U.S. In Search of Silver Linings After Sloppy Loss: 'We need to be sharper'

HARRISON, N.J. — If ever there were an example of statistics not telling the story of a soccer game, then what we saw on Saturday was it. 

Based solely on the numbers, it would be easy to think that the Americans were done in by two goals that came against the run of play. The USMNT out-shot the Taegeuk Warriors 17-5. They had more efforts on target, more possession of the ball, more total passes and better pass accuracy. They had twice as many corners and fouls.

"Overall, I think we were better than South Korea," U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino said afterward.

Unfortunately for Pochettino and his players, that’s not even close to being true. The visitors’ superstar forward, Son Heung-min, put his side ahead just 17 minutes into the contest, much to the delight of the mostly red-clad crowd of 26,500 at Sports Illustrated Stadium. Son then set up a second goal for Lee Dong-gyeong before the first half was even finished. 

The Koreans were on cruise control the rest of the way, with the U.S. mustering mostly speculative half-chances before the final whistle mercifully blew, extending the Americans' run of futility over FIFA’s 25 highest ranked sides. 

The day before Saturday’s match, Pochettino said that results during this international window — the U.S. will face Japan in Columbus, Ohio on Tuesday — were secondary to "how we are going to compete." Yet while the Americans showed more fight than they did the last time European-based stars like Christian Pulisic and Tim Weah were with the squad in March, when they were upset by Panama in the Concacaf Nations League semifinals, they looked every bit as disjointed.

The Koreans, to be fair, are a far tougher foe. Pulisic was as ineffective as he was last spring despite skipping