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- Poch's Best USMNT Performance So Far 🇺🇸🇪🇨
Poch's Best USMNT Performance So Far 🇺🇸🇪🇨
Plus, Rog chats with Tyler Adams.
Hail GFOP!
Rog writes: Monday afternoon U.S. Soccer quarterback time. Now that the smoke has cleared on Friday’s USMNT come-from-behind 1-1 draw against an impressive Ecuador, we can declare: this was the best performance of the Pochettino era with many bright points, without getting too carried away and declaring ourselves to be anything but a work in progress.
The mood swings on USMNT Only posts this weekend have been something to behold. My favorite was, and this is real, “Lets not forget we are missing key players like Reyna, Scally, Adams, Robinson, Pepi, Sargent, etc, but we just DOMINATED Ecuador. I have a good feeling about the World Cup. Semis or bust.” I will have some of what that person is smoking... Football is about the rational and the emotional. We U.S. fans are always 87% emotional. Yes, Ecuador came in second in CONMEBOL, but they were shorn of their two diamonds in Moisés Caicedo and Piero Hincapié. The U.S. missed our best two fullbacks in Sergiño Dest and Antonee Robinson, Tyler Adams and no Christian Pulisic until the 73rd minute. This game was very difficult to make conclusions from big picture.
However, we were blessed to witness a terrific Flo Balogun performance. The 24-year-old Monaco striker played as if he felt dangerous every time he was on the ball, a confidence that has been all too rare for a U.S. No. 9 in the past seven years. He was rewarded with a fine 71st-minute equalizer set up by the flickeringly excellent Malik Tillman. Look at his face after scoring – that is perhaps what I loved the most about this performance: the fight. Gent wanted more, and it is that hunger that has been gone for far too long. 💪
ii. The other bright point: we now have an emerging system featuring a three-man backline with ambitious wingbacks and a double-pivot in midfield. This is now our formation. When Poch says trust the process, this is the process. The other half of the transformation is the team’s culture. This visual from the tactics board is probably the greatest clue we have as to what is going on behind the scenes. Culture eats strategy for breakfast is so true at the international level — think Morocco 2022, Iceland 2016, USA 2002. 📈
Clint Dempsey and I broke it all down on the latest episode of The Deuce where Clint runs rule over Balogun’s performance and compares him to a remarkable predecessor. Watch the full episode here. ♠️🇺🇸
iii. Australia now awaits Tuesday night (9 p.m. ET on TNT). A team with a fine culture of their own, as well as a robust backline. They were gritty in beating Jesse Marsch’s Canada 1-0 Friday with a goal from their 19-year-old starboy, Nestory Irankunda. This game is winnable. How the narrative will go into overdrive if we pull off the result we cry out for. We’ll be breaking down this matchup all week on VAMOS, our new content hub led by the mighty Herc Gomez and The Give N Go, where we talk about the U.S. team, CONCACAF, and more. 🦘
Tell me what you thought about the USMNT. I would love to hear from you at [email protected].
iv. I am headed off to Madrid to speak at the World Football Summit on Wednesday. If any of you are going to be there, come and hear us at 12 p.m. CEST. Vamos! 🇪🇸
Courage,
ROG

MiB HQ Bulletin Board 📣

![]() Be a part of the convo during USMNT vs. Australia | ![]() Becky welcomes a USWNT legend for Ep. 3 |
Europe’s Elite Edge Closer to America 🇪🇺
By Tommy Stewart
Germany 4-0 Luxembourg 🇩🇪 🇱🇺
Julian Nagelsmann could pick a name out of a hat and find a quality free-kick taker in his Germany squad, but it was RB Leipzig captain, David Raum, who curled in with his left foot from 25 yards to open the scoring early against a hapless Luxembourg on Friday. The 38-year-old manager needed this convincing win at Hoffenheim’s PreZero Arena, and it was essentially giftwrapped and handed to his team after a Dirk Carlson handball and red card gave captain Joshua Kimmich a 20th-minute penalty, his first of two goals on the night, to bury the game before it could become a contest. His Bayern teammate, Serge Gnabry, scored early in the second half, showing “feistiness” and having his “best international game in a long time,” according to his manager; he’s now got 10 goal contributions this season and is enjoying a better comeback than Crocs in 2025. Equilibrium is restored for Germany, who are top of their group, facing second-placed Northern Ireland tonight.
Spain 2-0 Georgia 🇪🇸 🇬🇪
Crystal Palace’s squad of players you’d love to have a beer with can’t seem to stop winning right now, and their winger, Yeremy Pino, capitalized on the good vibes with a simple finish in the 24th minute at Elche’s Estadio Manuel Martínez Valero. With injuries to key Barcelona duo, Lamine Yamal and Danni Olmo, Saturday’s game against Georgia was an opportunity for Pino and a cast of other squad players to give manager, Luis de la Fuente, something to ponder ahead of next year’s World Cup. Real Sociedad forward Mikel Oyarzabal is one of his dependables, but his second half free-kick, a rocket from just outside the box, was a reminder of just how valuable the 28-year-old is. This win was a continuation of Spain’s perfect start to World Cup qualification, with the European Champions top of their group on nine points, scoring 11 goals and conceding none; if they beat Bulgaria tomorrow, qualification is all but assured.
Netherlands 4-0 Finland 🇳🇱 🇫🇮
Short of rap battling Clint Dempsey, Memphis Depay has accomplished almost everything in football, last night becoming the Netherlands’ all-time assists leader after breaking his country’s goalscoring record last month. He teed up both Donyell Malen and Virgil van Dijk for the Netherlands’ first two goals against Finland yesterday, and while the 31-year-old former United and Barca forward now plays for Brazil’s Corinthians, he’s a bit of a modern footballing anomaly in that he’s a more prolific international player rather than a club one. Depay added a third for the Dutch with a first-half penalty, and a goal made by Premier League productions secured the victory as Tottenham's Xavi Simons assisted Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo to put the Netherlands at the top of Group G on 16 points.
More: If you need a Monday pick-me-up, watch the Faroe Islands players celebrate a historic 2-1 victory against the Czech Republic, their biggest ever win that puts them one point off a World Cup play-off spot. 🇫🇴
Three Stories Dominating the Int’l Break 🌍
Tuchel’s Egoless England 🏴
Since England’s cursed “Golden Generation” of the noughties featuring Beckham, Gerrard and Rooney, the continual narrative around the Three Lions has been each manager’s failure to make a cohesive team out of a squad drowning in superstar talent. Gareth Southgate was a “vibesman” and took them to a World Cup semi and two European finals, but the football was largely pragmatic as stars like Harry Kane, Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham jostled for space and remained indecisive when it mattered. Not to fall victim to that perennial headache, Thomas Tuchel gave England its biggest shock since Brexit when he dropped the very in-form Jack Grealish, Adam Wharton, Foden and Bellingham from his latest squad. “We don’t collect the most talented players. We collect the guys who have the glue and cohesion to be the best team,” the German said before his team’s 3-0 victory against Wales last week.
Norway Will Party in the USA 🇳🇴
After scoring a hat-trick in Norway’s 5-0 win against Israel to confirm his country’s place in the World Cup on Saturday, Erling Haaland further proved he really is him this season. While Kylian Mbappé and Harry Kane are also in frightening form, they both play for two of the top footballing nations in the world. Haaland’s Norway haven’t been to a World Cup since his dad, Alf Inge, represented them in France 1998 when Erling was just a twinkle in his eye, and most of this talented young squad were also yet to be born. Manager Ståle Solbakken has done an excellent job of acutely balancing other stars Martin Ødegaard, Jørgen Strand Larsen and Atletico Madrid’s Alexander Sørloth, but its super-freak Haaland who’s propelled them to the grandest stage. With his goals on Saturday, he hit 50 for his country in a frankly ridiculous 46 games, reaching that landmark in way fewer matches than Kane, Neymar, Lewandowski, Ronaldo or Messi.
Africa’s Final Qualification Rounds Are Tight 📊
It would take some Matt Damon-in-“Good Will Hunting” sort of calculations to figure out the various permutations in the final round of Confédération Africaine de Football’s World Cup qualifying fixtures, but Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria and Ghana have all secured their tickets to the USA next year. Cape Verde are currently one of the surprise packages with Cameroon trailing them by two points in Group D, and Ivory Coast are only one point above Gabon in Group F. Nigeria still have a chance of qualifying after a tight 2-1 win against Lesotho on Friday, which leaves them a point behind South Africa in CAF’s Group C. They were in complete control of the group until they were found to have fielded an ineligible player, meaning a 2-0 win over Lesotho became a 3-0 loss, football’s version of being hit by a blue shell in Mario Kart.
Score Tickets to FIFA World Cup 26™ w/ Verizon

FIFA World Cup 26™ starts in just 241 days and this is your chance to experience it in all its North American glory, thanks to our friends at Verizon. They’ve teamed up with David Beckham and an all-star roster of talent to launch Verizon Ultimate Access for FIFA World Cup 26™. Verizon customers will have access to thousands of free FIFA World Cup 26™ tickets, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to win “Golden Tickets” for access on the field during game play, meet and greets and more on the road to the tournament. Come make football memories that will last a lifetime.
Some Absolute Weekend Worldies, Presented by New Balance 🚀 🥅
There were a lot of great goals this weekend, but these three get top marks:
WHAT'S GOING ON IN AUSTRALIA'S SECOND TIER? 🇦🇺
Fan throws second ball on the pitch ➡️ Stoppage-time worldie ➡️ Rock-the-baby celebration
— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers)
10:58 PM • Oct 12, 2025
Will never grow tired of watching Leo Messi effortlessly curl a ball in from the edge of the box 🇦🇷
— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers)
12:25 AM • Oct 12, 2025
GOALKEEPER GOAL ALERT 🚨
Matthew Conti rescued a point for D-III @WilkesColonels in the 90th minute. The Landmark Conference has never seen scenes like this 🫨
— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers)
9:13 PM • Oct 10, 2025
Mid-Week Matches Worth Faking a Meeting for 📺
Latvia vs. England (Tuesday, 2:45 p.m. ET, FOX Sports) 🇱🇻 🏴
A win for England against Latvia in Riga tomorrow would seal their place at the 2026 World Cup and open up a casting call for a host of world class players to desperately try and impress Tuchel before next summer. It should be a formality for the German’s new-look Three Lions to beat FIFA’s 137th-ranked team, but they’ll be without one of last Thursday’s goal scorers, Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins, who left the camp after a knock against Wales. Kane will likely rejoin the starting XI, but a resurgent Marcus Rashford, who’s enjoying his loan spell at Barca, may also be vying for that No. 9 spot to further cement his place in Tuchel’s plans.
Portugal vs. Hungary (Tuesday, 2:45 p.m. ET, fuboTV/Tubi) 🇵🇹 🇭🇺
Rúben Neves scored an injury-time winner against Ireland on Saturday, bursting with emotion as he wore his former teammate Diogo Jota’s No. 21 shirt for the first time and revealed a tattoo of him and his late friend. The relief of that late win that felt part-constructed by Jota in Portugal’s first home game since his death, means they’re left with a lot less to do against Hungary tomorrow, Group F’s second-placed team who they lead by five points. Should Roberto Martinez’s side win and other results go their way, Cristiano Ronaldo will likely lead his side to an astonishing sixth World Cup next year.
Some Non-Football to Start the Week Off 📖
"We cry plastic tears, leak plastic breast milk, and ejaculate plastic semen." I Fought Plastic. Plastic Won.
Life got hard. The Sims got easy. I bet the Sims version of that United fan doesn't even care that he'll never get another haircut.
Y2K Fashion, Digital Overload, Teenage Excess (my birth): How the 1990s Created Today.
Time for viewing #3: One Battle After Another: Looking to history for hope.
It’s MiB Trivia Time 🤔
This week’s question: When the USMNT last faced Australia in 2010, Edson Buddle scored a brace in the 3-1 victory, but who scored the 90th-minute decider for the red, white and blue that day in South Africa?
Email us with your answer for a chance to win a much-coveted MiB patch!
Last week’s winner: Congratulations to Noah Morgan, who was the first to correctly identify that Wayne Rooney scored in Manchester United’s 1-0 win over Sunderland in 2012 whilst Sergio Agüero was busy snatching the title off them in the last seconds at the Etihad. The patch is in the post, Noah. 🚚
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