Being someone who played tennis at a high level, I know one thing, the first thing that happens when you get tired is the you lose your technique and shots that you would normally make , you start missing, making unforced errors, if you will. Watching the USA play, I saw a lot of unforced errors from them ... they semed just a little off on every play ... How much of that is from playing 120 minutes against a brutal uruguay team three days earlier. Could this be mainly from fatigue ... which led to poor techinique. I was too depressed to watch the Spain czech game but did not spain play a 120 minute game against Brazil 3 days earlier and the fatigue might have brought them back to the czech level. ONe other thing ... very poor game management by Rongen ... Bringing in Ward at minute 80 was a disaster which I think sealed our fate more than the wallace red card. DID you see ward getting muscled off the play on the second austrian goal ... pathetic
Not exactly in my view. I think Spain and Argentina, playing their A game, against our A game, would have rolled us. I know we're better than Austria, just not in the rain with an injured keeper (not to mention an injured Johann Smith) yesterday, unfortunately. I don't know how good the Czech's are. They've racked up regulation draws with both Argentina, and Spain, that is nothing to sneeze at. Could we have had a hope in hell of shutting out those squads in similar circumstances? I seriously doubt it. I have no read at all on Mexico. Bench players versus New Zealand, ho-hum win over a bad Portugal side, outplayed by Gambia in the first half, but dominated Gambia in the second half, had similar problems with Congo (with Congo actually having the better of play, mostly down a man for the mid thirty or so minutes of the game).
Amazing Chile-Nigeria match as Chile scores 4 goals in extra time after a pretty even first 90 minutes. Robbie Rogers is still the last player to score against this Chile team. Will we have all four quarterfinal matches go to extra time?
Mexico has a lot of solid young players, but outside of Dos Santos no one really stands out, however Dos Santos is gonna be a VERY good player. I don't know what the big deal is about Vela, the guy sucks, ZERO goals in qualifying and ZERO goals in the WC, the kid is ok but definitely nothing special.
Argentina/Mexico. Both teams scouted well. Argentina knew that Mexico's gameplan relied on isolating Dos Santos and Vela in 1v1 situations and relying on them to create from there. The Argentine defender that man marked Dos Santos pretty much owned him. He didn't allow Dos Santos to post up often and when he did he won the ball from him. It was almost comical watching him head the ball from Dos Santos flat footed. Dos Santos tried to body him and he just leaned over and headed the ball away. In prior games, Dos Santos was able to body defenders, post up, and turn them.....not today. I think he's going to have to modify that part of his game b/c I can't imagine him doing that and being successful against grown men. Mexico did a good job of neutralizing Aguero as well. He had one or two opportunities but they had him under wraps for the most part. They didn't allow Argentina to control the midfield at all. Their high pressure forced a lot of turnovers. After Argentina got the lead, they had to resort to direct balls to Aguero for the most part. Playing through the midfield would've resulted in a direct counterattack down their throats. It's interesting though. Mexico made a conscious effort to feed Dos Santos and were pretty much out of ideas when it wasn't working. Vela had the best opportunities for Mexico and he was subbed in the 2nd half....you should've seen the look on his face. Both teams neutralized the other team's best player and left it to the other 20 men on the field to make a difference. They were few clear chances for both sides. Argentina capitalized. Vela turned a half chance into a shot off the post. Like Adu said, sometimes the game comes down to inches and bounces.
You should. We have never done well against the Central/Northern European teams at any age level. How many victories do we have the Germanys, Polands and Czech Republics of the world? We are a physical team that is going to seek to physically wear down our opponents. That works well against CONCACAF and other teams built for speed and skill, such as South American and Latin European teams. However, against a Germany or Austria, it doesn't work so well. We can't out-physical them and we don't have the skill to hit 'em where they ain't. We need to ramp up the skill level and the size. I know people are going to point to Maradona and talk about how effective he was, but that was nearly 20-25 years ago now. It's a totally different game. Sachin
Germany is Germany, but we have a pretty good record against Poland in the modern era (4-1-1 since 1990, with 3 of the wins in Europe--of course, the loss was the only one that counted), and the last time we played Austria was the 3-6-1 match where we beat them 3-0 in Vienna before WC 98. I think we also whipped Austria in a U-17 WC, maybe when Twellman was playing.
It is easy. Have more than 1 creative force on the field. When Adu is shutdown or not in his game--like Austria one that he missed two chances, then we can depend on a different player to create.
well Germany is Germany.....but if you beat Germans, you will feel better than to feel Poland...we did beat Poland in the world cup...and Poland even did not qualify for the next round....they did not play good soccer in the world cup... well their youth team played better.....but Poland simply can not beat Germany... regarding Austria.....it was the only match of U20 I saw..Austria-USA.. I lived in Vienna for 2 years when my father worked there...so I like Austria...my grandfather came from small bavarian town near Austria....it was hard game for me.... of course I like Austria...but I also like USA... well you played great tournament.....congratulation US boys....and don´t be sad.....that you lose against Austria...you can be proud of your youth team
But in matches that counted we've managed to lose badly to Germany (2x), Poland, Yugoslavia, Czech Republic, and Romania while managing either a close loss, or a positive result against Italy (2x - 1 loss thanks to Zenga's ass), Portugal, Mexico, and Columbia. During this last U-20 World Cup, we had the most trouble with teams that were matching us physically: S. Korea and Austria, but also Uruguay. Poland didn't attempt to keep up with our physical play, for whatever reason.
Right! That's what we've been missing all these years at every age level!! Another creative player!!! Because they're so easy to find!!!! Someone call up Dick Chaney; we need to invade Brazil!!!!!
You cant be serious. Vela was unlucky twice in the Argentina game. He also hit the post once in another game, and was injured in the New Zealand game. Vela tore up the Spanish second division this season. I read he had something like 8 goals and 20 assists last season and he missed two months. It was in an article talking about Adu and how no one is really interested in him in Europe, then it talked about Vela and Arsen Wegrer is working on a work permit to get him to Arsenal ASAP.
Very true. Watching the Austria game, it was clear we were very susceptible to set pieces. In fact once the rain came down and the game became more physical, we clearly started looking like the inferior opponent. In due time the US will develop enough of a blend of physical play coupled with speed & skill to overcome these types of opponents.
So was Maradona, though I do understand your point. There will always be exceptions. And, at this point, Freddy doesn't seem to have the lower body strength needed to excel as a small player. edit: The image doesn't want to appear in the thread...
Tevez is built like a brick. I don't think Messi is at all. While I was in Montreal I read in World Soccer magazine (I think that was it) June edition that Barcelona gave Messi growth hormones throughout his younger years b/c they were worried about his size. Messi said that when they brought him and his family over from Argentina he was very small and Barcelona started administering growth hormones to help him.
Yeah, that same article quoted that Adu is 21 years old (he is just finish competing in an U20 tournament as a 18 yo), and also quoted that just because Wenger didn't go after Adu then no one else will (does Wenger have to go after every exceptional talents in the world in order to validate their status?). The article was poorly written, both in grammar and content. The writer of that article is just as clueless as the people who read the article and believing in it. Edit: Oh I see, you are a Mexican supporter. You don't have to believe my observation, just go back to the Mexican forum and read their comments about how Vela have regressed.
I was about to go on a rant about how administering HGH to Messi would be tantamount to doping. Luckily a quick google search saved me from getting pwned (is that how the retards say it?) by you.
Yes.. after all these articles were written by BigSoccer Mexican posters so we can clearly see the bias http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/2007/07/13/jolly-good-vela-89520-19449146/ http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/130720...u-believe.html You seem to know alot about Vela's performance in Spain's 2nd division, how do you get coverage, please tell me