photo by Jason Getz/USA Today Sports
By FRANCO PANIZO
Rematch or rivalry match. That will be the road for the U.S. Men’s National Team.
The U.S. learned late on Wednesday that it will play either the Reggae Boyz or arch-nemesis Mexico in October to decide which nation from the region reaches the 2017 Confederations Cup. CONCACAF announced after the Gold Cup semifinals wrapped up that the one-game play-off between the 2013 and 2015 tournament winners will take place on Oct. 9 in the United States, but a venue has yet to be selected.
The Americans earned hosting rights for that play-off after triumphing in the first of these two Gold Cups two years ago. They could have automatically punched their ticket to the next Confederations Cup and avoid a play-off had they successfully defended their regional crown this year, but Jamaica stunned the U.S., 2-1, in their semifinals match on Wednesday evening.
Jamaica will now meet Mexico on Sunday in the 2015 Gold Cup final, with the winner of that match setting a date with the Americans.
U.S. head coach Jurgen Klinsmann has long stated the importance of playing in the Confederations Cup, which will be held in Russia as a test-run of sorts a year before the 2018 World Cup in the European nation.
The U.S. will prepare for the single-game play-off with friendlies at home against Peru and Brazil in September.
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Who would you rather see the USMNT face in the one-game play-off? How much improving do the Americans need before then? What stadium will be selected for the do-or-die play-off?
Share your thoughts below.
What does it matter anymore. For years I have lived under the illusion that the USMNT had turned a corner, that we could compete, that we could potentially make the WC semis in my lifetime. All that was shattered on a warm July night inside an Atlanta stadium where I got a brutal does of reality. We have no striker! We have no physical back line! We have no creativity! We are no better off then the teams that featured the talentless hacks wearing denim jerseys with names like Lalas and Wynalda on the back of them. I’m sad, I’m hurt, I’m hopeless.
You mean the talentless hacks that beat a favorite to win the ’94 World Cup and then only lost to the champs 1-0?
It was one game. The sky is falling. LLOOOLLL!!!!!!!!!!
And you have no clue.
Berhalter and Columbus have put together some good ‘compact’ style of games. The most recent excellent example was the last game against Germany to use as a study game. The first half was a shaky compact game, but the second half was a MUCH BETTER version of compact soccer. I watched this game intensely, because I saw what they were doing: it was the second coming of the USMNT. I saw a few games of the Gold Cup and then stopped watching. JK went bipolar with the team and reverted to his stubborn system that tends to implode. Tim Howard had to get away from JK madness. Thanks JK for taking one step forward with compact play, and no thanks for taking the team two steps back. Danke aber raus.
I think it’s safe to start whining about soccer in America….
Start? LOL
Way too many haven’t stopped for 40-50 years now.
Minor blips in an upward path to greatness. The ones that are whining about it don’t realize that Jamaica only lost to Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina by 1-0 a month ago.
It stinks, the US should have done better, fix what needs fixing and move on. Without whining.
I will keep saying it until people realize it. The loss to Jamaica was a fluke. The US outplayed them and were unlucky. It’s going to be okay. The future still looks good.
Since I do not believe the Olympics are a FIFA event do teams have to release their players for Olympic qualifying? Thinking of Brooks and Yedlin specifically.
So this is the same FIFA window as the Olympic qualifiers. So Klinsmann will have to decide with a few players where they are needed more.
The US players need to play in their regular positions. If this is done, the U.S. will be fine. This will not necessarily be the same US team that plays in the payoff. I hope to see Jermaine Jones, Danny Williams, Bobby Wood, an on form Altidore, etc. If Adtidore is in form, he will start.
Right now Mexico is a little banged up but in two and a half months will be stronger if their side is healthy. I think Vela is done for the Jamaica match. Jamaica has a golden opportunity to win on Sunday.
I also think the US side will be more than ready come October 9th, and it doesn’t matter who they play. I rather see them play against Jamaica again just to get some retribution and book their ticket to the Confederation’s Cup. Everyone will forget about Wednesday if this happens, except Panama.
Bobby Wood scored two wonderful goals in two consecutive friendlies, but he is still only a division 2 player. Look at the totality. When Dempsey is too old, Aj and Altidore are the best bets going forward with Zardes and ;Morris a possibility after another year or two.
I’d kind of like to see Berhalter as the next US manager. I think what’s he’s done in Columbus could translate well to the US team.
Jason Kreis.
Compact soccer folks. Any coach that can coach it with the talent and up and coming talent of the USMNT will look like a genius. Lahm was right about Klinnsman. We can see this too, but the USSF President is clueless and living in denial.
Get the book about the Brazilian Box Midfield Mr Gulati.
I think JK has been ok. But I do agree, the talent is increasing in the US. Results getting better is only natural.
“CONCACAF announced after the Gold Cup semifinals wrapped up that the one-game play-off between the 2013 and 2015 tournament winners will take place on Oct. 9 in the United States, but a venue has yet to be selected.”
So is the playoff game between the 2 winners of the Gold Cup a new thing? When did this change? Pretty sure that USA in 2009 and Mexico in 2013 did not have a playoff to get to the Confed Cup.
Yeah its a new thing
A new thing, but conceived by the old “corrupt” Concacaf. I think it would be good to go and review most of the changes Concacaf made it the last few years. Were they made to improve Concacaf, or were they made to enrich Concacaf and certain people?
In this case I believe they made the change because only every other Gold Cup was relevant. Now there is motivation for the US and Mexico to send their strongest teams instead of a B team like we did in 2009. But yes CONCACAF does benefit from the proceeds of a “play-in” game for the Confed Cup.
Just seems odd they’d announce this change right after the USA is eliminated in the semi’s. And the chairmen of the Gold Cup is none other than Sunil Gulati. Hmmm…
The change was announced years ago, before the 2013 Gold Cup. No conspiracy here.
Mexico won in 2009 and in 2011. So they basically qualified straight through.
Not quite. They qualified straight thorough beacause the 2011 champion qualified straight through. 2009 (and 2013) GCs were bragging rights and money-only B-team GCs.
2009 was a bragging rights only Gold Cup, but the 2013 Gold Cup is the one that qualified the US for the playoff this October.
All emotion and conspiracies aside, I have one question:
Which team in this tourney has consistently looked and performed the best?
Jamaica deserves a lot of credit, they’ve got some strong fast quality players, and they are in form and riding sky high.
And Mark Geiger won’t be the ref in the final.
I’m pushing my chips all in that Jamaica wins.
for your sake I hope you mean potato chips
Clever response
Jamaica wins this game
I hope you are right. I agree with you. Jamaica has been the best team. They only lost to Argentina 1-0 in Copa America.
No one can think the US was, after those early games.
I hope you are right, if for no other reason to shut down the conspiracy talk. I admit it enters my mind too, but sometimes late tough PK calls do happen late in games. Incorrect or not.
“No one can think the US was.” Well, the US outplayed Jamaica in their game and the US was in the toughest group during the early games. Also, the US had as many points in the group stage as did Jamaica. Doesn’t anyone here ever bother to look at FACTS? I agree Haiti has played well and is better than most expected, but they are NOT better than the US, nor did they necessarily play better. For example, they beat Haiti by the same score as did the US and the US had more possession against Haiti than did Jamaica and I believe that Jamaica also gave up more shots to Haiti than did the US.
An american with a different eye to soccer.
All Americans who like or love soccer must not hold back and talk what you see and dont be like ESPN or the typical cowboy or tiger woods fan.
Against Jamaica, we realized USA needs new blood and probably a new coach.
USA hasn’t beaten European teams with their A team squad. Lets not get carried away by stupid friendlies versus a European or Mexico game.
USA didn’t do anything in brazil but get lucky.
Klins has only raised his voice in America, by saying we need a D2, we free agency, MLS sucks, we need more players in Europe.
Klins is right in what he says, but he is not the right coach for USA.
Klins should be a front office person in the American soccer pyramid but not a coach.
How about klins becomes an MLS coach and tells garber MLS sucks.
We need a new coach and believe it or not, he needs to be Mexican. A mexican coach would love the media in the U.S. and the privacy, and the work ethic of the Americans.
I am not a typical JK hater but I tend to agree with you. I believe he is awful at tactics.
There are so many times that I want to be proven wrong on his decisions but am not – just baffled.
And has no common sense as a coach. For example, with the brutal schedule of the gold cup, we get a free pass on the last group game. Great.
Why not rest the guy who does the most running on the team – Michael Bradley?
Nope, give him the 90 in a meaningless game.
Ok, blowout against Cuba. Good time to sub out your engine, Bradley, who you need to be fresh for the next two games. Nope, full 90.
it does not take a genius – just common sense. Bradley had the engine vs Jamaica out of will. But was he fresh enough to have pinpoint passing like he needed to? no.
Just an example……..common sense.
….or the 32 year who has been scoring every goal for you. Perhaps trying to get him the golden boot and pass LD’s record shouldn’t be your top concern.
Klinso is wrong in what he says and biggest mistake was leaving out LD. He must go.
CONCACAF needs to stop with giving the US home field advantage all the damn time.
I hope Jamaica wins the gold cup, but I don’t because they’ll have to play a rematch game against the US on the same soil they beat them on to win the Gold Cup.
The game should be at a neutral ground. i.e BMO Field.
US earned hosting rights by winning the previous Gold Cup. This isn’t being handed to them.
Don’t worry, it will be US – Mexico in front of 90% Mexico fans.
Either way gonna be great fun to watch! And since the venue hasn’t been announced yet…your statement might not be true. If they were dumb enough to choose L.A., for example, then yes there would be a majority of Mexican fans. But there are many places where the advantage is not so great. I bet you can think of at least one.
But I want Jamaica to win regardless as they are the newbs. A stronger Jamaica is one step towards a stronger Concacaf.
There’s articles that the Rose Bowl has the date saved for it already. It will be there. If you really want to tell yourself Jamaica has a shot, go ahead. However I think Mexico is probably the most safe bet you could ever make.
It’s all about the $$$$MONEY$$$$$$$, the US has the most up to date and big stadiums,so the payouts to CONCACAF are BIGGER. Remember, this Gold Cup was set up by the the “corrupt” Concacaf. Which make me wonder; there are so many things that are just “not well though out, mysterious, or just dumb,” in CONCACAF. Example: By having the Gold Cup in the July time frame, as opposed to June like CONMEBOL, the points teams make for the FIFA rankings are discounted like 50 percent. This was published and should have been well known as UEFA schedules a majority of its games before the July 6th cutoff, and CONMEBOL scheduled its whole Copa, before the cutoff, so those confederations get full value, we get the “discounted” points. You cannot get ahead in the rankings that way.
Example #2: When Guam beat India and Turkistan, the press discovered Guamian football, and a lot of it had to do with tapping into the US soccer population with ties to Guam, but it also mention the new 4000 seat stadium and National Training Center, and According to Galaxy’s AJ Del La Garza is” very nice.” Guam has a population less than practically all the Caribbean population, yet they were able to get a multi-million dollar training center? Hmmmmm. Turns out that those funds were provided by FIFA and the Asian Football Federation, and those same funds were available to all of the Concacaf nations of football federations, but we all know now, how that could happen.
In order to getthe gold Cup “back” again to being a “respectable” competition, we need to rennovates concacaf from the bottom up and get rid of the archaic ritual and customs that inhibit the sport.
While FIFA, does not allow, instant replay for its officials, mainly because Sepp Blater is opposed to it, there is a lot a room for confederations to introduce and try new things. I think instant replay is a good place to start. I would think twice about new training and National grounds for small Caribbean countries though, a dozen little Jamiacas terrorizing concacaf is to much to contemplate.
Holding the tourny outside the US would be good too.
Tooshway the crowd for the game will be more for Mexico.
BMO wouldn’t be neutral it was be like a home game for the US, with 80,000 less fans.
RoseBowl is perfect place.
I remember watching US-Columbia in ’94. Very mixed crowd. Tons of fun.
Hopefully this matches the excitement, but still has the civil aspect to it.
“will be facing Jamaica or Mexico…”
Just say Mexico, come on. Ya think Jamaica’s going to fill 93K seats at the Rose Bowl?
If that’s true, it will be a home game in the Rose Bowl for Mexico. If the US had a choice it would be Crew Stadium, Columbus Ohio, but because it’s Concacaf choice, and massive amounts of money to be made…it’s Hello, Pasadena
It’s harder to rig a game if it’s a blowout. It wouldn’t shock me, as Mexico has played back to back 120 min games, that Jamaica runs right based those tired Mexican legs.
Jamaica will be down to 9 men after 15 minutes
and if that doesn’t do it Mexico will get the PK call in the last moment of the game.
Even by CONCACAF standards, the officiating has been God awful and unquestionably orchestrated to keep Mexico in this tournament. Jamaica has zero chance of winning the final. It’s obvious Mexico is the better side and should win, but even if Jamaica manages to keep it close or even go ahead, the refs will still find a way to ensure Mexico lifts the trophy.
How convenient that it’s been scheduled at the Rose Bowl. #cashgrabyetagain!
Really has it been, or are you just saying that? By the way there are bigger stadiums in the US, and much nicer ones too. I’m excited if it is the Rose Bowl though, a chance to repay what happened in 2011 to Mexico. I was at that game and certainly would be at this one too.
I was at that game too. We must have been 2 of 1000 US fans there haha Nothing would make me happier than avenging that lost, as it stung for a longggggg time.
Still stinging for the Bradley family I think. We were outnumbered for sure, but there were plenty of us yelling when that game started.
As a senior US manager the three basic requirements are to:
1) Qualify for the World Cup
2) Make it to the Gold Cup finals (losing to any team other than Mexico is unacceptable and even that is not good enough as Bob Bradley found out)
3) Qualify for the Confederations cup by winning the Gold Cup
Klinsmann failed at 2. If he fails at 3, his job is in jeopardy.
Also I’d rather face Mexico than Jamaica, since they haven’t beaten the US in years.
JK can lose that game 10-0 and he won’t be fired. He isn’t going anywhere until after Russia.
No, Bradley was real popular after the Confed Cup and thereafter, but he slowly lost the confidence of Gulati after a string of losses and the Gold Cup. Sounds familiar?. If Klinsmann does not win the playoff for the Confed Cup, I do not think he will be around for WC qualifying. His record is now about the same or worst than Bradleys and still inferior to Bruce Arena.
Bradley started being questioned on some poor player choices he made at the WC and after. It seems Klinsmann’w whole USMNT career has been defined for his choices (and NON-choices) for the US team.
If you pick, young,inexperienced, injured or unfit players for your team, they had better produce, when they don’t, it’s “your choices, your fault.”
I approve this message.
Klinsmann himself said the priority was the Gold Cup back in January. We all gave him a pass after the World Cup hangover because the players were playing poorly and there was a lot of experimentation. But everyone said just wait until the Gold Cup. The team looked poor most of the tournament. Now one upset loss to Jamaica shouldn’t mean he gets the axe. But you better believe that if Jamaica wins the Gold Cup, which is very possible and we lose in the play-in game to them his role should absolutely come into question. Even though Gulati loves Klinsmann, even then I’m he would start to have some doubts. No clear upgrade may buy him a third strike but any bad results in WC qualifying could be then end of his reign. But until then he has three months to prepare for the game and I fully expect them to win.
While I agree with your comments, I really don’t see a replacement coach waiting in the wings. Especially one that the USMNT fans would consider an upgrade over JK. He is safe until Russia. Unless we don’t qualify.
I have been thinking about this game a lot and one thing that struck me is how comments reflect posters’ biases more than what actually happened. As I have tried to point out, by all objective measurements except one, goals scored, the US outplayed Jamaica. One of the Jamaica goals was truly a weird gift–the infraction on Guzan’s throw. Not that it was wrong, but that you never see it called–like a traveling call in the NBA only much less common than that. In other words, it’s probably something that happens from time to time, but is never called, until this game. So, actually, the defense only gave up one goal and even that required a miracle shot and some luck and a slight mistake by Guzan. Yet, posters here are determined that somehow and somewhere blame MUST be assigned. Yet, in assigning blame I remember only one mention of the biggest blunder. I read that Zardes,Bradley, and Dempsey were awful. Bedoya shouldn’t have been subbed out. And Gordon, why bring him in, he didn’t do anything. Yet, the biggest blunder was AJ missing an uncontested header from less than 10 yards out in front of an open net. Yet this blunder gets ignored. Why? Probably because I don’t think one person said before the game that we shouldn’t play AJ. He’s kind of a fan favorite. So, instead, posters try to pin the blame on players they have a bias against or pin the blame on Klinsmann. The other person most responsible for the loss–Guzan, of course. But nobody ever said he shouldn’t start. The fact is, there was nothing wrong with Klinsmann’s personnel decisions. Evans played well at right back, Alvarado and Brooks didn’t mark Mattocks perfectly, but I asked before, has anyone ever seen Mattocks make a header that good before? I’m awaiting an answer to that. The answer, I suspect, is that it was the type of goal that he may score only once or twice in his professional career. And it came off a throw in. And the second goal was the ultimate fluke in that it was the sort of thing where in a 1000 games you will never see that free kick given. In sum, Jamaica had 3 shots on goal and one of them, the second goal, was a total fluke that they ever got the chance to take the shot. When a defense allows only two shots on goal, they’re doing very well and your team usually wins. This was NOT a bad loss. It was mostly unlucky. I am reminded of the 2009 Confederations Cup when the US beat Spain 2-0. Did that mean the US was better than Spain? No. Did the US outplay Spain in that game? No. Did it mean that Spain played badly? No. Did it mean Spain wasn’t good anymore? No. Did it mean that Spain should fire their coach? No. All Spain did was win the World Cup the next year. All that game meant is that on that day the US scored more goals than did Spain. Similarly, the US loss to Jamaica means only that Jamaica scored more goals than the US. It does not mean that Jamaica is better. It does not mean that the US played badly. And it certainly doesn’t mean that the US is not as good as it used to be.
This is how the US (and Klinsmann) rebounds from last night. In what will likely be a match against Mexico – not because Jamaica isn’t good enough, but because we can all see the evidence surrounding Mexico in this tournament – the USMNT needs to go in there and just destroy El Tri. Stick it to their fans, to the CONCACAF and the other officials involved in this cesspool of a region.
That’s the only way that it makes up for everything I just saw last night.
I wonder why Mexico gets so much hate when its AMERICAN refs making these calls.
Where was the American media and fans when this exact same thing happened to Mexico in the U23 finals against the US, or did everyone forget that penalty too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D7IYEKEF1ME
It’s actually a shot towards goal, it didn’t end up effecting the result and happened with 80 minutes to still play. Sure it’s a questionable hand ball call, those are made all the time.
Haha, the “exact same thing” would be the US getting two phantom penalties in the last seconds of two consecutive games. This isn’t’ it.
nice try
hey Geiger and that linesman are getting plenty of hate! i don’t think i have ever stood up for American refs just because of their nationality!
but behind the bad ref is the corrupt concacaf management that is forcing Mexico into this playoff game.
I have plenty of distaste for the American ref here, but the hate is not directed AT Mexico. People want to beat Mexico because they have NOT earned this. It is directed AT injustice and the injustice right now is Mexico’s progression through the tournament.
People are more upset about this one than- what the U23(it was U20) Gold Cup, seriously, we are supposed to get worked up about that?- but people are more upset because the call affected the outcome of the game. If the US had won 1-1 in that U20 game, then maybe you have a point, but they didn’t. The wrong team won and it sucks.
And all this is beyond the ridiculous diving from Peralta in this tournament and other BS that goes against competitive spirit. If Peralta doesn’t dive against Costa Rica (or tackle the defender against Panama) then there is nothing to talk about. So there is some culpability.
The American ref gets hate too… I want to see the dude’s bank accounts before I give him a pass that he “just had a bad day”… speaking of which… I am going to email my buddy at DOJ that is working on the FIFA probe.