Poll results: USMNT lineup vs Mexico

Tonight the USMNT will face Mexico in the Concacaf Nations League final in Arlington, TX. Two days ago, we published a poll to get readers’ picks for the starting lineup. After an impressive 524 responses, let’s look at the results!

Sergiño Dest is back from his suspension and available to play in the final.

GOALKEEPERS (3): 22-Drake Callender (Inter Miami; 0/0), 18-Ethan Horvath (Cardiff City/WAL; 9/0), 1-Matt Turner (Nottingham Forest/ENG; 37/0)

DEFENDERS (8): 2-Sergiño Dest (PSV Eindhoven/NED; 32/2), 23-Kristoffer Lund (Palermo/ITA; 3/0), 16-Mark McKenzie (Genk/BEL; 13/0), 13-Tim Ream (Fulham/ENG; 55/1), 3-Chris Richards (Crystal Palace/ENG; 14/1), 5-Antonee Robinson (Fulham/ENG; 39/4), 12-Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati; 28/3), 19-Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach/GER; 8/0)

MIDFIELDERS (5): 4-Tyler Adams (Bournemouth/ENG; 36/1), 15-Johnny Cardoso (Real Betis/ESP; 9/0), 8-Weston McKennie (Juventus/ITA; 49/11), 6-Yunus Musah (AC Milan/ITA; 33/0), 7-Gio Reyna (Nottingham Forest/ENG; 24/7)

FORWARDS (7): 11-Brenden Aaronson (Union Berlin/GER; 38/8), 20-Folarin Balogun (Monaco/FRA; 8/3), 17-Malik Tillman (PSV Eindhoven/NED; 8/0), 9-Ricardo Pepi (PSV Eindhoven/NED; 22/10), 10-Christian Pulisic (AC Milan/ITA; 64/28), 21-Tim Weah (Juventus/ITA; 35/5), 14-Haji Wright (Coventry City/ENG; 7/2)

With all these players to choose from, here’s the lineup readers selected:

Matt Turner is down from 86.3% of the vote for the Jamaica game to 83.8% here, but still the clear favorite over Ethan Horvath.

Sergiño Dest, Antonee Robinson, and Chris Richards were clear selections for the back line, with Tim Ream coming in to take the starting position away from Miles Robinson (Ream also received more votes than Miles for the Jamaica game).

Gio Reyna vaulted into the midfield, receiving the third-most votes in total. The midfield selection is the same one the community picked for the Jamaica game, with the difference being that Gregg Berhalter left Gio on the bench to start against Jamaica. Tyler Adams was close to edging out Yunus Musah’s starting spot.

Pulisic and Weah retain their starting spots, but Haji Wright’s 2-goal heroics against Jamaica mean he got the nod from voters ahead of Folarin Balogun, who drops to the bench.

The second most popular lineup (replacing the lowest vote-getters in the starting XI, Tim Ream and Yunus Musah, with the next closest, Miles Robinson and Tyler Adams) looks like this:

Based on how the votes came in, technically the top 10 field players included Chris Richards, Tim Ream, and Miles Robinson with only 2 midfielders, but I’m guessing that’s not the tactical setup most readers would’ve picked. What do you all think? How can we keep improving these in the future?

What do you think of the results? What lineup do you think we’ll see tonight? Which players are you excited about? Hit the comments to discuss.