3 unsung heroes from the USMNT’s World Cup qualifying win

The United States got a huge win over Panama on Friday night, with Christian Pulisic and Jozy Altidore grabbing a lot of headlines with fantastic performances up front in the 4-0 victory. But three other players who sailed under the radar a bit deserve a lot of plaudits for their performances, because the U.S. would not have dominated the game like it did without them.

Wood scored the USMNT’s final goal of the night, but that was just the cherry on top of his performance. Wood was vital to his team’s efforts in the final third all night long, running tirelessly for 90 minutes and constantly disrupting Panama’s defense.

Wood has been coming into his own in a big way over the past year, and that development has seriously benefited the USMNT. He’s always been a hard runner, but he’s learned how to use it effectively, shown off on Friday night in how he continuously used his runs off the ball to clear space for Pulisic and Altidore to work with.

He left Panama’s defense so frustrated that Felipe Baloy had to be substituted at halftime, because Wood was drawing a lot of hard contact from the veteran defender and he was sitting on a yellow card already. That came after he combined with Paul Arriola to utterly embarrass Baloy out on the right side of the U.S. attack, working the ball back and forth between them before Baloy bit a little too hard, with Wood turning and burning past him into the box. That in turn forced Armando Cooper into a desperation foul to earn the penalty that gave Altidore his brace.

Wood’s runs off the ball also helped create Pulisic’s early goal by pulling Baloy far enough off the ball to give Pulisic breathing room, and then later pulling Roman Torres from the near post with a late run while Pulisic ran down the left, helping clear the lane the young attacker crossed through to set up Altidore’s first goal. It’s not often that a striker has a hand in four different goals like that, and Wood deserves a lot of credit for how he performed.

Another hard runner who made a lot of things happen all night long was the guy who Wood combined with to create the penalty. Arriola made something of a surprising start on the right wing against Panama, despite many fans feeling like his recent USMNT performances weren’t strong enough to play a big role in as important a match as this. It was a good thing he did though, because he played a crucial role in this win.

Arriola and his runs up the right flank did the USMNT so much good all night long. His constant presence in the final third forced Luis Ovalle to stay wide and even pulled Armando Cooper backward frequently, making Panama stay honest and respect the wide game and keeping them from just packing in the center of the pitch. It helped that he was a threat whenever he had the ball at his feet, creating several dangerous chances, including setting up Wood’s goal in the second half and working with the Hawaiian striker to help create their first-half penalty.

Arriola even did a fair amount of work defensively, often sliding central as he dropped back and helping keep Cooper and Gabriel Gomez in check at different times as Panama tried to find its way into the match. Was he a perfect defender? No. But for a 22-year-old winger, he did a dang fine job tracking back to the center of the pitch when he needed to.

The return of De Andre Yedlin to the squad was quietly a huge boon on Friday night, because he single-handedly locked down the left side of Panama’s attack, keeping it one-sided and taking a huge load off the rest of the defense by not having to worry about much of anything coming from his side of the pitch for most of the match.

In fact, the few times something dangerous did come from the right side of the U.S. defense, it required such an overload from Panama that it telegraphed its intent and made it easier for the USMNT to respond. Heck, even on about half of those, Yedlin broke up the attack himself without needing much help.

Yedlin’s explosive step of pace was sorely missed by the U.S. while he was injured, and his ability to step up and help the attack without having to worry about getting burned thanks to his recovery speed gave the team a lot more options going forward. In fact, just his steady defensive presence helped with that as well, because his security blanket allowed Arriola to stay higher up the pitch, not having to worry as much about exposing the winger behind him.

In essence, Yedlin’s quality at the back had a chain effect throughout the rest of the team: Yedlin’s quality at right back helped right winger Arriola play just a little bit better, and his quality in turn helped enhance the performance of Wood, who in turn gave a lot of support to Christian Pulisic and Jozy Altidore. It’s amazing seeing what this team can do when it plays like a team and has the right people in the right positions.