Post-Gold Cup Victory, These 5 Latinos Should Help the USMNT Qualify for the 2018 World Cup

The United States Men’s National Team has climbed the CONCACAF mountain once again. On Wednesday night, the US defeated Jamaica 2-1–via an awkward late Jordan Morris goal–to claim the country’s first Gold Cup title since 2013, and their sixth CONCACAF championship overall. After a slow start to group play, the United States got a roster boost in the knockout stages–the Gold Cup allows teams to bring in reinforcements after the first three matches–outscoring El Salvador, Costa Rica and Jamaica by a total of 6-1 to win the continent’s premier tournament. While Jozy Altidore, Clint Dempsey and Tim Howard got most of the attention, the Latino players for Team USA played critical roles throughout, but especially in the early stages of the tournament.

Those Latino players should also play key roles on the team as the US looks to rebound from a rough start in World Cup Qualifying in order to book a ticket to Russia 2018. We took a look at five players with Latino heritage that the US will be counting on going forward.