The USMNT is set to take on Haiti in a match dripping with narrative. Mostly that’s around the departure of Mauricio Pochettino who has decided to take his talents to Manchester. This means the USMNT will be without their manager as of Tuesday immediately following the second match against Haiti in the Nations League. That Poch would leave while his project of “seeing the potential of our fans and all the people in this amazing country that is the USA, what they showed us during the World Cup. I
think it’s an amazing opportunity to be bold, but to be part of creating, evolving and developing an amazing new…” BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. Behind those pretty words was the truth that Poch was a hired gun and found something he would rather do and get paid more for.
That aside, there’s a soccer game being played in Miami which is standing in for Haiti’s home match in the two leg Concacaf Nations League schedule this international window. As far as what to expect, the USA under Poch is pretty well established. It will try to dictate the match by moving the ball quickly up field and try to breakdown Haiti’s likely low block.
The core of the team is back for this window and getting a win in the first leg will be key for the Americans. Look for Chris Richards and whoever starts next to him to hold down the back line flanked by Antonee Robinson on the left and someone on the right playing behind Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams anchoring the midfield with maybe Malik Tillman, Jack McGlynn or Sebastian Berhalter joining. The attacking trio should see Christian Pulisic and Folarin Balogun make the XI with the third Musketeer possibly being Cavan Sullivan, Justin Ellis, or Julian Hall. Hopefully, whoever is between the sticks keeps it together for 90 minutes.
Haiti is coming off of being bounced in the group stage of the World Cup but qualification for the first time in 50 years was a step forward for the program. They played catchup in most of their World Cup matches and struggled to balance holding a defensive shape and creating scoring chances which resulted in a -6 goal difference and shipping 8 goals in their three matches.
The Americans managed to score early and often both in the World Cup and in the recent friendlies. That habit will be useful against a team like Haiti who struggles to come back from falling behind or with keeping leads for that matter. A USA win should be in the cards for this one and if an early goal comes there may very well be more to follow.
