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U.S. U-17s thrashed by Germans in Round of 16, eliminated from World Cup

Ussoccer

By CALEB SONNELAND

The United States U-17 national team was dumped out of the FIFA U-17 World Cup by a lethal German side that showed little mercy in dismissing the Americans with a 4-0 result.

Despite registering only one less effort at goal (15) than the Germans (16) according to US Soccer, the United States couldn't capitalize on its chances and fell behind 3-0 going into the half thanks to goals from Koray Guenter (20'), Mitchell Weiser (40'), and Samed Yesil (43'). Yesil played the provider only three minutes before netting himself when he teed Weiser up in front of the U.S. goal to tuck away to double his side's advantage.

Marvin Ducksch capped off the impressive performance shortly after the break in the 49th minute on an assist from defender Cimo Roecker.

The scoreline could be seen as somewhat cruel to the Americans, who pushed forward on several occasions and forced some smart plays from goalkeeper Odisseas Vlachodimos (eight saves) and his back line. Mario Rodriguez had a few testing shots, as did Alfred Koroma and Alejandro Guido, but there was no breaking through as Germany held firm.

A big positive to take away from the match for United States fans was the play of goalkeeper Kendall McIntosh. Though he conceded four goals, McIntosh made several fine saves (10 total) throughout the match and the scoreline could have looked much differently had McIntosh not came to play.

Highlights of the match can be seen here.

What did you think of the game? Was it a case of Germany looking great or the United States looking bad?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. We lost this with the officiating in our group games. A tie against the Uzbeks gives us a reasonable path to the semis, but this German side is destroying everybody. Currently 3-0 over England in a match that could be much worse.

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  2. 16 American MLS academies is much better than 1 USSF Academy.

    There are 2 Canadian academies with a 3rd on the way.

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  3. Stop ruining this board with rational, well thought out comments.

    On a serious note, I entirely agree. Growing up, I remember my first coaches at ages 5-9 were mostly dads that played baseball/football/basketball their entire lives. They couldn’t offer any real technical feedback because their experiences mostly came from watching a few world cup matches. The next generation of coaching will have a leg up on last generations due to increased exposure to the game.

    Also, I think that previous comments about youth teams not progressing because they aren’t winning big tournaments are missing the point of progression. Other national teams’ youth programs are developing continually and we are essentially in the act of “catching up.” A lot of people seem to think that we live in some sort of vacuum in which the US team will simply win if the team develops. We would need to develop at a much faster rate than respective countries for that to happen. While not impossible, this will not happen overnight, with rash changes in leadership, or even over a course of one generation. Soccer has to compete with other deeply entrenched US sports that offer professional players a minimum salary that is above 95% of the salaries of MLS players…start counting the generations and not the months, years or decades…

    Go US! =)

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  4. US youth soccer will improve once:

    – we have kids playing 3 to 4 hours daily WITHOUT a coach yelling at them what to think and do.

    – Talented 10-13 year old kids don’t have to pay exorbitant fees to be part of the sport but are actually paid for their contributions to the club/team.

    Passion and money drive the system.

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  5. Impressive technical ability with the ball, but I feel like he’s very lackluster after giving the ball up. I agree he has boatloads of talent, but in my opinion I’d like to see a little more conviction.

    In any event…cap him he seems to have more upside than most of the team.

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  6. The US has to find a way to open the game up to kids that do not live in the Suburbs. I’m not saying that kids in the burbs are useless; no, we absolutely need them too, but the talent pool has to grow for the US National team to evolve…and the biggest room for growth is in socioeconomic areas that cannot afford to play youth club soccer. This problem seems so blatantly obvious to me.

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  7. Nobody thinks that those games Spain brazil argentina mean that we are as quality as they are but it does show progress. Of course you need great players in great leagues but I think you are underplaying the importance of results. With good results comes more confidence and opportunities for players to be seen by top clubs. Which goes back to my original point that you cannot just ignore scorelines. Yes we r not equals with Spain cause we beat them…but I don’t think anyone feels that way.

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  8. Well, I think that’s changing with MLS and all the soccer on TV the past 3 years. We’re 16 years into MLS. That means there are finally kids who have grown up with a professional league and an entire channel devoted to the best soccer from around the world. Soon there will be kids who grew up with MLS and FSC having kids and we’ll have our second generation of MLS fans. That’s when things will start to grow and compound as far as support for MLS and understanding of soccer.

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  9. USA was a mess in its own third, really disorganized. In the second half there was quite a bit of the typical youth tendency to try to do too much on your own. On a couple instances a pass rather than “one more dribble” probably would have let them get a goal or two back.

    Edit: To be fair, the German GK and defense played well.

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  10. I think he is talking about the youth level…

    The ODP system and the residency program in Bradenton let tons of talented kids fall through the cracks… (look at Clint Dempsey who was never a US youth player)

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  11. I make sure my American Football obsessed school that my children go to has 2 age appropriate balls in every classroom so that recess becomes a de facto street soccer session.

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  12. What would you rather do:
    Teach introductory economics to a bunch of 18 year olds or
    Fly private jets and first class to quarterly boondoggles at the nicest resorts where the only requirement is watching a 30 minute powerpoint about how beautiful the game is and voting for a couple of corrupt banana republic types for senior positions in FIFA.

    Sunil isn’t on the take like most of his peers, but he turns a blind eye to it while siring a teams at all levels that are not reflective of our destiny.

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  13. Can you list these amazing players who Bradley was too dumb to include on the team?

    Like ChrisLSU I can only think of Chandler (club refused) and Holden (injured), and the only two who REALLY did nothing (or worse) for the team were Bornstein and Rogers.

    So, who would be brought in to the “obliterated” player pool?

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  14. Agree 100%, Gary.

    The current crop of chosen pool members would be whittled down to the best by a new manager/coach combo. The coach (hopefully one with international pedigree and a world vision) would squeeze as much out of this talent as possible. He would then rely on the manager of USA Soccer to find the talent we are currently missing (to supplant those excised from the current pool) and make up real plan to increase the pools of future talent.

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  15. I doubt we will produce a Messi without street soccer. How good can you become by playing practicing only twice a week when mom drives them to practice?

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  16. Let’s face it, the best “youth development program” exists in Brazil, not Germany, not england, not even Spain. Kids playing because they love it is the answer, no soccer federation will improve on that. The USA has the best basketball players simply because it has the most kids who love playing and play against each other in games all over, not because the pro coaches have developed a great system.

    I am pretty cynical of any attempts to change things from the top down. When the kids who played soccer in the first wave of US participation 10 to 15 years ago start having their kids playing soccer, things will get better. It will take over another generation and neither Klinnsman, Gulati, nor Claudio Reyna (who has the task under USSF) will make meaningful changes from the top down.

    When the dads of 10 year-olds are more knowledgeable, things will get better, but that takes decades, not years.

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  17. Nigerian youth teams are a bad example. Before bone scans were implemented across the board they were basically using people in their twenties in their youth tournaments.

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