U17s vs. Czech Republic, Nov. 11, 2025 (Pre-/PBP/Post-Match Thread)

I literally saw the Czech coach hand in the review card. It was he who asked for the challenge to upgrade to red, almost seems petty with a minute to go. But I guess maybe I would have tried the same thing as a coach, who knows. A man advantage maybe could have helped them score, but doubtful with so little time left

 

Absurdly petty and downright dickish at a U17 event.

 

Sometimes that happens in these tournaments. Crazy, right? Almost makes you want your team to throw matches on purpose haha

 

I had that feeling since the last Morocco game: we are winning the group and getting them.

 

Maybe, but it was at 90+2 and the game almost over. I believe they are going through in second, right?

 

Why not? To make a favor to a player who almost sent your kid to a hospital?

 

Hopefully, we can avoid being eliminated by Morocco at every youth level this cycle.

 

I'd rate both Japan and Portugal as favorites here. Although Japan - New Caledonia is the most unexpected result I've seen since coaching U-9 Rec team.

 

I think the concern we all have is that it is well
known that Moroccos youth programs the past few years have been insanely good and are well organized and they are churning out respectable talent. But maybe this U17 squad of theirs is not all that, I don’t know.

 

Bit disappointed with these two today. Johnson might be able to add something coming off the bench in future games but you see the difference Mathis made in the 2nd half. Griffin didn't add much to the attack and looked poor in defense. I'm not sure why he was included in this team, as we have a LB and a hybrid CB/LB already. We needed another RB and it showed today.
As for the rest..
Tsakiris- played out of position and looked it. Shouldn't have gotten a yellow, let alone a red.
CBs - were better today
Sanchez- there were better options at home.
Maxi- had some bright moments but doesn't track back well at all. Cavan needs to play in the middle so I would probably drop Max.
Terry- meh. I checked his FotMob ratings for MLSNP this year and they haven't been great. Is he living off his reputation a bit at this point?
Cavan- MOTM. Very dangerous, a bit sloppy, always unpredictable. Don't change a thing- (maybe work on that right foot a bit).
Hall- a few good moments and a big miss.. Was hoping to see him play on the wing today but...
Mathis- changed the game.
Berchimas- looked lively.

I think we'll see the following v Morocco

Mathis -- Hall -- Berchimas
------Max------Cavan
----------Sanchez
Pedro-Hamouda-Cupps-Villa

I would put Moisa in for Max though. You're asking a lot of Sanchez in with Max and Cavan in midfield.

 

Morocco is our new Ghana. Hoping we can exorcise the demons just like we did with Ghana in the opening game of the 2014 World Cup.

As for today's game, I thought that was a professional win for the US. We only conceded one ultra-dangerous chance in the first half, mostly controlled the game in the 2nd half, and Mathis Albert was a difference maker when he came on. I like that Segares rotated the squad a bit and reserved Mathis to 45 minutes. I would've liked to have pulled off Sullivan immediately after the goal, but hopefully he's still fresh from here on out. We're going to need him.

 

Amazing.

 

FTR, I did some digging, Morocco dudes on Badge FC sides:

GK:
Bayoumi is Amiens, but he's not starting.

Defense:
Arbaoui is on Bilbao
Bellahsen is on Bo Mo in Germany

Arbaoui didn't start the big group games.

Midfield:
Ouazane: Ajax: Started both big games.
Saidi: Auxerre: Started first, but not second big game.

Forward:
Dardake: Toulouse: I think he started 2nd big game.
Khalfioui: Toulouse: Started both big games.
Haddan: Monaco: Did not start either game.
Elaouddi: Valencia: Think he started the first game but not the 2nd.

So seems like they're starting 3 of the Badge FC guys automatically, and another 3 of them featured in 1 of the 2 big games as starters.

Against Japan: El Khalfioui, and Baha got the best ratings in the attack, with 6.6's, in the massacre vs Portugal, El Khalfioui (6.0), Ouazane (6.0) and Baha (5.9) got the best of horrible ratings. So just guessing, I'd imagine Ouazane, the midfielder, and El Khalfioui the wing forward/midfielder, are probably their best attackers, and Baha is a domestic attacker they use as a first XI guy automatically.

 

Also seems like our side of the bracket is about 1000x more difficult than the other one (Argentina, Portugal, Mali, Brazil, France Columbia) but who knows with kids this young. I just know if given a chance of four quadrates, what we got would have been my worst or second worst case scenario (Mali, Brazil, France, Colombia and a Morocco that won their confederation tournament), although the bottom one (with Italy, Senegal, Germany, Burkina Faso and Croatia) could be worse. It feels lopsided as so it often it does in FIFA Brackets.

 

he needs a red too?

 

Not with our luck.

 

I think this should be the starting XI except I’d be tempted to put Martinez in at RB and keep moving to a 3-2-5 with Guimaraes joining the midfield. I’m not sold on Villa at all and he may not be fully fit. I think we don’t need an attacking FB on Berchimas’ side anyway.

 

I don't know whether Villa is fully fit, but he's better than Gimaraes, and we have abundance of midfielders anyway. Morocco is much faster than us anyway and playing with no FBs would be a suicide.

 

The coaches job depends on winning games. It wasn't unsporting, he was allowed to challenge that call.

 

Yeah, its just hard to know with kids at these types of events.

..............................................some who watched France at this event, for instance, have said they didn't look particularly good.

A team like Morocco can look horrific against Portugal, but may beat us. Who the hell knows?

After demolishing Morocco, Portugal then lost to Japan.

Japan failed to beat New Caledonia.

So what the hell.............??

Badge FC doesn't necessarily even matter.
We all know there's a lot of "filler" in big-club youth academies.

Germany didn't beat North Korea.
England lost to Venezuela
Brazil drew with Zambia

So who the hell knows?
As far as who wins this thing, nobody knows.