Sleepy loss to Jesse Marsch's Canada shows USMNT need their promised refresh to arrive

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – The United State’s men’s national team fell to Canada on home soil for the first time since 1957, and the imminent announcement of Mauricio Pochettino as the next manager will be a desperately needed palate cleanser. 

Let’s dive into three points from a forgettable 2-1 loss in Kansas City by running through thoughts from the key figures involved.

The U.S. fell into a trap 

The high-pressing, energetic Jesse Marsch brand of soccer is no secret, yet the U.S. stumbled into the type of performance that was begging to be punished due to an alarming lack of intensity. Their tactical plan backfired, too.

“No intensity to start the game. And that’s something that’s been happening for a lot of the previous camps,” veteran defender Tim Ream said after the game. “There’s a certain standard that we need to hold ourselves to, and we haven’t been doing that. And that’s on us, as individuals, as players, and it has to come from within us. You can’t coach intensity. You either have it or you don’t, and you either bring it or you don’t, and we haven’t been bringing it.”

Interim head coach Mikey Varas agreed that “coaches can only get you so far from a mentality perspective,” noting that it took the U.S. about 50 minutes to begin building the desired energy level.  

“The mentality is on the players,” he said. “Sorry, they know it. They know, we speak the truth to each other. I love those guys, but they know that mentality to fight and to run, it’s a sacrifice. I can’t do that for them. That’s on them. So at the end of the day, it's a combination between me and them. All of us together.”

Varas, however, emphasized that in possession, his approach to preparing for the friendly ultimately failed. The U.S. was disjointed and sloppy building up, noticeably unable to digest his plan and not connecting with each other.