Currently 2-2 between Honduras and El Salvador with all the diving, hand bags and time wasting you'd expect from Central American teams.
When you don't have the talent you to try to make up for it in other ways. Canada does it by bunkering and then huffing the ball forward through route 1. Different countries approach the game differently. Canadians just need to get used to the fact already.
We'll see this tournament. I'd still rather not play pretty than straight up cheat all the time, but I'm sure "I just don't get it".
I'm not saying I like their tactics but there's nothing I can do about players diving. Unfortunately it happens even at the highest levels of the game. However this whole superiority complex some Canadian fans regurgitate on this site is something I can address directly Funny thing is Canadian players also dive I remembered a game the US was playing against Canada where a Canadian fan was adamantly saying Canadians don't dive just as one took a dive
Not shocked at all; I expected Panama to win. USA played poorly during their previous match against Guatemala, plus Panama was the strongest team in the UNCAF qualifiers last July.
Don't really know where to put this, but @La Trucha, the El Salvadorian-yanks were two of the players that have done the best so far for the USA, although thats not saying much. Flores was really good before he went off injured and Moreno is the one US player who's a lot better than I had initially thought. He's so much more dynamic than I had remembered, although I think I had only seen him play once before his sub appearance today. Your boys are two of the lone bright spots so far for the USA.
Thanks. I watched both US games, Flores did his job as a number 10 but unfortunately the US team just weren't able to deliver for you guys during these 2 games. Shame he got injured, though it'll be interesting to see how USA does without him. PS. It's called 'Salvadoran'
What an brilliant game between El Salvador and Canada!! El Salvador won 3-2; both teams were very competitive and played beautiful football, my heart nearly exploded when ES scored at the very last minute!! What baffles me is how El Salvador played so poorly in their prior matches against Honduras and Haiti. The draw to Haiti should have never happened, plus ES was extremely lucky to score the equalizer against Honduras. If ES plays like they did against Canada or better, then they actually stand a chance against Mexico.
I am not sure I like this playoff format. We could have an issue where #4 eeks out a PK "victory" against #1 and #1 still ends the qualify tournament with a better record. It would be even worse if the two team came from the same group, with #1 having a better record against identical opponents, even including the 1 game playoff and does not advance, and perhaps having a record of 1 win and 1 tie against #4 in direct play.
Seems like that you don't like the playoff format, rather than the tournament format. You wanted the top 2 in each group to directly qualify, with no playoff? This format keeps a lot more teams in the hunt through the last matchday.
Panama 1:0 Trinidad and Tobago (Final) Guatemala 2:0 Aruba (Final) Jamaica 0:1 USA (Halftime) USA will be eliminated with a loss to Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday or with a loss tonight combined with Jamaica beating Aruba on Wednesday.
For a team with so much hype and supposed to be so superior to these other CONCACAF teams, its bad either way. They should have easily be at the top of their table, not begging for the srcraps. Somone should inform these kids from over seas to understand that dealing in the CONCACAF region its going to always be hell.
Honduras defeated Haiti 3-2. Haiti and Canada are both now officially eliminated, while Mexico and Honduras are through to the next round. Mexico has qualified to the WC. With that being said, ES needs at least a draw to remain in 3rd place. If ES wins and Canada defeats Honduras, then they finish in 2nd place. As for Group A, Panama and Guatemala are through to the next round while Jamaica and Aruba are eliminated. The winner out of T&T and USA will progress to the next round, while Panama and Guatemala will battle for 1st place and WC qualification.
Panama will finish first or second, but Guatemala could fall to third. If USA wins and Guatemala loses, the teams would be tied with 10 points and they played a draw head-to-head. Then USA would get second on goal differential. USA could finish with the second best goal differential of the 12 teams and fail to qualify.
Well the US went through as second place. All in all we deserved that position. We are dominating the action but we aren't scoring. Unlike Mexico who have been scoring boatloads. Strange fact of this tourney. 6 different teams have an American citizen as a starting goalkeeper. US (of course), Mexico, El Salvador, T&T, Guatemala, Jamaica. Never seen anything like that before.
Panama will play against Mexico at 8 p.m. EST on Saturday. This kids played in 2013 for the first place too at U-17 CONCACAF Qualifiers and Mexico did a comeback and won 2 x 1.
Nice! It will be an interesting match, a rematch per say. I'm glad to see Panama futbol culture growing as it is, good for los Canaleros!
So what. If a team wants to avoid the playoff, then win the group. It's that simple. Failure to win the group puts them at the possibility of losing to a team with less points. That possibility always existed in the previous format, and there was no way to escape it even if you won your group.
Today USA-El Salvador... It's incredible how Tab Ramos team didnt win the group. With top quality players like Hyndman, Arriola, Thompson, Canouse and good quality players like Miazga, Gall, J. Flores, Carter-V. I think Tab Ramos did very bad in the first 2 games, against Guatemala (1-1) and Panama (0-1). In the first game he played with a 4-4-2 in the first half, a 4-2-3-1 and a 4-3-3 in the second. He show an high level of confusion concerning the tactics. He put in the centre of the midfield Acosta-Arriola, the first is a right back and the second is a side/central striker. In the second game he corrected this aspect, putting in the midfield Emerson Hyndman with Acosta again. I dont know if Canouse was injured, but if he was not it's incredible how he missed the first 2 games. From the game against Aruba we saw the best midfield possible for USA. With Russel Canouse (Hoffenheim) and Emerson Hyndman (Fulham). I think this is one of the best U20 midfield for USA since the times of Bradley-Szetela. As we saw during the last games the choosen tactic for Coach Ramos is 4-4-2. This is the players he used more, and the players i think will face today El Salvador. -----------------------------------Steffen----------------------------- Moore---------Carter-Vickers--------Miazga----------Requejo Thompson---------Hyndman--------Canouse----------Gall ----------------------Jameison---------Spencer------------------ I hope Ramos understand that Spencer is not as good to play as starter and maybe will change him With Arriola or Flores. I dont like Jameison too, but surely he has more good qualities than Spencer. This is the team that i think is the best for USA with the players selected. I dont know how Joel Sonora was not selected by the coach, maybe he has an Injury i dont know, but he is the real Nr. 10 of this team and one of the best players of his age in the United States. __________________Steffen________________ Turner_____Carter-Vickers___Miazga______Requejo _________________Canouse_________________ __________Acosta________Hyndman__________ Thompson_____________________________Gall ________________Arriola___________________ I really hope that Ramos guys will get the win today, this is one of the best U20 team i've seen, they have only to be more organized tactically that during this qualification competition. I think they will do great in the World Cup! (El Salvador was the team that cut USA chance to partecipate to 2013 Olympics Games)
You can post in the Youth National Team forums. That forum is dedicated to US Youth Teams. Anyway, Sonora is injured. I like what Canouse brings, but he's a limited player. He wasn't starting prior to the Acosta injury because there were better players to start.