PBP: 2018 CONCACAF U-20 Championship: USA vs. Puerto Rico 11/1 5:00 ET (TIME CORRECTION!)

Discussion in 'Youth National Teams' started by ussoccer97531, Oct 29, 2018.

  1. ArsenalMetro

    ArsenalMetro Member+

    United States
    Aug 5, 2008
    Chicago, IL
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    And if you want Concacaf to improve at all, these small nations need to be playing more games, which is what this expanded U20 tournament and the Nations League are going to force.
     
  2. Balerion

    Balerion Member+

    Aug 5, 2006
    Roslindale, MA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I've never bought into this argument. The federations that don't get regular games are countries that have zero potential to be good due to their tiny populations.

    St Lucia is never going to be good....and there are probably ~15 CONCACAF members who have even more limited potential.
     
  3. Master O

    Master O Member+

    Jul 7, 2006
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I don't want Concacaf to improve. I could not care less about any of those countries. With the obvious exceptions of Mexico, CR, and the other Central American teams that make the Hex, the rest of Concacaf is irrelevant.

    I want the USA to compete with the serious teams in world soccer to eventually win the World Cup.

    Wasting our time on soccer plankton does not advance that goal.
     
  4. Peretz48

    Peretz48 Member+

    Nov 9, 2003
    Los Angeles
    I think they moved to this format to give encouragement to the lesser lights of Concacaf. The hope is that this might spur some of these countries to take the sport more seriously and perhaps invest some $.
     
  5. ussoccer97531

    ussoccer97531 Member+

    Oct 12, 2012
    Club:
    --other--
    I didn't think we were good, but its expected with this roster.

    The Good:

    Pomykal was great. I know a lot of people think he hasn't earned his reputation, but I think this game shows his skill+IQ combo. He was one of the only players who was moving the ball quickly and into the correct spots. There was too much standing around and taking too many touches. Involved in 5 of the 7 goals with a key play, I believe.

    Servania was also pretty good. The biggest defensive force in the midfield, and I liked his passing. He showcased the best passing range, vision and decisions in this game of the CM's.

    Llanez wasn't great, but against a team like this, a skilled player who tries to make plays is too much to handle for Puerto Rico. Immediately made an impact.

    Angking was the most forward thinking of the CM's. A problem I thought we had in this game was that none of the CM's were playing close enough to the box. Given how much of the ball we had, we should've had a player who was acting as a second forward. That could've been Servania or Mendez. I think both tactical alignments could work, but the CM's were too deep for a game where we had all the possession. Angking was the best of the CM's in this game at trying to make plays offensively. He showcased some nice skill on the ball in the final third, even if it didn't result in any goals.

    The Bad:

    Real is not a CB. His positioning was all over the place. He had no clue what he was doing. If that was a better team, we could've conceded an extra 2-3 goals due to his positioning errors the whole game. His defending on the Puerto Rico goal was naive.

    What does Torres bring? I'm trying to figure it out. He's not good enough to play for this team. Almost all the Puerto Rico attacks came because he was out of position.

    Akinola was painful to watch until he was moved to CF. He is not a winger, and I think that experiment needs to end. Akinola is good at two things. He's fast, and he's good at finding the ball in the box. He needs to play CF, run the channels to keep the CB's honest, but then get in the box, and find the ball. If you ask him to do anything else, you are hurting your team.

    Rogers was also pretty bad at CB, but not as bad Real. He was too risky with his passing and ball playing for a player of his ability in those areas. Defending wasn't catastrophic, but there were small errors that could be punished against a better team.

    I think Mendez is a better player than he showed, but I thought he was pretty bad today. He scored, but besides that, he did little else. Didn't impact the game much, and his decisions were too slow when he did get on the ball.

    Average:

    I thought both full-backs had good and bad moments. Some naive defending at times, but mostly good. At this level though with their ability, I wouldn't expect any trouble against this competition, so both of them need to clean that up. I also thought we saw Lindsey and Gloster try to make too many plays off the dribble. Thats not their game (either of them). They can contribute to the attack using their athleticism and combination play. It does the team no good when they try to create.

    Nothing Scott could do on the goal. Didn't have much else to do.

    Rennicks ran the channels well, worked very hard, and held the ball up. I like his mobility, but I'm not sure there's much else there to his game.

    I didn't understand Dorsey coming in at RB, but he showed well enough. Had an assist. Wasn't tested though.
     
  6. ussoccer97531

    ussoccer97531 Member+

    Oct 12, 2012
    Club:
    --other--
    I think the biggest problem is that there's a culture of letting everyone take one, letting the "technical" player in the team take them, ignoring any sort of hierarchy. We continuously underperform on FK's because of this. Torres should've never taken a free kick or corner kick today. Why is he taking them? Mendez and Pomykal should be the only two players in this team to take those.

    I remember in the last U-17 team they kept rotating them to the detriment of results. That team had Carleton who is excellent on set pieces, and Goslin who is also very good on them, yet Ferri and Acosta would get to take some because they were in the team for "technical ability." It was as if they were given a chance to take them to justify their place in the team.

    Its these types of dumb reasons that hurt our set pieces.
     
  7. gunnerfan7

    gunnerfan7 Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes
    United States
    Jul 22, 2012
    Santa Cruz, California
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Do you remember how FIFA and CONCACAF work?

    US VI and USA both have one vote. The Caribbean Football Union has 25 voting members, which means they control what CONCACAF does. HQ in the USA or Mexico? Nah, it's in Trinidad. New YNT or LON qualifying format? Designed to get Caribbean minnows more games.

    We're playing these games because the balance of power in the region is skewed away from the soccer and moneyed powers, and towards tiny Caribbean islands.
     
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  8. bballshawn

    bballshawn Member+

    Feb 5, 2014
    Delaware
    Club:
    Philadelphia Union
    Not really taking anything from this match, it was a glorified scrimmage.
     
  9. LouisZ

    LouisZ Member+

    Oct 14, 2010
    Southern California-USA
    Club:
    FC Barcelona
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I didn't watch the whole game (was working) but every time I looked at my feed Akinola was missing the correct pass. Sure, he did better as a CF but look at the opponent. I hope we get a better CF in the later rounds.
     
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  10. Kombucha

    Kombucha Member+

    Jul 1, 2016
    Club:
    --other--
    The sad thing is Puerto Rico probably is likely middle of the pack to a second tier type team in this tournament and the US could have beat them with a middle of the road USSDA U19 Team.

    US can probably beat USVI by a 10 goals with 8 men, which is too be expected playing a non-soccer country with a 100,000 population.

    These games outside of 1 or 2 per group for the top teams are pointless and only have negative downside with injuries.
     
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  11. don Lamb

    don Lamb Member+

    mine
    United States
    Aug 31, 2017
    And people are upset that players like Carleton aren't there. Can you imagine what he would be doing to these teams?

    Next round, sure, bring him in. But I'd rather him sit the bench for an MLS playoff game than miss time with ATL for these first round games.
     
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  12. don Lamb

    don Lamb Member+

    mine
    United States
    Aug 31, 2017
    Rennicks was very good as the CF. He was Sargent-esque with his movement, clean technique, and finishing. Puerto Rico, I get it, but the way he played the position was just about perfect.
     
  13. Clint Eastwood

    Clint Eastwood Member+

    Dec 23, 2003
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Undoubtedly. But we can only play the games that are in front of us. We have no control of this scheduling.

    If nothing else, the kids are gelling for when the games really mean something.

    When I watched that game I was thinking about how this is really a "B" team. Puerto Rico ain't Montserrat. They have a larger population (roughly 3 million) than Jamaica or T&T................with a huge talent base in the US also available to them. Our B team (and in some positions lower than that) played them off the field. I know its not a soccer playing "country." Still....................that demolition was a good sign to me.

    There are going to be very few competitive games in this first round of games. That's just the way its designed. One competitive game in every group to decide advancement. For the US that's the game against T&T.
     
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  14. Sandon Mibut

    Sandon Mibut Member+

    Feb 13, 2001
    I think the best way to think of these games is as tuneup scrimmages. They are glorified practice matches. In fact, I imagine scrimmages with each other will be tougher than all but the T&T game.

    These help with cohesion and finding combinations that work best together and eliminating any problem areas to correct. But in terms of testing and evaluating, these games are pretty meaningless for the US.
     
    Winoman repped this.
  15. TimB4Last

    TimB4Last Member+

    May 5, 2006
    Dystopia
    The thing is that every game means something in group play, as we cannot afford a single stumble. We should go 5/5, but what if we don't? I think the schedule works against us, with (likely) our two easiest games at the beginning.
     
  16. Runhard

    Runhard Member+

    Barcelona
    United States
    Jul 5, 2018
    Agree with the thought these games are pretty pointless for the US but you can only play who is there. Having said that, Pomykal looked to be the best on the field and is making Oscar look bad for giving him next to nothing this year at FCD.
    Rennicks was impressive as well showing lots of energy, being in the right place and composed. I saw Ussoccer's comments about Mendez but I liked him yesterday. I thought he looked good on the ball, always an option to get the ball and accurate in his passing. Servania was good as well.

    For the not so great, Akinola didn't bring much to the table. He lost the ball too much on the wing, didn't create much that I recall and that wing spot would have been used much better to start Llanez. Akinola was OK in the middle with the nice goal, but not much else.
     
    TCS35, ussoccer97531 and TimB4Last repped this.
  17. LouisZ

    LouisZ Member+

    Oct 14, 2010
    Southern California-USA
    Club:
    FC Barcelona
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #92 LouisZ, Nov 2, 2018
    Last edited: Nov 2, 2018
    I was just going to say that. Rennicks plays similar to Sargent's game. And Pomykal game reminds me of Carleton.
     
  18. Clint Eastwood

    Clint Eastwood Member+

    Dec 23, 2003
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    One wonders about Rennicks. New England treated him pretty poorly, so why on earth would he sign a homegrown deal with them?

    Seems to me Exhibit A of a kid that can open up pro opportunities abroad with some nice displays with the U20s over the spring/summer.

    His 2017 season as a freshman at IU was limited due to injury. But he also scored zero goals in the games he did play in. In 2018 he's been good, but hasn't blown you away. 6 goals and 0 assists in 17 games? Something like that.

    I personally think the best prospect on Indiana is Andrew Gutman, the Chicago Fire homegrown.
     
    Sandon Mibut repped this.
  19. LouisZ

    LouisZ Member+

    Oct 14, 2010
    Southern California-USA
    Club:
    FC Barcelona
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I think that may change. Reports are that NE will break up the team and start all over.
     
  20. Thundering165

    Thundering165 Member+

    North Carolina FC
    United States
    May 1, 2017
    Raleigh
    Is Shaft Brewer on the 35 man roster? He might be a better winger than Akinola.
     
  21. mattjo

    mattjo Member+

    Feb 3, 2001
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    We will see; they just exercised their options on Penilla and Caicedo.
     
  22. ussoccer97531

    ussoccer97531 Member+

    Oct 12, 2012
    Club:
    --other--
    Muse.

    Rennicks is only here because others weren’t released. I don’t think it’s that bad that Rennicks is the fourth or fifth (depending on if you prefer Akinola) CF. He’s not that good, but I don’t think our player pool is deep enough yet where the 4th or 5th best player in a given two year U-20 cycle is definitely a real NT prospect.
     
  23. ussoccer97531

    ussoccer97531 Member+

    Oct 12, 2012
    Club:
    --other--
    I think Akinola’s on the roster because he’s one of two who can play CF, but does it matter if Brewer is better? Neither are that good. I think we have many better options than both, but that’s besides the point.

    Don’t waste one of the six changes on the bottom end of the roster. Those six changes should be left for Carleton, Sargent, Durkin, Richards, Amon, Taitague, Weah, Soto, Dest, de la Fuente. 10 names. Hopefully Ramos can add six of them. If we can’t add six, then it’s a worthy discussion about the bottom end of the roster.
     
  24. TimB4Last

    TimB4Last Member+

    May 5, 2006
    Dystopia
    [​IMG]

    He who laughs last, laughs best.
     
  25. TimB4Last

    TimB4Last Member+

    May 5, 2006
    Dystopia
    https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...in-concacaf-championship-world-cup-qualifying

    The official game summary. I enjoyed the sanitized version of Puerto Rico's goal:

    "PUR – Luis Miguel Cosme, 33rd minute: On Puerto Rico’s most-dangerous possession of the first half, Alejandro Rabell played the ball into Kevin Hernandez near the top of the box. The U.S. defense forced a turnover, but a misplayed clearance landed at the feet of Luis Miguel Cosme. He fired it past U.S. goalkeeper Brady Scott to the left side of the net, putting Puerto Rico on the board. USA 3, PUR 1
     

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