Still in the Hunt

Despite less than overwhelming performances, both US national teams still have a chance for hardware in their respective competitions.  The Union come away with just one point in Florida.

Hoppe Header

Hoppe with a clean finish
(like Michael B's favorite beer)

No, that is not the latest from Vermont's craft brewer The Alchemist.  Rather, it is the narrow difference between the US and Jamaica in their quarterfinal match up.  The US did have a 68/32 possession advantage but shots were 11/10, shots on goal were 5/5, corners were 7/7.  Each keeper did have a key save in the first half.  Yes, this was looking like extra time or worse, a shoot-out.  Fortunately, Matthew Hoppe (pronounced hoppy) buried a great cross from Roldan in the 83rd  minute to save us from all of that.  There is some argument that this was a mistake from Blake as he attempted to intercept the cross as opposed to staying on his line.  Doesn't take away from the finish though.

So where are we with the US chances?  They'll have to get past a surprisingly good Qatar team (see below) and then would face Mexico or Canada in the final.  Not saying they can't win the whole thing but it feels like a long shot at this point.  There are flashes of quality from this decidedly "not full first team" side.  Not sure they have enough to win it all.

Close, But No. Qatar

That is the Jeopardy answer under Gold Cup Football for $600.  The question:  Did El Salvador come back from an 0-3 deficit to win its quarterfinal match?  Not a marquee match up but highly entertaining.  Qatar were up 2-0 within eight minutes.  A PK in the 55th minute looked to have salted this one away.  Someone forgot to tell El Salvador, who scored twice within three minutes to bring the game to life.  They even had looked to level the match shortly after only to see the goal disallowed for offside.  There were a few more chances before the final whistle but Qatar held on for the 3-2 win.  They may be a challenging opponent for the the US.

Mexico Advance

No way Mexico was going to lose
with Him in the lineup

Not a surprise that Mexico had little trouble getting past Honduras 3-0.  But maybe they had some "special" help (see left). With the quarterfinal results, the US - Mexico final is still on track.

In the other quarter on this side of the bracket, Canada took the measure of Costa Rica 2-0.  Maybe the score flatters the Canadians but not that much.  On the other hand, this Costa Rican squad is getting long in tooth; many of their best players are on the wrong side of 30 - at least from an international soccer perspective.

USWNT Advance With Ugly Tie

Don't think this is what the headline
 meant but it is fitting in a way

You could call it a pragmatic draw.  You could also be labeled as exceedingly generous.  There was nothing good about the USWNT's 0-0 draw with Australia other than the fact that it got them second in the group and a spot in the quarterfinals.  Yes, a US goal was chalked off - correctly - for an incredibly tight offside call.  There wasn't much else.  A night owl friend (Chris Z) watched much of the match live and wondered if soccer is always this bad.  I had no good response.

A draw was good enough here because of a 6-1 drubbing of New Zealand on Saturday.  That obviously was a better performance, though it was against a decidedly weaker opponent.  Any medal, let alone gold, feels like a long shot right now.

Sucks to Be Right

Turns out we were correct to be concerned about the Union's Florida swing as they return home after collecting just one point.  A little strange that in some ways they were lucky to get one yet unlucky not to get four.  Huh?

Against Orlando they were dead in the water at 0-2 until shuhBILLkoh got one back in the 68th minute.  The Union were on the front foot the rest of the way and saw the equalizer headed off the goal line by defender Kyle Smith in the 98th minute; exciting stuff.  Expected goals data at 538 says this could have been a Union win and certainly a draw was in reach.

Somewhat the same story three days later in Miami.  They fell behind 0-1 and were looking at zero points.  Curtin rolled the dice with an incredibly attacking line up in the 83rd minute - taking off Mbaizo and Flach for Ilsinho and McGlynn.  The gamble paid off as within two minutes they had the equalizer.  Though the finish isn't textbook, the build up play is so we make it this week's  YouTubeableMoment.  And look at Jack Elliott acting like a No. 10.  A second goal did not seem out of the question though there was little time left.  The metrics suggest a close one and the draw was probably a fair result.

Once again a mixed bag.  They were shorthanded again, missing Blake and Burke.  They also seemed prone to the misplaced pass again.  To my eye, I don't see that they have figured out how to get the best out of Monteiro and Gazdag when they are on the pitch at the same time.  Good on Curtin to gamble late against Miami; he clearly subscribes to the theory that there's little difference between losing 0-1 or 0-2.  Also glad to see Curtin has given in to the need to sub out Bedoya late in matches; he's already lost a step and when fatigued it's several steps.  Quinn Sullivan is young but showing some promise.  They sit fourth in the table but 7th on points per game.

That Will Not Look Good On Your Resume

A few minutes into the Union match with Inter Miami, I realized that their left back was none other than Kieran Gibbs.  Oof.  A career path that goes from Arsenal to West Brom to Inter Miami isn't necessarily the trajectory you would hope for.  Note that ex-Stoke defender Ryan Shawcross features for them and Aston Villa loanee Indiana Vassilev makes an occasional appearance as well.  Not surprising I guess for an American franchise with ex-English internationals as owner (David Beckham) and manager (Phil Neville - at least last time we checked).

August Break?

Well sort of.  Thursday has the Gold Cup semis with Qatar vs US at 7:30 and Mexico vs Canada at 10 pm.  The final will be Sunday night at 8:30 pm.  The Olympic women's quarterfinals are early Friday, with the USWNT taking on Netherlands at 7 am.  And the Union will host Chicago at Subaru Park on Saturday at 6 pm.  Given where we've been, that is an incredibly light schedule.

On another topic, we will note that this is the 400th post from BFS.  We started up in October 2013 with no idea of what would happen.  Happy to see that we're still around.  We had hoped to do more to celebrate but, well, you know.  We will however include a link to the most viewed post in the blog's history from December 2016 during the famous "Five Guys from the USA" trip to England.  It includes the iconic "album cover photo" of the group while in Whitby and also, my brush with celebrity status - the interviews outside of St. James' Park in which a Yankee displays incredible knowledge of second tier English football.