Garrick
Awesome, lid.
OH YOU THOUGHT WE WERE DONE FOR THE SUMMER, DIDN'T YOU?!
NAAAAAAAAAAH. PULL THAT AMERICAN FLAG BANDANNA OUT OF LAUNDRY HOPPER, PUT SOME FEBREEZE ON IT IF NECESSARY, AND STRAP THAT BAD BOY BACK ON, 'CUZ IT'S GOLD CUP TIME!
Yes, that one tournament every two years that feels like a failure if we don't crush everybody we face in some sort of embarrassing fashion. That one. The CONCACAF championship? Qualifies you for the Confederations Cup? Yep, we're the current Kings of North America and it's time to defend the title.
Speaking of which, just to catch everybody up on this quick: Since CONCACAF is nothing if not money hungry, there are two Gold Cups per World Cup cycle. We won the 2013 competition, meaning we have one foot in the Confederations Cup door. Win again this year and it's ours. Lose it and we play the winner of this year's tournament in a one match playoff to see who gets to go start the party early in Russia.
And it's hard to see how we aren't favorites for this tournament. In true Klinsmann fashion, after a run of pretty dire friendlies everything clicked at the last moment, with the side performing well against both the Dutch and the Deutsch before smashing the poor Guatemalans in the final tune up. So here we are again, things turning around before we head into a tournament. Sound.
The squad Klinsmann's bringing in is an interesting mix of giving some veterans a swan song and letting some new players get some competitive senior team experience. Bradley will captain his first major tournament. He was always expected to be the new captain after Dempsey, but interestingly enough, Dempsey is still in the squad in what will likely be his last international tournament.
Our own Tim Howard is gone, handing the gloves off to Guzan. Beckerman and Wondo are both still in the squad, but there are plenty of youngsters getting their first run out: Greg Garza and Ventura Alvarado from Liga MX, and LA Galaxy's Gyasi Zardes.
Yedlin, now keeping the bench warm and toasty with Tottenham, is back, but curiously Julian Green is not making a return. He's not outside of the national team picture just yet, but apparently Juergen wants him to "focus on his club play" for now.
Enough squad news for now, more as that develops. First up is Honduras. In the CONCACAF pecking order, they're often known for being the "Best of the Rest." The US and Mexico duke it out for #1 and #2, Costa Rica is solidly #3, and a whole heaping pile of Central American and Caribbean states (erm, plus one large developed county with a garbage footie program) fight it out from there. In recent history, Honduras normally ends on top of that struggle. They've qualified for the last 2 World Cups and have reached the semifinals of the last 3 Gold Cups.
Honduras haven't exactly been great as of late, though. They were handed 3 losses during the World Cup, did horribly in last years Copa Centroamerica, and almost didn't make it to the Gold Cup in a playoff with French Guiana (who, yes, does have a national team. Surprise!).
Since then, Jorge Luis Pinto, who you may remember as the Colombian manager who took Costa Rica to the quarterfinals of last year's World Cup, is now their manager, and their run-up to the Gold Cup really wasn't too shabby. Draws against Mexico and Paraguay, and a narrow loss to Brazil.
That being said, they're still Honduras, with a play style something like "park the bus, brutalize the opponent, and hope you can nick a counterattack or two." It's the Central American way, and they're the masters of it. One player you maybe want to worry about (maybe) is a name that probably gives Portland Timbers fans nightmares: Anthony Lozano, the young CD Olimpa striker who single-handedly knocked the Timbers out of the CONCACAF Champions League last year.
They will likely be our most difficult group stage opponent in a group that, by Gold Cup standards, is quite strong, but let's be real: Anything short of 9 points from this lot will be a disappointment. We're the class of this tournament. As long as Dempsey remembers that he is, in fact, in a strike partnership, and the backline doesn't get distracted by the pretty lights or something (which, they're known to do, to be fair) it SHOULD be smooth sailing to the semifinals, at least.
Should.
In fact, I kind of have trouble predicting the lineup for this match, because it's very possible we'll rotate players for these first few matches just to protect some key players for knockout stage action instead of risking them against overly aggressive Hondurans. We'll like see a formation much like Klinsmann wanted to run more of at the World Cup until injury and squad selection issues dictated otherwise: Diamonds are forever, Bradley at the peak spreading the carnage like it's 1918 on the Western Front.
Oh, and if that doesn't work, bomb down the flanks and make 'em pay.
Christ. I can't believe I wasted that many words on "Los Catrachos". These are s%$#@. Batter them, America.
THE YANKS ARE COMING.
(and we're hosting this tournament, so I guess we'll just stay here for a while no matter what happens.)
NAAAAAAAAAAH. PULL THAT AMERICAN FLAG BANDANNA OUT OF LAUNDRY HOPPER, PUT SOME FEBREEZE ON IT IF NECESSARY, AND STRAP THAT BAD BOY BACK ON, 'CUZ IT'S GOLD CUP TIME!
Yes, that one tournament every two years that feels like a failure if we don't crush everybody we face in some sort of embarrassing fashion. That one. The CONCACAF championship? Qualifies you for the Confederations Cup? Yep, we're the current Kings of North America and it's time to defend the title.
Speaking of which, just to catch everybody up on this quick: Since CONCACAF is nothing if not money hungry, there are two Gold Cups per World Cup cycle. We won the 2013 competition, meaning we have one foot in the Confederations Cup door. Win again this year and it's ours. Lose it and we play the winner of this year's tournament in a one match playoff to see who gets to go start the party early in Russia.
And it's hard to see how we aren't favorites for this tournament. In true Klinsmann fashion, after a run of pretty dire friendlies everything clicked at the last moment, with the side performing well against both the Dutch and the Deutsch before smashing the poor Guatemalans in the final tune up. So here we are again, things turning around before we head into a tournament. Sound.
The squad Klinsmann's bringing in is an interesting mix of giving some veterans a swan song and letting some new players get some competitive senior team experience. Bradley will captain his first major tournament. He was always expected to be the new captain after Dempsey, but interestingly enough, Dempsey is still in the squad in what will likely be his last international tournament.
Our own Tim Howard is gone, handing the gloves off to Guzan. Beckerman and Wondo are both still in the squad, but there are plenty of youngsters getting their first run out: Greg Garza and Ventura Alvarado from Liga MX, and LA Galaxy's Gyasi Zardes.
Yedlin, now keeping the bench warm and toasty with Tottenham, is back, but curiously Julian Green is not making a return. He's not outside of the national team picture just yet, but apparently Juergen wants him to "focus on his club play" for now.
Enough squad news for now, more as that develops. First up is Honduras. In the CONCACAF pecking order, they're often known for being the "Best of the Rest." The US and Mexico duke it out for #1 and #2, Costa Rica is solidly #3, and a whole heaping pile of Central American and Caribbean states (erm, plus one large developed county with a garbage footie program) fight it out from there. In recent history, Honduras normally ends on top of that struggle. They've qualified for the last 2 World Cups and have reached the semifinals of the last 3 Gold Cups.
Honduras haven't exactly been great as of late, though. They were handed 3 losses during the World Cup, did horribly in last years Copa Centroamerica, and almost didn't make it to the Gold Cup in a playoff with French Guiana (who, yes, does have a national team. Surprise!).
Since then, Jorge Luis Pinto, who you may remember as the Colombian manager who took Costa Rica to the quarterfinals of last year's World Cup, is now their manager, and their run-up to the Gold Cup really wasn't too shabby. Draws against Mexico and Paraguay, and a narrow loss to Brazil.
That being said, they're still Honduras, with a play style something like "park the bus, brutalize the opponent, and hope you can nick a counterattack or two." It's the Central American way, and they're the masters of it. One player you maybe want to worry about (maybe) is a name that probably gives Portland Timbers fans nightmares: Anthony Lozano, the young CD Olimpa striker who single-handedly knocked the Timbers out of the CONCACAF Champions League last year.
They will likely be our most difficult group stage opponent in a group that, by Gold Cup standards, is quite strong, but let's be real: Anything short of 9 points from this lot will be a disappointment. We're the class of this tournament. As long as Dempsey remembers that he is, in fact, in a strike partnership, and the backline doesn't get distracted by the pretty lights or something (which, they're known to do, to be fair) it SHOULD be smooth sailing to the semifinals, at least.
Should.
In fact, I kind of have trouble predicting the lineup for this match, because it's very possible we'll rotate players for these first few matches just to protect some key players for knockout stage action instead of risking them against overly aggressive Hondurans. We'll like see a formation much like Klinsmann wanted to run more of at the World Cup until injury and squad selection issues dictated otherwise: Diamonds are forever, Bradley at the peak spreading the carnage like it's 1918 on the Western Front.
Oh, and if that doesn't work, bomb down the flanks and make 'em pay.
Christ. I can't believe I wasted that many words on "Los Catrachos". These are s%$#@. Batter them, America.
THE YANKS ARE COMING.
(and we're hosting this tournament, so I guess we'll just stay here for a while no matter what happens.)
