Ok so we now know we face Columbia in the third place match on Saturday night. There are typically two schools of thought on this type of game. One side says its still a competitive match and play the lineup that gives you the best chance for a result. The other school says nobody cares about a third place game so this is a good place to give some of the younger guys some good minutes and reward their work in training with some game minutes (the only field players to not see action so far are Kitchen and Castillo).
Well I fall firmly (for this particular tournament) in the first school. We have a chance to take third place in freaking Copa America Centario. It would be the highest finish ever for us in a COPA. And we get a revenge game against Coumbia whom I think we played better against than the 2-0 loss indicated.
This is the lineup I would start:
-----------------------Howard
---Yedlin------Cameron--------Brooks------Besler
-----------------------------------Bradley
------------Bedoya
-------------------------Dempsey
------Zardes-----------------------------Johnson
-------------------------Wood
Basically back to the starting XI that was playing so well with two changes. I am putting Besler at LB and moving Johnson to the midfield and I am starting Howard over Cuzan. Howard deserves a game and frankly Cuzan has not been anything special in this tournament. Mostly fine but he was not sharp in the Argentina game. Lot of guys would like to see Horvath in the nets and I understand that. Good chance he may be the keeper in 2018 but there is still plenty of time to get him good matches in the WCQ hexagonals.
This lineup is the best balance of a strong defense with ability to counter quickly. This is what we are the best at. We are not good when we try and totally bunker with no ability to move out of pressure (go rewatch Aregentina and see how we had no ability to get out of trouble). With this lineup I think we can do well against Columbia and get a good result. Build some positive momentum going into the September matches. If the game goes well (or horrible) then you can sub in Kitchen, Ngabe, and/or Pulisic to give them some more minutes. But please, I pray, that they do not play Castillo. I know he does real well in the Mexican league but everytime he dons a MNT jersey and gets on the pitch he is a disaster.
So there are my thoughts. Who knows what Klinsmann will do (although I think he has a strong desire to win this game) or the mindset of the players after the bad showing on Tuesday. But like all things in life reality usually lies somewhere in the middle of those who tout one extreme or the other. Clearly we did NOT play well against Argentina. But we also were faced with a tough opponent and missing some key cogs. Lets go out with our heads up!
Totally with you here. It's a second chance against Colombia, and a chance to finish 3rd.
Bradley was dismissive of 3rd place games in the immediate aftermath of the loss Tuesday, but it's a chance to end this tournament feeling really positive about the experience.
Winning the group stage, and getting 4 W's in the tournament - Costa Rica, Paraguay, Ecudaor, and Colombia would be a strong achievement.
At the minimum, you got the group stage win, and the experience of playing Colombia twice, and Argentina once. Those experiences can only improve you.
Having just played Colombia, there shouldn't be any 'intimidation' factor.