U20s vs. Morocco, Oct. 12, 2025 (Pre-/PBP/Post-Match Thread)

the crosser was double or triple teamed and the receivers were double or triple teamed as well.....doing so without a target forward

it got especially worse once morrocco scored and figured out the usa was too scared to send numbers forward

i mean this is simple elementary school mathematics.....you send 3 or 4 guys into 8 or 9 .....while those 8 or 9 are very athletic and pretty good defensively with high work rate......zero chance of scoring

the simple solution was for the usa to bomb forward with everyone they had .....put 7 or 8 in the box.....

mitrovic was too scared......and it was the only chance the team had.....


you wait until you are down late in the game to try it? or do it when you have the edge and energy?

i do it in the first half

if the usa scored early, they probably win the game, imo

as long as morroco was allowed by the us strategy to do the rope a dope and funnel the usa attacks out wide then knock off the extremely low chance crosses.....they had the upper hand despite being clearly less skilled than the usa


its like what happened in some of the panama losses for the full usmnt....why play 2 dmids.....against a low block?????? you are torturing your own team and shrinking the margin of error in the name of "safety"

let me tell you - this approach that mitrovic took - starting corcoran instead of habroune or someone else.....was a fatal mistake.

how he didnt adjust is crazy to me.....


the team was flummoxed and flustered the longer it went on. and this peruvian ref.....well he was the death knell.....totally corrupt

the usa had to do was throw a lot of numbers into the attacks and score first. draw morrocco out....then they could take advantage and score on their own breakaways the second and more goals.....but morrocco never had to come out of their bunker.

you have to recognize its not working and do something different

also starting beaudry in the 3rd match was crazy....how can you stick with him after than new caledonia error? shouldve tried one of the other gk.....beaudry was a mess....zero chance he makes it at the top of the sport.....what a mess

mitrovic really poorly constructed roster and some questionable picks.....

the wingers were so bad and nonexistent....and you rely on their 1 on 1 ....? idk


i just dont think hes really that good of a coach

 

I finally got to watch this, and with no knowledge of the result and I haven't read the thread

Really frustrating.

I feel we win this one 8 out of 10, but we kinda own-goaled it, figuratively and literally.

I'm assuming they finished with 3 goals on 2 shots on goal. That's brutal.

But have to look back and call out a couple of players and Marko's decisions to play them.

First, Beaudry. Now, I'm assuming Kochen would have been #1 , but instead we get to have him leave ...again... and avoid a cap tie. It's getting real old. But more just handing to Beaudry the tournament, well you saw what happened. I don't know about Feree, but for sure Beavers would have been an upgrade.

Then why Corcoran in this one? He wasn't with this "1st team" all tournament and then he starts now? Why? Too conservative, which was echoed by the play of the whole team. Just not aggressive enough to try to punish them. Playing, fine...controlling the match...but you gotta go for the jugular.

Frustrating.

 

Interesting fact: The same coach with a different USA U23 Olympic team lost in the quarterfinals 4-0 to Morocco. Definitely the players’ fault both times…

 

I feel like it's more Morocco's fault

 

So, let him coach the u17 at the WC and see what happens?

 

Could not do worse than the current coach. You’d do a better job than Segares.

 

So, the US have lost to an eventual finalist in 4 out of the past 5 editions.

 

Morocco won

 

I didn't see too much of Argentina this tournament, but what I did see looked like a sure winner. Kudos to Morocco, they had the gameplan and the pieces and they did it without shame, and with a bit of style to boot.

 

I thought we had a history of losing to the eventual winner. Kind of makes you rethink our success and wonder if we just get placed in the death side bracket. I mean we could have lost to these teams in the final each time instead!

 

Morocco had 25% possession and beat Argentina 2-0!

Sounds similar to our game against them.

 

Morocco through the tournament:

vs Spain: 29% possession
vs Brazil: 36% possession
vs Mexico: 43% possession
vs South Korea: 47% possession (also their worst performance, even though they won)
vs USA: 27% possession
vs France: 48%
vs Argentina: 25%

Looking at field tilt, the difference is even more stark; the vast majority of every game took place in Morocco's defensive third.

 

Good for them. Trophies always matter, even if just a tiny bit.

But as far as a leading indicator for their senior team, that isn’t a positive.

 

I totally agree with your general point about success at the U20 level.

However, they've had great recent success at the U20, U23, and senior national team levels.
Their U17 team lost on penalties in the U17 AFCON Final, and will be at the World Cup.

There are all sorts of data points to indicate a surge from Morocco.

The leading indicate for their senior national team is they've lost one game in the last two calendar years.

They are the favorites for the upcoming African Cup of Nations, which starts in December. Weird to have an AFCON so close to the World Cup, but there you go. They're the hosts, and the highest ranked team.

Can we really blame Amir Richardson for picking Morocco? They're en fuego.

Amir wasn't called up in the last window. The midfielders called up in the last window came from Roma, PSV, Betis, Leverkusen, Feyenoord, and Stutgart.

The midfielders NOT CALLED UP (but have over the last calendar year) came from Girona, Fiorentina, Marseille, Lazio, and Auxerre. For Pete's sake!!

 

We should have won the tournament.

 

With a group that people mostly didn't like. Yet, we are somehow not improving in our player development or something?

ps - I'm not sure we would have matched up well with Argentina in the final, but I agree that we should have made it that far, at least.