We just witnessed what was nearly a perfect two game stretch for US Men's National Team. Convincing defeats of Mexico and Canada where our young players stepped up, shined, and showed us a glimpse into the potential of the future for this squad. The second half of the finals against Canada was fairly ani-climatic. They game was put to bed before the half, Canada just didn't have it in them.
The crowd was definitely one concerning point to mention. The stadium was giving big time early 2000's MLS vibes, being half empty in a NFL stadium. It's not a great look for the federation and I'm sure the players don't particularly enjoy it. It's abundantly clear that Mexico is the draw, but with their struggles do you either:
A). Set up the semi-finals and finals of competitions in cities that have both NFL and soccer specific stadiums? St. Louis, LA, Orlando, Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, San Jose/Santa Clara, Columbus, Cincinnati, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Denver and Nashville all immediately come to mind. Essentially set aside both venues for a potential Mexico or Mexico-less finals. It's probably a logistical nightmare, but you can't keep playing championship games in front of 1/3rd full stadiums.
B.) Host the semi-finals and finals in a soccer specific stadium. I'm not sure that CONCACAF would love the idea of the potential of losing out on 50,000 fans paying a premium, but it would definitely look better and be a more fun atmosphere.
Now we are on to the Gold Cup where the US and Canada will not be fielding "A" squads. Mexico is an unknown as they have recently fired their manager after six months at the helm. I would imagine they will try to call as close to their best squad in as possible. They will be playing for national pride after a long run of bad showings since their last good showing in the 2019 Gold Cup.
Elsewhere across CONCACAF you'll see good squads from Jamaica, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Honduras. Some of these smaller countries the Gold Cup is huge for them as their World Cup appearances have been few and far between.
The US squad is worrisome for many. You could argue that we left some true "B" squad players at home and opted to not bring U20 stars in favor of veterans like Matt Miazga, Aaron Long, Cristian Roldan, and Jordan Morris. Personally if you're going to bring an almost entirely MLS squad I would have preferred to see some of the U20 guys like Brendan Craig, Jack McGlynn, Quin Sullivan, Obed Vargas, Daniel Edelman, Diego Luna, Noel Buck, Bryan Gutierrez, and Chris Brady. I would even like to see some younger guys get their first looks for the national team: Jackson Ragen (Seattle), George Campbell (Montreal), and guys on the outside looking in like Cole Bassett and even re-integrating guys like Caden Clark (Leipzig) and Sam Vines (Royal Antwerp).
However no one with US Soccer reached out to ask my opinion, so we have the squad that we have. I think a best XI looks something like this:
GK: Matt Turner (Arsenal)
RB: Bryan Reynolds (Westerlo)
RCB: Miles Robinson (Atlanta)
LCB: Jaylen Neal (LA Galaxy)
LB: DeJuan Jones (NE Revs) OR John Tolkin (NYRB)
CM: Aidan Morris (Columbus)
CM: James Sands (NYCFC)
AM: Djordje Mihailovic (AZ Alkmaar)
CAM: Gianluca Busio (Venezia)
AM: Alex Zendejas (Club America)
S: Jesus Ferreira (FC Dallas)
You could definitely do worse. I think the 4-2-3-1 is probably the best set up with this squad. Left center back makes me nervous, we will probably see both Aaron Long and Matt Miazga play alongside Miles, or Neal in the prelim rounds. I would imagine our squad will have a lot of the ball and be heavily favored in most games. Hopefully we see the debut of the new kit, unless Nike is holding it for the Women's World Cup which I would totally respect!
The US is going to have to challenge themselves to find tougher competition in friendlies for the rest of this cycle. Mexico is probably not a top 25 team in the world right now, and Canada hasn't looked great since qualifying. We do have a big tournament next summer with the Copa America but we still have two years of CONCACAF games between then and the World Cup. I think traveling will do the squad some good as well. Don't be afraid to go to Africa, Europe, Asia and South America and get your tail whipped and to be tested. I think the best thing that happened to us leading up to the last World Cup was getting humbled by Japan and Saudi Arabia. We need to be challenging ourselves against the best teams if we truly want to be one of the best squads. We have the talent, let's set them up for success.
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