Darlington Nagbe knows all too well that the US national team put themselves in a bit of a hole by losing their Copa America Centenario opener against Colombia last Friday.
But the Portland Timbers attacker, who came on in the second half of the 2-0 loss to Los Cafeteros, took some positives out of the loss, and is confident the USMNT will rebound in tonight’s can’t-lose encounter with Costa Rica (8 pm ET; FS1, Univision, UDN).
Timbers.com caught up with Nagbe in the days following the Colombia match, getting his thoughts on his growing familiarity with the national team, his first international goal, singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh inning stretch at Wrigley Field over the weekend and the USMNT’s chances following the loss to Colombia.
“Coming out of that game, I think it was good overall,” Nagbe said. “They had two set-piece chances that they put away in the corner kick and the other being a penalty kick, so it was the two goals that they had. I thought we defended well. We had some opportunities ourselves that we’ll put away the next game. Going into the next game, we’re just confident we’ve got the hardest team out of the way and we look forward to Costa Rica, a team that we’re more familiar with, and try to get a good game against them, a good performance and hopefully a win.”
For more from Nagbe, a popular candidate to start Tuesday’s match, head on over to Timbers.com.
