Key events
7 min: Chance! Sebastian Berhalter latches on to a loose ball and fires an effort at goal with nice technique. It’s blocked out for a corner that comes to nothing.
7 min: A lot of great seats still available at PayPal Park – another major Concacaf game involving the US that fails to meet attendance expectations.
5 min: Chance! Tillman plays through Patrick Agyemang, who beats his defender and the goalkeeper but his slow rolling effort ends up just wide. Had it gone it, he might have been flagged for offside – it looked like a close call from the broadcast.
3 min: As against Turkey, it was always going to be interesting to see how Diego Luna, Malik Tillman and Jack McGlynn line up as a trio of attacking midfielders and/or wingers. To start, it’s Luna on the left, McGlynn on the right, and Tillman through the middle.
Even in the time it took for me to type that, though, they’ve changed spots a lot. Expect them to be very fluid throughout.
1 min: We are under way!
The teams are walking up the stairs and over the bridge over the concourse and down the stairs and out on to the field.
PayPal Park’s layout is…interesting.
T&T’s starters
Here’s the starting XI that will take on the United States.
Eagle-eyed aficionados of USMNT pain and anguish will notice the presence of one Alvin Jones.
Jones, in case you forgot (intentionally or not), was the Trinidad & Tobago player most responsible for eliminating the US from World Cup qualifying back in 2017. He scored his first international goal and put in the cross that resulted in an own goal in Couva that evening.
So what’s the deal with Christian Pulisic and Landon Donovan?
It’s a long(ish) story.
First, Mauricio Pochettino announced that Pulisic had elected to not join the US for this summer’s Gold Cup and pre-Gold Cup friendlies. In addition, several other players were left out for various reasons, ranging from Club World Cup commitments to injuries.
Landon Donovan, a former USMNT great who now works as a commentator for Fox, criticized Pulisic and others on his podcast with former USMNT goalkeeper Tim Howard:
Donovan later repeated those points of criticism on Fox Sports 1 after Portugal won the Uefa Nations League, which drew a response from Christian Pulisic’s dad, Mark Pulisic:
Christian then made an appearance of his own on CBS Sports’ Call it What You Want podcast, saying that he told Pochettino he wanted to play the two friendlies but was rebuffed:
Pochettino confirmed as much in his pre-match press conference yesterday.
…That brings us up to date! Exhausted yet?
How are things going for Mauricio Pochettino’s USMNT lately?
In short…not great.
There are off-field controversies, and on-field struggles. In a 4-0 loss to Switzerland, there were errors that fall both on the coaching staff and the players.
Read more:
USMNT’s starters
Mauricio Pochettino has named a starting XI that closely resembled the group that took the field v Turkey last week – a game they lost 2-1.
Notable changes from that game v Turkey include Tim Ream in for Miles Robinson in central defense, and Sebastian Berhalter replacing Johnny Cardoso in midfield.
Welcome!
The US hasn’t had a great deal of positive momentum lately, but they’ll try to reverse that later this evening when they take on Trinidad and Tobago in their Gold Cup opener. I’m Alex, and I’ll be with you the whole way. Follow along!
