I understand these kids are teenagers but come on! they played totally uninspired football and boy wonder adu was worthless! altidore finally came in and things happened. Answer me this is it the coaching that is keeping OUR national team down or talent?
hey mate what was that i thought i wa watching a sowing a sewing circle at its best! Mean while haiti and panama wer killing each other for a victory! what a joke! Things to come for us? not pleasant
yo listen we have alot of "proffesionials" on this team and this is all we can produce? something is wrong
Saw parts of this match on GolTV... I'm going to give my honest opinion, so don't take it as trolling. The kids looked mediocre. I saw clips of the last match too and they weren't really that impressive. The youngster currently at Heerenveen looked horrible and well out of it. The only player that had some nice plays and control were Adu and one of the defenders (against Haiti). The Guatemala game was bad. This time, Adu didn't look too good but still looked a cut well above the others. For all the talk of Altidore, I was surprised he wasn't starting. Some of the players seemed afraid to shoot the ball when they were inside the box. I think the team's got a pretty dodgy manager in control... the kids should have had more confidence and composure.
Right now, Adu could get his right foot cut off by a chain saw and it wouldn't affect his game at all.
Uh, it's coaching - 1/2 game coaching and 1/2 pre-game/pre-tournament planning. And it's also the USSF that keeps hiring and retaining idiots.
Coaching... I thought I was watching a Nowak-coached team. No ability to coach during the game or change tactics or style to fit your opponent. I'm not saying I know all the things you need to do against any kind of defense, but I know both of those guys are horrible at it.
You need to play faster and wider and shoot from the outside, if you can't penetrate into the box off the dribble. And you need two guys in the box contesting for crosses. The design is simple but the execution is hard ... which is why you practice it all the time. Of course, Rongen should have expected tight defenses by the CONCACRAP oppositioon and gone with a "skilled" line-up but he took athletes instead. These guys can run around the pitch all right ... just don't ask them to do anything with the ball.
IF we end up qualifying, I'd like to see Adu moved up to a forward spot. Sure he's done a good job of spraying passes around and freeing people up, but with the way Rongen has him positioned, his spot could be equally manned by Szetela or Bradley. He's playing too far back and being asked to distribute too much. I'd like to see him move up to Rogers's spot and either move Rogers to the right or have a forward line of Adu - Altidore - Smith, so Adu can actually run at people. Like I said he's manned the center-mid position very well, but his strength, and what made him so exciting to all of us, was his ability to beat defenders and either score or set up an easy goal for someone else. I'd like to see this line-up in the next game: ----------------Altidore---------------- ----Adu----------------------Smith---- --------------Villanueva--------------- -------Wallace----------Szetela------- Ward-----Sturgis-----Valentin------Kirk ----------------Seitz------------------ and when Bradley comes back I'd like to see him in there for Villanueva if he doesn't impress.
I can't figure out if the team looks rusty or just uninspired - Especially Adu - He's never looked this bad at DC United even in his worst games - Is it that he just needs better players around him to be able to show his skills? Your best players should be able to raise the play of their teammates - I haven't seen this in ANYBODY yet - Only Szetela is having a decent series and only because he's usually not under that much pressure when he collects the ball from defenders - Do we need Bradley that much? otoh - We beat Haiti 4-1 on Wednesday and totally dominated them even though we were sloppy - And Haiti took Panama to the distance on Friday night - We're still in pretty good shape for Sunday - Are any Panamanian starting players out because of accumulated Yellow cards?
all credit to Novak .... But seriously, this brings a subsequent question: Adu NOT developing a right foott during games, countless practice sessions with Peter/DCU..... not a priority/emphasis placed on this by coaches? or just Adu not pushing far enough? I heard the comments on GolTv...from both guys,. and i thought (sadly) that they were true: Guy having a nightmare of a game... JUst useless so far in the game... Anyway....
Rongen is fine. He is as good a coach as we could get for the U20s. He is Dutch-trained and has been in the US a long time. His "failures" have always been in part due to lack of critical talent on his club (see: the Revolution), even with DC United. He's a good guy. Adu has to be ACM since Szetela, Villanueva, or Wallace cannot. Bradley (re: critical talent) there would have forced Adu out to the side and coupled him with one of the previously mentioned midfielders, probably Szetela. Rogers was great vs Haiti, terrible vs Guatemala. No difference between Kirk and Beltran. Other three in back solid. Altidore (he was sick) or Smith could both start vs Panama, and that would not be bad, except that they have not played together much.
In hindsight watching the game I would think Rongen would make a switch around 30 minutes and bring in Villanueva for Zizzo or Wallace. Zizzo was useless and there was no need in this match for a ground eater like Wallace. What was needed was MORE insightfulness and agression. That means Villanueva. BTW, I will no longer go on BS analysis of matches I haven't seen yet. People claiming Adu was useless must have never played at any good level. Should he have demanded the ball more? What about the first 20 minutes where he's yelling and screaming for the ball constantly and guys keep making the same stupid safe passes. Urgency from him was there as well. Did good job to create space for himself to play in the final third often with his dribbling ability and lo! Everybody's still standing in the same spots they were when he got the damn thing!!! Only ONE guy at a time running into the attack. How the heck do you score goals with only one runner? Somebody please tell me that.
I haven't watched much of the Guatemala match, but he looked better against Haiti then he ever has for D.C. imo. What I've noticed is that when there's not alot of space, he plays like crap. This is whyhe definately should not go to the epl if he gets the chance.
Rongen might be a nice guy. But he won a title and still got fired by DC. Got fired by Chivas. I think it's legit to at least ask some questions here. I think we had superior talent on the field, but Guatemala outplayed us and should have won that game. I have to in part blame the players, but most of that falls onto the coach for not getting the most out of his guys. Maybe that bench isn't really as deep as we thought it would be, but if you have 3 games in 5 days, how do you play 10 of the same 11 guys on 1 days rest? (Kirk was the only game 1 starter not to start game 2). The entire team looked sluggish. Even in concacaf, we don't generally have technical superiority vs. a number of the teams, but we do usually have advantages when it comes to fitness, athleticism and organization. Rongen managed to give all 3 of those away in that second game. Even without Bradley, Rongen had camps before & after the holiday to round out a squad of 20 guys. He had to go into both camps with the idea that he'd need to mix squads for games 1, 2 & 3 to get a good performance in each game. The weather has been hot, 85 plus, and even if they are 18 you can't expect them to go full out for 90 minutes on 1 day of rest. Especially Szetela, who is working his way back from injury. He caught a bad break with Altidore being ill, and maybe he can start the final game. But he left Adu in for the full 90 up 4-0 vs. Haiti, and paid for it yesterday when Adu looked out of it on a squad full of heavy legs. If guys like Villanueva, Sarkodie & Arguez aren't going to play, why bring them? And Wallace looked awful yesterday. The color announcer on goltv set a record for the use of "aye yi yi" in a broadcast, after watching ball after ball go in all the wrong directions. Players are to blame, but it's the coach that's responsible. Lineup vs. Guatemala: 1-Chris Seitz; 19-Tony Beltran, 16-Julian Valentin, 5-Nathan Sturgis, 2-Tim Ward (4-Amaechi Igwe, 80); 14-Anthony Wallace, 7-Danny Szetela, 11-Freddy Adu (capt.); 15-Sal Zizzo (12-Josmer Altidore, 61), 8-Robbie Rogers, 20-Andre Akpan (17-Preston Zimmerman, 78) Subs not used: 3-Bryan Arguez, 6-Quavas Kirk, 9-Johann Smith, 10-Jonathan Villanueva, 13-Ofori Sarkodie, 18-Brian Perk Lineup vs. Haiti: 1-Chris Seitz; 6-Quavas Kirk, 16-Julian Valentin (4-Amaechi Igwe, 85), 5-Nathan Sturgis, 2-Tim Ward; 14-Anthony Wallace, 7-Danny Szetela (19-Tony Beltran, 74), 11-Freddy Adu (capt.); 15-Sal Zizzo, 8-Robbie Rogers (9-Johann Smith, 67), 20-Andre Akpan. Subs not used: 3-Bryan Arguez, 10-Jonathan Villanueva, 12-Josmer Altidore, 13-Ofori Sarkodie, 17-Preston Zimmerman, 18-Brian Perk
Wallace. You need all the skill that you can muster. You could even brough in another forward and dropped Adu deeper. But a game like that is a good indicator of why the guy erred by not bringing in Dax. He dropped his QB.