by Gian-Luca
Grenada
Haiti
Honduras
USA
Grenada
This team is making their first ever appearance in the Gold Cup, having finished in second place in the 2008 Caribbean Cup behind champions Jamaica. The team gave Costa Rica a fairly significant headache in a two-game World Cup Qualifying preliminary round series in 2008, marching out to a 2-0 lead in the first game before ultimately drawing 2-2 and then losing 3-0 in San Jose. They did enough in that series and in the Caribbean Cup to warrant their inclusion here and not to be taken lightly.
The team has two superlative players that need to be mentioned – Blackburn Rovers’ striker Jason Roberts leads the attack, having scored 9 goals in just 14 games for his country, while one of the best midfielders in MLS, Shalrie Joseph of the New England Revolution, provides a solid anchor to the team’s midfield.
Most of the rest of the team is domestic based and I’d be lying if I pretended to know much about them. However, given that they finished ahead of fellow Caribbean nation Haiti in the 2008 Caribbean Cup, there is every chance they could do so again, finish 3rd and possibly nab one of the quarter-final spots on that basis.
Haiti
The big question for Haiti is if they can pull a Denmark circa 1992 and win their continental championship only after qualifying because another country withdrew. Because that’s the task that the Haitians face, qualifying for this year’s Gold Cup only because Cuba pulled out citing reasons of player development and being able to field a competitive team before Haiti beat Trinidad & Tobago in a draw (so its not just Canada who does that sort of thing) to get here.
But Haiti is here now, and anyone who takes a former top team of the region lightly (albeit the early 1970’s, but still) does so at their peril. The potential with Haiti is always there, it’s always a question of whether it can be realized. This Haitian team does not come in under the best run, as we have already seen. They missed a golden opportunity with a relatively weak semi-final group to qualify for the final round of World Cup Qualifying in this region for the first time since 1982, going winless in six games against Costa Rica, Surinam and El Salvador.
Nevertheless there are players to watch out for, such as Leonel Saint-Preux. Canadian fans (and keeper Josh Wagenaar) might remember him as the striker who smashed in a shot for 40 yards out that helped to beat Canada in an otherwise-controversial U23 Olympic qualifier last year. Saint-Preux plays for the Minnesota Thunder in USL Division 1 where he occasionally comes up against Haitian teammate Kenold Versailles of Canada’s own Vancouver Whitecaps. The Haitian team is now made up of more overseas players than has typically been the case with a handful of players plying their trade in France, Portugal, MLS, and USL (including Puerto Rico Islander striker Fabrice Noel). They are captained by the experienced defender Pierre-Richard Bruny, who has garnered 75 caps at the age of 37.
Haiti has enough quality about them that they should qualify out of this group as a third place team, but whether they will remains to be seen. Their match against Grenada will be key in this regard.
Honduras
Honduras enters their 9th Gold Cup tournament with largely a second string squad. Many of their star players, including Wilson Palacios, Maynor Figueroa, Hendry Thomas, Ramon Nunez,David Suazo, Julio Cesar De Leon and Amado Guevara are missing the tourney, with Suazo in particular still out injured. With a couple of exceptions (such as Roger Espinoza of the Kansas City Wizards in MLS), nearly entire 23 man roster that I’ve seen (and I’ve yet to see an final one) is domestic-based. Before anyone thinks that this automatically means Honduras will be an easy team to beat, a lot of times these domestic-based players will play in a tourney like this and the next thing you know they have signed for Wigan or been loaned to Birmingham. Honduras is currently on the upswing and may very well be heading towards their first World Cup appearance in 28 years.
This is the Gold Cup however, and while the team should not be taken lightly, they will probably find it hard to win their first Gold Cup without so many of their star foreign-based players (of which there are a lot more now than there ever was before). They should still have enough to finish second in the group. It is unclear to me at the time of writing if Carlos Costly is on the 23 man roster or not (the one I provided with was a 24 man roster with Costly as the 24th man) – if so he alone will ensure that Honduras has a potent attack that needs to be respected. Where they may have a weakness is in goal, as their typical number one keeper Noel Vallerdes is also not with the team, and he’s not even that strong of a keeper to begin with. On the other hand, keepers named to his tourney might be relatively inexperienced but it is difficult to say that they suck without having seen them play.
Despite not having their strongest team, the Honduran team should finish second in this group if the players are motivated enough. The players selected will be fighting for starting spots for the “A” team and also trying to attract the attention of foreign club scouts, which along with Honduras’ quest to win their first Gold Cup, should provide plenty of motivation for the team to do well.
United States
The U.S.A. have come off their most successful FIFA international tournament finish ever, losing 3-2 to Brazil in the Confederations Cup final after leading for about three quarters of the game. They are also two time defending champions for the Gold Cup, winners of the tourney four times overall, and have not lost a match in this tourney to another CONCACAF team since the 1998 Gold Cup Final (in 2000 and 2003, the only times this decade they haven’t won the Gold Cup they were eliminated by Colombia and Brazil respectively). They have a comparatively weak group, and because they are hosting the tournament as they have done every time they just might get the odd mystical call go in their favour to ensure CONCACAF doesn’t lose a ton of money on this tourney. So what’s not to like for their chances to win it for the third straight time and record fifth overall?
There’s only one small thing that I can think of - their roster. The vast majority of the team that surprised in the Confederations Cup is gone, and US team number two comes in. Only a few players on their Gold Cup roster are considered to be members of the US “A” team – Brian Ching and Steve Cherundolo (both injured for the Confederations Cup) are on the Gold Cup team along with Confederations Cup striker Charlie Davies and although they didn’t see much playing time, Freddy Adu and Heath Pearce have also survived from South Africa.
This is no B team by CONCACAF standards though. The U.S. has such depth now in the region that this team should finish first in their group and with home-field advantage in tow, be a contender and favourite to win the whole tourney. Their group, with fellow Hexsters Honduras also wielding a B team, is not the toughest, with all due respect to Haiti and Grenada. And while some players many not have graduated to the US’s best 11, this tourney gives them a chance to prove they should. Houston’s Stuart Holden may have his chance to shine as the main creative force in midfield and Dallas’ Kenny Cooper gets his chance to become a major goalscoring threat.
Where this team is short is international experience, with most players having less than 5 caps and 7 having none at all. Goalscoring will likely have to come from new sources if the US is to progress to the final, as outside of Brian Ching who has 9 career goals, nobody else on the roster that has been called has more than 2.
Goalkeeping is also a question mark. It is my understanding that Jon Busch is on the taxi squad, so coach Bob Bradley will have to choose between Troy Perkins and Luis Nobles, who have one cap between them at the time of writing.
Of course as CONCACAF announced a few hours before I wrote this article that the US has been given special permission to bring a 30 man roster (!) to the tourney from which they can pick and dress 18 because they had to go through the rigours of playing in the Confederations Cup, everything I just wrote might have to be thrown out the window, as it so often is.