that, high-profile as it was, didn\u2019t count. If Richards can’t go against Paraguay in Los Angeles, Miles Robinson will get the nod. That\u2019s obvious.\u00a0<\/p>\n But what Saturday\u2019s lineup decisions tell us is that fullback\/winger Tim Weah \u2014 who started all four of the USA\u2019s games at the 2022 World Cup and scored the first of their three goals in Qatar \u2014 will most likely begin this year\u2019s edition on the bench behind Sergi\u00f1o\u00a0Dest. Which makes sense. On a team lacking difference-makers in the attack, Dest\u2019s all-planet ball skills can change games or even win them; as noted, he came close to scoring on multiple occasions on Saturday. Meantime, Weah will likely be the first sub off the bench, or perhaps even start one of the final two group games if Poch opts to rotate.<\/p>\n No, and not just because it doesn\u2019t count in the actual World Cup standings. This U.S. side would be thrilled to emulate the 2002 team that shocked Planet F\u00fatbol <\/strong><\/i>by reaching the quarterfinals (controversially losing to Germany) in what is still the best World Cup performance by the American men since the inaugural tournament almost a century ago.<\/p>\n What few remember is that the USA also lost its send-off match that year, a 2-0 defeat to a Netherlands team that hadn\u2019t even qualified for that year\u2019s World Cup in Japan and South Korea. That performance was better than the score indicated, though, and the Americans \u2014 led by a legend-in-the-making in Landon Donovan \u2014 stunned pre-tourney favorite Portugal in its first group game en route to the last eight. Home fans will be hoping a similar scenario repeats itself this summer.<\/p>\n It\u2019s now been almost eight years since the U.S. and North American neighbors Canada and Mexico were awarded co-hosting rights for the first 48-team World Cup \u2014 the biggest ever in history. Pochettino was hired to lead the Stars and Stripes 21 months ago. All of it has been building to this moment.<\/p>\n Whether the U.S. squad is ready doesn\u2019t matter. Friday\u2019s curtain raiser against Paraguay in Los Angeles is now just days away. The ball won\u2019t lie. But after two of the best attacking performances in recent memory, fans have legitimate reason to be optimistic. We\u2019re all about to see if this team can take them on a ride they\u2019ll never forget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Soldier Field (CHICAGO) \u2014 There are no more World Cup warm-ups for the U.S. men’s national team. Nothing left to do but blow the whistle next Friday and see how the team stacks up at the 48-team tournament it is co-hosting.\u00a0 Saturday’s defeat to Germany was the final pre-World Cup preparation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}