USMNT Stock Up, Stock Down: The United States defeats Senegal in their first friendly leading into the World Cup

By Billy McGee - @iambillymcgee

Alex Freeman (left) and Sergino Dest celebrating (Photo courtesy of Cisco's Art/TopBin90)

USMNT fans got their first look at the World Cup squad in a 3-2 win against Senegal in a friendly match at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte on Sunday. The U.S. played well, but two goals from Senegal against the run of play made the score closer than it appeared for most of the match.

Here’s our stock up, stock down for the USMNT friendly match against Senegal:

Stock Up

Right Wing - The combinations of Sergino Dest and Alex Freeman, and Timothy Weah and Joe Scally on the right wing were a bright spot on Sunday. Dest and Freeman got the nod as starters, with Dest scoring the first goal of the match on a cross from Christian Pulisic. Outside of the goal, Dest had three successful dribbles on three attempts, the joint-most in the match, created another chance, and was active on the ball with 28 touches in the first half. Freeman gave the team flexibility on the back line to play either a back four with him as the right back or a back three with him as the right-sided center back.

Freeman had five defensive contributions and had a 96% accurate pass rate, and helped set up the U.S.'s second goal. At halftime, both Dest and Freeman were taken off with Weah and Scally coming on in their positions. In the second half, Weah and Scally combined for five passes into the final third as the team continued to get in favorable spots on the pitch, including Weah's cross, which set up Folarin Balogun's game-winning goal; neither was able to get on the scoresheet, but they have done the groundwork to establish themselves as reliable options off the bench in their respective positions.

Strikers - Ricardo Pepi started the game at striker for the U.S.; although he didn’t score a goal, he set up the first goal with the pass to Pulisic before his cross and assisted the second goal that Pulisic scored. He was credited with two chances created before being taken off at halftime for Balogun. Balogun came on and seemed to score the third goal relatively quickly, but he was ruled offside. He was still able to get a goal, getting the winner in the 63rd minute. He took the most shots of the game with four, three of which were on target. He wasn’t very active on the ball with just 14 touches, but six of those were in the box.

Christian Pulisic - After a cold streak that saw him record zero goals and just two assists since December 28 against Hellas Verona, the United States star scored and assisted, the first time he has done so since September 28 for AC Milan against Napoli. He had the most touches in the box of any player in the match, with eight, and also completed a successful dribble.

Stock Down

MLS Subs - After the halftime break, the U.S. made 10 substitutions, bringing on four MLS players. Of the four, Chris Brady, Miles Robinson, and Cristian Roldan stood out negatively. Robinson and Brady share the blame for Senegal’s second goal when Robinson tried to play the ball back, not seeing the Senegal player that was in the way, and Brady wasn’t able to claim the ball at the edge of the box, leaving an open net for a goal to even the score. Roldan had just 17 touches and attempted nine passes from the midfield across the entire half, and his only shot missed way off the mark. Brady will likely not make any more appearances this camp; the main concern is that the bench isn’t as deep as it could be with them playing poorly against Senegal.