Vaclav Jezek Tournament & Slovenia Nations Cup (Sept. 2022)

Esmir Bajraktarevic is with the U-19s even though his name wasn’t on official roster release

 

He was initially called up, but the Revs decided at the last moment to release him. That’s likely why he wasn’t on the release.

 

Assuming this is why Noel Buck isn’t with a squad?

 

Is this the website that the 17 and 19’s will be streamed on?

 

I think they are keeping him because he’s more of a regular part of their first team squad. Someone mentioned to me that Bajraktarevic was likely released right when the Next Pro team was eliminated from playoff contention, and I think that makes sense.

 

Got some good news about Slovenia match video:

https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/watching-the-september-usynt-games.2122667/#post-40799527

 

FACR aka InSports TV is charging for the U17 streams: 3.99 Euro per match or 6.99 Euro for a team pass, live and on-demand.

 

Cruz Medina & Micah Burton, are 2 of our best players. Other players worth watching, are Edwyn Mendoza, Andre Gitau and Keyrol Figueroa.

 

FULLTIME:

🇺🇸 USA U17 0-1 Slovakia U18 🇸🇰

Not a bad performance, and when more of the U.S. starters came in, you could tell the gulf in class despite the age difference. However, just wasn't to be.#usynt pic.twitter.com/a38EEtrnJ3

— Alex Calabrese (@amcalabrese12) September 21, 2022

 

Gulf in class.... between who? The players who started the game and the "Starters" who came in as subs?

 

The U.S. didn't play poorly. They had their chances. They really struggled to handle Slovakia's physicality

 

We didn't play badly, but it was a lot of possession and very little else positive. Slovakia was more physical, created more danger, and capitalized. We lost the ball way too many times in bad areas. I think it makes sense that we're going to have a lot more possession than Slovakia because we have technically superior players 1-11, and I also think it makes sense that they would be the team that executes the game plan better, as they are a year older. Saying that, I don't think that means everything was good and carry on.

I thought the two best players for the American team were the Barcelona kids, Kochen and Gill. Kochen had probably one save to make that was difficult, and he did well getting out his leg to stop a low shot. Aside from that, he didn't have many shots to stop or much to do, but he was dependable. Thats how he plays. Very dependable. You do wonder about his upside. Nothing outrageous in his game and he's probably a little undersized, but consistent and dependable. He was the captain. The coach likes him. Expect he'll be the #1 GK all cycle.

Gill was playing RB. Given he was playing out of position and he was probably our best field player, I think thats an accomplishment. The goal he had some slight fault, but deflected cross and he's not really a RB. Hard to blame him too much. I thought aside from that he was really consistent on both sides of the ball. Nothing spectacular, but the usual small good plays that add up to a good contribution offensively and defensively. The one player I think you can actually ask a lot of in this group from a tactical standpoint of playing out of position and giving complicated tactical instructions is Gill. You can tell that he's schooled at La Masia by the way he plays. He doesn't do anything crazy impressive with his soccer IQ, but you can tell it's good because he's dependable, adaptable, doesn't make many errors, and is relatively consistent.

Diaz at RCB was okay. Had his moments with his passing, but it's inconsistent. Hadn't seen that much of him before today. I'd say his passing is probably average. He's very skinny. Someone was pointing this out to me recently. I didn't realize how thin he is. He looks to have slightly above-average height for CB, but he's going to need to put on significant weight to play the position as he gets older. Pretty mobile. Defensively, he's a U-17 so it's not perfect, but pretty good read of the game and positioning. Hawkins, very un-Hawkins type of game. Brought the ball out from the back. Was trying adventurous passes. I would say it was an up and down game in that respect. Some of it worked and other parts didn't. Good that he's trying to play more risky. I hope he continues to try to play that way, but he'll need to learn to find a balance. Wasn't bad, but an up and down performance.

Verhoeven at LB was also up and down. Had his moments on both sides of the ball. I think he's a good player with a role with his group, but I don't know that we should be penciling him in as the starting LB. What he struggled with came a lot from playing on the wrong side of the field. He's a natural right-footed player. He got the angles wrong defensively a few too many times and there were times that called for a left footed pass or cross where he'd either use his right and it'd be less effective because it was an angle for a left-footed pass or he'd use his left and it'd be less effective because his left foot isn't as good.

Shaul, I thought he was good. Another player that was up and down, but I thought he just got no help. The double 8's are not defensive players. They left him out to dry all game. He was doing the job of multiple players defensively. He realized it and had to gamble a lot defensively. Tough task. Can't blame him much the times he gambled and it didn't work. When they subbed on a real true midfielder in the second half to play alongside him, it elevated his play because he wasn't given an impossible task defensively. In the build up, he was probably our best, aside from Gill.

Rudisill added very little on either side of the ball. Not a particularly good performance. Heard had his moments offensively, but he's just not a player suited for this type of double 8 role. He's a one way winger right now that has some offensive flashes, but he blends into games. There's potential and some of what he does is helpful to the team, but put him out wide. Give him more space. Don't ask him to play down the spine of the team. He's not yet capable of being effective in that role, and even if he ever is, I think it's as a true 10, not a double 8.

Gitau, he danced on the ball a bunch of times with fancy fakes and ball manipulation, but no end product. Wasn't one of our worst players, but not very effective. Soto worked hard and a few times put himself into good goal-scoring positions, but not particularly effective. I personally think it's too much of an ask of him to be playing up with this group. I don't view him quite at that level among 07's to be capable of it. Vazquez was a lot like Rudisill. Very little impact. Not a particularly good performance.

Of the subs, Jura did about an average job. He's another right-footed player that isn't a real LB. He's less adventurous offensively than Verhoeven. Passing is slightly above-average. Doesn't make too many errors. Don't know if he has high level pro upside, but LB is probably not going to do him just. The other subs were Hall, Romero, Medina, Soma, Burton, Figueroa. Very little impact from most of them and a lot of that was because they didn't have many minutes on the pitch. Of the few things I noticed, they got to cut out this idea that Hall is a CB. He can't be more than 5'8 or 5'9. Move him to DM or RB. He's not a CB. Figueroa was very over-exuberant. He was flying into challenges. He injured the Slovakian goalie. Might've injured him another time, although it looked like Soma was also in the vicinity. Committed numerous fouls.

The last thing I want to say is I'm starting to hate how all US teams at all levels use this 4-3-3 double 8 formation. It does not work at youth level because the coaches pick these small one way attacking midfielders for the 8 spots that play zero defense. It leaves the 6 doing an impossible job. If that player is Ngolo Kante or Fabinho or someone like that, maybe it can work. Even if it was Tyler Adams, it has some chance of working. When it's at youth level and it's players like Shaul, Leyva, Edelman, Pukstas, you are hanging these kids out to dry. The USMNT has McKennie and Musah usually in those 8 spots. Both those guys play defense, are nominal 8's (in just about any formation) and are very athletic.

When it's Heard, Rudisill, Medina, Burton, Romero, Vazquez types in those spots, what do you expect when you leave huge gaps in transition defensively? We aren't prime Barcelona or Ajax. Play something simpler with players that suit each role.

 

Undersized team? Don't know all the players though.

 

Was this the first real game together of this U17 group? I remember how bad the U20s were in the Revelations Cup last year, but they clearly got it together.

Also, I was under the impression that Gill has played a LOT of outside at Barca the last 9-12 months.

 

I think they are turning him into a FB.

 

Are the Slovakian players older?

 

05’s. All other teams seem to be 05’s.

 

Anyone have a lineup for this u-19 game?

 

I'm not really watching, it's on in the background, but apparently RBW scored (according to the PA guy) and we're up 1-0 about 17 minutes in.

 

This is not gonna be real helpful, but at about 28 minutes, we had a nice combination in the box that led to a guy getting loose to the GK's left, and he played a ball across the goal that looked like a pass. His teammate was half a step, maybe a step, behind what would've been an easy second goal.

This is probably an oversimplification not helped by the fact that I'm not watching too closely but if you watched the U20s, this group seems to be playing kind of a similar game in terms of being fairly direct, playing quickly and on the ground, looking to get a lot of guys forward.

Games will ebb and flow but Malta looks pretty overmatched so far. Obviously you want to see this game plan tested against a stronger opponent.

 

Este es el XI inicial del #USMNT Sub-19 que ha dispuesto el entrenador en jefe Marko Mitrovic. #USYNT

Antonio Carrera (GK)
Baker-Whiting
Thomas Williams
Kobi Henry (C)
Nolan Norris
Sergio Oregel
Zack Booth
Marcel Ruszel
Jack Panayotou
Esmir Bajraktarevic
Rodrigo Neri

— Jaime Ojeda (@jaimeor96) September 21, 2022

 

Malta doesn't have much of an attack, but our players are still feeling each other out, trying to connect on runs, etc.

Most of the attack has been through RBW on the right. We're not trying much on the left, and when we do, the LB has struggled.

The team is pretty ... relaxed? Casual? There's a lot of feeling out and not a ton of defensive intensity. Very vanilla, repetitive play, which is to be expected from a youth team that hasn't played much.

Not a ton of dynamic play yet, either as a team or indiviudally.

LCB is a load, though.

 

US has been very comfortable 40 minutes in. Should be 2-0 up by now.

 

Whoever 9 is -- who hasn't been great -- had a nice nutmeg and move probably should have drawn a pen.

1-0 at half. Safely leading but we aren't very polished.