2023 U20 CONCACAF Championship and U23 Olympic Qualification to be merged in a tournament in Summer 2022

[Vasi]

I choose to put a glass half full perspective on this. If we played like shit last night, it is not impossible for the usa to do the same and lose tomorrow. The talent disparity on paper was larger between us and cuba then us and the usa. 

[sose]

there was a fwd playing goalkeeper for the last 15 mins and we didn't manage a shot on net........

Did Bielo field a 2nd rate lineup in hopes of saving the strong squad for the USA on the short turn-around? if so that backfired big time.

[VinceA]

watching the ES-GUA game and it is sobering seeing how easy it is for some teams to flow with their attack and create chances.

[Weng]

38 minutes ago, VinceA said:

watching the ES-GUA game and it is sobering seeing how easy it is for some teams to flow with their attack and create chances.

Agreed.  Watching the Canada it seemed the players were hesitant and unsure.  I saw a number of times players start making a run and then stop, and the pass was made to empty void because the player stopped.  We also needed a player (players) to step up and take control.   Everyone seemed so passive and/or nervous.  It obviously shows that these players needed more time to learn the system and get in sync with each other.  Our coaching staff needed to do a better job of making in-game tactical and player changes, of which they did a very poor job.

Edited June 19, 2022 by Weng

[Stoppage Time]

36 minutes ago, VinceA said:

watching the ES-GUA game and it is sobering seeing how easy it is for some teams to flow with their attack and create chances.

The first half of the Canada-Cuba match showed two bunkering teams play against each other. Canada held lots of useless possession and had very little attacking creativity. That is mostly poor coaching in my opinion.

[narduch]

Yesterday's results 

 

[Stryker911]

1 hour ago, narduch said:

Yesterday's results 

 

So scoring isn't hard at this tournament?

[narduch]

Today's matches. All times ET.

[VinceA]

3 hours ago, Stryker911 said:

So scoring isn't hard at this tournament?

Talking out loud about this game to a co-worker only further emphasized how ridiculous it was we couldn't score on a 10 man Cuba with a FW in net.

[narduch]

Starting soon. 

 

[phresh]

2 hours ago, narduch said:

Starting soon. 

 

Cuba ends up winning 6-0.

Edited June 20, 2022 by phresh

[blueseeka]

That is good. Cuba is better than we thought. St. Kitts is very bad

[solsous]

The boys played well, tonight.  However, at this level a #10 is desperately needed.

[reggietfc]

looks like the 25 yr old cuban men are for real 7 nil win

[solsous]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Josh Cruddas

 

@joshcruddas

· 1h

This Canadian U20 team is...not good. #CanPL and Canadian #MLS/Academy players getting outclassed massively out here. First by *Cuba* and now by, obviously, the USA. Some Timbits-level soccer being played by our boys out there. Yikes. #canm20 #ConcacafU20 #CanMNT

 

Here is the rebuttal:  

Kamal Miller

 

@KMillz_00

·

1h

 

This is pretty harsh Josh! I think this is a good result considering all circumstances well done boys and keep pushing #CanM20

[solsous]

Sorry about the huge-ass fonts!

[Shway]

In typical Canadian soccer journo fashion, he deleted his comment because he didn’t want to mess up any future opportunities…

[Footyeh]

2 hours ago, solsous said:

The boys played well, tonight.  However, at this level a #10 is desperately needed.

We have them in Catavolo and Habibullah, the latter I truely believe is the most unique #10 we have in the entire national setup with his characteristics..  But both are completely useless if the coaches insist on dropping 9 players behind the ball because they don't have confidence in their own players.  

[Aird25]

31 minutes ago, Footyeh said:

We have them in Catavolo and Habibullah, the latter I truely believe is the most unique #10 we have in the entire national setup with his characteristics..  But both are completely useless if the coaches insist on dropping 9 players behind the ball because they don't have confidence in their own players.  

Habibullah hasn’t been particularly impressive for Pacific. He’s struggled to get up to the speed of play, even at CPL level. The ability is there though 

I agree with Miller. The general sentiment after this match is surprisingly pessimistic 

[Footyeh]

53 minutes ago, Aird25 said:

Habibullah hasn’t been particularly impressive for Pacific. He’s struggled to get up to the speed of play, even at CPL level. The ability is there though 

I agree with Miller. The general sentiment after this match is surprisingly pessimistic 

Wouldn't agree that it's the speed of the play, it's really not high in the CPL if we're being honest.. It's more so the type/style of play more than anything.  It's like taking a player from Spain/Portugal/Italy and dropping them in the Scottish league.  It's vastly different than being surrounded by the SA/EU talent in the Caps 1st team that play to his style.  His few 1st team cameo's last year are more telling for me than anything he will show playing for Pacific.  Would put his technical ability up against any other player in the pool but again... if we don't have the players behind to keep and play with the ball, of course players like this will be useless as how would you expect him to impact the game?  Him and Lowell were pressing from the front the entire first half and the few times they got on the ball, there really were no options other than to go backwards.  IMO Luna, Aaronson, Sullivan from the States are all players of similar profile to Habibullah and I'd bet that individually they would all struggle to make an impact playing in our U20 side.

Campagna is very good on the ball from CB, Smith from CDM is fantastic in the build up even under pressure.  Our fullbacks and midfield don't have the technical ability, confidence, composure to play out of trouble and until we develop players who can at this level, we will continue to sit in a defensive bunker for 90 mins with a World Cup/Olympics on the line.  

 

[Ivan]

3 hours ago, Footyeh said:

Wouldn't agree that it's the speed of the play, it's really not high in the CPL if we're being honest.. It's more so the type/style of play more than anything.  It's like taking a player from Spain/Portugal/Italy and dropping them in the Scottish league.  It's vastly different than being surrounded by the SA/EU talent in the Caps 1st team that play to his style.  His few 1st team cameo's last year are more telling for me than anything he will show playing for Pacific.  Would put his technical ability up against any other player in the pool but again... if we don't have the players behind to keep and play with the ball, of course players like this will be useless as how would you expect him to impact the game?  Him and Lowell were pressing from the front the entire first half and the few times they got on the ball, there really were no options other than to go backwards.  IMO Luna, Aaronson, Sullivan from the States are all players of similar profile to Habibullah and I'd bet that individually they would all struggle to make an impact playing in our U20 side.

Campagna is very good on the ball from CB, Smith from CDM is fantastic in the build up even under pressure.  Our fullbacks and midfield don't have the technical ability, confidence, composure to play out of trouble and until we develop players who can at this level, we will continue to sit in a defensive bunker for 90 mins with a World Cup/Olympics on the line.  

 

From what I have seen so far, I agree with the overall sentiment of your post regarding a lot of the players not being at the level of their opponents.  I agree the coaching style/tactics may be contributing to this.  However, I disagree on a few of your players comments.  Habibullah is a player most of us on here have seen many times over.  I have yet to see his play match the hype he gets, whether it be for the Whitecaps, Pacific or this current edition of the U20s.  I also think Poku has demonstrated the traits you list in a fullback so far.  I also haven't minded Franklin's game so far, although the final play has been somewhat lacking.  I agree with your Smith and Campagna comments.

Also, for those saying Goodman would make a difference, other than distribution, it's hard to argue with what Alexander has provided so far.

[Dominic94]

3 hours ago, Footyeh said:

Wouldn't agree that it's the speed of the play, it's really not high in the CPL if we're being honest.. It's more so the type/style of play more than anything.  It's like taking a player from Spain/Portugal/Italy and dropping them in the Scottish league.  It's vastly different than being surrounded by the SA/EU talent in the Caps 1st team that play to his style.  His few 1st team cameo's last year are more telling for me than anything he will show playing for Pacific.  Would put his technical ability up against any other player in the pool but again... if we don't have the players behind to keep and play with the ball, of course players like this will be useless as how would you expect him to impact the game?  Him and Lowell were pressing from the front the entire first half and the few times they got on the ball, there really were no options other than to go backwards.  IMO Luna, Aaronson, Sullivan from the States are all players of similar profile to Habibullah and I'd bet that individually they would all struggle to make an impact playing in our U20 side.

Campagna is very good on the ball from CB, Smith from CDM is fantastic in the build up even under pressure.  Our fullbacks and midfield don't have the technical ability, confidence, composure to play out of trouble and until we develop players who can at this level, we will continue to sit in a defensive bunker for 90 mins with a World Cup/Olympics on the line.  

 

I agree with everything but not having the ability to play out of pressure, we have it but Biello isn’t instilling confidence in his players by being afraid of the us.

cleary the mantra is play safe here.

[hodgkiss]

One thing is certainly clear, Ferdinand is a beast. Best player on the pitch last night IMO. Smith and Alexander looked good as well. I thought they defended well as a team, they just appear to be missing the confidence to go forward.

However, I think there is a bit more to the way that they are playing at the moment. Seeing that the top 3 teams from each group move along, they are trying to conserve some energy and avoid injuries while keeping other teams guessing how they might approach knockout games.

I haven't seen enough of them to support this theory. I just feel that it's possible knowing that Herdman has probably watched every minute of the matches and has gotten on the horn with Biello to work on tactics moving forward.

A win and we move on - seems to be a realistic outcome - and then it starts!

 

 

 

[narduch]

Yesterday's results:

Today's matches, all times ET.

[PopePouri]

How garbage is the US defense and goalkeeping. First with Wright making them look like pylons, and then the farcical own goal that didn't get saved. They will easily be exposed against better teams.