Congrats to the US team - really enjoyed that final, Nagbe is coming into his own, and Gyasi did his thing, he is persistent. Morris's bomb was the bomb!!
It was Jordan Morris day, but honestly earlier when he was playing forward? I was marveling at his bad touch receiving entry passes with his back to goal. Is he always like that? His collecting touch was worse than Jack McBean, worse than Gyasi.
Shoutout to the Strong/Holden/Donovan broadcast team. I find them very "listenable". Strong really adds to the excitement of a game, raising his voice perfectly when it's time to pay attention. Holden is solid. Donovan is very insightful, knows the coach perfectly, and the national team experience he brings is unmatched. So much of what he says about how the game should go turn out to be true predictions. I think they are going to be a great team for our team. They are articulate, work well together and don't step on each other.
I hope you follow Dan Loney on Twitter. He made me laugh tonight with how he was rubbing it in about Gyasi.
Soccer is a team game though, it's not like Omar single - handedly won those championships all by himself..
LOL! I was thinking the same thing when I saw Omar dancing on the field and Bruce walking up behind him. I had the thought it would be cool if Bruce walked up to him and whispered into Omar's ear "that's one more trophy for the closet."
I can't remember, did Frankie Hejduk get this much hate when he was playing for the Nats? Because I view Zardes the same as him: not the most skilled player out there (oh, Frankie's stepovers!), first touch/dribbling kind of awkward and hit or miss, but performed like a warrior and played his heart out every time he hit the field and just made things happen. And now Frankie is a legend, so to speak, and is adored. Hoping the same in the end for Gyasi. I love that kid.
I saw Some graph in twitter showing the most productive "creators" in USMNT history, Zardes is 3rd in assists per game behind Landon and Pulisic. It's actually believable, for as much crap Zardes gets from Nats fans, he still seems to produce for the team. Hopefully Zardes got a big confidence boost from the gold cup and he'll play like he actually deserves to be on the field.
Personally, I hated Hejduk's game. Couldn't wait for him to retire. They are different players, obviously. I think Frankie had one of those dominant personalities, and he was always demanding the ball. His play up the right side would be a major feature of the games, to our detriment. Full of heart and a great guy, no doubt, but I did not enjoy watching him play. Graham Zusi has the same tendency to push the play forward, but he's a lot better at it. Gyasi is more of a team cog than a team leader. I think he combines better with everyone. No doubt there are deficits in his skill, and it's easy to pick at every one, which is why he gets abused by the genius tacticians on the US board.
After reading player interviews and watching the team play there is something very evident. I don't know if I didn't pay as much attention to it before or if I just was used to seeing it in LA (maybe just took it for granted and became somewhat desensitized to it), but players really enjoy playing under Arena. He has a calm demeanor, invests in the players (personally, not just professionally), but still demands a lot on the field. It's great to see the US so upbeat and enjoying themselves again on AND OFF the field. Bring on the WC qualifiers! PS - I hope Sigi can bring this to LA since he seems to have a similar pesona. Fingers crossed.
I'd say this is "job done" for the US. Mexico made this a "B" tournament and paid the price, so victory had to be the expectation for the US. With that said, so much of what was wrong under Klinsmann was that the job increasingly didn't get done. The USMNT is not the best team in the world and no platitudes from a self-promoting high-profile German ex-pro, were going to change that. The good thing about Bruce is that he knows who the team are. He gets that Gold Cups and CONCACAF in general is basically a minefield of trap-games for the US and MX, bar the odd up-period for Costa Rica or Honduras. Teams are going to play up to them and there are times when it's about grit and determination, rather than magical philosophies and pretensions that they're just a change in culture and attitude away from playing tiki-taka against European powerhouses. Bruce will do what is needed to get results, even if sometimes it isn't comfortable or easy on the eye.
I don't go there either, but listening to the callers on Jason Davis's show this morning, I hear a guy complaining that now we have a weak coach. Some of this crud bleeds into my twitter feed too