By FRANCO PANIZO
Tab Ramos has touted the current U.S. Under-20 Men’s National Team as the most experienced and talented one that he has ever coached, but now the Americans will have to live up to the hype and deliver in order to prove they are deserving of such superlatives.
The U.S. Under-20s will begin their much-anticipated World Cup campaign on Saturday morning (12:01 am ET, Fox Sports 1) with a match against relatively unknown Myanmar. The Americans enter the showdown at Northland Events Center as the favorites, but that’s a role they are expected to carry throughout the opening rounds of the competition after also being paired with New Zealand and Ukraine in a favorable Group A.
Apart from having landed a kinder draw, this group of U.S. U-20s is also much more seasoned than the one that went three and out in Turkey two years ago. Players like captain Emerson Hyndman (Fulham), Rubio Rubin (FC Utrecht) and Kellyn Acosta (FC Dallas) have begun to break through at the club level, making for increased expectations and pressure in this World Cup.
The Americans are aware of that, and of the fact that failing to get out of the group will be deemed as a huge failure. Still, the U.S. is not thinking that far ahead. The sole focus right now is on starting the tournament with a win.
“Our goal right now is to beat Myanmar the first game, so if we can get the three points the first game then the next challenge will come along,” Ramos said earlier this month. “One of the things that the team knows – and it’s no secret because I think every team in the world will tell you – that the team that we have can beat any team in any one given day.
“Right now we just have to focus on one game and win that one and then we’ll take the others as they come along, because nobody is going to give us anything. I know that, and Myanmar is a lot harder to prepare than it was to prepare Spain and than it was to prepare Ghana or France.”
Scouting for Myanmar may not be as easy as scouting for some of the traditional world powers, but the U.S. is still largely expected to control the opening game on Saturday. Ramos’ side boasts a bevy of technically-gifted and versatile weapons in the attack – including Hyndman, Jordan Allen (Real Salt Lake), Bradford Jamieson (LA Galaxy), and Joel Sonora (Boca Juniors) – and that should allow the Americans to dictate much of the tempo and create chances.
In fact, it is the U.S.’s attacking unit that is considered the team’s strength. The defense does have solid pieces in talented goalkeeper Zack Steffen (SC Freiburg) and centerback duo Matt Miazga (New York Red Bulls) and Cameron Carter-Vickers (Tottenham). But questions persist at outside back, where it seems that newcomer Desevio Payne (Groningen) is likely to replace one of Shaquell Moore (Huracan) or John Requejo (Tijuana).
“He’s excited to be here so I value that a lot,” said Ramos of Payne. “Then you see him play and you’re like, ‘Oh, and he can do that, too? That’s pretty good.’ He’s not just a good guy.”
Even with all the talent the U.S. possesses, there is one player who will have more eyeballs on him than the rest. Highly-coveted prospect Gedion Zelalem (Arsenal) was only recently given the green light by FIFA to represent the Americans, and many fans and observers are curious to see if the 18-year-old midfielder is as good as advertised.
For Ramos, a main issue will be figuring out how to fit Zelalem into an already-established group in a short amount of time. Ramos has hinted at moving to a 4-4-2 diamond formation for the World Cup, but it’s unclear if Zelalem can jump right in and contribute given his lack of familiarity with the other U.S. players.
Regardless, the onus will be on the group as a whole. Steffen and Acosta will be just as important as Zelalem or Hyndman or Tommy Thompson (San Jose Earthquakes).
That’s a lesson the Americans learned from their imperfect but ultimately successful qualifying campaign in Jamaica back in January. The U.S. came out of the gates slowly in that tournament before making adjustments, realizing that it can’t overestimate any opponent at this level, and finishing strong to punch its ticket to New Zealand.
“You can’t take any team lightly because every team is fighting for something, every team got there for a reason,” Miazga told SBI earlier this month. “Now, it’s the World Cup, so it’s going to be an even bigger test, and we’re looking forward to it.”
Ramos has helped prepare his youngster for the World Cup by asking former U.S. internationals to impart their wisdom. The iconic Brad Friedel is on Ramos’ staff for the tournament, and the legendary Landon Donovan recently paid the team a visit down under.
Now, the players will need to take all that they’ve learned at both the club and international levels in recent months and apply it to the World Cup. The expectations are big, but so is the opportunity to do something special.
“It’s a big chance, obviously, to showcase and kind of show ourselves to the world,” Bradford Jamieson (LA Galaxy) told SBI last month. “It’s the world stage. It’s the biggest competition for the U-20 age group. It’s definitely the place where you want to be at this age.”
If you watched the Rapids-Sounders much like Tijuana-Sounders; I think it was a mistake to leave Roldan behind.
Let’s talk about a U.S. team that is actually good for a change — the women.
Ever notice how that team’s starting line-ups are not so crazy all the time like the men? Especially the defenders. For the most part, it is the same group that has learned to play with each other in the back. Makes a big difference.
Ives, how about a projected starting line-up for the women’s World Cup?
Here we go again. The world is quaking in their boots to play against benchwarmers on reserve teams, smh.
Self-loathing Americans are tiresome but oddly common among US soccer fans for some reason.
Who are these bench warmers on reserve squads? Sonora is Boca Juniors reserves #10, Zelelam is a starter for Arsenal’s U-21 side, CCV is a starter for Tottenham’s U-21 squad, and Everyone in MLS is either starting or getting consistent minutes. Do you even watch these guys? Gotta love people who have no clue what they’re talking about, yet decide to comment on it anyway.
Francois, wow did you read what you just wrote? While I don’t agree with the spirit of Day Walker’s comment, your reply to him was still funny.
You said, “Who are these bench warmers on reserve squads?”
And then you proceeded to list the players that are playing on reserve squads, basically killing your rebuttal and your claim that he has “no clue”. –>
“Sonora is Boca Juniors reserve”
“Zelalem Arsenal U-21”
“CCV Tottenham’s U-21”
Youth club teams are basically reserve squads. At best they play in some sort of reserve league or a country’s third division, but sometimes 4th division or lower.
..unless if your argument was to say that they are starters for their club’s reserve-team and not on the bench of that reserve-team? But that hardly seems worth bringing up. Either they are a 1st team player or they aren’t.
The opening poster said they were benchwarmers on reserve teams and they’re actually mostly starters for reserve teams or getting first team minutes.
Wow, I know they teach reading comprehension at UCLA, because I just graduated from there last year and it was still part of the curriculum. You skip class and just kick it in Westwood?
For Ramos, a main issue will be figuring out how to fit Zelalem into an already-established group in a short amount of time. Ramos has hinted at moving to a 4-4-2 diamond formation for the World Cup
Jurgen: “I appreciate Tab’s villingness to alter formations and tactics upon entering a competitive tournament, but I am confused by his inability to recognize that Zelalem should clearly be slotted in as ze goalkeeper in order to remove him from his comfort zone.”
Jurgen: “We have to throw him in the cold water so that he can go through the learning curve and play more proactive football.”
According to the Four Letter, Klinsmann just tried to recruit another German for the United States, but he said “Nein!” to JK and will suit-up for the German U-21 team.
Jeremy Toljan of Hoffenheim. 20 years old. Croatian mother, dead American father, born in Germany.
he could play for Croatia too.. seriously, there were rumors that he was interested in switching and playing for the US even though he had played for Germany’s U-20 back in 2013.
He’s a left back with extremely good pace.
I think he’ll ride the Germany setup as long as he can…so would I, especially if I was living in Germany, playing in Germany, and getting minutes with the German U-21 team. He gets a boatload of minutes for Hoffenheim and is probably a good candidate to make the senior team.
If he falls down the pecking order, mind, and gets to be 24 or 25, like Fabian Johnson was, and still isn’t sniffing the first team, that’d be the point at which you’d expect to see him file that one-time switch. But why do that unless you have to? You could also see the Germans cap him just to keep Jurgen’s hands off him…JK’s poaching is starting to ruffle some feathers over there. They were fine with letting us have Jermaine Jones but they did wince a bit over Fabian Johnson and they’re wincing even more now over Jon Brooks – they know we stole a very good young one who might have factored for Germany at some point – and while we like to bad-mouth him they weren’t thrilled over losing Julian Green either.
Be interesting to keep an eye peeled Toljan’s way, though, just to see what develops. Left backs – especially really athletic speedy ones – do not exactly fall off of trees.
I don’t think any of those guys would’ve played much, if at all, for Germany. We should develop our own players instead of poaching.
Yes, we should develop our own players. We should also utilize any and all players eligible for the US. Even Spain uses nationalized players (Senna, Costa) who they didn’t develop.
Yeah that’s against the spirit of the game in my view but at least Spain doesn’t field a team half-filled with foreigners every time out. And their fans are clamoring for more recruiting.
I don’t care how good this kid is – I’d rather have Greg Garza playing left-back for the USMNT because at least he’s actually American even if he isn’t as talented as someone we could “convince” to play for us. Recruiting is for club football.
Those foreigners are Americans, Mr. Xenophobia. The US constitution dictates who is and isn’t an American citizen, not you.
Yeah although your constitutional argument only applies to people who were born here, which is not the case for most of these guys.
No question they can legally apply for and get U.S. citizenship. That doesn’t mean it’s within the spirit of the international game to recruit guys with little connection here.
It’s even more baffling because with the exception of Jones and Johnson, none of these guys are any better than the guys currently in the pool.
Finally, your name calling is uncalled for. I guess it makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside to engage in moralizing but it’s pretty tiresome.
How many times do I have to tell you? If a person has an American citizen as a parent, they are American citizens, regardless of birthplace. They do not have to apply for citizenship.This is well established US law. Of the players you have complained about, only Zelalem was not born a US citizen, and you seem to be okay with him. It would improve your credibility if you learned the law and were logically consistent.
There are two arguments here (two camps) that people cling to:
1. The law. (ex.) If you somehow get American citizenship then you are eligible and that’s good enough.
2. The spirit of International Soccer, what it is supposed to be about.
Both arguments have their merits, but you guys act like this is just a Slowleftarm thing, it isn’t. There is backlash to this type of thing all over the world. In Mexico, the vast majority of people feel like Slow. In Italy, Roberto Mancini recently said that every player on the Italian National team should be born in Italy. There is a reason why Fifa has created these rules to make it harder to play for other countries (like the rule that Zelalem needed an exemption for), and that’s because they also realize that some of this goes against the spirit of what international soccer is supposed to be about.
I agree with UCLA’s comment but would also point out two things:
1. Children of US citizens born abroad do in fact have to apply for citizenship: http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/abroad/events-and-records/birth.html
see also http://travel.state.gov/content/travel/english/legal-considerations/us-citizenship-laws-policies/citizenship-child-born-abroad.html
Plus the post I was responding to said the constitution determines these matters, which is not true in most cases. The fourteenth amendment provides that anyone born here is a citizen but that doesn’t apply to many of the players we are discussing although it does for Green and AJ (and maybe a couple of others, I’m not sure).
2. I never “complained” about Zelalem – I think he could plausibly play for the US or Germany. He grew up here and learned the game here until leaving for Arsenal. I’m 100% supportive of him playing for the US.
I agree with UCLA’s comment but would also point out two things:
1. Children of US citizens born abroad do in fact have to apply for citizenship.
Plus the post I was responding to said the constitution determines these matters, which is not true in most cases. The fourteenth amendment provides that anyone born here is a citizen but that doesn’t apply to many of the players we are discussing although it does for Green and AJ (and maybe a couple of others, I’m not sure).
2. I never “complained” about Zelalem – I think he could plausibly play for the US or Germany. He grew up here and learned the game here until leaving for Arsenal. I’m 100% supportive of him playing for the US.
slow, you wrote:
“1. Children of US citizens born abroad do in fact have to apply for citizenship.”
That is 100% incorrect.
I was born in France to American parents and got U.S. citizenship automatically.
Here’s the actual law:
http://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship/citizenship-through-parents
This has disaster written all over it. Maybe it was our weak qualifying campaign in Concacaf or just being conditioned to seeing our youth national teams be horrible, but I am pessimistic about it. I hope I get proven wrong. Friday night game at 9:01pm, I like it, can watch it at a bar. West Coast is the best coast!
But Landon Donovan being down there does make me feel better about it. Maybe he gave them an Al Pacino type speech from ‘Any Given Sunday’ to get them pumped up and ready to go.
I would pay good money to watch Donovan perform such a speech. lol.
You’re sweating a group with NZ and Mynamar? Wow!
Slow, the group is not the whole competition. I guess this all comes down to what are an individuals expectations. If they got out of the group but then lost right away in the first game, I would not be satisfied at all. That would still be considered a bad tournament.
And yes I am sweating that group. Did you not see our qualifying campaign? This team hasn’t shown the consistency and chemistry on the field to take any group for granted.
Ok I misunderstood then. I think QF is a realistic goal. I don’t think our group should pose any problems. I know the qualifying performance wasn’t the best but I still think we should be fine.
We should win this group, but you can never look past the host nation, even if it is just New Zealand. Hosting the tournament and having a great crowd behind you has helped many teams do well in the past. That being said, I would expect us still to win the group.
This group is a joke and the US should win it, not just advance out of it. How far they go beyond that depends on matchups but I have high hopes for this team.
Screw getting out of the group… if this team does not make and perhaps even win a game @ the quarter finals stage it will be a huge failure in my eyes… this is the softest group any US team has been in at any level for a long long time…
Hyndman is going to be the star of the tournement… the kids is the real deal in the middle of the park…
Kudos to Manny Schellscheidt for bringing Emerson into several National team camps when he when he was underaged and definitely undersized. He did the same with Scotty Caldwell and countless other young players.
No disrespect to our U-20’s because I’ll be watching them closely during the WC but does anybody know when the roster for the men’s senior team upcoming friendlies will be released?? It’s absurd that every year the US roster is, no matter the game or tourney, the last to surface as if it’s some top secret, otherworldly thing smh
My guess is they’ll release it at half time of one of the Sunday night MLS matches. They did that before if I remember.
Your cookie’s in the mail…
Ives, when are we going to get a projected starting roster? I my dying to see one from you.
the lineup vs serbia was basically our starting 11