.S. YOUTH NATIONAL TEAMS RETURN TO ACTION WITH FALL TRAINING CAMPS FOR U-17 AND U-20 USWNT

We have more cards than goals at the end of the game.

 

The most boring U20 game ever...lol

 

Hmm. The other team has an injured player who is off the field. They need time to get checked out and recover. Is that the time to make a sub? I would not expect a US opponent to do that in a WC anyway.

Announcer calling this a moral victory for Ghana. Goal difference could easily matter.

 

Then you did not watch yesterday's fiascos. Only one match yesterday was any good and that was Australia vs Costa Rica where there actually was attacking and defense being played.

 

It really does seem like it is one the first times these players have competed in a game against someone that is their equal in speed, quickness, strength.

 

The suffering is over...Ghana is happy with 3-0...Hopefully the next game is better.

 

That may actually, mostly, be the case for the US. CONCACAF, except for Canada and the US, still has little in the way of good speed on conditioning.

However many/most teams out of Africa are at least the US's equal in overall speed but they do seem to run out of energy pretty easily. A lot like many teams out of South America.

 

Just watched Nigeria beat France after a 1-hour storm delay and was amazed at how much better the pitch in Costa Rica handled a downpour compared to their neighbors in Honduras for the men's U20 WC qualifying.

The U20 men's tourney had 2 horrible pitches that got worse and worse over about 3 days of tropical storms. They eventually switched stadiums and had fields that didn't damper the outcome of the matches.

A huge tournament played on horrible muddy pitches (and then torn up pitches after it dries) really puts teams at a massive disadvantage.

 

kinda cuz Moultri’s only 16, yet seemed to be the ‘go to-playmaker’ of the team. Felt that she looked good enough in that venture(as AM), but maybe an tad slow? She sure flubbed her shots, but made some very accurate passes. Shaw & Thompson(goal scorer) were pair of 17 year olds.

Overall, US played with a lot of variety(technical/physical/athletic) but possibly the youth might come back to haunt them. Or as I remember the last time we won the tournament(2012) the commentators kept mentioning ‘we were the oldest squad’ in the tourney.

Missing from this squad; Lexi Missimo(Top Draw’s 2021 top college pick as well voted as 2-3 best youth player in the world listed by an sporting co.

as well as possibly rookie of the year/NWSL playoffs MVP Trinity Rodman, who just turned 20 this last Feb(dunno what the cutoff age is, but could of been eligible)

third group game vs Japan should be our baptism of fire(as Asian teams have made u20 an art form for winning more recently)

 

FIFA U-20 Day 2 results from Thursday:
USA 3
Ghana 0

Japan 1
Orange 0

Nigeria 1
France 0

The Good Korea 2
Ohhh Canada 0

Take a gander at the 10-day forecast for San Jose, CR. Another site shows a 6-hour mid-day period when there is a > 90% chance of precipitation every day for the next 5-6 days. Jeez Louise. Hope those US fans brought their rain gear.

​

Matches Saturday:



USA plays Sunday v. the Orange 7 PM ET on FS1.

 

How so? There are a couple of professionals on the team and other players who are being touted as the best we have seen in a long long time. Why would you lower expectations?

 

Just seems like there were too many poor touches and passes, and too many times a player lacked vision or forced something naively. They have skill, but seemed to be relying too much on expecting to be faster or quicker than their opponent. The team also seemed to lack the urgency to press for a fourth goal even when they were up a player. Those kind of observations I think are more consistent with younger players with less experience playing at higher levels.

I was ready to assume that I was just expecting too much, but the alternative is that the team/players are not performing at the level they should -- despite their reputation.

But it is also possible that first game jitters explain a fair bit of this, so we will see how the next two games against difficult opponents go.

 

If a player has played for the UWNT are they eligible to play on these youth teams?

Birthday cutoff date for this tournament is Jan 1st, 2002.

Five Things To Know About The 2022 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup (ussoccer.com)

"The USA roster is composed of 18 players currently in college or enrolling this fall, one youth club player and two professional players, the most professionals ever for a U.S. team at a FIFA youth Women’s World Cup. Players born on or after Jan. 1, 2002, are age-eligible for the World Cup, and the USA roster features eight players born in 2002, eight born in 2003, four born in 2004 and one in 2005."

 

Yes. However, the question would be why?

 

This is a really good debate that generally comes down to whether youth tournaments are viewed as developmental opportunities or an end unto themselves. Both positions are reasonable in my view. So I can respect an age-eligible player that passes up a youth WC if he or she is already with the full team, but I can also respect a player that wants to try and win a WC trophy with his or her peers. I would say that each such player should make the decision, though, and be invited by the fed to participate if they would otherwise have made the squad.

 

then us soccer should be sued for malpractice, no?

don't they always play against quicker, faster, stronger boys'/men's teams in prep?

...and didn't they play against FRANCE?

and the NETHERLANDS?

AWAY?

in prep.

as others have suggested, "nerves" produce greater performance swings in youth teams than in their adult counterparts.

germany did not look themselves against colombia.

states may do even worse against the other, stronger teams in their group, but not likely because they haven't played against someone that is their equal in speed, quickness and strength.

 

They also struggled against New Zealand before pulling away late for a 3-0 win.

 

I suggested nerves could be an explanation in my post.

But the range of possible explanations doesn’t change that they made more physical and mental errors than I would have expected. And one set of those errors looked to me to try dribbles, touches, angles and passes that would only have worked against an opponent that was not as quick or fast. Either I am mistaken, or else the players aren’t used to playing against such opponents, or else the players made some questionable decisions (which could be due to nerves or not).

Are you saying they looked good to you? Are you saying they didn’t look so good, but it was nerves and not player ability or coaching? Are you saying whatever the reason on the field for less-than-stellar play, nerves, tactics, player ability, whatever, it’s not the fault of the fed because they played the right friendlies?

I’m not trying to blame anyone for anything. They are who they are as a team and I’ll cheer for them. But I was still surprised at the level of play sometimes.

I am sure they will look much better against the Dutch.

 

Germany’s didn’t bother bringing Jule Brand(who I preference as the best 19 year old in the world) nor an 6 ft FB named Carolyn Kuver, and then their ultra tough DM Lena Oberdorf, was just 22 days too old to make the cut off age for this tourney So their tourney squad might not be so good, but overall they got an incredible strong youth program

 

Goal for Netherlands. They seem to have a very calm, intentional style of play that looks to be unsettling the usual attacking prowess of the US

 

The US has played this match like a bunch of untrained 12 year olds. They lost 4-0 and it was not that close.
Even after the Dutch went down to 10 players they still had better play than the US.

 

The final score was 3-0, not 4-0.