U17' in Finland (R)

[Sammys]

The US U17's lost their first match in Finland against the Finland U17 Team by a score of 2-0.

USA - Quentin Westberg; John DiRaimondo, Jonathan Spector, Brandon Owens (Adrian Chevannes, 70), Chris Germani (Kyle Helton, 72); Danny Szetela (Robbie Rogers, 64), Brian Grazier, Guillermo Gonzalaez, Eddie Gaven; Jacob Peterson, Corey Ashe (Michael Harrington, 56).

The two teams will play again on Saturday the 24th.

[JamieWatson30]

who played well during the game? who looked in good form???


and also, how was the play up top??

[GersMan]

Thanks for the info sammys.

Looks like they used Germani at left back, if I read this right. Looks like

Peterson Ashe

Gonzalez
Grazier Gaven

Szetela

Germani, Owens, Spector, DiRimando

Westberg

also - I thought Rogers turned down residency, so he's just involved for this road trip then?

[flatstanely11]

i think it was more of
ashe
gonzalez peterson

gaven
szetela-grazier

germani-spector-owens-diramondo

but maybe the other way im not sure

[fidlerre]

with freddy out there they would have won...

he would have scored 4 goals on his own!

damn citizenship process :D

[DigitalTron]

Interesting things ...

Rogers was there, Owens was subbed out but Spector was not, Gaven and Gonzalez are consistently playing together, the young Szetela starts, and Jacob Peterson played the entire game.

I know that with so many games in such a short span of time they want to get solid playing time for all players on the trip, but still, all of those observations were interesting to me.

-Tron

[JamieWatson30]

so are you sayin that just because they are new, they shouldnt get a chance tron???? and you think its interesting when they do get a chance??

[GersMan]

Tron wants to see the players develop to their fullest potential, and the team to do well. I don't know him except for these boards and can confidently assert that.

When we say of "interest," it's because we follow the team closely, and notice it as a development. Szetela seems to be highly though of and his starting the first match on the tour might be confirmation of that.

I too, notice Owens was subbed out with interest, especially as he may be the team leader in appearances over the past year. I hope he was not injured.

[seny69]

Owens was taken out because he had an own goal.

[DigitalTron]

Originally posted by JamieWatson30
so are you sayin that just because they are new, they shouldnt get a chance tron???? and you think its interesting when they do get a chance?? No no no no NO. Sorry if I wasn't clear. GersMan, thanks for explaining my position. :)

Usually my posts are long but explanatory, this time I was too short. What I meant was that:

1) I wholeheartedly support giving everyone in residency a chance. That's how they will grow. We do not know which of these guys will blossom 10 years down the road, and often it's not the ones who are starring right now. I just thought that some of these things showed a high level of confidence in some players that I thought was encouraging.

2) I had thought Rogers had turned down the invitation to residency, but was pleasantly surprised to see that he was at the game, and wondered if he was going to be joining the residency.

3) Owens is widely acclaimed to be possibly our best young defender at any youth level. His rep is impeccable from what I've gathered. My point was that perhaps Spector was approaching the level that the coaching staff felt comfortable allowing him to organize the defense. Or, possibly that because Spector is a little bigger and has had success scoring through the air, that maybe he was seen as a better offensive option than Owens, which would be a good thing for Spector, not a bad one for Owens.

4) My initial impression was that Memo could play wide left but was best at central attacking midfielder. But, I thought that Gaven usually only played central attacking midfielder. I was encouraged to see that both were co-existing rather than simply duplicating skills. I'm very high on Eddie Gaven, but I think Memo has already been tabbed as the rising star of his age group thus far. So it's great that they're both getting a lot of minutes.

5) Szetela is new to me, but everyone seems to think this guy is quite good. I think it shows a lot of confidence in him to start him despite him being younger than most.

6) I don't know much about Jacob Peterson, and am very interested in learning more.

7) Who knows what the future will hold, but the individual players' developments is quite intriguing, and absent any informed evaluations, we're forced to draw conclusions from subtle clues. I was encouraged by some of these events, but don't really know what to make of them all yet.

I wasn't being negative, and if you read most of my posts in this forum, you'll find that I rarely am negative of developing players. :)

-Tron

[davide]

USA 2- Finland 2

http://www.palloliitto.fi/index.asp?ROotsection=55&SubID=323&DocID=2204

Can anyone translate Finnish?

It sounds like we were down 2-0 at halftime and then we pulled back two goals in the second half. Gonzalez and Marfuggi are mentioned in the article.

[GersMan]

from US Soccer:

U.S. UNDER-17s FINISH FINLAND TRIP WITH TWO DRAWS IN HELSINKI: The U.S. Under-17 Men’s National Team concluded its three-game series with
Finland with a pair of draws after opening the trip with a 2-0 loss. In today’s match, the team came back from an early two-goal deficit and drew even at 2-2 with goals in the 54th and 74th minutes by John DiRaimondo (St. Louis, Mo.) and Robbie Rogers (Palos Verdes, Calif.), respectively. The U.S. U-17’s had a chance to win the contest later in the match, but Guillermo Gonzalez (Pamaount, Calif.) failed to score on his penalty kick. In Saturday’s match, the U.S. tied Finland 1-1 on a goal from Eddie Gaven (Hamilton, N.J.) U.S. head coach John Ellinger is using the trip to help his team get acclimated to Finland, where the 2003 FIFA Under-17 World Championship will be held from August 13-30, 2003. The U.S. Under-17s are now 7-7-3 in international matches this year.

Date Opponent Result U.S. Goal Scorers
Aug. 22 Finland 2-0 L ---
Aug. 24 Finland 1-1 T Gaven
Aug. 26 Finland 2-2 T DiRaimando, Rogers