Tonight, the USMNT will face Colombia in a friendly in Landover, MD. 30 hours ago, we published a poll to get readers’ picks for the starting lineup. After 528 responses, let’s look at the results! Here’s the roster readers were choosing from:
GOALKEEPERS (3): Ethan Horvath (Cardiff City/WAL; 9/0), Sean Johnson (Toronto FC/CAN; 13/0), Matt Turner (Nottingham Forest/ENG; 39/0)
DEFENDERS (9): Cameron Carter-Vickers (Celtic/SCO; 16/0), Kristoffer Lund (Palermo/ITA; 3/0), Mark McKenzie (Genk/BEL; 13/0), Shaq Moore (Nashville SC; 18/1), Tim Ream (Fulham/ENG; 56/1), Chris Richards (Crystal Palace/ENG; 16/1), Antonee Robinson (Fulham/ENG; 41/4), Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati; 29/3), Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach/GER; 9/0)
MIDFIELDERS (8): Tyler Adams (Bournemouth/ENG; 38/2), Johnny Cardoso (Real Betis/ESP; 11/0), Luca de la Torre (Celta Vigo/ESP; 20/0), Weston McKennie (Juventus/ITA; 51/11), Yunus Musah (AC Milan; ITA; 35/0), Gio Reyna (Nottingham Forest/ENG; 26/8), Malik Tillman (PSV Eindhoven/NED; 10/0), Timmy Tillman (LAFC; 1/0)
FORWARDS (6): Brenden Aaronson (Union Berlin/GER; 40/8), Folarin Balogun (Monaco/FRA; 10/3), Ricardo Pepi (PSV Eindhoven/NED; 23/10), Christian Pulisic (AC Milan/ITA; 66/28), Tim Weah (Juventus/ITA; 37/5), Haji Wright (Coventry City/ENG; 9/4)
With those players available, here’s the lineup readers selected:
With Sergiño Dest out injured, it was an incredibly tight call for who would fill in at right back. Yunus Musah *just* edged out Joe Scally for the 11th starting spot (46.5% to 46.3%). So the top reader selection slots Tim Weah in at right back, with a front six that looks quite different from a typical Berhalter USMNT setup. (Note: After I created this graphic, I realized you could also constitute this as a more typical 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 by dropping McKennie to RB to leave a Reyna-Musah-Adams midfield and a Pulisic-Balogun-Weah front three). The close runner-up lineup sees Joe Scally (who received 46.3%) swap in for Musah (46.5%), which returns the squad to a more typical shape.
Now that we’re conducting these polls more regularly, we can begin tracking data over time. Matt Turner has remained a fairly steady #1 choice in goal. For the back line, Chris Richards saw a bump in votes after a strong Premier League campaign, while Miles Robinson dropped off from the 51% he received for the Nations League final. Joe Scally surged from 4% to 46% with Dest out injured. I listed Weah as both a defender and an attacker. McKennie probably could’ve been listed here as well. Looking at the front six, Tyler Adams saw an increase since Nations League, with Haji Wright dropping off significantly since his heroics against Jamaica.
Josh Sargent was originally included in the Colombia lineup poll, and received 86 votes before Gregg Berhalter shared that Sarge wouldn’t be fit for the match. I don’t have exact numbers (I should have taken a screenshot when I removed Sarge from the poll), but Balogun had a small lead on Sargent before the news dropped. 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.
