https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...out-the-2020-concacaf-womens-u20-championship The U.S. Under-20 Women’s National Team will kick off its quest to qualify for the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup this weekend at the Concacaf Women’s U-20 Championship in the Dominican Republic. This year’s tournament features a new format and the competition will send just two teams to this summer’s U-20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica/Panama, one less than the usual three due to the World Cup being played in the Concacaf region and hosts Costa Rica and Panama receiving automatic berths.
I've now watched the US vs Cuba match and the first half of US vs Dominican Republic and I see a bit of a problem with the US, When they go forward they are fine, considering their youth and inexperience BUT they are too ready to just waste time with meaningless passes around the back. It seems, at times, that they are only interested in padding the possession stats. All that passing around the back does is let the other team's defense get organised. Most of the time the passes are too slow and not showing any threat so they do not even serve to unbalance the other team. The US will get away with the aimless passing because the CONCACAF opponents are so horrible but, if they face a team with skill and tactical awareness the excessive no attack passing will get them in trouble. It is very hard to switch from a near idle style to an attacking style when it is needed. I am not saying that the US will not win this little tournament and proceed to the U20 World Cup but that they are making no progression in style or tactics that they will need later by playing this slow style against teams that are so weak. They should attack all out for the entire match and try stuff just to see if it might work. I once told a team to "Go out there and make some spectacular mistakes" so they would get out of their conservative style that had been ingrained into them by a previous coach and score like they were capable of. I also told them that it was OK to make a few mistakes by taking chances. (I meant on the attack but they did not get that part of the message.) We won the game 6-2 and one player scored three goals trying to perfect her bicycle kick. Unfortunately she scored only two for us, the other was when she tried to clear on a corner kick for the other team. After that game I had to pull them back just a bit but they never reverted to the conservative style that was hurting them so much. The US U20s need to take more risks going forward and not spend so much time playing catch in the back.
Well I watched the US soundly beat up on Honduras 11-0. (it was not that close) I am pretty happy to report the US made virtually no backpasses or passes in the defense that were not totally dictated by the run of play. Of course there was no pressure at all on the US as Honduras never had more than 4 pr 5 touches total in the attacking half. I really dislike this kind of mismatch. Of course the stupid way this tournament is structured and the EXTREMELY low threshold for qualification into this mockery of a tournament pretty much assures that there will be many many mismatches of this sort. On the structure of the "tournament" it is absurd that out of all of the groups currently playing the top 3 out of four advance to the knockout rounds. I guess that since this is CONCACAF that is the only way they can produce any interest at all in a women's U20 tournament. Most of the teams playing would have problems and sometimes lose against half of the US high school teams. They would even lose to many U14 girls club teams I have seen play. In other words there are very very bad teams, like say Cuba, that will advance and play in the round of 16. CONCACAF does not have 16 good teams. In fact they barely have 8. Mostly it is more like 6 with there being some competition of spots 4, 5 and 6. But the US is clearly number 1 in this tournament and it is their's to lose. Number 2 is up for debate this year as Canada looks pretty pathetic and Jamaica, as well as a few others, seem poised to make a real challenge for the second spot. The competition of interest will be in the bracket that does not contain the US. The US will eliminate everyone they play so the other bracket is where the second qualifier will come from.
It was to be expected. Surprisingly Canada did badly. Was assuming many in their roster were U.S. trained.
From the Regulations, section 12, Format and Structure of the Competition: https://www.concacaf.com/en/under-20s-women/concacaf-womens-under-20-championship-regulations <S37> Q33 { O25: 1C.USA - St. Lucia.A2 O28: 2E.Canada - Cuba.C3 } Q34 { O26: 1E.Jamaica - Bermuda.A1 O27: 2C.Dominican Republic - El Salvador.E3 } </S37> We're in the A-C-E bracket, with 1 ticket on the line. By finishing as E2, Canada will get us in the QFs instead of the SFs (if we both advance, haha). This doesn't actually change much for Canada: they knew coming in that they would have to beat us at some point. Q34 looks intriguing. ======== <S38> Q35 { O29: 1D.Mexico - Grenada.B2 O32: 2F.Trinidad & Tobago - Puerto Rico.D3 } Q36 { O30: 1F.Haiti - Barbados.B1 O31: 2D.Guyana - Cayman Islands.3F } </S38> Similarly, the B-D-F bracket has 1 ticket. Both QFs here look interesting, and the semi isn't clearly Mexico's to lose. The numerous member feds in CONCACAF probably voted for this format because more of them get more games, and several of them will get knockout round wins.
I was not particularly surprised by Canada's fairly poor performance so far. The "style" that Canada likes to play is not well suited to the U20 level of play. They tried to get quite rough with several teams but that seemed to only serve to make them (Canada) forget how to actually attack any weaknesses that the other team had. Rough or even dirty play like virtually all Canadian teams try to play only works if you have a coach that really understands their players and players that can switch form rough to skill as required. At the U20 level very few teams or players can make that kind of transition. They may do better in later rounds but I think, depending of bracket placement, Jamaica or even Mexico are better suited to be the #2 out of CONCACAF.
Well it looks like that round of 16 is a real yawnfest. I really doubt there will be any close matches except, maybe, Dominican Republic vs El Salvador or Guyana vs Cayman Islands. There is an outside possibility that T&T vs Puerto Rico might be close but, if it is it will be because both teams are so bad. I guess that same could be said for the other two I mentioned as well. I do have to say that Haiti has surprised me so far. They actually look like a threat to all but the US. Jamaica may well be the second best team in this tournament. Unfortunatly it looks like we could meet them in the semis if I read the schedule correctly. Is CONCACAF unable to make a simple readable bracket?
Not really that many compared to the past. Wikipedia shows 9 US-college players, but it looks like at least 2 of those haven't started school yet.
Guess who spends time cruising BS threads? Here are the teams that will fight for a spot in the FIFA U20 World Cup 🔥 pic.twitter.com/KSOHnClqd2— Concacaf (@Concacaf) February 28, 2020
Not everybody uses twitter. (The leader in causing poor communication.) There was nothing on the CONCACAF site like that anywhere on the schedule and results section. In fact by 06:00 EST 03/28/2020. All they had was a day by day schedule through the final and they had not even filled in the teams from the matches on either 02/27.2020 or 02/26/2020.
FT | On to the semifinals! 🇺🇸🎆The USA records its largest-ever victory over Canada at #CU20W. One win away from qualifying for the U-20 @FIFAWWC! pic.twitter.com/CQbQBpfckh— U.S. Soccer YNT (@USYNT) March 4, 2020