PBP: 2022 CONCACAF U-20 Championships, Quarterfinals: USA vs. Costa Rica, 6/28 @ 7 PM EDT

CBs were very solid today. Outside backs less so. 6 was questionable. Luna was good but not as good as he had been. Alvarado (was he 19?) was good.

 

Cuevas isn‘t a left back and it‘s showing. CB‘s have been good outside the fluke of the tourney against Canada.

I think Hondo is a better version of CR. Faster. Luna, if he starts will be really tested if he starts next match.
As has been mentioned by others, how coach sets up the midfield will be vital for this one.

Pax and Alvarado have to play IMO. What he does with the others, and the shape will be key.

Even though I know it‘s very possible we can lose this one it has been the match up I have been waiting for.
Gonna define a lot of players tournaments.

 

I think you took that the wrong way. I could've separated the two thoughts a little more, so part of the misunderstanding is my fault. At this level (or any level), if you put 10 behind the ball and give McGlynn's team 70%+ of the possession, he will pick you apart.

That doesn't happen often in MLS. I agree. I wasn't suggesting it does. It does happens sometimes at this level, as we saw happen in the game against Canada. He was great in that game.

 

Alvarado is #19.

 

I though Pukstas was the worst player on our side. There is a reason why he got yanked.
Luna had a quiet game. Sullivan played his game as usual, got into good positions but couldn't score.
I expect more from Clark. He is just not the same player pre-medical operation.
The filed was heavy. It did affect our passing.

 

The US allowed 1.5 xg against a Costa Rica u-20 side playing on a neutral field? How is that good defense? Costa Rica haven't shelled the minnows they've faced, had a 1-1 draw against an underwhelming Jamaica side, and lost to Honduras while being shutout. It wasn't a good defensive performance at the back or in CM.

At CB, Craig got out of position a # of times and didn't have speed to make up for it. This has been poor for games now. He got beat for a goal against Canada w/ limited chances. In this game he got bailed out by teammates' recovery, shot-stopping, & CR. And I like to look at the big picture, because this is about senior team prep. These attributes and tendencies are alarming for his NT future. It's like his ceiling is Ream and floor a poor man's Glad. That's not a strong outlook, imo. I like Neal. But he's typically carrying the other cb's - Ferkranaus & Craig.

 

While I generally agree with the overall tone, .75 of that XG was a somewhat soft penalty. I was surprised that Nation, who is never really known for being decisive with a close call, actually called it. I expected a few more chances in this game. It was far from perfect, but the defense did enough against a decent team. Hopefully, they make the right adjustments for the semis.

 

I agree. We couldn't build out of the back due to CR pressing and the poor field- any long ball up to Pax was won by CR and came right back. I would imagine Honduras will use the same tactic. I would insert Cowell and send the long balls out wide to him or Sullivan.

 

Was not exceptional but not horrific either.
When listing CR‘s big chances they were the set piece, build out of back stuff for the most part. Both set pieces were eh. Soft penalty and phantom foul on the header.
Goal against are goals against and we could have given up a couple no doubt.
In the run of play I got the impression that our D wouldn‘t be able to actually defend players. Well, they can.
That‘s all,
Stats again only tell so much.

That being said it shows just how bad our first 4 opponents were. First team we actually faced a decent team and we were not used to it.

 

We were up 2-0. It was classic CCACAF default mode. Can‘t let the US get to far ahead. Don‘t want other team angry with me.

That‘s how it felt to me.

 

A lot of those spots are where we are missing players not released -Pepi, Gomez, Che,Slonina. Also Reyna and Musah are about a month too old to be able to be with this group. Imagine adding those players to this group.

 

Scally is a day too old for this team too if I remember correctly.
Born on New Year's Eve 2002.

 

The stats may or may not be telling it. Look at his post and he’s mixing stats to tell a preset narrative. He uses xG to tell how close our game was and then switches to final scores to try and compare how CR did against other teams. If your going to make an honest argument, then keep the stats consistent; either use finals scores for all comparisons (which would be counter to his argument because our final score was 2:0, or he could use the XG from the other games to show if they were different)

 

Just for waving goodbye? Wow that's some sick shit.

 

Reminds me of Bradley semi-taunting Uruguay in 2007.
That was sorta mid-melee, though, and not the cause of it.

[Still my favorite U20 victory of all time. The US U20s beating Suarez, Cavani, and company. Of course we put so much into it, we didn't have anything left in the next round.]

 

I wonder if for their encore performance they'll shank a goal scorer for a 'shushing' motion to the lips to the home crowd.
And guess what CONCACAF will do about it? Nothing to see here.

 

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It's a little baffling. An appendectomy shouldn't be a problem a year later. Some of it looks like confidence or aggression -- as if he's lost the confidence to try some things. The skills are still there, but between the disappearing and losing the ball so frequently...

Someone earlier compared him to the Medford Messi in that he's never been someone who is on the ball all the time, but the difference is that Aaronson always managed to make that play that generated goals despite not being someone with big numbers of touches. Clark both disappears and no longer makes the big play, not for this team and not for Red Bull.

I don't really think it was a lucky mirage when he started with Red Bull because you see the flashes. I'm sure he was a bit lucky, but there was something there.

I wonder how he gets it back.

 

They were also bullying us all day, which is fine, but they Cade comes in and immediately gets called 2-3 times on offense for pretty minimal contact.

It definitely felt like when the computer assist comes on for the losing team in a video game.

 

All of those guys could be on the Olympic team if they qualify. A few more that are a bit older too - I think.

 

I dunno, I feel like we were closer to being up more at halftime than they were to being down less (or better) but obviously that's a guess and in the end, who cares...

 

I don't think Clark is all that different pre- or post-appendectomy, to be honest. People got very excited by a hot streak well in excess of expected goals or assists and now he's settled down.

To be fair, that hot streak even managed to convince Leipzig, so maybe I'm being a bit aggressive here, but Clark's pretty much always been the same player statistically.*

*(Ok, that's a bit unfair. 8 games through the 2021 season Clark had 4 goals and an assist. Good boxscore numbers, but definitely in excess of his .34 xG+xA per 90.

.34 is OK-ish stuff -- probably 40th percentile or so for an attacking midfielder -- and pretty good given Clark's age. P. Aaronson clocks in at .38/45th percentile. The problems are, Clark declined since then, supporting the appendectomy theory. The bigger problem is, of course, no one really can tell by eye what a .26 vs. .34 player is. It makes a big difference, but ultimately you need to do a lot of stuff to be a successful player.

My read of Clark is that he doesn't offer a well-rounded game, and that's never changed between his charmed beginning and current doldrums. Progressive passes per 90? 3.4 per 90 during the first eight games of 2021 vs. 3.24 now. Both of which are average totals, moe-or-less. Go on down the list, it's the same.

So right now Clark's pretty much what he was in 2021, at least from a statistical perspective. That's not a death sentence, but it's troubling. Players can advance from there -- Jesus Ferreira went from a mediocre 19-year-old to a star 21-year-old over the course of three years -- but that's up to Clark.)

 

Game could've been anywhere between 2-0 Costa Rica to like 6-4 USA. It just so happened that the variance gods decided on 2-0 USA. Thank u variance gods, may you smile upon us July 1.

 

These are the stats from the tournament for some of the attackers.

Aaronson: 4G, 1A (268 minutes)
Clark: 1G, 3A (249 minutes)
Cowell: 2G, 1A (256 minutes)
Luna: 1G, 4A (302 minutes)
Sullivan: 5G, 4A (309 minutes)

To begin with, let’s take Sullivan out of the discussion. I think he’s proven to be on a higher level than the others, as far as his play in this tournament is concerned.

As for the others, if you look at it, Clark is right there with the others. It’s strange how different the discussions surrounding Luna and Aaronson are compared to Clark and Cowell. Their actual production is all pretty similar. While I don’t think Clark has been that good in any game, what about Luna against Costa Rica? What about Aaronson against Canada? Cowell has also gotten plenty of criticism, despite having similar stats.

I think a lot of people really want to root for Luna, but I don’t see it as very realistic that he ends up better eventually than Clark. Youth soccer/low level leagues are primed for a player like Luna. Clark’s game doesn’t have those same problems because his best skill (goal production) is a more translatable skill. He also doesn’t have any obvious deficit that Luna has.

As for Aaronson, I think he’s been better at this tournament than Clark, but not that much better. Aaronson has barely gotten any criticism. Clark has gotten a lot. Clark is the more accomplished player in MLS. I don’t know what Aaronson is actually more than marginally better at. I view them as pretty similar players. It seems like Aaronson, fair or not, gets some more preferential treatment from fans because they like his brother.

To not ramble too much, my point is that we have four attackers who are at a similar enough level and have played at a similar level this tournament. The treatment though for the two guys who are more accomplished in MLS is a lot worse than the fan favorites. Why is that?

Specifically to Clark, I think people are placing unfair expectations on him. They are expecting him to be something he’s not. I don’t want to toot my own horn because I’m wrong plenty of the time, but I was watching him in USL before he ever got to MLS. I was saying the overall performances don’t match the goal production. He then went to MLS and the goal production followed him. It hasn’t left at any point. The performances at no point have been that of a dominant #10. I think people extrapolated that to the goal production. It was faulty IMO. I’ve yet to see that as part of his game.

This is who he is. He’s not this dominant #10 who is up there with guys like Pepi and Gomez for the best 03’s. Getting signed by Leipzig didn’t make him that. I said it at the time, and people got mad. Can we accept that Clark is a very good prospect with an important elite skill (goal production) but expecting him to be a dominant #10 is unrealistic? People keep referencing his appendix surgery as some point where he fell off. I don’t think that’s accurate.