CONCACAF U20 qualifying (for the cycle ending in 2025) + preparation & news

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

Opposite to the senior team. 

Trying to time waste from the 83' most often does not work.

[blueseeka]

Lopez post interview. English is way better than I expected

[gator]

Where have I seen this before from a Canadian team? We are so damn naive, we just don't get how to see these games out, we make foolish forays into attacking positions and commit way too many players forward, this was almost a carbon copy of the 3rd place ending, rant over!

[CanadaFan123]

Nothing to do with throwing players forward. They were able to have 4 players touch the ball unchallenged. The pass out wide, in the box and then the scorer. How? We had numbers back.

[solsous]

Absolutely brutal!!!!

[blueseeka]

Eveeyone was back in that last play. Just bad marking and perfect ball drop for Honduras.

[Dominic94]

We’ve not won with Olivieri 

[lamptern]

When can we fire this coach?

He has enough talented players to be successful. Look what we have here, a 11 players group without a system.

[gator]

3 minutes ago, CanadaFan123 said:

Nothing to do with throwing players forward. They were able to have 4 players touch the ball unchallenged. The pass out wide, in the box and then the scorer. How? We had numbers back.

Let me clarify, I am not speaking about just the goal because we did have men back and things just fell perfect for them, what I am talking about is time management in the dying minutes of a match!

[74 Whitecap]

Disappointing the way it ended, but still a decent result overall. Still all to play for.

[blueseeka]

There is alot of revisionist history going on here. After the first goal until they scored on the last play, Honduras had zero real chances. They buried the single chance they had in the final 40 minutes of play. It was brutal. It absolutely sucks but Honduras has made the last 4 u20 world cups for a reason.

 

These kids played really well on a crappy pitch. They were exhausted at the end of the game

Edited July 21 by blueseeka

[Aird25]

Greco-Taylor was once again one of the best players on the pitch 

[Borjans Sweatpants]

21 minutes ago, blueseeka said:

There is alot of revisionist history going on here. After the first goal until they scored on the last play, Honduras had zero real chances. They buried the single chance they had in the final 40 minutes of play. It was brutal. It absolutely sucks but Honduras has made the last 4 u20 world cups for a reason.

 

These kids played really well on a crappy pitch. They were exhausted at the end of the game

Agreed, this is what, the number 2 team in the tourney? We weren’t supposed to get a result here, so lots of positivity moving forward.

Just sucks to lose when a win could be huge for those 3rd place teams moving on. 

[nolando]

1 hour ago, dyslexic nam said:

Seriously.  I don’t know how we can be that casual in the last minute of a key game.  

Our RB on that last play just waving his leg out giving so much space for the cross. Smh

[Corazon]

7 hours ago, nolando said:

Our RB on that last play just waving his leg out giving so much space for the cross. Smh

That was actually Biello.  I noticed it as well.  He must have been exhausted because he came out to defend so slow, gave a lot of space and was turned quite lazily.

[solsous]

3 hours ago, Corazon said:

That was actually Biello.  I noticed it as well.  He must have been exhausted because he came out to defend so slow, gave a lot of space and was turned quite lazily.

For the entirety of the game, the defensive players failed to close down the Honduran players shots.  Over the past 10 years or so, defensive players have mastered the art of blocking shots around the 18 yard line.  That was sorely missing from our players.  They were very slow in reacting for some weird reason.  Maybe that's on the coaching staff.

[AnonymousInsider]

Positives and negatives aside, only players from this roster being potential CANMNT contributors are Lopez and maybe Swiderski. Everyone else has a ceiling ranging from solid MLS player to CPL in my eyes. When I say contributor, I mean someone we can put on the field in a game like a Copa America semi-final, not a rotational piece for Gold Cup games. Also not including the really young players on the roster, because they’re still kids. Also anyone else see when Badwal just stood at the top of the box when there was a rebound five metres from him and he did nothing? Can’t believe players at this level make these kinds of mistakes.

[blueseeka]

3 minutes ago, AnonymousInsider said:

Positives and negatives aside, only players from this roster being potential CANMNT contributors are Lopez and maybe Swiderski. Everyone else has a ceiling ranging from solid MLS player to CPL in my eyes. When I say contributor, I mean someone we can put on the field in a game like a Copa America semi-final, not a rotational piece for Gold Cup games. Also not including the really young players on the roster, because they’re still kids. Also anyone else see when Badwal just stood at the top of the box when there was a rebound five metres from him and he did nothing? Can’t believe players at this level make these kinds of mistakes.

I think Biello has a chance too. He was very confident in possession of the ball. The game slowed down around him when he had the ball

[dyslexic nam]

3 minutes ago, AnonymousInsider said:

Positives and negatives aside, only players from this roster being potential CANMNT contributors are Lopez and maybe Swiderski. Everyone else has a ceiling ranging from solid MLS player to CPL in my eyes. When I say contributor, I mean someone we can put on the field in a game like a Copa America semi-final, not a rotational piece for Gold Cup games. Also not including the really young players on the roster, because they’re still kids. Also anyone else see when Badwal just stood at the top of the box when there was a rebound five metres from him and he did nothing? Can’t believe players at this level make these kinds of mistakes.

I think this is premature. Biello has looked quite good at times.  Morgan had some nice plays as well.   Not sure you can write off players at 18 or 19 when they are just emerging as pros - especially given what we have seen with guys like Bombito.   

[nolando]

7 hours ago, Corazon said:

That was actually Biello.  I noticed it as well.  He must have been exhausted because he came out to defend so slow, gave a lot of space and was turned quite lazily.

I only was able to watch the last 30 mins or so but I understand Biello was one of our best players, so I will give him a pass on that last one. Sort of like the Uruguay collapse.

Edited July 21 by nolando

[AnonymousInsider]

13 minutes ago, dyslexic nam said:

I think this is premature. Biello has looked quite good at times.  Morgan had some nice plays as well.   Not sure you can write off players at 18 or 19 when they are just emerging as pros - especially given what we have seen with guys like Bombito.   

I get what you’re saying, but these guys have been in pro systems for their whole careers pretty much, unlike Bombito who entered one at 23. And I’m not writing them off from the national team entirely. I think both of those guys could become depth pieces who could get called into camps. But in terms of guys who can play against other world class nations, I really only see Lopez and Swiderski as possibilities, dare I say likelihoods. Could be wrong, and I’ll gladly be if more of these guys can become that good, but I’m just not optimistic about them. Part of it for me is definitely due to them still not being properly tested against the US or Mexico too, and the other part is the physical aspect. Biello and Morgan aren’t the greatest athletes for their positions, so I worry how they’ll be able to handle that level. Also have seen first-hand and heard from others how one of the two navigates mental obstacles, and I wasn’t impressed at all. Again, will gladly be wrong about all of these guys if it means they better our national team, but that’s just my opinion. Also, I’m thinking with the goal of becoming a top 10-15 nation in the world because that’s what we can be, so I may be more pontifical than intended and that’s my bad.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

 

 

[Aird25]

Half of our current national team were scooping ice cream as teenagers, so I'm not ready to throw in the towel on these kids yet

[Bison44]

Hilarious..disparaging guys off perfomance on a U-20 team.  Half our guys on CMNT never even made their CDN U-20 teams, became stars after that.  

Just for shits and giggles, a quick look at the 2017 U-20 team, long enough back but still recent enough to give a relatively true picture etc, ST CLair, Miller, Millar, Fraser were on our CONCACAF U-20 squad...hmmm not bad eh?  Guys from that same cohort that werent there.... Bair, Shaff, Cornelius, Johnston, Buchanon, Choiniere.  

[FC_Hali]

Not a great performance. We didn’t generate much but capitalized (impressively) on our few chances. Fortunate to be up 2-0 at halftime, which now makes the result feel more like a loss. The task becomes much more difficult now.

I like the Biello-Badwal CM pairing. That partnership was bright during u17 qualifying and they really controlled the middle third of the field. Lopez had some nice moments but faded in the second half. Looks like he came off injured? Swiderski looks technically sound and was probably our best player. I like Greco-Taylor’s energy. Shades of Shaffelburg down the left side. 

My gosh, what is it with Concacaf where these qualifying tournaments are always hosted under such terrible playing conditions? These teams would be better off (and safer) playing on turf. Why are we never in the running to host one of these?

I didn’t have high expectations going in and overall I don’t put much stock in these tournaments. I don’t think it’s critical that we compete at the level of USA or Mexico. Our development as a soccer country comes primarily through other pathways. 

Edited July 21 by FC_Hali