USA vs. Senegal, 2026 Friendly: Man of the Match

The USMNT kicked off their final World Cup preparation matches with a 3-2 win over Senegal on Sunday afternoon. The team started quickly with goals from Sergino Dest and Christian Pulisic to build a 2-0 lead twenty minutes into the match.

Sadio Mane would score two of his own in less than ten minutes of game action though they were separated by the halftime whistle. The first came just before the half and the second was 7 minutes into the second half to pull Senegal level. Fortunately, a third US goal, courtesy of halftime substitute Folarin Balogun, would put the US back on top for the final score of 3-2.

There were 22 total players for the US in the match with nearly the entire starting lineup subbed out at halftime. The lone exception was Sebastian Berhalter who played into the 76th minute before making way for Alex Zendejas. Included among the halftime substitutes were Chris Brady who made his USMNT debut, though his appearance was a bit disappointing and he had one of the lower match scores on the day.

Ultimately, and unsurprisingly, it was Christian Pulisic, finally back on the scoresheet who was your SSFC Man of the Match Sunday afternoon. His assist on the opener and goal in the 20th minute were enough to pull him easily ahead of the other offensive contributors on the day including Sergino Dest and Ricardo Pepi who was involved in the buildup to the first two goals, including the assist on Pulisic’s.

Often we separate the substitutes into their own section as there is less ability to impact the match, positively or negatively and there is often a drop in competitive level we see in the second half of a friendly. However, given that both sets of players largely played the same amount of minutes and the level seemed to stay relatively high we’re intermixing the results this time, here they are from top to bottom:

Ricardo Pepi – 7.72
Sergino Dest – 7.69
Sub – Folarin Balogun – 7.66
Sub – Malik Tillman – 6.76
Alex Freeman – 6.58
Sub – Weston McKennie – 6.50
Antonee Robinson – 6.41
Sub – Tim Weah – 6.16
Matt Turner – 6.15
Tyler Adams – 6.09
Mark McKenzie – 5.87
Sub – Auston Trusty – 5.79
Gio Reyna – 5.70
Sub – Joe Scally – 5.66
Sub – Alex Zendejas – 5.66
Sebastian Berhalter – 5.36
Sub – Max Arfsten – 5.20
Tim Ream – 4.87
Sub – Cristian Roldan – 4.44
Sub – Chris Brady – 4.29
Sub – Miles Robinson – 3.66

Coach – Mauricio Pochettino – 7.02

Do these ratings seem about right to you or what would you have changed? Let us know in the comments section below.