Gold Cup: after the US women's heroics, it's time for the men to shine

USA face Honduras, Haiti and Panama in their first round group, in a Jurgen Klinsmann is desperate to win as they prepare for the 2018 World Cup in Russia

After BC Place and all that, it’s the men’s turn. The USA kick off their Gold Cup campaign on Tuesday, and while it’s no World Cup, the tournament is key to Jürgen Klinsmann’s plans for the World Cup in Russia in 2018.

Simply put, if the USA win this Gold Cup, then they will automatically take the Concacaf berth at the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia. Anything less will see Klinsmann’s men into a tricky playoff with this year’s winners for the right to that spot in Russia.

This matters for Klinsmann. While his team did not qualify for the 2013 Confederations Cup in Brazil, he held the team’s early 2014 winter camp there, to try to get his players used to the travel, conditions and accommodation at the World Cup, and spoke afterwards of how crucial that preparation had been.

And after failure to qualify for the last Olympics, Klinsmann has set similar store by qualifying his younger players for next year’s tournament, to complement the experience of the seniors playing in the centenary Copa America, also next summer.

This raft of tournaments, and the ability to bring young players into the senior team to peak in 2018, means the experimental phase that followed the World Cup is over. It’s not that Klinsmann won’t experiment with personnel any more, but there will be a greater density of meaningful games to build towards, starting with Honduras in Frisco.

Speaking of Honduras, they’re something of a wild card in a group that’s relatively tough as the Gold Cup goes — and they feature the likes of former MLS-er and current Anderlecht player Andy Najar, and promising youngster Anthony Lozano up front. And while they were the one exception to the Concacaf fairytale at the Brazil World Cup, they still got there, and will have the added benefit this time round of being coached by the man who made Costa Rica such a surprise package in the World Cup: Jorge Luis Pinto.

Then on Friday, it’s Haiti, the lowest ranked team in the group, but who will try to make things difficult for the US on the turf at Foxboro and will be drawing on the memory of two quarter-finals appearances in the last five tournaments. That said, the Haiti team have only played one match this year, and will be relying on trying to thwart USA for as long as possible. If the US score early it could be a long night for the Haitians.

The USA round off their first-round campaign in Kansas City against Panama, surprise finalists in 2013 and with unfinished business of their own – not just that loss in the final, but the heartbreak of the USA’s late goals against them in the final World Cup qualifier. Those goals sent Mexico through at Panama’s expense (ushering in the brief cult of St Zusi), but Panama remain a credible threat in this tournament. And any team defending against the bullish presence of Blas Perez should know they’re in for a busy evening. This game should be a group decider.

The personnel

After Sunday’s World Cup final, one wag on Twitter suggested the correct terminology should be “soccer” and “men’s soccer”. In that spirit, let’s consider Michael Bradley as something of a male Carli Lloyd — not so much for the freewheeling attacking instincts (if anything, Clint Dempsey is closer in spirit to that), but that any version of the US team that is currently playing at something like an optimal level has found a way to get the most out of Bradley, and looks better balanced for it.

Bradley had a quiet World Cup, but has rounded back into international form at just the right time — pulling the strings in those famous friendly victories over Holland and Germany last month. He’s also been elevated to the captaincy in the wake of Clint Dempsey’s Gold Cup outburst, and is, on balance, probably better suited to the position than the more mercurial Dempsey, who can be the creative X-factor in the final third, but doesn’t quite put the team on his shoulders the way Bradley does at his best.

Bradley’s Toronto team-mate Jozy Altidore will lead the line and should continue his MLS scoring form, while the player who anchored the US midfield in the World Cup, Kyle Beckerman, will probably see a fair amount of time as a fairly conservative USA selection, drawing heavily on the boys of 2014, tries to avoid unpleasant surprises in a strategic tournament for Klinsmann.

Will they do it? Well, the US should have more than enough to win the group and continue on a path that might see them collide with rivals Mexico in the final – though the opening game against Honduras has all the elements of a trap game if the US start cold.

As for Mexico, after beating the USA in the 2011 final, in the last straw for Bob Bradley, they crumbled badly last time out, and had a horrendous run-up to the World Cup, but have stabilized since then, even if they lost 2-0 to USA when the two sides met in April.

Since then, El Tri had a modest Copa America campaign, including a 3-3 draw against eventual champions and hosts Chile. But whatever their form going into this tournament on US soil, the Mexicans will be in little mood to hand an automatic Confederations Cup berth to Klinsmann et al.

Some familiar storylines and opponents await in the coming days, but this being Concacaf, don’t expect events to stick to the script.