It'll be interesting to see how the crowd compares if both teams make the final. The crowds seem to be SLOWLY getting more pro-USA in places like LA. Plus, back in 2007, English coverage of the Gold Cup was buried deep down in the Fox Soccer Channel, whereas it got nonstop wall to wall coverage on Univision. It did seem like a lot of the pro-USA crowd for USA/Panama in 2013 were a lot of Latino fans with newly purchased USA gear.
Good point., 2009 was a while back too.Took my wife to that one. The 5-0 beat down was a real party...
That's been my only USMNT in-person loss. Drove up from Philly for it. That was hardly a great example of fan behavior. Lots of beer thrown on the USA section, but at the same time, the proto-AOs started a "H1-N1" chant which was really really shitty. (*300 Mexicans died from H1-N1 flu that year)
It may be only a half hour into the game, but so far the quality in the Panama-T&T match looks sub-MLS. If we can’t win this group in decent fashion, then something will need to change in the USMNT program immediately after the tournament.
50/50 possession and no shots on goal. Those two have signed a pact of no-aggression. They want us out.
T&T's keeper with a pair of really good saves in sequence, but gives up the goal in the end. Got no help from his defense there - they stood there watching Panama take three open shots on goal. "Oooh, I wonder if he'll save this one."
Didn't see the game. Did Panama look better than they did the last WCQ cycle? They were embarrassingly dire in the WC, not an outcome that makes it seem like they're a team on the way up. And we murdered them right before Couva. Also, now that I look at it, since 2011, in the Gold Cup we've lost to Panama twice (Group stage 2011, 3d place game 2015), beat them twice (semis 2011, final 2013), tied them twice (group stage 2015, group stage 2017). Why the living hell do we draw them so much?
Yep--this is also why there are relatively few Nicaraguan immigrants in the US, compared to Honduran/Salvadoran/Guatemalan.
Much more at stake obviously, but we weren't any worse at T&T than we were vs Jamaica and Venezuela. Do we have the high-end capability to hang a 4-0 on a team like that Panama squad? With the current coach and this GC 23, I don't see it.
Athletes defecting from Cuba is still a thing, despite end of wet-foot, dry-foot: Cuba captain Lopez defects after Mexico drubbing
They looked better than in the World Cup, where they looked basically like we look in Europe-based World Cups. Better than last Hex? Yes, about as good as last GC. But they're not the reason why I think we're not getting past them in a play-off game.
Cuba vs. Martinique in a nearly empty 76,000 seat stadium. That's what the Gold Cup is all about, baby!
Why is it that Mexico is in a group with two lightweights but we have two of the other 2017 hex teams? What's really strange is that this year they went to 16 GC teams instead of 12, so the competition should be more diluted, not less. Four groups, six hex teams: that means only two former hex teams should be in the same group and two teams should be in groups with no other hex teams. I realize the seeding system is not based only on the hex but it seems weird that we got screwed like this. Not really a group of death, since this is Concacaf, but at least a group of severe flu.
Meh the Costa Rican and Jamaican games weren't packed either. The Mexico games and to a lesser extent US games are going to bring in more ticket sales here than anywhere else