Without Aidan Morris, I don't see who crashes zone 14 for us if that is what is needed and I would have brought Luna for that reason, certainly. Booth is injured a lot; I wouldn't have him on an 18 man roster.
I heard the U.S. Olympic team drew Spain 1-1 today in its final pre-Olympic friendlyThe U.S. goal came from Taylor Booth— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) July 18, 2024
Its two core problems in my view: #1: While I think I was kinda proven right w/a good chunk of the releases being secured (the tournament was/is mostly in July so much of the release problems were related to guys we were trying to double dip with like Tillman and Pepi), there were a ton of releases we didn't get, and/or selections that didn't make sense (how on earth did Luna not make this team?). On top of that, our prior experience with the Olympic tournaments for men, tournaments like 2000, and 2008 appeared to genuinely represent the bulk of our best U23 talent (I've heard '00 was worse than I remember so I could be wrong about Sydney), but overall, our prior Olympic teams seemed like the bulk of our best U23 players. This team is emphatically not that. It's some of them, but not most of them, it's a mix of guys who are clearly top 18 (maybe Busio/McGlynn, and Tessmann trio fits, maybe, Paxten and Paredes probably, maybe Yow, and Gaga, but that's basically 4-6 guys that are definitively top 18). That I think is the crux here: We know these aren't are best U23's in the pool, these are a few of them, mixed in w/some of the next best U23's mixed with a few scratch your head selections, mixed with a total WTF choice like Mihailovic, and a worrisome selection of Miles Robinson who appears totally out of form. #2: No effort to promote the side as rgli13 mentions via televised send out matches. So most of us, who stayed engaged on qualifying at the U23 level, have been severely disappointed that we couldn't get the bulk of our best U23's, and that we didn't take the best U23's available in the pool, but rather the some that the coach wanted, and worst of all, we appear to have totally failed in getting the overage striker position addressed. Its just disappointing. That being said, I'm still excited to see if Tessmann and Busio can step up and beyond what was disappointing performances in '21 and '23 respectively, if McGlynn, Cremaschi, Paxten, Griffin and Taylor (man are those latter 3 Millennial/Gen Z names lol) can build on what was at times, very interesting trend lines w/their careers in 2022 and 2023 respectively. Yow in particular....who looked way beyond what I ever expected this past club season. But yeah, the excitement pretty well collapsed when we were unable to get our first, second, third or probably even fourth or fifth preferred attacking option overage selection (either a striker or a playmaker), combined w/the failure to choose the proper roster (no Luna, and a few other guys) really threw a wet blanket on it. I'm still excited, but I wish we were playing France last instead of first.
With Cowell, he may not have been released by Chivas. We haven't heard an answer to the question of whether he wasn't released or just not picked. What I would say is that with the number of players this board has decided are "snubs," you would have thought the roster was 30 players. Difficult decisions had to be made.
Many times a snubbed player learns they aren't an auto choice and it spurs them on to better things. Cowell needed a fire to be lit under him and so far he's responded. Question is will the fire stay lit?
immediately following the roster announcement it was confirmed he wasnt selected, so there was no release requested.
Maybe the olympics should transition to a new variant of soccer. 7x7 with Elam scorign or something. It does knock a lot of the interest down when the rosters are so removed from the best version -- even the best U-23 version.
That's just the way the men's Olympic tournament has been forever. The European Club Association had it taken off of the FIFA calendar for a reason. There's no hope of it turning into an important event. I'm not entirely sure FIFA cares whether people watch it or not. That tournament is an afterthought. its not quite the PanAm games, but its getting there. We got our players released from MLS teams, but we're just lucky to get who we can get from Europe/Mexico. If MLS hadn't taken a break from its season (to do the Leagues Cup), we probably wouldn't have gone some of the domestic players either. We apparently didn't get a bunch of releases from MLS for the U20 CONCACAF Championships.
And yet every cycle, guaranteed, multiple people will try to make the argument that we should prioritize the Olympics for the sake of the casuals that might be converted to soccer if the men win a gold...
Indeed. A nation like France has such a deep pool that they were able to name a good squad. Their overage players are Mateta of Palace, Bade of Sevilla, and Lacazette. Our other group member Guinea was able to get Naby Keita. The France roster is really formidable. Hosts usually bring a formidable roster. It still must be a France U23 "D" team, though. Argentina's roster is nowhere near as strong as it could be. I mean, they're bringing 36 year old Otamendi as an overage player. A goalkeeper I'd never heard of from Ajax as well. Rulli? Seems to be a backup at Ajax. I also happen to think advancing to the medal round will convert the "casuals" to liking soccer.
Anyone else get solicitation emails from US Soccer seeking donations to fund the Olympic team? Total embarrassment.
Unlike Luna, Cade wasn’t in good form with his club. His last few games have been great and is far more valuable than the Olympics. Let’s not forget we’re talking about an amateur tournament. Cade is now bossing full grown men.
I don’t think it’s a France D team. We saw a France C/D team at the U20 World Cup last year and they struggled. I don’t expect that to be the case here..
Who replaced Morris on the roster? Is it correct that the alternates can come on and off game day rosters? All that’s needed is to say some player in the 18 needs rest or something?
Morris was never on the roster. On the second point, I heard something like that in regards to the women, but I'm not sure if true or how it works.
I don’t know how the rule works but there is some weird change that alternates can come on and off the roster.
I figured someone would at least need to be listed as injured to call on an alternate, but I haven't looked into it at all.
Yes, due to injury. OFT2024-Regulations_EN.pdf (fifa.com) Players may only be replaced according to the IOC Late Athlete Replacement Policy for reasons of injury, illness or force majeure. If a player who features on the final list of 18 players or four alternate players sustains a serious injury or is so ill that they can no longer be expected to play, that player may be replaced provided that: (a) the FIFA Tournament Medical Lead has verified the injury or illness on the basis of a medical report submitted by the team doctor responsible (in one of the official FIFA languages) via a secure link; (b) the player’s incapacity has been confirmed by FIFA; and (c) the relevant form has been properly submitted to Paris 2024 by the Chef de Mission of the respective NOC (or other official NOC representative authorised to do so according to the IOC Late Athlete Replacement Policy).
Yes but this rule has changed. It was initially if an alternate replaced someone on the roster that was permanent for the tournament. It is now the case that if there is a “temporary” injury you can change an alternate for the roster (as long as you give six hour notice) and change back for the next game. The question is what counts as a temporary injury and what kind of documentation do you have to provide for it. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5625281/2024/07/08/uswnt-roster-rules-olympic-games/
If it turns out you can just swap players in and out of the roster for the purpose of standard rotation, and there won't be any meaningful scrutiny about the reasons, then the alternate list starts to look a lot more disappointing to me. Because that's basically just a normal 22 man roster with an 18 man gameday roster; if you sold it like that, I wonder if you would have had as many players refusing to be alternates. (It sounds like there were quite a few such players.)
Interesting draw between Argentina and Morocco this morning. Argentina got a laaaaaaaaaate equalizer. We were saying all along "If we finish 2nd in our group then our likely opponent is Argentina! What a terrible draw!" Still might be the case, but maybe not. Also of interest at the moment: New Zealand 1 Guinea 0 30th minute.
Funny enough talking of Argentina, I think Mascherano is exhibit A of how coaching can negatively effect a team. Easy to forget Argentina initially did not qualify for the u 20 World Cup under his leadership and only made it when Indonesia was stripped of hosting duties. But I think Morocco was the better team for much of the game. I have similar concerns with Henry who I felt back in March was outcoached by Marko and only went up 2 0 due to a fluke hand ball and just a few moments of France just out talenting the US