Get to know Gold Cup’s Group B: analysis of USMNT soccer and three foes awaiting in KC
Welcome to your soccer week in the sun, Kansas City.
Children’s Mercy Park, home to Sporting Kansas City in in Kansas City, Kansas, will host all but one game in Group B as part of the CONCACAF Gold Cup — an international tournament featuring countries from North and Central America plus the Caribbean — starting Sunday. That will include all three of the United States men’s national team’s group stage matches, which kick off this weekend as the U.S. duels with Haiti.
The U.S. has never been beaten in Kansas City, and a highly-rotated squad will hope that doesn’t change next week against a strong Group B. Have plans to watch a match but don’t know where to start? Here’s a breakdown of all four teams in Group B of the Gold Cup: the United States, Canada, Haiti and Martinique.
UNITED STATES
Best Gold Cup finish: Champions (1991, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2013, 2017)
When to watch: vs. Haiti, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Fox Sports 1; vs. Martinique, 8:30 p.m. July 15, Fox Sports 1; vs. Canada, 4 p.m. July 18, Fox
What to know: A month after a chaotic 3-2 win over rival Mexico to win the inaugural CONCACAF Nations League Final, the U.S. is back in its first major competition since American wonderkids Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna and Weston McKennie all scored to win coach Gregg Berhalter’s first piece of silverware as coach of the national team. You won’t be seeing those three players, plus many other members of that title-winning squad, in Kansas City.
With World Cup qualifiers beginning in September along with the added element of European clubs beginning their preseasons, Berhalter long remarked prior to squad selection that he planned to rest the U.S.’ heavy hitters in between the Nations League and qualifiers. That leaves a Gold Cup team full of Major League Soccer players, who are playing in their regular seasons anyway, and has opened up opportunities for younger talent to get experience in a national tournament: 12 members of the 23-man squad have five caps or less, with four not having a single cap to their name at all.
One of those players with no caps is Sporting Kansas City midfielder Gianluca Busio, who with Atlanta United defender George Bello is one of two of the youngest members of the roster at 19 years old. The SKC homegrown has been a vital part of Sporting’s rise to the top of Western Conference roughly one-third through the regular season and has been the subject of transfer rumors across several European destinations, most notably Italy.
Who to know: Daryl Dike (striker, Orlando City)
Imagine a man the size of NFL running back Adrian Peterson — 6-foot-1 and 220 pounds — at striker for the national team, bulldozing through defenses with brute force and power. With Daryl Dike, there’s no need to imagine: that’s his size.
Despite a massive influx of talent elsewhere, no one has consistently locked down the No. 9 slot for the U.S. national team since the international retirement of joint all-time leading goalscorer Clint Dempsey in 2017. With a strong Gold Cup, it could be Dike who nails down the gig.
The 21-year-old returned to MLS last month after a loan spell at English Championship club Barnsley, scoring nine goals in 22 appearances as he helped lead the Tykes from 12th place in February to fifth place in May, qualifying the club for the playoffs for promotion to the Premier League. After Barnsley declined Dike’s purchase option following the end of his loan deal June 1, he returned to Orlando where he’s scored twice in four games.
His Gold Cup fate largely hinged on whether or not he’d still be in MLS by tournament time — Orlando City CEO Alex Leitão has said he’d be looking to shop Dike this summer — but there’s been no move as of yet, making Dike a favorite to be the Americans’ top talisman at the Gold Cup. Dike has three appearances with the national team, scoring his first international goal in a friendly against Costa Rica on June 10.
CANADA
Best Gold Cup/CONCACAF Championship* finish: Champions (1985*, 2000)
When to watch: vs. Martinique, 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Fox Sports 1; vs. Haiti, 6:30 p.m. July 15, Fox Sports 1; vs. United States, 4 p.m. July 18, Fox
Record against USMNT: 10-10-17 (last match: 4-1 U.S win in CONCACAF Nations League, Nov. 15, 2019)
What to know: The Canadian national team is glittering gold right now, and that’s not because it’s in the spirit of the competition. The Canucks, as the team is nicknamed, could very well be entering a golden generation in their history.
Canada beat Haiti 4-0 on aggregate last month in a two-legged playoff to decide the final slot in CONCACAF’s World Cup qualifying octagonal, the first time the country has advanced to the final round of World Cup qualifying since 1996. With such a critical point in Canadian soccer ahead as World Cup qualifying begins in September, it wouldn’t have been surprising to see either coach John Herdman choosing to rest players or players opting to rest themselves en masse instead of playing in the Gold Cup.
So it came as even more of a surprise that Canada, with a few exceptions, is essentially bringing a full-strength roster to Kansas City for its group matches. There’s plenty of names MLS fans will recognize: midfielder Jonathan Osorio has won an MLS Cup during his long career with Toronto FC, while forward Lucas Cavallini has been a key piece at Vancouver Whitecaps since moving there before the 2020 season.
But the expats do most of damage on this team. Striker Cyle Larin was the top scorer at Turkish club Beşiktaş this year as it won its domestic league, and winger Junior Hoilett has been a dependable player across his career in the English Championship, most recently with Cardiff City. Forward Jonathan David, who scored 13 goals for Lille as it snatched the Ligue 1 title from giants Paris Saint-Germain, is nursing a groin injury and is resting over playing in the Gold Cup, where in 2019 he won the Golden Boot with six goals.
Who to know: Alphonso Davies (left back/winger, Bayern Munich)
Don’t worry, no one forgot about Alphonso Davies. Teams at the Gold Cup sure haven’t.
At 20 years old, Davies will be appearing in his third Gold Cup next week as his stock remains sky high. A Champions League starter and winner at German juggernauts Bayern Munich, it was merely five years ago when the Ghana-born Davies was playing in the USL Championship with Vancouver Whitecaps 2. Now, he’s arguably the best left back in the world and certainly the most accomplished player at the Gold Cup, a rare feat for a non-Mexican or -American player
While sticking largely to left back as part of the well-oiled machine that is Bayern, Davies’ role with Canada is much more free-flowing in the attack as its most technically-gifted and skilled player. The Bundesliga’s fastest player this season, Davies exploits space given to him by opposition defenses and leaves back lines in the dust. In a two-goal game at the 2017 Gold Cup against French Guiana, Davies — even at age 16 — had oodles of opportunities created solely thanks to his intangibles, factors that simply no one on the French Guiana team could hold a candle to.
There’s no player in Group B, or possibly in the Gold Cup for that matter, that can change the structure of a match like Davies. A scoring spree from him could make the difference between a deep Canada run or an early exit in the knockout rounds.
HAITI
Best Gold Cup/CONCACAF Championship* finish: Champions (1973*)
When to watch: vs. United States, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Fox Sports 1; vs. Canada, 6:30 p.m. July 15, Fox Sports 1; vs. Martinique, 4 p.m. July 18, Fox Sports 2 (at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas)
Record against USMNT: 9-6-7 (last match: 1-0 U.S. win in 2015 Gold Cup, July 10, 2015)
What to know: You’re reading that correctly: Haiti has an all-time winning record against the United States. A big part of that was six straight Les Grenadiers victories against the Americans from 1968 to 1973, a gilded age for Haitian soccer when it won the 1973 CONCACAF Championship (the precursor to the Gold Cup) to qualify for the 1974 World Cup. Those days are long past, however, and Haiti hasn’t beaten the U.S. since.
Despite needing to qualify for the group by beating St. Vincent and the Grenadines followed by Bermuda in preliminary round matches this week, Haiti is no pushover. It made a run to the semifinals in the 2019 Gold Cup, its best result in the competition since winning it, beating Canada in the quarterfinals and forcing Mexico in the semis to score a winner in extra time.
A much harder group than it had in 2019 (where Haiti won all three games against Costa Rica, Bermuda and Nicaragua) means that Haiti likely needs results against either one or both of the United States and Canada to progress to the knockout rounds. But pieces do return from the semifinal run of two summers ago, such as Columbus Crew midfielder Derrick Etienne, making Haiti a tough out regardless of which team it’s playing.
Who to know: Frantzdy Pierrot (striker, Guingamp)
Whenever Frantzdy Pierrot is in the U.S., he seems to score goals for fun. A 6-4, 210-pound frontman, he’s literally a tall task for many defenders in CONCACAF to handle.
Born in Haiti but raised in Massachusetts, Pierrot scored a total of 35 goals playing college soccer with Northeastern and Coastal Carolina — with a 12-goal stint at USL club Reading United wedged in — before getting selected by the Colorado Rapids in the 2018 MLS SuperDraft. He never signed with Colorado, instead opting to score loads of goals first in Belgium with Mouscron and now in France with Guingamp.
Back on American soil for the Gold Cup prelims, he picked up right where he left off. He scored once in Haiti’s 6-1 win over St. Vincent and the Grenadines, then notched a first-half hat trick against Bermuda en route to Haiti’s 4-1 victory to send it to a second straight Gold Cup group stage. Paired up top with Duckens Nazon, who’s playing for a new contract at the moment after not re-signing with Belgian side Sint-Truiden, the duo has the ability to make matches interesting.
MARTINIQUE
Best Gold Cup finish: Quarterfinals (2002)
When to watch: vs. Canada, 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Fox Sports 1; vs. United States, 8:30 p.m. July 15, Fox Sports 1; vs. Haiti, 4 p.m. July 18, Fox Sports 2 (at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas)
Record against USMNT: 0-0-2 (last match: 3-2 U.S. win in 2017 Gold Cup, July 12, 2017)
What to know: Probably strangers to most casual soccer fans, Martinique — as a south Caribbean island and single territorial collectivity of France — is not a member of FIFA and therefore not eligible for the World Cup. It is, however, eligible to play in the Gold Cup as a CONCACAF member, which this year it’s making its seventh appearance in as the most high-profile tournament it’s eligible for.
Most players named to the Gold Cup squad play at Martinican clubs, though a handful apply their trade at European teams, with France often a popular option. MLS diehards will notice the omission of Jordy Delem from the squad, the Seattle Sounders midfielder who’s struggled to find game time this season on a loaded Sounders squad challenging Sporting for the top spot in the Western Conference. Delem played for Martinique at the 2013, 2017 and 2019 Gold Cups.
Martinique has only advanced out of the Gold Cup group stage once in 2002, but has now qualified for the last three editions of the tournament, winning group games in both 2017 and 2019. Sunday’s match against Canada will mark the first time Les Matinino has ever played in Kansas City.
Who to know: Jean-Sylvain Babin (center back, Sporting Gijón)
If Martinique has any chance of escaping Group B and to the knockout rounds, it can’t afford to ship goals. In its prior six Gold Cups, it’s allowed an average of 2.18 goals per game, and against the U.S. and Canada in the competition it has allowed 12 goals in six games with a combined overall record of 1-1-4.
Thus, it’ll need to rely on its old guard to stay steady in the back line. The French-born Babin has had a long career bouncing around several top-flight clubs in France, Israel and Spain, where he currently plays for second-division side Gijón. The 34-year-old has just 14 caps with Martinique to his name, but is one of the most experienced players on the squad defending players outside Martinique. He also brings experience in the Gold Cup to the table as he played in both the 2013 and 2019 tournaments.
His job becomes more important when considering that Martinique didn’t bring along striker Kévin Parsemain, whose 35 goals are the most in team history. Parsemain had five of those in Gold Cup play — four of which came in matches against the U.S. and Mexico — and his absence from the squad means that Martinique doesn’t have much scoring pedigree up front. If a new forward doesn’t break out, Babin may be tasked with having to salvage draws by shutting down attacks — a tall ask with the some of the elite names in Group B.
This story was originally published July 7, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Get to know Gold Cup’s Group B: analysis of USMNT soccer and three foes awaiting in KC."