Today in Chicago, US U17 GK Damian Las trained with none other than El Tri starter Memo Ochoa. pic.twitter.com/n1PefcZa5i— ChuckMe92 Soccer (@ChuckMe92Soccer) July 6, 2019
I’d like to see Jansen Miller (‘02) in this team. I don’t think he solves the CB problems. I don’t think there are any CB’s in the pool who will, but I’m pretty sure he’s better than options like Carrera, Judge, Lopez to name a few. I don’t like his style of play. He reminds me of Miazga, but I do think he’ll have a pro career at a good level.
With Kobe playing as a center back, it basically means that we just need one more. I would guess the odds on favorites for that spot would be: Gray - the highest upside of the group, but how good is he really right now? Alejandre - better on the ball than Gray, but is he good defensively? Carrera - long term implications of dual nationality might play a role in his inclusion. his size and ability on the ball make him at least a decent prospect, and I'd say he's easily in the top 4 of these guys Judge - depending on how his time in Germany has been going, he could rank anywhere among these players Back to Kobe, I think center back makes a lot of sense for him. It means that he is on the ball with lots of space to deliver service at almost any point that we want. He's good going at guys one v one, so it's a shame to lose those opportunities, but he is also good 1v1 defensively and has good strength. His one true weakness might be his lack of aerial ability, but that might not be as important as we think if the team is truly able to boss the game -- something that he can play a big part of from deep in the left channel of the field. Plus, with our other more than capable options at left back, it makes sense to shift Kobe -- even if he does project as a left back, it won't hurt his development to have a bunch of experience playing at center back during this stage of his career.
USA assigned to Pot D with Senegal, Japan, and Netherlands. Schedule: Sunday, Oct 27: USA v Senegal, Japan v Netherlands (both in Vitoria) Wednesday, Oct 30: USA v Japan, Netherlands v Senegal (both in Vitoria) Saturday, Nov 2: Netherlands v USA (Goiana, Estadio Serrinha), Senegal v Japan (Vitoria) 1D plays 3 B/E/F (Brasilia), 2D plays 1E (Goiana, Estadio Serrinha) and 3D if qualified plays 1A (Brasilia) or 1B (Goiana, Estadio Olympico).
Wow, not an easy group at all. Perhaps even group of death quality along with Spain, Argentina, Cameroon group. Going to be very interesting to see if the roster has much turnover from qualifying. Plenty of kids have made a case for themselves over the course of the DA playoffs.
Depressing. The FIFA feed when out during the bulk of the draw, then it pops back on and I can see that we landed Japan, the only Pot 1 seed I wanted, then the only Pot 3 seed I wanted to avoid (Netherlands, UEFA U16 champions), and then I cross my fingers we don't get the one Pot 4 team I want to avoid and Mexico doesn't luck into a cake draw yet again (feels like they nearly always do), sure enough, we get Senegal, the team I wanted to avoid (3 draws in qualifying, advanced as a third place group team), while Mexico gets the cake side of course (Solomon Islands). Really, really frustrating. Even the knockout matchup if runner up is scary superficially (Spain or Argentina would seem likely). I know it's U17's, and I know it's unpredictable, it just stinks that we got a really tough draw, superficially, yet again (feels like we haven't got a nice one since the '15 U20's). Even the schedule is pretty rough as we don't have a Qatar/Match Day 3 situation, where a team might be already pretty close to out, or a locked in and advanced situation (although the Dutch last, if they collect 6 early, could help, maybe they rest guys?).
Japan does superficially look like a paper tiger even as a confederation champion (wonder if I eat those words down the line): 5-2 over Thailand 0-0 vs Tajikistan 2-0 over Mayalysia Knockouts: 2-1 over Oman 3-1 over Australia (interesting) 1-0 over Tajikistan in the Final Netherlands looks scary: 2-0 over Sweden 5-2 over England 0-2 vs France Knockouts: 3-0 over Belgium 1-0 over Spain 4-2 over Italy in the Final Senegal: 1-1 vs Morocco 1-2 vs Guinea (mixed up the result there earlier) 0-0 vs Cameroon Cameroon won the Title over Guinea on Penalties, so Senegal was in a tough group quite clearly.
Brian revisits an interesting topic. I'm not sure we've ever had a U17 that wasn't released for a FIFA event. Based on the fact that FCD released their entire midfield for the U20WC, I think they'd release Pepi. I don't anticipate the problem, but you never know. WC runs from Oct 26 - Nov 17 and several U-17 players are actually playing 1st team mins (Busio, Leyva, Yow, Pepi, Ocampo-Chavez). I think playoff teams will release players to the WC if they are only occassional subs. If they are or become important players, might be tough https://t.co/oiE0H7FYOj— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) July 11, 2019
The group is difficult, although I think that if all our best players are available, we can get good results. Netherlands is the strongest rival of the group and in my opinion will be the favorite to win the cup. Japan is an irregular team. We will not have to underestimate Senegal although I think the second place will be fought by the USA and Japan. The U17 World Cups often have great surprises and unexpected results, but I am sure that the boys can achieve good results.
Senegal has been consistently impressive in youth tournaments and at the senior level over the past couple of years after a dip that lasted more than a decade following that glorious '02 run by the senior nets (man I loved watching them play, the win to open that cup, the win over Sweden, Ibra's first tournament appearance if memory serves with Sweden as well, a truly classic game), but it's hard to get a grasp on this version. They played in the definition of a tough group (their three opponents including both the champion, and the runner up finisher in qualifying for all of Africa, not exactly an easy group), so it's difficult to assess whether they're good or just tough to score on (three games, gave up 0, 1 and 2 goals respectively despite the difficulty of the group). In that sense it's a funny group: We open against a defensively stout seeming Sengal side. Then we play a Japan side which gave up some goals in a weak confederation in qualifying, but also scored 2 or more goals in every game save the pair they played against eventual runner ups Tajikistan (5-2, 0-0, 2-0, 2-1, 3-1, and 1-0 (in a rematch of their game that ended 0-0). That seems like an open game to me considering our weakness is defense, kind of, and our strength is attack. Then we wrap up against a powerhouse Dutch side with shorelines of 2-0 (over Sweden), 5-2 over England, 0-2 loss to France, then 3-0 over Belgium, 1-0 over Spain and 4-2 over Italy. Add it all up and that's 15 goals in 6 games, 5 if you gloss over the shut out loss to France. They also gave up 6 goals to England/France and Italy combined. In a group finale in which teams might want to rest guys on yellow cards, or if either of us has 6 points, just to rest guys, what happens then? It's a really interesting draw w/the potential for a ton of goals except for the Senegal matchups.
It’s a tough group but we have a really good team, I think we will advance, and possibly win the group.
Ready to rumble Brian Brobbey, spits van Oranje onder 17, met de beker na winst van het EK in Ierland. © BSR Agency
Because I think it's the best U17 team so far. They have very talented players like Brobbey, Unuvar or Hoever (although the rest of the team also has talent), also their players are very well developed physically, for that reason I think the Netherlands is the favorites to win the world cup
Best 23 for '02: GK: Las, Wilson, Trejo DF: Scally, Anderson, Gray, Alejandre, Miller, Ramsey, KHF, Bello MF: Atencio, Stroud, Penagos, Saldana, Dunbar, D. Rodriguez, Redzic, Reyna FW: AOC, Arce, Ignacio, Busio Second 23: GK: C. Edwards, Cervantes, Harms DF: Escribano, Centeno, Carrera, A. Lopez, Nielsen, Judge, Armour, Forbes MF: Flores, Garcia, Kayo, Reilly, Yow, Fuentes, Ikeda, Serrano, Sparks FW: D. Lopez, Ku-DiPietro, Kennedy Las Scally-Gray-KHF-Bello Atencio-Penagos D. Rodriguez Dunbar-AOC-Reyna Edwards Escribano-Judge-Carrera-Armour Flores-Kayo Fuentes Serrano-Kennedy-Yow Here are some other names that I considered for the second 23. D. Robles, Tolkin, J. Anderson, C. Odunze, Pynadath, de Vries, Jasson, Ramos, Barragan, Linhares, Carlson, Shehata, Thompson, Rivera, Guske, Sulte, Klein, Farnsworth, Neff, Diaz
That is some awesome work. Inclusions of Redzic and Rodriguez would be welcomed. We will see if Ramsey's and Sparks' performances actually get them a look -- surely they merit one.