Concacaf Gold Cup

There may have been some doubt the last time the USMNT played competitive matches 20 months ago, but there is none now during the 2019 Gold Cup. Christian Pulisic is the USMNT’s best player, without question. He may just be the best player in all of Concacaf.

Pulisic, as he’s done all Gold Cup, played with fire, passion and purpose to help the U.S. defeat Jamaica 3-1 in the semifinals late Wednesday night and into Thursday morning in Nashville, Tennessee, after a 90-minute rain delay in the first half.

The USMNT advanced to the semifinals of the 2019 Gold Cup with a 1-0 victory over Curaçao, and it really was that close. A wonderful combination between Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie in the 25th minute proved to be the match-winner, and the U.S. had to rely on five saves from Zack Steffen to weather the storm from the tiny Dutch Caribbean island.

The opening 25 minutes of play had very little to due with what transpired over the final 65 — that opening period was really the only time the U.S. seemed to be in control. 

Mexico’s quest for its eighth Gold Cup — and first since 2015 — almost came to an abrupt end in Houston last night in front of over 70,000 at NRG Stadium. Raúl Jiménez had given El Tri a first half lead, only for Costa Rica to respond in the second half via a converted Bryan Ruiz penalty.

That would be the only scoring on the night, so the match would be decided on penalties. The shootout started as a nightmare for Mexico after Jiménez had his shot saved while Celso Borges converted for Costa Rica.

Down 2-0 with only 40 minutes remaining in last night’s CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinal, Haiti produced a barnstorming comeback to knockout Canada 3-2 while clinching a spot in the semifinals for the first time ever. 

The progress that Canada had evidently made under John Herdman had been one of the talking points of the group stage, and there were whispers of the Canucks upsetting the odds to claim their first continental title since 2000.

Twitter, like Reddit before it, was once a largely satirical, clandestine take on whataboutery — a safe place against the echo chambers of fallacy that invaded popular media sources with the power to turn Mahatma Gandhi into a cynic. In their absurdism, Twitter and Reddit remained far from the trappings of modern media. That’s no longer the case.

Our takes are now dictated by the reactionary, reward-seeking behavior that's seeped into all social platforms, contributing directly to the cacophony of noise that leads to the short-sighted negligence we all, supposedly, abhor.