#USMNT - 2015 Gold Cup

[ccgeneral 38,084]

Heading to extra time. Panama had several chances to put this one away. 

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Getting a little heated up now. Some pushing and shoving going on. Three yellows handed out.

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Guzan with his 10th save!

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Oh boy, heading to PKs. Guzan should be warmed up for this.

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Panama wins 3-2 PKs

[WayneFleekHoosier 51,481]

Bummer dude

[Hovadipo 61,481]

Lol good work, guys. What a disappointing tournament. We played like utter garbage except against Cuba who was playing with some drunk Cuban-Americans they found in Miami a few days before the match.

[Brass Cannon 25,449]

We went through the group of death . The previous cup we needed England to score an own goal just to advance. We have much better flow to the game and no longer have to prey for set pieces to score . Nor do we have have all of our men in the backfield to prevent others from scoring on us . Any good soccer mind knows that we are setting the foundation for better teams down the road.

So what it's about success. K hasn't had it

[JaybobHoosier 13,188]

Very disappointing. USA played terrible for most of the match, and thought Brantley (sp) played bad and hurt the U.S. Didn't have the fight in them like Panama did.

[Banksyrules 5,342]

So what it's about success. K hasn't had it

what are u talking about? Before Klinnsmen we never won a game in Europe. During his tenure we beat Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands in their respective countries. Anyone with a soccer mind knows he doesn't care about the Gold Cup, because he's experimenting with line ups. He's prepping for confed cup , copa America , and the World Cup .

[Brass Cannon 25,449]

We won some meaningless friendlies. And sorry but experimenting right now is stupid. 3 more years till WC

[Banksyrules 5,342]

what are u talking about? Before Klinnsmen we never won a game in Europe. During his tenure we beat Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands in their respective countries. Anyone with a soccer mind knows he doesn't care about the Gold Cup, because he's experimenting with line ups. He's prepping for confed cup , copa America , and the World Cup .

Yeah ok . Those teams we faced had awesome players. U just outed yourself because every major national team experiments. The Europeans do it with euro qualifiers all the time.

[Hovadipo 61,481]

Yeah ok . Those teams we faced had awesome players. U just outed yourself because every major national team experiments. The Europeans do it with euro qualifiers all the time.

We played those teams' B or C teams. Let's not push it...

[Banksyrules 5,342]

The Dutch and Germans had most of there starting World Cup teams.

[Banksyrules 5,342]

And we're talking about reserves who play for teams like Chelsea and barca.

[brtjohns 711]

we didnt bring our a team either to netherlands and germany.  no dempsey, altidore, bedoya, jones, howard, besler, gonzalez.  we played much superior teams and pulled off a couple heavy upsets.  however, they were just friendlies -- preseason for them -- and they didnt prepare us for concacaf competition which is completely different, always super choppy.  those friendlies were open and tactically driven.  concacaf games are physical grinders where officiating is forced to play a bigger role.  always have been and probably always will be.

 

with howard ending his hiatus this week, i might as well end mine too from btown banners.  just as howard has been following the national team, i've been following this forum but read only and kept quiet.  i like this topic though so i'd like to join in.

[brtjohns 711]

klinsmann didnt have a good tournament.  the player selection was awful and the backline changed so much that it couldnt develop proper chemistry.  several players were brought in that shouldnt even be in the picture.  part of that was due to being limited by factors like morris, williams and jones injured, cameron not released, wood getting his club situation figured out and begin training with them, howard still on his break, etc.  still, it speaks to our depth, and the play was uncoordinated and unproductive for a high majority of the tournament.

 

i hated that he continued with alvarado/brooks vs jamaica when gonzalez/besler is certainly our best cb pair.  you dont keep giving young developing players experience when a highly meaningful game comes around if they keep making costly errors.  thats what friendlies and perhaps group stages are for.  alvarado was our worst player in the tournament imo.  brooks didnt play well either.

 

wondolowski, zusi, beckerman, rimando, gordon, corona, garza should have just played their last game on the national team.  chandler, morales, yarbrough, evans, ream, alvarado should be low on the list in consideration for future non-friendlies.  bradley had an abysmal tournament following a disappointing world cup.  his inconsistency is killer since we try to play through him so much.  needs to be more accountable and his leash should be shorter.  i would begin starting diskerud in his place until he earns the starting spot back, and the same for besler and brooks, though neither are gonna happen.  yedlin needs to be moved back to rb and given regular minutes there stat.  you're trying to shove a round peg into a square hole putting him at wing.

 

klinsmann has an interpersonal issue with besler right now, and he refuses to call in lichaj and feilhaber.  there's no excuse for that unless they're locker room cancers, which i havent seen suggested is the case.  the top american players that want to play for the national team should do so.  it's his responsibility to field and prepare the best american team, not the players he best gets along with.  donovan is the prime example there, and a significant portion of the fanbase will never forgive him for that.

 

having said all that, he shouldnt be let go just yet.  gotta see how the team bounces back from this bad stretch before deciding if he should continue or pack his bags.  a single poor concacaf tournament with awful fields and officiating doesnt erase all the progress and big wins he has helped to produce since his hire in 2011.  he has risen the quality of the program by attracting talented dual nationals, scheduling tough and getting results.  obviously has a high soccer iq, achieving about everything there is as a german player and coach.  we performed well in the 2014 world cup after winning the 2013 gold cup.  if the side judge doesnt incorrectly call offside and wondo buries it in the 92nd minute, we advance past belgium onto the quarterfinals vs argentina.

[Hovadipo 61,481]

We beat Germany with what pretty much was our WC team minus Bedoya. Netherlands we were a little more short-handed, but still a solid squad. Regardless, those were great wins for US soccer, but nothing earth-shattering.

In the end, we played like hot garbage in the Gold Cup with guys that have played in World Cups and are supposed to be the future of US soccer. Now we have to play our way into the Confed. Cup. I'm just happy we play the sisters of the poor in our group for the upcoming qualifier stage.

[brtjohns 711]

not really.  only 4 of the 13 us players that played in the usa-ger world cup game were brought to the friendly.  bradley, yedlin, johnson, beckerman.  8 of the 17 us players that played in the friendly werent on the world cup team.  we brought an inexperienced group and beat a german team that played 9 players from their world cup team.  zieler, mustafi, khedira, kramer, ozil, schweinsteiger, schurrle, podolski, goetze.  the latter 5 played in both the world cup game and friendly, so their 5 to our 4.  much superior group that, granted, would've put us away if they were in form.  a high profile win for us, even if it was a friendly.  we'd never beaten germany in germany.  last time we beat the world #1 team was spain in the 09 confederations cup.

 

'supposed to be the future of us soccer' isnt really accurate either, unless you're just speaking of the next couple years.  youngest guys on the team considered as such are yedlin, alvarado, brooks (22), zardes (23), johannsson, diskerud (24).  6 of 23, and diskerud didnt play much.  klinsmann brought a veteran squad, several of whom wont be in russia if we make it there.

[Hovadipo 61,481]

Yeah we aren't talking about the same friendly apparently. We started Altidore, Dempsey, F. Johnson, Zusi, Jones, Bradley, Beasley, Besler, Gonzalez, Evans, and Howard in the 4-3 win in DC. 9 of whom started against Germany in the WC match.