A pretty fun USMNT win over Venezuela!

The Pat Agyemang Hive had themselves (ourselves) a day

Some scattered thoughts from the USMNT’s 3-1 win over Venezuela, the first of two Camp Cupcake friendlies:

- Pat Agyemang was the best player on the field by a good distance. Got himself a nice goal – one very reminiscent of the type he’s scored on the regular for Charlotte – and drew an early penalty with his hold-up play.

The one thing I’ll ding him on is a missed chance early when he couldn’t quite get onto a low cross fizzed across the six by Max Arfsten:

This is not a “bench him!” type of error, but it is the difference between a guy who’ll reliably score 10-12 non-PK goals in MLS and someone who’ll score 15+. These kinds of movements are the next step for Agyemang who, as of now, is the presumptive starter for Charlotte FC entering the season.

- Man I really liked what I saw from George Campell, who at times seemed to be playing in the old John Stones role (i.e., a center back who comes off the line and into central midfield both in and out of possession). This is a lot to ask of a relatively young defender, but he was up for it throughout.

- I didn’t think Arfsten was bad defensively in any way, and when he got forward he was able to sometimes add danger, and often be danger adjacent. There were a lot of sloppy touches from him in the first 15 minutes, though he got cleaner as the game progressed.

- Jack McGlynn scored a banger and got himself an assist, and he’s one of the best passers in the midfield pool.

That’s the good stuff. The bad stuff is he was even sloppier than Arfsten and he adds almost nothing defensively. I love watching him play, but 1) I honestly think he’d be best served as a classic South American No. 10 than as a deep-lying midfielder, and 2) if he is a deep-lying midfielder, I have no idea how he’d pass Tanner Tessmann (who has the same range of passing and calm on the ball, but mixed with international caliber physical traits and at least a little bit of defensive awareness) on the depth chart.

- The guy McGlynn assisted, Matko Miljevic, put in what was genuinely the most hilarious individual USMNT performance I think I’ve ever seen:

There were four or five moments just like this in the first half, including his “assist” on Agyemang’s goal.

Now, I’ll be fair and say he was much better in his 15 second-half minutes, which culminated in the goal (which was a nice play from him beginning to end). But my god, man, the first 45 were INCREDIBLE (derogatory).

- This performance did nothing to change my opinion that Benja Cremaschi is Indiana Vassilev with good PR.

- This performance did nothing to change my opinion that Indiana Vassilev is Benja Cremaschi with bad PR.

- I really, really wish we got to see more of Diego Luna. Simply put, his ability to receive the ball in tough spots and still play forward into advantageous positions was unique among the attacking midfielders and wingers the US played today.

- That’s not meant to be shade on Brian Gutierrez, who worked hard and is good when he has a little bit of space to get on the ball and make things happen. The issues arise when he doesn’t have that space, though, and as Venezuela figured that out, Guti became less influential.

- Caden Clark, not a wide midfielder. Good ideas and good energy, but lacks the skill to complete those ideas.

- I’m not selling any of my Emeka Eneli stock though he did look like he was a little bit overwhelmed by the moment.

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I’m not gonna bother touching on the veterans at all, and just in general I’m going to remind folks it’s bad to read too much into friendlies. Especially friendlies against Venezuela’s B team.

Still, I actually enjoyed myself. The Campbell performance in particular was intriguing, and I’m looking forward to Wednesday’s game vs. Costa Rica.