Familiar names, exciting prospects
U.S. using older players but youth is coming
The United States men’s soccer team will play in the Gold Cup final Wednesday night at Levi’s Stadium and it feels like a new installment of one of our favorite shows.
Look, there’s Bruce Arena on the sideline, Tim Howard in goal, Michael Bradley in midfield. Clint Dempsey is back scoring goals! So is Jozy Altidore.
It’s like Game of Thrones, but without quite as many characters disappearing.
This has been entertaining for the past five months. The Gold Cup final will be played not far from where Arena coached a World Cup qualifier shortly after his return to the team’s helm: a 6-0 blowout over Honduras at Avaya Stadium on March 24.
With Arena, the team is 8-0-5. It has regained morale and optimism, emerged from disarray and moved closer to qualify-
“I try to learn as much about players on a daily basis, not just game day,” Bruce Arena, U.S. coach (above)
ing for Russia 2018, standing in third place in the region.
The Americans are in the final of the Gold Cup for the first time since 2013, having won the biennial tournament just once in the past four iterations. Mexico won the other three but lost in a semifinal to Jamaica on Sunday.
In the semifinal defeat of Costa Rica (the United States’ next World Cup qualifying opponent and a team whose 4-0 victory over the U.S. team in November helped oust Jurgen Klinsmann from the coaching seat) the usual suspects were in the spotlight. Dempsey, 34, came on midway through the second half and created a goal for Altidore, 28. Dempsey scored another, to tie Landon Donovan for the all-time scoring lead. Howard, 38, kept a clean sheet in goal.
All very entertaining. And familiar.
But is it good for American soccer? Shouldn’t there be some new faces instead of men who are on their third or fourth World Cup cycle?
Don’t worry. It has been happening. Arena had a younger roster for the group stage. Once he got to the knockout round, he was able to swap out six players, and that’s when he turned to the well-known names.
It’s all part of a process that Arena is using to his advantage. To have the Gold Cup happening in the middle of qualifying and just one year before the (“knock on wood” as all involved in the process say) Russia World Cup, is a godsend for a coach who wasn’t hired until the end of 2016, stepping into the middle of the rapids.
“This is a tremendous opportunity,” said former national-team goalkeeper Brad Friedel, who worked with Gold Cup sponsor Allstate to help refurbish a field and hold a clinic in Watsonville. “Bruce can see a lot of players. It’s not just the 90 minutes on the field. It’s the day in and day out of a long tournament, the training, the minutes in front of Bruce.”
Arena said as much, too. He knows what Altidore, Howard, Bradley and Dempsey can do, so he has used this tournament to evaluate other players.
“I try to learn as much about players on a daily basis, not just game day,” he said this week. “I look at the qualities of players both on and off the field.
“I think I know who our top 44 players are, our four teams we will use to build the depth chart and take us through the rest of the year.”
There is plenty of young talent coming through the system. Budding star Christian Pulisic, who had a long European season in Germany, was not included on the roster, but Arena saw enough of the dazzling 18-year old last spring to know he is indispensable. This is a chance for players like former Stanford forward Jordan Morris, midfielders Kellyn Acosta and Paul Arriola and defender Matt Miazga. All are 22-years-old and expected to be key for the United States going forward.
Friedel is coach of the national under-19 men’s program and he’s optimistic about the future.
“Things are very good right now,” he said. “For the first time in U.S. soccer, we have an integrated group of coaches. We are able to scout at a rapid rate. We are in a really good place.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done but there are lots of good players in the pipeline.”
New characters to learn about, new plotlines to discover. Meanwhile, these installments — a Gold Cup final and a potential World Cup berth — have been very entertaining.
“We know,” Dempsey said, “we’re in a good position to accomplish two big things this year.”