Huh?? "It sounds like the U-20 team put in a disappointing showing at the Soccer Festival. 1-1-2 against four teams that one would think they clearly outclass on paper. " Respect please. Canada lost to Mexico on a late goal, two men down. Lost to your boys 1-0 earlier this year. Drew Germany's U20s 0-0 in Germany this spring. And this latest win came without Canada's European based players, including the player of the tournament at 2000's U17 CONCACAF qualifying in St. Louis, Wynn Belotte. Should be a good CONCACAF U20 tourney this fall.
Re: Huh?? Touche'. Respect has definitely been earned. Add to the above results that the Canada U-17 team beat the USA U-17 team 1-0 in a friendly last spring. Hopefully a little regional rivalry will help promote interest in the sport in North America.
For eyewitnesses: How's the defense line--both center and wing compare with last U-20? Are our new center defense are better than Akawari/Yi? If so, how about compare them (skill wise) with Boca/Gibbs/Garcia/Pierce/Califf generation? About wing backs, anyone has potentially as Onyewu at the right? Gbandi/R. Lewis at the left? Sounds like the defense midfield of Stone/Clarke are better than last time.
Re: Re: Re: Re: It was a decent game that needed a goal bad! No offense to you k1v1n, but it's highly acceptable for most countries to move players from the forward line to the back line during their development as long as they can tackle. With all due respect defending at the international level is not just 90% heart, it's about being able to be a two way player with good passing and ball skills. If you watched the Brazil vs. Germany final, you will see defenders sneaking into the attack or even beginning attacks from the back. This is an excellent tactic that often catches teams off guard. Tell me Ramelow didn't move into attack on more than one occasion, and this is the super conservative Germans we are talking about here. I hate to keep railing on the Brits, but this seems to be one of their preconceived notions about player positions(I'll exempt certain EPL teams from this). A defender stays in one place and an attacker stays in his. The modern game requires everyone to play defense and everyone to play offense at times and today's defenders need to have adequate passing and ball skills so when the occasion arises they can contribute to the attack. Even center backs need to have this skill and as such wasting one position on a player who is a good defender but a poor distributor is a tough choice to make--the poor distribution can cost you just as many chances as an average defender can. Anyone remember the USA vs. Mexico game? Pope was absolutely horrid trying to distribute the ball out of the back. At one point he chipped a pass forward into the back of either Reyna or JOB right outside our own box and we can thank the soccer gods that we weren't made to pay for it. We're also damned lucky that we had two midfielders as skillful as JOB and Reyna to hold and distribute and take pressure off the defenders and not overly expose their weak distribution. IMHO Kelly Gray is going to be a hell of a center back when it's all said and done. If Cameron can tackle well enough then I'd like to see him moved somewhere to the back also. The player pool has grown so much that we don't need a guy up there who blows sitters when there's so much offensive firepower available.
Re: Huh?? Canada's youth teams should not be underestimated. They've got quite a few players in youth programs in Europe and I think they'll surprise a lot of the CONCACAF powers in U20 qualifying.
No Agoofs to be found friends!!! Look I was there and I saw first hand how far Canada has come in talent, speed and organization on the fly. They look IMHO like a poor man's French team as they have several talented Habs (French Canucks) and have that new influx of Franco-African and Caribean immigrants that have changed their style from their classic direct/rapid britanico style to a more U.S. type melting pot mixture of speed, technique and grit. Shaster, As far as our backline goes we could have not been any more proficient at manmarking very well, winning almost every high-ball and what impressed me the most was our ability to switch from a flat back four to a 3 + libero and flat 3 man with ease. Something that makes me forget those clumsy type "positional players" that The Bruce brought along to Japorea....um an Agoos type crapper is no where to be found! The flank players don't track back like Beasley...but Mapp stays at home on the left and thus was there in coverage all week. Lancos played a quiet Pope type defender. He was effective in the tackle and played well positionaly. Maybe these lads arn't as big as Ricky Lewis and the former U-20's but what they lacked in size they with out a doubt made up for it in team cohesion, technique and grit. I'm a big Akwari fan but these new boys in the back line look sharper and more hungry than Yi/Akwari IMHO.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: It was a decent game that needed a goal bad! No offense taken Wanderer. This is a discussion forum. It'd be pretty boring if we didn't have some diversity of opinion. I don't disagree with a thing you've said. Obviously, Tony Sanneh is a perfect example. You hit the nail on the head when you said, "as long as they can tackle." That's no small thing, and it may be the U.S.'s biggest weakness. I just wanted to make a point that we shouldn't discount the psychological dimensions of the game. It's a rare forward who can move to the back line and feel comfortable.
I definitely see Canada's team as progressing rapidly right now. My real wake-up-call was when Canada's U-17's played ours ... and the US' was pretty darn good. Canada had a guy that was basicly unstoppable, and for much of the game they just plain beat us. Since then I've learned that they've been putting quite a few good young prospects on the French radar. That's a good league to excel in because it gets a lot of exposure being in central Europe and having a high profile, while also not being the same level of competition that La Liga, EPL, Bundesliga or Serie A. So, young players can get playing time. It's similar to the Dutch league in that regard IMHO. As for Knox, I don't know what to think about him. I understand he's a "spine player" and that he can play centrally on the back, mid or forward lines, but I am kind of hoping he settles in as a Michael Ballack type Dmid. Kind of like Kelly Gray in that he can play aggressive and tenacious defense while still offering quick passing, solid ball holding skills and move forward for set pieces. His size and speed would be excellent for that element of surprise. I could envision him becoming a Brian Maisoneuve type if he develops the passing skills, or if he concentrates on defense, becoming a Simon Elliott type. Either (or the more likely comparison to Kelly Gray) would be very welcome to me. On the back line his versatility would be lost IMHO. I haven't seen that he's a great organizer, and to play central defense I think that's the most important quality to have. Since he's not a great scorer at the Youth and College level, I'm not sure if he's a full time forward either. But then again, who knows how he'll develop. I'm putting my money that he becomes a Dmid. -Tron
Anyone know if the guy can tackle or not? I'd like to see him become more like Ballack too, except Ballack scores goals at a pretty impressive clip.
Randomly I clicked on the first (or last or whatever) page of results and noticed this USA-Mexico U20 thread from 20 years ago. Quite the time capsule. (Man, some of you have really gotten old since then! And I've probably made this joke before and forgotten!)
Shocked/not shocked to learn I posted on this thread. A little further down the rabbit hole I came across the Wikipedia page of the rosters for the ensuing U-20 World Cup. That England squad was a shocker. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_FIFA_World_Youth_Championship_squads