Why Kansas City was big for U.S. soccer’s Shaq Moore, and what his Gold Cup means now

Before the past week’s Concacaf Gold Cup Group B matches at Children’s Mercy Park, a case could be made that Shaq Moore entered the tournament as the U.S. men’s national soccer team’s fourth-string right back.

It’s a position of relative strength for the USMNT, with 20-year-old Barcelona defender Sergino Dest a young upstart and recent favorite of U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter. But with Dest are veterans Reggie Cannon and DeAndre Yedlin, who have a combined 82 senior caps between them.

Dest and Yedlin — who are resting ahead of their club seasons in Europe — aren’t on the Gold Cup roster, but Cannon is along with Moore. Moore, who hadn’t had a cap for the U.S. entering the Gold Cup since 2018, hasn’t been on the minds of most for options at right back. Playing at club level in Spain’s second division with CD Tenerife, his break from the national team has coincided with the rise of Dest and Cannon in Berhalter’s plans.

Moore’s start last Sunday against Haiti, his first under Berhalter, only came when Cannon picked up a training injury and wasn’t available, leaving him the next man up.

But after the week he’s had in Kansas City, there’s likely more to come.

Moore was the goalscorer in a hairy 1-0 U.S. win against Canada on Sunday, netting in a Sebastian Lletget cross in 20 seconds for the fastest goal in USMNT history. Before being taken off for Cannon in the 58th minute, Moore had put in another solid performance in a week of quality starts, potentially firing his way into the right back-depth conversation.

With the all-important World Cup qualifiers coming up in September, that’s good conversation to be in.

“It felt like all the emotions — the good, the bad, the ugly — all in one moment,” Moore said of his goal. “It’s a proud moment for me right now. Obviously, it happened so fast that I didn’t really take it in, but looking back at it right now, it was definitely a proud moment.”

Moore has thrived being a wide man in Berhalter’s schemes. Sunday was a 3-5-2, with Moore playing a right wing-back. He first made noise in the USMNT’s 1-0 win over Haiti, playing the ball on the right wing that deflected off the foot of striker Gyasi Zardes and onto the head of a rushing Sam Vines for an easy goal.

He went 58 minutes following his start in a 6-1 win over Martinique on Thursday and followed that up with his best moment of the tournament in the opening minute against Canada. Pressing high up the pitch from the kickoff, Moore cut to the inside of a Canadian defender toward the back post. He was in the right place at the right time when Lletget sent in a low cross that met Moore perfectly at his feet and then past the outstretched arms of Canada goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau.

Aggressive positioning and cuts are intended byproducts of Berhalter’s system, Moore said, and he’s encouraged to push forward when he sees fit. It’s worked pretty well for him over the past week.

“Anytime you have the opportunity to come in, you’ve got to take advantage of it,” Moore said. “With the system we play ... (Berhalter) always wants us to get in the box and try to be dangerous. Today, I was able to get to the back post and tap it in. So I’m definitely happen about that.”

Berhalter credited Moore with being active and getting the U.S. an early goal, but he also remarked how playing ahead for nearly the entire match caused problems, too. Canada for much of the match looked the stronger team, but never really had a stellar chance on-target despite the fact that it won the possession battle 54% to 46% and had 409 completed passes to America’s 318.

Berhalter noted that the intensity at some points in the match wasn’t to his liking, a factor exacerbated by the strain of playing three games in a week, warm conditions and an injury to center back and captain Walker Zimmerman that forced a sub 15 minutes in.

Berhalter certainly wasn’t unhappy to score first but noted that gaining an early lead is not foolproof.

“England’s playing at home in the Euro finals at Wembley and they score within two minutes and everyone thinks that’s great, and it is great,” Berhalter said. “But what you have is you make the match very difficult. Now we have to manage ... the next 89 and-a-half minutes of the game. And at times, we did it really well. And at times, we didn’t.”

Regardless, the U.S. finished atop Group B, with three wins in three games, a goal that all who suited up for Berhalter throughout the week contributed to. Jamaica or Costa Rica awaits from Group C in next week’s quarterfinal round.

Who suits up in the elimination games remains to be seen. First comes some well-earned, and needed, rest.

“We’ll have time to recover,” Berhalter said. “But there’s certainly something to be said about ... how you manage a game and what type of structure you want to have. And at times, again, to me, the biggest lesson of the game is when we have the ball, we need to be more productive. We need to make the important run more.”

This story was originally published July 18, 2021 at 8:25 PM with the headline "Why Kansas City was big for U.S. soccer’s Shaq Moore, and what his Gold Cup means now."