USMNT summer

Very strange (dang near Twight Zone-ish) feeling around the team heading into the Gold Cup w/the World Cup around the corner. The story is about who is not here (but w/the caveat that this is a massive opportunity for guys to make a statement to Poch):

Sergino Dest is out, but this sounds more like a coaches’ decision to give him a strict regimen for the summer to ramp him up.

Pulisic and Jedi out; Obviously the latter is for him to recover from knee surgery. The former asked to be out for rest (tbh not sure how I feel about this, but w/history it’s probably the right call).

Weston & Weah out for Club WC. Two mainstays, but I truly think we need to see some other options. The above 2 are the first 2 names on the starting sheet, these guys are for sure on the roster but not auto-starters.

The CRATER at GK scares me to no end. Shulte is out, and now the resurrection of Steffan is out due to an injury he sustained in training. I have absolutely zero confidence in Turner, and would go on and say if he plays backup for Palace again, I don’t see the point of including him next summer. Mind blowing how bad we are at this position going into a WC year.

Balogin took a couple of matches to re-injure his shoulder leaving a massive opportunity for someone. I’m thinking Poch as Heath Ledger’s Joker breaking a pool cue in two, throwing it on the floor and having the guys fight it out.

Speaking of Poch, if you go to YouTube you can find his interview w/Landon Donovan & Tim Howard.

 

“Where will the goals come from?” is always the question with the USMNT. But HOLY CRAP for this tournament. Haji Wright is the only forward I know as more than a name. I’ve seen some stuff on the younger Aaronson but don’t think he’s a nine. Agyemang, Downs and White are all a mystery to me. I can only hope some midfielders step up and M Robinson and Zimmerman bring their set piece prowess.

What I am looking forward to though is to see if Adams and Cardoso can mesh and boss the center of the pitch. We all know what a healthy Adams is capable of and, while I don’t follow Spanish football closely, Jonny is apparently drawing serious interest from Atletico Madrid.

I often feel like the USMNT plays like a bunch of guys that randomly got together for a pickup game. The lack of cohesion this summer doesn’t give me any thoughts that it’s going to be different at the World Cup next year.

I do think I like the new kits though. So there’s that.