Armchair Analyst: Five things to watch for at the Gold Cup

Matthew Doyle

ExtraTime Radio Podcast

Armchair Analyst: Five things to watch for at the Gold Cup -

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The Gold Cup is, let's face it, a tournament unlike any other. There are no "off-year" Copa Americas or Euros, no U.S. Open Cups that count less than the one that came before it or more than the one after it. Wins on this stage usually don't get caveats.

But every other Gold Cup definitely, definitely does. That's not meant to detract from what the US team did in 2013 or Mexico in 2009 (I was there for the final, and my God were El Tri great that day – I thought the US would never beat them again). And it's not meant to detract from whoever does eventually hoist the trophy this summer.

Nonetheless, it should be understood that this is the junior varsity Gold Cup. Both Mexico and the US sent diminished squads for one reason or another, while Panama and Honduras are experimenting at least a bit. Costa Rica are probably the closest to full strength of any of the teams that are legitimate contenders, but even they are missing a few pieces.

In a way that makes it more exciting. Everyone should expect the unexpected.

And with that, here are five things I'll be keeping an eye on:

Joe Corona, No. 10

I missed it the first time through in the USMNT win over Ghana, but caught it on the rewatch: Corona was quite good in his playmaker role. Not game-breaking and certainly not dynamic like Christian Pulisic is when he's playing that spot for the US, but still influential and ridiculously efficient.

Here's his passing map from the day, which gives a good account of Corona's work:

Red arrows are incomplete passes, green are complete, and yellow are key passes – passes that lead to a shot on goal.

This is neater and tidier than you usually see from a midfield playmaker, which means three things:

Corona did a nice job of completing the passes he attempted
Ghana didn't do a nice job of getting pressure to him
He maybe should've attempted a few more difficult passes

It's a paradox of the sport that guys who are the most creative tend to have lower completion percentages than guys who aren't, and the simple reason is that creators try tougher passes. Corona probably needs a little more of that in his blood. Still, though, almost everything above is pushing forward, which means he's thinking the right thoughts.

Notice, too, that he barely got into the final third himself and was instead more determined to release others into advanced positions, which is why the 4-2-3-1 looked more like a 4-3-3 with attacking wingers. Corona isn't going to burst out of midfield like Pulisic does, nor will he set up shop as a second forward like, say, Lee Nguyen. He's not that kind of No. 10.

He doesn't have to be, though. Corona was very effective against a pretty good team, and by dint of both that and the number on his back, it feels like he has the inside track on the job as Pulisic's back-up.

Can the US wingers stretch the field?

So if Corona's dropping deep, and Dom Dwyer checking back, that means Paul Arriola/Kelyn Rowe/Alejandro Bedoya/Gyasi Zardes/Chris Pontius would be well-served by picking their spots to burst through the lines and into space past a defense. None of them is particularly great at that sort of thing (Pontius is probably the best at making those runs, though he’s lost a step or two over the last five years).

If just one of Ethan Finlay, Kekuta Manneh, Fafa Picault or Miguel Ibarra had developed a little quicker, they could make a huge difference for this team. It probably won't matter since everyone the US faces 'til the semifinals will bunker, but if you're playing with a three-man front line, and your playmaker prefers sitting deep, and there is space in behind, then one of your wingers has to threaten in behind. HAS TO.

Maybe Arriola can be that guy? He's very good in transition because he's smart as hell, but I wish this US team had just one winger who could run away from folks.

Bonne chance, AJH

Montreal's Anthony Jackson-Hamel has flown under the radar even for his own team, and has only started getting real time this year. So far, he's delivered: 5g/1a in 367 minutes for the Impact, and yes he quite clearly should play a lot more than that. He's a physical presence in the box who's willing to do the dirty work and really does seem to have a nose for goal:

A big cup here, with Cyle Larin temporarily out of the Canadian national team picture, could rearrange the hierarchy at striker for the near term, and maybe even for the long term. There really is room for just one of those two guys on the field at any given time, and this is AJH's best chance to make his case.

Will the madness stop?

Mexico are probably a top 8-ish team in the entire world in terms of their raw talent, which is why they win most of their games. But they have continually struggled against top-tier competition (7-0 vs. Chile, 4-1 vs. Germany, a draw and a loss vs. a Portuguese team that is a cut below those two) because they are constantly, bafflingly, rotating players and lineups and formations and roles and responsibilities.

And so you get a team that gets bounced from the Copa America because they have no idea how to handle a simple cross-field switch, or how to stop a breakaway. And then you have the same team bounced from the Confederations Cup 12 months later for the exact same reasons.

Juan Carlos Osorio just does not believe in the power of reps. It's Klinsmann-esque.

But JCO has been sidelined for the duration of this tournament, getting a six-game ban for making contact with an official in the Confederations Cup third-place game. Obviously he'll have a say on who manages from the sidelines in the Gold Cup, and will pick the squads, etc. etc. But I do wonder if Mexico will stop being a pieced-together Frankenstein's Monster and start looking like a contiguous whole that's greater than the sum of its parts.

Time to Shop

MLS's summer transfer window opens on Monday, after the first weekend of Gold Cup games. Every team will be scouting every game heavily, and I certainly hope that there will be signings to come during/after the tournament. A couple of names to keep an eye on: