Catanese: Five USMNT and CONCACAF WCQ Thoughts
The USA have found a great run of form and three regional teams secured their spots at next summer's World Cup.
The magic and dreams of World Cup qualifying were either achieved or ended for most of the world on Tuesday. Most of next summer’s 48-team field has been filled, though there are a few UEFA and Inter-Continental playoff spots to fill.
Oh and the United States hung four goals on Uruguay. In the first half. A 5-1 final result so absurd Paul Carr was fact checking the entire USMNT history and Opta was looking up stuff from the late 80s and mid-90s.
Let’s start with the good:
SET PIECES ARE BACK
For very easily identifiable reasons — Christian Pulisic’s generally woeful service — the USMNT has not been good at set pieces for a while now. Which is stunning considering the depth and talent we have at centerback in players like Chris Richards, and that set pieces literally carried a woeful U.S. attack at the Gold Cup four years ago.
Sebastian Berhalter’s early thunderbastard in the 17th minute before finding Alex Freeman off a corner a few minutes later, put Uruguay in a hole which they never recovered from. I would assume that service alone should have the a Berhalter back at a World Cup next summer.
The USA getting goals and involvement from outside its attacking three is a great thing; it means said things should translate when other players are in the starting lineup. Should carrying a lot of weight there…but for a team that has struggled especially to capitalize on set pieces, this is a positive trend for the U.S. going into next year.
POCH BACKS THE “SUPPORTING” CAST
When asking about a lineup/squad that did not feature names like Pulisic, Weah, McKennie, etc., many of whom are nursing injuries with their club teams, the USMNT head coach was rightly a bit prickly.
“I don’t want to be negative, no, but I hate, I hate that, ‘not regular players.’ What [does it] mean?” Poch said after the game, quote from ESPN’s Cesar Hernandez’s postgame article. And, he’s got a point.
Without a true qualifying cycle and cleaning up the mess left by the elder Berhalter, the U.S. coaching job has not been an easy one. Poch getting the players he has to buy in is great; he’s going to need those players next summer to help him close out or win games.
Sergino Dest and Antonee Robinson should be your starting fullback/wingback duo…but having Max Arfsten and Alex Freeman play well this year shores up a big hole on the depth chart. Diego Luna, among others, could be an absolute menace off the bench in high-energy spurts. Poch wanting to focus on the players he has is a good thing, whether that will work six or seven months from now is another story.
The U.S. is not going to win multiple knockout games without its best players. It’s going to need Pulisic, Weah, Musah, Balogun, etc., to be heavily involved in getting the ball forward and generating chances. The U.S. has struggled to get its strikers involved in the game, and when they can’t they’ve been generally dreadful offensively. Having more options behind the true strikers is a great thing because it means opponents can’t just take away one player and render the USA impotent.
Are there still issues for the USMNT? Yes.
I don’t think Matt Freese is the guy, despite starting the last 12 games in net; you can’t give up that opportunity right before the half. There are still centerback, center mid, and other depth charts/position battles/rotations to solve, but right now, if the five-man/three centerback backline is going to continue.
But, the US has some momentum going into the spring and World Cup send-off games and that will do for now.
GLORY TO THE MINNOWS
Curacao’s rise to regional legitimacy has been a bumpy one. Breaking out of the Netherlands Antilles moniker, the Blue Wave didn’t officially debut at a Gold Cup until 2017, have only had one win (against Honduras in 2019) in their tournament history, had COVID derail and cancel their 2021 appearance and then they missed the 2023 GC and got knocked down to the Nations League B Flight for 24/25 before getting promoted again.
But now Curacao holds the record for the smallest nation ever at a World Cup, a record subject to be broken numerous times under the expanded format but still. A qualifying campaign that saw them win a second round group over Haiti, beat Jamaica at home, and claim four points in the final set of games to secure automatic qualification.
Then you have the absolute legends that are Haiti.
Their head coach’s biggest stops are Kenya and Equitorial Guinea, they can’t play home games due to gang violence, haven’t made a World Cup since 1974 (when Les Grenadiers and Zaire both went winless), haven’t gotten out of the Gold Cup groups since a semifinal run in 2019 and they’ve been a yo-yo team in the Nations League.
But Duckens Nazon and Frantzdy Pierrot, and Johny Placide among others are going to a World Cup, and I couldn’t be happier for them.
THE FALLEN GIANTS
What the hell happened? Costa Rica and Honduras were drawn into a ridiculous group, I get that; a very good team from Group C was going to go home.
But both the Ticos and Catrachos?! Inconceivable.
A must-win game for both teams generated a combined 6-for-29 shooting performance as Haiti rightly won the group over a Costa Rica side that had one win in six this round and a Honduras team that notched only five goals in the six-game round robin.
Then you have another disaster class from Jamaica, as the Reggae Boyz gave up a late goal to Trinidad last week to lose control of their own destiny and then couldn’t score a goal at home. A feat so astounding Steve McLaren resigned immediately after the game, and Jamaica are still in the intercontinental playoffs!
I am all for chaos and new teams making it to the World Cup, but this has to be a tremendously disappointing campaign for a lot of CONCACAF’s so-called second-tier teams.
THE WILD NE REVS AIDED SURINAME ROLLER COASTER
Suriname needed to match Panama’s result and maintain its goal difference lead over the Canaleros to secure what could have been a wild Group A title and an automatic spot in the World Cup.
Already down 1-0, a certain Young Player of the Gold Cup who used to hail from New England subbed on the 57th minute…and with his first action of the game, Olger Escobar doubled the lead for Los Chapines and pretty much sunk Suriname’s World Cup dreams. Teammate Oscar Santis added a third, and all but put CONCACAF’s other Cinderella story out of qualifying altogether.
Enter another Revs hero, Nicolas Samayoa.
Yes, the former fourth-round draft pick with no MLS games, and a very impressive Guatemalan domestic record, rescued Suriname’s World Cup dreams by only getting a piece of a last-ditch cross…and having the ball skim off the top of his head into his own net.
A Suriname goal that brought them level with Honduras in the second place tiebreak table (9 pts, +3 GD) but put The Natio ahead on goals scored and into the six team bracket next year.
How could you not love soccer and not think that CONCACAF isn’t the best region in the world?