The U.S. men’s national team will take its perfect CONCACAF Gold Cup record this summer into the tournament final.
Diego Luna’s pair of first half goals propelled Mauricio Pochettino’s squad past Guatemala 2-1 in Wednesday’s semifinal showdown. Mexico will oppose the Americans in the Gold Cup Final on Sunday in Houston, Texas.
It was a fast start for the USMNT as Luna scored his second goal of the tournament. Luca De La Torre’s original effort was punched away by Kénderson Navarro but Luna arrived on the spot to slam home the rebound.
Luna added to his productive night in the 15th minute by scoring his second goal of the match. The Real Salt Lake midfielder danced past Jose Pinto’s challenge before ripping a right-footed shot into the bottom-left corner.
It marked Luna’s first international brace of his career.
Matt Freese was forced to three first-half saves, with the best coming against former USMNT attacker Rubio Rubin in the 34th minute. Rubin, who also had a goal waived off due to offsides, earned seven caps with the USMNT before switching his international allegiance.
Jose Morales and Oscar Santis were also denied by the NYCFC goalkeeper as Freese kept the USMNT’s two-goal lead intact.
Patrick Agyemang’s header was punched over the crossbar by Navarro in the 61st minute, continuing after frustrating night for the Charlotte FC forward.
18-year-old Olger Escobar pulled one goal back for Guatemala in the 80th minute, cutting onto his right foot and beating Freese to the bottom-right corner.
However, that would be the closest that Luis Fernando Tena’s squad got to a comeback as the USMNT hung on to claim their fifth-straight victory in the tournament.
Sunday will mark the USMNT’s first Gold Cup Final appearance since 2021.
The only thing any fan of the USMNT should expect going into a CONCACAF game is that they play hard and score more than the other team. All other criteria is folly. This in our home region. It sucks. It’s nearly a different sport. It’s where the USMNT plays the majority of games.
Here’s a crazy idea:
There needs to be two rosters. The heart and soul, run through walls roster that plays in CONCACAF competitions and the polished Eurosnobs that plays the world’s game. Maybe there’s some overlap…maybe there isn’t.
Maybe there’s different coaches in charge of handling these two types of competitions as well.
We as a fanbase cannot continue to judge these CONCACAF games with the same regard as games like Turkeye and Switzerland or even the upcoming games versus the Asian teams. They require completely different mentalities and skillsets from both player and coaches. They need to with the fans as well.
This team was never going to be able to compete with the latter however it has has shown itself to be uniquely able to match what CONCACAF requires – which the Euro guys have shown they have forgotten or become too cool to lower themselves to what is required and the results have suffered.
If a coming camp is based around a Nations League – bring this team. If it’s not bring the Euro guys. As my 7th grade English teacher repeatedly said “Know your audience”.
MotO,
“Here’s a crazy idea:
There needs to be two rosters. The heart and soul, run through walls roster that plays in CONCACAF competitions and the polished Eurosnobs that plays the world’s game. Maybe there’s some overlap…maybe there isn’t.”
Not to steal your thunder but Sunil and the USSF beat you to it.
Back in the stone age the basic philosophy was that USMNT players did not play in two tournaments over the summer. They had this primitive idea that professionals should not play 24/7/365, without a break.
Back in 2009 the Confederations Cup was deemed the most important tournament:
+ it was in South Africa and would be played in many of the venues where WC matches would be held the following year.
+ There was a chance you might meet a team that you would play in the WC.
In other words a perfect dress rehearsal. And while it was not quite at the level of the Euros or Copa America, the Confederations Cup was a bigger deal than your regional championship ( Gold Cup) because the participants were teams that had won their regional championships.
Anyone who tells you that the Gold Cup was always sacred should note that we had to win the 2007 Gold Cup to get in which is why we sent our A team to the Gold Cup and our B team to the 2007 Copa America. That’s right we sent our B guys to Copa fucking America. We got grouped, went 0-3 , scored 2 goals , gave up 8.
When 2009 finally came around, we sent our A Team to the Confederations Cup and our B team to the Gold Cup.
The GC final lineup I pasted in below was blasted 5-0 at Giants stadium by El Tri. That’s how sacred the Gold Cup is.
Having two different managers makes no sense, mostly because we do not have enough good players to field two decent international sides.
If we were Brazil or Argentina that would be different. They have so many good players in their domestic leagues that the idea of fielding two distinct national teams makes some sense.
I have long said and still say that we have more and better talent than any other CONCACAF team but based on what I am seeing now, a lot of them are improving. I never said beating them at any time was ever easy and looks like it is going to get harder. The silver lining is then that in the coming years CONCACAF games should be getting harder and harder to win meaning the USMNT won’t have to worry about fielding a domestic and a European side.
They are going to need the A team year-round.
July 26 / 2009 GOLD CUP FINAL
GK 1 TROY PERKINS
RB 4 CHAD MARSHALL
CB 3 CLARENCE GOODSON
CB 16 JAY HEAPS 24′ 88′
LB 2 HEATH PEARCE
DM 8 LOGAN PAUSE 27′ 65′
RM 5 KYLE BECKERMAN 81′
CM 7 ROBBIE ROGERS
LM 10 STUART HOLDEN
AM 22 DAVY ARNAUD 64′
CF 11 BRIAN CHING (C)
SUBSTITUTES
FW 17 KENNY COOPER 64′ 90′
FW 20 SANTINO QUARANTA 65′
FW 15 SAM CRONIN 81′
MANAGER
BOB BRADLEY
**************************************************************************************
June 28 / 2009 CONFEDERATIONS CUP FINAL
GK 1 TIM HOWARD
RB 21 JONATHAN SPECTOR
CB 5 OGUCHI ONYEWU
CB 15 JAY DEMERIT
LB 3 CARLOS BOCANEGRA (C)
19′
CM 13 RICARDO CLARK
88′
CM 22 BENNY FEILHABER
75′
RW 8 CLINT DEMPSEY
LW 10 LANDON DONOVAN
SS 17 JOZY ALTIDORE
75′
CF 9 CHARLIE DAVIES
SUBSTITUTIONS:
DF 2 JONATHAN BORNSTEIN
75′
MF 16 SACHA KLJESTAN
75′
FW 4 CONOR CASEY
88′
MANAGER:
BOB BRADLEY
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
JUNE 26 2010 / 2010 WORLD CUP VS GHANA
GOALKEEPER
1 TIM HOWARD
DEFENDER
3 CARLOS BOCANEGRA Captain
6 STEVE CHERUNDOLO
12 JONATHAN BORNSTEIN
15 JAY DEMERIT
MIDFIELD
4 MICHAEL BRADLEY
8 CLINT DEMPSEY
10 LANDON DONOVAN
13 RICARDO CLARK
19 MAURICE EDU 30′
ATTACK
17 JOZY ALTIDORE
9 HERCULEZ GOMEZ 90′
20 ROBBIE FINDLEY
22 BENNY FEILHABER HT
SUBSTITUTES
18 BRAD GUZAN
23 MARCUS HAHNEMANN
2 JONATHAN SPECTOR
5 OGUCHI ONYEWU
21 CLARENCE GOODSON
7 DAMARCUS BEASLEY
11 STUART HOLDEN
16 JOSÉ TORRES
19 MAURICE EDU 30′
22 BENNY FEILHABER HT
9 HERCULEZ GOMEZ 90′
14 EDSON BUDDLE
MANAGER
BOB BRADLEY
Vac, you prob disagree with me but I think they made the right call when they sent the B team to the Copa because Confed Cup was more important (obviously that is amatter of opinion but I think they got it right).
Tele,
I agree with you 100%.
They absolutely had to win the 2007 Gold Cup and get that ticket to the Confederations Cup. I’m still mad at Bob for losing the Confederations Cup final when we had a 2-0 lead on Brazil at the half. That final saw Clint Dempsey in tears afterwards, he was as upset over it as I was. It remains the only final in a major FIFA tournament above the level of our regionals that the USMNT has ever been in. In spite of the 2002 WC, I consider it to have been the best tournament performance of any USMNT ever. And the Spain game was Bob’s masterpiece.
Ottmar Hitzfeld, managing Switzerland at the 2010 World Cup when they beat Spain 1-0 , praised Bob saying they just copied Bob’s game plan. They were the only team to beat champions Spain in that WC.
Thing about Copa America was even then it was rightfully considered the more prestigious tournament than the Gold Cup. The fact that the USSF did what they did was more important to do what you could to prepare for the 2010 World Cup which, until or if we commit to Copa America on a regular basis, remains the one and only tournament for the USMNT that is worth a fuck.
It is the reason the USMNT is on a 4 year cycle unlike the big boys that are on a 2 year cycle.
Actually, the USSF got some good out of that Copa America. Some very useful players emerged from the squad we sent there:
DF Marvell Wynne
DF Jay DeMerit
DF Bobby Boswell
MF Benny Feilhaber
DF Heath Pearce
DF Danny Califf
FW Herculez Gomez
FW Eddie Johnson
FW Charlie Davies
FW Eddie Gaven
DF Jimmy Conrad
DF Jonathan Bornstein
MF Ben Olsen
DF Drew Moor
MF Sacha Kljestan
MF Kyle Beckerman
GK Kasey Keller (c)
MF Ricardo Clark
FW Taylor Twellman
MF Justin Mapp
GK Brad Guzan
MF Lee Nguyen
Vac, I like Nations League. They are during FIFA windows so all players available so each team gets to field its best players. I even like Gold Cup but understand the limitations due to the timing.
Tele,
“Vac, I like Nations League.”
As far as I’m concerned it is the de facto replacement for the Gold Cup. It is at the tail end of the Euro seasons but at least our euro players are still in “game shape” which is much better than the GC in terms of injury prevention.
This has been a great Gold Cup but that’s largely because everyone is taking it very seriously because of its importance as World Cup or World Cup qualifier prep for most of CONCACAF. I have not heard much lately but a while ago there was talk that the Gold Cup is on it’s way out.
FIFA seem bound and determined to make a success out of the CWC. I would think that is bad news for the Gold Cup’s survival but we will see.
Vac, I get where you went with my comment. However, there’s a difference. In all those occasions – like this current one – these were changes were made due to schedule congestion or in the rare case it was because the Gold Cup didn’t matter because there was no Confed Cup hanging on it. I’m saying ALWAYS have a CONCACAF pool that is there ONLY for CONCACAF opponents. Don’t ever have the Euro group play in CONCACAF.
US Soccer have done it by necessity but not by choice 99% of the time. Make it policy. Even when the A team is available the CONCACAF specialist will be called.
MotO
“ALWAYS have a CONCACAF pool that is there ONLY for CONCACAF opponents. Don’t ever have the Euro group play in CONCACAF…………US Soccer have done it by necessity but not by choice 99% of the time. Make it policy. Even when the A team is available the CONCACAF specialist will be called.”
You can make that work if you have an excess of players. Brazil for example, could justify exclusively Euro and exclusively Domestic squads.
We do not have that luxury. And we may never.
Also you are cheating people who paying to see the USMNT not USMNT-CONCACAF lite.
It’s like the fans who pay to see Inter Miami and Messi does not play. WTF? They did not pay to see Ben Cremaschi.
Luna and many of the others will eventually move to Europe. Why should I pay to see the next Gold Cup or Nations League?
The way it is now is the way the USMNT has been doing it for a long time and I prefer it because it is organic. Eventually, I see the other CONCACAF nations getting stronger to the point where the disparity will be a lot less.
The current weeping and gnashing of teeth over this “controversy” is an artificial one.
Had Pochettino or any other manager, taken over right after Qatar ended, they would have had a lot more time to evaluate the player pool and address the loser country club mentality that infected the locker room. They would have had all this addressed before and during Copa America and then Nations League and then the Gold Cup.
The hysteria level would have been much reduced.
So the Concacaf team have to do qualifying and then the other team gets to play the World Cup? This seems flawed.
Bait and switch
Can someone explain why poch subbed in tolkin for adams? It definitely made things worse and was finally corrected when zimmerman came in late, but I can’t fathom the reasoning. And the more I try, the less sense it makes.
He said Adams had discomfort in his hamstring after the CR match so they didn’t want push him to far. At that point in 2nd half Guatemala had only generated 0.05 xG in the second half.
they play again on Sunday..and the coach is still evaluating players.
they play again on Sunday..and the coach is still evaluating players.
Tolkein played most of his minutes (nearly all) in the Bundesliga as a left midfielder. I suppose that was the thinking. A mid who also has a history of playing in the back line would theoretically be able to slot in and close out a game against a team that was pretty anemic in attack up to that point.
If you go back and watch the Costa Rica game , Adams did not look good . He seemed quite tired. He was out at Bournemouth for a long time but finally got healthy has been playing a lot for Bournemouth and played Nations League and now Gold Cup. He hasn’t had a break in a while. It seems to be showing.
I imagine they were trying to preserve him for the final.
Can someone explain why poch subbed in tolkin for adams? It definitely made things worse and was finally corrected when zimmerman came in late, but I can’t fathom the reasoning. And the more I try, the less sense it makes.
The USMNT got it done. They are in the Finals…….BUT THEY WERE TERRIBLE after going up 2 goals.
Bad passing
Bad giveaways
Back passing / side passing
Poor defending
No offense
No structure or strategy change
I know Pochettino’s style of play is very very demanding…..not to mention the heat and humidity, but they were absolutely poor AFTER the 2 goals…..yes they showed grit and determination by grinding out a win (which is one component that we really need from our team)…..but against Guatemala? From players trying to be in the conversation for being on the WORLD CUP ROSTER?
Before the goals the US had 70% possession. Shortly after scoring possession dropped to 40% with a barrage of giveaways. Players couldn’t connect with each other or create chances in front of goal, all of a sudden, to save their life.
Thank goodness Luna started cooking EARLY
Lol. Well Honduras comes out the second half and their defense is on a walkabout. Mexico 2-0.
Second goal offside. When Donovan become A Mexico homer?
For me in the final Tolkin starts at LB and move Arfston to RW.
Tillman, Berhalter, Adams in the midfield.
Tolkin was pretty poor in this one. He did nothing in 15+ minutes he was on the field to secure the victory. Max also plays LW not RW for what that’s worth. He’d be cutting into the space that either Seb or Malik were already in and neither of them would really want to take the wide space.
Arfston as a RW???
A position that he has not played at the professional level or the international level, and now all of a sudden he is going to start a Gold Cup final vs Mexico at that position? OMG, your posts never cease to amaze me.
That’s not exactly correct he played as a RW a handful of times under Porter and he came thru San Jose II as a RW and CF. But he’s been a WB the last two years almost always on the left. He did play as a 10 a couple times early in the season, which The Crew play their dual 10s in the channel is where Poch has had Luna and Tillman play. Honestly, as someone who has seen Max play probably 50 times in the last 18 months, he’s better suited for that at the international level. But on the left, he’d be more comfortable.
Noted, with regard to Arfsten playing as a RW and CF with SJ2, but Arsten never played for Porter. Porter was let go at the end of the 2022 season. Arfsten didn’t arrive in Columbus until after being drafted in the 2023 MLS draft.
Honestly, as someone who has watched Arfsten play 15 times this calendar year, in his current iteration, he is not suited for the international level.
Sorry shouldn’t respond at 1:00 am local time. He and Nancy’s first year at Columbus he played RW but didn’t play much that year. Yes, I agree he’s a January camp GC group stage level guy. Not a starting a final vs Mexico guy. But really we should be saying that about 75% of this roster.
One thing I will say about Mexico they lack team speed. Agye could have a field day against these slow Mexico CB’s. Honduras has speed.
It shouldn’t been a slog, but it became one. That’s CONCACAF. Good to see this team slogging out wins. Honduras looking good against Mexico so far.
Tired legs
I think Poch has to get to his bench sooner. Downs should have come in 5-10 minutes sooner.
Still a young team, and they played as such. Great effort overall.
Yet another COCAFAF bruiser. Experience tells us to expect games like this in this region. So..2 weeks ago, after the loss to the Swiss, who would’ve thought we’d be here? Take the W..that is 5 in an row..and move on.
– I’m really starting to like Berhalter’s game. No he’s not a lock starter, but he is still young and learning. A trial by fire in a game and tournament like this, but he looked like he belonged.
– Has McKenzie’s stock dropped? Ream and Richards are just indispensable in the back right now.
– Agyemang is still raw, but just tough to defend. He is only going to improve at Derby next season.
– Tillman and Luna are ready for first team callups.
Donovan kind of admitted it post game. He was asked what he would have done, in alone with the keeper? “Nothing I wasn’t fast enough to get there.” He wastes a lot of chances, but many of those are ones others wouldn’t have gotten too. That being said you can’t head that one right at the keeper. That would have ended the game in the 64th.
@johnny,
Landon is being nice; he would have gotten to it.
DiT: I agree, at least until 2011.
Berhalter really bailed Tolkin out at end of the game. That was a pretty important clearance. Would the US have won in PKs? We’ll never know but Guatemala sure had all of the momentum at the end.
I didn’t think Berhalter had his best match, but you are correct that was a big moment.
I rewatched the first half, Seb was pretty good. His tackle on the sideline and then pass out of a tight space freed Tillman to hit Luna on the second goal. Had some other really nice plays in that half. He’s also really good at Concacafery!
JR,
It’s way too early but can you imagine the reaction of the Gregg apologists if Seba makes the WC team and Gio does not?
Do you really think any of the teams in the Gold Cup that we have played come close to matching the Swiss? We have beaten a number of minnows. These wins prove nothing. If we beat Mexico, then that will show a little something. US fans are so delusional right now.
Thats Concacaf for you though, and it shouldn’t have to be explained to you especially considering how our “A” team has struggled to beat Jamaica and Trinidad lately. The difference is these players look like they care and are up for the fight every game, unlike our guys who decided to sit this one out
Gary Page,
No, none of the teams we have beaten in this Gold Cup are anywhere near the level of the Swiss team. The same goes for Mexico. So you are correct, relative to round of 16 teams in a World Cup, none of these wins prove anything.
That said, Pochettino is trying to raise the level of competition for each roster spot with the USMNT, which is a very good thing, and he is doing it while wining, which is also a very good thing. He is giving everyone a legit change to earn their spot, regardless of where they play their club ball, and some of these guys have earned a chance to be invited into the next USMNT camp with all of the more well-known players.
You are also correct in that UMSNT fans are delusional with expectations of greatness from the current pool of USMNT players ( the pool as a whole, not just this roster of Gold Cup players), but there are some good signs here that the USMNT can build off of.
Some of the good –
Pochettino is adding in some nice tactical wrinkles and making minor adjustments not just for each game, but in game, as well. That is very good.
This group has grown and become better as this Gold Cup has gone on. They are far from a great soccer team, but they have made noticeable progress.
They are winning, albeit against “minnows,” but this USMNT is at best, a B team, so for this group, winning is still important, regardless of the level of the opponent.
This tournament has also shown some opportunities for improvement.
Some of the bad –
This group has not learned to kill off a game when they have the opportunity to do so. Unfortunately, this has been a challenge the whole tournament and it was no different tonight. They need to learn kill the game off when they are up a goal, or two, and have momentum.
Some of these players are not up to snuff and it is clear in their respective performances.
Pochettino’s substitution patterns, or lack thereof, illustrate the last point Last game, he made subs late in the game, but the team had a full week off in between games, so his starters were rested. With the exception of Brenden Aaronson, the fact that he did not make another sub until the 77th minute, is a clear indication that he recognizes most of the players on the bench are not up to snuff.
We were fortunate to get the win vs Costa Rica, but at the highest levels, the difference between winning and losing is razor thin, so it will be interesting to see what this group can achieve this coming Sunday in the final.
To amplify my thoughts, I am looking toward the World Cup since this is the last real competitive matches until then. Winning the Gold Cup is something we should do. We have to be looking at the World Cup level of competition and rating our performances against that, not against CONCACAF. One thing we should do, when facing an inferior opponent, don’t stop attacking. I loved the game against T&T and that should have been the standard. By basically stop playing after getting a lead, you let even inferior opponents have a chance to get back in the game. This is a failure of the coaching staff to allow that. We need to develop a killer instinct and I’m disappointed that even our B team hasn’t adopted that outlook. If we accept lesser performances we won’t improve and move up in the football world. Our A team should be good enough to compete with just about any other national team and the B team should be dominating the Gold Cup up to this point. We shouldn’t be accepting of less. When we had less talent, I did not have this attitude, but now we have the talent, so stop accepting what was sufficient in the past.
But Gary this 25 players is not more talented than say 2011 and that team got smoked and Bob fired. I agree the coaching staff didn’t do much to help them tonight and/or what they did do made it worse. However, I don’t think a lot of these guys will be around next June to share these lessons of how not to see out a game anyway. For some reason we went away from our 3-2-4-1 build out. Instead pushing Freeman forward, so it was a 2-3-4-1 but our passing angles were off so we ended up hitting it long. Then we kind of brought Freeman and Arfsten deeper into a 4-3-3 but it was a flat 4-3-3. I’m not even going into what happened when we brought on Zim because it was clearly just ice the puck time at that point.
———————————
Mexico was a stark contrast. Although they were also hanging on at the end they kept pushing their lines up. So instead of just the CF and maybe BA chasing the ball they had their regular mid block which forced Honduras to hit hopeful balls over the top. They got behind a couple times but because El Tri was still set in their lines it was fairly routine clearing out crosses.
Gary, what are you looking for them to prove? Had they beaten Swizerland in the friendly, what would that have proven? Friendlies are exhibitions; there like pre season football games. Winning freindlies doesn’t guarantee good results at a tournament and playing like poop apparently doesn’t guarantee bad results at a tournament so I’m not sure what you think it proves. IMO you prove more by getting good results in tournaments and making the finals of your Confederation tournament no matter how bad you think the teams in the tournament are. 14 other teams didn’t make it. Canada did well in their freindlies but got eliminated in the quarters. Do you put more value on their friendly results than their tournament results?
Gary,
“We have to be looking at the World Cup level of competition and rating our performances against that, not against CONCACAF. ”
How do you propose they do that?
Do you think that is something you turn off and on like the lights?
No matter what you do you are not getting World Cup level competition from anyone at the Gold Cup. No one team there is up to it.
Not now and maybe never.
They are all at the GC there to try to help themselves get to that level.
All you can do is play against who they give you.
Guatemala were well organized, well coached , backed by the entire stadium and were doing their best to kill us and almost did.
Objectively they are not WC level competition but they were still a valuable lesson.
In every World Cup you have a dark horse like that who can upset you . Like Saudi Arabia did last time to Argentina. Like the USMNT did to Portugal in 2002. There are no easy games in a World Cup. Ever. Timmy, Tyler, Walker, Turner, Pochettino himself, have all played in a World Cup. They know.
You can nag them all you wish but the USMNT gave it their best effort all day long.
But “best effort” does not mean “good enough”.
How do I know that?
I don’t buy into the IV/SBI perspective that we are all so much more knowledgeable about how this team should go about their business. Unless they are all a lot stupider than I think they are, every one of them knows that they are underdogs on the bubble, even Diego. Has it occurred to you that Malik could go to Leverkusen and then spend a lot of the season rotting on the bench or hurt? My guess is that every last one of them realizes that this might be their last, best chance to leave the best possible impression with Pochettino. Otherwise, what is the point of being here?
Each one of them knows that there are at least a couple of guys out there just waiting to take their jobs. IV went on and on about the fix being in for Matt Turner to be the #1. I don’t think Matt agrees with IV.
They all know if they have a hard time with the likes of Costa Rica and Guatemala then how hard will the real World Cup be?
+ As a team they are not good enough, not consistent enough YET to reliably play at the so called WC competition level.
+ Individually these players may never be.
Who is the best individual we have? Malik?
It was not that long ago when everyone on SBI would say something like “ It’s Holland, they don’t play defense in the Eredivisie.” But now that it is our faves in Ricardo and Malik scoring those “devalued” Eredivisie goals, suddenly they are not to be questioned? Don’t declare Malik the new Florian Wirz just yet. He looks great but he has a lot to prove.
What no one can deny is that this team has improved since the humiliation of the Turkey and Swiss friendlies.
“One thing we should do, when facing an inferior opponent, don’t stop attacking. I loved the game against T&T and that should have been the standard.”
I said elsewhere that this is the best Gold Cup I’ve seen in a while. I make an exception for TNT. If you use them to set the bar then that bar is underground. The USMNT bullied TNT because they really suck. Target practice
“By basically stop playing after getting a lead, you let even inferior opponents have a chance to get back in the game. This is a failure of the coaching staff to allow that. We need to develop a killer instinct and I’m disappointed that even our B team hasn’t adopted that outlook.”
How do you propose to install that “outlook”, buy it at CVS? I’m sure Patrick would develop that killer instinct if he could just that ball to stop bouncing the wrong way.
Define “stop playing”? Did we leave for a hydration break while Guatemala were still playing?
“ If we accept lesser performances we won’t improve and move up in the football world.“
Who said anyone is “accepting a lesser performance”? There may be some players who will be cut from WC consideration because of this performance. Is that accepting?
People should be happy that a team that was in disarray at the beginning of the Gold Cup got to a final that was reserved for Jesse and El Tri. I don’t see anyone thinking that instead of playing Mexico in the final we could replace them with France or Spain and still beat them.
“Our A team should be good enough to compete with just about any other national team“
Right now? They are not. Maybe by next year.
“the B team should be dominating the Gold Cup up to this point.”
Domination does not necessarily = winning.
I don’t live in the fantasy world. This USMNT are not a tribute band act. The “A” team will play in the final. Name me the dominant team in this Gold Cup? Mexico?
The USMNT are in the final. Other than going ahead and winning it, they can’t do better than that.
There are no style points in Tournament soccer.
Only win or lose.
Only one team is happy at the end.
Nothing proves that more clearly than the use of penalty shootout as a decider.
There is a long list of teams that have totally dominated the other team and yet lost to them in a penalty shootout. The team that was better in the game does not always win the penalty shootout.
Freese can be just so-so in the real game but because he turned into Superman in the shootout now, he’s a hero. How about he be Superman in the first 90 minutes so that maybe we don’t need the penalties in the first place.
“We shouldn’t be accepting of less. When we had less talent, I did not have this attitude, but now we have the talent, so stop accepting what was sufficient in the past.”
Not everyone agrees that we have the talent. And even if we do, you need more than talent. A lot more. And our opposition has gotten better.
National teams are temporary units , an ad hoc committee formed specifically to play in a given tournament. Once that tournament is done the team is done. For the USMNT, there tends to be little useful carry over.
This is the USSF’s fault. If they were going to hire a Gregg replacement they should have done it right after the World Cup. If Pochettino or any new manager, had had the whole cycle, including the Copa America they would not be scrambling around building a whole new team from ground up at the last minute.
Enough with the Agyeman is raw nonsense. He’s not raw, he’s just not that good and he’s too old for his skill to make any dramatic improvement. He’s not at Concacaf level yet let alone full international, and I don’t see him improving enough in the next year to earn a spot. We’re being too nice to him because he’s big and athletic and we know if we have a good striker with his physical profile it will serve the team well. If he was “tough to defend” he’s have more goal scoring opportunities. He’s quite easy to defend. Don’t let him get behind you. Any European international centerback can shut him down.
Luna is a lock now. I hope Tillman makes more strides this year because he’s the closest thing to Dempsey we’ve had since he retired. We need that type of player. I don’t think Berhalter is good enough yet, but we need players with attitude and fire like him. Obviously Richards is the #1 CB and unfortunately Ream is #2. Other than that I don’t think anyone can make claim to a full team spot.
That was pretty tough to watch, but a win is a win.
Well, the guys in the studio are giving all kinds of praise to the US, but this game never should have been close, but it was. They got complacent, got sloppy, lost intensity, let Guatemala control the game and, frankly, I think we were lucky that they didn’t tie it by the end. And Agyemang makes too many mistakes. If somebody like Haji Wright had been in his position I feel certain that the US would have scored at least one more goal. I can’t get excited about beating Guatemala by 2-1 and just hanging on at the end.
I mostly agree, but Jamaica and Canada would take a 2-1 victory over what they got from Guatemala. Survive and advance that’s the name of the game.
Panama too.
You expect little, then you are likely to get little. We should have kept attacking after we had the 2-0 lead instead of slacking off. When it’s 3-0, then you can relax.
Gary,
The USMNT did not get complacent.
They came out and scored two quick goals and kept the pressure on Guatemala. But you can’t keep up that intensity for 90 minutes especially in the heat. In the old days Guatemala could not take advantage of this inevitable drop off and the US would go one to win 3, 4 -0
This is one of the best versions of Guatemala I have seen. They are much fitter and are better coached and organized. And they had the entire stadium behind them.
If this exact same USMNT played this exact same Guatemala team a month from now in a friendly we probably beat them 3-0.
But, in a knockout tournament like this, committed underdogs always have a shot and Guatemala were completely committed. Don’t forget they just knocked off the Gold Cup favorites. It would not have surprised me had Guatemala taken this game to penalties and won it. Their players are not as good as ours but they are good enough to beat us.
This Guatemala team deserves more respect than you are giving them.
If you aren’t excited about this USMNT it might be because you are looking at them and wondering how THIS edition does in the World Cup?
That’s easy. They probably get grouped and if they were lucky enough to get out of the group they get destroyed by whoever they play next.
But this will grow and develop by then. It will almost certainly look quite different. Maybe you do not believe in the work in progress concept for a soccer team. I do.
You remember how this same basic team got humiliated by Turkey/ Swiss not that long ago? I don’t know if they would now beat them but I bet the USMNT would look a lot better than they did.
Remember how Max was not a LB when the Gold Cup began? Well he still isn’t but whatever he is, he’s become quite useful. I think he’s playing the role that Pochettino eventually wanted Jedi to play before he got hurt.
It’s too early to give up on this team.