The U.S. men’s national team has had several deadly attacking forward in its history with Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan leading the way, but it was a new name that made history on Sunday night in a dominant Concacaf Gold Cup victory over Trinidad & Tobago.
Jesus Ferreira continued his rampant goalscoring form at Bank of America Stadium, scoring a hat trick for a second-consecutive match in a 6-0 Group A victory. The 22-year-old became the first USMNT player to register back-to-back hat tricks in federation history, giving him six goals in three appearances this tournament.
Not only has Ferreira been key in helping the Americans rebound from an opening night draw vs. Jamaica, but he’s scoring in many different ways atop B.J. Callaghan’s attack.
“I’m happy. I’m excited,” Ferreira said postmatch. “Obviously, this is a team objective. I wouldn’t be able to score goals without my teammates putting me in situations where I can score goals.
“So, from the beginning, we knew that this game was going to be intense. We have to bring the intensity, we have to be the team that can set the tempo and I think we did that.”
Ferreira entered the tournament with eight goals in 18 USMNT caps, but now has eclipsed the double-digit mark by taking his goal total up to 14. The FC Dallas product scored his six goals on 12 total shots in the group stage, showing his clinical ability to slot away chances inside of the box.
Both Ferreira and fellow striker Brandon Vazquez entered the Gold Cup seeking to boost their stock following the positive Nations League performances of Folarin Balogun and Ricardo Pepi in June. The duo have combined for eight of the USMNT’s 13 goals through 270 minutes so far, with Ferreira holding the edge after starting all three matches.
The USMNT will now have a week off before facing the runners-up of Group D in the Gold Cup quarterfinals, which could be either Guadeloupe, Guatemala, or Canada pending Tuesday’s final results. Ferreira will be expected to deliver more in the final few matches, but overall Callaghan is pleased with what he’s brought to the table.
“All forwards are going to be judged by the goals that they score, first and foremost. When I see his movement and his confidence in the penalty box, you can tell that the game has slowed down for him,” Callaghan said. “All of the work that he’s doing, leading our line defensively, dropping down, helping buildup play, for me he’s having a really complete tournament.”
US v Canada in the QF.
Luton declining the option for Horvath. Back to the bench at Forest for Ethan, then probably a loan/transfer back to the Championship. I saw this coming but you feel bad for someone who seems to be a really good guy.
I don’t feel too terrible for the guy. He was the second-highest earner on Luton Town last year at £890,000 a year (the conversion rate is $1.27 dollars to the pound sterling), behind only a guy called “Marvelous Nakamba” – now that is a name – who made a million-five.
Luton actually made the Prem spending only £8,130,000 total…a figure that incidentally would put them close to dead-last in MLS. (And Horvath got ten per cent of that himself.) Considering Watford spent £29,000,000 – which would make them the highest-spending team in MLS or the Championship (the two leagues spend very similar money) and didn’t get promoted, that ain’t a bad return. At all.
So it’s probably just as well for Ethan, since whoever is sitting between the pipes is almost without question going to spend most of the year feeling like a duck in a shooting gallery. The lowest-spending club in the Prem besides Luton Town? Brighton…who spent close to £43,000,000 pounds, more than five times the payroll of Luton Town. Luton actually don’t even have a stadium that meets minimum EPL specs and so their “home” games are going to have to be played at a rented stadium, elsewhere, unless they can get their stadium upgraded in the next six weeks. Good luck with that, fellas.
That could be seriously ugly. I love Luton’s story but plucky and fearless only gets you so far…and then it gets you run over. Being on the receiving end of repeated massacres doesn’t make you a better player.
“Being on the receiving end of repeated massacres doesn’t make you a better player”
You need only look at Brad Guzan.
At one point he nearly all by his lonesome self kept Aston Villa in the Premiership.
But because he made the mistake of staying, after another season or so, he was ruined.
Yeah. Hard to say what his next move will be. Luton won’t be staying up anyway. I think they recognize that.
I hope Ethan can find a stable situation.
Arsenal set 50 million pound transfer fee for Balogun. Realistically not many teams can afford that in Europe. Really kind of shady by Arsenal. He has had only one good season thus far. Seems a bit overpriced if you ask me. No team in Serie A is going to be able to afford that. Which team in Lihue 1 will pay that? Marseille? Lyon? PSG? Besides maybe Bayern or Dortmund I don’t see a Bundesliga team being able to come up with that kind of money. La Liga in the same boat as Serie A. So that leaves the EPL. Maybe Manchester United or Chelsea. Newcastle already has a striker. Liverpool already has striking options. City is set. Tottenham could be a possibility if they sell Kane. Balogun doesn’t want another loan. He may just have to fight for a spot at Arsenal, or acquiesce and take another loan.
Juve spent 70 million pounds on Vlahovic, 73 million on deLigt, 36 on Chiesa (which if the starting number is 50 they might get close to). Napoli paid more than that for Osimhen. Roma and AC Milan have come close to that number on other transfers. You put 50 million out there to keep the Valencia’s and Rennes away but they likely do less with the right add ons and terms.
Only way those teams spend on Balo is if they sell current players. I’m just saying teams are tightening purse strings this summer transfer window. I hope for Balo he gets sold.
A lot of the big money is going to Saudi so clubs will have money to spend. I don’t know that he’ll go for 50 million pounds but he’ll move.
While I’m glad to see Ferreira doing well and growing in confidence he still needs to prove that he can produce against better competition than Grenada, St. Kit, and T&T. It’s important to have depth as we’re going to have to deal with injuries and player slumps. That being said I still believe that Balogun, Pepi, and Sargent are the top 3 CF’s in our player pool….then it’s Ferreira, Wright, Pefolk, & Vazques.
Ferreira’s best chance (IMO) of making a full “A-Team” squad would be as a back-up to one of the wide attackers. Right now the possible back-ups to Pulisic & Weah, are B. Arronson, Booth, Parades, P. Arronson, Cowell, & Zendejas. Based on where these guys are in their careers right now I think Ferreira could find this area as his best shot.
people.keep.sayi g he needs to perform better against better competition, and you’re not wrong, but so does many of our A team players. To be termed our golden generation and to consistently miss chances against the likes of England, Holland, etc hasn’t seemed to take any shine off of those players but we keep seeing folks criticize Ferreira for not scoring against Holland or other teams outside of Concacaf. Point being, stop making tlcriticisms about certain players if youre5not going to criticize other players for failing to produce against the same level of opposition
“stop making tlcriticisms about certain players if youre5not going to criticize other players for failing to produce against the same level of opposition”
Maybe you haven’t noticed but the reason Ferreira got a chance at the A team in the first place was because everyone else Gregg tried failed.
So did Jesus even though he had 18 caps or so to make his case.
They all got shit all over.
This is why Flo’s commitment was such a huge deal, or maybe you didn’t notice?
@Vacqui That’s not lost on me at all, and I don’t blame Greg because Jesus was lighting it up in MLS, so he should have been given callups and chances, what I’m saying is Jesus has had what, 2 chances to play against teams outside of Concacaf that fans like to term “big teams”(Uruguay and Holland), he played well against Uruguay and probably should have scored, and we know he didn’t play well vs Holland, but which of our Fwd’s did? We CP missed a one v one chance against the keeper, and Haji scored a flukish type goal, but yet we don’t here certain player criticized for not showing up in big games like we do for Ferreira
RonnieThomas,
You’re right in that the jury is still out on Jesus.
Part of that is on him because he has yet to perform when facing the “big ” teams.
Part of that is NOT on him because he doesn’t make up the schedule and it’s not his fault the USMNT has mostly faced cupcakes during Jesus’ time.
What this means though is that it appears that Gregg has already decided that Jesus is going to be a success with the A team and will play him regardless. Because that ‘s what you do when you’re sure that your guy is going to be a success in the end.
The goal return looks good , on paper, but you have to question the quality of the opposition. That’s not Jesus’ fault but if people are going to question Pepi for playing in Holland, where supposedly they don’t play defense and any halfwit can score , then you have to equally question Jesus for playing mostly against sub MLS level players.
22 caps is a lot of caps for someone who appears to be the next Wondo, with all due respect to Wondo.
Pepi has 18 caps and 7 goals but there seems to be far more reason to suspect he will come good in this cycle.
The question might be asked then who else should Gregg have faith in other than Jesus? I don’t know but it’s not my job to know.
What about this guy Ebobisse? What would he look like if had 22 caps against mostly sub MLS competition?
What about Brandon? What does his production look like after 22 games versus for the most part sub MLS competition?
I get believing in a player but no matter what Gregg does I’m not sure Jesus will ever develop into an A team starter. To do that he has to replace Pulisic/Weah/Reyna/LDLT/Weston.
And I don’t see that happening.
Depth isn’t bad but Gregg is spending a lot of energy developing a sub
What I see with Jesus is that he is developing into a billionaire’s Roldan.
(lifts rug, sweeps unsightly jamaica game neatly away)
Wasn’t a bad performance and it was his versatility to be able to move to the wing and create havoc that led to the goal. The midfield hamstrung the offense that night. Plenty of “Ferreira/Morris/ Zendajas/Cowell makes a great run … but Sonora/Morris recycles the ball.
speaking of shot efficiency, qatar 1 (1 shot)-mexico 0 (25 shots).
For all the love Pepi and Folarin get here, let’s remember Pepi was 10th in scoring in the Eerdivisie and 13th in goals per 90 minutes. The Eerdivisie is renowned for having weak defending . Folarin was notably 4th in scoring in Ligue 1 with 21 goals. Ferreira is presently 4th in MLS this season while Vazquez was 4th last season.
Something to look at the scoring rate for the USMNT. Pepi has scored 7 goals in 15 games, Ferreira has scored 14 goals in 18 games while Folarin’s 1 goal in 2 games is not statistically meaningful nor is Vazquez’s 3 goals in 6 games.
One thing I’m starting to love about Ferreira’s game and abilities (yes, even though it’s against inferior teams) is his clinical finishing in front of goal. He is quick, skillful and accurate……releasing the ball at the right time without taking that extra touch or making that unnecessary move.
I think the arrival of Balogun has made all our strikers sharper….Ferreira, Vasquez, and Pepi (during Nations League)……because damn it these kids are looking good, like really good.
Healthy competition for spots does wonders for the player pool. Now Balogun and Pepi are looking behind and saying we need to perform game in and game out and Ferreira and Vazquez are saying we are coming for your spots. I have never seen this much depth at striker for the USMNT. Now it’s time to build healthy competition at a few more spots: RW, LW, CM/ CAM, LB, and GK.
It’s the Gold Cup.
In the 2013 Gold Cup Wondo hit 3 vs Cuba and then 2 vs Belize.
In the World Cup camp prior to going to Brazil he was “on fire” according to Landon himself.
We all saw how that turned out in Brazil.
It’s not likely that Jesus and Brandon are “coming” for Flo and Pepi’s jobs.
It’s early and of course, anything is possible and both have done well but they will only play if Flo and Pepi implode.
Or more likely, if Flo or Pepi get hurt
Flo is a different player from Pepi but both are quite a ways fundamentally better than Brandon and Jesus.
Plus we have yet to hear from Josh, Pefok and Haji.
They are unfashionable at the moment but hey I saw people talking about bringing back the Wood man. Who’s next? Andrew Wooten? Terrence Boyd? .
It’s all good.
Hmmm….. well we will just see how the next three years shape out. Quality depth is good and does wonders for pushing players. You better believe Jesus and Vazquez scoring will push the other two.And yes Wright will push all of them too. Sargent and Pefok have a ways to go IMHO.
I just want the USMNT to win I don’t care if it’s Balogun, Pepi, Ferreira, Vazquez or another striker scoring the goals. I don’t have a specific horse in the race. I enjoy what each player brings to the team. I don’t have an ego as a fan on specific players.
I don’t care who plays either.
But it’s important to remember that none of these guys are anywhere near yet being as reliable scorers as Clint and Landon.
And neither of them were #9’s
None of them have proven a thing at the international level.
I disagree with you about Josh. I see him as just behind Flo and Pepe. HIs problem seems to mostly be between his ears.
Once that switch goes off in his head that then good things will follow.
He finally seems to have won the main man role in a team that actually wants him to score goals first and foremost.
I’ll disagree that Flo and Pepi are fundamentally better than Ferreira. They are physically stronger, but I don’t know that their fundamentals are better. At least Pepi to Ferreira, I honestly haven’t seen Flo play much. Ferreira got dominated by Virgil Van Dyke, ok a lot of EPL strikers have been pocketed by him over the years. Let’s be fair too, trying to hold off a world class CB on passes that were coming from the CBs or Adams dropping deep was going to be difficult for any of our strikers. Ferreira should continue to be an option as the 3rd or 4th CF, he’s not as good as these games have shown but not as bad as the detractors say either. He needs a good move to Europe to continue to improve.
JR,
“I’ll disagree that Flo and Pepi are fundamentally better than Ferreira. They are physically stronger, but I don’t know that their fundamentals are better. “
They are better in my book.
I’m sure if I went to the Gold Cup team practices that all of them, every single one, would be confidently performing all the fundamentals, shooting, trapping, tackling, heading, passing etc.
The way I separate the fundamentally sound players from the ones who are less so is to put them under pressure, like the kind of pressure being covered by VVD puts on you, and then see what happens.
The less fundamentally sound ones suddenly have a less assured skill set.
Balls they are supposed to hold up bounce off them, their passes are not as crisp, their shots have a little less zip on them, their off the ball runs are a little less confident and so on.
I have not seen that much of Flo either. But in the Nations League he moved with great assurance , very confident in his movements . He knows what he needs to do over the course of 90 minutes and sticks with his plan. Defenders tried real hard to give him a real CONCACAF welcome but that did not hold him back..
Pepi, of course, knows what to expect here. This last appearance, that’s the most crisp and assured I’ve seen him look for the USMNT.
We both know where that comes from.
Flo just had a great year in France and is now a hot prospect in Europe.
Pepi had a great year at Groningen good enough so that PSV went and got him.
Some of you all put him down because it’s just Holland. I call it the Jozy syndrome, because Jozy did well there and then moved to the EPL and then embarrassed the USMNT and everyone with an American passport.
Apparently this means all strikers from Holland suck.
This is bullshit.
Lots of strikers come to the EPL from Holland and fail. However strikers from Spain, Brazil Argentina, France, assorted African countries , etc , etc. come to the EPL and fail miserably as well.
But we never hear about them. And no one says the leagues they come from have horseshit defenses.
“Ferreira got dominated by Virgil Van Dyke, ok a lot of EPL strikers have been pocketed by him over the years. Let’s be fair too, trying to hold off a world class CB on passes that were coming from the CBs or Adams dropping deep was going to be difficult for any of our strikers.”
Fair? I don’t want players that we have to make lame excuses for. I want a forward who will tell VVD “ fuck you and watch this” even if VVD squashes them. Life is not fair.
VVD is not what he was( see Liverpool 2022-2023 season) and we need a forward who can at least keep him honest. He can be beaten. Jesus just doesn’t know how to do that. Yet.
“Ferreira should continue to be an option as the 3rd or 4th CF, he’s not as good as these games have shown but not as bad as the detractors say either..”
You are as good as the game says you are. Jesus is an excellent CONCACAF player. The Gold Cup proves that. The Netherlands game proved that at the World cup level , Jesus is anonymous.
If you’re “the 3rd or 4th CF” option for the A team then, barring injury, you’re not playing in meaningful games.
If Jesus is to have a meaningful playing future, he needs to shift to the fake 9 , the #10, winger or wingback. All positions where we don’t know if he can play better than the incumbents. Can he beat out Pulisic, Weah or Gio?
What I see is a guy a lot of you root for because he is an underdog but one who has no real position. A utility player. He’s starting to look a lot like Brenden. The only thing I have against him is he needs to get better. I’ve thought that since I saw him play in the attempt to qualify for the Olympics.
Is that harsh? Absolutely.
But the whole idea of a USMNT is harsh.
The best players, not the most beloved players.
“He needs a good move to Europe to continue to improve”
Not exactly.
You say he is already fundamentally equal to Flo and Ricardo. So he does not need to improve his skills.
He needs to prove, mostly to himself, that he is their equal and he can do that by going to a team at the same level as those two are going to be playing and play regularly and improve his confidence
Flo and Pepi should wind up at places where they will be facing a good standard of competition. Can Jesus get himself somewhere that is equal or higher? Like where? Replace Gundogan or DeBruyne at Man. City? Those are two guys who remind me of what the best version of Jesus might look like. Pep is much more likely to get that out of him than either Gregg or even BJ would be.
I’m not opposed to Jesus improving and taking a starting job away from any of the A team guys.
I’d just like Jesus’ fans to explain how that’s supposed to happen.
He is performing really well and the US will need that confidence going into the knock out rounds.we need quality depth at every position and right now Ferreira and Vazquez are showing that they could be guys to add to that quality depth. Injuries happen. While it’s clear Balogun and Pepi are 1a and 1b we still need quality behind those two guys in case of injuries. Keep at it young man! He could be leading the line as one of our overage players at the Olympic tournament next summer. He turns 24 in December of 2024 hence he will be an overage player.
Efficiency in front of goal is hugely important in rating forwards. One of the best things about playing teams that are vastly inferior is that forwards get enough scoring opportunities to provide a larger sample size to make that statistic (almost) valid. A comparison between a 40% vs 20% conversion rate is far more meaningful if we are looking at 8 out of 20 vs. 4 out of 20 as opposed to 2 out of 5 vs 1 out of 5. Obviously it is more complicated than my example but sample size does matter in any statistical metric.