They win their group stage group by going 5-0-0 with a +37 GD. The US will now move onto a 3 team qualification round group with Honduras and Costa Rica. The top 2 teams qualify for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup, and the group winner also advances to the 2018 CONCACAF U-20 Championship final. The US play Costa Rica next Friday (the 16th) at 7:30 eastern, and then face Honduras the second Monday from now (the 19th) at 7:30 eastern. The Costa Rica - Honduras game is Tuesday (the 13th) at 7:30 eastern. The US can now make up to 6 changes to their roster as well. On this: if the U.S. U-20 team avoids injuries today, I don't expect Tab Ramos to make all 6 changes. Maybe as few as 3.— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) November 9, 2018
Hard to gauge given the level of competition, etc, etc,, but I thought this was our best performance as a team. We finally looked patient and willing to wear the opponent down by possessing the ball. The boys looked in rhythm. Torres and Amaya had their best games of the group stage (still not convinced of either, but their stock rose). Mendez might have had his worst game but he still provided a lot of magic. Pomykal was good, again. Rennicks couldn't finish but he generated a lot of opportunity. Solid work from Gloster and Lindsey who look like they can be a formidable fullback corps at the U20 level. Richards, Soto and Durkin would round this team out nicely.
Finals stats for the group phase. Chris Gloster - 4 games, 4 starts, 360 minutes, 0 goals, 1 assist Brady Scott - 4 games, 4 starts, 360 minutes, 2 goals allowed, 5 saves Paxton Pomykal - 5 games, 3 starts, 314 minutes, 3 goals, 2 assists Justin Rennicks - 5 games, 3 starts, 305 minutes, 4 goals, 6 assists Alex Mendez - 4 games, 3 starts, 300 minutes, 5 goals, 3 assists Ayo Akinola - 5 games, 4 starts, 298 minutes, 5 goals, 0 assists Frankie Amaya - 4 games, 3 starts, 271 minutes, 0 goal, 0 assists Juan Pablo Torres - 4 games, 3 starts, 271 minutes, 3 goals, 1 assist Mark McKenzie - 3 games, 3 starts, 270 minutes, 3 goals, 0 assists Matt Real - 3 games, 3 starts, 270 minutes, 0 goals, 0 assists Samuel Rogers - 3 games, 3 starts, 270 minutes, 0 goals, 0 assists Jaylin Lindsey - 3 games, 3 starts, 254 minutes, 0 goals, 1 assist Ulysses Llanez - 4 games, 3 starts, 208 minutes, 6 goals, 4 assists Griffin Dorsey 4 games, 2 starts, 198 minutes, 1 goals, 3 assists Emanuel Perez - 3 games, 2 starts, 198 minutes, 1 goal, 1 assist Brandon Servania - 3 games, 2 starts, 193 minutes, 2 goals, 1 assist Anthony Fontana - 2 games, 2 starts, 180 minutes, 4 goals, 1 assist Julian Araujo - 2 games, 2 starts, 180 minutes, 0 goals, 2 assists Issac Angking - 4 games, 2 starts, 161 minutes, 0 goals, 1 assist David Ochoa - 1 game, 1 start, 90 minutes, 0 goals allowed, 1 save
Updated US roster for the CONCACAF Championship qualification stage: https://www.concacaf.com/en/under-20s-men/teams/2018/640#tab_team=roster Sergio Dest, Chris Richards, and Sebastian Soto replace Isaac Angking, Anthony Fontana, and Griffin Dorsey.
Not great, but better than nothing. Scott Lindsey-McKenzie-Richards-Gloster Servania Pomykal-Mendez Dest-Soto-Llanez I think we can win with that lineup. Not much depth though. Araujo and Rennicks are the only two decent backups.
Dest that can play multiple weak spots is a great pick up. Soto and Richards might be the players that I want to see the most. Of course Carleton and especially Durkin have important MLS games.
If that’s true, then I bet Ayo is the Bofo. No matter how bad he plays, Tab will keep throwing him out there. I’m betting it’s more like this. Scott Dest-McKenzie-Richards-Lindsey/Gloster Servania Mendez-Pomykal Ayo-Soto-Llanez Tab loves his defenders and I don’t believe he’s going to go with Dest as an attacker when he could use him to prevent the other team from scoring.
Don't rate Torres much but at least he's produced goals unlike Amaya. No Durkin is the most frustrating thing. Tab played Dest on the wing last U-20 camp
That's crazy... With Canouse not getting called up to the full nats, it's like the us teams have something against dc united. Very weird.
Interesting that we were all bagging on Bayern for not releasing Richards (who's still playing) while on loan to them and it turns out it's DC not releasing Durkin (possibly) when they have no more games. Of course it could be that Tab didn't call him in and is satisfied with what he has. We'll see if he's right if this turns out to be the case.
I don't know what happened. Thats my speculation. DC might not want Durkin to play youth games against CONCACAF teams that they aren't required to release him for. This team struggles in the #6 position. Why would they purposely go without their best #6 and instead use their best #8 in that position?
Maybe Durkin is focused on something else. Could he be looking at moves ahead of January? Always lots of factors that go into these things, especially with a player like Durkin, who could easily fall in any of these camps: a. key player for U20s b. surpassed U20s and on to bigger things c. part of U20s, but looking to trial somewhere d. part of U20s, but resting after first full pro season e. other......
How did Mexico adjust their roster? I've been curious about their player pool in general as well as their roster for this tournament. Seeing Lainez in the first round had me wondering if they had their big guns in from the start.
So I'm stunned he isn't releasing three of the college players. Rennicks has obviously vastly overplayed his expectations coming into the tournament and I can see why he's kept. But Amaya hasn't shown much and Perez seems like surplus to needs with Dest and Lindsey at RB, Richards, McKenzie and Rogers at CB and Gloster and Real at LB. Having said all that, this is a good roster given all the players that are missing. Considering there's no Adams, Amon, Carleton, Durkin, Sands, Sargent and Weah, this is still a really good roster.
He’ll probably play Dest at winter like he’s been doing at Ajax recently and been very good there. Llanez and Dest on the wings =
No, it's a remotely hypothetical thing. If you're a hoof and hope type, you are a hoof and hope type. That is what you are capable of.
This is poor reasoning. If a team only plays direct through the air, it could be because that's all the players on the team are capable of, or it could be because that's the tactical communication instilled in the team by the coach.
I actually agreed with this comment. I only saw about 3 of the recent games, but this tweet described exactly what I saw 2 years ago with guys like Williamson, Saucedo, and (at the time) de la Torre. I definitely saw some of that with guys like Ayo and Angking in the limited time I watched. All of those guys were careless and inaccurate with their passing. FWIW I’m not a Doyle fan. Tab just cares about defending and getting the ball wide. At least that’s what I’ve seen.