Berhalter Brings in 20 to Beat Canada & Cuba

By Sean McCaffery, November 1, 2019

As expected, the USMNT trounced Cuba and as not expected they dropped the away leg in Toronto in a 2-0 poorly played game. Pre- Camp opens tomorrow in Bradenton with the first game being in Orlando on the 15th with Canada, then off to the Caymans for Cuba on the 19th. European based players will begin on the 10th for the formal camp in Orlando.  Nov. 6 is the reveal date for that camp's invitees. Berhalter stated "We have the opportunity to take advantage of the MLS post-season window to start preparations for the matches against Canada & Cuba." THe USMNT is fully in control of whether they crash out of this or advance to the knockout stages of this, the initial Nations League, get a pair of wins and improve the goal differential. As is, Canada is tops with 9 points and a +9 goal differential. The win facing the US, the first since the mid '80s helped as did the 7 goals they put on Cuba in each of their pair of games. The Canada game is the 6th game for the USMNT in Exploria Stadium, there was an all but 2 decade gap of games there following the 1-0 win facing Sweden in 1998. 2017 saw them return with a 4-0 win over Panama in World Cup qualifying before a sellout audience of  25,303. Last visit, an 81' goal by Zardes put them past Ecuador 1-0 on March 21, making Gregg the 2nd HC of the USMNT to wins his first 3 games.

Local players include Sean Johnson of NYCFC & Aaron Long from NYRB.

Kwik Kixx:

-Avg. age in Pre-Camp is 25 years, 33 days & 13 caps. 

-A bakers dozen of these 20 were in the Oct. camp for these games.

-20 players are from 17 MLS teams.

- Ebobisse & McKenzie are back, missing since Jan. 2019.

-Ex NYCFC player and recent Red Bull slayer Jonathan Lewis & Fire youngster Djordje Mihailovic were with the U-23's  in the fall and back with the senior team as they were for the Gold Cup.

-2 are first timers,  MN United's Chase Gasper & Rev's Matt Turner.

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