What's amazing about this U20 team is how many players aren't on the roster.
Matt Doyle has a great article about it here:
Oh, you see much worse in the Olympics.
kazooka wrote:What's amazing about this U20 team is how many players aren't on the roster.
Matt Doyle has a great article about it here:
Oh, you see much worse in the Olympics.
I read the point of the article to be the level of depth and quality of the talent pool in the US currently relative to prior years rather than bemoaning the fact that some of the top players are not participating. The fact that the US has players talented enough at this age that clubs won't release them, yet the team is still capable of a high level of play in the round of 16 (despite card suspensions and injury to 4 starters) is a sign of long term encouragement.
Exactly. The MLS academy system is only now beginning to pay real dividends. We're actually at the same point as other countries, where we don't have to put all our hopes on the one 16 year old we have who's capable of dribbling a ball without falling on his face. It's an exciting time for US soccer.
Whoa...I think Arena is starting my exact preferred lineup.
How did we look? I saw the scoreline but the game was on at like 4am in my current timezone so couldn't watch it.
How did we look? I saw the scoreline but the game was on at like 4am in my current timezone so couldn't watch it.
Not the greatest, not terrible. We were very vulnerable to Venezuela's fast counter-attacks.
Get three points!
Goooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaallllll
Looking much better in the second half
Just got home from work about about 69', and was greeted by a "boing" from the US Soccer app for Pulisic's second.
This lineup has me in about half meltdown. WTF, Arena. We have a great opportunity with so many Mexico players out tonight.
Injuries and a 72 hour turn around at altitude. T&T was a must win game. Mexico is not. Arena is playing the percentages.
Goal. What a shot
My heart was POUNDING for the last 10 minutes or so.
Didn't see the first half.
I understand we were stronger then, but felt we were really lucky to get the point tonight - at times in the second half, felt like I was watching an attack / defend drill with US on D.
Onwards.
[Edit to add - just watched the opening minutes. No way Mexico should have had ten players on the pitch after the elbow to Bobby Wood in minute three]
My heart was POUNDING for the last 10 minutes or so.
Absolutely. I was dying.
[Edit to add - just watched the opening minutes. No way Mexico should have had ten players on the pitch after the elbow to Bobby Wood in minute three]
Video replay now, damn it!
I thought Carlos Vela was too cool to play for his country?
In other US news, I'm watching the Dynamo in the US Open Cup right now. Go Dynamo!
In other US news, I'm watching the Dynamo in the US Open Cup right now. Go Dynamo!
Looks like a tight match there.
RBNY just went up 1:0 over hated NYC after 66'.
We have a long history of being terrible in the Open Cup. We made the final once, and lost (at home) to Chicago. Usually we lose out to someone like Harrisburg or Charleston.
Dynamo were tied with Carolina 2-2 when a lightning delay called around the 85th minute or so.
I'm currently watching the match that will produce the opponent of our match, which features FC Dallas and Tulsa. They're knotted up 1-1 in stoppage time.
OMG, Tulsa with an own goal in stoppage time. Wow.
Dallas was taking a lot of shots there at the end, and you could feel a goal coming for them at any moment. Terrible shame that it came in that fashion, though.
The leaked Gold Cup jerseys are even better than the leaked Gold Cup warm-up shirts!
https://www.reddit.com/r/ussoccer/co...
Seriously, a worthy follow-up to the Waldos, but I still want a Waldo remaster with the new Crest. These are supposedly just for one year, so if we make the World Cup we expect to see two new jerseys next year. Here's hoping one is a Waldo!
The leaked Gold Cup jerseys are even better than the leaked Gold Cup warm-up shirts!
https://www.reddit.com/r/ussoccer/co...
Seriously, a worthy follow-up to the Waldos, but I still want a Waldo remaster with the new Crest. These are supposedly just for one year, so if we make the World Cup we expect to see two new jerseys next year. Here's hoping one is a Waldo!
I liked the warm-up shirts, but wow, I'm not a fan of that jersey. Where's Waldo indeed. I've never liked blocky horizontal striping; we can craft so much more elegance with fabric now. The shoulders and the trunk look like they come from two different jerseys. Add in the red vertical striping at the top and they look like overalls. No, not a fan at all.
I am glad you like them, though. To each their own. 
I think the red stripe you're referring to is just a collar accent, like the current white kit has.
I got my Gold Cup jersey today! Immediately, it might be my favorite piece of clothing I own.
And the Gold Cup starts today! Costa Rica v Honduras tonight, USA v Panama tomorrow at 4:30 Eastern!
First game is in twenty minutes!
EDIT: Sorry, had the time zone wrong.
Gametime! US v Martinique in moments!
If it weren't for the Bucks Summer League team, that first half was the worst 45 minutes of sports tonight.
It's pretty clear that Bruce Arena is using the Gold Cup as an extended training camp to assess who should make the cut for our World Cup qualifying campaign.
Can't say I blame him - the Gold Cup is a bit of a farce - but it does mean we are probably not going to make a deep run into this tournament (I'd be happy to be wrong though).
Also I think the USMNT needs to be looking at who is going to be out keeper at the next World Cup (if it's Brad Guzan we shouldn't plan on making it past the group stage).
So far our plan of testing the younger guys but still advancing is working, despite going with our C (or less) squad tonight. What will be really interesting will be if we bring reinforcements for the knock outs, and who.
I think Howard is the keeper for next summer unless something surprising happens, or an injury. Afterwards, there is likely to be a bunch of change in the team. A new coach for sure, who will have different ideas and favorite players. A bunch of older guys who are currently in the squad will probably be retired from international play. Howard and Beasley, for sure. Quite possibly Dempsey. Guys like Zusi and Bedoya may be done as well.
If Beasley or Beckerman are starters in our next World Cup squad we should save the airfare and withdraw now.
I'd feel similarly (though slightly less stridently) if they are in the squad at all.
Beasley seems like a good guy but is well past his prime, and I still don't understand what blackmail Beckerman had to make it into the last World Cup squad.
[Edit to add: love Timmy, and would be more okay with him than Guzan, but who is our GK longer term? Is Cody Cropper up to the task? (I haven't seen him play recently). If not him, who?]
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