Good, bad and ugly for USMNT March camp: What should we make of this winless window?

Consider them found. The USMNT's brightest moments against Belgium and Portugal came when defender Antonee Robinson and attacker Malik Tillman got on dead balls and worked their magic.

Robinson was the real shocker of the two. His corner kick assist to Weston McKennie against Belgium wasn't just his first corner for the USMNT. It was one of his first professional corners ever. If he can provide more service like that at the World Cup, the USMNT will unlock a whole new suite of goalscoring chances that were unavailable to it without Berhalter's help.

Goalkeeper clarity

NYCFC keeper Matt Freese — known colloquially as Matty Ice around USMNT circles — has occupied a strange spot within the national program. He's stood head and shoulders above his competitors for a solid year of competition, but he falls short of the high bar set by legendary American keepers of the past. Lots of people like Freese; at the start of this March camp, though, very few seemed to love him.

These matches against Belgium and Portugal appear to have changed that for the better. Freese's biggest competitor, New England Revolution keeper Matt Turner, got the start against Belgium and failed to challenge Freese's dominance between the sticks. Turner's big shot wasn't exactly a fair one, but his struggles did underline just how valuable Freese truly is to this program.

The bad

Christian Pulisic's ongoing funk

AC Milan attacker Christian Pulisic tends to split opinion within the USMNT fandom, but no one — not even his biggest detractors — would ever argue that he should be dropped from the team's starting lineup...until now. Pulisic had a rough March camp, cycling through two different attacking positions and failing to make anything happen from either of them. He hasn't scored for his club team since 2025; he hasn't scored for the USMNT since 2024. It's all starting to feel a little concerning.

"He feels frustrated,” Pochettino said of Pulisic in a news conference. “But that’s what we want and what we expect. I am sure that he is going to go back to his club, and in the moment he is going to score, he is going to score again.”

Defensive woes

The USMNT went on a five-game unbeaten run to close out 2025, putting in solid performances against Japan, Ecuador, Australia, Paraguay and Uruguay. There was a tactical shift behind that run, and it involved playing three center backs and two wingbacks instead of two center backs and two fullbacks. The move offered the USMNT more coverage around the net and more flexibility to build plays out wide.

Against Belgium and Portugal, though, Pochettino largely reverted to a traditional four-man defense, and the results spoke for themselves. Seven goals conceded in two games just isn't good enough for a team with aspirations as high as the USMNT's.

The ugly

No intensity

The USMNTs of prior World Cup cycles weren't always technically gifted or destined for domination, but they were always feisty. Players like Clint Dempsey, Jermaine Jones and Michael Bradley would run until they couldn't feel their legs if it meant keeping the USMNT in a match it might've otherwise lost. That never-say-die grit is the USMNT's global calling card, but it was largely absent from these Belgium and Portugal matchups.

Pochettino was experimenting during these games, and his constant player shuffling certainly didn't help the team build any rhythm or chemistry. But still: Intensity feels like a bare-bones ask during a World Cup year, and the USMNT struggled to offer it under test conditions. Losing to top teams like Belgium and Portugal isn't concerning on its own; losing to them without showing off the national ethos that defines you is a massive problem.

The USMNT will return to action on Sunday, May 31 against Senegal in Charlotte, North Carolina.