He was the first man off the bench when he subbed on for Clint Dempsey in the 61st minute of a World Cup qualifier against Trinidad and Tobago. He was the set piece taker when he came on and put a decent free kick on goal, forcing the keeper into a diving save. He also had a nice ball feeding Yedlin from midfield to the wing. He figures to play a role going forward and looks to be on track for Russia.
He is going to be a solid player for the US for a long time to come. I expect that he will end up being a starter after 2018 (at least for a while).
He was kind of getting killed over on the Nats N&A board which I don't understand. That may be my bias coming out but I just don't get how you focus in on Acosta with all the other problems that were on display tonight.
You can't listen to the guys in that forum. Most of them have unrealistic expectations for each player, or hold hidden (or visible) grudges because their personal favorite are not playing.
I've found it's more like 2-1 in his favor but one guy really hates him to the point I wonder if there's a personal issue or he looks like someone he did him wrong once. The thing over there is they haven't seen every player like the fans of their club teams and are too critical for the games where they integrate. Acosta will keep getting better and more fans will like him. They better get used to FCD players as Hedges in now in the mix and Gonzalez is seemingly switching to the US after Mexico stiffed him. Then there is Hyndman whose already had a few callups, McKennie, Pomykal, Ferreira, Reynolds, Seally ....
Jones has had a great US career which could have been even better had they called him in earlier and / or he wasn't injured for the WC a cycle earlier. He's just aged out. Hoping Acosta can have a career as good as he did while playing a major role for the US for a much longer period.
Im not sure Jones has aged out. We will see, but you never want to close a door on a player, especially one who was arguably the best US player at the last two major tournaments.
Acosta started his first gold cup game yesterday. He looked, as did his teammates, like he didn't want to be out there and contend with physical Panamanian players in the draining heat. He also struggled with the speed of the game and got stripped of the ball in midfield during transition. All in all his first bad outing for the usmnt. Kellyn needs to play with more focus and more intention at that level. There's too much drifting, too many wasted chances, and too many turnovers. He doesn't have time for that right now if he wants to be in that World Cup 23.
I was a bit surprised he a) let them get physical with him when he plays in a physical league and b) seemed drained by the heat when he's from one of the hottest parts of the country. Disappointing but not as bad as Dax was. He tweeted about how unhappy he was wit his performance afterwards and I know he'll bounce back.