Gold Cup Roster & Prediction

Since the 1994 World Cup I’m the one of biggest USMNT fans you can find anywhere (other than people that travel to matches).  I don’t say this lightly at all, but this is one of the worst rosters for a competitive tournament I’ve ever seen.  I’m excluding B, C or D Teams where our first-choice guys aren’t even in the picture.  For this window everybody was supposed to be available. Well outside of Weston McKennie, Tim Weah, Gio Reyna and Alejandro Zendejas due to the Club World Cup.  Oh yeah, and Johnny Cardoso might get added to that list if he moves to Atlético Madrid.

Now we are being told that Christian Pulisic and Antonee Robinson are being rested?  You mean to tell me if AC Milan or Fulham were in the Club World Cup those two wouldn’t be playing?  Pah-lease!  Then Yunus Musah withdraws from the team Wednesday for “personal reasons.”  I mean what the fuck? 

This generation is already pissing away their talent, but now they are becoming extremely unlikable too.  They don’t give effort or seem like they care half the time, and now this shit?  Sporting Director Matt Crocker clearly wanted everyone to know Pulisic made the call not to come.  He practically threw him under the bus with his statement.  Then you have Mauricio Pochettino preaching commitment and desire while letting CP do whatever he wants.  What kind of example is that to the rest of the team and fanbase? 

Post-Couva was the last time the interest level in this team was this low.

Anyway, back to the roster.  Poch called in 27 players with 4 keepers, so I assume one of the keepers will be cut after the friendlies with Turkey and Switzerland.  17 of the 27 players are from MLS when not too long ago it was 25 of 26 from Europe.  Clearly Poch needs to learn the lesson that when you take mostly MLS guys to a major tournament, they just aren’t good enough.  I’ve seen this play out too many times to remember.  I guess it’s better for Poch to learn this now, rather than at the World Cup. 

Kind of like US Soccer needed Copa América to see that Gregg Berhalter was the emperor with no clothes.  Now you have Poch saying this, "If you arrive to the camp and you want to spend nice time, play golf, go for a dinner, visit my family, visit my friend, that is the culture that we want to create?  No, no, no, no, no.”  Well, you know who established that culture?  GGG!

But I digress again.  I keep a running depth chart draft based on club form in my Gmail, and Poch took 4 of my top 5 keepers here.  I prefer Ethan Horvath to Zack Steffen, but I can understand since Horvath is likely looking for a new club after Cardiff City got relegated from the Championship.  I expect Matt Freese to be the guy cut because he’s been the best keeper in MLS for a while now, but Poch has never played him.

The center back depth on this roster is just bad.  Chris Richards and Mark McKenzie better be able to start every match because Tim Ream and Miles Robinson aren’t even in my top 8.  Supposedly Cameron Carter-Vickers and Austin Trusty not being called in was a “football decision.”  (Sidebar: It’s time to leave Celtic fellas.)  And gawd forbid Poch uses the Gold Cup for what it should be and cap-tie young dual nationals like Noahkai Banks (Augsburg) or Anrie Chase (Stuttgart).

The fullback situation is even worse.  Granted, the bulked up Sergiño Dest finally returns from injury, but his backup is Alex Freeman (Orlando)?  Joe Scally’s omission was another “football decision,” but why not bring in Bryan Reynolds (Westerlo) or Richard Ledezma (PSV)?  Freeman has supposedly looked good in MLS, but Reynolds and Ledezma have never even been given a chance under Poch. 

Left back is an even bigger mess.  Ok, Jedi needs a rest.  Not happy about it, but it is what it is.  Poch calling in Max Arfsten (Columbus) and DeJuan Jones (San Jose) over John Tolkin (Holstein Kiel) and Caleb Wiley (Watford) is a freaking JOKE.  I’m not even mentioning Nathanial Brown (Eintracht Frankfurt) who got called into the German U21 team instead.  From what I’ve read, Brown is open to playing for us, but Poch hasn’t even reached out to him.  Which is criminal because we could have cap-tied him here.  C’est la vie I guess.

When it comes to midfielders, I’m happy with Tyler Adams, Johnny, Malik Tillman, Brenden Aaronson and Diego Luna.  Tanner Tessmann (Lyon) was another called out as a “football decision.”  But what about Aidan Morris (Middlesbrough), Paxten Aaronson (Utrecht) and Gianluca Busio (Venezia)?  Morris and Pax had excellent club seasons by all accounts.  Tessmann and Busio are regular starters in Top 5 leagues.  Instead, we got FIVE guys from MLS.  One of which is Sean Zawadzki (Columbus) who I’ve never even heard of, and I follow this stuff closely!  (Sidebar: Everything I read says Luna is moving to Europe this summer.)

As for wingers, well, we have a total of one on the entire roster in Haji Wright.  I don’t really think Haji is a winger myself, he just happens to play there at Coventry City.  So, the reality is we have ZERO true wingers on the roster.  Granted my top 3 of Pulisic, Weah and Zendejas are all unavailable.  However, the next three on my list are Griffin Yow (Westerlo), Kevin Paredes (Wolfsburg) and Cole Campbell (Dortmund). 

Finally, Folarin Balogun is back from injury for the striker group.  Yet, Ricardo Pepi is still out injured, and Josh Sargent was inexplicably left off as a “football decision!”  So instead, we get Poch favorites Patrick Agyemang (Charlotte) and Brian White (Vancouver).  Why not take a flyer on Daryl Dike (West Brom) who just returned from injury himself?  There is a bright spot here though, 20-year-old dual national Damion Downs (Köln) was called in.  Now watch Poch waste the opportunity to cap-tie him!

When the draw for the Gold Cup happened, I thought the USMNT ended up in the toughest group.  “WHAT!” you might be saying to yourself?  Saudi Arabia, Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago doesn’t seem that tough.  Well, have you watched us play recently?  With the roster we called in and Poch’s lack of national team acumen I now expect the Saudis to win the group.  We should still be able to eek out results against Haiti and T&T to advance to the knockout stage.  After that though I expect us to go out meekly in the quarterfinals. 

The real question after we flame out for the third major tournament in a row is will US Soccer sack Mauricio Pochettino?  Obviously, they don’t have the cajónes to be so bold.  So, I am now resigned to the fact the World Cup I’ve been looking forward to for literally YEARS will be a disaster.  The bright side is at least I’ll save money and time off not having to go deep into the knockout round like I was expecting from our Golden Generation.