From Pochettino's groovy USMNT to Hayes' high-powered USWNT, GOAL looks tactical developments in the American game
So another year in American soccer has gone by – what to make of it all on the tactics board? Making sweeping declarations about the technical bits of this sport is difficult. Such is the beauty of the game these days that every team can do a bit of everything. There is no one "correct" way of playing soccer, and different tactics work in different leagues for different teams with different personnel.
Such has been the case in the American game. MLS Cup winners LA Galaxy played a radically different style to the team they beat in the final, New York Red Bulls. Orlando Pride, too, looked mightily different to Washington Spirit in the NWSL. And on the national stage, both managers of the U.S.'s national teams – Mauricio Pochettino on the men's side, Emma Hayes for the women – have employed markedly different styles.
The point here is that there is no single way to win in this game.
However, trends are real. And a look at the landscape of U.S. soccer shows some clear approaches forming at various levels – especially in MLS and NWSL. GOAL USA takes a look at some of the major tactical developments across various levels of the American game.
Getty Images SportUSMNT: Mauricio Pochettino gets interesting
Well, it was always likely to get groovy under Pochettino. Whatever style he implemented couldn't have been any worse than under Gregg Berhalter, whose tactical setup was often outdated, and failed to get the best out of a good group of players. Four fixtures in, and Pochettino has taken – most of – that same player group, and made them look immeasurably better.
There are interesting things happening all over the pitch. Christian Pulisic floats around. Joe Scally is a de facto center midfielder. The high press we were promised isn't quite there, but the USMNT now set up in a wonderfully disciplined mid-block.
More broadly, Pochettino, who last coached Chelsea, has taken the kind of nuances usually associated with club football and brought them into the national team. Everything here feels modern. The USMNT now build up in a trendy 3-2-5 formation. Full backs tuck in, while center backs play wide.
Antonee Robinson has played a bit of everywhere, from left wing, to a sort of inverted center midfielder. Yunus Musah, used as a wide player, has been an ideal fit. And perhaps most crucially, Ricardo Pepi, with good spacing around him, finally has room to operate as a central striker for the national team.
Perhaps the most crucial thing, though, is versatility. One thing that Berhalter always failed to fully take advantage of is that the USMNT consists of a group of highly intelligent footballers who can fill multiple roles. Used properly, and even an injury-crippled squad can win the kind of tricky CONCACAF games that this same side might have lost a year ago. And with numerous key faces set to return, the future looks bright.
AdvertisementAFPUSWNT: Attacking freedom and center backs
Very rarely does a football federation manage to hire two elite coaches so close together. But Matt Crocker and the U.S. Soccer Federation absolutely nailed it in 2024, hiring two former Chelsea bosses. Pochettino was the best available manager on the men's side. And in Emma Hayes, they brought in the best coach in the women's club game – with a nod to Barcelona's Jonatan Giraldez as a close second.
This was always going to work. Hayes knew the NWSL well, and had coached a handful of U.S. nationals at Chelsea. The tactical nous, gravitas, and expert handling of the media were all there. Under Hayes, the USWNT has once again become the world's premier program – she remains unbeaten in her first 15 matches with the squad, and she was justly rewarded as the 2024 Ballon d'Or women's coach of the year.
And on the pitch, everything was as impactful as planned. The Triple Espresso attacking trio, of course, grabbed the headlines. And with good reason. Hayes took three immense talents – Mal Swanson, Sophia Smith and Trinity Rodman – and devised a system in which they could all play together. There were loads of reasons why it worked: a variation in individual skillsets, shared finishing ability, dogged work rate.
But perhaps most importantly, Hayes realized she had three world class forwards and gave them license to make things happen in the final third. With Lindsey Horan pulling the strings, and hard-working midfielders behind her – in the Olympic gold medal match, Korbin Albert and Sam Coffey – this was a wonderfully balanced team. With that base, the three attackers were allowed to roam, dribble and combine, scored or assisted on 11 of the USWNT's 12 goals at the Paris Olympics. Job done.
A word, too, on the defense. The attacking trio grabbed the headlines for their highlight reel performances, but the back line was equally important. Central to it all was Naomi Girma. The defensive numbers don't really need to be outlined here, other than to say she is arguably the best one-on-one center back out there, who is frighteningly good in the air and reads space at an elite level.
What stands out, though, is her passing range. The story has been well chronicled at this point: Girma was a defensive midfielder with an eye for a pass, before a very clever youth coach deployed her in a deeper role. That distribution stuck, and was absolutely vital for the USWNT in a transition-based side.
ImagnMLS: No. 10s stay trendy
No marquee league in world soccer is really into No. 10s anymore. Conventional wisdom suggests that they're no longer essential to the modern game. Teams should be able to create from all over the pitch, and individual expression in central areas, at least in the men's game, has been stifled (thanks, Pep Guardiola.) Let the wingers have fun. Everyone else, move the ball and do what you're told.
MLS has always been a bit of a throwback in that sense. It is wonderfully behind the times tactically in some ways, and the staying power of the attacking midfielder held true this year. The league remained stuffed with diminutive No. 10s who were central to their team's efforts. Inter Miami's Lionel Messi is, of course, the extreme example. But there was also Luciano Acosta, Evander, Hany Mukhtar and Djordje Mihailovic. Look at the final MVP voting, and two of the top three are all attacking midfielders of some description.
There is an irony, of course, that MLS Cup champions LA Galaxy played without one – Riqui Puig routinely picked up the ball a bit deeper than a conventional No. 10. But their midseason impact signing from Europe? Marco Reus, a player siphoned out at Borussia Dortmund because, you guessed it, he's at his best as an attacking midfielder.
With Antoine Griezmann and Kevin de Bruyne named among the next big European names who could make a jump to the league, there's little evidence of that changing anytime soon.
ImagnNWSL: Strikers, strikers and more strikers
And what of the NWSL? It has been a year of immense change for the women's game in the United States. Hayes' arrival altered the landscape of the national team. A landmark Collective Bargaining Agreement abolished the collegiate draft, and established free agency. Meanwhile, the advent of the USL Super League allowed more talent to pile into the picture.
But in the NWSL itself, which remains the best quality of women's club soccer out there, the absolute best teams went retro. No. 9s are back. And they are very, very fast.
U.S. women's soccer has been criticized – sometimes unfairly so – for its apparent lack of tactically intelligent footballers. For a long time, the country relied on having the best athletes, and a glut of virtuosic talents. Alex Morgan was the perfect example of the U.S. as a talent factory, but her latter years were emblematic of how the U.S.'s style of football had slipped.
Now, the NWSL has changed. Foreign players are all over the league, and coaches as well. Combine that tactical nous with forwards who are deadly in one-on-ones, and you have a more tactically intriguing league than ever before. The likes of Barbara Banda, Temwa Chawinga and Asisat Oshoala attacked defenses all season with their pace, deadly finishing, and timing of runs.
It was, in some ways, the perfect blend. Take some of the best technical and expressive players out there – Brazil legend Marta for Orlando Pride was the perfect example – and give them a devastating center forward to work with (Banda) and the result is a crafty team with a razor sharp edge. It is no coincidence that the best teams in the league – including champion Orlando Pride – also featured the best strikers.