The U.S. Is Thinking Outside the Box To Find An Edge In Set Pieces — And It's Working

ARLINGTON, Texas — Sebastian Berhalter stood over the free kick about 40 yards away from Saudi Arabia’s goal.

He raised his hand, then delivered pinpoint service into the box where Chris Richards was able to get on the end of it and score what ultimately became the winning goal for the U.S. men’s national team in its second Gold Cup match at Q2 Stadium in Austin on Thursday.

The victory meant that the Americans would advance to the quarterfinals, though they will conclude group stage play on Sunday vs. Haiti here at AT&T Stadium (7 p.m. ET on FOX).

Richards nearly had a goal earlier in that match, but his header off Jack McGlynn’s corner went right into the goalkeeper’s chest.

These two scoring opportunities — one that was successful and one that wasn’t — are not coincidence.

Since Mauricio Pochettino took over as the USMNT’s manager last fall, there’s been more emphasis placed on set pieces, both offensively and defensively.

"Offensively, I feel like we’ve always had the ability to be good at them, but we’ve never been good at them," Tyler Adams told reporters. "So I think now it’s important just putting the balls in the right areas, making sure guys are making the right runs. Obviously, Chris with a great finish, but I think it could be a huge trend for us."

That’s what this team has been hoping would be the case for a while. In fact, former U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter (Sebastian’s father) had hired Gianni Vio, an Italian set piece specialist, and saw the benefit in last summer’s Copa América opener when Christian Pulisic scored off a corner kick that Vio designed.

But outside of a few goals here and there, the U.S. hasn’t been proficient enough. Pochettino, however, has placed a greater significance on this aspect of