USA plays with fear. USA STRATEGIZES with FEAR. Fear-based soccer is a losing proposition 100% of the time! USA was way better than UKRAINE at everything but strategy and gamesmanship. Until USA stops including FEAR into the equation of how they approach soccer - they will always be "losers" at soccer - even if they transition to finally being the more "skilled" team out there...as they seem to be in the midst of.
People expect too much of a 9. Most of his job involves dragging the defense out of shape to make it easy for his teammates - the Ronaldo's of the world - to find space to score. Weah was battling out there. He got a good yellow pulled on one of the defenders. We would not have scored without his excellent move to the far post. Mendez is better on the wing because it is ok if he arrives late because he can shoot from distance. Weah arriving late from the wing doesn't work and Gloster is a numbnuts who can't make anything happen on that side anyway.
Not to get personal EB but come on...."they did show a lot of promise". Promises are for greeting cards! We are playing to win matches not points toward a future vacation in Hawaii. This is what frustrates me about too many US Soccer fans. They need to get pissed off not conciliatory. Nothing will change in our soccer mentality if we keep making excuses for this type of loss. You don't compete to show promise! You compete to win. Stop sugar-coating a loss. Stop treating these players like too many snowflakes of their generation. Lets have a ceremony to hand out Shows Promise medals....geez
the USA players are too slow to react to "scramble plays" and "loose balls".... they didn't have runners in the box late in the second half on crosses...how is that even possible??? its like they play using "paint by numbers"..way too formulaic. I think they were shell-shocked from the fact that they "knew" they were the better team but somehow losing and it messed with their heads.... Ukraine couldn't get it across the midfield stripe in the first half and somehow they ended up winning. Whoever said the US U-20s will do better vs a team that is willing to press - i'm not so sure....Ukraine played better once they started pressing and USA played worse. If I was a coach vs this USA I would DEFINITELY press. That said this lineup was pretty bad vs a bunker - no need to go conservative and defensive against a team like that...and it STILL gave up 2 soft goals. I hate overly conservative defensive approaches...limits offense and doesn't gaurantee anything defensively. This cannot be the best the USA can do.... interesting to see how they adapt to a physical Nigeria.....some of these smaller players don't seem the types to do well vs bigger teams.....
He should tell him to run his ass off in the first half and take him off at around 60'. There's no keeper with the ball at his feet who likes to see Weah coming at him. That's how you keep possession, get meaningful possession, get chances. You should make a second viewing.
he lost the ball a ton and did nothing most of the game. every time he got the ball in 1 on 1 he did zilch. he should have stood out in a good way...but he did in a bad way, imo. his runs - the very few he did make - were mis-timed. its a team game...he was not on the same page as his team. not all on him ....but no excuses. that cross was good.....but one good play does not a good performance make. he should be dominating.
I think this is good analysis. I’ve never gotten the sense that Dest is as good defensively as he is is offensively. He’s not awful defensively, but as you said, his speed is average or barely better and that’s with very aggressive positions he takes up. He often gets caught too far up the field. He also plays soft. He’s not the shortest fullback you’ll see, but he’s incredibly weak in the air. I heard an interview he did with @zlebmada and he made himself sound like a weakling who can’t battle physically. This seems more like something that’ll require some coaching.
FWIW, I watched some of the two games yesterday and I think Ukraine would beat all of Italy, Mexico, Colombia, and Poland
Tab is really bad with in-game adjustments. Not sure he's improved as a coach over the years. Defensively this team isn't good enough. McKenzie not being fit really changed things. Ukraine were more physical and Weah up top by himself was an error on Tab's part. Durkin looks to have a low ceiling, average MLS'er at best. Ukraine had more players with 1st team experience and it showed. I like some of our midfield options. Would like to see Uly next game. Our keeper was not impressive. Defensively this group isn't great. Gloster is the only one I see getting full senior team caps. Dest is too raw and I'm not sold on Richards.
Another vote for "they did show a lot of promise". I'll propose you name to hand out the "Super Promise" medals at the Youth Picnic and Participation Celebration. I can see the headlines already, "Superdave to Award Superpromise medals"....
I am also tired of excuses. We heard from the commentators for 90 minutes that they were now all professionals and are not college players. So look something like a team of professionals out there... There were a lot of amateur level mistakes for a "professional" team.
He was pointing out your extraordinarily shitty hot take that you tried to amend. I'll be glad when this tournament over so the News and Analysis crowd retreats back to their swamp.
Woah people are overreacting massively. Did we have problems breaking down the bunker? Yes. Did Ukraine play extremely well, and have a GK who's probably the best in the tournament? Yes. Did Dest and Richards make two mistakes that led to goals? Yes. Did Richards look really good outside of that? Yes. Durkin can spray the ball. For an 18 year old I'm more impressed with his ability to make good passes in coverage from the D-mid spot then I am worried about defensive positioning/tactical awareness. The former never really improves, the latter nearly always gets better. I have never seen an American team at this level play the way they played today. The U-20 world cup is a different beast than the actual world cup. The guys have played less together, you only need 3rd place to advance, and even the guys that have played together have dramatically improved that you almost have to relearn how to play together. Chicken little it after Nigeria. They played well today.
People far too often conflate NT play and form with a players' quality and club upside. More often than not NT play is a shit show and nothing like club ball. The environments are night and day. Completely different. All these hot takes from 90 mins of U20 action are amusing.
I just kept thinking - I kind of recall a time that the US played like the Ukraine. It wasn't pretty, it was too defensive, but it wasn't a bad strategy. We have the individual skill to play the way we want to but we don't have the "team brain" to play the way we want to. Too many 1-2s "wanna-tik-tak" that were off vector, to soft, wrong time etc. We aren't quite cute enough to be as cute as we want to be. That said - at some point the penny is likely to drop. I hope it's next game!
Durkin is 19 and he is the slowest player on the field and this also never improves. Neither fast nor quick. He is poor people Michael Bradley. Cerrillo is 18 and he is already better than Durkin
We actually played Ukraine in 2015. That was absolutely ugly. Steffen stood on his head and we still lost 0:3.
I was recalling a few times we played that way and won... but we have also played it and lost, to be sure.
The Durkin criticism is going overboard. He had a few slow decisions. He was far from the biggest problem. Cerrillo isn’t the difference between a win and loss in this game. For all we know, he wouldn’t have played any better and he’s not helping a possession game. He might cover a little more ground, but that wasn’t a problem in this game for Durkin. He made a few slow decisions. So did a lot of the team. I don’t know why Durkin is one of the first to get criticized, but Pomykal and Mendez escape any sort of criticism.
Mendez wasn’t very good in this game. He always has a lethal shot, but he reverted back to 2017 Mendez and stood around too much and was inconsistent with his passing. Durkin wasn’t great but tbh the only players I really thought played well were Richards and Keita. That doesn’t mean I’d go in and change 8 players before the next game or banish anyone to the bench. I would make sure Ledezma and Llanez got on the field in some way, but if you want to build any sort of chemistry for the knockout stages, you can’t just completely change the lineup every game. And anyone basing their entire opinion about a player from one game against a very good opponent who both beat the ‘17 champion, as well as the ‘19 favorite, in qualifying sounds pretty ridiculous.
Let me just say that, I am VERY impressed with this squad. The most talented U-20 team I have seen to date. The Average age of this team is probably 18 years old and Ukraine's players were all 19/20 year olds. those 2 years make a huge difference in a youth tournament when it comes physicality. For Ramos, he was easily outcoached from the start. But, this team is mega-talented.