Review: 2015 U-20 World Cup: Tournament Takeaways

*Sigh*

So last night Tommy Thompson has to take a PK for the Earthquakes after playing all game in the Open Cup.

http://www.tubechop.com/watch/6247661


Oh Tab........

 

another one to watch: grant lillard, cb, indiana. 6'4 lefty. unanimous b1g foy last season. has participated in one u20 national team camp. dangerous header on set pieces and a solid distributor. so simlar to jab, but not as athletic.

 

Actually, I thought subbing Sonora for TT ended up being a brilliant move. It completely opened up the midfield and ignited a number of scoring chances. But yes, the penalties, including Sonora's, were sorely missing confidence. And TT has boatloads of confidences. Like this kid very much.

 

I didn't think Acosta inspired a lot of confidence back there either, especially in his first game. I'd think Requejo is better in that game if he had been able to play throughout the tournament. We were able to shut out the best team we played and the only game where we could have possibly had a worse result is the Colombia game (and only saying that because I don't remember it). If we were able to replay that game and insert Acosta, I'd think him replacing Delgado would have a bigger impact.

 

That's how you do it. No stupid pitter patter "stewie" feet, no chip the keeper like you're Zidane or Pirlo, no right down the middle, just pick a corner and put it there with some good pace. Watching the WWC they've repeatedly shown some of the penalties from the final in '99 and man, we went 5/5, and the one's they show are flawless, then you watch the U-20's, and it seems like only 3 or 4 out of 9 were convincing. It was god awful. I wonder how much much of it had to do with fatigue. No Tall, no Jamieson, no Thompson (subbed off), I think he was the only sub unless I'm forgetting anyone. The penalties were just so awful, it's difficult to imagine it wasn't equal parts nerve and fatigue. Think that game is a win for us if Tall and Jamieson don't go down and if Mr. N was there from Reading, man? A lot of if's, much like '07 and '03.

 

TBH, I wasn't so upset about TT getting subbed out because I worried that he was going to blow his PK (I had never seen him take one before) and then I'd have a hard time seeing him getting skewered to no end here :--). So he made one last night and looked good on it. You never know though. Donovan was a good PK taker but skied one in the MLS finals and cost LA a championship (or contributed to losing it at least).

 

These players are always difficult to project. Somewhere there is a kid who is upset about being ignored by the American soccer establishment that will use this rejection as motivation and have a tremendous impact on the national team following the Dempsey path.

Diego Costa was ignored by the Brazilian professional teams and left his youth team in for Braga in Portugal at age 18. The system there completely missed on him and it may have cost the national team his services. Often the players will never forget these snubs and it can even make them stronger IMO. Fun fact about Diego Costa, he had only played street soccer and had never been coached by anyone until he was 15!

This is why I hesitate to jump on board when people want to bash talent identification in the US including that of Tab Ramos. It can be very difficult and even the best at it are often wrong.

Dortmund is known as one of the best places for young talent to incubate in Europe and they told a young Marco Reus that he was too small and cut him from their youth team, which came full circle when they had to buy him back from Monchengladbach for €17 million.

Hopefully this class has a lot of players come good. Based on history there are many that won't, but that's nothing to be ashamed of as long as the best can contribute in pushing the Nats to a higher level.

 

Clearly one place the US needs to continue developing is our education system...

 

A few others I would throw out there. Arun Basuljevic, Jake Rozhansky, Corey Baird, and Michael Amick.

 

My personal feeling is that I like Basuljevic and Rozhansky and think Baird and Amick are overhyped.

 

He can play any position at that level. Its U18 DA for crying out loud. Play him at forward.

 

I still think I remember him playing some Dmid for US at Dallas Cup a couple of years ago. He was very aggressive there. I was taught to rethink players I thought were too aggressive after watching super aggressive Oguchi Onyewu play right back for the U17's years ago. Turned out he was pretty good although he was moved to CD.

 

Yes Acosta has played twin CM with Ulloa this year and FCD has allowed few goals when he has been in that spot. I do agree jeff_adams that Acosta likes to jump into plays and that makes him a more risk/reward guy at solo dmid. I believe he easily could be a stay at home dmid if called for as he played very different games at left back based on the opponent. Agree with someone else that he gets an incomplete for playing out of position and it's still my most mystifying decision by Ramos to move his former captain in qualifying at dmid to left back a spot he had barely played in years.

 

He was? Was that the game he got red carded?

 

You may be correct as that vaguely sounds right.

 

If my fading memory serves me correctly it was near halftime. He was on a yellow, he fouls someone in the attacking third, the whistle blows and to delay instead of kicking the ball a few feet away to let the defense set up (which I detest as accepted soccer practice) He launches the ball way over midfield. 2nd yellow. Dumb move.

 

Also like Rozhansky's former Bethesda-Olney teammate Chase Gasper.

 

I like him too. Just think his physical makeup makes him more of a Bocanegra like CB than an attacking LB. Nice player.