Even after they conceded an early goal on Friday, Paraguay kept affording the United States ample room up the channel. As the ball reached Malik Tillman and Weston McKennie in midfield, their disoriented opponents never quite seemed to know how to station themselves to stem the tide. The US\u2019s off-ball movement further complicated those efforts, dizzying Paraguay\u2019s defense before it could establish an ideal structure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just tried to run in behind,\u201d McKennie said after the US had completed their 4-1 victory<\/a>. \u201cI think I realized early on that they were struggling to follow my deep runs. If it\u2019s not broken, don\u2019t fix it. I keep trying to do it until they figure something out. I was able to find more space than usual, and it was fun. I really enjoyed to get on the ball as much as I did.\u201d<\/p>\n Throughout a remarkable first half, the heart of the park seemed fully in the co-hosts\u2019 control. The spacing between Tyler Adams and the more advanced tandem of McKennie and Tillman seldom proved an issue as Paraguay struggled to position themselves in the passing lanes. In those rare moments, the US weren\u2019t shy to recirculate, knowing the on-ball acumen of the defensive trio.<\/p>\n Throughout the 2022 World Cup, the US at times resembled a club team<\/a>, in part because of how effectively their midfield trio operated. In Qatar, Adams and McKennie were joined by Yunus Musah for an \u201cMMA\u201d engine room that kept the ball moving and shifted itself accordingly to be sturdy when defending. Musah\u2019s club career has since stagnated and he was barely in contention for this summer\u2019s World Cup, but Tillman\u2019s progress and the emergence of others \u2013 such as Johnny Cardoso, Sebastian Berhalter, Tanner Tessmann and Aidan Morris \u2013 made Musah\u2019s regression a non-issue for Mauricio Pochettino.<\/p>\n While the personnel have changed, the dimensions of the field have not. The extra spaces McKennie scampered into on Friday weren\u2019t due to some quirk concocted by this summer\u2019s co-hosts. It\u2019s an evolution of Pochettino\u2019s design, built on the back of the progress of the US\u2019s best players since Qatar.<\/p>\n By the time the Copa Am\u00e9rica came around in 2024, the midfield seemed to be the only dependably functional facet of Gregg Berhalter\u2019s USMNT. Teams could operate in a low-to-mid defensive block, allowing the US to advance into the attacking half where they\u2019d quickly run out of ideas. It had become clear that the system was designed to funnel the attack through Christian Pulisic, and opponents planned accordingly.<\/p>\n The one real boon to emerge from getting grouped at the Copa was the validation of Chris Richards\u2019s bona fides. At that point, he had two seasons under his belt with Crystal Palace, but only became a regular starter along their backline after Oliver Glasner arrived in February 2024. Richards\u2019s partnership with Tim Ream kept the US in games, but wasn\u2019t enough to produce positive results against Panama and Uruguay.<\/p>\n Richards has since evolved further. He\u2019s become even more vital to Palace since Marc Gu\u00e9hi\u2019s departure, and logged the most minutes<\/a> of any player in the club\u2019s triumphant 2024-25 FA Cup campaign. He was similarly regular as the club captured the Uefa Conference League this past season.<\/p>\n Richards has gained confidence from his success with Palace as well as his recovery from an ankle injury sustained late in the season, and he didn\u2019t put a foot wrong against Paraguay. He set a World Cup record<\/a> for passes with a 100% success rate (83), and worked with Adams to assess the Paraguayan structure before dishing off to Ream (to his left) or Alex Freeman (to his right) to begin the next advance upfield.<\/p>\n Allow content provided by a third party?<\/p>\n This article includes content hosted on embed.bsky.app. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as the provider may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click ‘Allow and continue’.<\/p>\n \u201cIt felt good,\u201d Richards told the Guardian in the mixed zone. \u201cHonestly, I wasn\u2019t second guessing myself. That was the main thing. Playing with pain\u2019s OK as long as I\u2019m not second-guessing myself.\u201d<\/p>\n Up the field was the US\u2019s most vital newcomer of this World Cup<\/a> cycle. Folarin Balogun\u2019s commitment to the US \u2013 despite his eligibility for England and Nigeria \u2013 was a massive coup for a program that operated without a dependable striker from 2016 to 2023. Famous for his finesse, Balogun isn\u2019t shy to outmuscle opponents and buy his teammates time to get into dangerous positions.<\/p>\n Balogun\u2019s upbringing in Arsenal\u2019s academy has given him exceptional movement and excellent reading of the game. As McKennie and Tillman navigated the channels, Balogun could comfortably drift into the correct spots to get the service he needed, giving Paraguay goalkeeper Orlando Gill plenty of practice at picking the ball out of his net<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Without the gauntlet of Concacaf qualifying, and given the team\u2019s inconsistency throughout Pochettino\u2019s reign, there was understandable cause for concern that this group wasn\u2019t ready for the World Cup. After several weeks refining their movement, the US were more than comfortable shunting the ball up and down their lines to keep control of the game. It didn\u2019t take long for the fans at Los Angeles Stadium to break into the polite applause that accompanies savvy recirculation.<\/p>\n Joining big clubs hasn\u2019t always worked for this generation of US players. Musah\u2019s move to Milan ultimately set back his development: he never settled into one role as the club changed coaches with regularity after his arrival in 2023. Gio Reyna\u2019s struggles cost him precious refinement with Dortmund and M\u00f6nchengladbach.<\/p>\n But right now, the US have the type of players they have often missed in the past. They have Richards, a defensive anchor who was vital to his club\u2019s FA Cup and Conference League titles. And they have Balogun, a striker who, despite some dry spells, ranked fourth on Ligue 1\u2019s goalscoring charts.<\/p>\n