Hoppe Got His First International Goal & USMNT Beat Jamaica 1-0 To Reach Gold Cup Semis

 

    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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Weston McKennie Leaves Schalke For Juventus Where Cristiano Ronaldo Will Be A Teammate

 

    If you've been paying attention lately, this end result wasn't a surprise by any means since European soccer rumors are covered almost as extensively as U.S. presidential elections stateside but it is still enormous news for the U.S. men's soccer national team that one of their top talents-midfielder Weston McKennie-has been loaned from FC Schalke (Germany) to Juventus (Italy) until June 30, 2021. If things go well for the 22-year-old Texan at one of the world's top clubs, he could in line for 18.5 million Euros paid over three years. He will be the first American to ever play for Juve. Wow!

    It's been a meteoric rise for McKennie who started with his local MLS club's (FC Dallas) youth program before making the prudent move to head to Schalke and the Bundesliga in 2016. He spent part of his childhood growing up in Germany so there wasn't a huge culture shock for him once he returned. In fact, he made his first team debut the next year. Over the past three seasons, he's become a fixture for Schalke playing in multiple positions and therefore in the same time frame he got his first USMNT call-up under his belt (memorably scoring vs. Portugal in his U.S. debut) and since then he's become enough of a star that he was a captain for them as a 20-year-old.

    Christian Pulisic rightfully gets most of the headlines which makes sense with his insane career trajectory but with McKennie at Juventus now along with Tyler Adams at Red Bull Leipzig and Giovanni Reyna at Borussia Dortmund just to name a few, the US men's national team shouldn't miss any more World Cups in the near future-assuming that those are still a thing despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Besides their ages and limitless potential, my favorite part about all of these guys is that they are not afraid to go to Europe where they can train and compete against the best players from around the globe. They are not the coddled players from previous USMNT generations that mostly preferred to stick around here where they could dominate without putting in much effort.

    Moreover, they are not scared to make the leap to even bigger (ie. more pressure-packed) clubs. With five goals in 91 career appearances for Schalke (including a Champions League game-winner) and six goals in 19 appearances for the Red, White and Blue, McKennie realized that Schalke will never be more than a mid-tier club in the Bundesliga at best. Their glory days have long passed and they'll never be better than the juggernaut Bayern Munich or Dortmund who is also becoming a budding powerhouse in their own right. Juventus on the other hand is a lock to win Serie-A every year (9 in a row and counting!) not to mention the fact that they are always a contender for the Champions League crown as well. Oh and one of the greatest players in soccer history-Cristiano Ronaldo-plays there along with another absurd attacking talent in Argentine Paulo Dybala. You can't expect McKennie to have an immediate impact with Juve, remember that even Pulisic had some bumpy moments in his first Chelsea campaign, but you can't find a much better environment in every possible way (players, coaching, fans, worldwide attention) to maximize his abilities.

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