By IVES GALARCEP
The U.S. Under-20 Men’s National Team faces a make-or-break situation heading into its second match of CONCACAF Under-20 World Cup qualifying against Panama. After surrendering a late equalizer in their opener against Guatemala, the Americans face Panama knowing that a defeat would put a serious dent into the U.S. team’s hopes of winning its group and earning an automatic place in the Under-20 World Cup.
Panama posted a 4-0 thrashing of Aruba in its opening match, but will face a tougher test from the U.S., which will have Fulham midfielder Emerson Hyndman in the starting lineup for this one.
SBI will be providing live commentary for today’s match so feel free to follow along with the action here. As always, you are welcome to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (Today’s live commentary is after the jump):
Creativity up top is lacking and not being able to play big boy football will not node well for future. Complaining about roughness of Panama or poor officiating is akin to putting lipstick on a big black hog.
This team looks the same as the last 20 years ( that I can remember) strong on the athletic department but weak on skills and tactics with a random above average player and unimaginative coaching.
Too much time and too much money spent for this kind of on the field display.
Yes, there is an art to playing nasty, and all good players know how to do it. It is part of becoming a player. the USA was tested and found wanting.
OK,…so listen up. What Tab Ramos and Paul Gardner will say is that the team played nice soccer and that there was a greater emphasis on skill,….Yada, yada, yada. Truth is,….all this fancy pants soccer is for losers. According to Gardner,…if you look nice and lose 4-0,…it’s all good. God forbid you play a tactically smart game and WIN.
Sad. How we lose out to Panama is just perplexing. Sad. Sad. Sad.
Panama was playing hockey … Shame . I tuned in to see EH and JF tonight … One was checked a couple times and looked shaken after that
Feel really bad for these kids. They deserve better I am sure when they play 5v5, they have more fun and play much better than they did today. This was a dead team , no joy. No backheel, no nutmegs , no bicycles, just plain dull vanilla. I would rather see a 3-0 loss but with some pizzaz. Theyplayed like they were afraid to do something stupid , afraid of the coaches. well screw the coaches, go have some fun, even if you lose.
Well, Little Gooch tried an unsuccessful back heel in the box when he should have passed to BJ4.
There was no tip of the spear on the attack tonight . only player worth watching was EH …
What are our chances of making the Olympics after this loss?
This is for a the U20 World Cup not Olympics. However both might be in question.
Ugh! What an awful display by this “incredibly deep in the midfield” team. Putting all these pros and internationals together does not seem to be working out well. None of them seem to be able to get a feel for the other. Shame. USA should be okay against Aruba…but everyone was saying they would beat Guatemala and Panama too…
This team has no creativity or ball possession it’s frustrating to watch this team.
Who wants to play in the Olympics, anyway?
But these guys play in Europe.. EUROPE!
For actual European setups! There’s no way some Euro club players aren’t the best players we could put out there!
I will read from Chapter One, verse one of the Holy Book of Klinsman:
“And so it shall be that given the opportunity, thow shalt play the Euro-based players over all others and shall have no need for chemistry or teamwork if the player has cometh from the land of Euro.”
This has nothing to do with Olympic qualifying. This is to qualify for the 2015 U-20 World Cup. The Olympic qualifying tournament will take place next winter/spring, and that’s a U-23 tournament.
Hey Matthew R. did you watch the game? Enough said. USA played like a bunch of guys thrown together to play a visiting Team. They are clueless, just like the Senior Team.
Tab doesn’t have this team prepared unfortunately.
This team just isn’t very good right now. Not sure any deeper analysis is needed. They look fairly clueless out there; either the players are overrated or Tab is out of his depth.
USA down one. *sigh* and this was suppose to be the deepest pool of players we’ve had.
Gooch really need to cut that back. He had a man open just waiting at the top of the box. I don’t know where he though he could go with that.
Put in Arun!!! Oh wait…..
Same story as Friday. Getting better chances and giving up a couple chances now it’s true, but they just, plain aren’t finishing in the final third and the Panamanians are dragging them down with impunity every time they counter. The refereeing is absolutely pathetic. The Panamanians and Guatemalans defensive strategy is literally to drag down US attackers virtually every time they touch the ball. You’d have to stab someone to earn a yellow in these matches. Apparently persistent infringement doesn’t translate.
Well if thats the case, change your style of play. dont hold the ball in midfield, dont dribble unless there is o nly one man to beat. Dont turn with the ball in midfield. Try to play like Arsenal against Stoke. High balls into the middle mean you might get crushed. I would forbid high crosses for the whole second half. The game will be much less violent, I think. Play to the feet for a change.
The real problem is the officiating, it’s that the US is not very good. Their movement is poor, their passing is poor, their first touch is poor. They may have some decent players, but they are not playing as a team.
sorry, meant to say the real problem is NOT the officiating^.
USA still playing awful. Run,run,run, dribble dribble,cross cross. DEfense has poor technique, passes from the defense to transition to attack really poor. Midfield has no clue how to attack. I dont blame the kids. They have not been taught what to do. Panama has a vastly superior coach, and and just have a better style than the USA. which is still playing college type primitive ball.
+1
I miss when it was easy to find relatively safe links to streaming content. I miss easier freeloading.
Just tuned in and Carter-Vickers looking comfortable with the pace of Panama and decisive in breaking up plays. Lots of back n’ forth and turnovers in midfield for both squads.