Hex Time Again!

A lot has changed since I last wrote about the United States Men’s National Team (USMNT).  We collected the full 9 points in the critical June portion of World Cup Qualifying (WCQ), won the Gold Cup without losing a match and beat Germany, Guatemala and Bosnia-Herzegovina (on the road) in friendlies.  Add it all up and the USMNT is riding a record setting 12-match winning streak (the longest current streak in the world) where we have outscored our opponents 39-11.

It doesn’t stop there though as a few individuals have also stepped up their respective games too.  Jozy Altidore has scored in his last five matches for the USMNT, which is a first for any USMNT player.  He also moved from AZ Alkmaar in the Dutch Eredivisie to Sunderland in the English Premier League (EPL) where he already has a goal and an assist in three matches. 

Landon Donovan declared his return to the USMNT by winning MVP of the Gold Cup where he scored five goals and tallied seven assists in six matches (he also has 8 goals & 5 assists in MLS since he returned to action on 3/30).   

Oh, it doesn’t stop there though as Manager Jürgen Klinsmann convinced two more dual-nationals to join the USMNT.  The biggest coup is center back John Anthony Brooks (Dad from Chicago) who is only 20 years old, stands 6’4 and has already played for Germany’s U-20 team.  Against Bosnia he looked raw defending but his deft passing touch out of the back line is something the USMNT has never had (it goes without saying that he is very dangerous in the air). 

Alabama born and Icelandic raised striker Aron Jóhannsson is 22 and has the innate ability to be in the right place at the right time to score goals.  He replaced Altidore as AZ Alkmaar’s striker and has four goals and an assist in seven matches to go along with his uncanny resemblance to Kevin Bacon.

It’s not all roses for the USMNT though as Stuart Holden (right) and Josh Gatt (left) both tore their ACLs and are unlikely to be ready for the World Cup in 2014.  Jozy is also currently nursing a sore right hamstring but apparently will be ready to go on Friday and Michael Parkhurst was called in to replace Brad Evans (calf strain).  The most troubling news to me however is Clint Dempsey’s transfer from the EPL to MLS. 

I understand that Clint will be the highest paid player in MLS at $5,038,566.50 guaranteed per year (fourth highest paid player in MLS history) but why move in a World Cup year when you need to be at your best?  Truth be told Dempsey was practically invisible in the three June WCQs and he has not had a goal or an assist yet in four matches with Seattle.  You never want to see a player’s form regressing with the World Cup on the horizon, and as much as it pains me to type this, Clint’s best days as an international might be behind him.

The USMNT has never won a competitive match in Costa Rica and is on a seven match losing streak there (0-7-2 all time) but we did beat Los Ticos 1-0 in the Gold Cup group stage (East Hartford, CT).  The 35,000 strong in San Jose at Estadio Nacional are undoubtedly still mad at us for the “Snow Clásico” back on 3/22 in Commerce City, CO so I expect the atmosphere there to be extremely hostile. 

Making matters worse the USMNT currently has a whopping eight players on a yellow card.  Meaning if any of Altidore, Dempsey, Michael Bradley, Tim Howard, Fabian Johnson, Jermaine Jones, Matt Besler or Geoff Cameron gets a yellow they can’t play against Mexico in Columbus, OH on 9/10 (5 PM Pacific on ESPN).  Oh yeah and the referee on 9/6 in San Jose (7 PM Pacific on beIN) will be Marco Antonio Rodriguez from, you guessed it, Mexico.

Klinsmann has a chance here to deploy my current starting XI of choice with Altidore up top and Fabian, Clint and Landon behind him with Bradley and Jones behind them in a 2-3-1 formation.  The back line from left to right should be DaMarcus Beasley, Besler, Omar Gonzalez and Cameron with Howard as the keeper.  I suppose Jürgen could be stubborn and leave Donovan on the bench in favor of Graham Zusi but that would be just plain silly given the current form of each in MLS. 

Assuming Landon is in the XI again and the offense needs a jump start the three substitutes I would consider in order are Eddie Johnson, Mix Diskerud and Alejandro Bedoya.  If the match gets out of reach either way it would not surprise me to see Klinsmann sub in Brooks and/or Jóhannsson to permanently cap-tie them to the USMNT, even a late five minute appearance for each might materialize.

The USMNT can actually qualify for the World Cup on Friday if they win, Mexico and Honduras draw and Jamaica either wins or earns a draw at Panama.  That combination of events is at best highly unlikely and while the USMNT is rolling right now I have a bad feeling about these next two games. 

As a longtime fan of the USMNT I’m waiting for them to find the banana peel and make WCQ way more difficult than it has to be.  The scenario for a big American face-plant is ripe with a pissed off Costa Rica on the road a desperate Mexico at home.  I wish I could be more positive but I expect the below table to be much tighter come the final set of fixtures on 10/11 and 10/15.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
United States	6	4	1	1	7	3	+4	13
Costa Rica	6	3	2	1	7	3	+4	11
Mexico	6	1	5	0	3	2	+1	8
Honduras	6	2	1	3	6	7	−1	7
Panama	6	1	3	2	5	7	−2	6
Jamaica	6	0	2	4	2	8	−6	2