What We Learned From The USA's World Cup Friendlies Before Opener vs. Paraguay

No more friendlies. No more tune-ups. Next up for the United States after games against Senegal and Germany: the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

There are positives and negatives to take away from a 3-2 win over Senegal and a 2-1 loss to Germany. 

Two former USA World Cup players (Maurice Edu in 2010 and Walker Zimmerman in 2022) break down their three biggest lessons.

Defender (Center Back)

Edu: While the U.S. had plenty of positive spells between its win over Senegal and loss to Germany, it did concede multiple goals in both games.

The USA started with three center backs — Alex Freeman and Tim Ream started both, while Mark McKenzie started against Senegal and Miles Robinson against Germany. In both games, the U.S. conceded twice. (Side note: I wouldn't have minded seeing either McKenzie or Robinson start alongside Richards.)

When healthy, Richards slots right into the middle of that defense between Freeman on the right and Ream on the left. Chris full trained on Monday, which is a positive sign that he'll be ready to face Paraguay on Friday (9 p.m. ET on FOX/FOX One and streaming for free on Tubi).

Zimmerman: The U.S. got two games against different teams that allowed it to defend differently. We were more compact in how we defended against Senegal, keeping the distance from the front to the back, we were able to press higher and be higher up the pitch, maintaining about 20-25 yards between our defense and attack. Then, against quality opposition in Germany, we had to be a bit more compact; it was more like 35.

It was also helpful that Germany was fluid in how they defended. Germany pressed the American defense in a variety of ways. Sometimes, the press was high on our backline in a 4-3-3 formation, while other times it was a