Gold Cup 2021

@BarryWhite Ugh on Zimmerman, and totally forgot Dike was grimacing when the trainer was checking out his shoulder at the end of the Canada match.

 

• Bryan effin’ Ruiz. If he plays any positive role whatsoever in any match against us, I’ll be very unhappy. Hard to believe he’s still an attacking midfielder at 35. Last I checked, he was back at his first professional club in the Costa Rican first division. Might be the softest 6’2” footballer I’ve ever seen. Yet he continues to captain and lead Los Ticos during a time of reasonable success (although they’ve dropped from their 2015 highest FIFA ranking ever of 13th to the current 50th). I think it’s fair to say he underperformed for Fulham, scoring 12 times in 97 appearances after notching 35 in 65 for Twente.
• He’s third in appearances and tied for fourth in goals for the national team, and continues to get significant minutes with them. Don’t know how many assists he has for Costa Rica, but I suspect it’s a decent number. They have other quality players we’ll have to grapple with, Joel Campbell being the one that comes to my mind first.
• But we should still beat them Sunday.

 

So you're Canadian now?!

Canada will face Bryan Ruiz and Costa Rica on Sunday. The USA gets Bobby DeCordova-Reid and Jamaica on Sunday.

I took note of how Ruiz smiled when he scored against Jamaica. When he played with Fulham in that last season in the Championship he never smiled when he scored. He treated the entire experience as torture. At least he helped Kit prevent a doubt drop.

 

Always liked Bryan as well, Joel Campbell on the otherhand…will never look past the match when he was standing next to Besler (who was on a yellow) and dropped like he was shot and got Besler kicked out. Replays showed that Besler didn’t lift an arm and in fact didn’t touch him. Campbell should of been suspended for a minimum of 5 matches.

We should beat Bobby and the Raggae Boyz, but after the ugly display versus Canada (and no Zimmerman) a loss wouldn’t be a least bit surprising.

 

Has everyone forgotten about Big Hec? I haven't seen Reid's name on the team sheet since he scored in the first match and of course there's no information about it. Scouring the twitterverse though tells me that he has COVID.

Zimmerman is a huge loss to this squad. Anytime the man wearing the armband goes down, it's not good. We should beat Jamaica, but it'll be a slog with the current squad.

On the other hand, Zardes says Berhalter is a mastermind so it'll be like shooting fish in a barrel, right?
http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=4436691

 

[shamefully raises hand] Yes, yes I did. Thank you for the reminder.

I'd also like to clarify, I liked Ruiz for what he did on the pitch, I just thought he had a bad attitude. However, I think without him Fulham would have gone down to League 1, so I appreciate that despite not wanting to play for Fulham he still went out and got the job done.

 

I tuned in to watch Hector in Jamaica’s last match but he did not start and then there was a weather delay 4 minutes in so I stopped watching. All I know about Jamaica is Leon Bailey is likely the most talented attacker on either side, they will counter with speed, Hector plays as a midfielder and Blake is a really good shot stopper.

 

Kessler replaces Zimmerman on the GC roster. Cowell returned to San Jose.

 

^^^ Ditto

Since the Quakes forward was sent back I’m guessing Dike is a go. Hoping we play quicker, more decisive, and for the love of Gawd stop w/the crazy dangerous back passes from the back line incapable of executing them.

 

Like @SoCalJoe I’m hoping that Cowell returning to San Jose means both Dike and Arriola are ready to go but Berhalter said they would both be game day decisions.

Jamaica is a good side and if you can believe reports Bobby Decordova-Reid will be available for selection.

 

My bad. Got ahead of myself. But…solid, professional performance by the Canadians against Senor Ruiz and Costa Rica. The Canadians are better…a lot better…than they’ve been in recent times, while the Ticos are trending downward.

 

Thought BDR was somewhere between pretty poor to invisible and disappointed that Hector didn’t play.

 

First watch first-half thoughts

My one word summary of the USMNT first half is sloppy. The US was sloppy from the initial kick off which nearly led to gifting Jamaica a goal. After that most everything about the USMNT’s play in the first half that did not involve Matt Turner continued to be at least somewhat sloppy. My initial rant is directed at US Soccer and the venue selection. After watching the USMNT zip the ball along a wonderfully prepared surface at Mercy Park in Kansas City I felt like I was watching the team play in a bog last night. This may be wonderful preparation for playing in places like the Caribbean for World Cup qualifying but we are not playing in the Caribbean. This is the Gold Cup and the team was forced to play on sod laid over artificial turf where you could see the grass seams and where the ball rolled like it was severely under inflated. These field conditions led to a lot of early under hit passes which Jamaica astutely jumped keeping the US under pressure early in the match.

You can only blame the pitch for so long though. Players have to adjust and as the half wore on I felt like I kept seeing the same scenarios play out over and over again. The defense was solid when defending with Kellyn Acosta shielding the back four exceptionally well but the ball movement out of the back reminded me far too much of Fulham last season. Too slow, too side to side and too predictable and some of the passes far too risky but the back line was not all to blame for not being able to break down Jamaica. The only consistent outlet to get the ball out of the back was down the left with Matthew Hoppe and I’ll touch on him more later but the remaining outlets up the field were fully disappointing in the first half. Busio could not hold onto a ball under pressure, Arriola worked hard tracking back to help defensively but didn’t get a foothold in the attack, Lleget forgot how to play defense and how to take corner kicks, Dike could not find the game and there was no sustained midfield pressure against Jamaica in the first half.

The singular first half offensive spark came from the guy I mentioned earlier, Matthew Hoppe. Was his play perfect? No. He played like a forward who was stuck out on a wing and took chances in the defensive half that a better team might have punished during this game. That said, he did not look overly fussed by Jamaica’s high pressure defense and I can’t think of a single threat on goal in the first half that didn’t originate with Hoppe. I’ve been saying for a while that Hoppe makes better runs than any other forward in the current USMNT player pool and everything I have seen in the Gold Cup supports that theory. Hoppe finds space, he does not stand still, and he does not wait for the game to come to him for very long. Best of all he thinks he is better than you and he is willing to prove it. He doesn’t always succeed but he quickly forgets about the failures.

1st half bonus observation from my wife – Is this ref going to call any fouls?

First watch 2nd half thoughts

My one word summary of the USMNT first half is adjustments. Whatever halftime adjustments Berhalter made this was the biggest improvement I have seen from a USMNT to start the second half under during his coaching tenure. No, the USMNT did not come out and play Jamaica off the pitch immediately, but you could see change. Immediately, both Lleget and Busio started pressing Jamaica when the ball turned over and it made a difference. Busio dropped deeper to receive the ball and it made a difference. Mostly, it did not look like Jamaica was going to press the USMNT into goal yielding turnovers with the same frequency they did in the first half.

The best adjustment was bringing on Gyasi Zardes and Cristian Roldan. The USMNT possession and attacking play improved substantially after they entered the match keeping Jamaica penned back in their defensive end leading to Roldan’s cross and Hoppe’s game winning goal.

Player thoughts

Matt Turner – Good match with one nice diving save to his left. Controlled the box well.

Shaq Moore – Played well defensively. Made a good early run to get on the end of a Hoppe cross but couldn’t convert. Things on the offensive end seemed to fizzle at his feet a little bit.

James Sands – Good defense but had some unusually poor distribution.

Miles Robinson – Great emergency defending, carried the ball forward a few times but not to great effect.

Sam Vines – I’m going to call this a meh performance. Nothing really bad and nothing really good.

Kellyn Acosta - Excellent in his defensive duties as a six. Covered ground, broke up plays and put in tackles. Several examples of troublesome distribution.

Sebastian Lleget – I am having trouble coming up with a lot of good to say about Seba. Defense at the start of the second half was good but he really went unnoticed for large stretches of the match for me. Maybe it’s me?

Gianluca Busio – A tale of two halves. Didn’t get much right in the first half. Had trouble holding the ball in tight spaces, didn’t adjust to the pitch leading to passes being left short repeatedly and no defensive pressure once he lost the ball. Second half he was much improved in every aspect of the game.

Matthew Hoppe – Yeah for creativity on the offensive end! OMG I’m holding my breath for the same creativity in the defensive end.

Daryl Dike – Go get’em next time Daryl.

Paul Arriola – Great hustle but very little connectivity to the rest of the squad to break down Jamaica.

Subs

Gyasi Zardes – Improved the movement up top, put a decent shot on goal shortly after entering the match, and occupied Blake on Hoppe’s header.

Cristian Roldan – Good combination play with Moore and the best cross of the night for an assist to Hoppe.

 

@BarryWhite Had a family BDay and only DVRed it, after that fantastic analysis I’m only gonna watch the goal.

I could’ve sworn that FSN flashed a graphic showing we were on the same side of the bracket as El Tri, but we get a very solid/veteran Qatar instead.

 

One half in, lucky to be 0-0, Qatar clearly the better side. 2 observations; Qatar no doubt will be a handful as hosts at the WC. The Austin crowd is freaking pathetic and should never get another US game. Morgues have more atmosphere

 

Gyassi, Gyassi, Gyassi!!! Good to see that. I knew nothing about him before watching 2 games from the stands, this year.
Dunno why he's controversial.. But watch him LIVE and he's a dream player. You might guess he's made me enthusiastic about watching games again.

 

Quick thoughts after the match

Matt Turner deserves a cloak and secret identity after his first half performance because he was my superhero last night. I keep reading about his great shot stopping ability but I don’t watch many Rev’s matches so I have a very small sample size to judge him by. Based on that small sample size, what I see is someone who is not necessarily an elite athlete like Tim Howard but who does have elite instincts and quick-twitch reactions.

The defense got stretched last night badly and I have a theory as to why but I am going to have to go back and watch the match again to see if I am right or if Qatar was just that much better prepared for the US than the US was for Qatar.

Dike is injured and should not play against Mexico.

It’s possible that I’m being a fanboy but Hoppe but played well again even if he was dying for someone to play 1-2’s with against that compact defense. I kept watching the rest of the squad pass and stand still while he passed and moved and knew he had to be getting a little frustrated. That pass to Dike by the way, delicious!

Zardes knows where the goal is!

I know Qatar was tired and I know there was more space but more Williamson please (cue more cowbell)!