Gold Cup

[El Kabong]

Well the US is coming off a huge series of matches vs some of the top clubs in the world in the Confederations Cup and now comes the Gold Cup vs our close rivals Mexico, Costa Rica, etc. We're in Group B with Grenada (who might be looking for revenge ), Haiti, and Honduras (whom we owe a beat down).

Apparently US Coach Bob Bradley is going to rest some of our key players and give our young guys a go at a high level of competition to get them experience. He's also giving a shot to some guys who didn't make the Confederations Cup squad.

The noteable players left off this squad are: Landon Donovan, Oguchi Onyewu, Michael Bradly, Demarcus Beasley, Jay DeMerit, John Spector, Clint Dempsey, Carlos Bocanegra, and Tim Howard.


The revised roster (x-will not be at all matches):
Goalkeepers: Jon Busch (Chicago Fire), x-Brad Guzan (Aston Villa, England), Troy Perkins (IK Start, Norway), Luis Robles (Kaiserslautern, Germany)
Defenders: x-Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover, Germany), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City), Clarence Goodson (IK Start, Norway), Jay Heaps (New England), x-Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Chad Marshall (Columbus), Michael Parkhurst (Nordsjaellands, Denmark), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock, Germany)
Midfielders: Davy Arnaud (Kansas City), Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Colin Clark (Colorado), x-Ricardo Clark (Houston), Sam Cronin (Toronto), Brad Evans (Seattle), x-Benny Feilhaber (Aarhus, Denmark), Stuart Holden (Houston), Logan Pause (Chicago), Robbie Rogers (Columbus) Forwards: Freddy Adu (AS Monaco), x-Jozy Altidore (Villarreal, Spain), x-Conor Casey (Colorado), Brian Ching (Houston), Kenny Cooper (Dallas), Charlie Davies (Hammarby IF, Sweden), Santino Quaranta (D.C.)

Now of course I haven't heard of half of these guys but if Bob Bradley wants to field a competitive team it's going to be a bit more difficult with thise group of guys, but hopefully the move pays off and gives our younger guys some solid experience at a top level. I would love to see Kenny Cooper, Freddy Adu, and Heath Pearce get some run, it'll also be nice to see how Ching and Cherundolo come back from injury

[El Kabong]

I am kind of shocked that Maurice Edu, Marvell Wynn, and somebody like Justin Mapp didn't get added to the roster, Mapp is a quick little dude and I think could fill in the CAM role that is vacant due to the absence of Donovan, but I guess Freddy Adu would be more suitable for that spot.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF-dV2oqkE8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DCJDS8vaTU

[El Kabong]

I just read Edu got hurt....I also read that this Stuart Holden is pretty damn good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7N-bN2IoPU

I am still wondering when Sal Zizzo and Gabe Ferrari are going to step up too

[El Kabong]

Well 4-0 US win over Grenada, solid (yet expected) result, goals from Adu, Holden, Rogers, and Davies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ2IGNMKBrY


Rogers looked pretty good

[OumaFan]

fucking hell the defending on the second goal was horrible

anyway good for them. Is Mexico bringing their A team?

Davies is definitely growing on me. How little does Bradley think of Cooper when he can't even get a start on this team?

[El Kabong]

Well to be honest Ouma he played Adu at forward paired with Davies, so it's not as if we weren't deep at striker. We're less deep at midfield (which is where I thought Freddy would be playing) and fullback.

I will tell you, hands down Kenny Cooper is more quality than Connor Casey. He'll get his shot soon enough, I am sure vs Grenada Bradley wanted to experiment with the lineup a bit and how quality were Holden and Rogers

As for the actual game, come on, it was Grenada we were playing...the main points are #1 We played with confidence #2 We went for the kill and #3 We got the result we should have gotten.

We play Haiti next who really gave Honduras a hard time. Mexico beat Nicaragua 2-0.


Here's Mexico's squad:
G12 Jesús Corona
M6 Gerardo Torrado
G1 Francisco Guillermo Ochoa
F Omar Arellano Riverón
G Oscar Pérez
F13 pablo barrera
D8 Israel Castro
F9 Omar Bravo
D15 José Castro
F18 José Cárdenas
D4 Edgar Dueñas
F17 Giovani Dos Santos
D22 Efrain Juárez
F16 Carlos Esquivel
D2 Johnny Magallón
F Guillermo Franco
D5 Fausto Pinto
F20 José Martinez Salas
D3 Ismael Rodriguez
F7 Alberto Medina
D21 Juan Valenzuela
F14 Miguel Sabah
M19 Luis Noriega
F11 Carlos Vela

And Vela got hurt in the game vs Nicaragua, I don't know if that's their A squad or not, but there it is