The U.S. men’s national team delivered a lackluster showing at Soldier Field on Saturday night, but was able to use a late equalizer from Brandon Vazquez to earn one point in its Concacaf Gold Cup opener.
Vazquez’s tying goal in the 88th minute helped B.J. Callaghan’s squad tie Jamaica 1-1 in Group A action. Damion Lowe’s first-half header boosted the Reggae Boyz in front, but Matt Turner’s key penalty kick save on Leon Bailey later in the half kept the Americans in the match.
Heimir Hallgrímsson’s squad struck first in the 13th minute with Lowe taking advantage of poor USMNT defending off a set piece. Aaron Long failed to track back and Lowe’s powerful header nestled into the right side of Matt Turner’s net for a 1-0 Jamaica lead.
The Reggae Boyz had a golden chance to double their lead before halftime after Aidan Morris’ high kick caught Kevon Lambert in the chest. However, Matt Turner dove to his left to deny Leon Bailey’s penalty kick to keep the deficit at only one for the Americans.
Long came closest to tying things up for the USMNT before halftime, but skied his header off a corner kick over Andre Blake’s net.
B.J. Callaghan made several changes in the second half to try and spark the USMNT to a comeback. Djordje Mihailovic, Cade Cowell, and Cristian Roldan all came on as second-half substitutes with hopes of turning things around.
Roldan’s one-time effort in the 71st minute was kicked away by Blake before the rebound attempt was deflected out of the box via Roldan’s head.
Vazquez was in the right place at the right spot in the 88th minute, pouncing on a loose ball in the box and handing the USMNT one point from its opening match. Jesus Ferreira’s cross from the right wing was chested down by Dexter Lembikisa, but Vazquez reacted first to score his second international goal.
The USMNT will next face Saint Kitts and Nevis on Wednesday in St. Louis needing a better all-around performance to earn its first victory of this year’s tournament.
[Sorry, “Reply” here hasn’t worked in my browser for a long time …]
>>“Rob Stone continually calling the team “States” is super awkward.”
Yes, thanks for mentioning that.
It’s also embarrassing to keep hearing them refer to the team from Catarrh. And Fox still seems to have little to no sideline reporting.
Why are people comparing the ‘21 GC squad to this squad? Is ‘21 GC the only GC ever played? The ‘19 squad didn’t win it. CP, McKennie, Ream were starters; does that make the ‘19 squad better because those players were in it? This squad is using ‘21 GC tactics? (Huh?) In the ‘19 GC, Long, Miazga were the starting CBs. Ream was the starter @ LB, w/ Cannon @ RB. The starting CBs v Jamaica is exactly the same as 2019?!! There are so many fans, who are Eurocentric, yet these same fans think the US Senior team is used for developing players. “Let’s see the young players on the field to develop them for ‘26!” None of the top 12 countries use the Senior team to develop players. No competitive country takes under developed humans into competitions v grown men. U17s, U20s, U21s & the Olympics are used for this purpose. All GCs are MLS heavy rosters. All the complaining of the MLS players, lets me know, that people never watched a single GC, especially the Utube soccer channels. If they did, they would know that every GC roster since the turn of the millennia has always been a MLS majority. The equivalent is saying you watch the NBA your whole life, yet you don’t know Shaq is 7 feet & 3 hundred pounds. If you watch, then you would know. There’s no MLS conspiracy. There’s no MLS favoritism. Berhalter ball? So people don’t give him credit for NL matches, in which a 4-3-3 was used but he gets credit for the draw v Jamaica?? (Huh?) It’s gotta be one or the other. He gets credit for both or no credit at all. You can’t tell me the EPL is the best league in the world!!! The best!!! When a US RB guards England’s Grealish (100 euro man), 1v1 w/ no help; doesn’t let him score, or assist, then want me to believe that the RB was the worst US player at the WC. If he didn’t let an EPL player, who plays in the BEST league in the world, score at all, he can’t suck. If Grealish didn’t score on the US RB, then Grealish sux, and the EPL isn’t the best league. Pick one, you freaking geniuses!!! People need to get the f out of here with these double sided arguments. Holy Kreis, fans are similar to Ron Burgundy, confident when saying dumb stuff. I’ll suggest it again, watch US matches a 2nd time without the emotion. 1)- It’s better for your mental health 2)- you can have a better convo with the group 3)- you won’t confuse anyone when posting your observations
Damian Lowe who has played MLS, USL, NASL, EPL-Egyptian Premier League, and in Norway was arguably the best player for Jamaica. Scored the goal and was solid in defense all night. If not him it was career MLSer Andre Blake. By the way both are 30 or more and have over 50 caps. Imagine if Jamaica would have played some U20 GK and CB to develop them.
in terms of roster composition, i ran some numbers and the arena and berhalter teams have most of the low “foreign” counts. bradley called 8, 9, and 17 foreign players. klinsi called 12 and 14. arena called 4, 3, 3, 5, 8, 5. berhalter called 5, 4, and 7. their foreign player counts are similar to pre-MLS early 90s foreign player counts on GC rosters, when we were just getting going and at one point were literally paying the bulk of the 94 team to train as a unit here.
particularly when you compare it to the klinsi era numbers — tournaments also played in the summer under a recent era coach — you start to see a choice is being made. that we used to have gold cup teams 1/2 to 2/3 abroad players.
along those lines, the NL team had 20/23 foreign. i am sure the argument would go, “we prioritized that, they already played.” which is fair enough but we still have the right to demand GC guys. given that right GB/callaghan have called 16 foreign players total over 3 tournaments. a choice is still being made.
in terms of age, 4 GC teams had 9 O-30s per squad. 3 of them coincide with the worst cycles we have had — 05, 15, and 17. the other was the ageing 13 team that JK redid right before the world cup, that became the 18 cycle mess. bears noting we won 3 of those tournaments, 5, 13, and 17. 2 of them the world cup team either didn’t qualify or went out group round badly.
i will give GB some credit, his squads have had 4, 2, and 2 O-30s. if you look at reality he used 6 slots during 22 cycle on O-30s, 2 of them were the same person (seanjohn), and those 6 slots netted him 2 final roster O-30s (ream and seanjohn). he cut guzan, bradley, and omar. he then didn’t actually play seanjohn in qatar. thus 1 of the O-30s saw the field in qatar. and as i just explained above, 3 of the 4 highest O-30 counts coincide with 2 of the worst US teams in the qualifying era.
thus, betting on a bunch of O-30s is a bad idea that coincides with poor subsequent world cups; and the recent era of teams under arena and berhalter have seen unusually low amount of foreign based GC players. i think we could call more if we wanted to. callaghan called more than berhalter did. i think we have chosen to make this a more MLS event on purpose and IMO that makes what might be a B team into more like a B/C. it also creates a hole where marginal B team may miss whole summers, not good enough for NL per the coach, but not MLS enough for GC. i also question whether this GC list is even the best foreigners or just the ones this regime likes to call.
if you have a scouting blindspot or deliberately pick MLS it may make GC harder than it has to be. that and i don’t get the offense we put out there the other night, or even a good chunk of that whole roster eg neal. thus as much “blind” as “MLS.”
all GCs are not MLS heavy. see below. klinsi had as many as 17 foreigners and usually double figures. callaghan in comparison is 7 with arena 17 at 6, and berhalter at 4 and 5. there is a skew you are not admitting. some would say, well, we are giving MLS their international chance this way. at which point you’re about admitting that recent domestic born coaches are treating this more as “MLS” than “B.” that then has implications if you are european based B. it also means the unit in general may be weaker as it’s not so much strict “B” as “MLS plus a few.”
i personally thought the 21 team, though defensively stout, was fairly lucky to have any offense and win what it did. i feel like this is intended to be similarly composed but by someone who at least for a “B” team purpose confused reputation with quality, particularly on defense. i think if you pick an “A” team of US players based on rep it might win in spite of you. but i think if you start running miazga neal long sonora out there, etc., different story. i think they have rep following them around. i don’t think they have either ever done anything this level or outright played bad. somehow they had “B” reputations, perhaps helped by the “MLS” skew.
i think you already have january camp as your MLS carveout to show off. don’t get why this couldn’t be more of a true B or experiment tournament. think it would have more of a chance than calling MLS but then trying to make some sort of lucky 1-0 stalemate machine with the misfit parts.
Aaronson possible loan to Fulham. Men in Blazers is the source so not exactly Fabrizio Romano or even Tom Bogart.
FFC was midtable and already has willian and decordova-reid (latter which we saw last night), as well as carlos vinicius, wide. their MF is almost more for defense. he wouldn’t just waltz into the lineup. not an ideal loan destination, particularly considering it would be an upwards loan. he needs like championship or low EPL. he needs to play.
I wonder if some of those guys are leaving. Willian’s deal was for 1 year and I don’t think they’ve done an extension. Daniel James’s loan would have ended. Again it’s MiB getting info from Daily Mail so take it for what it’s worth.
I think it would have been nice to see more guys who played in Euro first divisions but not so involved for NL get a shot to show if they can contribute – guys like palmer brown, wright, pefok, brooks or paredes for example. There is really zero value in roldan or morris still getting looks. There is no way these guys can be of any use in 2026 or even really help us in the present.
well i see someone agrees with me again. we can demand availability for the regional championship. we don’t need to see turner/robinson as good regulars. we already know how good they are. we don’t need to see the old farts or guys who couldn’t make/play in qatar, why would i focus on “cuts?” i want someone who is age appropriate and can beat them out. i also thought that for a team with a mostly “FIFA window” schedule we were overly solicitous of european preseason schedules and picked too many mediocre MLS players. if you have mostly window games why do i care how a european team responds to me calling a player for a window who likely will be called…..mostly for windows?
in other words, to me, this should have been a literal “B” squad from where-ever we want them. EPB, green, etc. i think they got obsessed with an availability-driven separation, with GC being mostly MLS, and it turns out more like C (with hints of B) than B. B/C is a tough group to try and win GC with. A, sure. B, good feeling. B/C, jamaica and others will start to be that good.
also not a miazga, neal, yedlin, long, roldan, etc. fan and they seemed to have the idea they would pull a 2021 with defenders that they have badly overrated. to pull a 2021 they needed the true B team. GB and his crew massively overrate the value of experience in their clunky system.
like i said elsewhere from this roster i think their better chance is load up on technical offense (gressel, ferreira, and djordje) and trick and flick or precision cross their way through the tournament. if they try to do 2021, grind out close games, they will lose because the defense sucks. i don’t see much pure speed to get out and run with this roster. as much as people liked the NL team this was just a dumb, lazy roster that seemed arbitrarily concerned with having more MLS on B. when the rules allow us to demand players we should do it.
The players on the european calendar need a break! They literally get one month a year to rest and recover. You can’t ask these guys, A or B team or whatever to give up their only chance at rest and vacation for Gold Cup. Some exceptions being GK (Turner) that don’t have the miles or players that need either a confidence boost or a stage to get a move. Until they change the timing of the Gold Cup it will remain a MLS roster.
jb: i said “european B.” not the NL team again. i agree they need a rest. as in not more robinson. as in not more turner. not more pulisic, etc. there is a list, celentano, cohen, wright, pefok, rogers, green, EPB, etc. we could also have chased richardson and koleosho, those type of dual nationals. mixed with the actual good ones from this list, eg, gaga, reynolds, djordje, vazquez, gressel. more technical or speed. less hard hat grinder soccer.
i think part of the problem is we are starting to conflate “january camp” with “B.” that is the vibe of this roster. i think there should be more european in a “B” just the same. it’s not anti-MLS bias. i think at certain spots, particularly keeper and back, we have some domestic talent that could be B. but i think for some reason we deliberately skew B as MLS under domestic coaches. this makes it oddly harder for the european B level player to ever get seen. can’t make the first choice team. can’t go to january camp. won’t make GC in very high numbers. by the time neal is making a team i can think of several worthy european CBs, for example.
and that’s setting aside does turner need to play 90% of the summer when we have unsettled situations at backup keeper and rarely spend caps to decide which ones are better. IMO a lot of this is done on paper rather than decided on the field. it’s more politics or analytics than scouting.
IV: Gotcha, and I would rather see Pefok, Green, etc. instead of MLSers in late20s and 30s but my point is that even the Euro B guys need the break right now. This is the only time of the year where they can give their bodies and minds a couple weeks of downtime. We have enough injured players already.
Overall, the biggest problem is the US used 3 or more touches when 2 was all that should have been needed and so seldom played 1-touch that the commentators called out the few as good plays.
Among the starters Zendejas and Ferreira were the only players trying to play quickly, at least occasionally, everyone else just slowed the game down when they had the ball. How many touches does Tolkein need to receive the ball and pass it back to a CB? He held the ball un-pressured so long that any forward pass he attempted had long since had the opportunity disappear. The result was that Jamaica had an easy time defensively; plenty of time to shift and no worries about a quick pass getting behind the defense.
Mihailovic and to a lesser extent Cowell and Roldan did speed the game up; Cowell by aggressive pressing (but he then tried to keep the ball too long); Roldan got the idea of playing quicker, but his skill set makes it hard for him to be productive with that. Still the faster game did seem to ask some questions of Jamaica;s defense.
Dennis,
Tolkein was fine.
+ To the best of my knowledge this team has never played together before.
+ Most of them were not very experienced at this level
+ Jamaica is arguably the best team in this group.
“everyone else just slowed the game down when they had the ball. ”
This is not the Nations League. Those guys were significantly much more familiar with each other and they are also better players.
If you expected the same level of cohesion from the Gold Cup guys that was unrealistic.
When the first thing in your mind is “don’t turn the ball over” it’s difficult to play fast and be fast with your touches when you are not exactly sure where the other guy is going to be.
It slows you down.
I’m pretty sure if we meet Jamaica again in this Cup, it will go much quicker.
Otherwise, last night’s performance was about what I expected.
i liked turner sands ferreira cowell djordje vazquez. sands was a surprise as his previous caps had underwhelmed, but i thought he was better composed. turner helped with the result but this is removing all oxygen from identifying and preparing backups who may be called upon to try and achieve similar results.
jmorris miazga long roldan yedlin were a waste of time and worse at their ages not really even usefully so. the cynicism of calling old veterans is particularly less convincing when we then play to 1-1 ie don’t get the trophy hunting result. i think there is some sort of false “continuity” or “experience” thing people have bought into, “best chance to win.” exception of jmorris few of them have played formative roles in actual winning.
zendejas was anonymous but part of the game is can he do it 2 caps in a row. tolkin was getting beat some and shanking a lot of clears. same thing about 2 games in a row.
sonora and neal i just think their picker is off. starting sonora makes it all the worse. sonora has been a yanks abroad fanboy favorite despite being an AM who doesn’t do much in tough leagues. i don’t see it. neal is an age group player way over his head.
i think we had some better european Bs we could have insisted on to make a better veteran team. or conversely i think this could have been more experimental where we avoid the roldan “re-lesson” and learn things about new people.
i also think the tactics were xeroxed from 2021 but without the same scrappy bunch of defenders. they either needed to work harder to get some european B team types eg EPB or they needed to just sell out on offense more as they did late second half. i don’t think the roster supports winning with the players they started with playing the style they started with. if there is a repeat it won’t be the 1-0 grinding method of 2021. the defense won’t hack it. people want to get cute with offsides traps and stuff. this defense is lucky to hack basic defense.
Team has room for improvement. I do think they will get much better as the tournament continues on. They still have enough quality to make the final.
I was once again very disappointed at the CONCACAF refs for allowing dangerous play to go with only the most minimal of punishment. The careers of athletes are short lived and they should not be forced to play CONCACAF roulette if they desire to represent their countries.
Speaking of CONCACAF roulette, has their been any word on Gio Reyna? I would have thought that somebody would commit a random act of journalism and find out. Even something like “We reached out to Gio, his agent, Dortumnd, and the USSF and none were willing to talk about the matter / they are still awaiting the results of tests / they were all out on vacation / whatever.” How hard is it in the 21st century to contact people to ask a simple question.
I was disappointed by J. Morris, Yedlin, Long, and Miazga. They really didn’t offer up anything more than the youngsters which begs the question of why we should continue to play them. We are stuck with the roster we have so we can’t just completely switch all of them out, but lets give the younger players some time to gel in our upcoming matches against the training cone nations and see how they do in the knockout round.
It is kind of easy to forget how bad that ‘21 team was. Take out Martinique 6-1. We had 5 g and 3 of those were scored by defenders.
you’re finessing the US gave up 1 — as in “a” singular — goal all tournament — against martinique in that blowout. you will win a lot of tournaments that way and it doesn’t matter if the sweeper has to come up and score goals if you hold teams down so bad any goal wins it. you’re making an aesthetic complaint — “oh, the fainting couch, we had “defenders” scoring,” rather than admitting i am right about the importance of defense. that they could mess up their offensive call sheet and just grind games 1-0 over and over.
i think they had that idea here based on the DM overload but the defenders mostly suck. at which point you are in trouble because what we have left to salvage this are 2 AM and some forwards, plus turner.
i would shut down robinson. you do not get the meal ticket hurt to play gold cup.
He’s trying to facilitate a move. That’s why he’s playing. If he doesn’t play teams are going to be reluctant or stingy with their checkbook because they don’t know his health. I don’t think we’ll see Miles play until Sunday and not start until knockouts.
sorry but peak miles-abroad would have been pre-achilles, pre-world cup. he still looks like he’s working past the injury some, like 85% himself. is that the best time to be like, yes, let’s go abroad? get the fitness, mobility, and sharpness back through this fall then leave on a free. i know a summer transfer nets all concerned their percentage. i don’t think it’s showing his best work. and if he gets stuck out there with neal that’s risky. that’s either you look like a god bailing him out or it all falls apart as your partner makes the pair look feckless.
for that matter, given his injury, more than 2 games was silly. as it stands he got dinged game 2. “let’s go for 6!” he has good pre-injury tape. he did what he did at NL, which was solid though not his pre-injury dominance. he’s not broken in a lasting way. this is doubling down when that’s not needed. if you wanna transfer now, do it off that. if you want peak demand, maybe get fit and sharp and “sell” yourself after the fall to europe on a free. “see, old miles is back.”
AMorris’ foul set up the goal and was unnecessary, but he was still a good player in there most of the game
biggest issue imo was the lack of a crisp counter when it was on. I counted more than half a dozen times when the first outlet pass was made, received in space, and then the midfielder played it back anyway, killing the counter and alowing Jamaica to set up in that low block of theirs
the not turning thing is typically a communication issue
Zendejas created some opportunities but I thought his speed of thought and play left his teammates behind. I’d like to see him with the 1st group of player just to see what happens when he’s surrounded by them
Ferriera was fine. the last 5 minutes of the 1st half he was excellent. around 42nd minute, Miazga played him out of the back with a difficult ball in the middle channel in our half, not a good decision by him, and 3 Jamaicans converged to turn Jesus over, and they would have had a quick counter, but Ferreira fought them all off, even turned and played to the opposite side, and we were in.
a couple minutes later, he was in the middle of buildup and played in Morris, whose shot was blocked point blank
if he doesn’t bail out Miazga, it’s probably 2-0 right before half; if Morris scores, it’s 1-1 right before half
those 2 plays alone showed his value. he’s not Ronaldo but he’s still pretty good imo, again last night. there were others who struggled around him tho
BJ should use Ferreira underneath Vasquez.
Also Zendejas isn’t a wide player. Might want to look to use him more centrally or more as RM where his tight in space dribbling can be utilized more.
Maybe go to a 4-4-1-1. With Ferreira under Vasquez.
———Vaz——
Jesus, Roldan
Cade, A.Mo, Sands, Zend
Jones, Neal, Mia, Rey
————Turner——
Oops forgot to take Roldan out of there.
“ Oops forgot to take Roldan out of there.”
How Roldan has ended up on so many rosters over the years.
Doh!!
hey 2tone, Jesus shows some versatility to his game imo, can do things across the field in all phases. maybe not dominant in any of them, idk, but he did make some plays underneath last night in tight spaces so I see your point
“Might want to look to use him more centrally”
It’s getting pretty crowded in there.
Also J Morris made a lot of people upset. US fans booed him like crazy and told him good bye get out the game when he subbed off.
Looked like a pretty good sized crowd and mostly US fans with some Jamaicans mixed in. Looked like one of the bigger pro-US crowds in awhile. On tv it sounded like they turned pretty quick like why did we pay good money for this. Honestly Bailey and Antonio were disappointing for Jamaica too. Bailey’s only flash play was 100 yards from his own goal.
That nutmeg Bailey did had everyone going crazy 😂, he was on C Ronaldo mode.
Striker, that was the best double nutmeg in the history of soccer
That game was fun as heck. Cade Cowell taking people on 1v1 we need more Americans doing that.
cheers man! I did not see you but I didn’t see every minute of the broadcast either
They didn’t out me on TV nor big screen was glad they didnt. I got called Peter Parker a lot and some guys ask to take photo with me.
See. A bunch of you were wrong. If you try a thousand times, a defender will inexplicably play an aimless cross to no one in particular into to the center of the box to an attacker for a goal.
+1
hahaha
Thought Ferreira actually had a good game, he was just surrounded by B teamers that couldn’t get him the ball or finish chances he created for them. Sonora was dreadful, wasted multiple chances, turned the ball over, failed to find Ferreira over and over again. I didn’t think Zend or Morris were much better. The game completely changed when Milhailovic, Vasquez, and yes Roldan came in. Those guys were just so much sharper, moved the ball quicker. Morris and Sands were ok, good technically, pretty smart defensively, but such similar players our attack suffered when we were pushing because neither seemed to have many ideas going forward. I actually thought the defense was ok, considering the fact they were up against a front 4 of EPL players with speed to burn. Really besides the boneheaded set piece disaster, and the needless high boot, Jamaica didn’t have many dangerous moments. Hoping we give some chances to other players against the weaker teams coming next and tweak the tactics, I don’t think the plan and starting 11 we trotted out last night can win this tournament.
This…all valid points. I’d argue that this squad is actually a C team save Turner, Ferreira and Miles. Good Lord Yedlin looks about done. No wheels and just sloppy. Wonder if DeJuan could take his spot as he’s definitely able to cover more ground
Interesting how everybody here is in agreement – BJ needs to swap Jordan Morris and Jesus Ferreira. Morris is an OK striker and a below-average winger nowadays. Ferreira, as I keep insisting, has some genuine quality – he’s right there with Cade Cowell for pace, but he’s vastly more technical, he’s got some snaky moves on the ball, he can run all day long and is a tireless worker for the team…he’s just not a 9 and playing him there exposes his lack of size and physicality; he can get bullied right out of the game. BJ finally put in Vasquez and moved Ferreira out to the wing…and hey, instantly we were able to hold the ball up, and of course it was Jesus Ferreira on the wing who created Vasquez’s chance.
I’d play Ferreira on the left side, though, not the right, and keep Zendejas on the right side. That pinches him in and essentially puts him in the Pulisic role and he’s the best we have with this roster for that spot. (It assuredly isn’t Jordan Morris.) Zendejas had some good ideas early but Ferreira was getting roughed up in the middle and couldn’t connect, and J-Mo was just plain bad.
We were also instantly more dangerous going forwards when Djorde went in. Cardoso was hit-or-miss but mostly miss, and Wow Man were those misses wince-worthy.
James Sands was actually pretty good, IMHO. His time with Rangers obviously helped him. Aidan Morris had a good stretch early, a miserable stretch in the middle, and then seemed to collect himself and finished the game well. He’s obviously very intelligent and technical, and he just as obviously belongs in Europe…though I also did not see a superstar and his 6/8 tweenerhood was glaringly obvious at times.
Roldan was beyond putrid and I hope to never, ever see him in a US uniform again. All he did was repeatedly turn the ball over in incredibly inept fashion, snuff out US attacks almost every time the ball came to him, and that miss…anyhoo, moving on.
Turner was awesome as ever. I’m with IV that the backline – especially the CB’s – are a glaring weak link. Miles Robinson cannot get back soon enough.
Very different team than the one two years ago. If they’re going to win it’s going to have to be in a different way.
we see the same things usually and agree with your takes here
and IV’s re. the CBs generally but thought Neal OK last night with some nice line breaking on point releases to boot
if they are trying the 2021 concept again they are going to grind out 2 meh wins before losing the group tiebreaker to jamaica — who will score some goals — and then the crossover quarter to canada winning group D.
the defensive selections for this tournament were just awful and can’t be fixed. you could swap in jones and reynolds wide and CB will remain a mess. long sucks. miazga sucks. neal sucks. who on earth had the bright idea of rostering a guy just coming off an injury for both summer tournaments.
offense can be fixed. it felt to me like the wings were picked to chase and not score. i didn’t like 2 DM. you put some technical guys out there (gressel, djordje) with ferreira and vazquez and you might have something interesting. if they don’t score some goals we lose the tiebreaker and go out to canada winning group D. and i wouldn’t be depending on this defense to get us through the rounds. load up on offense and try to out-score.
turner
reynolds ? ? jones
sands
zendejas djordje
ferreira vazquez gressel
The path to the final might be easier finishing 2nd. Group D appears the weakest on paper. Canada is without Larin, Buchanan, David, and Davies. Mexico brings just about everyone from NL and might get an interim coach bounce, or lose to Qatar and Haiti.
Honestly if you are going to keep one FB back and build out with 3 why not keep Yedlin back. Tolkin can actually be dynamic and unpredictable. How many of those crosses were just a lack of ideas from Yedlin? You can see there is just such a talent gap between this group and NL. The setup wasn’t dramatically different but the decision making and execution were x10. Cowell stretched the backline a little but was it anywhere close to what Tim Weah does? Ferreira set up 2 good chances but Balo had two better chances in the first 15 minutes. Obviously I think Puli finishes Roldan’s chance (Blake made a good play, he hit hard and on frame). Sonora did some ok things but his speed and weight of his passes was slow. He’d pick the right pass then hit it weakly and let the defense recovery. Gio didn’t have that issue. The bad thing is I’m not sure either TnT or St Kitts is going to help us develop that speed of decision making.
BJ got the lineup wrong. Jamaica is athletic and physical. He selected a lineup of the least athletic players and sprinkled 3 athletic players (J Mo, Yedlin, & Long. Yes, Aaron Long is athletic.) He chose a lineup of short guys, and sprinkled 4 players, 6 foot or better (J Mo, Miazga, Sands, & Long). Jamaica has tall guys coming off the bench to replace the tall guys who started. 2 defensive mid’s inside of a 4-2-3-1? Go back 2 the 4-3-3, pls. Jesus is a MF. J Mo is a CF. Sands is more of a ball playing CB more than a d-mid but A Mo & him are a redundant tandem. We have a bunch of guys, who have trouble with athleticism and physicality. Subbed out a CB, who doesn’t use his left for a CB, who doesn’t use his left foot?! I’m interested in that explanation. Busio & Cowell at LW. J Mo & Vasquez at CF, Zendejas & Sonora at RW. Rotate them. Jesus & Djordje should be the starting LM & RM with Roldan backing up the RM, w/ Sonora dubbing as your backup LM. Sands at the 6, w/ A Mo as his backup. Fullbacks are fine. Rotate them. If you’re going to use Long, put him on the right so he can send passes with his strong foot. Miazga & a healthy Miles will be the starting CB’s. With Neal & Long as backups. If BJ uses players in these spots, we’ll be fine and balanced. If he doesn’t then we’ll see more of what we saw tonight.
Draw was a fair result. US much more dangerous when Cowell came on. Neal has to start from here on out. Ferreira should drop beneath Vasquez.
Frankly, I was expecting a draw, as this US group really hasn’t had a chance to jell, and Jamaica is the toughest group opponent They should get positive results in the next two games. The key benefit to this tournament is really trying out new talent, and showcasing talent for transfers. The youngsters and new players did Ok. Aiden Morris and John Tolkien were steady and showed they belonged. Cowell was also Ok as a 2nd half sub.
As a Crew fan Aidan is my guy, but he was horrible the first 30 minutes. Thought he was fine the second half, but gave up the free kick and the penalty.
Yes. Two unnecessary fouls.
Is Morris used to playing with another 6 like Sands?
V: Nagbe would be pretty different from Sands I’d say. Wilfred Nancy’s style is pretty different too I guess. Columbus just keeps the ball in their half and when they lose it they just go get it back. I thought Aidan started off doing what he does with The Crew, Nancy has gotten him always receiving on the turn and looking to progress the ball. I thought that went away as the game went on. I don’t know if it was just getting risk adverse because of his defensive mistakes or it was just in response to the lack of movement from the attacking players.
Both Stu Holden and this article want to blame Miazga for the goal, but the problem was much worse. In addition to Lowe, the goal scorer, I saw about 3 other Jamaican players who were unmarked. Defending on that play was shambolic. The foul that led to the free kick was an unforced error, too. On offense I saw an old US bugaboo. Ball movement was much too slow much too often. The US was lucky to get the point and it was because of US poor pla more than good play by Jamaica.
Yea it looked like he saw unmarked guys and he was trying to get around to the front of his mark
miazga keeps them on but long is barely even chasing his man and to me that’s the bigger failure. i personally would rather they play solid defense than an offsides trap.
if you’re going to be slow and predictable just stick vazquez out there so we have a hope of finishing the crosses even if they see them coming.
i thought it was a selection issue. he played 2 lumbering DMs and the iffy sonora. it got more lively with cowell and djordje in and vazquez to poach. i don’t get a technical system with lumbering players. i don’t get crossing without a target forward. and that’s nowhere near a B team backline.
i see the offense as more fixable than the defense. to me if you put gressel, cowell, djordje, and ferreira out there that’s functional and dynamic. but you can’t fix the stupidity of rostering robinson twice plus neal behind 2 guys whose CB chances (long and miazga) should have already passed.
Agree with using Vasquez sooner, It was pretty obvious that the attacking strategy was to hit crosses into the box. However we had no one to win those crosses and put them on target. (The only headed attempts came from set pieces when our taller backs were in the box.)
That said Yedlin was never a pinpoint crosser of the ball so when the attack is outnumbered 5 to 1 few of the crosses will randomly find an attacker.
dennis: that’s why i am saying play gressel and djordje with vazquez. if you are going to cross all night then put on our version of brad davis and brian ching, or cobi/earnie and mcbride. precision crosser, target striker.
even playing ferreira as false 9 only makes sense with him more connected with technical players to combine with. i just didn’t get the more sloppy morris and zendejas around ferreira, with sonora as their 10. this is where i push back on the “meritocracy” crap, because the dudes have to have complimentary games like they can play together. morris and zendejas should be on like a track team with some fast striker playing vertical soccer and we go for chance quantity over quality. but we could barely get behind jamaica and were content to play half court. ok, either technical players or crosser/target.
They were trying to hold a line. Miazga kept all of them on sides. Why you are trying to play an offsides trap on a frre kick like that is worthy of debat but Long was clearly holding his line.
there are choices to make here. i can drop deeper and face them up. or i can play a high line and go for offsides. did it work? to me if your concept is grind out the results with a defensive approach then playing offsides trap is a gimmick that risks/undermines the concept.
Everyone but Matt played the offside trap. I t was obvious he chased when he shouldn’t have. Complete lack of discipline which has defined his entire career.
I could care less that Nike’s apparel had just States on it, but Rob Stone continually calling the team “States” is super awkward.