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USMNT exacts revenge on Trinidad & Tobago, clinch quarterfinal berth

The U.S. Men’s National Team has its revenge against Trinidad and Tobago.

Gyasi Zardes came alive in the second half for the USMNT as he scored twice in three minutes to start off a 6-0 rout of the Soca Warriors.

Zardes’s two goals came in quick succession just as the game was opening up. He scored his first came in the 66th minute when he received a feed from Nick Lima and tapped into an empty net. The second was a quality curling finish in the 69th that put the game to bed.

The floodgates were open from there as Christian Pulisic scored in the 73rd and Paul Arriola tapped one home in the 78th to cap off a flurry of American goal scoring.

The second half outburst came after a cagey first half provided little of note a 41st minute goal from Aaron Long broke the deadlock. His header found the back of the net. Pulisic deserved most of the credit, however, since it was his vision that saw the run and his foot that played a picture perfect cross. Long got a second at the death of the match to finish the 6-0 drubbing.

The USMNT concludes their group stage campaign on Wednesday night in Kansas City when they take on Panama with Group D supremacy on the line. Trinidad and Tobago wraps of their group stage against Panama earlier the same night.

Comments

  1. Let’s put this win into perspective.

    It was an expected performance against a subpar team. This is T&T, and not Mexico or CR, which are the barometers of success in this region.

    Remember, we beat CR 4-0 in the last GC, and lost both matches against them in the WC qualifiers.

    When s**t matters, and you beat CR or Mexico by these scorelines, then yeah you are a good team.

    Reply
    • We beat CR 4-0 in the Copa America 2016, also 2-0 in the last GC. But point was to prove these wins don’t mean jack unless World Cup spots are at stake…

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  2. I thought Bradley was given too much room by T&T. It allowed him to turn and pick out teammates with good passes that resulted in the US being able to apply attacking pressure for most of the game.
    Other than the header assist by Lima, I thought he was the weakest player for the US; he failed to track back on a counter and only the terrible shot by the T&T player prevented a goal.
    Ream showed he is not quick, but we all knew that already; fortunately Long was able to bail him out from time-to-time. OTOH, he completed some good passes.
    I thought Zimmerman made some great long passes that routinely found the target and he made no serious defensive gaffs.
    I thought the team in general gave T&T too much respect in the first half; when the US stepped up the pressure in the 2nd half, T&T caved, tired and more or less gave up.

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    • Just when you thought we could all enjoy the possible 9-0 beating of T&T you have to try to but the spot light on your boy

      “Ream showed he is not quick, but we all knew that already; fortunately Long was able to bail him out from time-to-time.”

      Bradley was just like Ream, not quick on the ball (but we already know that too) who overcame a couple early mistakes (bad turnovers in the US end) and basically had the whole team bail him out ?, yet we rallied together for a positive overall showing. Yes he continually fed diagonal passed to the flanks (because that where our strength lies ?), picking out Lima for the assist but don’t single out REAM being slow when your boy didn’t have “wheels” either..

      There are a lot more players to praise for this win than MB……

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      • MB may indeed earn the ire of the board yet, but he played well in his #6 role last night, breaking up counter after counter and recovering the ball quickly once the US misfired in attack, and did it consistently all night, until the rout was on. McKennie started slowly but found himself after that and was able to impact the game with MB in the middle, and they paired nicely

      • How did I praise Bradley? I said T&T failed to pressure him. That allowed what Bradley does well to work, but they seldom pressured him to deny him the opportunity to survey the field and make passes. I did not say, but by implication said, other teams will not make it so easy for him.

      • Players in the center of the field do not often need to be terribly fast; that is not the case for outside backs who must cover fast wingers in open space or for CBs dealing withl ong balls over the top to fast forwards where simply getting out-run can be deadly.

  3. midfield ran the game, whether connecting going forward to spring the attack or in recovery quickly after losing the ball in attack. McKennie and Bradley with Pulisic and Zardes dropping back to help break lines. against others? who knows, we’ll see, but they did that tonight.

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  4. Like every GC before this, real games start in knockouts.
    Although I enjoyed the dramatic “group of death” posts back when the groups were announced.

    Building momentum.
    McKennie unlucky to not get anything. He was sharp and liked his edge.

    Reply
    • All the other groups had 1 hexagonal team, Group D had 3, just happened to be teams 3,5, and 6. In Concacaf group of death is relative, especially when it’s not home and away series. Trinidad hasn’t won or even scored in over a year. Panama should be a good test, and we may see them again a week later in the semis.

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  5. Can’t wait for the Imperative Voice to come in and comment on how this proves that Morris should be starting over Boyd because it was 1-0 with Boyd and 5-0 with Morris.

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    • JR: I’m kinda confused because in the Player of the Match comment section, you said “He was our best in the first half but had nothing to do with any of the goals so no Tyler was not MotM.” I mean, Morris was on the field for the last 5 goals, so under your theory, Boyd didn’t really contribute that much to this win…

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      • I’m not sure what’s hard to understand. Our friend IV likes to criticize Berhalter because his subs did the scoring in January. Obviously it would be ridiculous for Boyd to lose his starting role (other than just for rest) just because the team scored 5 goals after he subbed off. Boyd has shown in a couple matches he is one of our most dangerous players. That doesn’t mean he gets to be man of the match because tonight he had a good 60 minutes but not as good as Pulisic, Zardes, Long, and maybe McKennie or Arriola.

  6. USMNT exact … clinch
    .
    USMNT exacts … clinches
    .
    .
    The USMNT conclude their group-stage campaign
    .
    The USMNT concludes its group-stage campaign
    .
    .
    T&T wraps up its group stage
    .
    T&T wrap up their group stage
    .
    .
    .
    One. More than one. How hard can this be?
    .

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  7. You all gotta stop hating Zardes he has done a lot in his 47 appearances for the usmnt. Zardes is Also consistent. He performed well in the Klinsmann era.I scratch my head when you all want him to be like an early 2000s Adriano who played for Inter Milan. Smh, he even performed well in the Chili game and was not given credit. Lets be honest Jamaica and Venezuela he had not good service and he was playing with thrash Roldan.

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    • Here’s my take on Zardes and I’ve followed him since his first game in MLS and through all his time with the Galaxy and the USMNT. I don’t think striker is his best position, but not because he lacks ability. He is the consummate team player. That generally is a good thing, but I think to be a good striker you need to be kinda selfish and have a predatory instinct. Too often I think Zardes is too ready to give the ball up. His second goal tonight is what he should be doing more of, but most often in that situation he will look for someone to pass to in the box. Especially against weaker teams I think you need to constantly pressure them and shoot at every opportunity. Sometimes I think the US is a little too cutesy when they should be more direct in the box. When Zardes was in his first season, he shot at every opportunity and most everything ended up in the stands. Now I think he’s gone too much the other way and is definitely better and should shoot more often. This is why I think he is better at winger, because of his temperament.

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    • Jurgen Klinsmann, Bruce Arfena and Greg Berhalter are 3 very different coaches but they have one thing in common. They all started Zardes. And yet there are a lot of posters on this board who insist they know more about his value than the coaches he played for. But then, I remember posters on this site who, a year and a half before the 2014 World Cup, insisted that Dempsey was washed up and wouldn’t be on the US team at the WC.

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      • don’t recall that mess about Clint. In fact, all hopes were on him in 2014 and the narrative was that he was the best US player ever. Julian Green, Brad Davis, Wondowlowski, and others were all deemed better choices than LD, not Clint; It was Clint’s time to lead, and folks were psyched about that, me too, but he missed his running mate LD something fierce. See Belgium game for example

      • beachbum–I remember it well because it was so shockingly stupid. Here was the situation. Dempsey held out from Fulham after the 2012-2013 season. He finally was sold to Tottenham after the season had started, at the end of the August transfer window. Thus, he joined Tottenham with no pre-season, only some individual workouts he did on his own. Thus, he didn’t play for a couple of games , then started coming on as a late sub, probably around early October. That was the year Bale had a career season for Tottenham, so it took a while for Dempsey to play regularly and then a bit longer for him to contribute to the team. Thus, some people concluded that he wasn’t good enough to make Tottenham’s starting 11 and really didn’t have it anymore. This was around the end of 2013 that such foolish posts were made. As it turned out, Dempsey ended up 3rd on the team on both goals and assists when the season was over, despite his late start.

  8. YANKS YANKS YANKS!!! That second half was the beautiful release we’ve been waiting two years for. There will be tougher challenges, but that was just what the doctor ordered for this team…. GO USA!

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  9. I’m glad Aaron Long got 2 goals, if for nothing more than to put Zardes’ 2 goals in perspective. Zardes was totally useless until he scored his first, then got more involved and could have had a third. But against better competition, can we really afford to wait 65 minutes before he starts contributing? I think not.

    Very surprised that Boyd was the first substitution, considering he and Arriola were our most dangerous players for the second straight game. Pulisic was a ghost until the second half, then something clicked and he returned to the player that we all expect him to be.

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    • Your right, Jozy starts when it counts, if he is ready. Jozy came on and mins later had an excellent flick on in the box. Thats what he gives.

      Gotta give Zardes his credit tonight though. Legit goals, his 2nd was awesome all around.

      Need the competition up top!

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    • actually, looked like Zardes helped open up the match by dropping back into the space above the T&T CBs, helped connect going forward like that, and that adjustment then opened up options in behind as the CBs chased him up into that space.

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