I do agree with Paul’s take that it never felt quite that dominant, but in addition to the US goal they hit the woodwork twice and forced Haitian ‘keeper Brian Sylvestre (a former US youth international) into a number of quality saves. Matt Turner, meanwhile, didn’t have to do much until the very end — a play, it should be noted, on which he was clearly fouled.
Was it perfect? No, of course not. But it’s never been perfect against Haiti no matter what the formation, personnel or principles of play have been. The Haitians always create opportunities on the break no matter who they’re playing, and this group has been particularly good at that over the past few years (though it should be noted they truly missed Frantzdy Pierrot). When they do so, your defenders simply have to make the necessary plays.
The US defenders, in other words, did their jobs.
And that is a very good baseline to have from this group. Berhalter needs to trust that Miles Robinson and Walker Zimmerman, in particular, won’t lose the US the game against pretty good Concaf foes. That box isn’t completely checked, but it certainly was an encouraging 90 minutes in that regard.
Also encouraging was their distribution. It wasn’t John Brooks-level, but both guys were brave about stepping up and trying to play through the lines. That bravery matters, because it leads to stuff like this:
