If the Concacaf Gold Cup was meant to be a testing ground for an inexperienced version of the U.S. men’s national team, Sunday’s quarterfinal against Costa Rica was a very trying examination. It was not only the fact that it was the first win-or-go-home game for this group, which inherently comes with pressure, but a quick glance at the scoreline will demonstrate that a 2-2 game that ends in a 4-3 win via a penalty shootout comes with its own trials and tribulations.
In a back-and-forth match, it was the USMNT who conceded first when Francisco Calvo converted a 12th minute penalty for Los Ticos, eventually clawing their way back to a 2-1 lead by the 49th minute despite missing a first half spotkick of their own. There was time for Costa Rica to work their way back into the game before a dramatic penalty shootout in which Keylor Navas made two saves for Los Ticos and Matt Freese made three for the USMNT. Amidst the twists and turns, though, several players stepped up, finally seizing the opportunity that head coach Mauricio Pochettino handed to them.
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Freese delivered the most memorable performance on Sunday in Minneapolis, facing seven penalties in total – including Calvo’s in the first half – and diving the right way on nearly all of them, saving almost half of those spotkicks and getting a touch on most of the others.
It was a defining moment for the 26-year-old, who perhaps lucked into a starting spot at the Gold Cup. Pochettino seemed intent to explore his options this month, bringing first choice Matt Turner along for the ride but not playing him so far in the competition. The role could have been filled by the two goalkeepers expected to make the cut, the Columbus Crew’s Patrick Schulte and the Colorado Rapids’ Zack Steffen, but both of them pulled up with injuries before the Gold Cup began. The opportunity fell to New York City FC’s Freese, who may not always have his moments in regular play but as he quickly quipped in a post-match interview with broadcasters, admitted that “penalties are my thing.”
Freese’s was the type of outing that boosted his credentials in what could be a competitive race to fill in the goalkeeper positions at the World Cup, boasting a genuinely helpful skillset that some of the others in the pool have yet to demonstrate. Freese is a specialist in penalties at this point – he has won six of the seven shootouts he’s taken part in during his career and may just be the break-glass-in-case-of-emergency pick next year, much like the Netherlands’ Tim Krul famously was in a shootout against Costa Rica at the 2014 World Cup.
While Freese is the standout, he was not the only up-and-coming USMNT player to build his case for next year’s tournament on Sunday. The most likely candidate to do so this summer was Luna and though he had a slow start to the Gold Cup, he finally earned his moment in the sun with the equalizer against Costa Rica. His goal was one of his three shots during the game, serving as a constant in attack as the U.S. spent much of the first 50 minutes keeping Costa Rica’s defense busy. Luna was a perfect fit for a team that was energetic and intense during that spell, endearing himself months ago to Pochettino as someone who has the right mindset. The question for the midfielder was whether he could match the mentality with meaningful moments on the pitch and with a goal on Sunday, he is starting to add to an international tally that has him at one goal and four assists in 10 matches.
Luna’s success means there is growing competition for attacking midfield roles as the USMNT enter the final year before the World Cup, especially as Malik Tillman maintains a strong run of form and Gio Reyna sits on Borussia Dortmund’s bench at the Club World Cup.
There’s a similar pattern developing at left back, though one that resembles the competition for goalkeeping spots rather than the starting roles that Luna, Tillman and Reyna may be fighting for. Max Arfsten may have had an uneven performance on Sunday but he also managed several major moments by assisting Luna’s goal and scoring his own in the second half, setting up his own redemption arc after conceding a penalty in the 11th minute. The 24-year-old Arfsten was dynamic on the left wing during the USMNT’s energetic start to the match, setting up several teammates for chances and completing 83.3% of his passes in the attacking third along the way.
His inexperience showed at times and it is hard to envision a world in which he replaces Antonee Robinson, who has been genuinely excellent for Fulham and the USMNT in recent years. There is, though, an argument to be made that he is a better understudy than Joe Scally, who has unsuccessfully filled Robinson’s shoes on a few occasions, and Arftsen’s ability to play on both wings is an asset.
USMNT’s room for improvement
Arfsten’s performance is emblematic of the USMNT’s overall showing – they made strides on Sunday, but there are still visible imperfections. The high tempo of the first 50 minutes were undoubtedly a positive, as were the 11 shots and two goals they had generated in that time. Their shot creation ideas were working, especially as Arfsten commanded the left flank, but there were a lot of missed connections in the final third during that time. Combined with the fact that Tillman missed a penalty in the first half, the 1.47 expected goals they mustered up along the way left a lot to be desired.
It also offered a stark reminder of one of the USMNT’s longstanding weaknesses – a reliable goalscorer leading the forward line. In the absence of the injured Folarin Balogun and Ricardo Pepi and the out-of-favor Josh Sargent, that responsibility has fallen to Patrick Agyemang. Like Luna, he had begun to make a case for himself earlier this year but has just one goal at the Gold Cup so far. On Sunday, he seemed out of lockstep with his teammates and hesitant on the ball, taking four shots but failing to put a single one on target.
There was a feeling of disconnect that was still present, in some ways understandable but in other ways troubling. These players are still fairly new to each other, so building chemistry will obviously take time, but after almost a month working together, the first 50 minutes of the game demonstrated that their time together was starting to pay off. After taking the lead, though, the group collectively took their foot off the gas – they took seven shots but failed to put a single one on target, coming up with just 0.54 expected goals in the process. Most of it actually came after Alonso Martinez’s equalizer in the 71st minute, though, and there was a period from the 50th minute to the 65th where the USMNT actually did not take a single shot.
Heading into the semifinals, there’s still an incomplete feeling about this version of the USMNT, which is perhaps to be expected considering the long list of high-profile Gold Cup absentees. It is still hard to gauge whether or not this group can go all the way and win the Gold Cup, though they will at least be the heavy favorites in Wednesday’s semifinal against Guatemala, who are in the final four for the first time since 1996 after an upset over Canada. That is almost a secondary point this summer, though – Pochettino’s task was to find talent that can mesh with the main squad once they reconvene later this year and he has found just that, even if the trade off is that he has identified just as many problems he needs to troubleshoot with one year to go until the World Cup.