2023 U20 CONCACAF Championship and U23 Olympic Qualification to be merged in a tournament in Summer 2022

[TOcanadafan]

I can’t wait to see some of the scores in the games at the U20 WC in games involving Honduras, Dominican Rep and Guatemala… can it be more embarrassing than Honduras last time around?

[SpursFlu]

Dominican Republic has a very similar story to Canada. Soccer isn't unpopular but traditionally not kids first choice sport. It's domestic league has a very similar story to the CPL. Dominican Republic is a pretty big country by Concacaf standards and has a pretty stable economy and organization by Concacaf standards. It also has some connectivity to footballing nations in South America as well as Spain. And if I have to generalize they're a pretty athletic lot. They'll be a team to contend with going forward 

[solsous]

1 hour ago, narduch said:

Mostly domestic based.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_Republic_national_under-20_football_team

Thanks, this is greatly appreciated.

[solsous]

2 minutes ago, SpursFlu said:

Dominican Republic has a very similar story to Canada. Soccer isn't unpopular but traditionally not kids first choice sport. It's domestic league has a very similar story to the CPL. Dominican Republic is a pretty big country by Concacaf standards and has a pretty stable economy and organization by Concacaf standards. It also has some connectivity to footballing nations in South America as well as Spain. And if I have to generalize they're a pretty athletic lot. They'll be a team to contend with going forward 

Due to my own biases, when I think of the Dominican Republic, I think baseball.  I am grateful to be corrected by great posters on this board.

[Colonel Green]

2 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

If a bunch of kids playing semi pro in Dominican Republic can qualify, the whole perceptions/objective quality argument is bs. Train to win and play over your head. 

I'm talking about fan perceptions. There's no reason for fans to expect a team that looked as shoddy as it did was going to qualify.

[Colonel Green]

EDIT: Stupid internet.

Edited July 1, 2022 by Colonel Green

[VinceA]

One thing I hope we see next year is Canada has some U23 camps and perhaps try to get them into an invitational tournament. No Olympics or even OLY qualifiers for them and that's a shame.

Would be nice to see camps for the likes of Priso, Loturi, Nelson, Mitrovic, Corbeanu, Kerr, Loturi, Johnston and others who have missed out on U20 and U23 footy.

[El Hombre]

6 minutes ago, VinceA said:

One thing I hope we see next year is Canada has some U23 camps and perhaps try to get them into an invitational tournament. No Olympics or even OLY qualifiers for them and that's a shame.

Would be nice to see camps for the likes of Priso, Loturi, Nelson, Mitrovic, Corbeanu, Kerr, Loturi, Johnston and others who have missed out on U20 and U23 footy.

I'm not sure how many of those players would leave their professional environments to go to a camp.  Or would be allowed to leave to go to a tournament.

That's the issue with the "We should just have more camps" crowd: even if you have camps for this age group, you'd most likely only get those in their offseason or those that aren't in fully professional environments.  Camp Poutine already serves this purpose somewhat but it's difficult to get players in Europe to attend because a guy like Corbeanu is unlikely to leave a regular League One gig to go to an age-specific camp.   I'm not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing, but I think expectations would have to be adjusted as to who would and wouldn't attend something like this.

[Unnamed Trialist]

In reference to qualifying for the U-20 World Cup next year, Israel lost to England and qualify as the UEFA runner up. Italy, France and Slovakia also go (5 from UEFA only). 

So seeing Israel and Slovakia (in a separate 5th place match just for the World's) qualify over other powerhouses in youth football, like Spain or Germany, suggests the pattern we saw in Concacaf was not entirely unusual. The Israeli team is also almost entirely based in the domestic league, though it seems some of their players were being scouted aggressively (there were upwards of 50 club scouts at the European u-19 championship this week, quite the contrast with our situation in Concacaf, where it is not so clear MLS or CPL or even NCAA are paying close attention).

[solsous]

So satisfying that Guatemala lost to the Dominican Republic on PK shots.

[mrstepp817]

Watching the US absolutely destroy Honduras right now...huge crowd in Honduras and they arent happy...

[Shway]

Surprised some of you were still watching this tournament….my utter disappointment ran way to deep to watch these second rate countries be in positions we should be in.

[harrycoyster]

I can find some solace in that we gave the US the closest game of anybody in the tournament, even if that game was only close on paper.

The US looks to be slump-proof in a way that none of the other nations in CONCACAF are talent wise. The Central American countries are exceptionally streaky in their talent production. We and Mexico have several great academies, but one or two bad age groups lining up in Toronto and Vancouver can put us in a bad spot. The US has 20 or so academies capable of producing high level players these days -- they aren't going to have the gaps in talent production they've had historically.

I'll be rooting for the DR in the final, what a story that would be. They are a pretty solid team back to front but it further illustrates the American youth dominance in our region that their two clear pro talents in the team, Boatwright and Azcona, are Americans with Dominican heritage. 

[Stryker911]

Domincan u17 has 3 games this month against Bolivia, Paraguay, and Columbia.

They also have Junior Firpo who plays for Leeds as well as Mariano Diaz who plays for Real Madrid (sparingly, but still). Also Peter Gonzalez who is a Madrid youth player who has made a few appearances for them. They certainly have the potential to be better than Haiti.

Edited July 2, 2022 by Stryker911

[narduch]

9 minutes ago, Stryker911 said:

Domincan u17 has 3 games this month against Bolivia, Paraguay, and Columbia.

They also have Junior Firpo who plays for Leeds as well as Mariano Diaz who plays for Real Madrid (sparingly, but still). Also Peter Gonzalez who is a Madrid youth player who has made a few appearances for them. They certainly have the potential to be better than Haiti.

They are also playing in the Concacaf U17 Qualifying tournament August 30 to September 8. If they win their group they will again be parachuted into the knock out stage of the final tournament that takes place in 2023

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

5 hours ago, harrycoyster said:

I can find some solace in that we gave the US the closest game of anybody in the tournament, even if that game was only close on paper.

The US looks to be slump-proof in a way that none of the other nations in CONCACAF are talent wise... 

Still annoyed that the US qualified for the Olympics.

Despite my "FH" feelings, I wanted to see the US pundits and fans bitch and whine about not making it to the Olympics again. No feelings of schadenfreude this time.

[Kadenge]

54 minutes ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

Still annoyed that the US qualified for the Olympics.

Despite my "FH" feelings, I wanted to see the US pundits and fans bitch and whine about not making it to the Olympics again. No feelings of schadenfreude this time.

 Nah it's always #FH forever ...for me

[One American]

The USMNT isn't slump proof. We are coming out of a talent slump. Mexico seems to be going into one. I'm in the camp that DR might be an emerging power. One of the few small nations in CONCACAF with both money and population, relatively. 

[mrstepp817]

16 hours ago, One American said:

The USMNT isn't slump proof. We are coming out of a talent slump. Mexico seems to be going into one. I'm in the camp that DR might be an emerging power. One of the few small nations in CONCACAF with both money and population, relatively. 

Agree on the Dominican Republic, they could very easily soon emerge as a power in the Carribean that could rival Jamaica in that part of CONCACAF

[VinceA]

USA stroll to the title. 

Ultimately a reminder that our program is pretty surface level right now.

[gigi riva]

11 hours ago, mrstepp817 said:

Agree on the Dominican Republic, they could very easily soon emerge as a power in the Carribean that could rival Jamaica in that part of CONCACAF

Which is a win win for CONCACAF

[Corazon]

At first I was disappointed my vacation fell on the same dates as this tournament.  I watched portions of the first couple of games from my phone but I have to say that I think I'm now glad that my vacation fell on the same dates of this tournament.

[Free kick]

 A few matches won in just one tournament (much less a U20 tourny) does not mean that someone (ie.: DR) is about shake up the pecking order in the region.  Canada won the Gold Cup in 2000,  look what happened in the next twenty years.  
 

No sense in rehashing the talent deficiencies on the Canada,  but i was just as surprised by how poor the rest of field looked in this event.  I cant ever think of seeing such a poorly played CONCACAF U20 qualifying tournament.

 

PS:  i am starting to wonder if there was something pertaining to the playing conditions in Honduras that made the players from all teams look so poor.  The grass did look long,  was the pitch poor?  Was the pitch too narrow?   There was no flow to the games.  The players showed poor touches,  sometimes  thats happens if the pitch is bad or the grass too long.  Or was it just Canada that was bad?

Edited July 4, 2022 by Free kick

[Shway]

Is it me or did a lot these guys come back from war useless to their clubs? (by useless I mean playing a less important role than they did before they left)

[VinceA]

Just now, Shway said:

Is it me or did a lot these guys come back from war useless to their clubs? (by useless I mean playing a less important role than they did before they left)

Looking at the squad, I can't comment much on youth guys because obviously they're doing their thing in academy set-ups (Knight-Lebel, Costa, Prellegrini, etc.) Although the fact I haven't heard news of them training with the first team for pre-season is a bit of a bummer.

There are some MLS guys who are regulars for their MLSNP sides but someone like Zouhir I can't remember him doing much with Montreal in recent weeks. The CPL guys are okay but Assi and Habibullah were tainted for me as imo they were pretty ass at the tournament. For all the hype with Assi I don't remember him doing anything notable. He's hitting JMR territory for me in terms of how people talk aobut him and what I see. He was a RB for Cavalry's last match too so who knows what is going on there. Habibullah is a one trick pony and has been found out at the pro level.

 

Also just noticed this but Atanasov got loaned out to the second division in Bulgaria.