More so fixed for Mexico than it is the USA. If USA plays El Salvador or Honduras there's always a lot of opposing fans for those sides in the stadium. Also the Final is here in Chicago. That is going to be at least 80% Mexicanos in the crowd yelling and screaming and throwing beer after every goal.
Very dissapointing from Jamaica. Leon Bailey has been horrible in his 2 matches so far. Welcome to the international game.
Kinda messed up how El Salvador gets to play them on neutral ground yet you guys play them at home. I think its a terrible idea. You either are host or you are not host. I dont like this in between nonsense. Anyways I think Honduras should beat El Salvador and advance.
Lolololol I've been telling fools since the draw that Honduras were in danger...didn't expect Curaçao to finish them off, though
The Curaçao GK was on fire. His name is Room and the announcers always pronounced it as "room" like a bedroom. But in Dutch the name is pronounced "Rome" as in the city. It kills me how well before a game kicks off announcers will check the pronunciations of long scary-looking names like "McWojokowskisteinbergentrop". But they never bother to learn how to pronounce short, easy-looking names which can be just as difficult. BTW, "Room" is the Dutch word for cream. And everybody knows that cream always rises to the top!
For me personally, this is D day. I want to see a team that has drive. A team playing with confidence. A team that has energy. It has been over two years since the US have played with that drive that sold me on their potential for becoming a major player in the world. They have more talent and experience than any other team in our history. They just need to believe in themselves and fight. Go USA!
I hope to see that. What I expect to see is a close match since T&T is fighting for their lives. I just hope we win and stay healthy. Something like 2-0 seems most likely.
I appreciate Zardes for what he provided during the Copa Centenario but right now he is rather frustrating to watch for sure.
Wow Curacao ! You just have to feel happy for them. This has been a team on the rise, and its great for them to get a first gold cup win. I wonder if they will continue to attract dutch talent and make this a very strong team within concacaf. I can see that happening, kind of like Algeria and Morocco with their French players. Its good for concacaf that they now have Curacao and to a lesser extent Bermuda to add competativeness to their confederation. I suspect with the expanded format and the nations league that we will see improvements in some of the other nations. On the other hand it is sad that such a large population nation (relative to the Carribean) like Cuba doesn't seem to have improved one bit for 20 years. I have a soft spot for the country, and I dont understand why they cannot improve. Is it just that soccer isn't popular and the athletes focus on baseball and boxing. That has to be the case because if not its kind of mind boggling.
Much of it has to do with politics. Communism simply does not allow for them to export players to good leagues. And they rely on local state funded managers for the most part with no clue and no ideas of how to compete with teams outside of the Caribbean. Factor in some of your best players defecting to the USA every couple years and you have yourself major issues trying to compete for Gold Cups.
I need to see the stats for that game last night. PSV's Eloy Room put the team on his back with an enormous amount of timeless saves, on top of the post being hit on two-three separate occasions. Their efficiency was the difference. Honduran strikers probably have the WORST gol conversion rate at this tournament.
Gone are the days of Pavon, Tyson, Costly. Honduras plays nice futbol for the most part. Just don't have any clinical strikers to make teams pay.
33 (9) 23 (5) 46 (8) 36 (7) 32 (3) Those are the Appearances and goals scored for each attacker on the Honduran roster at this Gold Cup... That's incredibly poor.
Thanks - that's insightful, and backs up what I think the impressions most of us had were. To me Lozano was especially/noticeably dreadful vs Curacao. Not even close on some attempts and some mind-boggling decisions when he had choices. Thus far, we have one big upset with the perceived worst/"extra" team in a group (Curacao) beating the highest seed (Honduras), and really only 1 game that could be described as out of hand - Mexico/Cuba. On top of that Bermuda has looked very good at times. Some of the games may not have been the most entertaining; but, I think the expansion to 16 teams has to be evaluated as successful right now.