PBP: 2019 CONCACAF U17 Championship Final: USA vs Mexico 5/16 7 PM (ET)

Bradley's chip vs Chile to Baird. It happens, especially against Efra whose specialty is chipped balls.

 

Kobe is a LB, and I don't see him growing enough to be a CB. Unfortunately, our dearth of quality CBs put him at CB. Yes, he has line breaking passes, but that passing ability just manifests itself differently than from LB, where there are both crosses across the goal and long diagonal passes. There was a play (in OT?) where Kobe raced back and eventually won the ball back from the Mexican attacker. That was classic outside back instincts. His next move is signing a pro contract. But where? IIRC, Gary Kleiban may be representing him. If true, the LAG chances of signing him are not great. If not true, then the LAG should move quickly, because other teams have interest.

 

Yeah. I wish these guys would stay with Te Kloese.

-------------------Zubak------------------
Uly---------------Efra----------------IDK
-----Saldana------------Mendez-------
Kobe--Arellano----Araujo---Cuevas
------------------Lopez-------------------

I mean, give me that. The stupid Galaxy FO from last year and before is going to have lasting effects on the perception DTK is trying to change.

 

To me, you take the quality of play, the chances generated, and then results, generally speaking broadly over time even out based on said chances unless you're a team that has a mental block with finishing. We didn't. We scored a boatload of goals in the tournament, so I never really saw any mental block w/actually putting the ball in the net. W/that being so, I think normally we're up 2-1 or 3-1 based upon the opportunities generated in half #1. That should likely hold up. It didn't this time, but over the fullness of time it should. Does bother me that the U17's were the better side in the past two U17 Final's but failed to put Mexico away and Mexico showed the clinical approach necessary to overcome being outplayed and win anyway. That's annoying, and a touch troubling. But if you have a choice of won youth side collecting back to back confederation championships, you'll take the U20's every time. They're much closer to graduating to professional success, the attrition rate with '17's is just much higher.

So all in all, I'll take those U20 titles and the fact that we definitely played better than Mexico and just choked in '17, and in '19 we played significantly better in the 1st half, then Mexico did in the 2nd half but just couldn't finish. Disappointing. But like many others, we know the players that have a chance at someday being a part of the senior side, the players that have a chance at maybe being professionals. The players who will need to improve a great deal to be that good, and the wild cards. This result won't change any of those storylines though the tournament could (by creating foreign interest). Just disappointed that we played as well as we did throughout the tournament and lost to a team that flat out wasn't as good as us. That's never fun, but scoreboard is scoreboard, I think it's clear we're winning for now w/this generation of kids, regardless.

 

Lopez
Araujo-Ferkranus-Arellano
Cuevas-Saldana-Mendez-KHF
Dunbar-Alvarez-Llanez

Bench: Pulskamp, Zubak, Perez

 

It's U-17. At this stage wins have to be secondary to learning to use the ball well. We outposessed Mexico and had the ball primarily in their half. We played better soccer.

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I believe you have said, and I always respect your opinion, that this was a bad birth year and probably the worse by far of the years around it. That this awful black hole of talent took Mexico to extra time has to be a bonus right?

By the time of the next U20WC, the '03s will be more involved.

 

Winning is a part of player development, but for youth players it needs to be used in an instructive way. As the players get older and older, winning becomes less instructive (formative), and more more evaluative (summative). How to manage the journey from winning being used as an instructional tool to being primarily evaluative, is a big part of the craft of coaching.

What role does winning play at the U17 national team level? I would say that it is evaluative in regard to the program and the coach somewhat (though not as much as with the pro game, winning can indicate growth of players to an extent), but instructive in regard to the individual players, who need to be given the time and space to figure out how competitive soccer works at the highest levels of the game.

Summed up - the results don’t mean “next to nothing”, but I wouldn’t loose any sleep over them if we made it to the final and played well, but weren’t able to finish off a championship against a rival - these are U17s playing at their level and comparatively to other US U17 teams, their level is pretty good.

 

I don't regard Mexico's program very highly. I think we've passed them in player production by a big margin, and I think its going to start showing in results when these younger players such as Pulisic, McKennie, Adams start entering their prime. We've seen a pretty consistent good crop of players coming through from about -'97 on. There's been a bad year here or there ('99 is mediocre, '02 is looking worse than '99), but I've yet to see any consistent drop off yet. I think we are getting better at producing good players.

I don't consider it some great achievement being able to take them to extra time. Their program is good, but its below the elite countries. They are also a little better at youth level than senior level, which is why I consider them a good barometer game in these youth tournaments, but I don't think they are so good that we should be saying a loss to them in extra time is a good result, considering I think we've passed them in producing talent.

I like to separate the two years of the age group. I don't think '02 and '03 should be considered to be in the same age group, even though some 03's will play in the U-17 age group. The '02 age group are the U-17's and the '03 age group are the U-16's. All age groups get a youth WC. Some get a U-17 WC and others get a U-20 WC. Some players will play up a year at either level and play in a youth WC that is mostly for players in a different age group, and some players will play up a cycle, which could be 2-3 years. Thats how I look at it.

 

Have you found the time to go back and watch the first half?

 

Just watched the 1st half. Holy smokes and especially the last 30 minutes of the 1st. As dominating as I’ve ever seen a US team play, ever, And all within a very clear system. The forward balls on the ground splitting the lines was devastating, and oh so enjoyable.

Was blown away by Mexico’s lack of ability to adjust...though the did in the 2nd half.

Also will say my first time watching Efrain.. you can completely see why the coach pulled him. His technical skills are obviously off the charts, but not sure I’ve seen anyone put in less effort on both sides of the ball. I’d be furious if I were his teammates chasing around the US team that half. Maybe a major wake up call for him, hope he gets his head on straight as he could be world class, but not a luxury player at that age. Wowzers.

 

In his defense, this was the last game in a series of games very close together. His legs were likely shot. He also looked like he may have been a few pounds heavier than normal .

In the second half Busio was so fatigued that his touch was trash and he couldn’t hit his shots anywhere close to his target. The US might have had a better second half if Pepi or Fuentes replaced him at halftime.