Gregg Berhalter: USMNT 'Need to Improve' After Win vs. Uzbekistan

A win is a win, but U.S. men's national team coach Gregg Berhalter thinks Saturday's 3-0 win against Uzbekistan will be best utilized as a learning experience.

"I think we use this game as a learning tool," Berhalter told reporters after the friendly. "We can improve and we need to improve and we will."

The U.S. scored the opening goal within the first four minutes but did not strike again until after the 90th minute. Berhalter said that he noticed better play in the later stages of the game and thinks the team can build on that.

"I really, really liked the mindset in the last 10 minutes of the game," Berhalter told reporters. "You could see the guys still wanted to push. It wasn't about holding onto the 1-0. It was about getting aggressive. As they moved to a back four, we had more space and I liked that the guys wanted to attack it. I think that it's a good baseline for us to start and say this is what international competition from other regions looks like and so that we use as we go."

Berhalter pointed out costly turnovers and slow defensive transitions were glaring issues that allowed Uzbekistan to pose some real threats.

The U.S. held possession for 64.6 percent of the game and were able to fire off 13 shots, six of which were on net, but they did surrender 15 total shot attempts and goaltender Matt Turner had to make some terrific saves to hold the score.

Still, it is a solid win for a U.S. team that is ranked No. 11 in the world. The team has another friendly on Tuesday against Oman, taking place in St. Paul, Minnesota, at 8:30 p.m. ET.