PBP: 2018 CONCACAF U-20 Championship: USA vs. Trinidad and Tobago 11/5 7:45 ET

Midas Mulligan · Nov 5, 2018

genom said: ↑

In case you haven't been keeping track, the aggregate is now 25-2 over 3 games.
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And that proves what?

Midas Mulligan · Nov 5, 2018

butters59 said: ↑

Pomykal, Llanez and Rennicks combined really well. When two of them subbed out the game died.
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When some wise ass didn’t try a 70 diag to their uncle in his lawn chair by the corner flag.

IHSSOC · Nov 5, 2018

6-1 Torres, final

autobus39 · Nov 5, 2018

Mendez with a nice pass to pick out Torres who finishes well.

6-1 US Full Time

US easily wins what was expected be the trickiest game on the group stage schedule.

St. Vincent & the Grenadines next up on the schedule on Wednesday at 8 eastern.

gunnerfan7 · Nov 5, 2018

Oh hey, England not at the U20 WC? We got a chance then!

This whole stage is just going through the motions. These Caribbean nations are terrible. 6-1 now. yaaaaaay......

genom · Nov 5, 2018

Midas Mulligan said: ↑

And that proves what?
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I'll let you think about it some more. For your own benefit.

autobus39 · Nov 5, 2018

Well that escalated quickly! 😅

Brandon Servania's strike puts the U-20 #USMNT ahead in the 6', followed by Justin Rennicks' shot deflected into the T&T net in the 8'! 🇺🇸 leads 2-0. pic.twitter.com/l0Gx1wNr3Y
— U.S. Soccer YNT (@USYNT) November 6, 2018

Another one right before the half!

Justin Rennicks drops a dime and Paxton Pomykal is there for the finish! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/kOjFLqmn4D
— U.S. Soccer YNT (@USYNT) November 6, 2018

Fast start to the second half! Alex Mendez slots one in for the 4-0 🇺🇸 lead. pic.twitter.com/nhS7JSbcWv
— U.S. Soccer YNT (@USYNT) November 6, 2018

🖐 goals at #CU20 for Uly!

Paxton Pomykal's volley blocked by the GK but Ulysses Llanez is there with the finesse! U-20 #USMNT leads 🇹🇹 5-1. pic.twitter.com/Q9to6sQrcW
— U.S. Soccer YNT (@USYNT) November 6, 2018

autobus39 · Nov 5, 2018

The 🍒 on top!

Juan Pablo Torres adds the sixth in the last minute of stoppage time. pic.twitter.com/LAkd0Qcs6G
— U.S. Soccer YNT (@USYNT) November 6, 2018

6-1 FT. The United States U-20 team downs T&T. Tab Ramos & his team close in on a spot in the next stage of WC qualifying. Pomykal, Mendez, Llanez, Rennicks, & Servania all play well. Pomykal is the MOTM, in my opinion
— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) November 6, 2018

bpet15 · Nov 5, 2018

Really want these boys to do well, but that was brutal. FCD (Servania, Pomykal) and LAG (Mendez and Llanez) are really the only ones who try to play.

Need to find a way to play through the middle, wouldn’t mind seeing...

Servania
Mendez. Pomykal

ussoccer97531 · Nov 5, 2018

We didn't play bad. Too loose defensively at times, but its not a great team either, so its hard to expect them to play that well. Got a good result though, so thats the important part here.

Scott couldn't do anything on the goal. Had a couple saves. Araujo is neutralized at RB, but he wasn't bad. McKenzie was way too loose on the ball. Uncharacteristically bad (for what should be expected) game for him. Real was pretty good. His best game so far. He had an error or two, but nothing major. I thought Gloster was really good. Excellent defensive play, and combined well. Crossing was very poor though.

Servania once again had a really nice game. Mendez played well, and helped dictate play centrally, as did Pomykal. Those two were really good. Llanez wasn't as effective as some previous games, but he still did well, and took too many fouls. One of the fouls in the first half should've been a red. The one where the player arrived a full second late, and completely took out his legs with a slide tackle. Akinola was bad, but not as active as usual, which is good. Rennicks continued to work very hard for the team.

I liked Torres play today. Didn't do much, and I'm not sure he showcased much talent, but he made good decisions and worked hard against a pretty untalented T&T team who had enough of the game by the time he entered. Amaya had a nice runaround for a couple of minutes. Dorsey continued to play terrible soccer.

He and Akinola made two of the dumbest plays I can remember seeing from high-level footballers in the span of about a minute. Not that either are good, but players that have reached that level should not make those types of plays. Dorsey asks the full-back to overlap past him, then ignores his run (an open run), decides to go inside, and runs into a wall of players. He had left the full-back stranded up field, and didn't come close to making an effective play with the ball. That is the type of play that I'm sure drives Ramos crazy.

A minute later Akinola has Dorsey streaking into the box. Mind you, Akinola had just been occupying Dorsey's spot on the field, and has played winger a lot. He should know exactly the run Dorsey is making because it was the obvious one that wingers should be making in that situation. Instead, Akinola decides to play the ball to a run that Dorsey would have had no chance to beat the defender to, instead of the run where he would've had body position to beat the defender to. This is really simple stuff. Low IQ footballers making low IQ decisions.

bpet15 · Nov 5, 2018

Can’t argue with much of your analysis. Only thing I take exception to was Real. Other than his dummy for T&T’s goal, all I saw him do was take a touch and try a 70 yard diagonal ball. To be fair, a couple of them came off, but sooner or later one was bound to.

ussoccer97531 · Nov 5, 2018

autobus39 said: ↑

Depends on who is on the World Cup team if the qualify. You could reasonably put together a best 11 with only 3 - 4 of these players.
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I think 3-4 is a high estimate. 1-3.

don Lamb · Nov 5, 2018

ussoccer97531 said: ↑

We didn't play bad. Too loose defensively at times, but its not a great team either, so its hard to expect them to play that well. Got a good result though, so thats the important part here.

Scott couldn't do anything on the goal. Had a couple saves. Araujo is neutralized at RB, but he wasn't bad. McKenzie was way too loose on the ball. Uncharacteristically bad (for what should be expected) game for him. Real was pretty good. His best game so far. He had an error or two, but nothing major. I thought Gloster was really good. Excellent defensive play, and combined well. Crossing was very poor though.

Servania once again had a really nice game. Mendez played well, and helped dictate play centrally, as did Pomykal. Those two were really good. Llanez wasn't as effective as some previous games, but he still did well, and took too many fouls. One of the fouls in the first half should've been a red. The one where the player arrived a full second late, and completely took out his legs with a slide tackle. Akinola was bad, but not as active as usual, which is good. Rennicks continued to work very hard for the team.

I liked Torres play today. Didn't do much, and I'm not sure he showcased much talent, but he made good decisions and worked hard against a pretty untalented T&T team who had enough of the game by the time he entered. Amaya had a nice runaround for a couple of minutes. Dorsey continued to play terrible soccer.

He and Akinola made two of the dumbest plays I can remember seeing from high-level footballers in the span of about a minute. Not that either are good, but players that have reached that level should not make those types of plays. Dorsey asks the full-back to overlap past him, then ignores his run (an open run), decides to go inside, and runs into a wall of players. He had left the full-back stranded up field, and didn't come close to making an effective play with the ball. That is the type of play that I'm sure drives Ramos crazy.

A minute later Akinola has Dorsey streaking into the box. Mind you, Akinola had just been occupying Dorsey's spot on the field, and has played winger a lot. He should know exactly the run Dorsey is making because it was the obvious one that wingers should be making in that situation. Instead, Akinola decides to play the ball to a run that Dorsey would have had no chance to beat the defender to, instead of the run where he would've had body position to beat the defender to. This is really simple stuff. Low IQ footballers making low IQ decisions.
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Great write up.

But I think you are downplaying Rennicks' play a bit by simply saying he's "working hard for the team." He played this game as a true false 9, and had a brilliant tactical performance.

@bpet15 and others may be lamenting the lack of play through the middle, but his ability to drop into the midfield to play with Pomykal and Mendez opened up space for Llanez and others to get into. Not only that, but his play around the box was incisive and showed tremendous vision.

He missed a run on a ball from Akinola that should have been a goal, but he was certainly a major catalyst tonight.

ussoccer97531 · Nov 5, 2018

bpet15 said: ↑

Really want these boys to do well, but that was brutal. FCD (Servania, Pomykal) and LAG (Mendez and Llanez) are really the only ones who try to play.

Need to find a way to play through the middle, wouldn’t mind seeing...

Servania
Mendez. Pomykal
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Araujo is also LA Galaxy.

I don't think Real was that good, and I continue to think he's one of the worst players on the team. Naming him captain could come back to hurt this team in the next round. Is Ramos going to feel obliged to start the captain?

However, he wasn't that bad in this game. I agree that he looked bad on the goal, but I didn't think any of the defenders looked good on that goal. Real isn't a CB, so I'll cut him some slack there on how he defended the cross.

butters59 · Nov 5, 2018

don Lamb said: ↑

Great write up.

But I think you are downplaying Rennicks' play a bit by simply saying he's "working hard for the team." He played this game as a true false 9, and had a brilliant tactical performance.

@bpet15 and others may be lamenting the lack of play through the middle, but his ability to drop into the midfield to play with Pomykal and Mendez opened up space for Llanez and others to get into. Not only that, but his play around the box was incisive and showed tremendous vision.

He missed a run on a ball from Akinola that should have been a goal, but he was certainly a major catalyst tonight.
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For those who like me don't understand how come Rennics isn't in MLS. He was basically black balled by wonderful Revolution:
https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/clu...spect-censured-by-revolution-academy_aid41534

Midas Mulligan · Nov 5, 2018

genom said: ↑

I'll let you think about it some more. For your own benefit.
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I give up. Please tell me. Can’t wait to hear what it means to beat teams that couldn’t win a YSO tournament.

bballshawn · Nov 5, 2018

Call in these six players: Soto, Richards, dest, carleton, durkin, amon

TarHeels17 · Nov 6, 2018

don Lamb said: ↑

Great write up.

But I think you are downplaying Rennicks' play a bit by simply saying he's "working hard for the team." He played this game as a true false 9, and had a brilliant tactical performance.

@bpet15 and others may be lamenting the lack of play through the middle, but his ability to drop into the midfield to play with Pomykal and Mendez opened up space for Llanez and others to get into. Not only that, but his play around the box was incisive and showed tremendous vision.

He missed a run on a ball from Akinola that should have been a goal, but he was certainly a major catalyst tonight.
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I agree. Granted it was the first time I've watched Rennicks, but I was pleasantly surprised. He looked like he clearly belonged. Dorsey, on the other hand, did nothing of the sort.

Sandon Mibut · Nov 6, 2018

I'm very curious to see what Rennicks does after this semester.

Stay in school? Make nice with the Revolution and sign a homegrown deal?
Leverage a trade of his homegrown rights to another MLS team? Sign abroad?

He's really helped his pro stock in this tournament. Yeah, the competition has been very poor but he's put up nice numbers and more importantly, shown a good head for the game and enough skill to make plays.

I don't think he's got a huge future with the senior national team beyond January camps and the occasional reserve appearance when the full team is available. But he could be a solid pro for a dozen years and average 10 goals a game in MLS and maybe have a season or two like a Zardes or Dwyer.

Pegasus · Nov 6, 2018

If Akinola could learn to pass he might have a future. He’s really quick. Pulisic like first step. He then wastes it by making poor decisions and passes but if he could clean that up he could be special.

TimB4Last · Nov 6, 2018

Pegasus said: ↑

If Akinola could learn to pass he might have a future. He’s really quick. Pulisic like first step. He then wastes it by making poor decisions and passes but if he could clean that up he could be special.
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That's a big ask ...

don Lamb · Nov 6, 2018

Sandon Mibut said: ↑

I'm very curious to see what Rennicks does after this semester.

Stay in school? Make nice with the Revolution and sign a homegrown deal?
Leverage a trade of his homegrown rights to another MLS team? Sign abroad?

He's really helped his pro stock in this tournament. Yeah, the competition has been very poor but he's put up nice numbers and more importantly, shown a good head for the game and enough skill to make plays.

I don't think he's got a huge future with the senior national team beyond January camps and the occasional reserve appearance when the full team is available. But he could be a solid pro for a dozen years and average 10 goals a game in MLS and maybe have a season or two like a Zardes or Dwyer.
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On Rennicks, he strikes me as having similar potential as Ben Mines. Very different players in how they play, but both very cerebral and versatile on the field.

TimB4Last · Nov 6, 2018

The official write-up:

https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...6-1-win-trinidad-tobago-2018-u20-championship