USMNT

It’s like Superman wearing a green cape or Cristiano Ronaldo without perfectly manicured hair — there’s just something off. 

When the U.S. plays in the Gold Cup quarterfinals on Wednesday, a few national team veterans won’t look quite right in the red, white and blue. Their numbers will be all wrong.

When Bruce Arena called up a few of his top veterans to bolster the USMNT for the Gold Cup knockout rounds, Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley and others joined a squad that had already doled out the first 23 jersey numbers. 

With one powerful blast of his left foot, Dom Dwyer’s chances to make an even bigger statement with the U.S. men’s national team took a blow, the Nicaraguan keeper guessing correctly to keep the American’s penalty kick out. 

The English-born U.S. international scored in his first two appearances for USMNT, but Dwyer couldn’t convert from the spot in his third appearance on Saturday. The next day he was dropped from the team for the remainder of the Gold Cup. Now the 26-year-old striker will be wondering what could have been.

The CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinal match-ups are set. Only eight teams remain. Let's check them out:

July 19: Costa Rica vs. Panama

Time: 6:00 p.m. EST

Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

TV: FOX Sports 1, Univision

Match-up: Costa Rica finished first in Group A, and Panama finished second in Group B. Costa Rica thrives on an organized defense and the creativity of Benfica midfielder Bryan Ruiz on offense. Panama's top players include Porto forward Ismail Diaz and NYCFC midfielder Miguel Camargo.

It is now time to take the CONCACAF Gold Cup seriously. A Gold Cup rule allows managers to make up to six changes between the group and knockout stages, and USMNT manager Bruce Arena is bringing in his all-time leading goalscorer, his number one goalkeeper, his captain, his top striker and Darlington Nagbe, who's probably the best player of the bunch.

From USSoccer.com:

Hey it's the CONCACAF Gold Cup! Fun!

No. Not fun. Not fun for people who must watch this product. The soccer is bad at the Gold Cup. Real bad. Even the USMNT, the host nation and one of the favorites, is a shadow of itself. This is a soccer wasteland.

Let's see what some of our colleagues in soccer media had to say about the USMNT's thrilling 3-2 win against Martinique:

On Saturday, Dom Dwyer scored his second goal in as many appearances for the USMNT. In doing so, he gave the USA a (temporary) 1-0 lead over Panama in the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Panama eventually scored to draw 1-1 with the USA.

More significantly, Dwyer became the ninth player in U.S. history to achieve the feat of scoring a goal in each of his first two games for the national team.

Look guys, we're relatively certain that the mandatory hydration breaks during the 2017 Gold Cup match between the USA and Panama have nothing to do with CONCACAF's newly announced "hydration partnership" with sports drink maker BODYARMOR. We know it's tempting to think that there is some connection here, but settle down.

During the World Cup next summer, United States supporters across the nation will attend watch parties in droves, frequent bars adorned in red, white and blue and flood sporting goods stores to buy new jerseys.

There's no denying that World Cup Fever is a nationwide phenomenon every four years, but the players responsible for the frenzy do not necessarily come from all corners of the country.

In order to get a better idea of what areas of the U.S. develop the best soccer talent, we looked at where current and past members of the USMNT spent the majoirty of their childhood.

The Gold Cup cometh, and with disgraced former CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb no longer around to taketh, the 2017 edition of the biennial championship of the North, Central American and Caribbean region promises to giveth in abundance.

Beginning with a titanic clash between French Guiana and Canada on Friday, July 7 and culminating on Wednesday, July 26 with the final in Santa Clara, California, we’ll be treated to three weeks of CONCACAF’y tomfoolery.