The forward position is under a microscope at U.S. Men’s National Team camp in San Jose this week, as injury questions are circling around the key contributors to the squad.
Jordan Morris picked up a knock in the Seattle Sounders’ 3-1 win over the New York Red Bulls on Sunday, but he continued to play at CenturyLink Field. Now, the status of the forward is up in the air for Friday’s match.
Morris is officially day-to-day with an ankle injury. He did a gym workout on Tuesday, but did not participate on the Avaya Stadium field with the rest of the squad.
#usmnt spokesman says Jordan Morris did "gym work & rehab" today. I asked if JM would train on field tomorrow & he said JM was "day to day."
— Jeff Carlisle (@JeffreyCarlisle) March 21, 2017
Chris Wondolowski was added to the squad on Monday night as an insurance option just in case Morris could not go. Bobby Wood was removed from the roster with a back injury on Sunday, and Clint Dempsey is still working his way back to full fitness after his bout with an irregular heartbeat last year. Jozy Altidore is fully fit and is projected as the starter on Friday night.
Despite the US woes at forward, the big question marks are in the defense. I would not be surprised to see a 4-4-2 with Bradley and Cameron as the 2 central mids protecting the back 4.
A back line of Ream, Brooks, Gonzales and Beasley is not out of the question.
With Altidore up top and Dempsey withdrawn, then Pulisic and Nagbe or Acosta wide.
It would be pretty defensive, but winning is more important than looking pretty.
Bring Morris into the Honduras game only if we desperately need a goal and want to use 3 forwards and save him for Panama. We should control the play vbs. Honduras anyway while in Panama it will probably be more a defensive game for the US with counter attack, which is more conducive to Morris. For Honduras we need guys who can head the ball (Dempsey) and hopefully altidore can use his strength and interior passing to break down Honduras inside the box. Also, having Pulisic running onto balls from the wing should help our scoring vs. Honduras.
OMG what next? Is Beckerman ready? WONDO… give him a watch and a wish him well. I am one step away from losing faith in Arena. He is the second coming of Klinsmann
If Morris goes down…could it already be time to call up Dom Dwyer?
Dwyer still needs to file paperwork with FIFA which wouldn’t be processed in time for this week.
As much as all these injuries suck, whether we play 1 or 2 up top still doesn’t address our biggest problem.. Our midfield has played like poop for waaay too long.
Not only is MB90 not the same guy who came back from Italy, Concacrap teams have figured out how to shut him down and that he can’t dribble out of trouble.
Without other mids who can actually trap the ball and pass it to another good guy I don’t see much different coming. It’s the right mix of players needed.
Bedoya can’t be on the field the same time as MB. We need the era of Pulisic, Nagbe, Llegett to begin like yesterday…
I prefer to have vets in these types of games. I think speed and energy are not as important when the team is bunkering and playing rough concacaf style, right? I would opt for composure and set play skills. That…might….spell…..Wondolowski. That seems to have got us through in the past. Is that naive?
No Woods, no FJ, JM day-to-day, CD not 100% match fit … in Puli we trust
Yeah, strange times when Jozy is the only healthy one.
also, the ads on this site are seriously out of control
And that can change in the blink of an eye as we know. It is going to come down to these vets knowing what’s on the line, bringing everyone together and finding a way to get it done. We are missing a lot of important pieces obviously but there are still games to be played and we are still very much capable of getting the needed points.
i dont like the idea of one forward. not good for Jozy or USMNT
Not what anyone that is rooting for the correct team wants to hear.