Pre-match: 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup Quarterfinal: USA vs Curacao - June 30th

Goes without saying.

 

This seems more logical than Miami FC. Good stuff.

 

Well he can go back to Istanbul, not Constantinople.
You can't go back to Constantinople.

 

I must confess, I'm not too excited with this group, half of the player that I was hoping to see isn't here. I wanted to see more of Robinson(not selected), Brooks (injured), Yedlin(injured), Adams(injured), Weah(U20), Sargent(not selected). This group is too much MLS for my liking. I do like the new winger Boyd, he is a keeper.

 

It'll be good for MLS to see an MLS dominated national team beat Mexico in the Gold Cup final. I'm not saying this is gonna happen, just that it would be good for MLS.

 

CUW is the ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code for Curacao. I thought everyone knew that.

 

Let's rack up a big lead going into half time, then play keepaway with 3 subs in the second half. Worst case scenario is the game isn't decided until the end of the game. OK, real worse case scenario is Curacao up 2-0 at halftime and we re-live the Couva nightmare.

 

Curaçao's trump card is their keeper, Eloy Room.

Getting past him is not going to be easy.

 

It's not about MLS vs. Europe even.

We have younger, more talented MLS players coming through, simultaneously with younger and more talented European-based players.

Berhalter went all-in to win the Gold Cup and "restore some of the respect" for the program (I believe he said that in a pre-GC interview, correct me if I'm wrong). He needs to win the Gold Cup, first thing's first.

Then, he needs to integrate those young talents into the team.

 

The more I hear US players and staff saying that they will not underestimate Curacao the more it sounds like they are doing exactly that. But it will not matter because the US, at its worst, is merely bad while Curacao is truly horrible at its best.

If the US cannot win by at least three they should just hang it up because they are playing so poorly that they would have trouble with the B team from "Our Ladies of the Poor."

This is still CONCACAF, the home of the horrible.

 

This false choice is exactly why we suck at integrating young talent and end up with a bunch of old has been's and never were's failing in crucial moments. Choosing better and younger players does not in any way diminish our odds of winning the meaningless games and competitions.

And we vastly overrate experience.

 

Even old New York was once New Amsterdam
Why they changed it I can't say
People just liked it better that way


You suck this song is now officially stuck in my head.

 

I'm hoping for a win, but a loss would be mitigated by our players returning to their clubs, which will have more of an impact on qualifying for 2022 than winning the 2019 Gold Cup.

 

St. Lucia? I'm sure we could beat them easily.

Also, she's the patron saint of the blind, not the poor.

 

I was talking about a fictitious college somewhere in the Midwest. Any resemblance to actual people or places is purely coincidental and should in no way be seen to represent reality.

 

Of course, the US has one of the younger squads in the tournament. Of the 8 quarterfinalists, El Salvador, and Honduras, only Haiti and Canada have younger teams than the U.S. (which I calculate at 25.2 years old).

The problem, of course, is that people are complaining about specific older players in the squad, not the fact that Berhalter picked an experienced or inexperienced team.

 

That tournament that is more than three years away should be all that we care about at this point. I'd lose to CONCACAF minnows this and every single Gold Cup if it means we are using the tournament to prepare for World Cup qualifying in some meaningful way. This is not that important of a competition and it never will be. But I have no faith in the fed's ability to plan that far ahead, or at all, so let's go ahead and win this thing.

 

GB going all out? So, what is going to happen to GB if he doesn't win it? and/or the team looks bad in the finals?

 

Is that mean or average age? It matters.

 

Nothing, of course.

We’ll have a bunch of posters

a) blame the European players, who will then be sent to the USMNT bench if they miss a couple of starts for their club team;

And/or

b) state that we have a shitty player pool today and just wait til next year when we surround Bradley/Trapp with some talented youth who can unlock the potential of the regista position.

 

I think I'd go with Lima for offense v. Curacao then Cannon for defense v. Jamaica.
same logic, Ream v. Curacao, Lovitz v. Jamaica, Bradley v. CUW, Trapp v. Jamaica.

I'd go with Boyd v Curacao, Morris v. Jamaica - this leaves Boyd fresh v. Mexico.

I'd go with Jozy v. CUW and Zardes v. Jamaica where I'd expect more running.

I'd go with Roldan v. CUW, Wes v. Jamaica; Pulisic v. CUW and Mexico and rest him v. Jamaica(poss sub role at 67' or so) altho I don't think I'd play Mihailovic in either case. Then there's Lewis who is useless as a starter

v. CUW

------arriola--------jozy------boyd-
----------------puli--------roldan
---------------------bradley
-----ream-----long------zim----lima
------------------gk steffen

 

Mexico is usually better than us but we beat them at home dos a cero.