da betsul： Weston McKennie admits that the USMNT “couldn’t get close to” to Ilkay Gundogan as the Barcelona star ran the show in a 3-1 friendly win for Germany.

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Pulisic fired the home side in frontVisitors hit back in styleBarcelona playmaker ran the showWHAT HAPPENED?

The United States took the lead in that contest courtesy of a spectacular first-half strike from AC Milan forward Christian Pulisic, but the game was level by the interval and the hosts ran out of steam in the second 45 as the German visitors to Hartford, Connecticut moved through the gears.

AdvertisementGettyTHE BIGGER PICTURE

Gundogan restored parity for Germany, and McKennie concedes that the former Manchester City captain had his American rivals chasing shadows.

Juventus midfielder McKennie told : “We had a great start to the game, the energy levels were high. I'm sure they went inside [at half-time] and saw how they could hurt us. I think the pressing in the second half, for us, we kind of got a little bit disorganised. I mean, a player like Gundogan, if you leave him a little space, he punishes you, and that's what he was doing, he was building up and made it very difficult for us. I feel like we couldn’t really get close to him, we were just defending in our box the whole time.”

WHAT THEY SAID

Niclas Fullkrug and Jamal Masiala were also on target for Germany, with McKennie aware that the USMNT have things to work on tactically before facing Ghana next Tuesday.

He added: “We could have been a little bit better at preventing the counter-attacks or the long balls in behind the backline, because Germany has speed up top for sure, and their little switches that they had, just closing the middle down, I think would have helped a lot. But Gregg’s a tactician, so we'll definitely go in and look at video and then review it and see how we could have done better.”

GettyWHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Head coach Gregg Berhalter may decide to shuffle his pack when facing Ghana, with the USMNT eager to look at as many different players and systems as possible as they continue down a path to the 2026 World Cup that will see them fill a role as co-hosts alongside neighbours Canada and Mexico.