leave Dike in. He’s going to overpower a tired defender in the 88th minute and score.I'd like to see Williamson for Busio and Hoppe for Dike.
leave Dike in. He’s going to overpower a tired defender in the 88th minute and score.I'd like to see Williamson for Busio and Hoppe for Dike.
Yuell doesn’t help there no matter how fresh his legs are. Roldan might, but I dunno.More generally, I like the idea of getting fresh legs into midfield given how badly the U.S. has been overrun there.
He wasn't feigning anything. That looked like a pretty solid eye poke.Did Dike hurt his shoulder on the fall feigning a face injury?
Looks like not feigning to me, Lareya got him.Did Dike hurt his shoulder on the fall feigning a face injury?
He wasn't feigning anything. That looked like a pretty solid eye poke.
Didn't see an eye poke, seemed a flail elbow, but again for some reason my YTTV Fox feed looks like it is mid 1990s quality.Looks like not feigning to me, Lareya got him.
He got him with the hand, you can only see from some angles.Didn't see an eye poke, seemed a flail elbow, but again for some reason my YTTV Fox feed looks like it is mid 1990s quality.
Gotcha. Thx. My yttv was shit for some reason today. Moved to other tv for sox game as the yttv issue was only on main tv for some reason.He got him with the hand, you can only see from some angles.
Some of these guys will end up in Europe. Dike had a loan to Barnsley. I’d take him on the Toffees right now.Late start to the Gold Cup means that the knockout rounds overrun preseason and early-season matches for Euros. Berhalter wants to give the "A" guys an offseason and give them preseason with their clubs. There aren't many players who are so secure that they can show up late without concerns about losing their place.
Busio and Vines have both played their last MLS game, at least for a while.Some of these guys will end up in Europe. Dike had a loan to Barnsley. I’d take him on the Toffees right now.
I think the key move was swapping Hoppe in for Zardes.Not a convincing game for Berhalter's in-game tactical adjustments, given the long struggles after the early part of the game.
CONCACAF - where you still beat the minnows but feel like you've been playing in a drive-thru car wash for 90 minutesNice of Mexico to also win unconvincingly to give us perspective, as well.
Qatar?
Money talks, I guess. Or is it really For the Good of the Game?
CONCACAF used to invite teams to the Gold Cup starting in 1996 (Brazil), and continuing through additional tournaments like 1998 (Brazil), 2000 (Colombia, Peru, South Korea), 2002 (Ecuador, South Korea), 2003 (Brazil, Colombia), and 2005 (South Africa, Colombia).
It cheapens the integrity of the regional championship, but I don't mind. The USMNT is starved for quality competitive games, and if inviting Qatar and hopefully bigger & better teams than Qatar to the Gold Cup helps with that, I'm fine with it.
Qatar are already booked for the 2023 Gold Cup as well.
Haven't seen an injury update on Big Zim, so assuming he gets replaced it should be with Trusty or Kessler. I'm guessing CCV, EPB, and Che are all back to Europe, leaving just those 2 as CBs from the provisional roster.9. We have serious issues if Zimmerman can’t go.
. I'm guessing CCV, EPB, and Che are all back to Europe, leaving just those 2 as CBs from the provisional roster.
Che has also been starting at RB with Dallas, and hasn't been getting reps at CB.Che is still at Dallas I believe, but if you’re looking to stabilize a back line for tournament knockouts a 17 year old with fewer than 10 pro starts is not a low risk choice, even with the obvious talent.
This was really well done and I agree with pretty much all of it. The most troubling thing about Berhalter’s continued dabbling with marginal talent possessing zero upside is that the clock is ticking. There are precious few opportunities to work in new candidates for the 6 or 8 before Qatar b/c he keeps giving all the minutes to proven mediocrities Like maybe thats OK when you have 2-3 years left in a cycle, but we’re running out of runway to ease in new candidates in a low consequence environment.Watched the Canada game live but I thought I should watch it again. Some random thoughts:
1. Sands looks really, really good. Maybe our Adams backup? Even if nothing else goes right for the rest of the Gold Cup, it will be a success of sorts if we found our backup 6
2. The real Miles Robinson showed up.
3. The real Gianluca Busio unfortunately did not. I thought he was really poor and didn’t seem to give much effort. I wouldn’t blame Gregg for not playing him much for the rest of the GC, and I do love me some Busio
4. Vines looked about as good as he can at this point. Still not great, but much better. I still hope someone can pass him in the depth chart, but right now he’s probably the backup to Robinson at LB/LWB.
5. Yueill just doesn’t have USMNT quality.He’s better than many MLS players and will have a nice career there. He seems like a decent guy based on interviews I’ve seen and busts his ass every time he’s out there. But that doesn’t mean he is good enough for the USMNT.
6. I’m trying to give Gregg as much of a benefit as I can, but repeating issues have been showing up throughout the summer. There have been several very poor team performances, including games against Switzerland, Haiti, Honduras, and Canada. Individual players will have poor performances no matter what, but when the entire team is playing poorly, that’s on the coach. Roster selection, tactics, formations, starting lineups, substitutions- I have questions about them all. Credit where credit is due, the US has consistently started games well for the first 15 minutes. Beyond that though, it hasn’t been good.
7. Lletget and Acosta just aren’t good fits long term. Lletget had that 70/70 passing game (Haiti??) but I see that as a negative. He plays an advanced role for this team and is supposed to be creating things. He’s playing instead not to make mistakes. 70/70 passing is great for a CB who is playing simple passes. That’s not the 8/10s job. He needs to be taking risks when space is compressed. He just passed it back or square not putting pressure on the D at all. Yes, I know he got the assist against Canada, but what else did he do? Acosta was the same to me with the pass to Lletget to set up the goal, but then he went invisible for the rest of the game. Better than getting beat and giving up a Pk I guess. Now, both players have spot for qualifiers but I hope Gregg is open to phasing them out as other players force the issue, whether it’s later in WCQ or at WC2022. Seeing as though he keeps trotting Yueill out there, I won’t hold my breath.
8. Zardes and Dike together was not good. I’m shocked at how long it took to get Hoppe in there, especially given how good he looked.
9. We have serious issues if Zimmerman can’t go.
10. any reason we didn’t see Williamson?
I agree with the bolded. My issue though is that some players were on both Nations League and Gold Cup rosters. The Nations League should have been 100% European based players for exactly this reason. That way we could maximize the number of players who would get a camp. Now, I know Lucas de la Torre turned down the invite and Caden Clark had an appendectomy. Still, there would have been some overlap of the rosters. Also I am no way defending de la Torre's decision to not play in the Gold Cup. He should have played, and I will not have much of an issue if GGG does not consider him worth a call up during qualifying. That being said, he should have been on the Nations League roster so he could get a camp with the USMNT then be back in Europe for preseason. If there was going to be overlap anyways, how come David Ochoa is left off the GC so we could have two veteran GK backing up Turner? He could've gotten a half against Martinique and been cap tied. Instead he's off making googly eyes with El Tri. This is not a normal qualifying cycle. With three games in a short time period, depth players will not just be subs, they'll likely have to start and play a lot of minutes.This just isn’t the time for that complaint. You can justify a complaint in the last tournament but this Gold Cup roster is clearly prioritizing letting the European players do a normal pre season with their clubs. That’s the right move and cobbling together an MLS based roster with players you can count on makes sense. Unless there’s some huge talent MLS youngster who didnt make this squad it’s not much of a viable complaint
https://sonsofsamhorn.net/index.php?threads/2021-gold-cup-concacaf-af.34015/page-3#post-4508701Why is Qatar in the Concacaf? Aren’t they on the other side of the world?
The answer is nobody, as it turns out. Kessler for Zimmerman is the only swap. Of the banged up players, Berhalter said that Dike is in better shape than Arriola.So we should be seeing the other shoe to drop later today re: who comes off the roster for Cowell.