What We Learned From The USA’s World Cup Friendlies Before Opener vs. Paraguay

No more friendlies. No more tune-ups. Next up for the United States after games against Senegal and Germany: the 2026 FIFA World Cup. There are positives and negatives to take away from a 3-2 win over Senegal and a 2-1 loss to Germany. Two former USA World Cup players (Maurice Edu in 2010 and Walker Zimmerman in 2022) break down their three biggest lessons. Chris Richards Is Essential To This Backline Edu: While the U.S. had plenty of positive spells between its win over Senegal and loss to Germany, it did concede multiple goals in both games. The USA started with three center backs — Alex Freeman and Tim Ream started both, while Mark McKenzie started against Senegal and Miles Robinson against Germany. In both games, the U.S. conceded twice. (Side note: I wouldn’t have minded seeing either McKenzie or Robinson start alongside Richards.) When healthy, Richards slots right into the middle of that defense between Freeman on the right and Ream on the left. Chris full trained on Monday, which is a positive sign that he’ll be ready to face Paraguay on Friday (9 p.m. ET on FOX/FOX One and streaming for free on Tubi). The USA Is Ready For Real Competition Zimmerman: The U.S. got two games against different teams that allowed it to defend differently. We were more compact in how we defended against Senegal, keeping the distance from the front to the back, we were able to press higher and be higher up the pitch, maintaining about 20-25 yards between our defense and attack. Then, against quality opposition in Germany, we had to be a bit more compact; it was more like 35. It was also helpful that Germany was fluid in how they defended. Germany pressed the American defense in a variety of ways. Sometimes, the press was high on our backline in a 4-3-3 formation, while other times it was a bit deeper in a 4-4-2. Being able to build an attack against various structures and looks was a great dress rehearsal for what we’ll see throughout the tournament. After Antonee Robinson’s absolute golazo, I thought we responded great the rest of the first half. That was a really good period that had the U.S. looking like a dangerous team going forward, putting pressure on Germany and competing well until the halftime whistle. Also, I think the first goal that Germany scored will actually be helpful over the long haul for the U.S. It allows the team to go back to the drawing board on set pieces. Kai Havertz getting in that position without any contact is not good enough. Now, it’s about emphasizing just how important set pieces are going to be during the tournament. Hopefully, this team learned about organization and communication necessary to make sure every set piece is defended with the proper amount of urgency. This week will be about tweaking little things to the system while making sure guys recover and continue to build fitness ahead of the USA’s World Cup opener on Friday night against Paraguay. The USA Can Compete With The Best Teams, But … Edu: When the USA is at its best, we can cause problems against the best teams at the World Cup this summer. The U.S. created chances and looked dangerous going forward against both Senegal and Germany. Christian Pulisic delivered a man-of-the-match performance against Senegal, while Folarin Balogun scored against Senegal and was lively against Germany. The key: We have to take our chances. Once you start facing the top teams in this tournament, they will make you pay if we’re not clinical when our moments come. In addition to causing problems in attack, I loved the response and character this group showed after conceding early against Germany. That mentality and fight will be important moving forward.