The U.S. men’s national team’s march to a Gold Cup final begins on Sunday against Jamaica and The SBI Show breaks down what to expect from the quarterfinal clash.
Episode 314 takes a closer look at the lineup options Gregg Berhalter will need to consider as he constructs a lineup to take on Jamaica, including tough decisions at forward and in central midfield.
Host Ives Galarcep digs into the Olympics, and the U.S. women’s national team’s attempt to rebound from its opening loss to Sweden with a win on Saturday against New Zealand. Also discussed is the Mexican Olympic team, why it’s in good shape to make a medal run, and why a true full-strength USMNT Olympic team could never have happened, even if the U.S. men qualified for the Olympics.
Lastly, we discuss a busy midweek of results in MLS, Inter Miami’s disastrous state, Justin Che’s continued development at FC Dallas, and the top match-ups to watch this weekend.
You can listen to The SBI Show on Spotify, the Apple Podcast App and Soundcloud, and you can listen to Episode 314 here:
While I have talked him up before, with all the talk about Busio and now Che, I have to mention Araujo again. He showed a lot of potential last season and this season he has been steadily improving. There may have been faster young outside US backs (Yedlin and Wynn for example), but he is one of the best young American defensive backs I’ve seen in 30 years. I know it’s a position of US strength, but we will be making a horrible mistake if we don’t cap tie him and give him a chance to play regularly. Dest has more offensive ability, but when it comes to defending and crosses I think Araujo is at least as good and probably better than Dest from what I’ve seen. He is definitely better than Yedlin at this age.
Is there anyway to move Moore to left back cause our left back is suspect at best. Good podcast Ives. You lost me on the praising of Zardes
Zardes is second, behind only Donovan in reaching double digits in both goals and assists for the national team, Arena favored Zardes at the Galaxy, Klinsmann made him a regular starter, and Berhalter traded for him to go to Columbus and now likes him on the national team. He has totaled more goals in MLS than any other American the last 3 years, but I guess you know better than all those coaches
Arena is not the best at developing young players- I think rather stunted Zardes potential by deploying him on the wing where he never worked on/developed touch, finishing, hold up play. Mostly ran, ran, ran… hustled on defense. Wasn’t until Berhalter put him at striker rather late in his career that these things improved.