Matt Lichtenstadter
Gregg Berhalter’s US men’s national team tenure so far has been defined by a process and creating a foundation for a better future. That comes with growing pains, experimentation and trial and error. While the finer details may change, such as with specific formations, the principles remain the same no matter the players or opponent.
Berhalter’s process has sometimes been a slow burn, which has meant that the introduction of young and new players into full senior team duty hasn’t been as quick as some may have expected. In this pre-Nations League camp, that is changing to a degree. Sergiño Dest and Miles Robinson are two l intriguing players, but the most intriguing may be Paxton Pomykal of FC Dallas, who was a star in the U-20 World Cup and has built on that form on the club level. Could he be the answer to many different positional and tactical questions for Berhalter going forward?
Early indications from Berhalter’s first few games were that his teams were going to do a specific set of things in a specific way regardless of who they are playing. That mantra changed quickly as the games got more and more stale. Still, Berhalter’s entire soccer philosophy is about creating and using space. He may set out players in one place at the start of the game knowing full well they will move into another position to create and exploit space to create advantages.
Pomykal’s skillset is well suited for Berhalter’s style of play. It’s based on using space well, whether it be going forward or tracking back, to create advantages with that space. Those skills are incredibly important in situations like the US faced in the Gold Cup Final, where midfield tracking became a problem:
WHAT A GOAL! QUE GOLAZO! ???
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 8, 2019
Jonathan dos Santos finishes off a beautiful team goal to give Mexico the lead late in this #GoldCup2019 final ?? pic.twitter.com/gr18Y5GDok
Weston McKennie losing that run created the space that Jonathan Dos Santos filled in and used to score the only goal of the game. Pomykal’s defensive acumen is such that he can track those runs and address those problems whether he’s playing deeper in midfield or, as usually is the case, higher up in the attacking third. If he’s playing in the spot that Christian Pulisic occupied during the Gold Cup, not only does the US lose very little if anything in attack because of his ability to break lines and exploit space, they don’t suffer defensively ike the second half of the Gold Cup final. And for an added bonus, Pulisic’s ability combine on the wing and interchange positions is something that Gregg Berhalter wants and craves.
Given the tactical fit, it seems like Pomykal will take this opportunity, run with it and never look back. But part of the Berhalter process is knowing when a situation like a full national team call-up is right for a player. Pomykal seems to have hit a bit of a “rookie wall” with a recent dip in form, but is now back on the upswing. Berhalter wants to capture and bottle that momentum to see how close Pomykal is to being ready for the tests the senior national team will provide. Since he is a player that has not only definitively flashed the talent but fills a void that the team needs to fill, it has created a set of expectations and hopes for him that may not match where he is now, even as a 19 year old MLS regular.
Time is still on Berhalter’s side, and it’s certainly on Pomykal’s side too.
He’s not the finished article yet, and since the expectations are so high, it means that in a world that demands immediacy, players like Pomykal are expected to fix all that ills a certain area of a team, especially as the US is looking for a player with his tools. But with Berhalter’s own admission that he may have asked too much too soon in his first few camps, playing it slow with Pomykal isn’t a bad idea. Getting him in camp, bedding him in with the squad and the principles will be an important part of him becoming the player so many think he can be. If he does play, will he be able to show the skills that would fill an open spot in a team that is still developing? Could he even become a Berhalter type number six with his range of passing?
While the Pomykal breakout moment might not happen in this camp, he could be a player that provides solutions to those well known problems. It may not happen immediately, but of the young players in this camp, he might be the one with the highest ceiling and potential to be so much of what this team needs and what Gregg Berhalter loves.
Matt Lichtenstadter is a freelance journalist who has been a guest writer at TYAC. He is based in Pennsylvania. Follow him on Twitter @MattsMusings1.