It\u2019s always impressive when you see a player go an entire game without an incomplete pass attempt, but that\u2019s not something a center back will necessarily strive to achieve.<\/p>\n
No center back is going to go out there with the idea of, “I want to improve my completion percentage.” That\u2019s not the job of a defender over 90 minutes.<\/p>\n
A center back\u2019s primary focus entering a game is, obviously, the defensive responsibilities. On the ball, you\u2019re looking to make plays on the ball that are creating attacks. You\u2019re also trying to be reliable and consistent so you can say at the end of the match, “I had a positive impact.”<\/p>\n
There\u2019s definitely a fine balance between picking your moments and determining when you have an 80% chance of squeezing a pass through and creating a potential opportunity going forward.<\/p>\n
Chris Richards’ 83-for-83 passing mark was an opportunity provided to him by Paraguay.<\/p>\n
Chris’ defensive partner, Tim Ream, was 84-of-90 with his passing and had the most touches of any player on the pitch with 102. To put that number into perspective, the player with the most passes attempted in the USA midfield was Tyler Adams, who was 52-of-59.<\/p>\n
The USA\u2019s opponent last Friday night wasn\u2019t pressing very high up the field and was content to sit in a low block and defend.<\/p>\n
The USA was able to play the ball around its back line, feeding Alex Freeman on the right side of defense or Antonee Robinson a little further up the field on the left. A big key for us for creating numerical mismatches in wide positions, and it\u2019s easier for the center backs to find guys in those positions than it is further up the field.<\/p>\n
Paraguay was always going to sit back and allow the USA to have the ball in spots on the field that aren\u2019t immediately dangerous. It was the kind of game that definitely catered to Chris and Tim being able to keep a lot of possession.<\/p>\n
The last thing on your mind in a game like that is, “Oh, what am I going to do with the ball?” That\u2019s because you\u2019re always in control.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What did surprise me is that Paraguay did not step up the pressure after the second USA goal, which was Flo Balogun\u2019s first of the game. At that point, I expected more of a sense of urgency from Paraguay, but it remained content to sit back and defend \u2013 and paid for that mentality.<\/p>\n
It shows how reliable Richards is. His return was a boost to the American backline, and it\u2019s clear how comfortable he is next to Ream.<\/p>\n
Chris is also playing different kinds of passes compared to Tim. The USA captain played a more progressive game because Robinson was further up the field on his side compared to Freeman on the right side next to Richards.<\/p>\n
Chris Richards (left) thrived next to Tim Ream in defense for the USA against Paraguay. (Omar Vega\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Expect a different kind of game for the USA backline on Friday against Australia.<\/p>\n While Australia will also be content to defend, the difference between the Socceroos and Paraguay is that they can hurt you even more in transition. Australia has more speed going forward. We saw winger Nestroy Irankunda put his speed and dribbling on display with his goal against T\u00fcrkiye on Saturday night, which gave the Aussies a 1-0 lead. If he gets more people in one-on-one situations in the rest of the tournament, there will be more of that.<\/p>\n Australia will play with five defenders and three in midfield who will sit pretty deep. A lot of the time when we have the ball, there will be eight or nine players behind the ball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY It\u2019s always impressive when you see a player go an entire game without an incomplete pass attempt, but that\u2019s not something a center back will necessarily strive to achieve. No center back is going to go out there with the idea of, “I want to improve my completion percentage.” That\u2019s not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4821","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\/4821","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=4821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}