Nice finish from Jozy. Everyone else looked pedestrian. Even Pulisic. Unless he was told to take it easy. Mihalovic should have been pulled at the hour mark.
We won a competitive game that Djorjie, Omar, and Lovitz played 90 minutes in. We finished the group with 9 points in 3 matches, while outscoring our opponents 11-0 and looking like the far better team in all 3. We also look like a team that should get the final with little trouble Maybe the tuneup friendlies lowered expectations too much, but I'm more than satisfied so far. The depth on this team isn't great though
That was uninspiring. I guess good to see us with a shutout and 3 wins. But it’s not like those were good teams. Still optimistic about our first team and our fluidity against T&T.
AFN finally aired a USMNT match without delay, so all I had to do was wake up at 5:30 a.m. to watch it. Should have kept sleeping. But good to get the win, the group shutout, and beat Mexico’s GD. On the other hand, I can’t help but think the U-20s would have carved this Panama side up.
I'm happy with our defense. It looked like Panama would score like 1 goal in 10 hours. Our attack tonight was disjointed, imprecise. Mihailovic's set pieces were pathetic. I thought it was interesting that Miazga, the better technical player, was on the right, while Gonzo was on the left. I don't know what it means, but I would have expected the reverse. Lewis...I don't get it.
The team won and kept Panama under control, which is good. But I don't think a single player in the starting XI tonight will start on Sunday. Yeah, I expect that Zardes will have retained his starting spot for at least one more match.
We won! Stock up, stock down doesn't work for this because so many players were already at their buy low point. Instead, I'm looking at the XI and judging them as "do I want to see this player again in this tournament?" Yes: Morris, Altidore, Miazga, Cannon Only against Curacao as a late sub: Lewis No, but only because he's the #2 GK: Johnson No: Roldan, Trapp, Mihailovic, Gonzalez, Lovitz The central midfield was ********ing abysmal in this game. Obviously there's going to be a huge drop-off from Pulisic-McKennie-Bradley, but man, that was stark. Mihailovic is young and has room to improve, but absolutely needs a sports psychologist and a personal trainer. Roldan (24) and Trapp (26) aren't good enough to play at this level, and shouldn't be considered until they improve, preferably by moving to more challenging club situations. Gonzalez was as bad as a CB can be in a clean sheet. Lovitz was as bad as a LB can be in a clean sheet. They were both terrible on the ball, and if the idea with this team is to build from the back, neither of them have the quality to do it now or in the future. This tournament should be the last time either receive a call-up. On to Curacao.
If that were to be true our confederation is the worst on the planet and little can be taken from this. We fail to complete the simplest of touches and the simplest of passes.
I wonder how these guys were able to play professional soccer. Or did they show up at the UMSNT and suddenly become amateurs?
Yeah I don't expect Jonathan Lewis and Djordjie to be our starting wingers in The World Cup Final, but a bad XI was still good enough to beat one of the better teams in CONCACAF (even though they rested some players too). I'm not worried about The US being a World Cup contender right now, I'm worried about the US being good enough to compete in CONCACAF, and so far we've done well enough
Donovan literally just contradicted himself saying that they should have done more because this Panama team was poor. Minutes later he mentioned that they seem to have done okay because Panama is the better team out of the group.
When and why did our standards got so low? While we have better young talents than we ever had in the past?
Final ball into the box was consistently lacking and there were still some mindless giveaways in the center, but it wasn't that bad. Panama's scoring chances were minimal. And it was an entirely new starting eleven against the strongest competition in the group, so that gives me more leeway for appreciation. Overall it's three wins and I believe they said a record U.S. goal differential for a Gold Cup group. Doesn't prove much yet, but still I do like seeing the team grab a non-dubious first again, no matter how minor a one.
At least you got the great ads though, right? Pretty sleepy effort. Lewis frustrated me the most. But going through the group stage without giving up a goal is kinda cool. Also, check your PMs.
Zardes scored his goals against 2 suckass teams that tied each other today. Jozy worked a miracle with a joke of a midfield. C’mon man.
Team exceeded my expectations. I expected a minimum of 7 points from group play and we got 9! Roldan just does not belong at this level. He gets bumped off every ball this match. Did he win a single duel? The pass it around. pass it back, slow it down that even the minnows have adopted is putting me to sleep. The match got interesting after we scored and panama decided to try to play.
Well, if the concept was to rest the first team, they succeeded at that. But this was a very disjointed effort that was only a win because Panama insisted on kicking the ball way up in the stands every time they got a shot. But a win is a win and it's nice to know that either Panama or Jamaica will be heading home after the next round of games.