“USA coach Bruce Arena told The Set Pieces that Christian Pulisic has a “very bright future” with the national team after meeting the Borussia Dortmund teenager for the first time at the weekend. Having recently been appointed as US head coach for a second time, Arena was in Germany to check in on the American contingent in the Bundesliga. On Saturday, he attended Dortmund’s victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach at Signal Iduna Park to watch Pulisic and Gladbach’s flying full-back Fabian Johnson.” the set pieces

“t was in September 2008 that the U.S. national team last visited Havana, but it may as well have been the 1970s or 80s. President George W. Bush’s administration had doubled down on the embargo, tightened travel restrictions and included Cuba in an expanded ‘Axis of Evil’. A handful of intrepid American fans who made the illegal trip to support their national team covered their faces with bandannas. That team would have driven past a billboard featuring portraits of Bush and Adolf Hitler, and later found locals scouting a practice session from a dorm built into the Estadio Pedro Marrero.” SI

“So the world isn’t ending. Put down the pitchforks and torches, cancel the move into that bunker and hold off on the ritual sacrifices. Facing the unimaginable horror of elimination from the World Cup more than two years before the tournament kicks off in Russia, the U.S. national team gathered itself and blasted Guatemala, 4-0, on Tuesday evening in Columbus, Ohio. Now 2-1-1 in their four-team semifinal round group and scheduled to face St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago in September, coach Jurgen Klinsmann’s team looks to be well on its way to CONCACAF’s Hexagonal—just where it’s supposed to be.” SI

“In American folklore, when the British redcoats came to Massachusetts in 1775 during the Revolutionary War, the message amongst the colonists was ‘one if by land, and two if by sea’. They came by land. In mid-November 2015, it was the Americans who came to New York City by land, air or subway (or my trek via a 13-hour shoddy bus ride to China Town) to see the British — two of them, with friends — packed in a Brooklyn convention center to celebrate ‘BlazerCon’. Redcoats were swapped for blazers (tweed ones were the most memorialised). Guinness was poured. Meat pies were consumed. This was a modern-day revolution of sorts, only through ‘soccer’.” Football Pink

“It’s fair to say that U.S. Men’s national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann has been under fire this year from American fans and writers. The failure to gain the finals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup in July, after being defeated on penalties by Panama in the semifinals, coupled with the October loss to archrival Mexico for a berth in the 2017 Confederations Cup, has created doubts as to whether Klinsmann is still the right man to lead the American squad that earlier in the year had beaten Mexico, the Netherlands and Germany in successive friendlies. Klinsmann, who has also coached the German national team and Bayern Munich, led his squad through a strong 2014 campaign, highlighted by their advance from the World Cup ‘Group of Death’ in Brazil, but the question in sports is always ‘what have you done for me lately?’” Bundesliga Fanatic

“Clint Dempsey, who started the year as U.S. national team captain, is off. New citizen Darlington Nagbe and emerging defensive stalwart Matt Miazga suddenly are on the threshold of their international debuts. Fabian Johnson is back after a short stay in the coach’s doghouse. And Jurgen Klinsmann has found a balance between continuity and overhaul on his first World Cup qualifying roster of this new cycle. Less than a month after reaching the nadir of his four-plus year tenure as U.S. coach, the embattled manager has named a 23-man team for the upcoming qualifiers against Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in St. Louis (Nov. 13) and Trinidad and Tobago in Port of Spain, Trinidad (Nov. 17).” SI

“With the CONCACAF Champions League (CCL) group stage coming to an end last week, it’s a good time to address whether or not the North American governing body should change the schedule of their premier club competition, something which has been discussed for a while now. The suggestion is to alter the competition to run spring to autumn, rather than autumn to spring.” Outside of the Boot

“Surprise, surprise. Another soccer game between the United States and Mexico is on the horizon. On October 10, the two teams will contest a one-game playoff for the right to represent CONCACAF in the always super competitive Confederations Cup, the tournament, hosted by the next World Cup host nation (Russia), that pits regional champions against one another. But do we really need another U.S.-Mexico game? With so many Gold Cups, what is the need for this brand new ‘CONCACAF Cup’?” Fusion

“Neither the United States nor Mexico heads into the CONCACAF Cup match in an ideal situation. Unrest has been the theme since the Gold Cup, with Mexico battling–yet appearing to narrowly avoid–key injuries sans a full-time manager and Jurgen Klinsmann still with some calls to make in regard to his first-choice lineup. Through the chaos in each camp, the key on Oct. 10 will likely be each team’s defensive approach. The finer details—player selection and formations—could change, but the broad strokes should remain the same because coaches don’t have time to drastically change now.” SI

“In sports, team identity can be a tricky thing. What do you want to be about? What are your fundamentals? Your bedrock? And do you achieve the defining characteristics that you’ve set out as a goal for your outfit? Jurgen Klinsmann announced some audacious plans when he took over the U.S. men’s national team in 2011. He wanted nothing less than for the U.S. to become a proactive team that initiated the attack against elite opponents and made them react. That kind of transformation takes time, of course—lots of it—but it doesn’t mean you have to throw out all the good things that defined the U.S. team pre-Klinsmann.” SI

“So much for the best-laid plans of national team managers. U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann desperately wanted to avoid a playoff for CONCACAF’s spot in the 2017 Confederations Cup. So he selected a Gold Cup roster stocked with veterans and promising younger players—the best available, he claimed—who comprised a ‘very, very strong group that can win this prestigious tournament.’ It failed. The U.S. was 2-0-1 but unconvincing in the continental championship’s group stage.” SI

“Congratulations CONCACAF! You finally get to sit at the big kids table in international football. After years of fighting and scratching to gain even a crumb of recognition from football fans across the world, the region of North and Central America and the Caribbean finally has the world’s attention. One would think that the region would be jumping up and down for joy with the Women’s World Cup and Men’s Gold Cup having finished and with Tigres playing in the Copa Libertadores final. But with the officials being carted off to prison and the shining light of the United States dirtied by its own internal issues a time for celebration is now a time for concern.” backpagefootball

“Mexico is the champion of the 2015 Gold Cup. Well, Mexico and the refs. Some spectacularly bad refereeing helped El Tri make it to the final, but once there, it finally put on a show, beating Jamaica 3-1. This was the tournament in which Mexico proved itself. More than booking its spot in the Confederations Cup playoff, the Gold Cup was a showcase for El Tri’s absurd amount of talent. There’s no longer any doubt which team in CONCACAF is the most talented. In fact, the gulf between Mexico and the rest of the region may be even bigger than we previously thought.” Fusion

“The U.S. national team was well past writing a storybook ending to this disastrous CONCACAF Gold Cup when DaMarcus Beasley, 33 and a veteran of four World Cups, stepped to the penalty spot hoping to keep his side alive in Saturday’s bronze medal game. Even victory over Panama would not have obscured the disappointment of the Americans’ two-year decline from unbeaten regional champion to this consolation match played at half-empty PPL Park. But a Beasley miss, on what was probably the last touch of his historic international career, would be cruel salt in the wound. It would have been too much.” SI

“Well, that wasn’t supposed to happen. The United States men’s national team, which had reached the last five CONCACAF Gold Cup finals, fell, 2-1, to an active and inspired Jamaican team in last night’s semifinal in Atlanta. Their first home loss to the Reggae Boyz sends the Americans into Saturday’s sad third-place match against Panama, while Jamaica moves through to its first final against Mexico. Not winning the whole thing — let alone crashing out before the championship game — is an utter failure for the Red, White, and Blue. So, how worried should you, USMNT-adjacent person, be? Well, it depends who you are …” Grantland

“Mexico is heading to the CONCACAF Gold Cup final, but not exactly in the most glory-filled manner. Despite having a man advantage from the 25th minute on, Mexico needed another late, controversial penalty call to force extra time, where it ultimately prevailed over Panama 2–1 at the Georgia Dome to set up a final against Jamaica on Sunday at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field. Andres Guardado, just like he did in the quarterfinals against Costa Rica, converted the late penalty and then another one in extra time to keep El Tri alive.” SI

Undesired third-place game still serves a purpose for United States
“There are two ways to look at Saturday’s Gold Cup consolation game between the United States and Panama. On one hand, it can be viewed as little more than an inconvenience, a match the players and coaches on both teams — having fallen short of reaching Sunday’s final in nearby Philadelphia — would just as soon not play at all. On the other, it’s still a chance for the sides to represent their countries, make a little bit of appearance money and, for the team that is victorious (after all, there must be a winner), an opportunity to end a disappointing, unfulfilling and ultimately unsuccessful tournament with heads held high.” ESPN

“Ah, the golden summer of American footie rolls on. First, the women’s national team rampages across Canada, shutting out the world and ending up with individual covers of the same magazine. And now, the men are cruising through the CONCACAF Gold Cup competition — a tournament that, I will grant you, had eluded me for most of my career. However, it seems to be such a big-deal pile of initials that 40,000 people will show up in Baltimore on a day halfway between Gobi Desert and blast furnace to watch the United States dismantle Cuba, 6-0, in a game that ended for all practical purposes in its first two minutes. (The absence of any side from Central America in the doubleheader was said to have held attendance down.) No game seems as much like a mismatch as one that has the winning coach still warning his team about overconfidence a half-hour after the game is over.” Grantland

“With the United States’ recent success against big-name international competition, the team and its fans could be forgiven for thinking the CONCACAF Gold Cup would be a breeze. The U.S. did win the toughest group of the competition, but the results were far from comfortable. A draw with Panama in the meaningless group finale followed one-goal wins over Honduras and Haiti that secured Group A, but the U.S. never looked entirely comfortable in its trio of matches. After smash-and-grab victories over the Netherlands and Germany in June, the Americans continued a troubling pattern of inability to dictate matches when opponents sit back.” SI

Altidore off of USA’s Gold Cup roster; Beasley among Klinsmann’s adds
“Time has run out on Jozy Altidore, whose recovery from a hamstring injury didn’t progress fast enough to warrant an extended place on the U.S. national team squad that will make a run at a second consecutive CONCACAF Gold Cup title. Altidore was among three players cut Tuesday by U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who had the option of making up to six changes to his 23-man tournament roster following the conclusion of the group stage. Altidore will depart along with defender Greg Garza and midfielder Alfredo Morales. They’ll be replaced by veteran defender DaMarcus Beasley—who’s coming out of international retirement—forward Alan Gordon and midfielder Joe Corona.” SI

“CONCACAF is Mexico, the United States, and everyone else. This is a line that is used quite frequently when one is searching for things to talk about CONCACAF. Whether at a bar, a match, or in a studio the following thoughts are almost always expressed when talking about the region during the Gold Cup, the top international competition in North and Central America, ‘Two big teams, a bunch of small ones, and hey isn’t Canada terrible? Next question.’” backpagefootball

“The indefatigable Michael Bradley scored early in the second half on Monday night in Kansas City to lift the struggling U.S. national team to a 1-1 draw against Panama in the final game of the CONCACAF Gold Cup’s group stage. The Americans entered the match having already sealed passage to Saturday’s quarterfinal, while Panama was desperate for a good result (the U.S.’s next opponent and Panama’s fate will be determined over the next two days). Fittingly, Los Canaleros started the game with vigor and took a deserved first-half lead. Although the U.S. demonstrated very little of the cohesion and chemistry it hoped to establish before the knockout rounds, it did pull level thanks to a few reliable qualities—resilience, good goalkeeping and the inventiveness of Clint Dempsey.” SI

“The record will show that the U.S. national team won its CONCACAF Gold Cup group after only two games. But the scoreboard doesn’t begin to show how difficult it was to do so. Three days after struggling to beat Honduras, the Americans squeaked by a dangerous Haitian squad, 1-0, before 46,720 fans on a temporary grass field at Gillette Stadium. Clint Dempsey scored his third goal of the tournament—he’s the only American to find the net so far—and goalkeeper Brad Guzan made a spectacular second-half save to rob Haiti (0-1-1) of a draw it probably deserved. The U.S. (2-0-0) will move on (not before playing Panama on Monday) but has plenty of work to do to find its championship form.” SI

2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup
“The 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup is the 13th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup competition and the 23rd CONCACAF regional championship overall in CONCACAF’s fifty years of existence. It is currently being held in the United States, with two matches being played in Canada, marking the first time the CONCACAF Gold Cup is played in that country. …” Wikipedia

2015 concacaf Gold Cup – Schedule & Results

“Ever wish you’d chronicled your life as football fan, from that very first enlightening moment to whatever stage of infatuation, loathing or ambivalence you’re at now? Well, Michael Agovino has sort of done that – only in retrospect. The Soccer Diaries reads exactly as you’d expect given its title; it’s a journal – of sorts – taking us through his life as a soccer fan. In all probability, Agovino should never have written this book at all. Not because of a lack of quality, but because his background weighed heavily against him even knowing what soccer was.” Football Pink

“Worrying about attendance figures has long been an American soccer obsession. Supporters religiously fretted over single-game crowd counts, average attendances, season tickets sold, advance ticket sales for that upcoming friendly, and the rest. We all did a little touchdown dance every time a big soccer crowd filled the bowl or whenever an attendance record fell. I’m not sure what comparing MLS attendance figures to leagues around the world ever told us about actual, popular appeal – but that sure didn’t stop us, did it? But these soccer times, they are a-changin’. Seems so, anyway.” Soccer Gods

“… The American Outlaws is not the first U.S. supporters group of the modern era. That would be Sam’s Army, founded by Mark Spacone and John Wright in 1994. They began by organizing tailgates for important home World Cup qualifiers and traveled as a group to the 1998, 2002, and 2006 World Cups. (In 2006, I marched with Sam’s Army through the streets of Nuremberg on the way to the U.S.-Ghana game, chanting “U-S-A, U-S-A.” It was fun but, looking back, the scene had some of the negative elements this article will cover.)” Soccer Gods (Video)

“As the summer of 1995 came to a close, Luis Orozco, a Colombian-born student living in Akron, Ohio, popped a letter in the mail that was bound for his local newspaper. He was overcome by two emotions: pessimism and intrigue. The latter of the two was fueled by Orozco’s love of football, which, to his delight, was welcoming a yet-to-be-named professional team to his area, set for a place in the newly formed Major League Soccer league. The pessimism: that came from Orozco’s belief that his suggestion for the Columbus slot’s name, contained in the letter that was now on its way to the Columbus Dispatch, may not be chosen, thanks to a wave of competition.” 8by8

“When it came time to talk about Tim Howard’s recent book, The Keeper, focus quickly turned to one of the book’s subplots, a conflict between the Everton goalkeeper and one of his former international teammates, Brad Friedel. According to the book, Friedel opposed Howard’s move from Major League Socer to Manchester United in 2003, declining to sign a recommendation as well as petitioning the Professional Footballer’s Association to deny Howard’s work permit appeal.” Soccer Gods