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

That last Malta corner kick formation looked like Hickory running the picket fence.

 

Oregel with the assist.

 

We were excellent in that half. I don’t think Malta has been that bad. I expected them to be awful. They clearly aren’t at our level, but are putting up a fight.

 

Tristan Viviani (2004 LB) is playing for Malta

 

Yeah, the scoreline isn't out of whack. I didn't see us miss many clear-cut chances, and their GK made some decent plays. We've had most of the ball.

 

Esmir gets the second goal for the U.S. around 56 minutes. Didn't see it.

 

2nd goal finally comes. USA doing a lot of counter-pressing when they lose the ball, and Malta is obliging by giving up possession easily. USA has not been clean enough in possession. Lots of kids not on the same page, or trying to do too much.

 

Third goal around the hour mark from ... Neri, I think. Missed that one too.

 

Long spell of possession for the USA ends in a great curling strike from 25 yards for the 3rd. Gréât play there.

 

Nice volley off a rebounding ball in the box.

 

17. Is that Neri? I could not make out the name from the PA system.

 

Fourth goal around 67 minutes, Neri again.

 

Another goal for Nero in the 68th. Great first touch off a corner, then fired home from a tight angle.

 

Neri scores again off a corner that he pulls down, spins and finishes.

Not a goal you're going to see a lot at higher levels.

We're better, but the interplay and team play we're going to need against better opponents has been sporadic and aside from the first goal, not a ton of chances. Our goals have mostly been some nice individual execution in a crowded box.

 

4th goal, Neri with his 2nd or 3rd? This kid is a player.

 

Jack P. and Neri out, Wolff and Zambrano in.

 

Malta? Why is the USA playing a minnow like that in a tournament?

 

They aren’t that bad. I expected a lot worse. They actually have an American player on their team who could very easily fit into the US U-19 group quality-wise.

 

I disagree. I feel the 2nd half has been substantially better, and considering these players are still getting used to playing together, it has been an assured performance.

 

I did too. I expected a team without basic skill. They at least had that and could string some passes together with some skill. We were constantly pressing them and despite the skill to string 5 passes together they couldn't consistently string 6 or 7. We were constantly stealing the ball with a lot of pressure. Gone are the days of sitting back and letting inferior teams pass around without effect. Don't want to evaluate too much long term vs Malta but here are some short insights about this game.
Best ball skills, Esmir and Oregel. Esmir at times seemed to want to be a street baller and continually meg and juke the entire Malta team. The thing he was very successful with his skill but ball hogged too much with open players and passes.
I think 19 was Oregel in MF, really nice close control and skill reminds me alot of Avarado. Neri is a rich man's Zambrano..he just know how to score goals. MLS Next struggles in teaching goal scoring as a head down get to it art. but Neri has it. Knows those little touches to set feet and fire on goal. I think Zambrano has a bit of it too. CBs Williams and Henry were mirror images of each other. Both tall very athletic CBs with solid ball skills but when it comes down to it they both just give the ball away too easily and too much. Wynder on the other hand has a game to just go further. No definite conclusions but Williams and Henry seem to will be Pros but Josh W, will be National Team material. Just so smooth, confident on the ball and can pass into tight crevices. RBW played better at RB in 1st half than LB in 2nd half. He may be a CB in long run because he's pretty big but surprised me how solid he was, despite thinking he's really not a RB/LB in the long run.

 

I wasn't able to see the game but I wonder if at this late date any of the U19s could make a push into the U20s?

 

I'm no expert, but this U20 roster is absolutely stacked. Today probably wasn't a fair evaluation for the U19 roster given less play together ... but given how good the U20s there, there's not a ton of opportunity.

But if so ... maybe CF, where we don't have trouble scoring but don't have a traditional CF. So Neri, for example.

Or CB, where the U20s have players but aren't 2 necessarily 4-5 deep? Fullbacks weren't deep but I didn't see a ton here -- RBW is good but I don't see him as a fullback; Freeman maybe if he makes a leap?

The midfield and wingers weren't super impressive today to me, and there's a ton of talent there. GK seems kinda stacked for the U20s.

But players not released, injuries could create holes as well.

 

Of the 2005-born players on this U-19 team, I think Wynder and Neri have a shot.

In the current U-20 pool you have Tsakiris and Vargas (when he's healthy, and he hasn't been healthy since June).

I am not sure you'll see any other 2005-born players in the mix for this 2023 U-20 cycle. The rest will have to wait until the start of the 2025 U-20 cycle in the fall of next year.

 

We ended up winning 5-0. I thought that was a great performance. You can say it doesn't count because it was against Malta, but Malta weren't that bad. They were no worse than probably the equivalent age group for Guatemala, Trinidad, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, those level teams. We completely dominated. Could've been more than 5-0. Very complete performance. No one played poorly. One of the better USYNT performances you'll see.

It's hard to pick who was the best. I would probably say Bajraktarevic. He can absolutely over-complicate plays, and try to do too much. He ruins some attacks that way, but he can also make defenders look silly, he can play great passes, can shoot. He scored a goal in this game. Nearly had another few goals/assists. He wasn't dipping in and out of the play either. He was consistently making plays. I thought he was excellent.

I thought Freeman was excellent. It's easy to say he was great because he had no defending to do and he's always great when going forward, but some of the things he did offensively are not easy to do. On the Bajraktarevic goal, he made a great run forward and put in a cross that eventually was cleared to Bajraktarevic who put it home. He had another sequence that I think shows just about everything he does well between his sheer physical profile to completely body a player off the ball easily, his speed to track down the ball, his flair and body control to dance on the ball and manipulate it like that at 6'3, and then his passing vision to play a nice pass. Then later on he scored a nice goal with a run forward, controlled a tough ball off his head, and brought it down before he finished well.

Baker-Whiting played RB in the first half and then LB in the second half. I like his game as a RB. It suits him better. He's too robotic with his actions to be a midfielder. His touch is too loose and he doesn't always weight passes correctly for a midfielder. At RB (or LB), he can use his energy, his 1v1 defensive skills, his above-average athletic profile, and then enough technique, passing, soccer IQ. He scored a nice goal in this game. I think at RB he's at minimum on the Halliday track, and if it goes very well it's a Scally track.

Oregel at RCM played well. Probably the best I've seen him play. He had a nice assist to Baker-Whiting. He's usually not involved enough in the games I see of him with Chicago. Maybe they just don't play good enough football to showcase his ability, but you saw the technique, soccer IQ, vision in this game. Hopefully we see more of this, but it was only 45 minutes. Same with Henry. Great half, but unfortunately only played 45 minutes. Won the ball very well, and his passing was much more accurate than it usually is.

Neri missed a lot of chances in the first half, but scored two very nice goals in the second half off of two situations where you wouldn't think he had a great goal-scoring chances. Can be funny like that sometimes. I thought Loyola had some nice moments off the bench, including a lofted assist to Freeman. Cremaschi also did. Cremaschi started very well in the second half, but took a knock midway through, and seemed to not be as active after that. Williams at LCB had a few shaky moments early on, but did very little wrong after that. Wynder subbed in for the second half, and was quiet, although not bad. Norris played LB the first half, and was pretty quiet, but not bad. Panayotou and Booth both brought energy. I thought Booth was being used of position. He's not really a winger.

Ruszel did his job as the 6. First time I've seen him play. Cleaned up plays. Made the correct passing decisions. Looked to be a basic, but effective, defensive midfielder. Both goalies (Carrera and Ochoa) didn't do anything wrong, but also had nothing to do. Zambrano, Osundina, Wolff, Moyado were also subbed in during the second half, but didn't have much of an impact. Not that many minutes for any of them, to be fair.

 

I'm no professional scout but have been involved in youth athletic talent evaluation for over 30 years and the players I liked best in this game were Esmir, Oregel, Neri, Wynder with HM for RBW for showing something despite obviously playing out of position