Only four months separate the U.S. Under-23 Men’s National Team from its Olympic playoff date with Colombia, and the Americans are beginning preparations for that with a pair of tough friendlies in South America.
The U.S. U-23s will play their first game since finishing third in October’s CONCACAF Olympic qualifying campaign by visiting Brazil’s Under-23 side on Wednesday night (6 pm, Fox Sports 1). The match at Ilha do Retiro Stadium in Recife is the first of two meetings with the Brazilians in the coming days, and will give U.S. head coach Andi Herzog a better idea of what players he can count on next March vs. Colombia when a ticket to the Olympics will be on the line.
Herzog has a sizable portion of his core group available for this match, and also boasts a pair of players with senior World Cup experience. John Brooks and Julian Green, two youngsters who saw time with the full U.S. team at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, have been called in to help the Americans’ cause. Conversely, Herzog is without regulars like Jordan Morris, Matt Miazga, and Wil Trapp, and will need to find ways to make up for their absences against the technical Brazilians.
SBI will be running a live match-day commentary of the game, and, as always, you are welcome to join us and share your thoughts, opinions, analysis, and questions.
Enjoy the action:
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Wow, Sepp is even teaching our U-23 goalie how to play goalkeeping. Horton is a pro. Stick to your amature opinion, Sepp!
That was another disheartening and largely emotionless shift from another strong US team on paper. These lads are not being set up to succeed, it’s as simple as that. They don’t believe they will succeed, either – they’re not stupid. Our tactical approach is only the beginning of our problems.
It’s ironic that the ONLY positive attacking minded move from the US prior to the goal was in fact what exposed us and we were immediately made to pay. CCV and Brooks go forward on the Zelalem set piece (all were of the same lofted finesse variety and not effective) and 20 seconds following the poor service into the box, CCV gets played in behind after tracking back 65-70 yards and not having returned to a comfortable defensive position (I don’t fault him here, and he was otherwise basically exceptional).
I’m tired of seeing these performances, and I want go see some fire from the boys when things aren’t going our way. Kiesewetter was an inspiration to the group and is really putting together a good string of performances in the US kit. Hard worker and very athletic. I have to say Shelton was hugely hugely disappointing for the first 75-80 minutes after which his effort redeemed himself a bit. But the constant lack of control or first touch and resulting turnovers were enough to stifle any offensive effort. He let the team down time and time again when we were desperately searching for any semblance of possession before Brazil went to 10 men.
Again, I don’t expect these garbage performances to change any time soon, but I’m craving some fire and some passion from the group at every level – it’s lacking and the losing culture is permeating through the groups and there’s a latent sense of under achieving. Who’s going to step up and become the next generation of USMNT leaders, guys who breath fire and live for the international stage, and can strike fear into the opposition with their confidence and talent. Let’s go boys, pick it up one day at a time
I think Brooks and CCV looked fantastic. Zalelem should play back more rather than an attacking player. Kiesweiter to me was the only attacking player who looks liked he belonged from the starters.
Naive goalkeeping by Horton. You don’t keep your feet moving forward against a Brazilian. They live for those moments. You have a defender chasing him, force him to take the toughest shot which is a chip over your head. Brazil does it the best but to keep moving forward on that play gives a GK little chance bc Brazilians will dribble around you 99% of the time
First half thoughts:
1. Brooks and CCV been mostly superb, but then allowed a simple ball between them to cost us a goal.
2. Miller been good in emergency defending
3. Green and Zelalem have been non existent. Neither shown much quality you’d expect from 2 of our brightest prospects.
4. Unsurprisingly we have playing highly conservative; zero pressing and zero possession. Once again, the proactive style is not there. It’s really getting old. Even when we win the ball, there are very few numbers pushing forward.
I completely disagree with 3. Green and GZ have been two of our best players thus far. It doesn’t help that no one shows for the ball when either of them have it, but they look the most comfortable on the ball out of the whole lot.
I watched for about 15 minutes in the first half, and if the U.S. had live ball possession for more than a minute of that, I would be shocked.