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USMNT to host Panama in Glendale to open 2019

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New U.S. Men’s National Team head coach Gregg Berhalter knows when his first game in charge will be and the nation his team will play against.

U.S. Soccer announced they will take on Panama on January 27 in Glendale, Arizona as their first of two January Camp friendlies. The second will be against Costa Rica in San Jose and was announced on November 20.

The federation announced the match at the start of the press conference introducing Berhalter as their new coach.

Panama notoriously finished ahead of the USMNT in World Cup Qualifying for Russia in 2018. Roman Torres scored a late goal to secure a win over Costa Rica to knock the U.S. out of qualification.

The last time these two sides met was the second-to-last match of that qualification cycle. The USMNT won 4-0 thanks to goals from Christian Pulisic, Jozy Altidore, and Bobby Wood.

Comments

  1. During this rough schedule I have watched a team struggle to create chances, give the ball away a lot, and struggle to win the ball. I want to modulate the level of opponent downward not just so we can implement a style in peace, but so that I can see if these guys can in fact play soccer individually. If they still can’t play ball right against Jamaica or something then I know I literally need new players. But if they struggle with tactics and play against another couple good teams then it’s hard to separate out was the opponent good or my guys not up to this level at all. This continual buzzsaw gives you no room to discover if, say, Trapp or Miazga are simply not international players who can’t handle much of any NT. Instead we get to hide behind, oh, but that was Brazil. I want an easy schedule right now where I can make sure these players are even up to this. The reality is that at their age some players of promise never turn out.

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    • Also, I think winning at this level is a learned thing and I want them to learn how to win a game or close out a game. When one of the few wins in months was Mexico B I think some of you are getting way ahead of yourselves. We can’t even finish off Peru. Moderate the schedule and earn your way back up the totem pole.

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    • we missed out on Russia but schedule games like a knockout round team. Either arrogance or denial. At some point y’all might admit to yourselves we didn’t qualify and shouldn’t arrogantly schedule games pretending like we did. Or like this bunch of kids who haven’t won a game that counts yet have proven already worthy. Just arrogant and worse kind of contradictory. Knowing we missed Russia you should already know better.

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    • You have to look at who’s available. Do to travel restrictions no Euro team could come to US because one date each window was Nations League match and only the top 24 Euro teams had days off during that competition. Only Concacaf hex teams were available because of nations league qualifiers. We played about half of Conmebol. We had just played the Concacaf availables in GC and qualifying and have another GC coming. Only a handful of African and Asia teams travel outside their region. Long story short you have to play whose available.

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    • I think you’re correct by saying the friendlies scheduled have much to do with being able to market the game for ticket sales/tv viewers. ” come watch our young up and comers play a world power” gets more eyes than mediocre international team where you may recognize 2-3 names.
      I think its good practice to test ourselves against the best, but there’s obviously a balance to be had. This is especially true considering the team we are trying to build now.

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  2. I agree this fall’s schedule was unnecessarily brutal and may have done more harm than good to the psyche of the inexperienced players and the fans. But the two January matches are just about right I think. These are 2 hex quality concacaf teams that we need to be able to beat when the games count. I think a realistic but still ambitious goal for this cycle is to become the best team in our region, and these games will give us an idea of where we are at.

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  3. So after getting our heads kicked in all fall Panama then CR is the plan to begin the new tenure, incorporate a new system, test out new players. Has the scheduler been talked to about not using controlled substances while at the workplace?

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    • What is wrong with these matchups? I think they’re perfectly fine. I especially like the game in Costa Rica to give some of the newcomers a taste of a concacaf away game. These January camp games are typically absolute snoozefests and we learn very little from them. The camp itself is the real place where people make their name with the coaching staff.

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      • Your response to missing the world cup is to schedule not just murderer’s row all fall but the #2 and #3 teams in the region when you are trying to get the new coach going, system implemented, etc. When you are playing preseason college soccer you don’t schedule the local MLS team to sort out whether the team is working right. When you are in preseason HS you don’t schedule the best team in the district. You calibrate the contests down towards comfortable so you don’t have to bend the tactics to the opponent, or have your talent evaluation distorted by the quality of the opponent. Our scheduling is being done by some cable tv fanboy who wants to see us play tough teams, not anyone who has ever tried to prepare a real team for their future. You want to play good teams once you are gelled, not in the games when you are just trying to get the system going. For that you in fact want cupcakes. You want to see if the players can get the system down and play well in a lower pressure game. OK, that done, in March maybe tweak it up a little bit. And then maybe we’re ready for Gold Cup in the summer. But if you keep scheduling good teams all we are doing is throwing the kids in the deep end and hoping they don’t drown, which sounds theoretically nice to macho parents but is not actually wise swim coaching technique.

      • Go back and look at our results all summer. How did that schedule work for us? It’s mostly Ts and Ls. Learn from that. We need some time working on our game with our coach and maybe in a few months come back and re-test. But I am curious where y’all expect growth to come from when every contest is set up an unrelenting grind. And to be clear, a harsher schedule than any US team before has faced, and that includes teams that made the quarters.

    • January camp games are usually not during international breaks, so both teams will probably rely on MLS players, as will we. We have so many players now in Europe that these games will not be a true gauge of the US vs. these teams. So, there’s no reason to get excited one way or another by these games. They are like exhibition games in pro football.

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      • These have all been like exhibition games in NFL, that’s how our lengthy friendly schedule works. We haven’t given them many games in months they could actually settle in to a style and win. By my count, from their last friendlies, Panama fielded 7 MLS players and 2 domestics; CR fielded 3 MLS players and 9 domestics. They may not have their full teams but we also definitely won’t, and I think you are over-stating how diminished they will be.

      • I guess the point where we disagree is I don’t think Panama or Costa Rica are too difficult for this January camp. I don’t think they’re comparable to the fall schedule whatsoever. If someone underperforms in these games they do not have the excuse of playing a top 10 team in the world. They’re playing other concacaf teams we should expect to beat at home.
        I still believe these games are not the most important part of camp either. A few weeks of training sessions is where the coaching staff will see who they think can elevate to the full team

    • I agree with you about the fall schedule, but still don’t see your issue with Panama and Costa Rica. I realize we are in transition mode, but we can’t start getting scared of Panama and Costa Rica……Thats a major inferiority complex. We beat Panama handily in our last meeting and I still hold that Costa Rica away will be a good experience for many of the players. We should not be overmatched in either of these games.

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      • CR beat us both games last cycle and as you can see above can field a team of roughly 12 players at least who are either domestic or MLS. Panama can also put out most of an 11 without calling upon Europe. We will not be fielding our first team, so past results are dubiously relevant, but y’all are all missing my point, that these games should be calibrated not towards a test but towards giving a team in a new style a chance to succeed. You don’t give the final or the midterm to your new students. You give a decent but confidence encouraging pop quiz. The midterm or final should be in the summer when the players have been evaluated and a style implemented.

      • To me this scheduling is being done by fanboys who like to watch tough games between good teams, which is based on the fallacy that playing good teams is what makes you better. What makes you better is new players and tactics, which you then test by nudging ever higher the quality of your opposition. But I am curious what you think you are accomplishing playing a bunch of world cup type teams when we don’t have a set roster or a system implemented. This is why the first game most HS teams play is against their own JV. Have I picked the right players, and can they execute the style I want to play against what should be an inferior team. “Oh, cool, Costa Rica is tough” is not a wise scheduling sensibility for a rebuilding team. This is a schedule for a team that made the Russia semis and has no player turnover or coaching changes to deal with.

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