I have not found a play by play match tracker yet..if neone has please post it here Thus, if neone has any access to any information about games in progress (US vs South Korea?) please post it here. Please...all updates will be very appreciated.. LA Galaxy Supporter For Life!
Final (R) Korea defeats the USA 3-0. All three goals were in the second half. The first goal is scored off a PK at about the 51 min. Korea gets another goal later in the second half at about 73 min and adds another at 80 min. The last goal was a serve across the box from the right side that sailed by at least three USA defenders until it was hammered home by a Korean player from 7 yards on the left side. Gaven had a close header fisted away by the Korean keeper after Adu was taken down for a free kick. Earlier, Adu earned a yellow card for a dive in the box as he was surrounded by Korean defenders. They clipped his ankle and he fell down. The score could have been even worse. A Korean player had a one on one with the keeper that was chipped wide and over the bar. Owens stopped to watch the play unfold. Lineup to the best of my knowledge. Adu- Gaven Ashe- Memo- DiRaiamondo Grazier Helton-Spector-Owens-Curfman Marfuggi Watson came in at the end of the game. There was a very good crowd on hand and they were very loud on the internet broadcast. I can't imagine our players have played in an atmosphere like that many times.
Losing to Korea's U17 is no shame at all. There unbeaten streak was extended to 21 games now. Keep in mind that these players had probably never traveled such a far distance in their lives and still had a bit a jetlag. I'm sure never got quite acclimated with the foreign environment. Good luck the rest of the way against Argentina and Poland!
our lack of depth will kill us. our best defenders are injured. chevannes (sp?) was injured in lancaster just before the trip, and had to be replaced, spector was injured early in this game and was subbed out. broke his clavicle, i think. we don't have good replacements for these guys, so expect to be bombed by argentina and poland as well. ouch, ouch, and ouch.
For what it's worth, the U-17's arrived in Korea on Thursday and played 36 hr later. That in itself spells disaster against decent local opposition. It is way, way too short to resynchronize one's body clock to local time (i.e., overcome jet lag). This means the game was played by the US effectively at about 1-3 AM and by the Koreans at 2-4 PM. Playing at that early AM time is guaranteed to make the players sluggish with their timing off. The good news is that the rest of the games should be better, although even 72 hr will only be sufficient resynchronization time for a few of the U-17s. Six to 10 days would have been much better.
I would be interested is seeing Ellinger's comments about the game. To tell you the truth, I don't understand why Adu didn't take the PK. That was the game in a nutshell. We miss, get counter attacked and scored on. 2 goal shift in about 45 seconds. Game over dude......
Ouch indeed, a broken clavicle is horribly painful. Hopefully Spector is back in time for the U17 worlds.
that's very unfortunate for spector (anyone know the average time of recovery if this news is accurate), and as you note very bad news for the team. from the two games i saw at lancaster, owens played relatively steady, but spector was our best defender. and even with the two of them, they looked disorganized and shaky at times. it's an understatement to say that they'll have their work cut for them without spector.
Who took the penalty?? It sounds like we had a PK. I just wanna know who took the shot and why did we receive the PK? Thanks.
Match report from US Soccer website: http://www.ussoccer.com/news/fullstory.sps?iNewsid=36563&itype=113&iCategoryID=0
maybe i'm wrong, but i thought Adu didn't take the penalty kick because it was against the US team. i don't think the US had a penalty kick of their own.
What in the world are you talking about???? "Keep in mind that these players had probably never traveled such a far distance in their lives...." You can't possibly mean the U.S. team. These kids have been around the world several times, logging more miles than a lot of international businessmen. This post and the rest that make excuses for this team are idiotic. There is no U17 men's team in the world that has had the developmental environment the U.S. kids have had. There has been no lack of money for training facilities or coaching, travel or exposure to high level play. I'd like to see a post from that shows some real (honest) insight into why this team lost to Mexico and now Korea. I'll start: We've got a bunch of kids that have been reading their own press clippings and think they are much better than they really are.
The U.S. had a penalty and on the counter after it was flubbed Korea also got a penalty. They scored on theirs. I think CuriousGeorge is right. The U17 team is nowhere as good as their individual talent dictates they should be. I've followed nearly every game they play on PBP, and to me it seems like they just don't pass enough. How many goals are NOT created by Adu? Not many of them. Adu usually creates a goal by dribbling anyone he needs to and taking the shot or passing it like he did to Ashe against Jamaica. Either that or he gets called and gets a PK. With being double teamed like he supposedly is all the time, you'd think they'd learn to take advantage of the extra space, but they don't. They don't have a passing game from what I can tell, and that's what kills them. They should be better than this, but they're just kids. If this was our full national team I'd be pretty pissed, but hey, it's the Baby Nats. They've got time to learn.
don't forget that Korea had players with talent as well. The goalie, Ki-suk Cha, was offered by AC Milan, but rejected the offer. The situation was very similar to that of Adu. Also the striker Yang will move to Spanish club Validolid. It certainly affects players when you have less than 3 days of rest after traveling one side of the planet to the other, but 3 - 0 shows us that the Korean side was also very good.
NO EXCUSES I agree with the no excuses theory, its seems like Elinger would have adjusted and marked Yang, the one man show.
The results of this tournament matter very little in the grand scheme of things. The goal is to be peaking at the WYC, not in June..... This team's inability to string together passes and hold possession does not make me feel good though..
Based on the U17 games I have seen (including the tape of the Tigres game from the recent Dallas Cup), the biggest areas for improvement are the development of a fluid team oriented passing game as others have mentioned, lack of composure and ability to handle pressure by many of the players, and players trying to do too much individually. Examples include the backs just kicking long 50/50 balls or playing the ball out of bounds when under pressure, rather than playing the ball back and around to the other side of the field. Many players do not seem to have the mentality to keep ball possession and are too content to just kick the ball without a purpose. Other problems include players trying to solve every problem by themselves rather than linking up with teammates. One of the biggest problems with players advancing to the next level is they fall in love with their feet and physical prowess and forget that the most important part of the game is the brain. Brain speed and speed of intelligent ball movement is better than physical speed. Many players rely too much on individual physical solutions rather than team-oriented problem solving.
Ever watched much youth soccer? The problems that the U17s have are directly related to the problems that existed in their developmental environments preU17 residency. That is to say, YOUTH SOCCER. Not enough possession, little tactical awareness, and general kick and chase type games. Don't automatically assume that this team is worse than previous U17 teams. Donovan's team couldn't possess the ball to save their life. They only knew one speed, and that was attack, attack, and attack some more. In fact, the only time I see players learning possession style thinking soccer is when they hit MLS Somebody besides me please see how horribly wrong that is. In Brazil, youth teams mimic the style of Flamengo, Vasco, etc. In Germany, youth teams mimic the style of Bayern, Stuttgart, etc. Anyone else get the point? If you learn how to do something at a younger age, then it's that much easier to do when you get older. Or do people actually disagree with that? I haven't seen anyone smart enough from the fed to acknowledge this though. They seem to get pissed off or ignore people with valuable opinions(not saying me, just from other observations). Youth soccer needs LOTS of changes. The one thing I will disagree on you with though is the individuality. Thank god they have some of that ability otherwise how would they generate any attack?
"The U.S. struggled against a tough South Korean squad that used a high pressure defense to disrupt any offensive threats and didn’t allow the U.S. to string passes together and get into a good rhythm." This is another example of a highly motivated, extremely fit team can run/pressure the other team to the ground (a la Korean men's team in WC '02). I won't be surprised we still have better individual skills, but they have a better TEAM.
I don't think i am being too radical in saying this but if they have a better team and we have the better individual skills,then it almost certyainly means they have the BETTER COACH...Isn't the coach the one meant to have the individuals perform as a team? I'll be looking forward to the game vs. Argentina (IMO they are better than us both individually and as a team, having seen their goals and highlights on the news)