In the 52nd minute of the United States men's national team's 2-1 win over Ecuador, Jermaine Jones lost his head and lashed out at Michael Arroyo. That earned himself a red card, and for the second straight match, the USMNT had to finish the match a man short. They got away with it again thanks in part to Ecuador getting a man sent off at the same time, but they absolutely cannot afford to have a loss of discipline in a third straight match in the Copa America semifinal.
The USMNT needs to show more discipline to advance to the Copa America final
In two straight matches the U.S. have advanced despite serious losses of discipline. They can’t afford for that to happen again.
Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
The loss of Jones for the rest of the tournament is a big blow to the U.S. midfield, but it’s just the latest in a string of such incidents for the Americans in the Copa. At the end of the group stage, DeAndre Yedlin was sent off for earning two yellow cards for rash tackles in a matter of moments. After Jones was sent off, Bobby Wood earned a yellow card and an accumulation suspension for the semifinal for a bad challenge in the heat of the moment after Jones’ dismissal. Even in the first two U.S. matches, there were numerous moments when it looked like the USMNT’s passions were getting the better of them, and that’s been slowly costing them more and more.
Now there’s no room for error in a massive semifinal match like this, especially since they’re likely to be paired off with Argentina. They’re going to need to be at their very best, and they’re already going to be three very important players down between the suspensions to Jones, Wood and Alejandro Bedoya, who in his fatigue in the second half against Ecuador picked up a yellow card to trigger an accumulation suspension of his own.
With three important players out of their starting lineup, the U.S. will need to be more focused than ever in order to beat a team with the sheer dominating quality of Argentina. Even if Venezuela somehow beat Argentina to make the semis, the USMNT will need to be just as focused in order to keep their opportunistic style from catching them off guard.
That means the U.S. will need to keep a much cooler head in their semifinal match than they have so far in the tournament. Especially playing without Jones, Bedoya and Wood, they’re already going to have to make a lot of adjustments to how they’ve been playing -- those adjustments added to another loss of discipline will be a great way to lose the match in a big hurry.
Any loss of focus, any loss of discipline, and the U.S. are going to be hurting in a bad way. This is one of the biggest matches they’ve had under Jurgen Klinsmann, and their big-match record is a little mixed. Their last “big” match was the CONCACAF Cup match against Mexico last year in which they looked flat in their best moments and outright awful in their worst. Another performance like that, and the USMNT will be sunk before they step onto the pitch.
They’ve looked more motivated during the Copa, which is good, but with that motivation has come and over-abundance of fire. Fire is good, fire can get you through tough moments, fire can help you make the most of your big moments. Too much fire, though, leads to moments like Jones lashing out, like Yedlin losing his calm, and moments that cost you matches.
The U.S. have to use that fire to their benefit, but find a way to keep their head when things start to get out of hand. If they can stay disciplined, they can go toe-to-toe with almost any national team in the world. If they can avoid the moments of insanity that have hurt them in the Copa America, they have a chance -- give into the fire too deeply, though, and they’re going to get burned.
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