Maybe I’ve been a little fooled by what I’ve seen from the past two U-20 RB’s at this tournament with Fossey and Payne, neither of which have developed into NT level players. I’m not saying he won’t become a NT player, but I wouldn’t predict him onto the next WC roster at that position. I also think he’s further behind at Ajax than most think. That’s not a problem, if he can do well elsewhere. Some talented players on this team will make it, so you can’t say everyone will. Durkin reads the game well, but he was asked to cover way too much ground. Ramos played a tactical system that he didn’t have the players in this squad to play. There are plenty of #6’s who will get best occasionally and will have to take yellow cards. I think this idea that because Durkin loses some foot races that he can’t play is very misguided. You can be ecstatic about what you saw from Pomykal, but I’m not. If Pomykal is used like he was in this tournament and how Gonzalez uses him at FC Dallas, he’s a reduced potential player. Maybe that’s a good player to some extent, but he has among the highest potential on the roster. Relegating him to a midfield worker is doing him a disservice.
He doesn’t play all too regularly. I’ve seen him play over 50 times in the last 3-4 years. I think he’s good in 50-50 challenges. If you ask him to play this role, which no CDM could possibly play, he’s going to lose a few challenges and be beat a few times.
It won't happen because we're too busy playing Adams at RB, but I'd love to see a McKennie/Adams/Pomykal midfield with Pulisic and Weah on the wings at the senior level.
So you admit you haven’t seen him play before this tournament but want to give a hot take on how his career will play out after you saw him play a few games against a higher age group? Adams was terrible at this tournament two years ago against the age group above his.
I'm not sure that if you go deeper than 2 years back is applicable to kids of this age generally and to Durkin particularly. Besides being good with the ball he was also physically dominant on U-17 team. Not anymore.
WRT the player pool this cycle I am really pleased. Yeah we didn't advance any further than before but these knockout games can turn on luck too much to judge so harshly. In 2015, we barely put together a team and it felt like we lucked out against Colombia. In 2017, our best players were playing up a cycle which is again a bit of indictment of the cycle. However, QFs felt about right. In 2019, we have so many players and it was a disappointment to lose in the QFs. The potential of this cycle is the best I have seen. I am excited for the future with these guys.
He might not be dominant anymore because now he's playing against professionals, but he's very good physically. If its not a foot race type of 50/50, he's likely going to win it, whether its on the ground or in the air.
Another point to consider about Konrad is that at Barcelona he plays with guys that have a good tactical understanding, and he's used to players making the right runs for his passes and crosses. Like so many other players he can go in different directions. He can continue to improve and even if not making Barca's 1st team might still play for a good Euro side, or he can level off and play at an MLS or analog situation, or he can become a USL lifer or wash out of soccer completely. I'm hoping for the first scenario, but my guess right now is the 2nd.
Ramos - what impressed me most about this team was the desire to play out of the back and keep it on the ground. We rarely saw anyone just punting it out of pressure. I think that is huge going forward. They would one-touch it out of pressure. Ramos job is less tactics and more about development, so I'm happy. Because of the 22-28 year gap at the men's level, we've all got higher than usual hopes for these guys. I don't really care where each is for the next 12 months, so long as they are playing, i.e. 30+ games. Richards - everyone knows this guy is solid. Let's hope he's playing in the BLD3 this year then loaned out and playing full time in a 1st division for the 21-22 season. Dest - Ukraine game mishap overshadows how good (especially technically) he is. Really impressed. Other than first game, Dest was solid defensively too. Would not be surprised to see him playing every other game for Ajax in the winter/spring. Keita - Has only played 2 professional games, so let's not get carried away. Gloster - playing up and looked good. That alone merits something. Stay in the BDL2 and play every week please. Mendez - Great, great left foot, nice vision too, but...work rate and defense for a MF were clearly weaknesses, and I don't think a MF can have those two weaknesses. Improving work rate may help defense, but he's got to do that. Totally evident on the 1st Ecuador goal. Durkin - Like Mendez, has to play better defense for a MF. Totally evident on the 1st Ecuador goal. Pomykal - Time to up his game in MLS to ensure a move to Europe to improve his game even more. But don't just sign a contract and end up on a bench. Weah - needs to play and improve consistency. Soto - stay in BDL2 and play for a year. If you score 20 goals, then move up to BDL. But don't move up just to sit. Llanez - definite bright spot for the US. Still only 17, so... Ledesma - Seems to have a good upside, but I only wish we had seen more. Servenia - Looked good but we didn't see enough. GKs - not sure about each of them, which is OK since GKs mature later.
It was interesting Tab took Cerillo and never played him. From an FCD perspective he should have let him stay at FCD and play in some MLS games, as he is pretty much a starter. Conspiracy theory conversation I had with another FCD watcher mentioned maybe Tab was ticked he didn't get the FCD pro job so he took Cerillo away from FCD for a few weeks knowing he wouldn't play him but perhaps it sticks it to the FCD first team. highly unlikely but interesting tin foil hat stuff.
It was mentioned that Cerrillo struggled in the friendly before the tournament against Uruguay. He also took Araujo away from LAG and didn’t use him.
didn't know about the friendly. Saw that Edwin and Araujo were the only 2 that didn't play a minute for the US. Would have like to seen Edwin at this level to see how he would do.
That may be true but it was what was needed in this tournament because none of the other players showed themselves capable to cover that ground and provide that physicality from central midfield. Sometimes you do what will help the team most. In this case, I think that is the role we needed (can't do the creative stuff without the foundation built on hard work).
Overall two major things limited the team, an inability to combine at pace and some weakness in defending. These things are related because the starting lineup needed to dominate the game with the ball, without that true threat and the control of space that can come with it we had soft spots. I just did not think the guys’ passing and moving clicked at a sufficient level to really flow, not enough tempo, not enough mutual understanding. It was fits and starts and that means turnovers and chasing and the other team not having to drop as deep. It meant more chasing in midfield (which of the starters in CM only Pax really excelled at).
I have no evidence of this, but I still feel like something must have been up with McKenzie's health/fitness, because otherwise the decision to name him captain and deploy him the way he was used makes little sense to me. This team with a starting pairing of Richards and 2018 McKenzie, and Keita as a #3, might have been right there with the best Ramos defenses yet -- "emergency" Durkin obviously isn't the option "emergency" Palmer-Brown was, but I'd probably take 2019 Keita over 2017 Redding. The Dest/Gloster pairing ended up working out great, obviously -- probably the best under Ramos, and maybe ever, if you're averaging across both starters, even if you think there was a better individual tournament at the position.
I disagree with this. Adams was not "terrible" at this tournament 2 years ago. He didn't dominate, but he was not terrible either. I feel like we keep using this narrative on Adams to justify positions in 2019, and it is vastly overstated. Adams in 2017 played better than either KDLF or Durkin this year.
My take: Tab starts Servania (or Cerrillo) instead of Durkin at the 6 and we have a good chance to beat Ecuador on Saturday and a good chance to win the whole tournament. Tab brings James Sands to play CB, or plays Julian Araujo at CB over Keita, we have an even better chance to win that game and win the tournament. Extremely pleased with the quality of the group of players, displeased with Tab's choices on a couple of key things. Fitness was a real issue for Mendez, Llanez and Ledezma. Llanez and Ledezma really only had about 30 minutes in them. Mendez had about 45 minutes in him. (Wish Tab had subbed Ledezma on for Mendez in the 55th minute v Ecuador, rather than the 74th.) Not breaking any new ground here but it seems to me that Richards, Gloster, Dest, Pomykal, Weah, Ledezma, Mendez and Llanez all have a good shot at a national team future. Pomykal and Weah are the most ready, followed by Dest, Gloster and Richards, who really need to sort their club situations. Ledezma, Mendez and Llanez need to get fit and Mendez/Ledezma (for my money the highest-ceiling players on the squad outside of Richards) need to get stronger and more locked in to the defensive side of the game. Everybody needs to play first team minutes ASAP. Agree with @ussoccer97531 that Araujo is one of the top prospects. Too bad we didn't get to see him play. Would have been better at CB than Keita, and it's quite possible we now lose him to Mexico. Would have liked to see Cerrillo too, but whatever. I like Ochoa but I don't know enough about goalkeeping to project his future. I like Soto a lot too but he seems like more of a reach to me. Couldn't quite put together the sort of clean performance you need from your 9 in one of these tournaments, even though yeah, he scored four big goals and the timing of his runs is excellent.
very disappointing that if a spot on the roster playing up a cycle wasnt enough to keep araujo in the us setup
@bshredder hearing any movement regarding Paxton P? Im pretty sure his contract is up this year and i seriously doubt Dallas lets him go on a free. Not after the show he put on at the U20WC
I remember there were disagreements about this, but I thought Adams was among our 2-3 worst players at that tournament, along with Herrera and the other CM's.
Is losing Araujo to Mexico just a concern, or are you hearing some buzz? Also, I wonder if the USMNT's recent woeful performances combined with Mexico playing well may give pause to Llanez & Mendez.
Redding started the first game, but I think the CB depth chart after that first game would've been EPB, CCV, Glad with Redding/Trusty as 4 and 5. I still think that team had better CB depth and top-end talent than this team. As good as Richards was, at best you could say he was slightly better than EPB, and that probably isn't the case either. EPB was one of the best players at that tournament. It was likely a wash between the two. McKenzie/Carter-Vickers could've been a wash, but CCV had played in this tournament two years prior and played very well. Depth of Glad, Redding and Trusty is much better than depth of Keita and Durkin. If Araujo was part of that depth, I think there'd be a better argument there, but I'm basing this off of your hypothetical.
I didn't think Keita was as bad as some people thought, but I agree that Araujo should've started at CB instead. I thought from the beginning of the cycle that Araujo should've been one of our top CB options due to the lack of depth among the '99 and '00 CB's. I know he's been used as a RB by LAG, but he's 5'10 and this is a youth tournament. Maybe there's a chance he can't physically hold up to the demands of the position in the pro game (I doubt that), but this was a tournament of U-20 players. I think LAG is doing him a huge disservice with how they are using him. It's good that he's now getting his proper due by playing up a cycle because he's a huge talent, but I think his potential is limited playing on the side of the field as compared to the center of the field. His passing and ball carrying, which I view as his two best skills, aren't as effective when he has less space to operate.
dude, thats the worst youth cb ive ever seen in our setup.....ever. He cant pass the ball and he plays soccer. He cant pass it 10 yards