Post by usasoccerboy on Jul 21, 2021 17:02:53 GMT -6
Have you been watching the gold cup? What are your thoughts on the domestic based lineup? I am astounded by the midfield play of the Gold Cup group. They will give competition to the European group. Eryk Williamson is crafty and a good holding player who can distribute the ball as well as keep a team’s momentum and inertia heading in the right direction. Busio is another talent at midfield that is young and worthy and more than likely will, be playing in Serie A. Busio is still getting used to top shelf ConCACaf play, but he held his own and went full 90s in his first starts. Daryl Saint (DeeKay - spelling censor will not let me spell his name right) is a beast up at the striker position. He could use some seasoning as well but it is the one position the USA has not filled in yet and he shows promise and potential. Hope lit it up at his Bundesliga club this past year and played well in the group stages, which shows that being a starting striker in the Bundesliga probably means just what you might suspect it means. That is, you would think it means “ he is good” and that shows up as well in international competition. Well he played like it was second nature. Why he is treated as just a secondary option baffles me. He plays out of position yet showed he knew the pace and the level and handles it with confidence and pin point accuracy along with inventiveness. Yet for some reason he is treated as a last resort option in a time where the USA is weakest in the forward position, other than Pulisic. One or two solid forwards are needed on the USA top squad. Hope may be our best option. Tanner in goal has been really good so far too. The Defense played a 3 back system that got the job done. Too bad we lost Zimmerman to a hamstring injury. He showed well too. This gold cup team is still going through growing pains, but so far, they have gotten the job done, although I would have liked to see some more goals other than by playing Martinique. Next up is Jamaica and they did not look too good last night against Costa Rica. They were up a man and yet still couldn’t equalize. The star of these games has been Qatar, the reigning Asian Champions. If the cards play out right and we beat Jamaica, it may then mean a semifinal match with Qatar. That will be a very good and tense match to what may possibly be another final match up with Mexico. Who knows? Then World Cup qualifying starts. It is a good time to be a USA fan. Good things look like they may be coming over the horizon.