I never saw Yow play until today and frankly, I thought I was looking at the wrong player. Somehow, lots folks or maybe it was just one that continuously repeats that he is a baller. I can see the upside of Reyna, Pepi, and Busio, the rest are at their age level of play.
Sunil interviewed the guy responsible for Japanese development but the guy didn't meet our language requirement because he doesn't speak Japanese.
Japan’s midfield actually battled really well today. They played some ball winners and relied on their two forwards to create scoring chances.
-----------reyna + 1 --------------busio -------x--------------stroud -------------levya ----x-----x--------x-----x ------------gk: Las
My hypothesis is more that Leyva and co. didn't compete physically not that they are weaker.. I'm sure the Japanese mids will do better in that regard (they will foul liberally).
I didn't see Japanese fouling. What I saw was an ability to concentrate numbers around the ball. Did the Japanese foul a lot? vs Netherlands it was 18J to 15N fouls per FIFA. https://www.fifa.com/u17worldcup/ma...a-of-japan-defends-ian-maatsen-of-netherlands Each team had 1 yellow and no red cards. Japan fouled once every 5 minutes and Holland fouled once every 6 minutes. Holland had 60% possession to 40% for Japan. Japan won the ball and played. Netherlands looked like "pros" passing the ball around the back from one side to the other as they piled up the possession stats. Yipee-doo-dah.
Where are the athletes? Oh....they have all been run off around 9-10 years old by know it all youth soccer coaches up to their eyeballs in coaching licenses trying to convince a kid to give up every other sport to focus on soccer.
Yet another disappointing performance from a US team. Start like a house of fire and then get played out of the game as it goes on. More glacially slow purposeless possession. Another bunch of guys unable to make a hard tackle. Another poor response to adversity.
Berhalter implemented his meaningless possession philosophy it seems. Wish we would play to score goals not play to keep the ball for the longest time. Glad I fell asleep at the half
My original post was just my prediction. Senegal is too athletic for Japan to try to win the ball cleanly consistently.
So you are saying Senegal will win the ball off Japan clean consistently. I don't think so but we'll see how your theory plays out.
There has been discussion about Kobe playing at LB, because that clearly is his natural position. However, this entire cycle he's been at LCB because of the paucity of capable CBs. Also, there is a sense of him being better able to marshall long balls from the CB position. As poorly as the U.S. played Kobe's passing skill was noticeable by comparison. I'm really interested to see where he winds up in Europe.
Not a good start to the FIFA U17 Men’s World Cup for the US. Possession didn’t seem to matter when you can’t score goals, 566 passes to Senegal’s 332? They didn’t show this game here in Japan, who watched? Next up from the same Group, Japan vs Netherlands, I’ll be watching. pic.twitter.com/tXYX9WBGOu— Tom Byerトム•バイヤー (@tomsan106) October 27, 2019
Ridiculous. For all the talk about KHF's distribution it was worthless yesterday. You can see how the ball made it to the CMs (sometimes) and just died there. Possession is pointless if it's all in your own half. The average positions of our front 4 show signficant problems as well. Clearly we weren't getting enough width in the attack. That puts a great burden on the fullbacks to provide width and defensive cover.
The replays weren't great, but Leyva was "out-athleted" here again. I think he also kept the guy onside. He misjudged his ability to defend a long ball against the Senegal player. If the ball went over his head, and the Senegal player had a clear path to catch up to it, he had no chance of catching the player. I see some questioning Las not doing the sweeper-keeper thing where he journeys 45 yards out of goal to try to clear the ball. He could've come out for the play, but I think it was probably a smart decision not to. We gave up a goal, but it probably could've been a lot worse, if he did. The goal-kick bounced pretty nicely to the Senegal player. The goalie would've had to travel about 45 yards from goal to clear the ball. I think the Senegal player would've gotten there before the keeper. Do we want him taking a red card and then he's not available against Japan? No, of course not. He also made the initial save, but KHF made a lazy recovery run. He was in position to clear the second ball after the save, but probably just assumed the first shot would go in, so he stopped running. That allowed another Senegal attacker who was following it up (Kobe wasn't) to put in the rebound. I find it hard to put this on either Las or KHF. They were put in terrible positions to begin with by Leyva. It was a dumb play by Leyva. You absolutely cannot create a breakaway. I'm a fan of Leyva's ability, but he looked way over his head in this game, as you alluded to, and many thought might happen
Yes, and we've known this before qualifying even started. This is tracking as the worst age group since '96. None of us to see us beat like this, but we shouldn't believe this is indicative of the youth program struggling.
Really? What results have you seen in the past 3-4 years that makes you think otherwise? They consistently get bossed against half-decent teams. They struggle to score goals, there are holes down the middle of the field at CB and CM. There's a lack of offensive difference makers, the team is poorly coached, the squad selection is abysmal, the team lacks top-end talent, there is no bench depth.
Leyva did not keep him onside All of the players were in Senegals half at the time of the ball being kicked.
Blame that on bad coaching. These players aren't the best of the player pool. This team lacks creative offensive players and players who are good at passing. Busio, who was picked over a few good players, created very little yesterday and had too many incomplete passes. In 2017, players like Mendez, Ledesma, and Soto, weren't even called up for the U17 World Cup, yet many believed that those called up were the best of their age group. I'm not writing off this age group, I know that they're just as talented as the last. We need to do a better job of hiring coaches.
45 yards is quite the stretch. The Senegalese player's first touch was inside the box. It's on other players but if Las made the right play it would have been a throw in.