These guys are atrocious. I was completely disgusted at the soccer, thought it might be some random guys, looked at the lineup, and it's a bunch of our top u23s! Wow, this is awful. Nice clearance on the corner 5 ft directly to an Egyptian.
Egypt maybe should've scored from the run of play, but the shot was saved. (I missed the buildup.) Then a terribly botched clearance on the resultant corner led to a gift for Egypt's scorer, and no chance for the U.S. GK. Not long after, Parks (?) tried shooting a FK from about 35 that required a good save. My quick take on what I've managed to see is that if you had opinions about these guys, they probably would be unchanged after watching the first half. Some guys have been meh, some guys lively but mostly ineffective, and some guys have been invisible.
When you leave the feed to post in here, what is the point of measured takes? If the idea is just to get them games, then some players (Olosunde, Farfan, et al) need them sure. But CCV starts every week for his club. What is the point of him playing in this game with a coach that has had one session to implement a system nothing like the 3-2-2-3? Weah isn't playing like Arriola last night, he is a conventional LW. Djorde is a forward, not a 8/10. Jones is not a distributor. Even a Ramos 4-3-3 would be more instructive to GB's 3-2-2-3. BTW, why is Djorde a forward and Weah a wide mid?
It started from a free kick from a Farfan give away and then he fouled. Farfan just coughs the ball up anytime an Egyptian comes near him. Has he not played at all in USL or anywhere?
Not an exhilarating half, trying to force-fit style onto roster whose best players aren't befitting of it. Sargent and both Robinsons should be starting. Can't string together more than a few passes with this group and they're getting sliced open relative to the opponent. Need more mettle in cm. So far Marcinkowski, Pines, and Olosunde have shown some positive things. Can do better than Sabbi, Jones, and Wright. I like Farfan, but he looks rusty. Subs of Sargent, Perez, and A. Robinson would be in order.
Yeah. The only guy out there I have never seen before is Pines. Certainly has some talent, but still fits your general description.
It looks like Gregg's system to me, just with guys who aren't as good, and against a better opponent not playing in the US. Weah and Sabbi as a-wings on a team that's getting out-played. Mihailovic as the 10. Wright alone up top.
I feel like Ramos' 433/451 press is a better fit for our pool, and it's why we've gotten results for a while at u-20 and below. To then switch it up is odd. But I don't think USS is solely about getting results now, sadly.
I wonder if this is the B team with CCV and Weah being released early? Does Sargent have a knock? This is not the strongest lineup by far. But you can't think it is a straight B team either. Maybe they wanted to mix some things up? Maybe some players will be released after this game so they are playing with the B team? It was good for 5-10 minutes. Then Egypt figured out what was going on I guess or woke up. Too few numbers in the build up and Egypt has figured out to just let them cycle it to Farfan then take it from him.
Not a lot of notable moments for the USA at half. It's a small field and the long balls are just not hitting. Parks hit Weah in stride at the corner of the box but his touch went backwards. If Kreis can organize them and get them moving the right direction they can win it; Egypt looks bad too. We just look worse.
You can tell these guys havent played together before, so I'm not going to make any judgements about how they look as a team/unit but individually Sabbi (lost possession several times, couldnt combine) and Jones (terrible clearance lead to goal and not been great in shielding the backline) have been quite poor for me. Wright was totally invisible and I expect more from Mihailovic than what he's given.
I see a 4-4-2 diamond, but these things are hard with a single camera. Have never seen anyone next to Jones and both FBs are pushing up. Hard to tell what all the other guys are doing. But it is never 3-2-x-x that I've seen. Of course, maybe they are just giving the ball away took quickly. The poor players have been a mix of the obvious and the surprising. You would figure Farfan would be rusty. But Djorde has missed every pass it seems. Sabbi and Wright don't seem able to get involved. Vines seems ill disciplined and unwilling to be part of the build up. Like most games with Jones, he started well, started to get overwhelmed, and deteriorated. The USA has played hard. It is like watching any NT or YNT where they were just thrown out on the field and told to do stuff.
Looks like a bunch of halftime subs, including Sargent in. Who all the guys are, I can't recognize them by sight well enough to say. Edit: A. Robinson, Ebobisse, I think Williamson among those in now.
I was thinking that in terms of the central midfield camera position. And yet, the central camera in this match is much easier on the eye than in an NYCFC match. They keep much more of the field in the camera, as compared with NYCFC matches. In those, when the ball is in either final third, most of the screen is taken up with the stands on the top of the screen, and out of play on the sidelines on the bottom half of the screen. Is there something preventing NYCFC from avoiding this, or are the TV crews just so clueless?
I won't say that we've been much better in the second half, but we've tried a better variety of balls to get past the defense. As I say that, we gave up a goal. Defense was all over the place, with lots of unmarked guys passing to lots of other unmarked guys until the last unmarked guy hit a nice hard low shot into the far corner. As has been noted, these dudes are more or less just out there running around. Was there really not a single opportunity to get a few 97s and 98s together after the 2017 U20 tournament?
The U-23 team is tough. I've been thinking about it and the problem with this team is that the team is limited by what I call a "Triple Squeeze" 1) First the team is squeezed by the senior USMNT. As U-23 players, generally these players are old enough were a significant number will be old enough to be getting regular minutes with the uSMNT 2) Second, the team is sqeezed by club releases. U-23 players are older by nature (and it's the oldest YNT) and a lot of them are important players for their clubs. Why release them for this? It's not like releasing a U-19 player that needs games. 3) Third, the team is squeezed from the bottom end. At this point of the cycle, the U-20s generally take priority since the World Cup is only months away. So the best of the younger American players are still with this team. The Triple Squeeze generally becomes the Double Squeeze after the U-20 World Cup removes #3 from above. But by the time the 2019 U-20 players can join the U-23s, it's so far into the cycle that it becomes tough to integrate them just a few months away from Olympic qualifying. The U-23 is really all about a test of depth than anything.
True, but that all applies to our opponents too. So competitively those limitations should cancel each other out.
There are plenty of players on that team that are way below MLS quality. I don't see a point of creating this team before U-20 WC. Why Weah and CCV should be on the field with USL players?
This result was expected. This team has no work and it has been noticed. We are a much better team technically and, although some players are very low level, it is not their fault and neither is the coach's fault. This is the fault of the USSF that did not appoint a coach until a week before the tournament and that this U23 team did not have a coach for almost 3 years, that is a lot of time lost. We can not expect anything more. I do not want to criticize this team because there is still a game to play, but the USSF action with the youth teams is really bad.