McGlynn and Luna Star as United States Strike Gold Cup Win | OneFootball

As far as Gold Cup warm-up matches go, the United States’ games against Turkey (2-1 defeat) and Switzerland (4-0 defeat) were about as bad as it gets. Questions were being asked in every direction and of everyone involved, from the absences and the inclusions, to the program and the planning.

So what’s a USMNT to do? Defeating Trinidad and Tobago convincingly by five goals to nil in San Jose is as much as it can do at this stage.

It helped that every player got an early touch of the ball in what was a promising start for the team. It was a settling moment following the turmoil surrounding the team on the back of those freezes in the warm-ups.

There were bright moments. They showed glimpses of good against Turkey, and even if some of the players didn’t meet the standards required, there were moments for each where you could at least see the ideas behind why they were selected by Mauricio Pochettino.

Those ideas were more obviously on display against Trinidad and Tobago. A clever flick from Malik Tillman at the end of one of those early passing moves sent Patrick Agyemang through on goal, and though he was offside and sent his shot just wide, it was a sketch of what was to come.

Jack McGlynn from Middle Village, New York, now of the Houston Dynamo, engineered play from his role on the right. He worked well in tandem with right-back Alex Freeman, who switched between drifting into midfield and overlapping when the opportunity to do so arose.

It was McGlynn whose precision creativity set up the first goal, finding Tillman with a pass with his left foot, after turning down the option to do something earlier with his right. The recipient had time to control and shoot, and make it 1-0.

The whole team was fairly fluid, with each player having a few options as to where they would roam from their starting position.

The center-backs, left-back Max Arfsten, and striker Agyemang were more set in their roles, but everyone else was active and adjustable.

McGlynn created several opportunities for the team and officially created three “big chances” as defined by stats provider Opta. One in particular for Luna was a sumptuous pass with backspin that the attacking midfielder couldn’t quite turn into the goal it deserved.

Luna soon showed his own class and work rate from his position on the left, which was similar to McGlynn’s on the right, but with Lunar characteristics.

The busy 21-year-old pounced on a loose backpass from Alvin Jones and set up Tillman for his second, and his snapshot from the edge of the area deflected off teammate Agyemang past Trinidad and Tobago goalkeeper Marvin Phillip and made it 3-0 at halftime.

Tending the goal at the other end, New York City and now national team goalkeeper (and not before time) Matt Freese didn’t have a decent feel of the ball until the 37th minute, but he made a key intervention in the second half to get a hand to a cross and prevent Dante Sealy from having an easy back-post tap-in.

He has the stature of an international goalkeeper, and if he can put together a good run of games in this Gold Cup, he’ll have a strong chance of being in the mix for 2026.

The United States threatened a fourth throughout the second half, with McGlynn showing some more of the great technique he has with his left foot by sweeping a well-hit volley just wide, while Agyemang fired one at Phillip, which the T&T goalkeeper diverted over.

In the end, it was substitute Brenden Aaronson who added the fourth, a former teammate of McGlynn’s at Philadelphia Union reminding us of his own liveliness in attack.

Freese made a substantial save in the 83rd minute to keep out Nathaniel James and make sure of his first USMNT clean sheet, and just seconds later, Hadji Wright was adding a fifth at the other end.

The substitute striker cut in from the left, having broken behind the defence onto an Arfsten pass, and curled his shot neatly inside the far post.

If the preparation was as bad as it could have been, the start to the tournament proper was ideal.

Tougher tests are around the corner, but when a team has gone through what this United States team did in the buildup to this tournament, every game is a test, and every game is judged.

This test was passed as convincingly as a McGlynn crossfield ball, and sees some positivity return to the camp ahead of the next game against tournament guests, Saudi Arabia.