USMNT World Cup mailbag: Dest facing Netherlands, Pulisic’s set pieces, Mexico reaction, USA lineup picks

CBS Sports soccer analyst Grant Wahl is in Qatar covering his eighth men’s World Cup. He’ll be writing mailbag columns for CBS after every USMNT group-stage game. The rest of his writing, including magazine-style stories, interviews and breaking news, can be found on GrantWahl.com.

DOHA, Qatar — All eyes are now on the U.S.’s World Cup round of 16 showdown against the Netherlands on Saturday. You’ve got questions. I’ve got answers. Let’s go!

“What’s the ideal lineup/formation against the Netherlands? Who are key bench players for that match? What is the most likely tactic by USMNT?” @JaimeKTMD

I think there are some similarities between the Netherlands and England, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see a U.S. lineup not unlike Game 2 in this World Cup. I’m expecting:

Matt Turner; Sergiño Dest, Walker Zimmerman, Tim Ream, Antonee Robinson; Tyler Adams, Yunus Musah, Weston McKennie; Tim Weah, Haji Wright, Christian Pulisic.

That’s the same lineup we saw against England. I expect Pulisic will be healthy enough to start and I think Zimmerman will come back in. Wright wasn’t great as a sub against Iran, but Josh Sargent is an injury concern. It’s possible we could see Jesús Ferreira for the first time, but his goose egg on playing time in this tournament says something to me. 

In terms of tactics, we could see the U.S. defend in the 4-2-2 that we saw against England to make things tough in the middle for Frenkie de Jong and teammates. The Dutch should have the majority of possession, and I think the U.S. will try to strike on the counterattack. Honestly, I think the U.S. will be better at that than trying to break down a low block like they did against Iran.

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“Excuse me! Excuse me! Grant? Have you seen Gio Reyna? *Holds up picture* He’s about this tall, brown hair, brown eyes. He was listed on the USA World Cup roster, but no one has seen him!” @PiersonMcD

I get it. It’s the most perplexing U.S. storyline of this tournament. Why has Reyna played no more than the seven minutes we saw in Game 2 against England and been a DNP-Coach’s Choice the rest of the time? Here’s what I’m told: Reyna is healthy. There has been no incident between him and Berhalter that has led to less playing time. Reyna’s teammates are confused about it, and so is Gio, who is deeply disappointed but hoping he gets some playing time against the Netherlands. I don’t expect him to start, even though I would love to see Weah at the No. 9 and Reyna out wide, but I do hope Reyna would get in around the 60th minute. He has special attacking and goal-creating skills that no other U.S. player has that’s not named Christian Pulisic. Reyna could be the difference-maker against the Dutch.

“What are the odds that Gregg can finally give up his misguided lust for MLSers if he somehow is hired for another cycle? Results from the group games are clear: MLS simply isn’t good enough for this level and there are a ton of players in Europe waiting to join this team.” @BarcelonaBatma1

I do hope we can get away from the frankly unsophisticated idea that all MLS players are bad when it comes to the World Cup. Zimmerman and Kellyn Acosta could move to Europe tomorrow and do just fine, but they wouldn’t be significantly different as players than they are today as MLS players who are doing just fine in the World Cup (Zimmerman’s first-game penalty aside). I do expect there will be fewer MLS players on the U.S. team in 2026. And I always wonder why it is that a section of the USMNT fan base is always so reflexively anti-MLS players when it’s the opposite for, say, Brazilian fans who go over the top in their love for domestic-based players who make Brazil’s World Cup team.

“If the U.S. falls to the Netherlands on Saturday, would you still consider it a successful World Cup for the U.S.?” @figueras_family

That depends on how the U.S. plays on Saturday. We’re still at a stage in the development of the USMNT that we judge World Cups based on raw results much of the time, and the case has usually been that getting to the round of 16 has signified meeting expectations, while being unable to get out of the group has been considered a failure. I don’t think that will be the case in 2026, when getting to the quarterfinals will be the expectation as a home team.

And I do think we have reached a point in the growth of the USMNT that we should talk about not just results but performances at the World Cup. Take 2014. The raw results for the U.S. were pretty good: Getting out of the Group of Death. But performance-wise, the U.S. had just two good halves of eight in 2014 — the first half against Ghana and the second half against Portugal — and got blown away performance-wise by Belgium in the round of 16 loss. If that were to happen again here on Saturday (though I don’t expect it to), we could have a reasonable debate on the performance side of things.

“Thinking back to the time of the Berhalter hire, I felt there was a lot more positivity around the Tata Martino appointment for Mexico. Given their respective World Cup performances thus far, are you surprised at how things have actually shook out?” @daarau

I was surprised that Tata Martino didn’t even get interviewed for the U.S. job at the time (he was interested in it), and I’m surprised that Martino (who’s a good coach) has failed so clearly with Mexico. My reaction to Berhalter’s hiring was that he might well be the right choice, but the process that U.S. Soccer used to land on him was flawed. Look, the U.S. have been consistent at this World Cup, defended well, they have great team chemistry and they have advanced to the knockout rounds. Berhalter’s tactics have been good, even if his substitution patterns have been sketchy. Overall, he deserves credit for what’s happened so far.

“Set pieces. Pulisic doesn’t seem to be delivering chances off the corners. Where’s the creativity, and why don’t any of the balls seem playable off his foot?” @Batensmack

I’m surprised that Pulisic hasn’t been a bit better on set-piece delivery here — his corners were improved against England, but that’s about it — even though it’s clear that Brenden Aaronson and Acosta are better at the task. They just haven’t started games here, and so Pulisic has been the guy. Set pieces could be a huge factor in Saturday’s game, and they need to be better on delivery and execution.

“What’s this game Saturday going to be like for Dest?” @JamesWAVL82

Probably similar to what it felt like for Musah to play against England. It’s interesting. Dest gets a fair amount of criticism on Dutch television, and I do think part of that is tied to the fact that he chose the U.S. over the Netherlands. Dest played well against Iran and did terrific work on the U.S. goal, and he hasn’t had any absolute howlers defensively yet (which isn’t always guaranteed). I think he could have a big game against the country of his birth here.

“How and when did Ream become so good?” @flashmanoly

Great question. Even though he’s 35 years old, I think Ream is having a transformational year at club level that is now carrying over to the national team. If we’re being honest, Ream struggled in Fulham’s previous seasons in the Premier League, and he has been terrific in the Premier League this season for the first time. Something has changed. And he’s carrying supreme confidence from that to this World Cup and playing for the USMNT. He’s not much behind Tyler Adams as the best U.S. player so far for me.

“I think I know the answer to this, but: ‘with the U.S. hosting in four years and many of these guys coming into their prime at that time, do you sense a feeling of we accomplished what we came to accomplish, the rest is gravy? Or do you sense the boys feel it’s wide open?'” @raiderfanmarc77

From my discussions with the U.S. players here, they don’t want to talk about 2026. They’ve told me that there’s no guarantee they’ll be on the ’26 team, and they’re completely focused on the here and now. McKennie said the other night he thinks the U.S. can make the final this year. I’m sure other players feel the same way. 

“If the U.S. could get a result against the Netherlands on Saturday, do you think it would be a bigger achievement than the ’02 team? And did the coach just earn his extension for 2026?” @GeneVorobyov

I think it would be a slightly bigger achievement than reaching the quarters in 2002 simply because the Dutch are a better team than the Mexico team the U.S. beat 20 years ago in the round of 16. As for Berhalter, he’s making a good case to be retained for 2026, but I hope it’s not a done deal at this point. Let’s see how they perform against the Dutch. And in general, my research has shown that second four-year cycles for national team coaches tend to not go as well as their first cycles. 

“Have you found any one or any stories about a single person attending every march so far?” @BEATsc

It’s funny. I ran the other day into Carlos Cordeiro, the former U.S. Soccer president, who’s a close advisor these days to FIFA president Gianni Infantino. Cordeiro and Infantino are going to every single game in the tournament. I asked if he had a helicopter, and he said no. But they do have VVIP lanes on the roadways here.

“How is the infrastructure holding up? Hotels, transit, etc. Except the one story about FIFA officials’ hotel not being ready, I haven’t seen anything about things going wrong.” @atlemar

Generally, infrastructure here is doing well. Though I did have a water leak in our place cause water to come through my bedroom ceiling last night.

Enjoy the games!

CBS Sports soccer analyst Grant Wahl is in Qatar covering his eighth men’s World Cup. He’ll be writing mailbag columns for CBS after every USMNT group-stage game. The rest of his writing, including magazine-style stories, interviews and breaking news, can be found on GrantWahl.com.