(Soccer) USA In U-20 Youth World Cup

[Havok]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

Anyone catch the 30-yard blast from Freddy Guarin? I love seeing FM players on tv.

year 2008 + Freddy + my Wigan team = me happy

[weinstein7]

hxxp://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=335724&cc=5901

Link to a recap of the Egypt game.

[Critch]

Round of 16 game tomorrow, US faces Italy. Italy scrapped through, but apparently looked impressive in their final game where they had to win convincingly over Canada to qualify and duely beat them 4-1. FSC hasn't updated their schedule yet, they've still got TBA for the teams, but I'd guess US v Italy will be their live game at 11.30am ET, probably Brazil v Syria or Germany v China as their tape delayed game at 5pm ET.

Pick of the round looks like Argentina v Colombia on Wednesday.

[moriarty]

Originally Posted by Critch

Round of 16 game tomorrow, US faces Italy. Italy scrapped through, but apparently looked impressive in their final game where they had to win convincingly over Canada to qualify and duely beat them 4-1. FSC hasn't updated their schedule yet, they've still got TBA for the teams, but I'd guess US v Italy will be their live game at 11.30am ET, probably Brazil v Syria or Germany v China as their tape delayed game at 5pm ET.

Pick of the round looks like Argentina v Colombia on Wednesday.

I thought we looked pretty weak against Egypt (granted we had six subs in) especially considering they played with only 10 men most of the way. And now we're rewarded with Italy - even if they did finish in 3rd, this isn't going to be easy. Wow, Germany, Italy, Argentina ... the boys are definitely going to have to earn it this year.

[KevinNU7]

I may be coming down with a cold and have to stay home tomorrow

[moriarty]

Originally Posted by Critch

Round of 16 game tomorrow, US faces Italy. Italy scrapped through, but apparently looked impressive in their final game where they had to win convincingly over Canada to qualify and duely beat them 4-1. FSC hasn't updated their schedule yet, they've still got TBA for the teams, but I'd guess US v Italy will be their live game at 11.30am ET, probably Brazil v Syria or Germany v China as their tape delayed game at 5pm ET.

It's updated on their website, and confirmed that the US is at 11:30 AM ET Tuesday.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by KevinNU7

I may be coming down with a cold and have to stay home tomorrow

I really do have a cold and an ear infection. Suddenly, they have a positive aspect to them

[Critch]

Originally Posted by KevinNU7

I may be coming down with a cold and have to stay home tomorrow

Coincidentally, I'm working from home tomorrow. Brazil v Syria is the second game.

Germany v Argentina in the Confederations Cup is also on FSC at 2.30pm. I know it's a meaningless tournament with no other reason to exist other than being a FIFA money-maker, but it could be a good game.

[Eaglesfan27]

I'll avoid spoilers, but this has been a very interesting match between Italy and the USA so far.

[MJ4H]

Any link to somewhere I can follow it on the web since I don't get this particular brand of fox

[weinstein7]

There's a java applet at ussoccer.com

[MJ4H]

Beautiful. Thanks

[moriarty]

Well I assume if you're in this thread you don't care about spoilers, but just in case.

SPOILER ALERT
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Ugh, what a dreadful way to bow out of the tournament. I put the blame for this one squarely on Spector. I think he's a good player, but he was dreadful in this one. He did his best to give away a goal in the first half, and you could make a claim he could have done better than ducking on the first goal he knocked in (and possibly blocked the third). But the second goal was just an idiot move. If you try to make a run up from center back with 3-4 Italian players behind you ... you can NOT just give up the ball (or at least clobber someone if you do). He was outmanned in the air all game, and really put pressure on his own keeper several times.

Overall thoughts:
Gaven never showed up for this tournament. Did he even play today? He was invisible the whole tournment except when giving up the ball or diving in the box.

The US lacked any strikers who actually could create fear in the defense. We probably would have been better with Freddy up front the entire time - at least they had to respect him.

Best two tourney players for the US IMO: Wynne (obvious - he's raw, but his speed is amazing, someone is gonna pick this guy up and soon), and Filehaver (or however you spell his name) - he controlled the midfield well and was consistently good throughout.

[daedalus]

For the people who saw Wynne, how good was he? What was he like? Some of the people on the BigSoccer Arsenal board seemed really excited about him.

[moriarty]

Originally Posted by daedalus

For the people who saw Wynne, how good was he? What was he like? Some of the people on the BigSoccer Arsenal board seemed really excited about him.

Well, the first thing you notice is that he's fast ... very fast. I didn't see a faster guy on the pitch the entire tournament. He's very dangerous on forward runs up the right due to his speed, and has very quick recovery speed when an attacker gets behind him. But he also has quick reflexes. He made several 'dangerous' (IMO) tackles that he ended up winning because he was so quick at poking the ball away.

He also seems to be very athletic. He gets up high to win headers, and he often heads with a lot of authority ... clearing the ball way out. He also has one of the longest/strongest throw-ins I've ever seen. His dad is a former major league baseball player, so you know he has athletic genes.

The downside: They say he's pretty raw technically. I think this shows up in his positioning sometimes, as he tends to drift out of position ... but has the recovery speed to make up for it. A couple of times he lunged needlessly too, but so did half the team. Perhaps the area it showed up most though was in his crosses. Time after time he'd sprint down the right into open space only to make a dreadful cross back into the box. If he can get this worked out ... he could be real good. He doesn't look to be real tall (not sure on his height), but he does have a good build.

Considering he's fairly new to the big stage (he was only called up to the national team recently, and I'm not sure how long he's been playing soccer) ... he looks like he has huge potential. I'm sure his speed alone will get the boys on the BigSoccer Arsenal board fired up. Get this guy in training with a major team and he's gonna be a force ... at least I think.