There was much hype and hope coming into these friendlies that serve as preparation for the Gold Cup. After all, the US had won three times and drawn once in Gregg Berhalter’s first four games in charge and it felt like for the first time in a long time the fans believed that they might be good enough again. All of that was dashed on Wednesday night as Berhalter ran out a lineup that at best can be described as experimental and at worst as downright laughable. Not only was the lineup selection totally bizarre but the US was wholly uninterested in the task at hand and was thoroughly dominated by a Jamaican B team with mainly USL players on the field and fell 1-0. The next game and final warmup friendly is against a South American foe in Venezuela, but the latest roster from Berhalter has further dashed the once cautiously optimistic hopes of the US fans.

The US played incredibly poorly against Jamaica (and was robustly booed by the fans at Audi Field for it), but Gregg Berhalter seemed to feel that it wasn’t a big deal and dropped a couple of quite shocking quotes in his post-game press conference saying, “One of the objectives of this camp was to play an alternate formation and we achieved that. I think there’s a tweak we can make to the formation to make it better.” Most fans figured the goal of games was to win and not run out fringe players in half-brained formations that nobody is comfortable with (which is what Jurgen Klinsmann was routinely crucified for by the American soccer media). Even more shocking was when Berhalter was asked about what his message to the fans was, saying, “The guys tried. I think we gave a decent effort. We didn’t play well and you’re going to have nights where you don’t play well.” Do the players get orange slices, juice boxes, and a participation ribbon for trying coach? For the coach of a national team to come out and basically say that the result didn’t’ matter because they tried is absolute lunacy. It is now no longer a mystery why American soccer culture is viewed as soft. But the quote that took the cake was when he expanded upon his message to the fans: “As time goes on, there’ll be more poor performances. I guarantee it.” Astonishing.

Berhalter than made things much worse the next day when he named the official 23-man Gold Cup roster. Not only are all of the old stalwarts of the failed qualifying campaign there, but his two favorite players from his days with the Columbus Crew (Will Trapp and Gyasi Zardes) are there, despite both of them routinely proving that they are not good enough at the international level. Also worth a laugh is the continued use of Tyler Adams, one of the best US midfielders ever, out of position as a right back (something Jurgen Klinsmann was routinely lambasted for) which even led to Red Bull Leipzig (Adams club) to mocking Berhalter on Twitter. But the most shocking and infuriating thing of all was the exclusion of Josh Sargent. Not only is Sargent one of the best and brightest prospects the US has ever produced, but by calling him into the camp for the Jamaica friendly, Berhalter robbed him on the chance to play at the U20 World Cup in Poland. Many felt that it would be a case of one or the other for Sargent but apparently Berhalter’s grand master plan and unparalleled vision felt that the best thing for the striker of the future (Berhalter’s words describing Sargent when asked about his exclusion) was to not allow him to play any soccer at all this summer. The reasons that Berhalter gave for screwing up so badly were even more shocking than his quote about the team trying hard: not only are Jozy Altidore and Gyasi Zardes both apparently ahead of him but the main reason Sargent doesn’t get to go to the Gold Cup is that Sebastian Lletget is hurt which somehow creates a logjam that doesn’t allow Sargent into the team.

Needless to say after the poor performance on Wednesday and then the downright shocking Gold Cup roster announcement on Thursday, the small amount of faith of the fans that had been somewhat restored in the team is gone. Plenty of MLS/US Soccer sychophant writers have done their best to paint this roster as a stroke of genius and one of the best Gold Cup rosters of all-time, but the fans are no longer buying the garbage that is being peddled to them (one writer even tried to push the master plan and vision narrative by Tweeting a picture of labeled protein shakes for players to drink after practice as though Berhalter is the first or only coach to do something of that nature). And the answers that Gregg Berhlater is giving to even the easiest, softest questions are proving two things: he is in way over his head and he has an even longer leash with US Soccer than most people feared.

Venezuela comes into this game having missed the World Cup in 2018 and not having done much better since then. They have won just once in their last six games (a 3-1 win over Argentina in Madrid back in March) and in their last game were run out of the building by a surging Mexico squad to the tune of 3-1. Their roster for this game against the US is also the roster they will be taking to the Copa America in Brazil in the coming weeks, where they have been drawn into Group A with Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru. They do have a pretty solid attack featuring Atlanta United record breaker Josef Martinez who has 10 goals in 48 appearances for La Vinotinto, as well as Newcastle United front man Salomon Rondon with 22 goals in 77 international appearances. They also feature three other MLS players: Jefferson Savarino of Real Salt Lake, Rolf Feltscher of the LA Galaxy, and Junior Moreno of DC United.

Notes:

1. As of Friday afternoon, a total of 22,000 tickets have been sold for the game against Venezuela in Cincinnati.

2. Of the 23 players on the Gold Cup roster, 11 of them have been called in by Berhalter for every camp since January.

3. With this friendly against Venezuela, the US will have played 8 of 10 South American teams since failing to qualify for Russia 2018. The only two still remaining are Uruguay and Argentina.

When and where to watch the game on US TV

Sunday, June 9, 2019
Nippert Stadium
Cincinnati, Ohio
2pm ET
Live on FOX, UniMas, Sling Blue, PlayStation Vue, Hulu Live and fuboTV (free trial)

All-Time Series

USA leads 3-0-2

Last Meeting

Saturday, June 3, 2017
Rio Tinto Stadium
Sandy, Utah
USA 1-1 Venezuela

Current FIFA Ranking

USA: 24
Venezuela: 29

Next Game

Gold Cup
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
USA vs. Guyana
Allianz Field
St. Paul, Minnesota
9:30pm ET
FS1, UniMas