Then you should go watch the ‘07 match again where S. Korea kicked our teeth in. At least that's what I remember anyway. We escaped w/a draw and my memory is it was a ridiculously fortunate escape. A few years later France inescapably failed to beat our dumpster fire '13 squad. In '15 we fell behind to Myanmar and looked pretty disappointing to say the least, we got clubbed like the proverbial harp seals against Ukraine in that tournament as well, and much worse (0-3). In '17 We got beaten up badly but still managed to eek out a draw against Ecuador in the opener. Two things always come to mind: #1 Bad results happen, and usually bad games too. This was a bas result, though it wasn't exactly a bad game. Seemed to me like a draw would've been a more reasonable result, especially considering the flukey nature of their victory. Also wasn't happy w/some elements of starting 11, seemed a bit odd, a few of them (Servania, though he got the goal, Keita, though he played just fine, no Soto in the XI seemed a bit odd, the starting keeper seemed wrong, though he did have that lovely save in injury time, I'm partial to Llanez and wonder if he might have added something we needed). Regardless, we played an egg in a game we had to win and I was most bothered by the lack of urgency I tended to see in the final half hour. Not enough bite, not enough fight at times. #2: There is a bit of ridiculousness to take individual players, like Dest, hell, like anyone, look at one game, and a poor performance and write them off. We should be evaluating these guys based upon what they've put together across seasons of development, across their trainings, across millions of data points. In as much as I was melting down myself w/frustration and despondency, I have to acknowledge it's one freaking game. Laying down indictments on the list of suspects is just kind of looney. It's a game. 1 game. The reason these guys have been hyped as they have, has been several years worth of evidence suggesting they're a special group of prospects. Maybe we shouldn't take a tough result in a tough group (sort of: minus the Qatar match) and take that data point and weigh it just as heavily as the past three to four years worth data points. It's one game. And I say this acknowledging that I viewed this as a must win for use to win the group, I think that's probably a pipe dream now. Hoping for four points and a third place ticket because I don't want France (and am perhaps foolishly, perhaps not, considering it a given that France will win their group) in the R16's. Want as many knockout matches as possible if we can make it there.
I think they all deserve criticism. Mendez was too lackadaisical off the ball in the attack and so soft in physical battles. Today he wasn't nearly sharp enough on the ball to compensate for his deficiencies. The strikes from distance were nice to look at but if we're honest Lunin dealt with them both comfortably, and most keepers at this level would. Pomykal deserves a little less criticism, IMO, because he was played out of position as a winger and then as a 9 (?!?). But it's true he didn't look dangerous on the half-turn, his dribbling mostly went nowhere. But I think structurally there's not much to be done other than start Pomykal/Mendez as the dual 8s and see what happens. They did combine for the only real moment of danger in the second half, the clever pass from Pomykal and the one-time shot off the post from Mendez. Should Tab start Servania ahead of one of them? He did that tonight and pushed Pomykal to the wing. Should Ledezma push one of them to the bench? I'd like to see that but I don't know how many others would. With Durkin, I don't think he was all that bad, but he's slow and soft and his contribution in possession wasn't enough to compensate today. There's an obvious replacement in Cerrillo. He's quicker, he's faster, he's a better tackler. He might not be able to hit diagonal balls like Durkin, but what good did those do us against Ukraine? Nigeria will be a different game, but today we needed a reliable destroyer behind two playmakers against the Ukrainian low block. Instead we got two destroyers, neither of them particularly good at destroying, and one of them pushing high into the attack.
Watch Durkin chasing Ukrainian players, he is falling behind step by ste. When Tsitaishvili hit the crossbar Durkin didn't even try to step toward him. Pomykal and Mendez were pretty good or at least pretty much what was expected of them. I don't think Durkin starts the next game against Nigerians who are faster than Ukrainians. I hope Dest doesn't start either.
The game was OK. We played pretty well and all three results were equally probable. I've only seen Dest's highlights and all touches before this game and that doesn't display his defensive incompetence. It's not like he made some mistakes, he basically didn't do anything right on defence while in attack he was as good as advertised. Keep on playing him is a huge risk.
We've beaten Colombia the same year playing the same way when Steffen had a game rivaling Howard against Belgium and stopped a penalty near the end of the game and then a few more during penalty kicks.
Yeah, and I'm not advocating regressing to it either - I think we need to continue pushing to higher a skilled game. The players have the ability, it is cohesion that is lacking - which is not surprising. But if we're going to try to develop a more elegant, close quarters style, there will be a lot of growing pains - which I think the U set-up is all about. I was just struck as I watched that if I didn't know which team was which, the Ukrainian approach, and keeping! was not that different from some old-school US games.
I with this team, if you put him in the middle, and dedicate more resources to Pomykal, that's going to get us goals. We have a lot of talent. This isn't like past teams where we had a talisman. This team didn't need one
if he doesn't get the positioning and getting beat(more then twice) the going forward stuff is worthless.
I sure as hell hope Gloster is ok otherwise we get to see more of Real who ain't good. I saw Gloster drop f bomb on the sideline to the trainer in frustration then shortly afterwards got subbed. Maybe if he can't Tab will put Dest at LB and Araujo at RB. We will need all the speed we can get against Nigeria so hopefully he can go.
This... we used to be physically more competitive, route one, low possession and hoped to pull off a set piece. There has to be a balance between "winning" mentality and technical development. If the focus on winning at all costs comes too early the kids/coaches sacrifice technical and IQ development. I'm more interested in how the team evolves over the tournament.
i'm surprised people are high on Keita - he was the worst in the team in possession, imo - bunch of errant passes...which makes it hard to maintain a stranglehold on possession like they had in the first 30 minutes.
How stupid. @Eleven Bravo says it's the first time he's seen some of these guys and says some show promise and you go nuts. You know you can be pissed they lost, pissed how they played as a team, pissed at individual players, pissed at the manager, and still think that some players showed promise for the future (and not have that mean you're making excuses or sugar coating a loss). It's a f'n youth tournament. I'll say it too - first time I've seen a lot of these guys, and there's a few that showed me some promising things. Should I fly to Poland and throw rotten tomatoes at them when they walk down the street instead? Am I treating those guys like snowflakes? No. Newsflash - they don't pay attention to us, and if they did, what we say is so far down the list of things that can affect a career it's completely irrelevant and not worth talking about. You grossly overrate the effect of what fans think on players and the program as a whole.
I hear you. it’s not meant to sugar coat the loss. My first reaction was that it was very frustrating. But I wanted to point out where there were positives, and that it was positive that this game felt more like an upset than that we were totally outclassed.
I thought Mendez stunk, and for his chances... the long shot, 99% of pro goalies are saving that. And the post shot could have gone either way.
How much has US Soccer invested in the last 4 years in getting these guys to Poland? That's a heck of a price tag for just another "youth tournament" that some folks want to dismiss as an exercise in promise seeking. I suppose the cameras, the press, the live TV feeds and all the interest from keyboard jockeys would happen at the U18 tournament in Schenectady? The diminished expectation spiel is a bad look. Would do more good than giving them a Participation ribbon and a "better luck next time when you've become a real grown up". You've lost me here....
Pomykal is also escaping criticism. I don't understand it. He's escaped criticism all season with FC Dallas because he looks like he shows some flashes. Matt Doyle called him the most complete American CM ever yesterday or something to that effect. The standard for playing well has completely been moved with some of these players. His plays aren't resulting in goals. Goals win games. Attackers need to produce goals and assists. Aaronson has went nearly 1000 minutes with 1G, 0A, and all we hear about is how well he's playing. No, he's not playing well. He's playing very bad. Maybe he shows good talent, but when have attackers ever been good over large samples without producing? I think I was the first person on this website to be a big fan of Pomykal's game, but I'm hesitant to praise a first team professional who can't produce. Flashes of skill might be good enough in an academy game. If Pomykal is to be viewed as a senior NT player in the next year, he needs to produce. It's not enough to think he's talented. I see people say things like he's going to be sold for a big fee to Europe after this tournament. Why? What has he done to do that? Prove it. It's one thing to think a player is talented and deserves regular first team playing time (I've been arguing that for years about Pomykal). Its another to prove it. He has not done that yet. Maybe he'll need another few years to start producing, but I don't think he deserves a free pass for his play in his own age group. He had very little impact against Ukraine, and he's supposed to be a key player in this team.
I should also be clear that I'm not saying Durkin deserves no criticism, but reading the comments here, it was as if he was terrible or made key plays to lead to goals against. I didn't think he played a clean game. I agreed with what you were saying on your podcast about his decision making (too slow in this game, in particular). I've noticed recently its a little more questionable than I initially thought, but I think we are looking in the wrong places for solutions to this loss if one of the first things to do is to question Durkin's place or his ceiling. He was great at the U-17 WC, great that whole U-17 cycle, he's received very good reviews during the camps he played in this cycle, and I think he has an abundance of talent that plays at the highest levels of the game. Even in this game, he might've been a little slow with his decision making (and there are also mobility questions), but I think physically we see that he can throw his weight around. When he puts his foot into a tackle, he usually wins it. When he goes up for a header, he usually wins it. Against his age group, he's reliably played defensive midfield enforcer with incredibly good passing range. Maybe the enforcer part doesn't show through yet with DC, but usually it doesn't for 19 year olds against players 10-15 years older than him. Clearly he lacks some talent that would make him the second coming of Busquets, but I think he's gotten a little too much criticism on all fronts recently, including this game. For the next game, I'd like to see Durkin and Cerrillo in the same midfield. I could understand another game of Servania instead of Cerrillo because he didn't play that terrible and he has more attacking quality than Cerrillo, but I think we need to rotate the team with the condensed schedule. I don't think this is the type of game for Ledezma, Pomykal, Mendez types. Trying to play football against Nigeria almost never works. I'd like to try to match their physicality, and win the game because our "all physical and direct team" has more game-winning quality than theirs. I'd like to see a 4-4-2 with Durkin and Cerrillo as the holding mids, Llanez and de la Fuente as the wingers, Weah and Soto as the strikers.
He didn't have a great game. I didn't say so. He made some bad plays, so did a lot of the team. Richards was great, but was probably the most at fault for the second goal, aside for the coach who decides zonal marking is a good idea. I don't like this idea of assigning designations based on one or two plays. Durkin can play better. He's not deserving of all the criticism he's getting. In my opinion, the whole attack wasn't good enough. A few nice plays is not enough, especially if its not going to result in goals. Your attackers need to influence goals. Pomykal, Mendez, Weah weren't good enough in that regard. They weren't consistently dangerous. Weah had the assist, so maybe you can cut him a little slack for a bad game from the run of play because its hard to downplay the significance of goals, but its the lack of consistent attacking chances that they influenced. de la Fuente was a little better. I didn't think he was as good as the team needs, but I think the expectations were lowest for him. This isn't his age group.
I think Durkin is sort of a luxury DM like Trapp and Bradley. They all have their place but fast physical sides aren't it. They are needed for breaking down less talented teams that park the bus. Cerrillo has played over Servania for FC Dallas because he is already a physical beast. Hard to believe at that age but he plays sort of like Chara and would have helped yesterday against a rough bunch and will help against a fast physical Nigeria. He also is very good at maintaining possession and passing on the ground but you probably won't get any or many of those long switches in the air.
Based on your bottom line view of analyzing players based on production, are you suggesting that Servania was better than Pomykal and/or Mendez? Basing an attacker's impact on the game solely on goals and assists leaves out a ton of context.
Fundamentally, I disagree. I think the buildup focal point of the team should be the #6. I think Durkin is the most likely player in the youth pool to fill that role for the NT in the next cycle or two, but I could see Sands, Chifamba, Booth, Tessman, Craig, becoming alternatives to him there. I also think there's a chance that McKennie stops playing such a frantic game and can play that position. He has the passing for that position. In this tournament, I'm not against using Cerrillo as a starter, but I think you use him higher up the pitch. You could put him alongside Durkin with the understanding that Durkin is the deep-lying playmaker and Cerrilo is the destroyer higher up the field. You could call it a double-pivot, but I don't want them operating at the same level of the field. I think something that also needs to be figured out is the striker situation. I'm not opposed to the team playing with a false 9, but I don't think it was tested out in any game this cycle. Ramos used it once he saw Weah wasn't putting in the work needed at the CF position. I think its too late in the cycle to start implementing it. If Weah isn't going to put in the work needed to play CF, you need to play Soto at CF, and Weah might need to take a seat.
I agree and think Tab overthought this. Yes, Weah sometimes plays a single striker but I've always liked him playing wide but being able to zoom inside and become a second striker when a cross comes in from the other side. I also think he gets more room to run when he's wider and can really make a team pay if they push up an outside back. Playing Pomykal at a winger spot is OK but it gets him less touches. In both cases just because someone can and someone else can't doesn't mean it's better overall for the team. So, move Weah to winger, Pomkal to one of the twin 8/10's and figure out who's better between Soto and Rennicks or rotate them based on the opponent. Maybe rotate Mendez, Ledezma, Pomykal and Servania based on opponent also. I do wonder what happened ti McKenzie even though Keita played OK the team really missed McKenzie and the defense would have been a lot better with a Richards / McKenzie pairing. I also think Richards has played left CB for this team and may not have realized how much cover Dest needed. Perhaps McKenzie has made us not even realize that was a problem.