Looks like it's not a bad thing I accidentally forgot about this one. When's the next game, so I can "accidentally" forget about it.
We and RB know that at least Clark is quite talented, and I never seen Cowell playing that poorly, so probably there are others who are also just victims of all that coaching mess.
If every player for Brazil looked more talented, that's probably a managerial/systemic problem, right? It's not the case where that would logically occur anymore. The US actually has more u-21 (or u-23?) minutes in the Champions' League. And I don't think everyone looked below Brazil's level, "outside Aaronson". Gutierrez was pretty slick off the bench. Neal acquitted himself well, for how much heat he was facing, comparatively. In a vacuum, Clark looked up to it. He was playing the false 9 though. Look how much worse Ferreira fared for us when we lined him up there. Now he's broken out in CM, where Clark should be. As far as Cowell goes, he doesn't belong on the senior team, outside maybe fringy offseason camps. He's always had the MO of being incredibly raw in terms of his fb i.q. And his technique is pretty mediocre, although not as bad as it's made out to be. He's a predictable, slower decision-maker, because he's gotten by on his speed and strength so much. It led him to becoming a super-sub for SJ. He's never really progressed beyond that. Sometimes as a starter it still works because he out-matches his opponent physically. Today he met a virtual equal who neutered him. There's a foundation, but he needs to evolve. Maybe this failure & losing his starting spot in SJ will prompt it this offseason. Or he won't get much better and remain a specialty player for his teams. But he is only 18, remember.
I wouldn't worry too much about Cowell. He is being mentored by Wondo. He will continue to work his tail off to improve. If he has proven anything this year, it's the fact that he is streaky. The more he plays, the more he will learn how to recognize real opportunities. He forced way to much. He needs faith in his teammates. The whole team looked like they were playing a pick up game. There was little to no cohesion. He wasn't the only one trying to do too much.
You can't evaluate a youth team or a youth player like a senior team. Look at what players can do, not what they do poorly, unless it is repeated and systematic or really hard to change. They should look better the rest of the tourney, but even if they don't, it doesn't mean the players will never contribute.
Honestly I don’t think that you can draw any conclusions about most of these guys other than Aaronson and Sealy who both looked good despite the chaos.
Man, a lot of overanalysis going on and concern about a result at an event that truly means nothing. This is a group of kids that have barely played together before (because of the cancellation of the U17 cycle), with a coach that was only appointed days ago. This was just a starting point. The result means nothing. We have a long time to go with this group before the games actually matter. I have faith in the talent we have in the age group. I'd like to see a little progression over the next two games. If they're losses, I'm fine with it. If we walk away from this event with the kids learning a lesson about how far they have to go to compete against the likes of Brazil.................that's still a good outcome. A tough learning experience, but a necessary one. Kids in this group have had little international experience. A smack in the face to recognize reality is a good thing.
Plus its worth remembering that Scally, Reyna, Musah, etc. are just barely too old for this team. Scally is one day too old. We have a tendency to create artificial folders in our heads labeled "2003 U20WC eligible," etc based on youth cycles. But in the grand scheme of the USMNT, we have VERY young talent already there. Sure, we can wring our hands together about the right backs on this roster. At the same time there has to be a realization that on the USMNT we have a 21 year old Barcelona starter. And a backup is an 18 year old Bundesliga starter. I mean..................let's not cry about young right back options.
We don't even need to go to these guys. The result is meaningless to these guys' projection to the USMNT. We're seeing how good many of these guys are in MLS' -- we know their strengths and weaknesses and we already know a large number can be a contributor in a good league at a young age. That, combined with the skills and tools we see means they are going to be some level of good. Cade Cowell is going to be pretty good, regardless of this game. Same with Clark, Aaronson, etc. Even guys with clear question marks athletically -- like McGlynn -- I thought he settled in and I don't think his issue was footspeed in this game (though it is still a negative for him). It was really just nice to see the guys who I haven't seen a lot of or haven't debuted yet -- Neal, for example. I though Jacob Greene did okay as well. Brazil is talented. They've had numerous camps. But even if this wasn't the case, people take results way too seriously from youth competitions. These are very good teams.
Yes, we had no training, players didn't know each other, coach just got hired. Those are reasonable explanations for why the team was disjointed, not cohesive, etc. But looking beyond the result and the individual players I think it's a good idea to step back and look at the bigger picture- how do U.S. players stack up against the rest of the world. From a technical standpoint there is just no comparison between our players and the Brazilian players. Doesn't this bother anyone? Look, I can't fault the U20 coaching staff or even the players themselves. They're the end products of a less than ideal environment that exists at the youngest ages. While Brazilian kids constantly work with the ball to hone their technique, play futsal and unstructured pick up games the U.S. kids mostly play in crappy rec leagues where the biggest selling points are safe spaces and good character. Of course these are important things but what about the soccer? It's great that we have shown improvement in many areas. But great skill requires a love of the ball from the very youngest ages, and until there's a major change for the youngest players we'll only be able to produce very good, but never great players.
Serious question: what are you going to do? What you are talking about is really fundamentally more than one cultural shifts, often driven by a hundred years of history and large scale socio-economic dynamics. I mean, there's lots of little things to be done (like building soccer fields, doing widespread youth coach education and funding leagues in lower incomed areas) or longer terms things to be done (increasing salaries in the US pro leagues). But forcing this kind of cultural change would require resources I really can't even imagine, if it is even possible in the US. The good news is this: to beat Brazil, we don't need to be more skilled. And to beat Brazil, we only need like 11-15 players. We have highly skilled players -- often the kids of former players, etc. We simply need enough outliers.
Just finished watching the game. I don't think the performance or the result should be overly concerning, but there has to be larger concerns around the bigger picture. The US was playing catch up within the youth ranks amongst other quality footballing nations. Our federation made a decision to basically abandon the YNT program over the past 18 months or longer. While we all know some of the reasons and they certainly make sense, other nations did not take the same approach and continued their YNT programming in some form or another. The gap that was there before Covid started is now wider and will take more to close. Is our fed willing to hold more camps and schedule friendlies to make up for lost time? I seriously doubt it, but that remains to be seen. Until amateur hour ends at our fed and each age group, even those not in a Youth World Cup cycle, are brought together in camps, playing friendlies and have some overall investment put into them, we will always be playing catch up.
This seems like the best analysis of the game of the posts in the thread. The one thing I might disagree with is that I don't think that McGlynn really impressed. He did well here and there, but, overall, I thought he was simply overmatched physically and not up for that challenge. The back four were in shambles, but that might have been expected. Che is a good example of how youth national team form can deceive -- especially since he was playing out of position. The central midfield was not the key issue, but it would certainly be a stretch to say that we held our own there (until it was 0-3, at least). The fact that the game changed dramatically after Brazil was up comfortably should not be lost. Some of the decent performances and moments were under a completely different game state than the first 30 minutes or so, and we still gave up two more goals and never really got a foothold after that. Having said that, better personnel and preparation could have made a big difference in how the backs played. Ultimately, this game looked like a lot of the other youth team games where we have been overmatched by the likes of England, Venezuela, Columbia, etc. My guess is that this U20 Brazil team is one of the best in the world and getting pummeled by them is not quite the indictment some are making it out to be. The referee let a lot of potential fouls play, and I think the balance of the game (Brazil dominance) can be seen in how the physical challenges played out. The US was overly physical to the point of being out of control. The Brazil players simply shrugged this physicality off even in the instances that it caused them to lose the ball or after challenges that seemed particularly dangerous, and I think that speaks to their maturity and superiority. They never complained to the ref, even when a call could have easily gone their way. Walls could have been red carded for his challenge on the edge of the box in the second half, and that was symbolic of the how desperate and poor the US was defending. If this had been a competitive game, there would have been at least a couple of cards shown to US players. By and large, the US were simply out of their depth playing against better players. The positives were almost all higher up the field. Aaronson was not involved enough, but he seemed up to the challenge, no question. Sealy and Clark showed signs of the same ability. Unfortunately, the defense and midfield were rarely able to really bring these players into the game in decent positions. Gutierrez and Luna had some real promise, but they came into a game that was already decided. Sanogo looked like a serious player when he came on, and his play was the biggest takeaway for me. His movement was purposeful and sharp, and he showed the instincts to threaten goal. I haven't seen much of either, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's ahead of Balogun right now and would not put a very fast rise past him. Cowell has always reminded me of Brek Shea. He has tantalizing attributes and flashes some high end ability, but seems like he can be so erratic at the same time. I think that Cowell has a much higher ceiling and can turn a corner that Shea never did, but he was far too on the erratic side today. This is probably way overboard. This was the first camp of a cycle that finishes a long way off from now. It was the first camp in two years due to affects of a global pandemic. There are legitimate excuses over the lack of familiarity among the players and coaching uncertainty that led right up to the tournament. @bpet15 might have a point about the issues stemming from how USSF has handled things during the pandemic, but it seems harsh to judge them for a cautious approach to that time period. They are just now coming out of what amounts to a youth national team sabbatical, so I think we should see what happens going forward before declaring ineptitude there.
I agree, and disagree. It's a clown show they didn't have camps at any point during covid to save $, which will lead to worse individual and team results. But nobody's development here is significantly reliant on the NT because they all have club teams, so for the future not much changes, at least as far as this group. The lower ages it was probably more stunting because they didn't necessarily hook up w/ club teams yet & some of those levels ceased operation for lengthy periods I believe. We may find that out next cycle, or already are, just not with this group. But there's reportedly a sizable drop-off in talent level coming, when improvement should have been linear or ascending. As far as drawbacks for the future, the only real ones may be losing out on Antonio Leone and Christian Torres, because they were ingratiated to Mexico. But that could still change, as circumstances do. Araujo & Ochoa played for us at these ages and swung back over. Saucedo went in the opposite direction.
There's a reason Brazil has won 5 World Cups. Yes, they are still better than us at developing young players in 2021. The reason I like events like this is that it gives these youth US starlets a slap in the face. A measuring stick. Gotta improve. These kids didn't have it at the U17 level.
I agree with everything you say although I do think McGlynn showed flashes on the ball of what you want to see from him. My worry with Jack is the same thing as Danny, can the kid not be a complete liability defensively? Both him and Leyva were horrible at tracking the opposition in the final third and we were punished because of it. Jack McGlynn could very well be the Alex Mendez or this cycle but with a little less pace I thought the subs were very surprising, they brought a ton of energy and honestly a lot were flat out upgrades in the match comparably to the starters This was the first u20 match on one day’s prep and a brand new coach against a historical juggernaut who had 3 weeks prep. I think we would’ve lost anyways due to the overwhelming quality of Brazil but it could’ve been a closer 3-0 loss than a 4-0 route where we looked clearly outclassed As a youth national team fan I would like to see collective and cohesiveness in the squad. But in the long run this 2003 group will ripe more than enough players as they graduate to the higher levels to the usmnt so although wins are fun to see, they are not essential