Look, I think we are all in agreement that this team didn't look good for stretches in some matches. Clearly this U-20 USA team was lacking in some areas (e.g., player quality), so the coach reverted to a defensive strategy. After a second viewing of some of the matches, I'm actually happy that most players executed their defensive duties fairly well and I think the team made improvements over the past couple months. Did they get lucky? Sure (sometimes it's better to be lucky than good). However, even luck will only get you so far. My original point was that the consistency of the results showed that this team was not as bad as it seems. They kept themselves in all their games (i.e., they didn't get blown out by any opponents), which I thought was one big positive I could take away. Now, would I have preferred to see the USA U-20's field a more possession and attacking oriented team? Absolutely. After what I saw at this tournament, do I want a head coaching change? Yes. I don't think Michelle French should get another 2 years to try and figure it out. Having said that that I'm glad to see that some players made strides and that the team did not get blown out in any matches.
Read this article folks: http://www.soccerwire.com/blog-post...s-youth-national-teams-slide-into-mediocrity/
And I guess this one, that was linked to in the above article, was absolutely brilliant! https://hatriksoccer.wordpress.com/2016/12/04/uswnt-u20s/