u20 Men's World Cup - Poland

[Napoleon 8700]

1 minute ago, ATLLonghorn said:

Soto has to score there fuck.

Exhibit A for why you have to train with both feet. 

Ive got an 8 year-old soccer fan who hates practicing with his left foot,?but Weah’s goal and Soto’s miss are all you need to watch to understand the importance of practicing with your weaker foot. 

[ATLLonghorn 857]

Ramos is dancing with the ones who brung him and it's backfiring. Mendez was huge in the CONCACAF U20 Championship (golden ball winner) but has looked a bit out of his depth against better competition here.

[JNip 132]

1 hour ago, Hagbard Celine said:

if this is first you've watched this tournament we get faster in transition as game goes on

It’s not that USA is bad in transition, it’s that during the first goal the right back was defending TERRIBLY even  when he and everyone else was in position. 

[IPoopOnWhoop 104]

How the hell did we just survive that without giving up a goal?

[ztejas 43538]

great save

[ztejas 43538]

Fuck I need a beer

[pacman 7371]

We are losing..why is our #10 always so far away from the attack?

[Napoleon 8700]

EDIT: 2018 World Cup, not 2016.

I’m old. Usually I’m off by a decade. 

[Hagbard Celine 10923]

Sunil looks worried.  He should be.

[ATLLonghorn 857]

1 minute ago, Hagbard Celine said:

Sunil looks worried.  He should be.

Sunil shouldn't be allowed within 100 miles of a US Soccer game.

[ztejas 43538]

There's so much space... we just need to be sharper on the attack

Again so fucking sloppy by Llanez. It's like we've been one touch away the entire game. 

Edited June 8, 2019 by ztejas

[Napoleon 8700]

22 minutes ago, ATLLonghorn said:

Here's the 2013 French U20 team.

 

It turns out that that this guy also made the French team in 2018:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florian_Thauvin

but only one other player went to Russia from that squad and he was on the Senegal 🇸🇳 squad. 

[ztejas 43538]

Wow I didn't even know Keita was on the pitch

[pacman 7371]

Well, at least Richards has been solid.

 

We need to score but, in attack, everybody is checking away

Edited June 8, 2019 by pacman

[ztejas 43538]

They're going to find a 3rd before we find a 2nd. 

Oh well... decent run I guess. Would be nice if we could get past the QF for once. 

[Napoleon 8700]

12 minutes ago, pacman said:

We are losing..why is our #10 always so far away from the attack?

Because he’s really a #8, but wears #10 because he’s the captain.

That’s why.

[ATLLonghorn 857]

Gotta admire the consistency. Now we know for sure that we can stop watching this tournament every other year after the round of 16.

[ATLLonghorn 857]

Ramos Out.

[kingkoopa6 8377]

Lame

[kingkoopa6 8377]

Wow. Blue hat tho!

[Braff Zacklin 13664]

Losing sucks, but was very impressed with Ecuador's organization and composure once it got the second goal.

[JNip 132]

Future is bright. Scary as a Mexican fan. 

[Hagbard Celine 10923]

The biggest failing I see is that we still try to take a 2nd touch in every situation.

2nd problem is we try to crash through 4 opponents when we clearly don't have the skill on the ball to do so.

3rd problem is CP, McKennie and Adams should be here and not in the Gold Cup.  Those 3 would have made a huge difference.  We win today for sure.

 

Sunil and Earnie took their orders and split the squads.

And now we all we play for is to "win" the Gold Cup which has far more downside than up.

[ztejas 43538]

10 minutes ago, Napoleon said:

Because he’s really a #8, but wears #10 because he’s the captain.

That’s why.

Yeah I was about to say he isn't playing a #10

[Napoleon 8700]

It may be difficult to believe, but...

Sargent would have scored on that Soto flub. 

I honestly think that Tyler Adams is better than Durkin. Maybe some will disagree with me. 

You could even argue that Westin McKinnie might even be slightly better than his former FC Dallas stablemate, Paxton Pomykal.

 I would like the US to excel at some level of soccer on the Men’s side of things. 

[pacman 7371]

Adams is light years better at the 6 than Durkin, and Bradley..and Trapp..but you, know, gb sees him at OB

[ztejas 43538]

Look I get the frustrations but also there is some serious recency bias going on. At the end of the day it's the U20s. I'd take a senior WC QF appearance over a U20 WC win any day of the week. It isn't even close to me. 

It sucks getting bounced before the semis again but I dont think the answer is throwing all of our best players at the wall to try and win a tournament that borders on an exhibition. 

[Napoleon 8700]

1 minute ago, ztejas said:

Look I get the frustrations but also there is some serious recency bias going on. At the end of the day it's the U20s. I'd take a senior WC QF appearance over a U20 WC win any day of the week. It isn't even close to me. 

It sucks getting bounced before the semis again but I dont think the answer is throwing all of our best players at the wall to try and win a tournament that borders on an exhibition. 

I’d take a U-20 WC win over a CONCACAF Gold Cup win.

[ztejas 43538]

3 minutes ago, Napoleon said:

I’d take a U-20 WC win over a CONCACAF Gold Cup win.

Of course - I think anyone would. But it's not the US' fault that we are in an extremely weak region. 

My concern is that our national team barely looks to have any chemistry right now to begin with. I don't know if pulling our 2 best players from an extended run with the senior team is what we need right now. We were still pretty good in the u20s without them. 

And obviously Sargent not playing in either was total dumbfuckery. 

We'll see how we play tomorrow and in the Gold Cup. 

[ATLLonghorn 857]

The US national team program needs to hire coaches at the youngest levels to teach defensive technique because every damn tournament the US gives up stupid goals that cost them games. Ecuador was opportunistic on both goals but they also capitalized on poor defensive efforts which at some point you think it would be a priority to stop.

Ramos' substitution strategy was weird. Made the right call to take De La Fuente off at the half, but Llanez tried to do way too much so it didn't work out as well as it did the last game. He probably waited ten minutes too late for each of the next two substitutions. No reason to wait until the 85th minute for the final sub when you're chasing a goal and Rennicks had been good off the bench.

I know this is going to sound new-agey but the US needs to hire a career counselor of sorts. They need someone within the program that is helping the young players make the right decisions where they sign so that guys end up going places where they develop (The USMNT youth program should forge an agreement with the Bundesliga even though I have no idea if that's legal or not)

Weah, Soto, Pomykal (who a  lot people are high on and I thought was a disappointment in the KO games) and Richards seem earmarked for the Senior team, but I'd expect them to all be part of U23 Olympic qualifying this fall. 

[ztejas 43538]

18 minutes ago, ATLLonghorn said:

The US national team program needs to hire coaches at the youngest levels to teach defensive technique because every damn tournament the US gives up stupid goals that cost them games. Ecuador was opportunistic on both goals but they also capitalized on poor defensive efforts which at some point you think it would be a priority to stop.

Ramos' substitution strategy was weird. Made the right call to take De La Fuente off at the half, but Llanez tried to do way too much so it didn't work out as well as it did the last game. He probably waited ten minutes too late for each of the next two substitutions. No reason to wait until the 85th minute for the final sub when you're chasing a goal and Rennicks had been good off the bench.

I know this is going to sound new-agey but the US needs to hire a career counselor of sorts. They need someone within the program that is helping the young players make the right decisions where they sign so that guys end up going places where they develop (The USMNT youth program should forge an agreement with the Bundesliga even though I have no idea if that's legal or not)

Weah, Soto, Pomykal (who a  lot people are high on and I thought was a disappointment in the KO games) and Richards seem earmarked for the Senior team, but I'd expect them to all be part of U23 Olympic qualifying this fall. 

Olympics could be exciting. We could have a pretty badass squad if everyone U23 shows.

[ATLLonghorn 857]

3 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Olympics could be exciting. We could have a pretty badass squad if everyone U23 shows.

Plus you get to bring three players over the age of 23 so that means the US can bring...nevermind.

[Knoxtnhorn 6066]

1 hour ago, ATLLonghorn said:

Plus you get to bring three players over the age of 23 so that means the US can bring...nevermind.

That's pretty funny.  I got the joke then started thinking of (seriously) who we could bring in over 23.  Uh.. Wow.  I just looked at the Gold Cup roster, and I don't think there's a single full-national that's impressive.  Every player I'd take is U-23.

[ATLLonghorn 857]

45 minutes ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

That's pretty funny.  I got the joke then started thinking of (seriously) who we could bring in over 23.  Uh.. Wow.  I just looked at the Gold Cup roster, and I don't think there's a single full-national that's impressive.  Every player I'd take is U-23.

I'd take Zack Steffen. He's the only definite I'd take. Other than that maybe Miazga because he and CCV had good chemistry in defense on the U20s? I could see them bringing a guy like Arriola maybe. I dunno. The pickin's are slim.

[dogbreath 434]

5 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

The biggest failing I see is that we still try to take a 2nd touch in every situation.

2nd problem is we try to crash through 4 opponents when we clearly don't have the skill on the ball to do so.

3rd problem is CP, McKennie and Adams should be here and not in the Gold Cup.  Those 3 would have made a huge difference.  We win today for sure.

 

Sunil and Earnie took their orders and split the squads.

And now we all we play for is to "win" the Gold Cup which has far more downside than up.

Agree with points 1&2. If CP and McKennie were here then they'd be in the stands watching.  Should have brought in Aaronson and Sands to this team and I don't understand why Ramos didn't use Cerillo in any game. 

[maninblack 7974]

very US soccer

[shnsajax 3591]

South Korea won a crazy ass game over Senegal thus would have given us the semifinal matchup we wanted in 2002 but never got. Just like today.

[ATLLonghorn 857]

When Korea got the re-kick on their final PK I just had a sinking feeling Senegal was going to miss their last one and they did.

[Napoleon 8700]

MLS Soccer's writeup of each player at the U-20 World Cup.

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019/06/13/armchair-analyst-u-20s-post-mortem-and-whats-come-usmnt

This first clip was of a through pass to Sebastian Soto where he lets the Nigerian keeper slide past him before he chips the ball into the goal with the outside of his right foot.

https://streamable.com/bkhkm

I didn't watch this game, but I realized that he tried to do the exact same thing against Ecuador, because he had had success against the Nigerian keeper. I commented at the time that:

1) He should have kicked it with his LEFT foot and...
2) Josh Sargent would have scored in that instance.

The reason that he scored the first time, but did't the second was because the Ecuadorean keeper didn't suck. He didn't slide past Soto and then leave an open goal. He went AT Soto and slid on his side TOWARD Soto and the ball. Soto's weak attempt to chip the ball was smothered by a keeper who knew how to play the position.

It would have been better for the team if Soto had gotten stuffed by the Nigerian keeper (we were already up 1-0 at the time) and he had learned that you can't weakly chip a ball with the outside of your foot when the opposing keeper is right on you. A stronger chip with the left foot, which would have been further from the keeper and should have been easier to create more lift, was the right move vs Ecuador, but it didn't happen.

Anyway, the article starts with Weah and covers every player*.
 

*Supposedly, I just started reading.

[ATLLonghorn 857]

Ukraine just went up 3-1 in the final so a team the US outplayed and gagged against is about win the whole thing. 

[ATLLonghorn 857]

FWIW the goal that put the game away was a banger

 

[shnsajax 3591]

Ukraine just went up 3-1 in the final so a team the US outplayed and gagged against is about win the whole thing. 

Not really surprised