The U.S. men's Under-20 national team's opening match in the Cuadrangular Internacional is one the team will be in a hurry to forget.
Paraguay thrashed the United States, 5-0, on Monday in Arequipa, Peru. Oscar Ruiz netted a hat-trick for Paraguay.
The current U.S. squad playing in Peru is playing without several key players who have begun their college seasons, along with pros who were not released by their clubs.
Here is the squad the United States fielded for the match:
Starting Lineup– 24-Samir Badr, 6-Emilio Orosco, 22-Gale Agbossoumonde, 2-Anthony Brooks, 5-Greg Garza, 11-Victor Garza (10-Francisco Navas Cobo, 46), 21-Conor Shanosky (15-Bryan De La Fuente, 79), 17-Juan Agudelo, 8-Moises Orozco (16-Ernest Nungary, 54), 13-Adrian Ruelas (19-Jeromne Kiesewetter, 71), 9-Omar Salgado (7-Kevin Huezo, 46)
Subs Not Used: 18-Cody Cropper, 4-Christian Flores, 3-Korey Veeder, 14-Cesar Zamora
The United States returns to action on Wednesday against Colombia.
Cropper was a unused sub on this game, this must tell us a lot about the choice of the team?. Samir Badr is prob our worst keeper,and it showed. Most of the other players in the team have not played together before. Its all about choices. Cropper is our best keeper by far. Don’t get too dispondant over these games,Lets judge the final choice of players to play for the USA.
Dissapointing and maybe a reality check for these guys. Prior to the Milk Cup it should be noted that Rongen wasn’t having much success. This team is not very different from the Milk Cup, hopefully they can rebound!
Paraguay is really good. We are lucky they are not in CONCACAF.
Apparently Victor Garza is a straight beast. He won three tournament MVP awards this summer for Tigres’ youth team, playing against very strong European teams.
they played together earlier this year, tournament in mexico and some in a tournament in holland, plus there was a camp earlier as well, all this prior to the milk cup….but i see where you are coiming from….i would also say that perhaps they were over confident and they got waxed this game…i don’t think it’s gloom and doom about our depth…let’s see what happens overall after the other 3 games and see if it should be gloom and doom….
I’ve always hated that meme myself. It is silly on many levels. (I’m not saying that you endorsed it with your comment necessarily)
The US’ problem is simple. Kids pick from 4 other sports first before they pick soccer. Until that changes and it’s a more viable option for sports stardom and money; you are going to continue to lose the most athletically gifted kids (of all races) to baseball and basketball and NFL.
When/if MLS gets to be clearly more popular than NHL, then we will see a marked improvement. Until then, expect more of the same.
Oh and the ‘style’ issues are bogus as well. The successful Latin teams FINALLY realized that you can possess and pass pretty all you want but you need to be able to be physical as well.
Spain learned that lesson all the way to a Euro and World Cup title.
So if our young kids in academies in Mexico etc don’t get that then they just don’t get the international game.
there is a difference…a HUGE difference between losing 2-1 and losing 5-0 though.
Losing 2-1 you might learn something. Losing 5-0 all you know is your team was out-classed up and down the pitch. That’s not exactly a great lesson to learn. This game was little more than a complete humiliation that will teach next to nothing. So yes, it’s a bit of a big deal in terms of building the team for the future as it taught us NOTHING other than our depth sucks.
it may have affected them but as a detriment the effect would be none, since the Paraguayans aren’t coming from a high altitude either.
The 2012 olympics are gonna be awesome.
this wont be up for long
He only just signed with Derby about a month ago. Before that he was an incoming freshman at the Blue Jays, and wasn’t on anyone’s radar. Target Man? I wanna play a 4-3-3 we have the forwards and the mids, screw the results. Its time for some change
Zac Magrath (mispelled his name) GK from Maryland, recently said in an interview witt “yanks-abroad” that having team mates with latin american styles of play has helped the team grow. That we “aren’t just trying to out muscle opponents and stick to the long ball”, but more holding on to possession, taking guys on and combination passing.
Give them time. Can you imagine the struggle they must be going through? 5-0 says its all. The players aren’t on the same level right now. They need to get to know each other and grow with each other. I think it’ll definitely be better once we bring in our European based players. I really don’t think Badr should be the starting keeper though. Even if he is training with the reserves at Porto Cody Cooper and Zac Magrath are better.
Sorry, but No UnionJack or Okugo, no chance.
“The current U.S. squad playing in Peru is playing without several key players who have begun their college seasons, along with pros who were not released by their clubs.”
Ives, why the disclaimer? It seems like you always add some consulation to make certain results seem ok. How about the US got thrashed 5-0 and leave it at that?
(SBI-The “disclaimer” is simply a description of the team for those folks who don’t follow the team closely and may not be aware that this isn’t the full-strength team. You’re grasping at straws.)
I was waiting for that one! 😀
as im too lazy to look further into it, how many outside of the 8 who were at the Milk Cup have played together? And if so how long did they play together?
my main point of that post was that we are integrating players from various leagues in various countries, some of which who have not played together. Different styles are hard to mesh. The german kids play differently then the ones from Mexico or Portugal.
may want to calm down on this, b/c until he signed with Derby very few people had heard his name.
He is getting PT with Derby, and i doubt that they’d release him to a U20’s camp. Trust me, im sure Rongen will be very interested in getting him into a camp however, i dont see it happening until either the christmas break (if they have one) or not until the season is over (which is pushing it).
Either way, i would expect bob or someone in the USSF to contact the kid and express interest
actually quite a few members of this team has played together….
Just read that Conor Doyle has never been contacted by USSF. How can this be possible?? An 18 yr old texan playing in England top level below EPL can’t even get a call?
Well I guess “best” is a strong word, maybe I should say “more regular”, cause some of the kids on this squad have some talent.
Yeah and some of the best U-20 players were unavailable.
While completely is a definite that i shouldnt have used, 8 kids out of 20 are from the Milk Cup. That is a massive turnover on personnel and would compose of a different team completely. Their playing styles, quality and other attributes makes the team that different.
again, i consider a 60% personnel change makes the team quite different.
yes…
but i will also point out that the roster wasnt “missing key players” but rather that Rongen was giving another group of players in our incredibly deep world wide U20 pool a shot to impress.
even if the college and pro kids were available, i doubt Rongen would have included many of them. There are just too many players to look at before the U20 quals and WC.
No its not…Compare rosters before making such statements. There are differences BUT still many of the same players like AgBoss, Agudelo, Ruelas, Salgado, etc.
this is a COMPLETELY different squad then that of the Milk Cup
Is “M” for Moron? read the article. It clearly sates that the team was missing some key college and pro players.
Ives, why are you so stupid? This isn’t even the same team that won’t Northern Ireland Milk Cup. And they are missing most of the European based players.
I like how you selectively pick what stories you want to report on. U.S. U-20 Sebastian Lletget just signed a professional contract with West Ham a few days ago and you don’t even bother to report it. Suspect journalism
Where are all of the people who were calling for the players from the Milk Cup team to be called up to the senior team for the game against Brazil last month?
I hate to see this result, but maybe it will finally get people to shut up about calling in players to the senior squad who clearly aren’t qualified yet.
Why is that not acceptable in a U20 match? It is meaningless other than to look at players. It simply isn’t possible to win every time out.
friendly is a poor term, as it is in fact a tournament, but in all honesty, nothing we should be so hard pressed to win
doesnt speak that at all… it is a team of kids playing all around the world, not playing a consistent playing style (kids from England will play different then those of Germany, then those of Mexico, then those in Portugal). For the most part, this is their first game together as a group, and its not even the current Core group everyone is expecting in meaningful matches.
Remember, in 2007, just before the U20 WC our U20’s lost to Canada 4-0. Yes the same U20 squad that managed such a deep run in 2007… Just like EVERY other meaningless friendly, i wouldnt take the result too serious
think some of you guys are blowing this out of proportion. It isnt about the results, its about players performances, both good and bad.
On top of that, you guys need to realize that 90% of this squad hasnt played together. The result is telling that we dont have cohesion. The milk Cup squad was closer to what our current CORE group is. The current squad that just lost is a chance for Rongen to identify players who deserve a shot with the Core group.
All in all, we shouldnt look too deeply into this result. First game together as a group. Quite a decent number of first or second callups for most of the kids.
completely different group of kids, bar a couple.
Is the U-20 Paraguay squad at full strength?
Speaks to our lack of depth in the youth player pool unfortunately.
if his play in the Milk Cup is any indication some of that 5 goal tally is likely the fault of Badr. McMath was tons better than him at the Milk Cup. Badr looked very bad in the game i watched, he was tentative, always poorly positioned and simply flailed away at crosses and set pieces.
Have to wonder if the alititude affected the players….Arequipa is at 2000 meters of altitude…but nonetheless, a very disappointing result….
everybody knows that rongen is trying to get a look at as many kids as he possibly can before he makes his picks in 2011. regardless, 5-0 is not acceptable.
who was scorers?
Wasn’t everyone raving a few weeks ago how this team had all pros? Not pro enough I guess.
Freddy adu will save us
There is talent, I just think they are realizing that kids who playing South American and Mexican academies are not as good playing in the us style. The kids may be talented but they just dont fit the team or may not be good enough.
Brought down to earth in a hurry… Perhaps they had a bit of inflated heads after winning Milk Cup. Hopefully they’ll regroup and improve.
Are the US’s hispanics really still an untapped talent resource? That squad seems pretty hispanic heavy.
That’s a bit of a reality check for the U-20 team. Not that we can’t compete with the best in the world but just goes to show how deep the pool is and that there are plenty of talented U-20 teams around the world. Just kind of sucks that, as talented as they may be, some of our “key” players are still in college as opposed to the other U-20 team’s players are all pros..
(just kidding!)
this is definately bob bradleys fault
I thought a majority of these American players were pros from overseas. What happened to we gonna crush them over there? 5-0 to start off, DAMN!!
Not really surprising since all the kids who played are academy kids.