Jesus Ferreira Stakes Claim For USMNT World Cup Striker Spot With 4 Goals

The United States men’s soccer team continued its 2022 World Cup preparations with a convincing win over Grenada in the Concacaf Nations League.

Grenada is 170th in the FIFA rankings far from the sternest test Gregg Berhalter’s side will face. It was the type of game where the players and the head coach often can’t win. If they fail to perform, it’s a disaster. If they perform to a high level they’ve simply done what is expected of them against weaker opposition.

There were some obvious winners, though, as the USMNT racked up five goals in their first Group D game of the 2022/23 Nations League.

One of these winners emerged in a key position for the United States ahead of the World Cup. Jesus Ferreira staked his claim to be the starting striker for his nation when they go to Qatar in November.

It’s a position that’s up for grabs and one in which the U.S. probably haven’t had an obvious, nailed-on starter since Jozy Altidore hung up his international soccer boots.

Ferreira had 12 shots against Grenada, with seven on target for an xG of 2.81.

Seven of the USMNT’s 10 shots on target came from Ferreira. Regardless of the standard of opposition, a player having 70% of a team’s shots on target and scoring four goals is that player making a good case to be that team’s No.9.

Outsiders may be surprised if you told them that player, who now has seven goals in 12 caps, wasn’t already the first-choice.

There was some criticism from fans of a couple of the chances he missed, but all the best strikers get into positions to miss chances, and they weren’t quite as easy as they looked.

His movement was excellent. Some forwards wouldn’t have even been in the position to have such chances at goal. Against lower-ranked opposition, a clever mover like Ferreira can really show how good he is in this area of the game.

When he’s in and around the area, the FC Dallas forward is always looking for a shot and could probably be compared to former Toronto FC and England striker Jermaine Defoe in this regard.

But there are also echoes of Liverpool FC’s Roberto Firmino in the way Ferreira operates. He’s more than just a center-forward, perhaps sometimes to his detriment, especially in games where the team find it more difficult to create chances and a lot of the work is done off the ball or trying to find space in attack.

It is in those games where the spaces aren’t always in goalscoring positions, as they often were against Grenada, and require a No.9 with Ferreira’s tendency to search for space to come deeper to find it, helped by his time playing as a central attacking midfielder for FC Dallas.

This can be a good thing, especially if you have wide players either side of you who also think like strikers.

In theory, the type of forward Ferreira is should be an ideal foil to star man Christian Pulisic. Add Timothy Weah to the other side and you have two wide attackers who would be considered goal threats.

Though Weah doesn’t always boast the best goal return, he always seems a threat in this area, and if Pulisic is to be considered the star man, the x-factor on this team, he should certainly be seeing himself as one of the side’s main goal-getters.

Even in the game against Grenada, the average positions from the game show winger Paul Arriola as slightly further forward overall than Ferreira, which indicates how this could work once Pulisic and Weah are back in the team.

This type of inside forward threat will be key, and Ferreira will be key to letting them do their thing. On this evidence he’ll also bag a few goals for himself when the opportunity arises, or at least he’ll be in the right position to try.