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.
Well they didn’t even qualify for Euro 2008 so take from that what you will.
did you see how are u17s responded. started making everything 1 v 1 and trying to show up the germans. instead of working as a team and just trying to get the first one back or even better after 3-0 at half at least finishing 3-0. a joke and if anyone for one second thinks the usmnt program has any idea what its doing then its a joke. wilmer valderamma is total crap and its a dead give away, half his team will never make a training session as a pro. u can see that from touch number 1
How come the women’s team gets a foreign coach but not the men’s team? No fair!
wait, every time I go to y’alls blog it harps on and on about how too much emphasis is placed on winning and not enough on player development. Now you are saying that reducing the pressure to win won’t help us focus on player development? I’m confused.
follow me @jareldinho on twitter. US is a joke and it comes from the top. I was at a major leauge game tonite in a major soccer city u20 level and the coach of one of the major major clubs has national team players all over is some english guy that has no idea what he is doing. he has quality but he is thinking what he needs to do isnt what he needs to do at all. they could of played some sik soccer but dont understand what their real talents are in the game or how and when to let their personality speak for itself. obviously i interupted him at half and put in my son michael bradley. the rest of the game was really slow and michael stuggled to see both sides of the field at once. all in all my wife was happy
So Gary, what members of the US pool would never be invited back? Bornstein and Robbie Rodgers are a good start, I’d say, but you say the pool would be obliterated. I just don’t see anyone in our player pool right now who is really better than the team BB called for the Gold Cup, with the exceptions of Chandler, Mix Diskerud, Holden (injury) and not calling in Bedoya in the first place. What kind of players would be filling in the holes if we lost a lot of our squad?
Woah, it’s Gary Kleiban. Listen to what this man says about player development.
sorry I think you missed the point.
That is not the main problem. It is yet another myth people are buying into.
The coaches in this country don’t know how to develop players, period. That’s the crux. Relieving the pressure to win, will have negligible impact.
A kid that can’t break into any squad in Europe and only looked dangerous once Jonathan “I don’t know what defense is” Bornstein stepped onto the field. That Dos Santos? You really want to use him as your line of reasoning? Mexico is not the power some of you suddenly think they are after beating us 4-2. We sent a squad to the Gold Cup with many question marks. Remember all the discussion about the roster before the tourney? Then when that team that everyone questioned to begin with makes it to the finals and loses mostly due to a defensive substitution its the apocolypse for the USSF?
Some of the posters on here make no sense. If you really think Mexico is that good after beating a very thing US side due to the lack of depth we had then I could see your point about their U-17 side. Then again it would be one of very few times where a youth tournament meant something moving forward. You list one instance that is yet to be proven more than beating us in the gold cup while I can list team upon team upon team that performed when they were young and then nothing was heard from them again.
+2
Yes chuck winning and progress are linked. But one has to understand the context of the scorelines to determine whether they’re indicative of progress or not. For example beating Spain, competing with Brazil in Confed Cup final, or tying Argentina in the recent freindly were good results. However, anyone with half a soccer brain should know better.
Furthermore, yes France has been an example of an underachiever when considering the rank of their players. But let’s look at the general rule. Specifically, that the roster of ALL the heavyweight soccer powers play in the top clubs in the top leagues. That is a good metric of where our game stands. So if new coaching at the youth and senior national teams can identify the truly talented in this country, then those players should be able to crack more prestigious club rosters. Results will follow …
Good stuff Jeff.
But in one area, you are making the same mistake as the vast majority. That is, that any coach would be working with the same player pool. NO WAY!
The player pool that exists now would get obliterated by any coach who understands international player quality. Maybe a handful of guys would survive, the rest would never be called up again. This pool that has been established by very limited scouts and coaches over the years is filled with junk.
The assumption that these are the best in our country is completely wrong. People tend to think this way, because the assumption is that the cream rises to the top. Well, it doesn’t.
Obviously I can’t prove to anyone here that my assertions above are true. Until an elite level coach, like Bielsa, takes over, the truth will not be uncovered.
Yeah, uh, McBean looked terrible. Got off one or two decent shots, even then pretty weak given other candidates for solid goals over the past week in u-17, u-21, gold cup, and women’s world cup. In fact, his shots were crap. He looked terrible, give me an overdribbling Koroma. We looked alright on offense but of course we still can’t finish in the final third.
Plus Bradenton takes in what like 15 year olds earliest? It’s home of the U-16 and u-17 squads. By 15 it’s too late to be trying to teach technical fundamentals. Maybe tactics but not even, kids should know tactics by 15 too.
When Klinsmann was approached for the USMNT job, he identified major systemic problems with the Youth programs developed by the USSF.
As part of his requested responsibilities for the USMNT was assumption of control over the USSF youth programs which are the “feeders” for the USMNT.
Without control over the process of development any fixes he could implement in the USMNT would be ephemeral and would be undone as soon as the youth players segued to the Men’s team.
In short Klinsmann was looking long term as well as short term.
Instead Gulati caved to the small thinking fiefdoms that controls youth soccer in this country.
As you can see by the results of the U20 and now the U17’s; we are going backwards.
Only a complete revamp of the USSF youth development programs as well as bringing in fresh blood to the coaching positions can possibly turn the slide around.
The USSF and Gulati will need to bring in someone soon.
The recent losses at the youth world cups and the USMNT Gold Cup show how the mens team has been sliding lately.
A thourough housecleaning is in order.
“If you are not part of the solution you are part of the precipitate”
Word got a link or something?
I watched. The first 3 goals came in a flurry, one after the other. After that it was caution to the wind stuff, but like we see so often with the senior team, just no breakthroughs in front of goal. Shots straight at the keeper, wayward crosses, too many touches in the box, players slipping and tripping over their own feet. And in fairness to Germany, they held firm against the pressure… but after those first 3 goals we were never going to seriously challenge for the win.
If your a US fan it’s safe to say THE SKY IS FALLING you can’t like the Womens chances either with Germany playing at home
Like the guy at half time said “there’s no one coming up the pipeline…us fans are in for some lean years”
Good points.
For me, the answer is some sort of real plan. Project 2010 (and also Project 40) may have not been outlandishly successful, but at least they set some goals and went for it. Right after the 2002 World Cup, Project 2010 didn’t look so outlandish after all. We have seen a rocky national team since then though.
I think the actual Coach is not the biggest problem. Yes, Bob is not a technical wizard, yes he plays favorites, and yes his line-ups and substitutions are very often questionable at best. BUT… he is still working with the same player pool that any other coach would. I agree that there are better tacticians and motivators out there so we should find a good one with international experience and hire him.
But that won’t solve the long-term problems. We need a full-time paid leader at he USSF whose job it is to make the nats better. That means someone like Klinsman who can help to turn around the entire game in this country, not just coach the current crop of chosen players. This person would be a real technical manager for the organization with a separate coach for the actual squad.
Until there is a real plan with some real change, everything will remain pretty much as it is now. We’ll unearth a few internationals whose fathers were in the military, we’ll find at least one new Donovan, Adu, or Dempsey, and hell we might even find one real star. The problem is that with the current system we will never find them in the huge numbers we need. We’ll find a lot of technically coached robots who all play pretty much the same game and maybe one or two semi-precious stones in the avalanche of tailings, but not the gold vain we are looking for.
The USMNT had a plan for 2010 , that is now over with , time to overhaul the whole enchilada bye Bob bye Sunil hello Klinsy! Do it before we lose another decade of growth in soccer.We need to evolve and we are at that crucial point in our soccer /football history.
Them Germans probably ate some of that fast chicken as well. Chicken tacos with special sauce.
Find them on Facebook or Linked in –I’m sure they would appreciate everyone’s comments.
bunch of F**kers.
Winning and progress go hand in hand. You show me the team making huge strides without winning. You can’t just ignore the scorelines. You can have good players playing in great leagues(france) and not be making progress.
Yes, I did not mean to single out Gulati, there are other power players involved, but he is the public face of the USSF. He actually did some good things for the federation, particularly in financial matters.
German team did not win relying solely on its athletic talents and size. German players also had very good technique (touch, passing, etc) and had a superior grasp of positioning and other aspects of the game. I agree that we should to overreact to a loss to a very good team and that the national team made significant progress in the last 16 years, but there are many ways to improve our youth development system, which will help the USMNT down the road.
If you are really upset with US Soccer,get to know the people who are really making the decisions–Gulati is only the dunce at the top of the ice berg.——————————————————————————————————–
The Board of Directors of U.S. Soccer is the governing board of the Federation in accordance with the Amateur Sports Act of 1978. Consisting of elected members representing all facets of soccer in the United States, the Board administers the affairs of the Federation between meetings of the National Council.
Board Of Directors
President
Sunil K. Gulati
Executive Vice President
Mike Edwards
Immediate Past President (non-voting)
Dr. S. Robert Contiguglia
Athlete Representatives
Jeff Agoos, Danielle Fotopoulos, Jon McCullough
Pro Council Representatives
Tonya Antonucci, Don Garber
Adult Council Representatives
Richard Groff, Bill Bosgraaf
Youth Council Representatives
Bob Palmeiro, John Sutter
At Large Representative
Burton Haimes
Independent Directors
Carlos Cordeiro, Fabian Núñez, Donna E. Shalala
CEO/Secretary General (non-voting)
Dan Flynn
IF YOU WANT TO GET UPSET, THESE ARE THE PEOPLE TO DIRECT YOUR COMMENTS TO.
Anyone who thinks the Germans won because they were bigger and faster wasn’t watching. They won because their technical skills and reading of the game were greatly superior.
Great comment on German changes. One point of disagreement — as much as I think Gulat is a schlep, I firmly believe that it was the Board who turned down the Klinsmann deal. My reasoning is that Gulati actually stuck his neck out a second time to negotiate a deal with Klinsmann so why would he make himself look like even bigger loser than he is. The real problem is that Gulati doesn’t have the skills to control his own board. If you don’t know these people, google “US soccer governance” ; when you get to that site select Board of Directors from the left side list. You’ll discover the real culprits and they aren’t easily identifiable names other than Jeff Agoos.
I just looked that up and read it, what a fascinating read, thanks for recommending it. I was struck by how the Germans realized they had a problem and how the solution basically affected all levels of player development, from the U9s up.
Don’t look now but Mexico is going through a similar restructuring with the FMF finally throwing some of the wads of cash it makes into player development. The fruits are finally being harvested at the senior level but the pipeline of talent has been greatly expanded.
I like a man who knows how to put a positive spin on things. Bravo!
….yeah, or like the price of Gold. You can’t lose your lunch over a little dip in the market over a few weeks – you’re right, the overall trend is upwards.
Nevertheless – there are some very disturbing trends in our overall development programs, and in the results of our men’s national teams at all levels this spring and summer that are hard to just sweep under the rug as “periodic dips in the market.”
+1
It’s so obvious.
Great comment Gary but I promise you it will be ignored by the other comments and that’s part of the US soccer problem!!!
Good luck with mediocrity.
Right on brother. Hum!
Yeah? – look at Mexico. Look at the roster of the Mexican U-17 world cup team that hoisted that trophy – and look at how many of those guys are now indispensable cogs to the machinery of the full “el Tri” – (hint, hint a little guy who was raised up in the UNAM Pumas, “Pumitas” development academy – a kid named Giovanni Dos Santos was one of the stars of that team)
On the bright side, that is exactly the score that the senior side beat the Argentine’s by in the last World Cup! So maybe we only suck as much as Argentina, now that’s progress!
Yup.
Yup.
Shameful.
How can we do this, at this level, at the U-20s or at the full UMSNT Gold cup level.
Something is seriously wrong with our coaching, our development, our sports psychology, our preparation – the most fundamental aspects of the game, of team work, of working together to support the ball, work the ball, play a little keep away from the other team instead of blindly pressing forward on suicide runs into 4-5 defenders, and build play, attack with purpose, skill, and creative flair – there is no soul, and no heart to the way we play.
Movement off of the ball is nearly non-existent.
I have heard it said over and over again that 90% plus of the game of soccer is what you do WITHOUT the ball – decoy runs, adjusting your position to optimize the available open space, to draw defenders out of position, to open yourself a passing lane so that your teammates can easily get the ball to you when they are in trouble – these most fundamental aspects of the game are so glaringly deficient at EVERY age level of the USMNT game that it is simply beyond belief.
Numb-body, mindless ball watching and heartless defending has become the hallmark of the USMNT at all levels.
This is so sad.
Your US soccer stock market has been down since before World Cup when we squeaked through qualifiers;
According to the Federal Reserve if not USF, that constitutes a recession, or regressioon.
So failure to listen to Klinsmann is infecting all levels it appears…which is certainly a cause of depression, at least for me.
I agree that change may help to spur things along and hopefully turn things around a little bit quicker, I just don’t believe in the future is bleak talk.
What? Everything you wrote after your first sentence is what USSF is trying to do. Granted, they’ve got a long way to go but MLS academies aren’t hampering that effort.
There was an article last year that basically explained how Klinsmann and Loew pretty much rebuilt youth development in Germany from the ground up before the 2006 World Cup. It took a few years to get all the clubs on board with his plan, but in the end it worked out for the best.
Good idea, first we fire them all and find out.
I just felt the US players looked like they quit during long periods. The midfielders did not pressure enough and the German mids killed the US.
Common arguement on this board in general is that the U.S. will only succeed when coaches begin focusing on technical skills and stop worrying about having athletic tall strong kids and stop worrying about rseults at U10 etc. etc.
Now alot of the dissapointment from today’s game is being voiced that the Germans were bigger, faster, and damn, they won!
Will the fanboy fan base ever be happy with the program? If you want to develop players you won’t always win (U17, U20, etc). So we get mad when these teams lose and we get mad that the the senior side has limited depth in the talent pool. We cant have it both ways.
I’ve been watching since the ’94 world cup. I’d love to see us do better, but I am happy with the progres we have made in the last 16 years. And the reality is that we will never be a Brazil, an Argentina, a Spain etc, because when kids leave their soccer practices, they go home and watch baseball, basketball, football, etc.
20 MLS academies aren’t going to change the world. You need amateur clubs “in every village” where well-schooled youth coaches can teach the basics. And for that you need great club density, grassroots interest and a federation with an education system down to every corner and coach. And for that you need a strong federation running a nationwide integrated league system where local clubs and players easily can move up and down the ladder to appropriate level. Ironic how progress is hampered by MLS.
@briosucks: I used to post on BigSoccer, but I only post here now for the reasons you mention. A more serious (or mature?) group of fans?