Our outside backs made the biggest impression on me this game. I had never seen Stuart Richie (#3) before but he looked good. Comfortable on the ball, good passing going forward, and he defended well. Same can be said for Hoffman (#2). He looked even better in the second half, after Richie came out. Confident while attacking and showed off some good footwork. He played intelligently and demonstrated some great decision making that was so obviously missing from Llanez’s game.
Friendly against CR is tomorrow at 10 am est - https://mycujoo.tv/us-soccer-federation?id=cjdd9tome00063k6rs06l6f6u
The stadium announcer said that 21, who came in as a sub on Friday and is starting today at number 9, is Roberto Hategan.
Goal for Hategan, assisted by number 17 Nelson Martinez, the right back, again according to the stadium announcer.
I think the game clock being displayed on the stream must be wrong. No way it could be the 70th minute right? We would seem to be less than 10 minutes into the second half.
20 Reynolds out for 7 Jalen Hawkins, and 8 Marcelo Palomino out for 10 Vassilev, 58th minute, according to the stadium announcer.
15 Cameron Duke in for 13 Thomas Roberts. I thought Roberts looked pretty good. 6 Taylor Booth in for 16 Aidan Morris. 11 Ulysses Llanez in for 19 Stojanovic.
Costa Rica down a man for the last 10 or so minutes of regular time after a bad tackle against Otasowie.
Both teams created fewer chances than they did in Friday's game. The US was more dominant today, however, as Costa Rica struggled to put together attacks. Among the starters, I thought 21 Hategan (FW), 13 Roberts (CM), and to a slightly lesser degree 8 Palomino (CAM) had some good plays, add in 17 Martinez (RB) for the assists. 24 Otasowie was generally good at RCB, a lot more active both defensively and in possession than the other CB, number 5. 16 Morris (CM), 20 Reynolds (W), and 19 Stojanovic (W), other than his goal, were not generally impressive. 23 the left back was quiet also. Shakes, the goalkeeper, wasn't tested much on shot-stopping, was quick off of his line, and struggled a bit in passing against pressure. Off the bench, obviously credit to 11 Llanez for his goal, a good individual effort from the wing. 9 De la Fuente was pretty quiet.
This second side wasn't as good, but there were some quality players here. Costa Rica wasn't that good on Friday, but they were even worse today. And that tackle they had at the end was completely ridiculous. Easy red-card. I don't blame Otasowie's reaction, at all. That's a challenge that in a competitive competition might get an extra 3 or 4 matches for how awful of a challenge it was. Shakes was pretty good. He only had two saves to make, but the first save is one that I don't think a less athletic keeper makes. And the second showed how quick off his line he is. He was quick off his line all match. He didn't have much to do, but he's probably the top '01 keeping option in what looks like a weak crop of '01 keepers. I like Martinez's game. He had the two assists in the first half, but he keeps it simple, he plays both sides of the game, he's versatile, can play a number of positions. Otasowie is raw, but there's some ability there. He needs to put on some muscle, but he has good height, decent passing technique and mobility. He didn't look like a CB though, I think he's normally a central midfielder. Sepulveda was fine, very solid defensively, looked more mobile than I previously remember. Mendoza was mediocre. Morris was mediocre. Palomino was excellent. Very craft CM. He has ideas of how to advance the ball in tight spaces, and he has excellent ball control. I don't know if he can play both sides of the game as a #8, he might be a #8/10 tweener, not good enough defensively to play as a #8, not good enough offensively to play as a #10, but there's definitely talent there, and he deserves another call up. Roberts is good. I think he has more talent than the production he shows, but he usually does pretty well as a possession based #10. Reynolds as a winger doesn't work. He needs to move full-time to CF, he's not good enough as a winger at this level. Stojanovic isn't a winger, he's a CF, but he finished his goal well. Hategan isn't a CF. I don't know what position he would play best (secondary striker?), finished his goal well. I'm not sure about how the coach set the team up in these matches. Both matches we played without defensive presence in CM. Today's CM had absolutely no defensive presence, none of them play any defense. Friday's game had more defensive presence, but I still think that lineup could've used a #6. I also don't understand his choices of who plays where in attack. Konrad isn't a striker, Reynolds isn't a winger, Stojanovic isn't a winger, Hategan isn't a CF. Against a better team, these decisions could've resulted in losses. The subs were all rather pedestrian. The game had lost its rhythm. Llanez did what he does well, dribble inside and shoot, assist from Booth. Otherwise, not much from the subs. Konrad didn't do much, although he's not a CF. Duke showcased decent dribbling. Hawkins was mediocre. None of them were that good though, but they weren't the only players in the second half who didn't play that well.
Next 23 call up IMO. GK: Shakes, Defreitas-Hansen, Ochoa DF: Hoffman, McDonald, Xuxuh, Martinez, Araujo, Akanyirige, Sepulveda, Toledo MF: Booth, Otasowie, Pellegrino, Duke, Palomino, Roberts, de la Fuente, Llanez, Picazo FW: Stojanovic, Reynolds, J. Butler
Just saw a replay of it. My god that was horrendous. I kind of respect Otasowie's restraint in not trying to break the Costa Rican player's face after that.
The streaming service was terrible. How can US Soccer not have at least as good a stream as CONCACAF? There is zero on the USS website about the game. Weirdly, almost nothing in the news about the Sunday game, unlike the Friday game. Hard to watch when I couldn't find out who the players were or anything. Betting sites in Europe had more on the game then USS or any American source I found. Zero crowd or the camera was facing the wrong way. I really think SUM does a terrible job with these games and youth tournaments.
They usually don't show the games. This was way better than it is most of the time. Sometimes they don't even announce the camps.
I'm old enough to remember when you had to listen to MNT away qualifiers on pirated Jamaican radio streams, uphill both ways. With that said, the stream did suck, and I stopped watching because of it.