2-2 draw. Costa Rica was better in the first half, we were better in the second half. Mostly an even game. Maybe we shaded it, but 2-2 was a fair result. The keeper Odunze was slow with awkward movements. Big kid who looks to still be growing into his frame. There were some errors in his positioning, and he might've been at fault for both goals, but he did make some saves. Mediocre performance, but not terrible. Barragan the RB did an average job. Not very active, held his own. Gray was somewhat all over the place, but mostly good. He started most of the attacks bringing the ball out of the back, and was actually playing a lot in the other team's half. He made a rash foul or two, but I also thought he defended well. Lopez the other CB was somewhat like Barragan, not very active, but held his own. Maybe a shade worse than Barragan. Tolkin was mediocre. Not good enough. Flores was not good enough. Constantly bullied in CM, a lot of errors, slow decision making. Stroud was quiet, but better than Flores. He had a couple of errors, and like Flores he was somewhat bullied, but a better performance than Flores. Freeman was our best player. He showed passing, dribbling, creativity. Scored the first goal, key pass to set up the other. Certainly belonged playing up a year. He looked very good in his own age group the last time I saw him play. I think he's tended to look worse for SKC than with YNT's, but SKC doesn't have anywhere near the talent that he plays with on YNT's and his position is constantly moved around, so thats worth keeping track of. Arce had some nice dribbles on the right cutting in on his left, but mostly made no impact until he was moved to CF. He scored a poacher's goal, beat his man to the spot. Not a very active game, but also not bad. Redzic had a lot of errors in the first half, especially with his touch and passing, but I thought he was much better in the second half. He drew a penalty, and made a number of nice dribbles. Lopez was very inactive. He had one nice flick that sent Redzic in for a chance, but otherwise didn't really contribute anything. Forbes replaced Lopez later in the match and played LM. He had the assist to Arce, although it wasn't such a hard play to make. He barely got any touches, so its hard to assess much.
'02 US-eligible, former IMG Academy centerback Ethan Bayer has joined Rayo Vallecano. Bayer was tremendous during his time in Florida.— Joey (@USAprospects) August 7, 2018
I believe the next two games are on Friday (Costa Rica) and Sunday (Mexico), but I've not found exact confirmation.
"The USA will first face Mexico on Aug. 6, followed by Costa Rica on Aug. 7. After two days of rest, the U-17 MNT will face Los Ticos on Aug. 10 before concluding with El Tri on the 12th." https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...international-training-camp-costa-rica-mexico
Odunze is listed by the USSF as 6-7. Next to him from left to right, the players are listed as 5-9.5 (Barragan, Liga MX profile), 6-1 (D. Lopez, both Atlanta United and USSF), 5-8 (Arce, both Liga MX and USSF), 6-0 (A. Lopez, USSF). I can't find a current height for Stroud on the far right; his USSF profile hasn't been updated since he was with the U15s. Whether all of these listings are accurate, who knows. It's possible that Odunze is actually taller than 6-7.
https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...n-first-of-four-friendlies-in-costa-rica-camp Here's the recap for the first Mexico game. U.S. Soccer spells Efrain Alvarez's name as "Alvan Effrain." When you search his properly-spelled name on the site, ten camp/match reports appear for when he was with U.S. Soccer, but not this match.
The Pipeline Dream. ✨Take a deep dive into the story of 16-year-old forward Alfonso Ocampo-Chavez, the @SoundersAcademy and @ussoccer_ynt star with an incredibly bright future. 📝 https://t.co/xpGWAHsu5l pic.twitter.com/E9RdAeJJ1o— Seattle Sounders FC (@SoundersFC) August 9, 2018
Nice story, but the first thing that I thought when his hometown of Merced, CA was mentioned was where in the world was the Earthquakes, and why hadn't they identified him? Kudos to the Sounders, but what is going on in San Jose?
Certainly an interesting one. There are surely thousands of players between San Jose and Merced, which is 100 or so miles to the east, but it's not like this was some miracle piece of backwoods scouting by Seattle. They just played against him in the DA and thought he was good. (Wait, should we be mad at them for poaching? ) It also makes one wonder what he might be doing now if they hadn't.
The Costa Rican Federation is streaming the CR/Mex match on its facebook page. Tomorrow's match vs. USA will almost definitely be there at 12 PM ET/10 AM Local Time/9 AM PT. https://www.facebook.com/pg/fedefutbolcrc/videos/
Somebody would find him 2 years later, probably. But how much ahead he is now we will never know. I like that coaches are tough on him. For me he looks like the best in the country on any day. And about abundance of riches. IMO Seattle would be competitive against NT.
The Costa Rica Mexico game finished 3-2 for Costa Rica. Efrain started and was pulled at the 30 minute or so mark in the first half. Not sure if injured or was a coaches decision.
I don't think so. Lost to USA and Lost to CR. I think they tied CR in first game 3-3 and have one left against the US.
Was thinking the same thing. Why play for that Mexico team U17 ( not looking very good at the moment) when you could be on the US team? Plus, the US senior team is wide open, Mexico's would be harder to break in to for 2022. Alvarez is a talented player but if he decides its in his best interest to stay with Mexico so be it. It would be great to have him on the US team but he is not a generational talent from what I have seen so far.