The US soccer Gold Cup roster dropped today.
www.ussoccer.com
I know I’m in the minority in that I personally get more excited for this tournament than I do for the Euro Cup, Copa America, Champions League, EPL, or any other competition aside from the World Cup.
I’m assuming that anyone who clicks on this thread already saw the preliminary roster and knew the US wasn’t going to send its first team to the is tournament. But just to be clear, the US is sending a roster mostly made up of guys that are equivalent to third or fourth stringers on the US depth chart. The only first or second stringers are the 3 MLS guys who played in the Nations League semifinal and final (Acosta, Yueill, and Lletget), and Reggie Cannon who plays in Portugal.
If it were up to me, I probably would’ve sent most of the first team and just given a rest to Pulisic, McKennie, Adams, and Dest. Instead, Berhalter decided to let almost all of our European based players focus on the preseason with their clubs, and that even includes guys like Julian Green, Luca de la Torre, and Tyler Boyd who were not part of the Nations League roster but should still probably be higher on the depth chart than some of the guys who Berhalter selected for this tournament.
The Gold Cup is definitely going to be a huge challenge for the US because Mexico is bringing its first team, and as far as I know, everyone else is, too.
With all that said, I still think the US can put a pretty good team together with the guys that Berhalter did pick and I’m really excited to see this group in action.
There are a few guys who I’m excited to see play for the US for the first time or who haven’t played for the US in a while:
- Eryk Williamson – watch his highlights here:
- Shaq Moore – a RB in the Spanish second division who looked good for the US back in 2018 and has had some nice highlights in Spain.
- Matthew Hoppe – outscored Josh Sargent in the Bundesliga this season in less games playing for a worse team. First American ever to score a hat trick in the Bundesliga, only the third American (along with Dempsey and Pulisic) to ever do that in a top 5 league.
There are a few that didn’t play in the Nations League who I wish had been on this roster:
Julian Green, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Erik Palmer-Brown, Tyler Boyd, and Luca de la Torre are all European based guys who didn’t play in the Nations League but could’ve improved this roster, but it looks like Berhalter decided to let them focus on preparation for their club seasons. Boyd and de la Torre were not even on the preliminary roster.
Cade Cowell and Chris Mueller both are MLS guys who are way better than Jonathan Lewis, IMO, and play the same position. All US fans were really hoping to see Cowell in action, IMO. He’s also a US/Mex dual national with a huge upside, so that’s one more reason it would have been nice to have him on this roster and cap tie him. As things stand, he probably won’t be cap tied by the US or Mexico until after the 2022 World Cup. He seems like a guy who’s much more likely to play for the US than Mexico, but you never know.
Caden Clark, who plays in MLS but is moving to Leipzig this winter, is one guy that everyone was dying to see but he just had an appendectomy, which is why he’s not on this roster.
Roster thoughts:
This roster has 5 guys (Acosta, Yueill, Busio, Williamson, and Sands) who you could argue that their best position is DM, plus Roldan has played DM for the US, too. Frankly, that reality brings up some bad memories of the Olympic Qualifying fiasco. I think Berhalter will try to use Acosta and Willimson as 8s and Sands as a CB, leaving Yueill and Busio as the 6s on this roster. But whether or not there’s enough attacking creativity in this group of midfielders is an open question. I get that this was a tough position to sort out because the US B-team is loaded with CMs and DMs and a little short on wingers… in fact Berhalter brought 6 guys who can play DM and that still leaves guys like Leon Flach and Johnny Cardoso on the outside looking in, even though both guys are promising young prospects that a lot of people were hoping to see on this roster.
That concern – that the midfield could be lacking in creativity and attacking ability – is compounded by the fact that this roster is really light on wingers. Jonathan Lewis and Paul Arriola are the only true wingers on the roster. There’s talk that Berhalter might use Matthew Hoppe and Nicholas Gioacchini on the wing, and that makes sense because this roster is short on wingers and way to heavy on strikers if those guys are going to play striker. I don’t really rate Gioacchini and it’s kind of shocking to me that Jonathan Lewis – who isn’t even a regular starter for the Rapids and struggled at the CONCACAF u23 – is on the roster ahead of Chris Mueller and Cade Cowell.
If Hoppe can function as a winger, I think you can put a pretty good XI together with this roster, but I really question who you’re going to bring on to make things happen when you need a goal. Here’s our best XI, as I see it:
Hoppe-----------Dike-------------Arriola
--------Acosta------------Lletget----------
-----------------Yueill-----------------------
Vines-----Zimmerman---Robinson------Cannon
----------------Turner---------------------------
That leaves Williamson, Zardes, Gioacchini, and Roldan as guys that you can bring off the bench to make a difference on offense which is a pretty underwhelming group.
I guess we’ll see what happens. It’s a decent roster but a little light on attacking punch, IMO. I’m still very, very excited to watch this tournament.
Berhalter Names 23-Player Roster for 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup
Mix of Veterans and Promising Young Talent to Pursue USA’s Seventh Gold Cup Title; USMNT Opens Group B Play on July 11 in Kansas City
I know I’m in the minority in that I personally get more excited for this tournament than I do for the Euro Cup, Copa America, Champions League, EPL, or any other competition aside from the World Cup.
I’m assuming that anyone who clicks on this thread already saw the preliminary roster and knew the US wasn’t going to send its first team to the is tournament. But just to be clear, the US is sending a roster mostly made up of guys that are equivalent to third or fourth stringers on the US depth chart. The only first or second stringers are the 3 MLS guys who played in the Nations League semifinal and final (Acosta, Yueill, and Lletget), and Reggie Cannon who plays in Portugal.
If it were up to me, I probably would’ve sent most of the first team and just given a rest to Pulisic, McKennie, Adams, and Dest. Instead, Berhalter decided to let almost all of our European based players focus on the preseason with their clubs, and that even includes guys like Julian Green, Luca de la Torre, and Tyler Boyd who were not part of the Nations League roster but should still probably be higher on the depth chart than some of the guys who Berhalter selected for this tournament.
The Gold Cup is definitely going to be a huge challenge for the US because Mexico is bringing its first team, and as far as I know, everyone else is, too.
With all that said, I still think the US can put a pretty good team together with the guys that Berhalter did pick and I’m really excited to see this group in action.
There are a few guys who I’m excited to see play for the US for the first time or who haven’t played for the US in a while:
- Eryk Williamson – watch his highlights here:
- Shaq Moore – a RB in the Spanish second division who looked good for the US back in 2018 and has had some nice highlights in Spain.
- Matthew Hoppe – outscored Josh Sargent in the Bundesliga this season in less games playing for a worse team. First American ever to score a hat trick in the Bundesliga, only the third American (along with Dempsey and Pulisic) to ever do that in a top 5 league.
There are a few that didn’t play in the Nations League who I wish had been on this roster:
Julian Green, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Erik Palmer-Brown, Tyler Boyd, and Luca de la Torre are all European based guys who didn’t play in the Nations League but could’ve improved this roster, but it looks like Berhalter decided to let them focus on preparation for their club seasons. Boyd and de la Torre were not even on the preliminary roster.
Cade Cowell and Chris Mueller both are MLS guys who are way better than Jonathan Lewis, IMO, and play the same position. All US fans were really hoping to see Cowell in action, IMO. He’s also a US/Mex dual national with a huge upside, so that’s one more reason it would have been nice to have him on this roster and cap tie him. As things stand, he probably won’t be cap tied by the US or Mexico until after the 2022 World Cup. He seems like a guy who’s much more likely to play for the US than Mexico, but you never know.
Caden Clark, who plays in MLS but is moving to Leipzig this winter, is one guy that everyone was dying to see but he just had an appendectomy, which is why he’s not on this roster.
Roster thoughts:
This roster has 5 guys (Acosta, Yueill, Busio, Williamson, and Sands) who you could argue that their best position is DM, plus Roldan has played DM for the US, too. Frankly, that reality brings up some bad memories of the Olympic Qualifying fiasco. I think Berhalter will try to use Acosta and Willimson as 8s and Sands as a CB, leaving Yueill and Busio as the 6s on this roster. But whether or not there’s enough attacking creativity in this group of midfielders is an open question. I get that this was a tough position to sort out because the US B-team is loaded with CMs and DMs and a little short on wingers… in fact Berhalter brought 6 guys who can play DM and that still leaves guys like Leon Flach and Johnny Cardoso on the outside looking in, even though both guys are promising young prospects that a lot of people were hoping to see on this roster.
That concern – that the midfield could be lacking in creativity and attacking ability – is compounded by the fact that this roster is really light on wingers. Jonathan Lewis and Paul Arriola are the only true wingers on the roster. There’s talk that Berhalter might use Matthew Hoppe and Nicholas Gioacchini on the wing, and that makes sense because this roster is short on wingers and way to heavy on strikers if those guys are going to play striker. I don’t really rate Gioacchini and it’s kind of shocking to me that Jonathan Lewis – who isn’t even a regular starter for the Rapids and struggled at the CONCACAF u23 – is on the roster ahead of Chris Mueller and Cade Cowell.
If Hoppe can function as a winger, I think you can put a pretty good XI together with this roster, but I really question who you’re going to bring on to make things happen when you need a goal. Here’s our best XI, as I see it:
Hoppe-----------Dike-------------Arriola
--------Acosta------------Lletget----------
-----------------Yueill-----------------------
Vines-----Zimmerman---Robinson------Cannon
----------------Turner---------------------------
That leaves Williamson, Zardes, Gioacchini, and Roldan as guys that you can bring off the bench to make a difference on offense which is a pretty underwhelming group.
I guess we’ll see what happens. It’s a decent roster but a little light on attacking punch, IMO. I’m still very, very excited to watch this tournament.
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