James Sands was one of the few bright spots for the U.S. men’s national team despite the Americans suffering elimination from the Concacaf Gold Cup on Wednesday.
Sands earned SBI Man of the Match honors at Snapdragon Stadium in the USMNT’s 5-4 penalty shootout loss to Panama, a result which ended the Americans’ hopes of repeating as tournament winners. The New York City FC midfielder logged 120 minutes in the heart of B.J. Callaghan’s midfield, capping off a strong individual tournament on home soil.
Sands won six of his seven duels in midfield, while also leading all players with four fouls drawn. He also made four interceptions, completed one tackle, and completed 86% of his passes, helping keep the USMNT together when Panama easily could’ve scored a few goals in regulation.
The 24-year-old started all five of his appearances in the Gold Cup, tying Landon Donovan’s USMNT record by making 10-consecutive starts in the tournament, dating back to 2021. Although Sands’ summer didn’t end with him lifting the Gold Cup trophy, he will head back to NYCFC with a major confidence boost.
In total, Sands made five Gold Cup starts, registered 476 minutes, won 35 of his 48 duels, completed nine of his 17 tackles won, made seven interceptions, drew 14 fouls, and made 42 recoveries.
Sands edged out Jesus Ferreira, Matt Turner, and DeJuan Jones for Man of the Match honors.
What did you think of Sands’ performance tonight and this tournament? Do you see him being in the mix come September camp?
Share your thoughts below.
Take a bow, quozzel. A fair, thorough comment that didn’t (and really shouldn’t) start any drama. My nominee for USMNT post of the year.
Probably improved his stock the most of anyone in the tournament. Was just solid throughout, put out a lot of fires. Six months too old for the Olympics unless they want to use an overage spot for him.
Ferreira’s quality is already well known, but Sands before the GC was a bit under the radar. In my eyes, he was just behind Ferreira for team MVP for the tournament. CDM isn’t glamorous, but he did well as the lone #6 for most of the tournament. Can he compete with Cardoso on the depth chart going forward? Perhaps.
I’d agree, Ferreira did well but kind of did what you expect. I didn’t know Sands could do that as a 6.
I dunno if Ferreira’s quality was “well-known”…before the tournament started, I remember writing something almost exactly along the lines of “Ferreira has some genuine quality” and got a good bit of pushback (not from you) on that. I dunno why sneering at Ferreira is such a thing, but it’s definitely a thing.
Ferreira’s who I thought he was – a borderline elite guy with fantastic skill, will, speed, and especially stamina (my God, that guy can run until the end of time) who suffers from being a second striker on a team that doesn’t use one. We should, watching Canada and now Panama has convinced me thoroughly we belong in a 5-3-2 ourselves. We have crazy speed on the wings, a bunch of 6/8 tweeners (Musah, McKennie, Busio, and probably Tanner Tessmann) who seem made for double-pivot schemes, and several guys who already play pretty much as wingbacks even in a 4-4-3, and we have two guys – Pulisic and Ferreira – who are high-tier natural second strikers.
I also walked away convinced that besides Ferreira, Sands and DuJuan Jones are guys who also probably belong in our best 23, and Djorde Mihailovic and Brian Reynolds are close. (In this hypothetical 5-3-2 Gregg will likely never in a million years play, Djorde and Malik Tillman are vying for the backup 10 spot behind Gio Reyna, and Reynolds would be the third right wingback just behind Tim Weah and Dest.)
Keep in mind Sands isn’t just a really good natural pure 6, he’s also really good as a CB in a three-man backline…which again, lends itself to the notion a 5-3-2 is our natural setup. A 5-3-2 allows you to use Sands as a backup for both a CB and a midfield spot, which creates a free roster spot for you that you can then use on an attacking player.
As for the young guys…Cade Cowell and Jalen Neil are still clear works in progress but flashed elite talent. They need to be fast-tracked to Europe yesterday. Busio showed he’s progressed a bunch and he’s probably exactly where he needs to be at the moment.
Wasn’t crazy about the result…but as a youth coach my whole focus is pretty much on process and development, and we definitely found a pile of guys who can help us. Which was the whole point of bringing this group.
Mission accomplished, I’d say.