USMNT Gold Cup Discussion

Oh, I know, but it's incredibly foolish for the betting markets to have Canada and Panama at so long odds, if El Tri doesn't win, it's most likely Canada or Panama will, they don't want to be sitting on a pile of huge sharp bets on Canada and Panama at those odds. I think El Tri is fine at +175, but to have Canada and Panama that long? It's nuts. Hell, Costa Rica is +2000. I get that they have to pay attention to the money from the public and the sharps, but there is A LOT of dumb money out there, and the sharps may take advantage of it, particularly if El Tri's odds dip after tonight.

 

Wow, I was more curious how the Dominicans would look in terms of overall performance in the group stage, if they might be able to sneak into the knockouts etc, I didn't expect this performance. Anyone watch? The stats say it was damn close with El Tri, El Tri clearly better, but the Dominicans didn't look bad looking down the #'s. How was it?

 

I watched the match but I did not really enjoy it. Most of the match DR looked about to trip over their own feet while Mexico actually did. The reason Mexico won was that they played straight up and DR did too and Mexico, by virtue of having more really talented players, won the match. That is Mexico out talented DR.

I hope we, the USA, do not try to do what Mexico did. Mexico had many many chances to let DR back into the match and DR screwed themselves by badly missing many many chances.

BTW: If/when we play Mexico we can beat them reasonably easily if we can get them mad or frustrated. They just seem to be a good pickup team when they are frustrated.

 

Mexico looked terrible tonight. I'd see us as favorites against them and slight underdogs against Canada with a lineup something like this:


----------Wright

Luna---Tillman---Aaronson

----Adams----de la Torre

Tolkin--Ream--Richards--Freeman

-----------Turner


Cardoso, Agyemang, McKenzie, McGlynn, etc. to bring off the bench.

 

DR was extremely brave in how they played. I thought it was a really entertaining match because of how aggressive they were, and I was surprised that they were able to execute of fair amount of the ideas that they had.

Mexico, on the other hand, was unable to execute on much of anything at all. Their danger was mostly off set pieces and capitalizing off DR mistakes.

 

"Jesse Marsch has them believing"

Landon Donovan thinks Canada is the best team in the Gold Cup 🇨🇦@landondonovan pic.twitter.com/w4DBO1FPzG

— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) June 15, 2025

Play in BOTH the Club World Cup AND Gold Cup???
"Jesse Marsch will be hoping Porto don't go too far in the #FIFACWC so Staqs can play later in the #GoldCup"

Canada vice-captain Stephen Eustáquio has linked up with #FCPorto for the FIFA Club World Cup. 📸: @FCPorto

Jesse Marsch will be hoping Porto don't go too far in the #FIFACWC so Staqs can play later in the #GoldCup 🤞

In the meantime, who should start for #CanMNT in midfield? pic.twitter.com/R3x1LgxRKf

— Canadian Soccer Daily (@CANSoccerDaily) June 14, 2025

Article on Poch's comments

“Players don’t need to understand,”Pochettino said in response to Christian Pulisic’s recent comments. "Players need to listen, and to stick with our plan.

“I am the head coach. I am not a mannequin.” @FOXSoccer: https://t.co/M8jDwur3ik

— Doug McIntyre (@ByDougMcIntyre) June 15, 2025

USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino’s response to Christian Pulisic’s comments 🇺🇸🎙️ pic.twitter.com/lPqjjiBqDj

— USMNT Only (@usmntonly) June 15, 2025

 

DR played to win, and they created real chances from scratch. It was a good, competitive, back-and-forth fight. Mexico looked rusty and lackadaisical and DR bossed the game for the first 25 minutes or so. At no point did Mexico really look in total control, even when they went up two goals on two separate occasions. It was surprising. DR was not intimidated. They had two attacking players who had regular success beating outside backs in duels. The difference in the game was a lucky goal where an Alvarez header went in off of the side of an unwitting Montes’ head.

I’m not sure Mexico is up for this tournament.

As for DR, apparently they have had a real groundswell of support for their national team. Their gold cup send-off game had 7K in attendance, which is no small feat for any event in DR. With their history of producing great athletes, this could be a country to watch for.

 

Twilman is 1.0?

 

It's always a little hard to tell with Poch because you can tell he's not 100% comfortable with his English (though it's very good to be clear), but he genuinely seems annoyed with Pulisic in that presser.

He brings up Dest and mentions that if you make an effort come to camp we'll evaluate you and decide if you're better off taking the summer off, but Dest didn't make that decision unilaterally.

He also is asked about the claim that he doesn't really talk to players near the end of the video and essentially says he doesn't want to give off a vibe of favoring certain players. He'll talk to players if they reach out to him, but he largely leans on his assistants to speak to players

Also on a side note it's slightly funny to see Luna just sit there for 15 minutes not getting asked anything

 

Luna looks like a an uninvolved brother during an uncomfortable family talk.

 

And it showed Arfsten can't defend

 

I just started paying mild attention after they made a run to the concacrap U20 Championship before our future quarterfinalists thrashed them. Checked out their senior team, looked like they were kind of bumbling along in Nations League B, not good, not bad, '22-'24, but in the '24-'25 round they went undefeated, earned promotion to league A, and their first ticket to the Gold Cup.

Excited to see what they could become if they really push forward with soccer as Panama has and to a lesser extent, Guadalupe and Curacao.

 

The manager not having a lot of direct contact with players is absolutely a convention of high level European club management.

 

What is the corresponding convention with high level national teams though?

 

It varies from culture to culture. Some national teams literally live together and interact with each other and the staff on a daily basis while most operate toward the opposite end of the spectrum. I would bet that most high level national team staffs have very little communication with their players in between camps.

 

Someone check did US Soccer call Wondo an "emerging talent" before the 2013 Gold Cup... Why isn't Damion Downs mentioned here?

“Emerging talent” Brian White yeah whatever you say M̶L̶S̶ USSF https://t.co/BReMi2L4x4 pic.twitter.com/lYeITxwow2

— American Ultras Talk (@usmntaut) June 15, 2025

Unless Downs is returning to 🇩🇪U21 this is odd of USSF to say

White will turn 30 early next year. Downs will turn 21 and has scored against the likes of Leverkusen, Gladbach, Union Berlin in limited opportunities, & was one of the only non-embarrassing players in the friendlies https://t.co/mQzh082SFp

— ChuckMe92 Soccer (@ChuckMe92Soccer) June 15, 2025

This is so strange man. 30 year old Brian White is an "emerging USMNT talent", but Damion Downs isn't? https://t.co/UXiBTD30dE

— USMNT Report 🇺🇸🇹🇷 (@USMNTReport) June 15, 2025

 

Review from a Mexico fan:

We were trash. I can’t think of a worse game where Mexico scored 3 goals.

Canada 🇨🇦 saw that game and laughed their asses off. https://t.co/jo5XqGsDpm

— Jack (@thejacksvn) June 15, 2025

 

I’m trying to imagine a new Argentine national team coach saying “I haven’t really talked to Messi. Why would I talk to him more than any of my other players….”…and remaining employed.

And no….this isn’t me comparing Pulisic with Messi. This is me saying that compared to every other player in our pool….pulisic IS Messi.

And when was the last time Messi took a competitive Argentina match off when he was healthy but tired?

 

Bad article in general

 

I can see how this could be hard to understand, but I doubt Messi would expect to hear much from his national team coach. He would expect the game model to revolve around him, for sure, but he wouldn't necessarily expect to talk to the national team on a regular basis.

 

"Regular basis" but how about more than 1 time like Pulisic or more than 0 times like Dest?

 

It’s also necessary for folks to understand that these are professionals in professional roles. They don’t have these butt-patting side meetings.

 

Eh, it’s not that big a deal.

Pochettino is the executive. Pulisic is the grunt. It’s not the other way around. Pulisic has to perform to the standards of the executive. That doesn’t have to be discussed unless there is a performance issue. That’s the way it works in the adult world.

Pochettino has assistants who handle the individual coaching.

 

Pochettino is in fact NOT an executive, he is the coach who has to work directly with the players in training and coach them in games. The executives are Crocker, Batson, Cone, etc.

Pochettino is supposed to be heading up individual coaching, with his assistants assisting him.

 

That’s not their structure.