DCU Copa Watch: Steve Birnbaum has another game to play, while Alvaro Saborio may be hurt

If anyone had any money that the United States would defeat Paraguay and then watch as Colombia would lose to Costa Rica in order to win Group A, chances are you are a liar, but I may want to rub you for luck. Nevertheless, seeing Geoff Cameron and John Brooks work to preserve a clean sheet for a 10-man USA squad - DeAndre Yedlin got two yellow cards in quick succession - so that they could play the Group B runner-up (which could be any one of Brazil, Ecuador or Peru) on Thursday in Seattle was impressive. It also means that D.C. United will not see Steve Birnbaum (and his weekly transfer rumors) feature for the U.S. Such is life.

On the other side of Group A for DCU fans, this tweet from Costa Rica's official twitter account regarding Alvaro Saborio is mildly problematic:

El delantero @al_saborio se une a las bajas de #LaSele al presentar un desgarre en el muslo de su pierna derecha.#CopaAmerica

— FEDEFUTBOL (@FEDEFUTBOL_CR) June 11, 2016

Translated from the official Costa Rican federation's tweet, Saborio suffered a muscle strain somewhere on his right leg and was held out of the Ticos' 3-2 win over los Cafeteros. Whether it is more than a minor knock remains to be seen (as of this writing, Costa Rica coach Oscar Ramirez has not provided more information on the severity of the injury). We might not know anything until he's back with United.

With a team already missing two midfielders (Chris Rolfe and Patrick Nyarko) to concussion symptoms, the news does put them in a bit of a quandary heading into their next two games; a Wednesday Lamar Hunt US Open Cup affair with the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers of the NASL, and a Saturday regular season road game against the Houston Dynamo. Earlier this week Steven Streff let us know that new signing Alhaji Kamara may get some minutes during the Open Cup game, though maybe that gets moved back to minutes with the first team next Saturday. Maybe the return of a pairing comprising of Argentines Fabian Espindola and Luciano Acosta will be the case for Saturday while Rob Vincent takes a forward position Wednesday.

Or maybe, hopefully, it's much ado about nothing. Fabian Espindola