O'CONNOR-CLARKE: Unanswered questions persist ahead of Canada vs. U.S.

This generation of the U.S. men’s national team is chock-full of players who go up against some of the world’s best on a weekly basis in Europe. Chelsea winger Christian Pulisic is the centrepiece of the attack, with his ability to engineer attacks and cut in from the left flank, and the American midfield trio of Tyler Adams (RB Leipzig), Weston McKennie (Juventus), and Yunus Musah (Valencia) is good at controlling the pace of a game. The news that Weah will be unavailable is probably a major boost for Canada, considering the Lille man’s ability to stretch the pitch and run onto direct passes — much like Alberth Elis did for Honduras on Thursday. Since Gregg Berhalter took over as coach, the U.S. has typically liked to press in a 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 diamond formation, looking to get up the pitch into the opposing half even without the ball.

What threat does the United States pose?

Fullbacks Sergiño Dest (Barcelona) and Antonee Robinson (Fulham) both like to get forward as well, so Canada will need to be wary of them — although Herdman may also look to exploit them with the pace of players like Tajon Buchanan and Richie Laryea, both of whom can beat fullbacks on the dribble quite consistently.

Berhalter’s U.S. team has a lot of attacking depth in the squad, even without Weah. It’s difficult to guess who might get picked in the front three, though Ricardo Pepi seems the likely option at centre-forward, after Jesús Ferreira was the choice on Thursday against El Salvador (a choice that came as a surprise to many). Brenden Aaronson, who scored against Canada in Nashville, is also a candidate to get the start on the wing, given the verticality he can provide in Weah’s stead.

Defensively, Canada will look to stay organized, as they did against Honduras, and they’ll want to isolate Pulisic and prevent him from finding lanes for incisive passes. He was ineffective against El Salvador, giving the ball away with about half of his touches, so it’s certainly possible to neutralize him.

“We’ve got to manage the quality of Pulisic, we’ve got to manage the quality of McKennie, we’ve got to manage the quality of Pepi, Adams, the list goes on. That’s a strong team, a really strong team, and that’s what we get excited about. It’s a cliche, but we have got to win those individual battles and look to manage that space behind the fullbacks, they love that space and those cutbacks into the box.

Shorthanded midfield must be strong

Squad selection is going to be a real headache for John Herdman when it comes to the midfield. Sam Piette’s ankle is a concern. Plus, it’s unclear why Mark-Anthony Kaye missed out completely in Honduras. Stephen Eustáquio’s arrival in camp is, then, massively helpful to Canada’s chances, although they’ll still be a little thin in the middle.

Jonathan Osorio thus feels like a lock to play a role in Hamilton, even though the creative Toronto FC midfielder has been out of season for about two months. He got some minutes in the second half of the Honduras game to bring him up to speed somewhat, so Herdman will be hoping he’s sharp enough for the task on Sunday. Atiba Hutchinson, meanwhile, may be called upon again; the Besiktas man went 90 minutes in San Pedro Sula, and at nearly 39 years old it might be asking a lot to expect another full shift just three days later. Does Liam Fraser, perhaps, get the nod? He was the man Herdman turned to off the bench when Piette went down on Thursday, and he did very well — providing the spectacular assist for Jonathan David’s goal.

A shorthanded midfield is really the last thing Canada would want against the United States, whose greatest strength is arguably the Adams-McKennie-Musah trio in the middle. They’re very good at winning and establishing possession before playing into space for wingers, and they typically form a very strong central shape for shorter passing. It’s a tough prospect even for a full-strength Canadian midfield to handle, but it can be done.

“Gregg’s a good coach,” Herdman said of his opposite number Berhalter. “He’s gonna try and adapt to what he thinks we’re gonna put out there; he’s seen us play different ways and he’ll have to adapt to that, but they’ve got a strong blueprint. The one thing with the U.S., they’ve got a really good identity and again, if you give them those inside channels, their xGs from those positions are absolutely killers.”

One option for Canada may be trying to bypass midfield as much as possible, sticking to the wide areas and lofting balls over the top to attacking players, but even so, whoever does line up centrally will have their work cut out for them.

Punish slow ball movement with counter-attacks

One element that wasn’t so good about the U.S.’s win over El Salvador was a tendency for attacking players other than Weah to be a little sluggish in possession. Pulisic, in particular, took a lot of time on the ball which led to him being dispossessed a team-high nine times. That’s something Canada can definitely exploit going into Sunday; if the U.S. players are holding on to the ball too long and looking to dribble more often than pass forward, there are sure to be opportunities for Canadian counter-attacks.

In the September game against the U.S., Herdman deployed his most conservative lineup of this qualification cycle, arranging his team in a 5-4-1 with a low block, conceding 72% of possession. It was a wildly different strategy to what we’ve seen from Canada in any other game in the past year, but it was very effective at frustrating the Americans and limiting their ability to attack with speed.

On home turf, it’s hard to imagine Herdman will want to bunker down as much as he did in Nashville, but a quick strike in transition is still definitely something he would like to see from this game. Tajon Buchanan and Richie Laryea will be critical to that with their pace, particularly against the U.S.’s slower defenders. Canada will have their moments in possession, of course, but the game could very well be won or lost by a quick counter-attack to punish an opponent that can occasionally be prone to ball-watching.

According to Herdman, the frozen artificial turf pitch might help them in that respect, having experienced one already in Edmonton.

“What we learned from that first experience (in Edmonton) was you’re able to maintain that high intensity running,” Herdman said. “I think that’s how we tried to set all the games we played in the cold, knowing that your core players can repeat those sprints. It became quite a chaotic game against Mexico, and I think we thrive in that sort of chaos.”