Getty Images SportWHAT HAPPENED
In a closely fought contest between the USMNT and Haiti, Mauricio Pochettino’s team eventually managed to walk away as 2-1 winners on Sunday night.
Haiti managed to equalize in the first half after the USMNT took the lead through Malik Tilman's goal, but a Patrick Agyemang score in the 78th minute ensured victory and kept them on the top of the group heading into next Sunday's Gold Cup quarterfinal. Still, former USMNT star Herculez Gomez expressed his doubts.
“Take a look at this USMNT team that played vs Haiti - and people get caught up with the Haiti of the old, the Haiti of the '70s that was pretty good in CONCACAF - the Haiti off late has not been very good," Gomez said on Futbol Americas. 'And you start thinking to yourself ‘Why aren’t they playing this team off the field? Why aren’t they playing them off the pitch like they did Trinidad and Tobago, what’s going on here?’ "
He added that the USMNT roster for the Gold Cup lacks players with international experience.
“So if this is an MLS combine, this Gold Cup team for the US - not that that’s a negative thing - they’re not proven international players," he said. "And these players are stepping into these situations have a handful caps at most, very little international experience, nothing should be a given... It doesn’t matter whose on the field, they’re not producing. It doesn’t matter whose on the field, they don’t look convincing.
“So all that said, three wins, first place in the group, isn’t too bad. It’s just that’s not what fans want to hear, that’s not fans want to see a year out from the World Cup, they were expecting different."
WHAT KASEY KELLER SAID
Kasey Keller, who played for the U.S. in four World Cups, said Pochettino's team generally played "stale" and questioned the lack of dynamic attackers.
“It was a little bit stale to be honest,” Keller said on Futbol Americas. “I was expecting a little bit more, particularly after the early goal. I thought maybe they were going to then kick on... I just kept thinking ‘Where are the dynamic players that we’re used to seeing with the USMNT?’ Stuart Holden said something the other day against Saudi Arabia, ‘There’s really nobody on the pitch for the US who can kinda drop a shoulder and run by somebody.' "
Keller said the USMNT did deserve credit for finding a way to win, especially considering the four-match losing streaking entering the Gold Cup.
“In the end, I thought Agyemang took his goal well and that eased some of the pressure," he said, "but to be on the positive side, I think what you can say - they didn’t play well against Saudi Arabia, they didn’t play well against Haiti - but they found ways to win. And we haven’t seen that from this team in a while. F inding a way to win is important but against better opposition, you have to play better, as we saw against Turkey and Switzerland.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Despite winning their group, the unconvincing nature of the victories has created concens about the team's readiness for more challenging competition, particularly when the full first-choice squad isn't available.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Thanks to their 2-1 win over Haiti, the USMNT finished at the top of Group D and will face Costa Rica in the quarterfinals of the Gold Cup on June 29.