If McBean and Salgado are out then I hope we have someone like Morris make the squad. We need something other than a bunch of fancy dribbling midgets. We are USA, not Barcelona.
Agreed. Mario Rodriguez and Jerome Kiesewetter didn't exactly inspire confidence from what I saw of them. Too bad Shawn Parker is good enough for Germany's youth teams
And Jeffrey Payeras did too. Does that his chances of going to Turkey have increased dramatically? Alfred Koroma had 2 goals in this most recent game (he's up to something like 5 this cycle) , and nobody has said a thing about his possibilities of make this squad. I'm just trying to ease up a little bit on the hype train on a player the majority of us have never seen play............................. Morris could make the squad, and I would have no problem with that. I just think its a longer shot than others do. For some reason people think that the kids that couldn't make this camp (Rodriguez, Kieswetter, etc.) aren't going to make the U20 team. I've seen or heard no comments from Ramos to suggest that this is remotely the case. As if a good performance against Cal FC is a deal breaker for a player like Morris. Cal FC? Isn't that like an adult amateur league team? My response to goals/assists in a game like that is...................shrug. I can't really say anything with any sort of confidence.
Who is 'hyping' the kid and where is this 'hype train', as you put it? There are people close to the program who are hearing that Morris has a very real shot at making the roster, regardless of what you are hearing from Ramos publicly. (Not even sure what 'publicly' means, as he's given no public interviews since the camp started. There's nothing to 'hear'.) You make it sound as if some are crowning the kid the next Di Maria. I have no idea who these people are that you're referring to. Roster prediction is not the same as prodigy crowning.
I was at the game and it really was not very competitive nor a good test for the U 20 squad. I would agree with your assessment of goals/assists in this match....three were scored by the U 20s in the last few minutes of the game.
Payeras looked very strong. His level was on par with Java Torren, if not higher. It appears his time in Guatemala did him well. He looked like a much better and more confident center back than he did when he was with the Galaxy's Academy.
In the TDS article it reveals that U20's were set to face CDUSA reserves but CDUSA called them and said they were going to field a number of U18's in the game so they had to find other competition.
Too bad we couldn't call in Lenhart... Vicor Pineda and Mario Rodriguez have decent size for forwards.
Your original "dribbling midgets" comment wasn't too clever. Anyway, if these guys aren't healthy enough to go we are going to have to rely on whichever combination of forwards is available. To me it looks like we will rely on Rodriguez and Pineda.
I disagree. Our entire national team system has decided that the 4-3-3 and Barcelona style are what is best. Having a bunch of small, quick, short passing/dribbling type guys is great. But you need a Plan B. It was no insult to the dribbling midgets, just an insight that we need several ways to play, not just one. Our U-17's sure could have used a Plan B.
Don't think we need a target striker at all. We played amazing attacking Soccer in the CONCACAF championships. Some of the best attacking Soccer I've seen at any level ever in our system. The defense is what let us down. If we could just keep the attacking style from that tournament and add defensive quality to it we'd be a team to be reckoned with in Turkey. I know CONCACAF isn't the quality we'll be up against but the quality with which we played with in that tournmant, I'm convinced could compete with the best in the world.
Our U-17's needed a better coach to actually teach the formation and make the correct gameday decisions. Again, we haven't stopped using target forwards either. Rodriguez can play the role of a post up striker. Ramos is just emphasizing interchangeability with the front three.
Couldn't agree more. I'm all for the method by which our U20 team is trying to play. But having the option of some size off the bench is important. National teams like Spain and Germany do play a possession style of game with forwards like Villa. But Spain always seems to have one big forward on the bench. In 2010 I believe it was 6'5" Fernando Llorente. At Euro 2008 people will remember they had the bruiser Güiza come off the bench. He was a little shorter than Llorente, but he played that role as well. Or Negredo in the current squad. And Germany, of course, utilized Mario Gomez for these purposes. These are obviously skilled players, not just beef. But we get the idea. You need Plan B. Salgado could be that for us now that McBean is out. Salgado's a big boy. Last I saw he was listed at 6'4". If he's fit, then maybe that's what Ramos is going to look for. Sometimes a coach sees that a possible advantage could come from whipping in some crosses to some bigger players like Salgado in the box. We were doing that to some degree in the U20 final against Mexcio. Rodriguez had a point blank header that he missed........................................ I'm always amused by people that want to just try to emulate Barcelona and play with a possession style with diminuitive players. That's great if those players are Messi, Villa, Xavi, Iniesta, Pedro, etc. If you don't have that, you best have plans B,C, and D if its not working.
Didn't Ramos actually show the tactical accumin to change formations during the U20 WCQ? I know Richie failed at changing anything, and was probably naive in thinking we'd breeze to the WC. Ramos switched to a 4-2-3-1 I believe and became a bit more defensive, something Richie couldn't seem to understand.
Seems like somebody agrees with you........... USAprospects@USAprospects24h US U20 Stock Boosters: Jordan Morris (Sounder U18), Alfred Koroma (College), Jeffrey Payeras (Municipal), Dillon Serna (Rapids) I wish I had seen these games................... Alfred Koroma is one of those players we denigrate as an athlete without technical ability. But who knows where his game is at? We can remember that at the U17 World Cup some of thought he outplayed Mario Rodriguez.
I didn't think Mario was that great in qualifying. Nothing I have seen from Salgado or McBean would make me believe that they couldn't be somewhat interchangeable in a front three.
Koroma scored a couple goals this week, but didn't really stand out in my opinion. He excelled at the WC mainly because he was bigger and faster than everyone else. There are also going to be questions about Koroma's fitness for the WC given that his college status is up in the air. I have no idea who he is training with this spring, if he is at all.
To be fair to Rodriguez before the qualifiers he hadn't played any official games for months and only after coming back to FCK from the qualies did he start playing regularly and scoring for his club. So it'll be interesting to see where he is at also. Wish the Toulon Tourney would be sooner to answer some of these questions
I remember Koroma having a great U-17 WC. I thought he had pretty good technical ability for being such a good athlete. I thought Him, Pelosi, and Guido played the best that tournament.