You might not have noticed but the USMNT continues to get it done at the 2021 Gold Cup as they hung on for an exciting 1-0 victory tonight in the quarterfinals against Jamaica at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX (aka the home of the Dallas Cowboys). 20-year-old American forward Matthew Hoppe-who plays for FC Schalke in Germany-was the hero as he bravely headed in a cross from Seattle Sounders midfielder Cristian Roldan in the 83rd minute for his first international goal. That turned out to be all the USMNT needed as New England Revolution goalkeeper Matt Turner made five saves for his third clean sheet of the tournament. With the win, the U.S. advances to their 11th straight Gold Cup semifinal (and 15th overall) vs. Qatar on Thursday night (7:30, FS1) in Austin, TX at the beautiful new Q2 Stadium (home of MLS' latest expansion club, Austin FC).
If the US had somehow lost this match, it would have been super frustrating since they absolutely dominated possession (67%-33%!) but that really meant very little because both teams had exactly five shots on goal and seven corner kicks apiece. Hoppe's clutch goal saved head coach Gregg Berhalter from some nervy minutes in extra time-and possibly penalty kicks-as his guys battled Jamaica's fantastic goalkeeper Andre Blake (4 saves) who stars for the Philadelphia Union in MLS. As I explained in the previous post, this is far from the A-team for the USMNT these days but nevertheless, they have been grinding out results against other CONCACAF teams these past few weeks. In fact, if you throw out the 6-1 blowout of Martinique, the US has topped Haiti, Canada and Jamaica by the exact same 1-0 final score.
You probably don't know much about Qatar (the Asian champion and host of the 2022 World Cup) but trust me, they will test the US on Thursday. They are here after a wild 3-2 nailbiter over El Salvador on Saturday night. Before that, they had won Group D-which also featured Honduras, Panama and Grenada-and including the El Salvador triumph, they have scored the most goals (12) in the entire competition. Moreover, they are fielding what is the closest to their best roster of all the countries in the Gold Cup so for those reasons, the semifinal is not a layup by any means even though it is guaranteed to basically be a home game for the USMNT. In the other semifinal on Thursday night (10, FS1), Mexico meets Canada so yes my friends, we are only one game away from possibly another installment of the superb USMNT vs. Mexico blood rivalry this time in the 2021 Gold Cup Final next Sunday night (8:30, FS1) in Las Vegas.
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