Varas: USMNT lacked right 'mentality' in historic loss to Canada

United States Men's National Team interim coach Mikey varz said his players lacked the right mentality in a historic 2:1 loss to Canada Saturday at Children's Mercy Park in Kansas City Kansas it was Canada's second victory over the US MNT on us soil and first in 67 years the mentality is on the players they know it he told reporters we speak the truth to each other I love those guys but they know that mentality to fight to run into sacrifice I can't do that for them that's on them VZ said he had no answers to why the proper mentality was lacking I'm not a psychologist so I don't know he said I felt that the trainings were intense they were aggressive but when the game comes you got to get going and the players are the ones that bring that coaches can only get you so far from a mentality perspective coming off defeats to Panama and Uruguay at the Copa America the US has lost three straight games for the first time since 2015 against Brazil Mexico and Costa Rica a defeat to New Zealand on Tuesday in Cincinnati would result in the Americans first four game losing streak since 2007 all over the park today our mentality just wasn't quite there Defender Chris Richards said VZ moved up from assistant after Greg burh halter was fired following the team's dismal performance at the Copa America where the usmnt exited a home competition at the group stage for the first time in history before a crowd of 10,523 in a just over half full Children's Mercy Park Jacob schafberg put Canada ahead in the 17th minute after Tim re pass bounced away from Johnny cardoo Jonathan David added his 29th International goal in the 58th minute when ream turned over the ball in front of his own goal midfielder Luca Dore pulled a goal back with his first International strike in the 66 minute we just weren't intense enough at times dor said given his short amount of time at the helm varz took responsibility for contributing to Saturday's defeat by trying to introduce new Tactical ideas I think with the ball that's on me he said because I want to present some ideas to them and you just never know how it's going to translate from training to the game after three training sessions and I asked a lot of them you know and if there's a goal I mean that's on me both goals because when you don't have a lot of time to work and you want to play a a certain way it creates confusion players are going to take responsibility for quality of action the translation of the ideas weren't clear enough because you shouldn't be static and you shouldn't pass the ball just to pass the ball you're trying to be trying to accelerate play as quickly as you can varz is not expected to lead the team for long with ESPN reporting that Mauricio pocino has agreed to become the new usmn te coach within announcement expected in the coming days