Post game thoughts.
Good - The goal was clearly to rest the starters (mostly, although Pulisic and Boyd did come on in the second half) and to win the group. Mission accomplished. No cards were received and no injuries occurred as well. Plus we got to see some of the lesser players (Miholavic, Cannon, Lewis) and see how they'd handle it. So overall pleased with what they accomplished last night and I am warming up to Berhalter more and more. Now lets see how he works the team the rest of the way. Don't expect much trouble on Sunday with Curacao. We should be able to handle them with whatever lineup we send out.
Now as to the players last night here's how I rate their performances.
Stock up:
Cannon, Miazga, Johnson Those three played well and did their jobs with no major mistakes. I believer Miazga is a #1 team player and have lobbied that the back line should be Miazga, Zimmerman, and Long. I think we are actually in good shape here going into qualifying with several additional choices in Brooks, Carter-Vickers, Brown.
Stock the same:
Mihavolic - made some errors but showed some flashes and hes' young. I believe he has potential just needs more exposure and training
Gonzalez - Omar is Omar. Good for a big mistake every game. While he didn't go anything really awful last night I think age has gotten to him and he really doesn't have a role going forward except for depth against weaker teams.
Lewis - Good energy but not the best touch. Ok bench/role player going forward.
Trapp - Just not that good but not that bad. But has to be behind Bradley, McKennie, and Adams.
Stock down:
Roldan - enough of him. He has had plenty of callups and he just isn't at the needed level. Rather see them bring in Pomykal from the U20 team going forward.
Altidore - Yes he scored a nice goal and had some nice holdups. But he is out of shape and looked to have low energy. Maybe he is still getting in to shape but he didn't look to take over the #1 striker spot in this tourney over Zardes. Jozy is better technically but Zardes has shown way more energy.
On to the quarterfinal on Sunday. Be interesting to see what lineup Berhalter sends out. Will he put the starters back out, the second XI, like last night, or a mix? I lean toward most if not all the first team to build the cohesion they need for presumably the follow on match with Jamaica.