They do now. In the olden days of like 4 years ago they used to just pick teams for groups (hence how we got USA/Canada in Detroit). Though this is CONCACAF picking venues, not USSF, so they negotiate with the venues and my guess is the Cleveland folks have had a good working relationship with them considering they've gotten a game two tournaments in a row.
I feel like the demon of Couva has been exorcised, and now we can go forward and try to win this thing. Maybe it's all in my head.
It might have really really sucked for him this year, but his role as a human swiss army knife for Schalke was probably a good thing for his game with the US, where sometimes you just gotta carry the damn team from where you are. It took Pulisic a while to wake up today, but Weston was dialed in from the start today. Best game in the US shirt for him so far.
Given how Trinidad looks lately, we may be waiting a long time to excise that.... That, and they don't play there often.
Well, we have some real good football players lads. Hats off to Zardes, who I typically hate, for being at least available for the game.
Yeah, he did play all over the place (forward and right back if I remember correctly). It definitely did pay off, he is both solid playing defensively and can make intelligent and precise passes. He did have a couple errors tonight, but I think he could easily have been contender for MOTM.
If the USA meets T&T in the qualifying state before the Hex (semi-finals of WCQs), then that counts, too.
I hope we play Jamaica then. Skating our way to the GC final wouldn’t be as valuable as facing some real tests along the way.
This is just pure fanboy BS. WM was literally garbage until the final 1/4 hour of the game. The entire section I was in was shaking their heads and throwing up their hands at him and Lima. Some of you just have rose colored glasses for everything that guy does. It’s like an obsession or man crush where he can do no wrong.
I'm happy for the win but I'm keeping my feet in the ground. T&T opened up once they were down by 2. Before that, they were compact and dangerous in the counter. Boyd looks to be legit. I like his overall game. Ariola is playing above his weight class, we just have to see if this is the norm or the exception. I like Reggie Cannon better than Lima, he looks more fluid in the attack. I cringe each time Tim Ream has to defend. Overall a good result.
Clarification here: I mean that it's a flattering scoreline for the Trinidadians. We could've/should've had 8.
I'll echo Landon's post game comments. It's good that the team has some swagger back, and they showed what they should have shown against a CONCACAF minnow. But let's not get carried away, it was just a bad Trinidad.
This was pretty much the best possible outcome of tonight's game: a coherent performance all round, dominant scoring and no goals conceded. We played much better than against Guyana despite the competition being better. And for all the dismissal of the opponent as "only T&T", when have we ever beaten them by this margin in a meaningful game? AFAIK, never. We've hung four on them before, but nothing of this magnitude. And this is the same team that we not only lost to at Couva, but that outplayed us in WCQ semis the year before, when we were lucky to get away with a 0-0 draw. So, be freaking happy. This wasn't 2-0 v Spain in the Confeds Cup but it was a goddamn good result. Pretty much everyone played with real fire and purpose. This was the facet of the game that seemed missing during the friendlies, and even against Guyana (though there they seemed more uptight than not passionate). Puli and McKennie in particular seemed fired up, and if they can keep that mindset I like our chances to beat any team in the tournament. Gotta say Zardes is clearly not the dream forward any of us wants, but I wonder if the reason he's starting is that Jozy is still off his game. I have always been a JA fan but the dude looked ineffectual tonight when he even featured in plays--slow and the one time he got possession in the box he had a touch so bad it made Zardes look like Cruyff. And for all the shit people give him, Zardes works hard, runs fast, and has a knack of getting in the right place at the right time. Against Concacaf opposition, he can get the job done. Three goals in two games--may he keep this up. I was puzzled by the Morris switch for Boyd but I suppose the rationale was we were pulling ahead of T&T and it was important to get some other guys minutes. Seemed at that time tho that Boyd was one of our most effective players, so a weird choice. Nothing negative to say. Hope we can keep this form and confidence as the competition gets better.
Agree. I thought McKennie had his best US performance. All over the place, fighter, killer, runner, ball player. Passed with creativity and vision.
Great result. The game really changed after 2-0. Stefan doesn't seem to be comfortable taking command of the box yet. Hope that improves. Long had a much better game. Ream still worries me. Lima was fine. Bradley can hit a decent long ball and has decent touch, but he's a luxury the US cannot afford against better competition. Mckennie was hot and cold. I like the hot, but he needs to manage himself better -- never going to make it through a whole tournament the way he fouls/complains. Arriola should be totally replaceable. But he plays hard and seems to have some fire. Pulisic had a meh first half but a great second half. I'm confused by zardes. He might be a good coach one day. Or else a good hold 'em player. Boyd was terrific. Morris was solid but was surprised to see Boyd come off. I'm high on cannon. Hope he gets more chances. Jozy has soft feet! But he's rusty. Nice to see the net bulge a few times!!!!
Weird—I wasn’t impressed with him at first but he’s steadily grown in my estimation T&T is 1-1-6 since Sept ‘18 (one of those a loss to Thailand!) so yeah they suck right now—although we’ve given them the biggest whoopin of all.
I would recommend getting your eyes checked and then rewatching. I got upset with him for a few misplaced passes in the first half. But, other than that he was phenomenal. You call me and some others “fanboys” but I’m pretty sure you’re are just being contrarian for the sake of it.
Above avg player, no doubt. But he’s no where near the savior that some on these boards make him out to be.
Well, apparently sections 134 and 133 all need a trip to the optometrist. Again, the ranting/clowning of both him and Lima was consistent all game. WM got a little heat off of him for showing improvement with about 15 mins left.
At least we didn't get the "wow, did you see that 80 yd sprint Wes did to bail out Bradley?" The Lima thing puzzles me a little but I wasn't at the game. If soccer were high school I think his report card would have A's and D's.