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

One thing I thought the ref got right was the early second-half yellow for Tello. Just before the announcers mentioned that he'd been fouling all over the place in the first half, I was thinking the same thing and wondered whether the ref would remember that so early in the new half. (Sometimes, halftime seems to brush away a few of those calls.) Sure enough, out came the card. They got two in the first 10 minutes, which probably helped open things up a bit for us.

 

Colombia's midfield was weak after they started subbing in all those forwards. I know he was acting out of desperation but stupid move by Colombia's coach.

 

No, you're not crazy. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised is somebody came in with a loan opportunity for him in the Championship. I think he is going to be a very, very, very good player.

 

And 17 years of age.

 

Looks like a concussion.

Brian Sciaretta @BrianSciaretta
I'm being told Bradford Jamieson has a concussion & a very sore neck. Thoughts are with him #U20WC​

 

How did Zelalem play? I only saw the last 20 mins or so where I saw him make 1 or 2 real nice passes to Jordan Allen, who then wasted them in a 1 on 1 move versus his opponent.

 

Delgado and Allen were just killing our midfield, particularly against these quicker and bigger opponents. Yeesh.

But man, our D did well!

 

Then Ramos should have brought another DM rather than a CB when Canouse got injured.

 

Both CCV, Zelalem and EPB are eligible for the next U-20 cycle. The first two are already standouts. Can't imagine next cycle.

 

I agree, but i think tab just played it safe... Especially with last cycle and Javan Torre.......

 

He had a few minutes in the last Ukraine game too.

 

Matt Miazga and Cameron Carter Vickers have played 8 games and 720 minutes together during the World Cup and Qualifying. The US has only conceded 3 goals in that time, only two being in the run of play which influded an improbable Guatemalan goal off of a volley. And these last 3 games they've done it without a D-mid.

U 20 World Cup:
Colombia: 90 minutes - 0 goals against
New Zeland: 90 minutes - 0 goals against
Myanmar: 90 minutes - 1 goal against

U-20 World Cup Qualifying
El Salvador: 90 minutes - 0 goals against
Trinidad and Tobago: 90 minutes - 0 goals against
Jamaica: 90 minutes - 0 goals against
Panama: 90 minutes - 1 goal against
Guatemala: 90 minutes - 1 goal against

If that's not impressive than I don't know what is

 

No one? Naw. Plenty of people recognize that advancement while maintaining rest and health is more important than qualifying position. Others simply refuse to accept that and continue to be wrong.

 

This is a weak cycle for the whole of South America. Noted that in their qualifiers for this WC.

Colombia only beat a terrible Chile, a team with basically no defense. And a very young, very fragile Venezuelan team. In the WC, the only team they beat is Qatar. By one goal. So, I expected the win. They play fine, but can't finish their chances. What's the point of taking control of a game, if you're completely impotent in front of goal?

The Serbs are going to be a very different test. This U20, UEFA has the best teams, and Serbia is only third to Germany and Portugal in that region. The only other team above them is Brazil. So, unless they use poor tactics, it's going to be very, very hard to beat them.

The physical is not just size and pushing people off the ball. It's also speed and stamina. Our team can run the same for 90 minutes. The Colombians couldn't, and needed to stop for long stretches to recover. At those points, we overwhelmed them. For all the possession statistics and defending we did, we had the best chances.

Serbia, on the other hand, is a team that can keep running the full 90. Hope playing 120 takes its toll, but I doubt it.

 

The GC would be a step too far considering the competition there in my opinion.

The U23 team is certainly a possibility, however that's a fairly deep crew as well (Brooks, Zimmerman, O'Neill, Miazga, etc. etc.) The U23 has already called him up for a camp, so I don't know why he wouldn't get continued work with that group.

He's shockingly good for somebody so young. I mean, if we keep him with the U20s for the next cycle..................he'll absolutely dominate.

 

Ya think? To keep another CB and not a dedicated DM was a juvenile coaching move. Particularly since Ramos was set on playing Acosta at LB. Now we have no left back and really no DM.

 

Irritation is exactly the word for it. Nothing more.

 

Landon Donovan yes, Conor Donovan absolutely no. He's not even a good CB and wouldn't be good playing out of position at DM since he's not one.

 

I guess the question is "Which dedicated DM in our pool would/should we have called up when Canouse went down?"

It's actually not a position of strength for us this cycle. Ethan Sonis is just another version of Delgado.

I personally like Jake Rozhansky, but it had been a while since the staff had called him up. We can throw some names out there like Luis Felipe I guess, but really nobody that stands out as the "next man up" when Canouse went down.

We have a guy on the roster who played the defensive mid role for most of the cycle, and plays it with his club team. That's Acosta. So why didn't we just play Acosta at CM and Requejo at LB? I don't really get it.

The Donovan callup was just lazy. Maybe Ramos had some concerns about having two youngsters (the two youngest members of the squad I think) on the team as CBs. But we all knew that Donovan wasn't actually going to play in the tournament. Palmer-Brown is a backup with this team, and he's pretty darn talented.

 

Columbia was bigger, stronger, faster, and more physical.

 

D-mid is just consistently a problem position for our U-17 and U-20 national teams. Players we have played there in the last few cycles are either weak physically, don't have the skill, or don't know how to play the position, or more than one of these problems at once. Wil Trapp from last cycle is a much better player than Delgado, but still struggled to deal with the physicality of the opponents we faced in 2013. And even so our YNTs consistently play with a sole d-mid. Using a diamond for this WC, I think there have been positives and negatives. It has helped our attacking players, but also puts a lot of pressure on Delgado, our weakest starter, and on our backline.

 

Fixed your post.

 

My post didn't need "fixing." They dominated the game physically. Miazga's height doesn't make up for the dearth everywhere else. We were outmanned on set pieces because they were just bigger and more athletic.

 

The way BJIV went down, I thought for sure it was a dislocated shoulder or broken wrist. Hearing that it might be a concussion is really surprising, but could be good news if it's minor.

As an RSL fan, I've been really disappointed in Jordan Allen. We've all been hoping this would be a breakthrough tournament for him, but he has looked out of his depth. He played a very nice through ball to Zelalem (which should have ended better than it did), but otherwise just dribbled in to traffic and got muscled off the ball the rest of the match. Sad.