USMNT has no answer for Japan in friendly loss

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With the World Cup less than two months away, the United States men's national team was hoping to sharpen up its game against Japan, but if anything, it was the Samurai Blue who looked more prepared for the showpiece tournament.

The Americans looked out of sync throughout the match as the score flattered them. The U.S. manager has some work to do.

Player ratings, best and worst performers, highlights and notable moments, post match quotes, and key statistics are included in the jump.

Rapid Reaction

This is the first thing. The U.S. has no response to Japan's press.

Berhalter wants his team to play on the front foot and that starts with pressing teams high up the field. Japan gave the Americans a taste of their own medicine and it worked perfectly. The case in point was Japan's goal in the 24th minute, when a turnover from Weston McKennie led to a transition opportunity in which Hidemasa Morita found Kamada wide open to side-foot pastMatt Turner in the U.S. goal.

No American was immune from turning the ball over and the U.S. was slow to react to seemingly everything. It's possible that it was nerves or a case of playing safe with the World Cup around the corner. That doesn't seem likely.

In the first half, the U.S. had just five touches in Japan's penalty area, and rarely got into the kind of places in which it could threaten the Japan goal. The cross was delivered by Sergino Dest in the 8th minute, but the FC Dallas forward couldn't get his head above the bar. The US team's struggles with the ball were compounded by the absence of Christian Pulisic due to a knock. The US looked more threatening in the second half, but not much.

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It stands to reason that the Americans' group stage opponents will be taking a lot of notes on how to get at the U given the difficulties they had in playing out of the back.

There are two Is Turner the owner of the U.S.'s top shirt?

Turner's goal gave the U.S. a one-goal lead at the half. He made a great save on Kamada when he was clear through on goal in the 13th minute. He made the routine saves that were supposed to be made.

Turner's contact and accuracy with the ball were subpar in some cases. In the final weeks before the World Cup, he will need to improve that.

Was it enough to get him in front of the competition for the starting position? Berhalter has a soft spot for the man. We will probably not know this answer until November.

There are three. The fringe players don't make much of a difference.

There wasn't a lot of movement on a day when there was an opportunity for players to compete for a roster spot. There wasn't much else to say about Reggie Cannon and Mark McKenzie. Sam Vines didn't improve his stock at all, and neither player looked up to the pace of the match, as neither player looked up to the pace of the match

This was a day in which injured players were absent. All of them need to heal up as soon as possible.

Player ratings

The United States has Matt Turner, Sam Vines, Ryan Long, Walker Zimmerman, Sergino Dest, Luca de la Torre and Tyler Adams.

Josh Sargent, Reggie Cannon, and Johnny Cardoso were on the subs.

Hiroki Sakai, Yuta Nakayama, Maya Yoshida, Wataruendo, Takefusa Kubo, Midemasa Morita, Junya Ito, Daichi Kamada, and Daizen Maeda are all from Japan.

Hiroki Ito, Kaoru Mitoma, Ritsu Doan, and Genki Haraguchi were on the subs.

Best and worst performers

The best is Daichi Kamada. There were a few people to choose from. The center-back combination of Nakayama and Sakai were composed throughout, but Kamada took his goal well and was involved in a few other slick builds.

Weston McKennie, U.S. was the worst at the other end of the spectrum, but his sequence that led to Kamada's goal stood out.

Highlights and notable moments

The story of the US's weakness against Japan was told in the numbers and graphs.

Passes completed in the attacking third thus far:

Japan 35#USMNT 4