The first half has been pretty good, but this team has absolutely no cohesiveness. There's no striker thats going to get on the end of crosses. Cowell, who has had some good sequences in this game, is not a box striker. He's a counter striker. Mexico's goal was a very well executed counter. You could probably blame Wiley and the central midfielders for providing no support to Neal and Henry, who I thought defended the situation about as well as they could, and Slonina might take some blame, as I think the shot was savable. Luna and Gutierrez were probably the two best players in that half for us, but no end product. Neal and Leyva have also done well. No one played overly poorly. It was a good half, despite the score.
This was the initial lineup. Che at RB, Pukstas RW, and Leyva #8. The rest in the expected positions. Tonight's U-20 #USMNT starting line-up vs. 🇲🇽:1-Gabriel Slonina (Capt.), 3-Caleb Wiley, 4-Justin Che, 5-Kobi Henry, 6-Daniel Leyva, 14-Jalen Neal, 15-Rokas Pukstas, 17-Brian Gutierrez, 19-Cade Cowell, 20-Diego Luna, 23-Jeremy Garay— U.S. Soccer YNT (@USYNT) November 16, 2021
Hope Mikey leaves him in for a while. He started slow but has found the weak areas in the Mexican defense. He will get a goal, assist or PK if he stays in.
The goal: ✨⚽🇺🇸 ¡Gooool de Team USA! ✨⚽🇺🇸 ¡Gooool de Team USA! ✨⚽🇺🇸 ¡Gooool de Team USA!Luna empata el partido para Estados Unidos🔴 EN VIVO https://t.co/xuGRXMIkNd 📲📺TUDN#RevelationsCup | #Sub20 pic.twitter.com/kxA5QR5EvK— TUDN USA (@TUDNUSA) November 17, 2021
2-1 Mexico. Pretty unlucky goal for us. Mexico sends in a cross right across goal. The guy at the back post wasn’t going to reach it, but Slonina couldn’t know that, so he gets a few fingers on it and puts it right into the path of the Mexican attacker past Neal, who would’ve had it covered.
This team isn't that bad. They just need a few more of these games and they'll get to know each other better.
Mexico wins 2-1. I thought we were the better team. Mexico scored two very cheap goals, the types of goals they often accuse us of scoring. We had more possession, and took the game to them. They were playing reactive. This team had two big problems during this tournament, no outlet up top at CF and no cohesiveness. Outside of Sanogo, who didn't play that well in this tournament, this team didn't have another real CF. Cowell might be considered one, but he's not the type of CF that is going to get on the end of crosses or hold up the ball and get other teammates involved. The cohesiveness was also a big issue. These players didn't know each-others movements well enough. You could tell that these other teams were a lot more decisive than we were. We wasted every half chance we'd get. Our only two goals were from a PK that came from a terrible defensive error and a foul that wasn't called, which allowed an easy cutback to a player in the box..
Mexico wins another youth tournament in Mexico. One of those players, might play for their national team someday. Their best player is Canadian.
USSF really needs to hold more camps and schedule more friendlies for the U20 and U17 teams. This tournament was a good start.
Wouldn't it be funny if Flores plays for Canada, while Leone and Perez play for USA? Let them develop their own players, and not steal players from their rival, let alone a country like Canada that has qualified for one World Cup (1986). I thought Flores was their best player, and Perez the second best. Leone was pretty sloppy, and beat by Luna to our only goal. The local players were lagging behind for Mexico. Leone is a player we often talk about in this forum as USSF needing to do a better job of recruiting, but I think Perez is another player we need to do a better job of recruiting. That kid is very good. He could absolutely be good enough for our senior team one day.
The problem is that USSF (and Canada too to an extent) was slacking this past two years while FMF has been really active with their Uxx teams. We can blame COVID-19 all we want but it really wasn't that much of a concern when players living in the US accepted call ups from Mexico. This is the first time in almost two years that USSF is finally working again on Uxx and doing a shit job at it, as usual. USSF hired a coach just days before the tournament. There is a chance we could lose those players in the future if they ever become good enough to play for the senior team. But then again as we have seen, we can have players go through all our Uxx teams like Ochoa and Araujo and still end up picking Mexico.
I agree with you. I think COVID is a bad excuse. We can blame COVID for one camp (the U-17 camp scheduled for March 2020 that was cancelled). It was a lack of funds otherwise. Other countries were holding camps in summer and fall of 2020. We didn't have any YNT camps (except for U-23 qualifying) until November of 2021. They couldn't afford it because they were budgeting for a settlement with the US Women's National Team. No one wants to say it because it's not politically correct, but I think its the truth. @USSoccerNova mentioned it last week and explained it very well, so credit there because I think we need to talk about what the real reason was, even if it's a controversial issue.
Why would it be controversial? It's the truth. We can see US players traveling to Mexico for Youth camps and they didn't mind Covid. We also saw other YNT doing the same while USSF was stuck because of no money yet the excuse they (and others) want to use is Covid-19.
The u.s. got better as the fake, mini tourney progressed. Maybe when the real comps roll around they'll look like a well-oiled machine. The big winner may be gutierrez. Was smooth throughout, in spite of the field. And he's developing into a decent athlete. Always had the work-rate, smarts, and skill. Expect a big year at chicago. He showed flashes this year. This is a bonus. Still feel this a fruitful group, between the names coming in, and a few kids we learned more about.