I see little benefit in risking LSW's physical well being by substituting him in for 20-30 minutes against the English. We may as well conserve our energy and take the opportunity to practice parking the bus and defending set pieces.
the team will only get two full days of rest until the final group game against england on friday. i totally understand our members here would rather have our starter rest for the next game to prepare them in the knockout stage. but having a second team for sole purpose to rest the starters, i still disagree with that. if the team need the rest, the team will get plenty after the third game. third game is on friday 23rd, and the first knockout stage game is on 28th. four full days of rest i feel is plenty for my opinion. and quarters, we'll also get an extra day of rest compare to our opponent. very few times we had the luxury to try something different in the final group game. momentum surely for me means a lot to how the team is going into the next game. and with england, like you said, will be throwing the kitchen sink against us, we should not risk of losing that game and field our best once again. edit:it's a very short tourney compare to senior world cup. i personally don't consider how the end result on which stage our team finishes, but more developmental and experience going against world's best.
I love You Juan's little feint to the right when he first received the ball, which caused the Guinean defender to hesitate for that one second and freed up Oh Sehun. Small detail but it made a huge difference.
The whole point of winning the first two matches in the group is to rest everyone for the third match and blood in the rest of the squad to prepare for a long run in the knockout stages. That is big team tournament mentality. All the more important since there's so few days to rest between matches in this tournament. Man up and stop worrying about momentum.
back in asian cup 2015, we won our first two games but behind australia in goal difference. since we did have the knockout stage wrapped up, many called to have couple of starters rest the final game against australia. i think we're in same situation. couple of players needed the rest, but the coach stielike fielded the first team. and the rest is history. that second kuwait game was just a disaster, i personally think it was right move play full first team in that third game against australia . so i believe getting the team into good momentum is plus for the team and definitely must take into consideration. forget a long knockout stage run, when you're in a knockout stage, let's not think two, three games ahead. but just focus on the next game worry about the next game after we win. edit: it boggles my mind someone would actually think about a long knockout run when we all know anything could happen in the knockout stage. when we get knockout stage, we should just focus in the next game.
Things were defensively a bit sloppy but i have to say I've been so impressed by the mentality of the kids which made up for it with good calm tackles and clearances. That brave and confident approach permeates everything the kids are doing.
The composure of these kids on the ball is surprising and exciting to see. It's as though they've never seen our national team play.
Man, I can't get over the fact that we've given up 0 goals after the first two games against some very, very tough offensive teams... that's pretty damn special considering how weak we had been at defending in youth levels traditionally. We used to have Freddy Adu rape our team at this level for a hat trick in a 6-1 loss to USA only 12 years ago, for example.
I dunno, maybe because senior FIFA rankings have absolutely nothing to do with this youth tournament...? I know this FIFA ranking obsession is your gimmick and all but come on now, this is not even relevant.
Fantastic result! African countries excel in these tournaments since it's more about physical>tactical. Not to rain on their parade but with the R of 16 ticket already punched, I hope they don't get complacent. Looking forward to seeing how our youngsters do against England.