Tonight, the USMNT will face Bolivia in both teams’ first Copa América match, in Arlington, TX. On Friday, we published a poll to get readers’ picks for the starting lineup. After receiving 503 responses, let’s look at the results! Here’s the roster readers were choosing from:
GOALKEEPERS (3): Ethan Horvath (Cardiff City), Sean Johnson (Toronto FC), Matt Turner (Nottingham Forest)
DEFENDERS (9): Cameron Carter-Vickers (Celtic), Kristoffer Lund (Palermo), Mark McKenzie (Genk), Shaq Moore (Nashville SC), Tim Ream (Fulham), Chris Richards (Crystal Palace), Antonee Robinson (Fulham), Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati), Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach)
MIDFIELDERS (7): Tyler Adams (Bournemouth), Johnny Cardoso (Real Betis), Luca de la Torre (Celta Vigo), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Yunus Musah (AC Milan), Gio Reyna (Nottingham Forest), Malik Tillman (PSV Eindhoven)
FORWARDS (7): Brenden Aaronson (Union Berlin), Folarin Balogun (Monaco), Ricardo Pepi (PSV Eindhoven), Christian Pulisic (AC Milan), Josh Sargent (Norwich City), Tim Weah (Juventus), Haji Wright (Coventry City)
With those players available, here’s the lineup readers selected. The second-most popular lineup sees Adams swap in for Musah. Voting was very tight between them (52.5% to 48.7%)
Now let’s look at the polling trends over time. The community was ready to kick Matt Turner to the curb after his disappointing showing against Colombia, but after an 11-save performance against Brazil, he was more popular than at any time yet in 2024. The back four was extremely clear-cut. Tim Ream, like Turner, was sent out to pasture by voters after the 5-1 Colombia loss, but earned his way back after a much better outing against Brazil. Joe Scally has done really well to improve from 47% to 82% with two strong defensive showings against Luis Díaz of Colombia and Vinícius of Brazil. Yunus Musah pushed himself into the starting midfield, seeing a 13-point increase that pushed Tyler Adams out of the XI. Folarin Balogun also got a 19-point boost, and is the clear voter’s choice up front.
What do you all think? How can we keep improving this format 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.
