I don't know if that's a good sign for their chances against the U.S. that their best player is American.
23-3 if you count those Canadian goals. I did not think we could qualify with such ease at halftime of that game
It's not about the opponent for me. This US team plays calmly when pressured, plays passes along the deck, and combines more than I've seen a US youth side do in the past. Even that U-15 Hugo Perez coached side didn't play this composed and relied much more on the brillance of Pulisic, Josh Perez, Haji and others. I'm Swiss, but I don't think it's just down to the coach. These players are miles ahead of youth players from just 5-10 years ago.
It's not. And considering we got all the Mexican-American dual nationals for the U20's (Mendez, Ledezma, Llanez, Soto, Cerillo, Servania), it's no guarantee that Efra stays with Mexico. Dest was there as well. PS, crap ball by Kayo. A better one and it's 4-0...
3-0 US FT The United States qualifies for the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup. They also advance to the semifinals of the 2019 CONCACAF U-17 Championship where they will take on Canada on Tuesday May 14th at 5:30 eastern.
Leyva reminds me a lot of Durkin, though he's probably even a little ahead of him at the same age. His technical ability doesn't always jump off the screen, but he's such a steady presence in the midfield, plays the right ball for the situation, and his long passing is beautiful. Most impressive player for me today.
I prefer to frame the facts this way: Since going down 2 goals in the span of a minute against Canada, we've outscored our opponents 26-1.
Another professional win. I keep on saying how professional we are. The academy infrastructure is just paying off. We are not a perfect team but as a country we are really learning how to play professionally tactically, space and time. No one hurries. They hit the right pass. We do make mistakes but we have really improved in how we are teaching and then performing the game even at youth levels. Can you imagine this team with Bello at LB, Judge in the mix at CB, Alvarez at #10? I didn't see what Leyva brings to the table. I do now. Soft feet, nice reading of the game, reads passing angles immaculately. Seems to have a body to grow into, not fully formed player, room to grow. I don't think Saldana is a great prospect but he had a great game today. No mistakes, solid through and through. Gray gave the ball away too much, Las struggled with giving the ball away too in bad situations. Alot of really solid prospects being taught the game the right way over 10 yrs and a coach like Wicky who knows how to coach in tournament setting makes a good team qualify from Concacaf pretty easily. I'm happy. Go USA.
B-but CONCACAF says that we only out-possessed Guatemala 52-48 (Google says 65-35) in the Group Stage! This team's so baaaaad! We've only scored 26 goals, split among 8 different goalscorers, with 2 people close to the Golden Boot (Reyna with 5, Busio with 5).
Oh man, I'm watching Haiti vs. Honduras. Both teams are just dreadful. US v. Canada in the GS has been the highest level of play that I've seen this tournament. The US kept possession, and Canada sat back, but the quality of passing and possession on both teams was faaar better than a lot of these other games (I didn't watch Canada vs. CR, which might've looked good as well).
FYI, Wikipedia looks like it is wrong again. They have a 6:30 eastern start time in there. CONCACAF has the start times as 5:30 eastern and 8:30 eastern for the two semifinals.
Where are folks getting 26? We have 3 (Canadá) + 6 (Barbados) + 3 (Guatemala) + 8 (Guadeloupe) + 3 (Panamá) = 23. Right? Point is we’re scoring a shitload and this doesn’t change that of course. Just wondering if I’m missing something or if my math skills are worse than i thought.