Mission accomplished. Now onto the next mission.
The US national team booked their passage to the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinals on Saturday, winning Group B with a 3-0 win over Nicaragua. But even with the group win and going unbeaten in the first three games of the tournament, USMNT head coach Bruce Arena is reportedly looking to make significant changes to the roster for the knockout stage.
Goal.com's Ives Galarcep reported on Saturday that Arena will call in Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley, Tim Howard, Darlington Nagbe and Clint Dempsey. Galarcep subsequently reported on Twitter that Jesse Gonzalez would be the final allotted replacement on the USMNT's 23-man active tournament roster.
Bradley and Howard were both shown on the television broadcast watching Saturday's match from a box.
Teams are allowed to make up to six changes between the group stage and knockout rounds on their 23-man roster, per CONCACAF regulations, provided the replacements were originally submitted as part of the 40-man provisional roster. Arena hinted ahead of the tournament that changes following the group stage were possible.
One player confirmed to be departing from the group-stage roster is midfielder Alejandro Bedoya, whose exit comes for personal reasons.
The US national team's quarterfinal match comes on Wednesday at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia (9 pm ET | FS1, UniMás, UDN) against an opponent yet to be determined. The match-up will be set Sunday evening after the entire Gold Cup group stage is complete.
