I'm not sure why people think Canada is the favorite here. They lost to Cuba (admittedly with terrible finishing), and they beat a pretty bad Nicaragua team that played with 10 men for 50 minutes. Canada also conceded a goal while playing a man up. This should be a fairly even game. Thankfully Canada has similar tactics to Costa Rica, so the US had good practice in the group stage.
In an official match, when it counted, Canada lost to Cuba. Sadly for you guys, winning in official matches is what matters
Because then we don't look as stupid as we would if we puffed our chests and talked trash before a loss to a team like Uzbekistan. Besides that, not many of our recent results have given us much to brag about.
I guess it's easy to be cocky since we have been going all Barca on these teams over the last several years, and getting result after result after result, and winning medals, youth tourneys or at least going deep in each one. Still should act like we are respectful of these teams, even if we don't mean it. I'm off to the gringo board to see them hype up a bunch of average players and think they are gonna make them a top team. They are funny over there.
It is important to understand that, in youth competitions, teams do not always strictly follow the paths of their country's history. Both Brazil and Argentina have already been eliminated from this year's competition, yet I am sure that many posters could not be convinced that beating either one of those under 20 sides wouldn't mean we should expect to win the under 20 World Cup. Cuba, at the under 20 level this year, is a lot better than their Country's history suggests - as is Canada. Does that mean the US can't beat them? No, just that you need to stop judging sides based on their Country's history.
Because Canadian male youth teams haven't done well in official concacaf tournaments lately? It's a different game as opposed to 5 years ago when the majority of our youth players weren't with pro clubs training in high level environments on a daily basis.
Thinking about a lineup, I'd go Miller... Stanko... Oneil... Ocegueda In the back. This assumes that Miller is healthy, which I hope he is because I thought he was better than BO in his run out. The CB pairing hasn't been ideal thus far but I don't see the coaches changing it in the knockout game. In the midfield Joya...Trapp...Gil I didn't really like Joya here, thought he was much better as a winger. But with Mikey Lopez out I'm not sure who else will fill in. Maybe they'll surprise us and push up Stanko or Oneil to MF. The front 3 Villareal...Rodriguez...Cuevas I feel good about Cuevas and Villareal, but Rodriguez hasn't done anything to make me want to see any more of him. I'd like to see someone else tried up top but the coaches looked content with Rodriguez n the first two matches.
If everyone was all "ra ra USA" this board wouldn't be fun. People try to remain objective because it allows us to discuss our strengths and weaknesses in comparison to other countries without coming to the "well we're better than them because our senior team is better" conclusion very time. And for the record, I'm confident we can beat Canada. But that doesn't mean I'm gonna belittle what they've accomplished leading up to this game.
Blind faith, ignoring reality, over hype and unrealistic expectations and understanding of where one stands aren't very good traits either. These characteristics are actually more detrimental to understanding and growth than pragmatic, honest criticism....but in modern day America it's all about not hurting someone's feelings.
and that is what it really boils down to.. we should expect to win..actually we should expect to play Mexico in an epic battle further down the road. having some nervous energy going into the make or break game is OK, but setting our expectations to achieve even more is also acceptable too
Yup, these are what my expectations used to be. Not anymore. Time for some US team somewhere to start changing my mind. Please oh please oh please.
Well it's fine to be pessimistic with the youth national teams. U17s destroyed by Germany in knockout round of the 2011 U17 World Cup U20s failed to qualify last time. In the 2009 U20 WC USA failed to make it out of their group U23s choked last year. A lot of mental lapses and just not being good enough. Story of the US youth national teams the last few years.
Right now we are in tough situation in that we are developing some really good players, but with them spread out all over the damn place and not training or playing in similar systems on a daily basis we will continue to struggle imo. I think this more than anything will keep us from getting results in junior ranks on a consistent basis. It's the one big edge England, Mexico , Spain Germany and just about everyone else has over us and it will probably stay this way for a long time
I agree that this is an issue, but it's just part of it IMO. Even as we get more skilled players, I think we still tend to over rate what they can do, and our teams look more bland than ever.
Canada lost to Cuba in this tournament. On that basis I would suggest that they are not be be feared.
It is all about pushing players mentally - to read the game better and faster, yet when we do try to teach players how to read the game better and faster, we don't have coaches who know how to teach the game or who are motivated to get dramatically better at teaching the game. The problem has been in place for a long, long time, but it is not until recently that it has started to manifest itself with international results. In short, our competition is improving at a faster rate than we are. We are getting better, but worse by comparison and it all stems from a lack of commitment at every level to push players mentally. All of this "Dude's a beast!" and "Dude's got wheels!" has got to give way to talking about what a player is actually doing and not doing during the game. A player's size, strength, speed, quickness or even skill is only as valuable as his ability to use them to solve problems on the field. It is the teaching problem solving piece that we suck at and that is tough because problem solving is the essence of the game. We picked the wrong aspect of soccer to suck at teaching.
This is a message board. Whether or not the posters here look past teams has nothing to do with the US team's results.