2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup - Group Stage USA vs Panama Wednesday, June 26th 9 PM (ET) Children's Mercy Park Kansas City, KS Fox Sports 1 and Univision
If there is a strong difference between who the group winner faces and who the 2nd place team faces, this match could be intense. If the difference is slight, it might be kinda meh.... we'll see.
Well it looks like it'd be for the chance to avoid Jamaica and get (probably) El Salvador who we're no strangers to in the QFs. I'd be more than happy to have Jamaica and Panama beat each other up before playing us.
What's wrong with having to play Jamaica? Isn't our defense rock-solid? I want the MNT to face the stiffest competition throughout this entire tournament. Especially with all of the players that seemed to have been anointed 3G-system starters.
Don’t think it matters much who we play in the QF between JAM and ELS. However, if Curaçao somehow slips into 1 or 2, then I’d want to play them next just because it would be nice to not be playing the same opponents again and again. Seriously- Curacao or ELS in the QF? CONCACAF is such a joke. (And we didn’t even qualify out of it two years ago. Damn).
This is the likeliest scenario but not by a huge margin. Jamaica and El Salvador are both on 4 points, Curacao on 3. Only Honduras is eliminated and the margins so far have been very tight in the group, no game decided by more than one goal. Jamaica plays Curacao and if they win they likely take top spot in the group but Curacao is no joke, definitely one of the up and coming teams in the Caribbean. They beat Honduras last game, and El Salvador beat them only 1-0 so no guaranteed result there. El Salvador v Honduras is even closer, I'd say, even though Honduras is eliminated. Normally Hondo is the stronger team, but they may be on the decline or just having a crappy tournament. That said, I'd like to see us win against Panama regardless of who that means we face in the quarters. The scars of Couva are still fresh, and getting wins against regional opponents has value for the team and the fans and the program beyond any strategic value. We've got some nice momentum coming out of the T&T game, they need to keep it up against Panama and head into the elimination rounds with more confidence and positivity. Topping the group against a team that has historically played us very very tough in this tournament would be a very nice way to do that.
a full turnover is never going to happen in any scenario (here it is, for fun) _______johnson ___miazga___gonzalez cannon___________lovitz ________trapp __roldan___mihailovic morris____________lewis _________jozy but keeping steffen and lima, pair long with miazga, and use subs wisely for mckennie, pulisic and the wings... _______steffen ___miazga___long lima____________lovitz __mckennie___trapp boyd____pulisic__arriola _________jozy looks a pretty solid "rest" team. actually, id give morris the game, hope to sub off mckennie/pulisic/wing.
I'm interested to see how Panama will approach defending the US. Guyana came out with something of a high press; T&T came out in a bunker. Neither really worked obviously, but if I were an opponent, I'd try to press the US, especially when the backline has the ball and is looking to dump it off to Bradley. I thought the US struggled with that against Guyana in the 1st half, but solved it somewhat in the 2nd half of that game. I'm not sure how they'd do against a better team using that game plan.
The Panama approach should be to press Bradley whenever he has the ball. Force him to backpass it and then press the backline to hoof it or cough it up. With GGG, the DLP is the key. If you negate that, the shape crumbles.
Yep agree. They will try to man mark our wingers and press Bradley to get him to cough it up. McKennie will be very important here to help Bradley out of the jam and take the ball forward. Panama is very athletic and physical. Could be an intense match.
Ok. Panama will be tougher. But this is a team we outmatch in most places across the field. I do think they will try to emulate what Guyana did against Mikey in the first half. But with McKennie, Pulisic, Boyd on the field there are many ways of keeping the pressure on Panama, in their end. The less Bradley has to defend, the more he can hang forward in their half, and be the fall back player to resume a new attack, the better off he and the team will be. I predict 4-1 for us.
I’m interested to see if 3G really does rotate here like he said he was planning on doing in the group stages.
I'm not sure both of those guys start against Panama but if they do it will be interesting to see if Bradley even looks for an upfield option while pressed. He seems to only look backwards when pressed while other defensive mids can spin out of presses and have room forward when they maneuver around.
He had a hard time with Guyana on this. TnT decided to let him have time and space, focusing more on Pulisic, and Mikey was able to be more forward in his play. Assuming he starts against Panama, it will be interesting to see how the opposition prioritizes who to focus on.
Throw out the same XI... Bring on Jozy sooner for Gyasi (60th minute). Maybe bring on Lovitz too since Ream has been the weak link on defense. Personally, I’d bring on Cannon and switch Lima to LB, but that’s not going to happen. And for the third sub I guess give Morris another go since he did well last night. Main goal is to continue to build a rhythm throughout the tournament that can be something to build on after the Gold Cup.
I’d press the shit out off Bradley and try to jump the passing lanes while he’s being pressed. I suspect they would get a few turnovers leading to key opportunities out of that.
Jamaica > Panama > Mexico will be a tougher route than El Salvador > Jamaica/Panama > Mexico, but I'd risk it and rotate 4-8 starters. It's a tough call. It would have been an easier decision if Honduras hadn't fumbled its chances away against Curacao.
IF we needed 3 points, I'd probably play the starters, but we only need 1. I'd rotate, though maybe keep the backline the same if Greg plans on using it going forward
Yep. Hopefully Gregg realizes that there’s not much difference between first and second (and our B line up ought to be able to get a result anyway).
General question: do you think it matters whether we finish top of the group or not? I honestly don't see any opponent from Group C providing much challenge.