The United States will look to advance to the semifinals of the 2015 (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) CONCACAF Gold Cup as they take on Cuba who barely made it to the knockout stage with a 1-0 win over Guatemala.
Following the end of the group stage round, the USA were on top of Group A winning against Honduras and Haiti before a 1-1 draw against Panama.
As they advance to the next round of the tournament, U.S. head coach Jürgen Klinsmann made some changes in his starting 11, dropping three players including Toronto FC midfielder Jozy Altidore.
Altidore started in their first two matches but was unable to score and was always substituted entering the second half.
"We believe that Jozy's just not there yet. Jozy never really got into this tournament and never really picked up the rhythm," Klinsmann stated, according to ESPN.
He added, "He's just simply not in the shape right now to help us. For Jozy it's just simply going back to Toronto, picking up his rhythm, getting in shape, working on his fitness and then he will start scoring goals again."
Along with Altidore, defender Greg Garza and midfielder Alfredo Morales were also cut from the squad.
To replace them, Klinsmann brought in midfielders DaMarcus Beasley and Joe Corona with forward Alan Gordon.
The Yanks are expected to make it past the quarterfinals easily, given that Cuba faced certain issues before and during the 2015 Gold Cup.
Cuba had defection issues with a number of players leaving. In their opener against Mexico, in which they lost 6-0, national team head coach Raúl González Triana and six other players were unable to be with the squad as they faced passport issues.
After dropping their opener against Mexico, Los Leones del Caribe again suffered defeat against Trinidad and Tobago at 2-0 before keeping their tournament alive when they beat Guatemala 1-0 to end their group stage round.
The match will feature a complete United States squad facing a Cuba team that only has 19 players.
The quarterfinals game will be played on July 18, 5 p.m. EST and will be shown on FOX. The game can be watched online through live stream by clicking here.
