Don’t expect a wide-open offensive battle when the U.S. men’s national team faces Honduras Tuesday in Frisco, Texas. Germany and the Netherlands are in the rearview mirror. This is CONCACAF time.
BY
Josh Deaver
Posted
July 07, 2015
9:00 AM
DESPITE RECENT HIGH-PROFILE VICTORIES against two top teams in Europe, the U.S men’s national team has only just emerged from its worst spell of results during the Jurgen Klinsmann era.
Beginning with a 2-2 draw to Portugal during the World Cup, the Americans posted a meager 2-6-4 record on a 12-game jaunt that took the Yanks to Prague, London, Chile and, everywhere in between.
Whether it was simply an extended World Cup hangover or the bi-product of significant roster experimentation—or perhaps a bit of both—the Americans have pulled out of their months-long nosedive in recent weeks and are once again flying high ahead of Tuesday’s Gold Cup opener (9:30pm ET, Fox Sports 1) against Honduras—a rematch of the 2013 semifinal.
With historic away wins against Netherlands and Germany in their back pocket, the confident Americans will be looking to expand on their current 19-0-3 unbeaten home record (the longest in team history), earn a second consecutive CONCACAF title, and secure an automatic spot in the 2017 Confederations Cup.
That’s the plan, at least.
CLICK HERE TO CREATE U.S. v. HONDURAS STARTING XI
Preparation for such a task brought Klinsmann and company to Nashville on Friday, where his 23-man, mostly first-choice squad posted a 4-0 warm-up win over CONCACAF minnow Guatemala.
While the performance was disjointed in the first half—Guatemala deserved at least a goal—the win was still somewhat comprehensive. Expecting the standard boiler plate responses when asked about his team’s performance, Klinsmann’s borderline pathological optimism was nowhere to be seen.
“The performance? Not so nice,” he said. “I’m kind of disappointed with a couple of things: moving off the ball, speed of play, urgency. Things we talked about before were not executed the way we wanted them to be executed.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAjXQ32aYnsCertainly hitting a different note than what U.S. Soccer observers are accustomed to, the message ahead of the bi-annual tournament is abundantly clear: Failure is not an option.
Since taking the job in 2011, Klinsmann has coveted a spot in the Confederations Cup. In discussing his “Five-Year Plan” for U.S. Soccer, winning both the 2013 and 2015 Gold Cup have long been a priority. For a manager desperate to test his players at the highest level, the tournament—which saw the Americans defeat a No. 1 ranked Spain side in 2009—represents an invaluable opportunity for the program.
Klinsmann continued: “We gave some chances away that you can’t afford on an international level, it was just too easy. We didn’t create enough,” he said. “We have to talk through that … what’s coming up is three-and-a-half weeks of a grind.”
It certainly will be.
Paired in Group A with feisty Honduras, unpredictable Haiti, and regional power Panama, Klinsmann returns only six players from the underwhelming-on-paper 2013 roster. With a group that includes foreign-based standouts Fabian Johnson, Aron Johannsson, and Brad Guzan alongside MLS stars Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, and Omar Gonzalez, the Yanks should be favorites to reach the final, and win.
“We want to have the strongest team possible with us,” the U.S. coach said last week. “Our biggest rival Mexico will come with their strongest group also with European-based players, so we want to meet them face to face and make sure that they stay behind us.”
Again: Just. Win. Baby.
Donning the armband for the tournament will be new team captain Michael Bradley, who will also earn his 100th appearance with the national team in Frisco on Tuesday night. When asked his feelings on his new role with the team—seemingly content to let his on-field performance speak—Bradley delivered his typically pensive, perfunctory platitudes.
“When you talk about pride, honor and responsibility, [the captaincy] adds to [the pressure]. But at this point, I’m not making any more of it than needs to be,” Bradley told reporters on Sunday.
“Everyone’s mentality is to push and push so at the end of the month we’ll be the one’s holding the trophy.”
PREVIEWING HONDURAS
While the Americans are bringing an intimidating recent record to Gold Cup play, Honduras has not won a match outside CONCACAF in more than year. Posting a 4-8-4 record dating back to July 2014, the team’s only wins have come against Belize, Nicaragua, French Guyana, and El Salvador. Not exactly a murderer’s row.
Despite a poor run of form, Los Catrachos should take solace in a 1-1 draw with the Americans during their last meeting, a post-World Cup October friendly. Last month, the team drew Paraguay and battled hard against Brazil in a narrow 1-0 loss. In its own warm-up match, a scoreless draw against Mexico last Wednesday, the Hondurans showed that they will not be a pushover—although it’s tough to say whether that was Honduras being competent or Mexico being as disjointed and disorganized as they currently appear.
With an aging backline, missing foreign standouts, and a new crop of untested offensive options, head coach Jose Luis Pinto will be forced to rely on midfield playmakers Oscar Boniek Garcia and 22-year-old Andy Najar to push the pace in the midfield. Up front, Olimpia’s Anthony Lozano has provided the scoring spark with the loss of familiar targets Carlo Costly and Jerry Bengston, netting four goals so far in 2015.
Klinsmann, for one, is prepared for a defensive struggle.
“It’s not going to be an open game like in a World Cup where you have the best teams in the world and they just go at you,” he said on Sunday. “In most of our games in the Gold Cup, it’s going to be the opposite.”
PREDICTION
The Americans are clearly the favorites Tuesday but, of course, that is assuming that CONCACAF goes according to plan. Every team in the federation gets up for a match against the Stars and Stripes so expect Los Catrachos to bring the full CONCACAF-standard of hard-charging fouls and aggressive time wasting to bear on Tuesday night. Even with the specter of being CONCACAF’d” hanging low over Toyota Park, the U.S. should pick up a relatively easy 3-1 win deep in the heart of Texas.
PROJECTED STARTING XI
Guzan; Timothy Chandler, Gonzalez, John Brooks, Johnson; Alejandro Bedoya, Kyle Beckerman, Bradley, DeAndre Yedlin; Dempsey, Jozy Altidore
Josh Deaver is an ASN 100 panelist and contributing editor. Follow him on Twitter.
