USMNT sits in 2nd place after 5 of 14 ‘Octagonal’ matches

[dystopiamembrane]

CONCACAF World Cup Qualification is in the final round, a group of 8 nations vying for 3.5 spots. The US currently occupies second place in the standings, an automatic bid to the World Cup Finals next summer in Qatar.

Match Day 6 is this Wednesday, Oct 13. The US hosts Costa Rica at Lower.com Field in Columbus at 5p MT on ESPN2. That match should be a fun one.

[utefansince79]

Facing 3 games in 7 days, Greg decided to essentially send out a mostly second string squad against Panama and it was a rough one to watch.  Wednesday we really must beat Costa Rica at home and hopefully our first teamers who mostly rested last night will be able to get it done.

[GameForAnyFuss]

A lot of people on USMNT socials complaining about the squad rotation for the Panama game. I get it, but it’s also somewhat misguided. You can’t have the same XI for 3 games in 7 days, so squad rotation is going to happen. However, there’s a beef to be made about which players rotated in. How can Hoppe and Busio have zero minutes in two games but Bello went the full 90 yesterday?

The need to go deeper into the bench is not debatable. But the choices made are debatable, and Gregg has to answer for that.

[utefansince79]

I was upset by what seemed a lack of effort and hustle from those we had on the pitch.  Countless times a pass would be made and the US player closer to where the ball was heading would slowly move towards it and a Panamaian would run and get to the ball first.