USA vs. England, 2018 friendly: Community Man of the Match

Thursday’s 3-0 loss to England at Wembley Stadium didn’t offer many signs of hope and the community rankings largely reflect the frustration that many fans are certainly feeling a year removed from missing out on the World Cup Finals, but still without a permanent head coach, a sense of urgency or really any sort of plan even.

The team that showed up on Thursday was easily outplayed by England’s B(minus) team, failing to maintain possession, create chances or look competent on defense. If the Community rankings tell a story, it’s that there were one or two glimmers of hope that rose above the rest, mostly by managing to be simply mediocre rather than flat out poor.

The only player who scored above a 5.3 was your Man of the Match, Christian Pulisic. Pulisic nearly created something out of nothing in the 22nd minute that would have given the U.S. a (largely undeserved) lead. It was a nice moment from the young player though he could’ve done better with the finish.

Pulisic was the Community Man of the Match with a 6.26 rating, nearly a full point better than any of his teammates. Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams were the only other two players to score above a five. The rest of the community rankings were as follows:

Brad Guzan - 3.90

DeAndre Yedlin - 4.62

Matt Miazga - 4.62

John Brooks - 4.34

Jorge Villafaña - 3.68

Christian Pulisic - 6.26

Wil Trapp - 4.22

Weston McKennie - 5.29

Tim Weah - 4.65

Julian Green - 4.09

Bobby Wood - 3.38

Tyler Adams - 5.21

Kellyn Acosta - 4.31

Sebastian Lletget - 3.98

Kenny Saief - 4.04

What do you think? Are the ratings fair? Was Villafaña measurably worse than Yedlin? Was Bobby the worst player on the field? Do we have a young core that will continue to develop into a competitive team or do we have three (slightly) above average players and a bunch of guys? Continue the conversation in the comments section and let us know what you think.