PBP: 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup: USA vs. Colombia, 6/10 3:30 AM EST

I'm not so sure. Colombia wasn't bothered by individual play. Their defense had a harder time against good passing, close formations. We just didn't maximize that aspect of our game.

 

Well boys, going to get some shut eye. See you in a few hours for the USA vs. Germ game.

 

Yeah, the injuries at forward are a big blow. Unfortunately, with Novakovich unavailable and Yomba also injured, I'm not sure there are any other players in the pool that Tab could have brought at forward who are good enough to help. Spencer is unfortunately too slow imo and would only have been useful on set pieces. Thompson hasn't done much to help the team, but I'm not sure there's anyone who would have been better.

 

Steffen played well when called upon, but Colombia failed to test him much. Apart from the PK, they only put 2 of 23 shots on frame, and I don't think either of those was a difficult save. They don't have a Rubin.

MLS kids haven't been across-the-board awful. Faint praise, I know.

 

uh Matt has been great

 

Haven't seen enough of either really (esp Donovan). I thought Delgado's play was at least less noticeably poor tonight, taking into account a few passes sprayed out of play and dangerous turnovers. I would be cautious to throw Donovan into that spot with ~15 minutes played in NZ.

 

We can't afford to play a 3-5-2 at this stage of the tournament.

 

FIFA match tracker shows Acosta, Arriola, Allen with yellow cards. That was the 2nd on Allen. 1st on Arriola.

 

Can we afford to play Moore at RB? (Honest question)

 

Right about now I wish we hadnt taken a 7TH defender and had instead taken another attacker. We seem to always take too many defenders on every tournament roster, and it bites us in the butt each time.

 

http://www.espnfc.us/gamecast/420908/gamecast.html

 

Then Payne is available and we dont need Moore. Praise the Lord and ignore my previous statement

 

I think it's pretty clear that Delgado at d-mid is the system and is not going to change. In the last few minutes of the match we got one or two indications of why Acosta has been starting over Requejo at left back; Requejo looked a bit slow defending one-on-one, but maybe he'll do better as a starter. Before the tournament I thought we needed Acosta at d-mid, but I think how Requejo performs against Serbia will basically tell us if Tab made the right decision by playing Acosta at left back and Delgado at d-mid.

 

moore shoulve been left off

 

watch him move Payne over to LB

 

If Ramos was going to do that, presumably he would have subbed Moore into the game tonight instead of Requejo, and moved Payne over. At least, let's hope. Even if Requejo isn't that good, it's hard to imagine the JRJ + Payne is worse than Moore + Payne (out of position).

 

The Serbia game is a 12:30am ET kickoff on Sat night / Sun morning.

 

SOnora starts for allen then or TT will.

 

Saturday night for some of us.

 

Depends on what kind of threat Serbia carries forward from right midfield. Hopefully,they're mediocre there to make for an apples to oranges comparison.

 

Defense was great. Delgado had a few good moments but his turnovers were pretty bad. He also was outmuscled and doesn't seem like a very good dmid. Payne, CCV and Miazga were awesome. Zelalem was mostly good. It was good to see him work hard on defense. I wish Canouse was never injured. Delgado out for Canouse and this is a different team.

 

Oh man Ukraine is choking hard on penalties

 

I know this was stated before, but I don't get the subs.

Allen was just not very good. Arriola had a few bead scratchers, but he's a fighter. No way in hell I take him out when I'm defending a 1 goal lead and leave Allen on the field.

What exactly was Allen supposed to provide? Not just at the end. But the entire match. Best I could tell, he was instructed to waste good opportunities while also making sure he provided little to no effective defensive support.

 

We ended up with an extra defender when Donovan replaced Canouse before the tournament. Again it might be an issue of a lack of good options, but there just doesn't seem to be a need for both EPB and Donovan.

 

The keeper has been amazing. Ukraine took low risk PKs but they got them all on frame. Thanks Senegal! It must burn the hell out of Ukraine team to lose to an African team, let alone lose in PKs.