PBP: 2019 CONCACAF U17 Championship Semifinals: USA vs Canada 5/14 5:30 PM (ET)

I am a realist. I would be all flowers and butterflies all the time if I were a U.S supporter.

 

I agree with this. When you ignore the science of physiology, it will usually remind you, one way or another. It isn’t just a case of fitness in a tournament like this - it is the ratio of fitness to freshness. To play this many games in such a short period of time is highly irresponsible. It leaves the coaches with nothing but bad choices - with consequences to each bad choice. In a case like this, the coach needs to ask himself, “Which is the least bad decision?” and “Can I live with the consequences of my bad choice?”

 

They were saving their best players for upcoming games. In particular Nelson who is arguably MVP of the tournament and absolutely destroyed Scally when he got on the field.

 

In terms of the golden boot, Geancarlo Castro of Costa Rica leads with 7 goals. After him, the next is a group of 5 with 5, which includes Reyna, Busio, and Canada's Jayden Nelson. Other possible winners are Santiago Muñoz and Israel Luna of Mexico, along with AOC, who all have 4.

 

You can keep playing the "maybe" game, but maybe Nelson would've had more than 19 minutes against a tired RB in Scally if Canada didn't try to bunker for 70 minutes desperately trying to hold a 2 goal lead, a lead that they got against the run of play, and that didn't hold up over 90 minutes.

Nelson's MVP only if you forget about Reyna (5 goals, 3 assists) and Castro (7 goals, 4 PK's, not sure who earned them).

We'll see what happens on Tuesday. My guess is, another USA win and different excuses.

 

I don't need to have excuses for Canadian team. I live 500 miles South of you not 1,500 miles North. Really don't care whether Nelson or Reyna is the MVP. Actually would prefer Leyva or AOC. Just hate the idea of saving 17 years olds from from those so scary 3 games in 7 days and then watching Mexico and Canada to play for the championship.

 

You "don't need excuses"... yet are trying extremely hard to make them anyway. So, keep crying that the first game is actually indicative of Canada being some sleeping giant ("the three best players! MVP!!! ).

Or, accept the more-reasonable reality that it represents a bunkering Canadian team ultimately punished by a wasteful American team not even approaching the zenith of its abilities, having hired Wicky a couple of weeks before.

 

Trying to figure out are you drunk or dumb. What do you think?

 

I'm with @ussoccer97531 on this one.

There will be squad rotation for this game. We can't run these kids into the ground. We should actually think of this game as the first contest in preparation for the World Cup. A chance for some of these players on the back end of the squad to earn WC roster spots. Pepi, for instance, needs to go out and have a good start against a quality opponent. He's certainly capable of this. This is a good lineup that @ussoccer97531 has projected. It can win this game. I want to see more from Fuentes, who for me is one of the surprises of the tournament. I hadn't seen so much of him prior to this. I want to see Odunze again. I want to see Cuevas, because I think his spot should be challenged by Jonathan Gomez and others.

A totally meaningless game, which should mean a fun contest!!! WIth the pressure of qualification released, we should see some more adventurous play. I'm looking forward to it.

 

The game I saw we were. We struggled against the counter vs them. We dominated possession particularly in the 2nd half Double their shots had more corners 9-1 and crushed them in the 2nd half. You could be right and Canada can win by bunkering and countering like they did in the first game. They are not going to do it by out playing us all over the pitch. They lost to us by a goal, they beat Guatemala and Barbados by one less goal then we did.
I think we win by a goal or two with Canada bunkering the whole game.

 

I think you've completely exhausted all three of your neurons.

Guess we're done here.

 

Standard drivel from Canadian supporters is to blame tactics, manager and player selection. Easy pickings since Canada hasn't done too much in the past 30 years. And some can't simply applaud anything John Herdman sets up since he came from the women's side.

But this is an overly negative view of this team. There are at least a couple of standout players like Nelson and Habibuallah. But against Costa Rica, there was no stand out performances, yet they managed to get it to penalty kicks. Team tactics are to follow how the senior team plays and players are picked to fill the roles in this system.

Regardless of the players used, back line is the weak spot. Midfield and forwards have shown quality but given their age, their play has been up and down. Ex pk and 1 free kick goals, all goals scored were from open play and showed good linkups and/or individual brilliance.

17 year olds can reportedly recover in 17 minutes. However, doing it again and again is another story. So, I believe the lineup against the US will include some players who haven't seen a lot playing time and be again defensive oriented.

 

Blame Canada! Blame Canada!

 

OK, you weren't drunk. Welcome to ignore list.

 

Why thank you, I'll enjoy my stay.

 

Both CONCACAF and US Soccer have this game starting at 5:30 eastern.

@bungadiri

 

how do we feel about wicky this far? obviously has a very interesting cv

 

Wicky knows tricky plays? Set piece offense best I’ve seen for youth national team

 

Great question. Clearly, lots of information about the u17 coach needs to be collected on a web page, preferably through crowdsourcing and in an encyclopedic manner. Any thoughts about what a good name for this site should be?

 

"Take half our starting XI off the pitch, and there's not much left"....smh.

 

TAKE AWAY YOUR TOP SIX FIELD PLAYERS AND WHAT ARE YOU LEFT WITH? HAHAHAH.

 

I’m with you guys, although I think you could make a pretty good argument that:
Cuevas>Scally (at least in this tournament)
Tolkin>Armour
Fuentes>Busio

But I agree, resting the majority of the starters is the right call. Tbh, it wouldn’t even be the end of the world if we lost this game. We came to this tournament to qualify for the World Cup, and we did. I’d rather not run our starters out there every game and risk injury to play in a game that is just for pride.

 

Yup. Of course left back would have been locked up by Bello of Atlanta. He's injured at the moment.

Don't get me wrong. We'll go out there to win this contest. The US has never been outright U17 CONCACAF Champions. [We shared it a few times when just a group stage determined WC participation.] So we want this. Not at the sake of the players' health, however. As great as it is to say, some of these kids are first team MLS or USL players. Clubs don't want us overworking them either. So we'll have some rotation against Canada. If we need the starters in the 2nd half, then we'll bring 'em on.

 

I just want Leyva and Saldana to start, with Gray and Kobe behind them. I think those are the only starters that are integral to play the style of football the US has been playing over the last few matches.