The young stars showed why they are considered the future, while some new faces emerged to give USMNT fans reasons to feel optimistic
It was a bittersweet 2019 Gold Cup for the U.S. national team, which took major steps in its first tournament with Gregg Berhalter in charge, but left the competition disappointed after a frustrating 1-0 loss to Mexico in the final.
That defeat has left the Gold Cup feeling like bit of a failure for the Americans, but that would ignore the many positives that emerged from the tournament. We saw Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie step up as leaders, Aaron Long emerge as a defensive force, and youngster Reggie Cannon go from being the last player added to the roster to being one of the team's biggest surprises.
How did individual USMNT players fare at this summer's Gold Cup? Here is a closer look at how all of the team's tournament contributors performed:
John Dorton1F – Gyasi Zardes – CThe best way to describe Zardes' Gold Cup is he aced the early quizzes, but absolutely bombed the midterm and final. Zardes was very good in the group stage, leading to a belief that this could be his breakout tournament, but he was terrible against Curacao in the quarterfinals, and comically ineffective off the bench in the semifinal and final. His teammates love him though, and it's hard to argue with the work rate and defensive effort, but his struggles in the final third are hard to overlook.AdvertisementJamie Squire2F – Jozy Altidore – BConsidering his contributions in three of the USMNT's final four Gold Cup matches, you could make an argument for Altidore deserving a better grade, but his miss in the final against Mexico strikes a big blow to his rating. His performance in the semifinal win against Jamaica can't be overstated, and you can argue he was a handful in the first half of the final, but by missing his best chance of the tournament, Altidore helped doom the Americans to defeat. That being said, the miss doesn't take away the rest of his contributions, which were considerable.Getty Images3RW – Jordan Morris – C-After starting just one of the team's first four matches, Morris became Berhalter's right winger of choice for the semifinals and final. Morris failed to offer much of an attacking threat in either of those matches, leaving many to wonder why we didn't see Tyler Boyd after his impressive group stage efforts. There's no denying Morris put in honest shifts defensively, but he simply didn't contribute enough to the offense to give him a better grade.KEREM YUCEL4RW – Tyler Boyd – B-Few players were as impressive in the early part of the tournament as Boyd, who looked right at home in Gregg Berhalter's system. The winger's attacking skill was clear to see, and it was expected he would play a major role in the knockout rounds. He endured a terrible showing in the quarterfinal win against Curacao though, and didn't play another match after that, which was surprising to say the least.