The Summer Olympic soccer games won’t be held until July 24th, 2024. That is over two years from now. Usually most national team rosters don’t carry the same core group of players for that long of a period. I'm glad the US qualified but you wonder who will be left off come tournament time? Depending on form, contracts of certain players , injuries and others emerging, I'm thinking almost half of the team.
More, because this is a U20 team timed for next year, or basically a U21 team timed for 2024. Which means there's two birth years -- 2001 and 2002 -- that weren't eligible for qualification that will be for the Olympics. I really like this team, but it's going to be at the U20 World Cup in large part. There's a decent chunk of talent in those classes. As well as more size and strength and simply a better likelihood of breaking out. We didn't qualify last time, but a ton of players were eligible to play in the Olympics that didn't come from their clubs. I'm not just talking Pulisic and McKennie; I'm talking like Cameron Carter Vickers and EPB. Only downside is that the 2001 class has largely been disappointing to date.
We were coming off two draws (one at home) going into that Honduras game, and the there really wasn’t too much winning on the road after that game
When you consider the Olympics allow 3 overage players and FIFA (unless something changes) has confirmed that soccer rosters for that tournament can only include 22 players (including possibly 3 GK's) with only 18 available for individual matches, I can't imagine most of the same players will be there in 2 years’ time.
We've been talking about this on the youth boards. The Olympics are so far away that its pretty premature to have any concrete discussion about the roster. We don't know who the senior USMNT coach will be post WC22, and we currently don't have an Olympic coach. So who knows? Heck, the U20WC is more than a year away. There will be a lot of turnover in the the group for that event, much less the Olympics two years away. We couldn't get players like Justin Che and Dante Sealy released for the team. THis wasn't our "best" U20 team. If we really want to gun for that trophy we could add Pepi, Paredes, Slonina, and all of those guys back in. Jonathan Gonzalez if he's committed to us. We need to celebrate this group of kids for their performance in THIS event. Celebrate THIS team for their accomplishment as an end unto itself. There will be players in this team who never represent the US in a tournament again. Just the nature of the beast. By the way, here's a little slice. In this team we have two younger brothers of other guys who've represented the USMNT/USYNT tournaments. Its not very common for brothers to represent the US at this level. Paxten Aaronson, younger brother of Brenden. Antonio Carrera, younger brother of Nico Carrera.
Further, in the scope of things I say that our issues with the U23 level are insignificant in the broader context of our national team program. The Olympic men's soccer tournament is a little sideshow within the broader event, showcasing probably the least-important age level of age-level soccer. Being the team with the best 20-23 year-olds that clubs are willing to release doesn't say much, except being mildly beneficial to future prospects of some of those 20-23 year-old players.
CONCACAF did us a huge favor by wrapping Olympic qualification into the U20 Championships. It meant "most" of our pool was available. There were only a couple of players unavailable. Apparently Che wasn't released, for instance. I mean, how far does your head have to be up your butt to not realize that the "real" U23 team last cycle was McKennie, Pulisic, Dest, Richards, Weah, Adams, Robinson, the other Robinson, Reyna, Aaronson, Busio, Cannon, Hoppe, Sargent, blah, blah, blah. None of them were there. The "real" U23 team last cycle was the USMNT. Its why this thread was nonsensical at the time and continues to be.
The theory is to utilize the U23 tournament as a pre-World Cup warmup. It could happen depending on the lineups and availability. The problem with the Olympic games though could be where players might not be released by their clubs. I don’t see MLS having a problem with it but European clubs may not release their players if they don’t have to.
MLS clubs have a problem with it too since they'll be mid-season during the Paris Olympics. But how much of the top of this pool will be in MLS two years from now? . We've seen MLS clubs not release players to events recently. Heck, Atlanta has pretty much lived by the rule that they're not going to release players if they don't have to. Obed Vargas wasn't released to the group stage of this U20 event. He was only supposed to come for the knockout phase. Then he got injured and didn't come at all. I suspect that Euro clubs will allow their players to go to one event in the summer of 2024. As of right now the calendar in 2024 is relatively free. I think we'd all like the full USMNT to somehow get an invitation to Copa America that summer. I expect that we'll send a really strong group to the summer Olympics. We sent as strong of a group as we could in 2008. It was a team of central midfielders. Bradley, Edu, Holden, Feilhaber, McCarty, and Kljestan all named to the squad. Oh, and Szetela too. I forgot about him.
... as sensible people would have told you from the beginning. We have a contingent of US "fans" that seem to hate everything about US soccer other than the fact that a US crest is worn by the players.
The USA was able to lay down the law because of VAR and because the officiating was not allowing the other teams to assault the US's players. Referees were actually calling fouls.
Question. I tried looking it up online but it's not clear. So, the top two teams of the of the U20 Concacaf Championship that qualify for the Olympics? Therefore, even though the Dominican Republic lost to the United States by a 6–0 score line they still qualify for the Olympic tournament?
As I understand it, that is correct. The 4 teams that made the semifinals all qualified for the U20 World Cup & the 2 teams that made the finals also qualified for the Olympics.
wait wait wait...are you trying to say a team with no defense at all and 14 attacking mids isnt a good analog for the sr team?
Yeah, in the matches that I saw that back line was often disinterested and disorganized on the rare occasions that they faced threats.
Yes. The semifinalists qualified for the U20WC. The finalists qualified for the Olympics. The Dominican Republic managed to make it to the final without facing any of the US, Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Panama. The draw completely opened up, and they didn't have to face a power (a top 5 seed) until the US in the final. Then we saw a massive gap in talent between the two. All power to the DR for getting past El Salvador, Guatemala, and Jamaica. But that's not the same as encountering the top 5 seeds. But hey, its not their fault the draw opened up. They can only play the team in front of them. They could easily have lost that round of 16 game to El Salvador. That was a crazy game to watch. 5-4. That's what I'm saying. The Jamaica game was tight. The Guatemala game was decided on penalties. But if you asked me to pick a winner between Canada and DR, I would take that Canada team. Their tournament was deemed a miserable failure. Gave the US an infinitely tougher test that ended in a draw.
Wednesday, July 6, 2022 Early qualification gives U.S. U-20s and U-23s something they've rarely gotten -- a long runway to prepare by Paul Kennedy