7 takeaways from the USMNT’s rotten, yet important 1-1 draw against Honduras

The United States men’s national team did not play well on Tuesday evening. Its 1-1 draw with Honduras was a terrible game to watch. Field conditions, weather, the classic laissez-faire CONCACAF style of officiating, bad tactical choices, and bad individual play led to a game that was thoroughly not enjoyable. Then the USMNT clawed its way to a set piece goal, and now the Americans are in decent shape in World Cup qualifying again.

Despite the game having so few positives for the USMNT to take out of it, a draw made it more likely than not that it would progress to the World Cup.

So we’re left to consider what to take out of a game in which the USMNT played poorly for the second match in a row, but ultimately did its job.

Christian Pulisic was largely invisible in this match, but went on an excellent dribbling run to win the free kick to set up the Americans’ only goal. Then four of his teammates combined to find the back of the net, so let’s single them out for their efforts too.

This might have been the only truly good moment of the game for the Americans, but it was a solid bit of set piece play, featuring big efforts from players who had looked like they were physically incapable of running about two minutes prior.

By expected goals, a 1-1 draw looks like a fair result, and the Americans don’t look like they played particularly poorly.

But the biggest chance by far was the goal, and the other big chance is probably a bit overstated by the xG model — it was taken by Pulisic in the 41st minute, and the Honduran goalkeeper Lopez was in great position to make an easy stop. It would have taken a truly miraculous finish to beat him. The other seven shots are of little consequence; the USMNT created nothing from open play.

The passing stats look even worse. According to Opta, via the MLS Match Center, the Americans completed only 50 percent of passes in the final third and an appalling eight percent of crosses.

The passing map looks even worse still than the stats — the USMNT completed one forward pass into the box.

The lack of completed passes to attacking areas on the flanks is alarming too. Even the center of the park looks bare. There’s nothing to like here.

Against Costa Rica, Arena sacrificed a midfielder to get two strikers on the pitch, thinking he’d be better off with an extra body in the box. Jozy Altidore and Bobby Wood struggled to combine, while Michael Bradley being isolated in midfield by himself led to the opening goal. After the game, Arena admitted he got outcoached.

On Tuesday, Arena decided that he needed a runner in Jordan Morris and a second striker behind him in Clint Dempsey, rather than hold-up or possession players that might let the USMNT keep hold of the ball. The Americans barely got Morris running onto the ball and Dempsey was a total non-factor.

The best attribute Arena has as a coach is that he makes the right game-day tactical decisions, helping a team become better than the sum of its parts and limiting the opposition’s strengths. That’s why the LA Galaxy succeeded under him while cycling through replacement-level minimum salary USL players, and that’s why U.S. Soccer thought he was the best man to clean up Jürgen Klinsmann’s mess. He’s whiffed on pre-match tactics two games in a row.

I’ve watched what Omar Gonzalez does on the Honduras goal about three dozen times and I’m still at a loss for words.

Regardless of what you think of Gonzalez and his errors in a USMNT shirt, he’s a solid player. Pachuca offered him more money than the LA Galaxy was willing to pay him because he’s a good player, and he was a key starter for them in a title-winning season because he’s a good player.

And even if he wasn’t a good player, any professional center back should be able to get a toe to a ball that is right next to them. Omar Gonzalez has made this play literally thousands of times. He makes this exact play successfully at least once every game. Even though there was no pressure on the passer and the grass was weirdly long, Gonzalez will look at this tape and tell you he expects to make this play 100 percent of the time.

Gonzalez started this game in place of the dropped Geoff Cameron, a first choice player for Premier League team Stoke City. Cameron is technically solid for a center back, which is why Stoke has used him in midfield and the Houston Dynamo even played him as a No. 10, but he was benched for giving the ball away repeatedly while under little pressure against Costa Rica.

For good players to make individual errors as poor as Gonzalez and Cameron did in back-to-back games is something that shouldn’t happen. Maybe they won’t do it again. There’s nothing to analyze here, they just have to not make uncharacteristic errors anymore.

For the second straight game, Pulisic started on the right wing and it didn’t go well. His passing map is ugly.

Pulisic also went 34 minutes without attempting a pass, from the 47th to the 81st minute.

Even though he’s just 18, Pulisic is already the USMNT’s most talented player and its most effective attacking option. He was primarily responsible for the Hex win over Trinidad and Tobago, the draw in Panama, and was arguably the man of the match in the 6-0 home defeat of Honduras. He’s had a spectacular start to the season for Borussia Dortmund. The USMNT should be built around getting him the ball in dangerous attacking positions as often as possible.

Pulisic’s best games for the USMNT have come in the center as a No. 10, and his usual position for Dortmund is on the left wing, where he can cut in on his stronger right foot. He’s more effective in both roles than he is on the right wing, so that’s where he should be played, even if other players need to play out of position to accommodate him.

DeAndre Yedlin is injured, Timmy Chandler’s USMNT performances have never matched his Bundesliga performances, and the Eric Lichaj experiment didn’t go well in the Gold Cup, so Arena’s decision to play Graham Zusi at right back is understandable. So was his decision to turn to the experienced DaMarcus Beasley in a tough road game in Honduras. But those two players got absolutely roasted by Honduras’ quick wingers, repeatedly.

This is a problem without an obvious solution. Jorge Villfaña is quicker than Beasley, but also makes more mental errors. Fabian Johnson prefers playing midfielder over fullback. And even when Yedlin is healthy, he’s a very attacking fullback who relies on his speed to cover for defensive mistakes. It’s probably too late in the cycle to pluck a new player out of MLS and throw them into the deep end.

Arena switched to a 3-5-2 formation at the end of the game, and it’s something Klinsmann experimented with as well before he was relieved of his duties. The USMNT’s personnel seems to fit a back three better than a back four — it has good center back depth, but no obvious starting pair, and fullbacks who are athletic but mediocre defensively. But that’s probably too extreme of a change to make ahead of two must-win games, so Arena’s stuck with trying to pick the least bad fullbacks for his back four and praying.

The USMNT doing enough on Tuesday to control its own destiny is ... good, I guess? In most cycles, getting a win at home against Panama and a win away to Trinidad and Tobago would sound very doable. But this iteration of the USMNT only has two wins in the hex and is coming off two bad performances. Panama outplayed the Americans in the draw between the two teams in Panama City, and T&T contained the USMNT in Colorado before Pulisic took over the game. In the previous round of qualifying, T&T earned a 0-0 draw at home against the Americans.

These games are not gimmes for the United States. October is going to be dramatic.