Aron Johannsson and the US close Gold Cup play tomorrow in Philadelphia with a third place match.
Andrew Marcinko, Andrew Villegas and Neil W. Blackmon
The United States tumbled out of the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup Wednesday night in Atlanta, losing 2-1 to an upstart Jamaica side that had been playing together for nearly two months dating back to a late May camp to help prepare the side for the Copa América. It was a brutal upset defeat for the Yanks that leaves many questions about the team’s future and its direction under manager Jurgen Klinsmann in question.
What’s odd is that as stunning an upset as it was: 1st loss for the US at home to anyone in 26 matches, 1st loss to a Caribbean nation on US soil since the 1960’s, second loss ever to Jamaica, first loss prior to a final in the Gold Cup to a CONCACAF nation, 2nd loss under Klinsmann to a side not ranked in the top 50 in the world (Jamaica in Kingston the other)– it isn’t like you couldn’t see the loss coming, to some extent. Klinsmann’s teams had only outshot one opponent in a competitive match since securing World Cup qualification. They were outshot 60-20 in the group stage. They had struggled to impose their will against compact and packed-in defenses. In short, this was a team that had flirted with defeat in the tournament. Once they played a team that punished them for their mistakes, they lost.
And while it is odd the loss came in a game where to some extent the US played its best soccer in a while, that happens. That’s why we watch.
Saturday, because CONCACAF loves money, the US get a chance very quickly to start to put the defeat behind them. Third place games in World Cups often produce scintillating football- whether it be Uruguay and Germany’s rollicking affair in South Africa or Holland’s blitz of Brazil last summer– you tend to get attacking soccer without tenacious tackling– a bit like an NBA All-Star Game except with at least the pretense of defense.
There’s a line of thinking where that happens tomorrow, especially given the insanely short rest the game will be played on and the likelihood that it will remain hot and humid in Philadelphia in the month of July. Short rest and heat don’t exactly make defense likely. Or maybe the US don’t care about being second loser in CONCACAF. We’ll see.
Panama also will have questions about motivation. Wednesday night, after Luis Tejada was sent off by American referee Mark Geiger for what replay shows was a borderline blow to the face, Los Canaleros fought Mexico off for 88 minutes, and led 1-0 before Geiger called a horrendous penalty for El Tri, leading to a Guardado equalizer from the spot and eventually, a Guardado winner on a not-so-controversial penalty in extra time. Replay of the first penalty clearly shows Mexico’s Esquivel fouling Panamanian defender Torres, who then falls to the ground and commits a letter-of-the-law handball. Geiger only called the handball. As a result, Mexico are in the final and Panama get another shot at the good ole US of A. One wonders how motivated Panama can be when they keep getting slighted by Mexico. First World Cup qualifying, now… you get the idea.
Today, Panama seemed so interested in training that they played kickball.
Third-place game in a nutshell: Instead of training, Panama is playing kickball. #GoldCup pic.twitter.com/fEHsJB8std
— Kyle McCarthy (@kylejmccarthy) July 24, 2015
Usual preview format.
Let’s kick the usuals around a bit and then dive into the particulars. Also, Van Halen.
Series: 17th meeting. United States lead, 12-1-3. Third meeting between the two sides this year, and since Graham Zusi’s late goal knocked Panama out of the World Cup in 2014 and sent Mexico to a playoff instead. The only Panama victory? A 2-1 stunner in Tampa at the 2011 Gold Cup. Neil W. Blackmon was there and recapped it at The Shin Guardian. This is the second meeting at this Gold Cup, with the US grinding out a draw with the group in Kansas City two weeks ago. John D. Halloran recapped that for TYAC here. This is the fifth meeting between the two countries at the last three Gold Cups– remember that Adu pass that helped the US weather Panama in a rematch in the 2011 Gold Cup semis.
Weather: 90 degrees at kick. Humid. Hot. Summertime in Philadelphia. Hey, at least the game is on natural grass.
Andrew Villegas on what we’ll see from the United States:
Choose your adventure: Ventura Alvarado-John Brooks; Omar Gonzalez-Tim Ream; Alvarado-Brooks; Gonzalez-Alvarado; Alvarado-Brooks.
What’s the center of the backline going to look like? Moreover, with 3rd place not a main priority of a treading-water Jurgen Klinsmann, will the newly maligned head coach decide to try a new centerback pairing out? Who would use the game as a chance to prove themselves that they deserve more regular first-team action? If the USMNT lose to Panama, do shouts for JK’s job grow louder?
There sure are a lot more questions than answers right now for U.S. men’s soccer.
And unfortunately, almost none of them will be answered when the USMNT takes on Panama Saturday night. But we can expect a few things.
John Brooks shows his frustration Wednesday after the opening Jamaican goal.
New centerbacks
Don’t expect an Alvarado-Brooks pairing (experiment? Mad scientist’s experiment?) again. Allowing the Gonzalez-Ream pairing that looked mostly solid against Haiti to try again seems like the way forward. Both defenders should figure heavily in the second half of this World Cup cycle. Panama has Blas Perez, and Blas Perez gave Brooks and Alvarado fits – both of them took yellow cards in the USMNT’s group game against Panama last week.
The elephant. Is Klinsmann fighting for his job?
My gut says no. The USMNT is taking the longview with Klinsmann. The fact of the matter is that he was brought in to take the team to the semifinals of a World Cup. That’s progress. Winning a regional tournament – though nice – is not the goal of Klinsmann’s tenure. Calls for his head are premature. Call for his head are the product of misplaced anger. Fact is, Alvarado-Brooks worked for long stretches of the Gold Cup and mixing up the lineup in a game that matters would have invited just as much criticism of his tactics as staying with the young, inexperienced centerback pairing he trotted out.
Sure, if the USMNT lose to Panama, there will be shouts – as opposed to mutters – that Klinsmann should lose his job. He won’t. They may lose this game. He won’t lose his job. I think he knows this, which is why …
Time for some young blood
Why not this as a starting XI?
Brad Guzan; Brad Evans, Gonzalez, Ream, DeMarcus Beasley; Mix Diskerud, Michael Bradley, Joe Corona, DeAndre Yedlin (DIAAAMOND); Clint Dempsey, Alan Gordon.
For me, Fabian Johnson deserves to play, but bringing Beasley in – out of retirement, mind you – and not playing him a single minute is not a possibility in a game that doesn’t mean much for the U.S.
Guzan deserves more time to show if he will displace Tim Howard as No. 1.
Mix and Bradley should pair in middle if for no other reason than that’s what Klinsmann seems to be saying is the future of attacking USMNT football. He wants it to work? They need time together on the field, as much time as they can get.
Play Joe Corona somewhere he’s not used to … the right … and tell him to sink or swim. We’ll see what kind of a footballer he is really quick.
And give Alan Gordon the time he should have gotten earlier in the Jamaica to make a difference. Same thing here: Settle some questions about who should wear a USMNT shirt and who should not. These “tweener” guys that could go one way or the other deserve a chance to actually show us what they can – or can’t – do. This game is a perfect opportunity.
Will veterans like Clint Dempsey get a day off?
Expect a more offensive game
There’s little reason to play behind the ball. Letting Dempsey have free reign of the pitch; telling MB90 to shoot, shoot, shoot; playing with what amounts to two attacking central midfielders — these are chances you don’t take when you’re trying to win a tournament, but when you have the freedom of a game that matters far less, you can experiment (even more so than in a friendly, in my opinion) with things that people would otherwise want you fired for.
Ever have a job where you know you’re a short-timer for one reason or another and then you have these crazy ideas that get traction and all of a sudden your boss loves you and is taking you out to lunch and offering you a promotion? Well, we’re the boss and Klinsmann is our employee. Hard to go anywhere but up from here; take a chance.
You want to play 4-3-3 again? DO IT.
Heck, you want to play 3-4-2-1? GET OUT OF THE WAY, NORMALCY.
Allowing Gordon to get through the box and just cause a ton of havoc with his head seems fine with me. Making the fullbacks cross the ball into the box from 25 yards out seems like just the prescription for what the USMNT needs.
I expect more room in the midfield as a result. Jamaica didn’t allow Bradley time on the ball because Beckerman was told to stay at home. With Mix, Bradley has an option going forward in the midfield that wasn’t there when he played with Beckerman.
Too bad Jozy Altidore was sent home, this would be the perfect game to allow him to play exactly how he wants to play and see what it does for his game.
So will they score?
Panama won’t forget the group stage game against the U.S. For that matter, neither will the U.S., but Panama, having their fires lit (maybe?) after the controversial loss to Mexico, has more to prove. The U.S. will give up goals thanks to their more willingness to go forward in the game. But if they can muster more than one goal, the U.S. has yet to really show it this tournament. The hangover after the Jamaica loss will be real. Players are tired. Klinsmann himself is probably very tired of hearing how high the axe is hanging over his head.
If the U.S. again lacks the attacking edge as they did against Jamaica, you’ll know why. Home beckons. And when home is calling, it’s sort of difficult to focus on anything but getting back there.
What to Watch From Panama, by Neil W. Blackmon:
Luis Tejada is suspended thanks to the soft red against Mexico. Here’s what we saw from Panama as Wednesday night turned into Thursday morning in Atlanta…
Panama salutes CONCACAF with a sign calling them thieves after being…robbed against Mexico.
So it is difficult to imagine how they’ll feel about playing this game. As noted in the introduction, they played kickball at training today. So it doesn’t seem like they are taking this too seriously. Or maybe they just figure it doesn’t matter anyway because when they take things seriously the world conspires against them and in favor of Mexico. Anyway, the last time something involving Panama was mired in this much uncertainty, it was Van Halen, after the departure of David Lee Roth and the arrival of Sammy Hagar. Tim Holmes of Rolling Stone explains how the first “Van Hagar” album worked out in 1986…
“The big question is whether even a sound as titanic as Van Halen’s can sustain the loss of a loudmouth voluptuary like David Lee Roth, or will the whole metal ball simply collapse under the weight of generic gee-tar pyrotechnics? Though often derided as a frontrunner in the Most Obnoxious Man in Rock sweepstakes, Diamond Dave’s giddy way with Uzipaced wisecracks and an unarguably media-genic presence gave Van Halen an overpowering edge on the legions of bands competing in the power-party rock arena. If rock & roll has become a circus maximus, then David Lee Roth was both a patter-spewing ringmaster and an untamable animal in the ring.
His are big lace-up leather boots to fill, and not since Bon Scott guzzled his way out of AC/DC and through the Pearly Gates has a major electrical powerhouse faced a crisis this dire. No matter how honed the axeman, a band still needs an MC. So when it was announced that Van Halen had completed its talent search and the new voice was Sammy “I Can’t Hack 55” Hagar, the response — even among hardened DLR detractors — tended more toward a bewildered “Huh? Montrose? What?” than resounding hosannas, huzzahs and what-a-good-idea’s.
Part of Eddie Van Halen’s cheeky genius, though, lies in his ability to think in terms of both complex orchestration and rock banalities; perhaps after all those years of David Lee Roth’s show-stealing shenanigans, Eddie simply wanted a voice he could work with, an unironic counterpoint to the symphonic breadth of his musical ideas. Or maybe he wanted to demonstrate the expendability of David Lee Roth’s overwhelming personality in pursuit of a purer Van Halen vision. Then again, maybe he just wanted to lay down the ultimo bitchin’ Van Halen platter for the kids to shake to all summer long.
The cover art shows Atlas grimacing under the weight not of the world but of the metal universe itself. On the back cover, the heavens crack like Humpty Dumpty, the new Van Halen emerging serene in the green mists of sonic triumph. Eddie can still split the atom with his axe, and he knows it. It’s a Van Halen world with or without David Lee Roth, and 5150 shoots off all the bombastic fireworks of a band at the peak of its powers. The Van Halen brothers are back in business.”
So I guess out of the gate, Van Hagar was…not so bad. Just different. Kind of like Panama under Hernán Darío Gómez. He’s not the dely Valdes brothers. And the Canal Men aren’t the same. But it isn’t really bad. It is just different.
Roman Torres fights off Javier Hernandez in World Cup qualifying.. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)
Andrew Marcinko on the Panama Player to Watch: Román Torres
Center backs aren’t often considered game-changers, but the biggest challenge for the Panamanian captain on Saturday afternoon may have little to do with the actual soccer being played on the field. By now, you will likely have seen or heard about Panama’s controversial defeat by Mexico that cost it a spot in the Gold Cup final. Without going too far down that rabbit hole, needless to say it was an intense experience, and not exactly a shining moment of class and grace for the Panamanian team.
In my experience, there are two ways things can go for Panama on Saturday.
- You’ll see a team that’s totally disillusioned and disinterested, and continues to blame anyone and everyone else for its loss. These are the same guys that darn-near assaulted the referees during and after the match and tweeted a picture holding a giant banner calling CONCACAF “thieves” and “corrupt.” (see above.)
- Panama will use the defeat as motivation and play impassioned soccer, which may well be enough to defeat a disappointed USMNT, which will surely have motivation issues of its own. As captain, though he personally has the greatest reason to be upset with the Mexico loss, Torres may be in the best position to influence the side’s outlook. If the Captain can nudge his team toward option two, he’ll at least give Panama a fighting chance.
Alejandro Bedoya against Austria in Vienna.. (Photo by Christian Hofer/Getty Images)
Andrew Marcinko on the U.S. Player to Watch: Alejandro Bedoya
There surely haven’t been many positives to take away from this years’ Gold Cup for the USMNT, and predictably, most of the individual critiques haven’t been complimentary. The two prevailing lines of inquiry are, “When will young, raw talent _____ finally perform at a high level?” and “Why was World Cup veteran ______ so disappointing?”
Downer City, right? So, how about some bright-side: Is Alejandro Bedoya ready to assume a role among the elite, “Core Players” for the USMNT?
Hard to say his case is fully made yet, but I would argue that his contributions have been criminally underappreciated by the U.S. soccer media and fans over the past two years or so. This is a guy who appeared in every World Cup match, starting three of four, and assisted the game-winner in the 2013 Gold Cup Final against Panama. All the while, he’s been a consistent starter for Nantes in France, in one of those “Big European Leagues” we’re always clamoring for our players to go to.
If there’s a knock against Bedoya, it’s that he hasn’t really been able to step up and individually impact the game on the offensive end when things aren’t going well for the USMNT. It’s also clear that he hasn’t yet stepped into a true leadership role for the Yanks, instead leaving those duties to other more veteran players like Bradley and Dempsey.
Looking toward 2018, the only field players who could truly be considered “Core Players” in their primes’ for the U.S. would be Michael Bradley and Fabian Johnson. That leaves eight spots on the field to be filled by aforementioned “Raw Talent” and aging veterans. While that’s not quite cause for panic in 2015, the Hex is a mere 16 months away.
It’s difficult to say whether Klinsmann will go entirely experimental, or go for the result in a basically meaningless third-place match against Panama. Regardless, an impressive performance for Bedoya would do wonders to cement his position among the core players for the USMNT going forward.
Prediction: Panama 1, USA 1. Panama win in penalty kicks. Because the only thing more CONCACAF than a third-place game on two days rest in 90 degree heat over 500 miles from where the prior game was held is [penalty kicks to determine who wins said third place game. The US have no one who is very good at penalties. Panama don’t either. But they’ve taken them at this tournament. So we pick them.
Andrew Villegas is a longtime contributor to The Yanks Are Coming. He lives in Washington, DC. Follow him on Twitter @reporterandrew.
Andrew Marcinko is a senior writer at The Yanks Are Coming. His work also appears at The Mane Land, SB Nation’s Orlando City blog. He also writes for MLS.com. Follow him on Twitter @Andrew_Marcinko.
Neil W. Blackmon co-founded The Yanks Are Coming. Follow him on Twitter @nwblackmon.