The US take on Honduras Wednesday night at RFK Stadium in Washington DC, in a match up of the Group B leaders at the Gold Cup.
The game will be a rematch of the World Cup qualifier played a month and a day earlier in Chicago, from which the Americans took a hard fought 2-1 victory. But both countries will look very different from that day, with no players from that US roster, and only a small handful from Honduras, appearing in the Gold Cup.
Both teams began their Gold Cup run with victories Saturday night in Seattle, albeit in resoundingly different forms.
The Americans easily handled Caribbean runner-up Grenada by a score of 4-0 that flattered the islanders. The hosts out-shot the Spice Boys 23-3, and scored two goals on either side of the half in coasting to victory.
The Hondurans on the other hand made hard work of a Haiti squad with little experience or coherence coming into the tournament. The Haitians had the better of the early chances against the Catrachos' second string, but a late Carlos Costly goal was enough to lift the Central Americans to a 1-0 victory and a share of the group lead.
After a cross country flight and on four days' rest it is impossible to prognosticate Coach Bob Bradley's starting eleven. Adding to the confusion will be the expanded thirty man roster from which the coach has to choose, meaning that the eighteen squad members dressing for the match Wednesday could be an almost entirely different group from last Saturday.
With the Honduras match likely to provide the staunchest test of the first round, the game will be a litmus test of Bradley's intentions for the Gold Cup. The squad that took the field on Saturday looked cohesive and aggressive, lead by an attacking midfield of Kyle Beckerman, Stuart Holden, and Robbie Rogers.
If Bradley's idea is to develop a coherent second unit he may opt to make few changes from that lineup, in a bid to determine if the string performance was something to build on, or simply a walk in the park against inferior opposition.
Bradley may on the other hand opt to look at a host of other players against Honduras' B-team, with options such as FC Dallas hit man Kenny Cooper and local DC United man Santino Quaranta on the bench.
Both Americans and Hondurans can clinch third place in the group and their quarterfinals spot with a tie, though that fact is not likely to figure prominently in the outcome. The final group match day takes place Saturday night, when the teams move to Boston. |
Tuesday July 7, 2009
2:56 pm |
Be real. Bradley will not alter the starting XI except for Feilhaber for Pause and Conrad or Parkhurst for Goodson. Subs are a totally different thing.
— braun
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Tuesday July 7, 2009
2:37 pm |
If indeed this is more about checking out our bench strength under match conditions then we should try to stick with mainly the players that were originally selected for this squad. Yes I'm glad to see Benny Feilhaber added to the team, but playing Casey, Kljestan, Bornstein etc proves nothing and would be a mistake. This tournament qualifies us for absolutely nothing and should be used to find players that we may need in real games, i.e. World Cup Qualifying.
It should be used to keep Charlie Davies sharp, and to showcase players like Freddy Adu and Heath Pierce who both need to find teams that wish to play them.
We need to play guys like Holden, Rogers and Cooper... bubble players who still might be able to challenge for spots on the "A" team. Our defense is still a bit thin and playing Parkhurst or Chad Marshall is important, seeing if Steve Cherundolo is indeed fit to play again is a no brainer.
While I certainly want us to win, I'm more interested in HOW we play and if there is someone who can push out some of the dead wood that is currently occupying some of the US jerseys
— Robert Kiernan
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Tuesday July 7, 2009
10:34 am |
Bradley should take notice of Pep Guardiola's strategy and learn from it.
— Judy Withington
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Tuesday July 7, 2009
10:13 am |
coach bradley should have brought both feilhaber and altidore.
— dikranovich
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