i love it that we put up 4 goals on brazil, one year after putting up 3 on them. I frown with disappointment that our defense is, and will be, a complete and utter joke for the next decade
well, yeah, but then you have the whole problem that our more experienced defenders aren't all that good either. Besides Johnson of course. Maybe Chandler/Parkhust could help if he actually cap-ties with us. Boca and Dolo are on their final years (i think they'll be with us this cycle, but certainly not next). The rest of our prospects are nothing special in the international game, and with a few of the players we've called up to try to fill our void at CB, that's being pretty generous. I think our attack will be a lot fun to watch down the road though.
Comparing rosters for Portugal for this tourney and their U-17 UEFA qualifying from a couple months ago, looks like pretty much the same roster.
Is it a proper time to say that if we had another coach instead of defensive mid ABMOD, we would have scored 6 goals and won the game?
HA, that is what I was thinking. Like damn poor kids clearly playing in the classic American bunker never get a chance to open up the game. Need a Hispanic coach imo. But honestly, I'd much rather a US team played to 4-4 draws at this age then 0-0 draws. Giving up goals on set pieces and overall defensive play/tactics can be taught as development continues. But many offensive skills are learned much younger in life. Its better to allow open play now and allow it to flourish then to play defensive and stunt the development of many of the offensive players.
If they can, they would be stupid not to. That said was he ever in "Portland's academy"....and they might not ever get a chance....
Portland can certainly offer him a HG deal. Rubin never officially played with the Timbers Academy as he was in Bradenton when the academy was formed, but he played for the club(s) that Portland took over to form their DA.
The problem is that none of us know what actually happened. Did the US overwhelm a group of Brazilian kids who under estimated them with intensity before the Brazilian kids woke up? Did the US fail to finish off the game because they don't know how to keep possession of the ball? Did the US give up four goals because they panicked under the pressure of a team with ideas? We don't know. Judging what kind of performance they gave, what kind of "attack" or what kind of "defense" they played is impossible. I have no idea if these kids are learning how to play soccer or not. We have had one game "results" against Brazilians at all levels before. All this means is that our boys were pumped up to play the big boys - nothing more. It will probably take the passage of time before we have any understanding of what took place during this cycle.
Even the match prior to that where we tied (the Pelosi, Fehr and Guido group) we where the dominate team, if I recall correctly Brazil became very frustrated and ended up with like 8 yellow cards. But more to the point..times have changed i was fully expecting us to win this game and am a bit disappointed that Brazil came back to tie. My expectations are that we will beat both Portugal and Turkey...and looking even further down the road I fully expect our U-15's to be even better.
From the Google translate of the Brazil report, "In the end, although Brazil had 63% of possession, a fair result for an exciting match." http://www.cbf.com.br/Notícias/Todas/2012/11/28/Estreia emocionante: Brasil 4 x 4 EUA To add to your list of things we don't know, we know very little about the state of this Brazil team. Are they tinkering with new players or tactics? Did they arrive with enough time before the game to acclimate? Etc.
Still............................a good result. This group of kids already knew they could play with Brazil, though. They beat them last year. The US actually has a very good record against Brazil in the Nike friendlies. Unless I'm mistaken, they've beaten us once since 2007. 2012: 4-4 2011: 3-1 win 2010: 0-0 2009: 1-1 2008: 2-1 loss 2007: 2-0 win The 2007 version is the game that most people remember. But in a sense, that game is a cautionary tale about taking the results with a grain of salt. We beat them 2-0 on goals by Carlos Martinez and Stefan Jerome. Those two then went on to also score the goals in a 2-0 victory over Russia as well. Two highly thought of players that went to Europe after Bradenton, and have since fallen off the USMNT/USYNT radar. In fact, for all the jubilation and hype surrounding how well that 2007 team did..................it's looking like maybe three of the players we used in that 2007 Nike friendlies team are going to be USMNT-worthy. Right now its Gyau, Kitchen, and perhaps McInerney. As it turns out, a bunch of guys joined up with this class later may in fact be better prospects. [By the time the World Cup rolled around Gil, Agudelo, Packwood, Okwuono, Zavaleta and others replaced many of the players that beat Brazil that eventful day in 2007. People hardly remember Edson Lemus, Estanilao Arevalo, Jaime Gutierrez and company]
With all due respect 3628 but you are wrong. Our defense played very well, I know not seeing the game and hearing we gave up 4 is hard to believe they played well. The quad of Martin, Roquelo, Donovan and Moore were very solid. Out of the 4 goals only one of them was top class, the other 3 could of had a different result. Out of the 3, 1st one was a corner kick that the goalie had in his hands and mistakenly dropped the ball into our own goal. The 2nd one was a free kick that was a bad call on Martin. Brazil took the free kick and one of our midfdielders loss his mark and Brazil had a free header from the penalty spot. The 3rd came from about 25 yards out when Lindley failed to close the space and Brazil player hit a knuckler that was right at the goalie but he mis judged it and the ball barely missed his head. It looked like a ball that couldve been blocked but the knuckle confused him. Brazil attackers was Very Very good and our defense showed there quality. I do believe if a scout was at the game and seen the goals they would come to a different conclusion than your making.
The goalie made some very good saves during this game, including a 1v1 that Donovan gave away at the top of the 18 yard box. He and the defense was under pressure for a large part of the game. Our game plan was to not allow our outside defenders (Roquelo and Martin) to go forward but defend at all cost. That made it extremely hard for our Midfielders to take control of the game. Our biggest issue was our mids not being able to keep up with Brazils mids.