The good news is we just have to beat New Zealand, and a Guinea that is probably out matchday 3, that bad news is that just like the senior team, these guys simply can't put the ball in the net, but at least they generate chances. I'll take solace in that, but not much of it.
Schulte was good in the prior game against France. He's not a notably positive or negative shot-stopper. I'd call him inconsistent/ok at the level of Olympics/CONCACAF US starter. But people tend to overreact based on 1 game, especially if it's the only one they saw. It's a small sample. You aren't as good as your best game, nor as bad as your worst. He has to improve to be a viable starting option ever for the seniors however. He has potential.
We'll probably get Coulibaly for the next one, and Hugh Dallas coming out of retirement for the group finale.
you did say it and lesser teams punch above their weight all the time, especially when youth are involved.
Fortunately, the performance was much more promising than I expected. Unfortunately, the final scoreline was what I expected.
What we saw from Paredes today is pretty typical of what he gave Wolfsburg last season. Draw a ton of fouls (99% percentile in BL) and create a couple good goal scoring opportunities. He's the real deal.
The Kiwis press hard and are a hard-tackling team. We need to tell our guys falling to the ground as soon as they feel a breeze is not going to help them here. Refs are avoiding VAR as much as possible.
Such a shame…. Luck was on France’s side. They manage to get the lucky bounces that resulted in 3 goals for them, whereas, we just didn’t have that final product.
Proud of the team. We deserved a better result than we got from that performance. Excited to see how they respond going forward.