The U.S. men’s national team will look to secure a return to the Concacaf Gold Cup final, but standing in the way is a dangerous opponent the Americans have never faced before.
The USMNT faces Qatar at Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas in Thursday night’s Gold Cup semifinal (7:30 p.m., FS1/Univision/TUDN) and it’s a classic battle between the tournament’s stingiest defense and its most high-scoring attack.
The high-flying Qataris are reigning Asian champions, and are undefeated in Gold Cup play, having scored a tournament-high 12 goals. They face a USMNT defense that has allowed just one goal in four matches, which came via penalty kick, and with Miles Robinson and James Sands anchoring the middle, the Americans will look to try and neutralize that potent Qatar attack.
Here is the starting lineup the USMNT will deploy against Qatar:
The winner of Thursday’s semifinal will face the winner of the Mexico/Canada semifinal on Sunday in Las Vegas in the Concacaf Gold Cup final.
The SBI editorial staff will be providing updates and analysis in the comments section below, so feel free to follow the action here. As always, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions in the comments section.
Enjoy the action.
Let’s be honest. For what the US needed to accomplish in this GC, a great success.
– Young players with no or minimal caps performing at a high level in the GC
– A number of players have proved they can claim a spot on the WCQ roster: Turner, Robinson, Dike, Sands, Hoppe, Moore. That is the biggest accomplishment. Depth is key in the 2022 WCQ
– 1 goal, a PK, given up in 5 games
Mexico will bring their A- team to play a US B team, and should win. The winner gets bragging rights. WCQ starts in September. That’s what matters.
Mexico playing for Tata’s job without their two best offensive players. It will be totally unfair to Tata, but I don’t think he survives if he loses to US or Canada.
Perhaps that is the difference. Tata has to bring the A- team to keep his job. Berhalter uses the same GC to build WCQ roster depth, and keeps his job if he almost certainly loses Sunday. The Mexico Federation and 60,000 Mexican fans in Vegas Sunday has their priorities wrong
Canada is taking it to Mexico right now. I believe this is the real finals. Great game right now 1-1