CONCACAF U-20 Championship (November 2018)

[SpursFlu]

I think people are overreacting. If you include players on the bench we were pretty far down the depth chart and won. Lets see how Tuesday goes

[shamrock]

6 minutes ago, SpursFlu said:

I think people are overreacting. If you include players on the bench we were pretty far down the depth chart and won. Lets see how Tuesday goes

Exactly! This was obviously our second team and the other nations had it as well. The performances are quite good if you consider who we left of this team. 

[LeoH037]

2 hours ago, Keegan said:

Typical CONCACAF.  I tuned in for the last 7 minutes and saw 12 god awful calls against us.  

The CSA should file a grievance with concacaf.  Why wait until it costs us?  I’ve never seen more obvious bias and that’s saying a lot watching Canada.  That ref crew shouldn’t be allowed to ref another match, it was that bad. 

A clear handball, about 3 clear yellows, the no call on Reid AND then they give them the throw too, the call on Bair in the corner, the yellow to Reid.  Clowns, the CSA better say something, I’m so sick of Canada getting shit on.  Even in nations league, we’re forced to play minnows and these refs try to influence score lines and matches because they feel bad or don’t like us.

What are you on about? We are currently playing on Nations League because WE ARE minnows... smh

[JamboAl]

2 hours ago, Keegan said:

Hypothetically.. if we had “injured” players could we call in Davies for Tuesday?  That would be worth it.. he’s not busy or with the MNT. 

We likely need to beat Panama and it would be cool to actually beat them convincingly and not hang onto a 1-0 lead until we blow it late as we usually do.

I would not subject Davies to this tournament - either the CSA or Bayern.

[LeoH037]

2 hours ago, Keegan said:

I wouldn’t expect much from this team in terms of style.  They’ve never played together.. so either they need to be supremely talented or play a simple style.  Obviously without all our top talent we have to play a safe and simple style.. typical Canada.  

I have to say though, this team looks like it has some players with serious potential.  Okello looks like he could be an absolute monster for us.. we might want to cap tie him before he hits a level that gets eyes.

Wasn't Okello wanted by Wolfburg but TFC declined?

[Kadenge]

20 minutes ago, LeoH037 said:

Wasn't Okello wanted by Wolfburg but TFC declined?

Yes. The reported transfer fee was apparently in 6 figures. 

[Blackjack15]

There’s reason to be worried for Tuesday’s game vs Panama

Even if we draw get affected by Goal Difference   

 

[LeoH037]

It was always going to come down to the game against Panama, and it was always going to require beating them to ensure moving on

[C2SKI]

1 hour ago, LeoH037 said:

What are you on about? We are currently playing on Nations League because WE ARE minnows... smh

Thank you. We deserve our place in these tournaments because we've been poor for so long. We'll see better opponents, and get better officials, when we earn it, but we have to claw our way up the rankings by winning games and tournaments like these.

Edited November 4, 2018 by C2SKI

[1996]

2 hours ago, shamrock said:

Exactly! This was obviously our second team and the other nations had it as well. The performances are quite good if you consider who we left of this team. 

Ya but it’s Guadeloupe a country smaller than Hamilton in population lol, we have more registered people playing soccer in Canada than Guadeloupe has in total population, moreover , a country that Panama had beaten 4-0, it’s ok we are allowed to say Canada played crap and they did , hopefully they regroup and win this damn group and move on.

[Stryker911]

2 hours ago, LeoH037 said:

Wasn't Okello wanted by Wolfburg but TFC declined?

He has looked great so far. Disappointed Toronto didnt give him a chance to play at the end of year when they were eliminated. Hopefully he moves up a level from tfc2 next year.

[1996]

Moreover, who is this guy coaching this U 20 team has he ever coached an actual team before at close to this level or again is he one of these guys who has mainly just been a in house CSA staff coach type of guy who has his levels but has never really coached a club team or even a University or College team before. Why isn’t a guy like Carmine Isacco not coaching a team like this, Isacco who as York U coach has won a number of national championships and also a few League 1 Ontario Championships , instead of these guys who keep coaching these U17 and U20 national teams that have never coached an actual team and basically have been in staff CSA coaches that mainly run programs with no real experience of having to coach in game situations when the pressure is on to win or get a result to qualify.

[Blackdude]

26 minutes ago, 1996 said:

Moreover, who is this guy coaching this U 20 team has he ever coached an actual team before at close to this level or again is he one of these guys who has mainly just been a in house CSA staff coach type of guy who has his levels but has never really coached a club team or even a University or College team before. Why isn’t a guy like Carmine Isacco not coaching a team like this, Isacco who as York U coach has won a number of national championships and also a few League 1 Ontario Championships , instead of these guys who keep coaching these U17 and U20 national teams that have never coached an actual team and basically have been in staff CSA coaches that mainly run programs with no real experience of having to coach in game situations when the pressure is on to win or get a result to qualify.

So, 2 years in PLSQ doesn't count? I'm not saying he's the best domestic coach we could have gotten. However, Coaching U-20's is not necessarily the best thing for someone like Isacco who coaches a lot in L1O/U Sports. Would Isacco really want to sit on his bum and just being more of an observer/scout most weeks than to actually coach players? That's a question you would need to ask him. I think the fact that Olivieri has been a technical director of a regional soccer association and was responsible in developing players in the Lanaudière region. And, sure he wasn't anymore there as technical director, but I think that FC Lanaudière winning PLSQ Cup is also because of his work there. 

[aloyol]

Olivieri played pro with the Impact, was a member of our U23 national team, was technical director at Lac St-Louis for 7 years (arguably one of the strongest region in Quebec in term of producing talent), was the women's U20's head coach, WNT assistant and head coach for a PLSQ team.

IMHO, this is good enough to coach an U20 NT that has very few camps and friendlies. I don't know every candidates in the country but Olivieri has some decent enough experience to qualify for this job. Not sure we have many candidates for this kind of job. 

Maybe I'm mistaken but I have the impression that historically, the U20's coach has often been a MNT assistant at the same time.

 

[Gian-Luca]

Panama beat Martinique 5-1 and move into 1st place on goal differential. Dominica beat St Kitts 3-2. They are plus 8 we are plus 5.

We go into Tuesday at a disadvantage as Panama can play for a draw and then hope to continue a 3 goal advantage over is with   two games against minnows.

This is really a silly qualification format though. 

[toontownman]

It's simple. Win every game we go through. 

[Vince193]

22 minutes ago, Gian-Luca said:

Panama beat Martinique 5-1 and move into 1st place on goal differential. Dominica beat St Kitts 3-2. They are plus 8 we are plus 5.

We go into Tuesday at a disadvantage as Panama can play for a draw and then hope to continue a 3 goal advantage over is with   two games against minnows.

This is really a silly qualification format though. 

It is, but it also opens our eyes to how average our team really is. The US are missing some of their more notable stars as well but are pumping teams. Canada aren't. And its the same in the Nations League.

[toontownman]

4 minutes ago, Vince193 said:

It is, but it also opens our eyes to how average our team really is. The US are missing some of their more notable stars as well but are pumping teams. Canada aren't. And its the same in the Nations League.

I think we are also too cultured at times, not direct enough and maybe too respectful. We often play too defensive, passing sideways and back a bit too much and like to build up attacks patiently. Then we are sometimes caught looking for the ambitious passes or skill like Verhoeven today while teams like Guadeloupe are direct and use power and pace which exposes our weakest area, defense. 

 

We certainly created enough chances in the past two games to have pumped teams. We have just been wasteful in front of goal and denied by good goalkeeping. We can start to panic Tuesday if we don't the win we need. The defense will look different though as will the attack. 

[aloyol]

10 hours ago, Vince193 said:

It is, but it also opens our eyes to how average our team really is. The US are missing some of their more notable stars as well but are pumping teams. Canada aren't. And its the same in the Nations League.

It's really tough to evaluate those minnows. I'm not sure you can read much into those results. What can you read, apart from the fact that the USVI aren't really good at football, into the fact that both the US and Suriname scored 13 goals against the USVI U20's?

Scoring a lot of goals against minnows is one thing but how you manage a game agaisnt a strong opponent in a tight game is another thing.

Edited November 5, 2018 by aloyol

[aloyol]

10 hours ago, Gian-Luca said:

 

This is really a silly qualification format though. 

I think the idea to have all the teams in Florida at the same time is good (probably avoiding a lot of travel expenses and giving games to minnows) but they have to find a way to have some sort of pre-qualification for the main tournament to cut down the number of participating teams. For example, some teams could arrive 3-4 days earlier to play 2 qualifying games.

And if you want to give 4-5 games to the USVI and co, then after they are eliminated, play some classification games for teams 21-35 or 17-35, depending on the format you choose.

But they need to get rid of this format, it's ridiculous.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

With our current squad, Panama is the better team. We will likely lose.

However, if we can beat Panama, then are chances become really really good.

For the final games we can bring in David, Davies, Tabla & Millar and possibly 2 other players.

With those guys were have the firepower to beat Guatemala or El Salvador in the "D vs F" game. Then either El Salvador or Guatemala lose to Mexico on the next match day and we would be through to the U 20 World Cup and we would only have had to risk those guys for one game!

[Obinna]

2 hours ago, aloyol said:

I think the idea to have all the teams in Florida at the same time is good (probably avoiding a lot of travel expenses and giving games to minnows) but they have to find a way to have some sort of pre-qualification for the main tournament to cut down the number of participating teams. For example, some teams could arrive 3-4 days earlier to play 2 qualifying games.

And if you want to give 4-5 games to the USVI and co, then after they are eliminated, play some classification games for teams 21-35 or 17-35, depending on the format you choose.

But they need to get rid of this format, it's ridiculous.

Why do we want to play less games though? I know there are complaints about having to play minnows, but they are competitive games, which is better than playing friendlies against better teams, one could argue.

[Admin]

2 minutes ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

With our current squad, Panama is the better team. We will likely lose.

However, if we can beat Panama, then are chances become really really good.

For the final games we can bring in David, Davies, Tabla & Millar and possibly 2 other players.

With those guys were have the firepower to beat Guatemala or El Salvador in the "D vs F" game. Then either El Salvador or Guatemala lose to Mexico on the next match day and we would be through to the U 20 World Cup and we would only have had to risk those guys for one game!

Don't think that is how these things work. 

They are not bringing in those players as far as I know, and likely couldn't if they wanted to.   I don't think rosters at these tournaments are simply fluid like that. 

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

16 minutes ago, admin said:

Don't think that is how these things work. 

They are not bringing in those players as far as I know, and likely couldn't if they wanted to.   I don't think rosters at these tournaments are simply fluid like that. 

It is how it works @admin! You can change up to 6 players after the group stage, as long as those players were on the (secret) 35-man roster.

https://res.cloudinary.com/concacaf-production/image/upload/v1537388899/concacaf-prod/assets/Concacaf_Under-20_Championship_-_ENG.pdf

[Vince193]

This is random but I love that Dominica randomly has a white dude with a man-bun on their team.