Whelp I don't watch a ton of MLS so I'm interested in seeing some players I haven't seen much of. Hopefully a few can show themselves to be Gold Cup worthy. I have no delusions about the quality of this game though, Camp cupcake games are generally garbage, and I doubt this will prove to be different. I think we win an ugly 1-0 game, though a scoreless draw wouldn't stun me
I see a very sloppy game, but one with multiple goals. This is Panama's C team, and they will be trying to individually impress their manager. It could be chaotic.
#usmnt starting XI vs. Panama: Steffen; Lovitz, Zimmerman, Long, Lima; Bradley; Ebobisse, Roldan, Mihailovic, Baird; Zardes— Jeff Carlisle (@JeffreyCarlisle) January 27, 2019
Starting XI: Steffen; Lima, Long (c), Zimmerman, Lovitz; Bradley, Roldan; Baird, Mihailovic, Zardes; Ebobisse I'm guessing on the formation, but the most notable item is that Aaron Long will start with the captain's armband.
The #usmnt scratches are Marky Delgado, Mark McKenzie and Keegan Rosenberry.— Jeff Carlisle (@JeffreyCarlisle) January 27, 2019
So are we thinking something like Baird---------------Ebobisse---------------Zardes -----------Roldan---------------Mihailovic--------- ----------------------Bradley-------------------------- Lovitz--------Long-------Zimmerman-------Lima -----------------------Steffen-------------------------
I hate seeing Bradley there, but glad at LEAST he's not the captain. He hasn't played well enough for the NT or his club to be on this squad.
GB with the same ability as Sarachan. Able to pick the worst possible combination of players from a roster of 23.
Lol, Bradley starts, surprise! Enjoy the game all. Will hopefully read something positive here later.
from Carlsile's notation tweet it is a 4-1-4-1: Zardes Ebobisse Roldan Mihailovic Baird Bradley Lovitz Zimmerman Long Lima Steffen Now we know why Sarachan played so many 4-1-4-1s!
They lowered everybody's expectations so we'd accept Bradley back into the fold without complaining too much about it.
My biggest issue with the lineup is it lacks a player who can take on his man and pick out a pass or create his own shot. 3 strikers up high essentially. And AFAIK that's not a strength of our 10 in Mihailovic. I think he's more of maestro type CAM. Needs to be great at finding runners in this one. Of course I didn't want to see Bradley out there, and this is his worse role. He cannot thwart counters by himself or win the ball. Roldan may have to hang back and help a lot. I'd rather someone like Canouse who empowers him to get fw. I've never seen Lovitz play, but he's already 27 so if he was anything I think he'd have gotten a little hype. Would have been more interested in Cannon sort of out of position.
Let him do his thing and learn. I don't mind. Now is a good time to see guys who are marginal. Why Bradley is out there escapes me. Otherwise I don't particularly care and think it's cool to see new guys. Roldan needs the minutes and Mihailovic may as well play now and get his chance so we don't have people crying about him later. Delgado has a CCL game in 3 weeks which is more important (against Panamanian side CAI.....). I'm looking forward to seeing Lima.