How is a depleted USMNT going to handle Argentina?

By: Nate Scott-usatoday.com

On Tuesday, the United States will take on Lionel Messi and Argentina in the semifinals of the Copa America Centenario.

The Americans will do so without the services of three regular starters — Jermaine Jones, Bobby Wood and Alejandro Bedoya — who will all miss the game due to suspension or yellow card accumulation.

It’s a tough blow for the U.S. and leaves some major questions for head coach Jurgen Klinsmann. Most pressing: Who on earth starts in this game for the U.S.?

(AP Photo/David Goldman)

To deal with the missing workrate of Jones and Bedoya, Klinsmann can’t honestly believe he can continue playing the 4-3-3 with Bradley as the deep man. His options coming in can’t cover the ground that Jones and Bedoya can, so I think he has to drop a second deep midfielder to help provide cover for the back line. (Will Parchmandiscusses this well here.) The only way to stop Lionel Messi is to throw a lot of bodies at him, so the U.S. should sit back and throw a lot of bodies at him.

Likewise, if Messi continues to play on the right side, the U.S. will have to provide cover on that side. One strong defensive player on the Americans’ left flank isn’t enough, and while I’d love to see Christian Pulisic get some minutes in this game, asking a 17-year-old kid to start on the same side as Lionel Messi and track back to provide defensive cover on, you know, the greatest player ever, is a lot to ask.

So here’s my solution: Keep Matt Besler at left back (where he did fine last game) push Fabian Johnson up to left midfield (where he plays for his club), drop Kyle Beckerman into the hole with Michael Bradley, and put Darlington Nagbe in the attacking midfield role.

(I’d prefer Perry Kitchen in the defensive midfield role instead of Beckerman, but Klinsmann has made no indication he’ll play the 24-year-old Kitchen and I doubt he’ll get the call.)

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It’s a defensive, negative tactical formation, I admit. Clint Dempsey will be stranded for much of the game. But as Venezuela showed us in a 4-1 loss to Argentina, going for it can be fun … and make you look foolish.

This Argentina team is beatable. They looked very ordinary for the last 15 minutes of the first half against Venezuela, and were lucky not to concede more. They’re at their best when Messi and Higuain are running at defenses, so if the U.S. can lock down their left side of the field, make Messi’s life difficult, and take chances on the counter, they can eke out a result.

It won’t be pretty, but it’s a way to win.