Lackluster USA lose to Japan 2-0 in World Cup warmup Loop Jamaica

Black Immigrant Daily News

With the World Cup approaching and final roster decisions looming, U.S. football players gave a dismal performance in a 2-0 exhibition loss to Japan on Friday in D?sseldorf, Germany.

Daichi Kamada scored following Weston McKennie’s giveaway in the 24th minute and Kaoru Mitoma added a goal in the 88th.

In their next-to-last World Cup warmup the Americans failed to put a single shot on goal, getting outshot 16-4 — including 8-0 in efforts on target.

“Obviously really disappointing,” goalkeeper Matt Turner said. “I just kind of wish that we had a little more fight about us from the start. I think we hurt ourselves in a lot of ways.”

The U.S. have one win, five losses and four draws in 10 road games since a victory at Northern Ireland in March 2021, and just one goal in their last five away games.

“We need to play with personality. We need to play relaxed. We need to play with intensity,” U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter said. “When we do these things, we’re a really good team, but when we don’t, we’re an average team.”

Berhalter plans to announce his 26-man World Cup roster on Nov. 9. He said it was hard for him to tell whether players felt pressure from the evaluation period.

“It’s not fair to say that everyone’s on the block here. There’s guys that have a lot of water under the bridge with this team and have played a lot of good games.” Berhalter said. “We performed below expectations. We weren’t up to our normal standards. And that’s almost across the board.”

American star Christian Pulisic did not dress because of an unspecified injury that Berhalter called “a knock.” The 14th-ranked Americans already were without Tim Weah, Yunus Musah, Chris Richards, Antonee Robinson and Zack Steffen due to injuries, and Miles Robinson will miss the World Cup because of a torn Achilles.

A series of defensive breakdowns put pressure on Turner, who has played just one match this season for Arsenal. Turner made a pair of diving saves in the second half, on Junya Ito in the 55th and Kamada in the 65th.

Kamada scored after McKennie received a pass from Tyler Adams and underhit a backpass. Hiroki Sakai ran onto the ball and passed to Ito. He played the ball to an open Kamada, who beat Turner to the far post from about 12 yards for his sixth international goal.

No. 24 Japan initially was called for offside, but the goal was awarded after a video review determined Kamada was played onside by Walker Zimmerman.

Mitoma scored his fifth international goal, turning around second-half sub Reggie Cannon and bending the ball around Zimmerman to beat Turner to the far post with a right-foot shot from just inside the penalty area.

“That second goal comes from a lot of frustration of things just not really working for us,” Turner said. “We give the ball away and we kind of all just drop our heads and we don’t react. And they were having joy on the ball and running freely at us.”

Jes?s Ferreira had the best U.S. chance in the seventh minute, putting an short-range open header over the crossbar from a Sergi?o Dest cross.

The U.S. have one last exhibition, against 53rd-ranked Saudi Arabia on Tuesday at Murcia, Spain. Berhalter said it was too soon to determine whether Pulisic will be available.

Back in the World Cup after missing the 2018 tournament, the Americans open in Qatar against No. 19 Wales on Nov. 21, play fifth-ranked England four days later and close the first round against No. 22 Iran on Nov. 29.

Japan, preparing for their seventh straight World Cup, open against No. 11 Germany on Nov. 23, meets 34th-ranked Costa Rica four days later and close group play against No. 6 Spain on Dec. 1.

Players’ shouts to each other were audible during a match played before a crowd of under 10,000 in 54,600-capacity Merkur Spiel-Arena.

Gio Reyna and Dest started despite having not played 90-minute matches for their clubs this season. Reyna, fit following a leg injury that wrecked his 2021-22 season, had not started for the U.S. in a year. He wore the No. 21 of his father, former U.S. captain Claudio Reyna.

Josh Sargent, Jordan Morris, Cannon and Mark McKenzie entered to start the second half in place of Ferreira, Reyna, Dest and Aaron Long.

Japan play No. 44 Ecuador on Tuesday in D?sseldorf and 43rd-ranked Canada on Nov. 17 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

NewsAmericasNow.com