DOHA, Qatar — When the U.S. males’s nationwide staff’s World Cup draw was decided again in April, the matchup towards England was, understandably, the evident headline that took many of the consideration.
What remained a little bit of a thriller was the USMNT’s opening match, which wasn’t set but when the April draw came about. Wales finally received out within the World Cup playoffs to safe that place, forward of Ukraine and Scotland, and as we pull to inside lower than per week away from the USMNT’s World Cup opener on Monday, the Americans discover themselves dealing with an opponent they aren’t about to miss.
“I think that at least to the American media, I think Wales is underrated,” Berhalter informed reporters on Monday in Qatar. “When I look at their squad, it’s basically a Premier League squad. You have Daniel James, who scored the other night against Man United. High-quality player. You have Harry Wilson, high-quality player. Kieffer Moore, Neco Williams, Brennan Johnson, Gareth Bale, Ben Davies.
“To me, it’s a really good squad, a formidable squad,” he added. “They’ve been in international competition before, they know what it’s like. And it’s going to be a very difficult game, as when they play England, it will be a difficult game. So I think they’re going to be a highly competitive team, and we know that the starting point next Monday night. We’re in for a battle for sure.”
The USMNT had all of its gamers collectively for coaching for the primary time on Tuesday, because the final arrivals built-in into camp. That group included Tim Ream and Antonee Robinson, who had been each contemporary off 90-minute performances for Fulham in a 2-1 loss to Manchester United on Sunday.
Tim Weah was additionally a late arrival, having performed 90 minutes for Lille in Sunday’s 1-0 win vs. Angers.
“We had a full training session today. I did the first part because obviously I played, so I had to do (re-generation), and stuff like that,” Weah stated on Tuesday. “So I think tomorrow we’ll have full training again, getting the legs going.”
Photo by John Todd/ISI Photos
The tight scheduling across the World Cup means Berhalter can have lower than one full week together with his full staff, with Wednesday providing the primary actual likelihood for your complete staff to coach collectively totally.
“We hope that we can use this week effectively. We have four training sessions this week, three left and then we go two before the game against Wales, but we’re gonna work on on both of these things,” Berhalter stated on Monday. “Today we got some good work in on the field. We’re starting to give them some detail about Wales and how we’re going to look to play against them. And then we’ll move forward and focus on England in Iran.
“For us, it is important that we do put focus into this Wales game, but we’ll also be working on on general concepts that we always work on.”