As inspiring as you may find Cristian Roldan’s attainment of a spot on the US men’s national team’s World Cup roster, as personally satisfying as it surely feels to many who’ve watched him power the Seattle Sounders over the past decade, the next thought is natural and obvious.
Will he actually get to play?
With the tournament looming, we’ve entered a sort of lockdown period, in which most coaches and players tend to become risk-averse and say as little as possible – or outright mislead – about lineups, tactics and such.
So it’s difficult to be certain about where everyone stands on the eve of the USMNT’s final warm-up match, a daunting date with Germany in Chicago on Saturday afternoon. But with the much-anticipated curtain-raiser vs. Paraguay just a week away, here’s a quick rundown of CR7’s outlook based on what we’ve seen up to now.
A very specific type of reserve
The shortest answer to all this is that Roldan made the plane as the primary backup to Tyler Adams in the No. 6 role. Thus, his most direct route to playing time is injury, suspension or load management that leads to the team’s linchpin defensive midfielder not being on the pitch. (Please note that this is an attempt to explain, not endorse, the curious roster decisions that led to Mauricio Pochettino’s rather shorthanded central-midfield corps.)
With his range and tenacity, Adams is a key figure for the Yanks, albeit one with a history of injuries and no easy replacement, just as he was in Qatar four years ago. Some would consider that an indictment of the program’s inability to cultivate a competitor or like-for-like alternative in that spot. On one hand, that doesn’t bode well for Roldan’s rotation hopes, though on the other, he stands to be the primary beneficiary of any extra care Poch takes to keep his midfield terrier fresh.
Sounders fans will attest that their guy can handle multiple positions; we were told versatility was a key factor in the construction of this World Cup roster, and the coaching staff will know Roldan can deputize as an attacking or wide midfielder, and even at fullback in a pinch. Yet patrolling the center of the park and protecting the back line are his primary focus right now.
What that actually means
We can go a bit further, though. Given what we saw in last weekend’s 3–2 win over Senegal, the USMNT seem set to stick with the 3–4–2–1 possession shape that’s worked well for them in attack, and a defensive block with 4–4–2 as its foundation. The 3–4–2–1 in essence uses a "box" midfield with two holding players sitting behind two attacking mids. (This should be familiar to Sounders fans as it’s essentially the same setup Brian Schmetzer has been using the last few years.)
The roles of the two holding mids – it was Adams and Sebastian Berhalter vs. Senegal – is to craft a sturdy foundation upon which the creative teammates ahead of and wide of them can bomb forward with confidence.
In some permutations, they look like twin 6s, a double pivot, and indeed they tend to work side by side in that out-of-possession 4–4–2, as did Roldan in Sunday’s second half, first next to Berhalter and later with Malik Tillman.
Yet more so than two 6s, Poch seems to see it as a 6 with a box-to-box 8, where Adams’ partner has more license to step higher, particularly when space opens up to roam into the final third. Berhalter’s interpretation of that job drew warm praise from his coach postgame.
“He can play two games in a row. He’s a monster,” Pochettino said at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. “He’s a monster, in the way of how professional he is. I think he deserved to be on the roster and today, [I’m] happy too with his performance.
"He’s not 100%, he’s 200% professional, committed.”
Of note: The Argentine coach went so far as to muse about playing without a defensive mid at all when he fielded questions after last week’s roster unveiling event in New York City, though that came off as misdirection when he also posited that even an attacking mid like Gio Reyna could step into a holding role.
