CONCACAF U20 qualifying (for the cycle ending in 2025) + preparation & news

[Shway]

Geeeze....Kimani has some pace in those thunder thighs

Edited February 28 by Shway

[El Diego]

1 minute ago, Shway said:

Geeeze....Kimani has some pace in those thunder thighs

Looked like he was barely trying... great form

[Shway]

Just now, El Diego said:

Looked like he was barely trying... great form

Exactly lol 

[gator]

Well done to all of the players and coaches here, obviously the first two matches were fairly easy but to dominate the hosts is great to see! The schedule set up well for us with having little to no preparation we really looked well organized all the way through, fairly clinical around goal and not conceding over three matches is great for these youngsters! There were some individual performances from players we maybe didn't know a lot about which is usually the thing you really want to see at these youth tournaments, we have more players to chat about now!

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

19 minutes ago, narduch said:

This is foreshadowing for March 23

Don't jinx it.

[toontownman]

[Stryker911]

Wonder if LDF comes in for July. He shouldbt have much goin on club wise at that time.

[Shway]

1 hour ago, narduch said:

Has this been confirmed?

I know his Dad, Wayne Morgan he's an older GS United guy (same Scarborough Club DeRo reps). He's been humbly hyping up his son for a good while, and he's from the UK so I'm sure he had his documents ready for this move someday. 

Edited February 28 by Shway

[dyslexic nam]

Couldn’t agree watch it.  Couldn’t wait for the replay.  But sounds like a grind out win that we were reasonably in control of but needed to avoid the banana peel. Job done.  And some promising performances along the way.  Overall pretty encouraging.  

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

The actual U20 CONCACAF qualifying tournament will be hosted in Mexico.

July 19th to August 4th

In Celaya (altitude ~1800m)

https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estadio_Miguel_Alemán_Valdés

& in Irapuato (altitude ~1700m)

https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estadio_Sergio_León_Chávez

[SthMelbRed]

29 minutes ago, gator said:

Well done to all of the players and coaches here, obviously the first two matches were fairly easy but to dominate the hosts is great to see! The schedule set up well for us with having little to no preparation we really looked well organized all the way through, fairly clinical around goal and not conceding over three matches is great for these youngsters! There were some individual performances from players we maybe didn't know a lot about which is usually the thing you really want to see at these youth tournaments, we have more players to chat about now!

They also showed a decent level of maturity late on not to lose their heads too much when T&T started putting in some pretty bad tackles after the result was no longer in doubt.

[Treppy2]

1 hour ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

The actual U20 CONCACAF qualifying tournament will be hosted in Mexico.

July 19th to August 4th

In Celaya (altitude ~1800m

https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estadio_Miguel_Alemán_Valdés

& in Irapuato (altitude ~1700m)

https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estadio_Sergio_León_Chávez

Irapuato was the venue for two of Canada's matches in the 1986 World Cup.

Edited February 28 by Treppy2

[El Hombre]

1 hour ago, Corazon said:

He’s not that far behind in minutes in Liga MX this season and two years younger.

This makes me so happy.

[narduch]

28 minutes ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

Don't jinx it.

Superstitions aren't real bro.

[narduch]

25 minutes ago, Stryker911 said:

Wonder if LDF comes in for July. He shouldbt have much goin on club wise at that time.

The tournament time kinds sucks for him, if he's trying to make his EPL squad

[CanadaFan123]

20 minutes ago, narduch said:

The tournament time kinds sucks for him, if he's trying to make his EPL squad

Also if he’s involved in another hypothetical international tournament with Canada this summer. 

[gigi riva]

Lets Hope between now and July these guys will get a proper training camp , if possible . Maybe some new names might emerge between now and then 

[CanadaFan123]

Great to see this team play with swagger and killer instinct. You can tell every player is confident - no one was looking to be a passenger on the team even when we were rolling over teams. They have that modern day Canada grit to them too. 
 

I did not expect this to be so straightforward so credit where it’s due and on to the championship. The keepers are probably wondering why they made the trip. 
 

With respect to this last match, you could tell 3 minutes in that we were another class. It really shows how far we’ve come even in the last few years in terms of building a pool and pipeline of players. Different level with some of our play never mind that we were away and on a quality of pitch a lot of players probably aren’t used to. 
 

Credit to Canada Soccer for putting such a strong squad together too. Really think about that for a second… this is a qualifying tournament to a qualifying tournament and we not only had just about every player we would want but we also added a player (hopefully) in López who could be one of the best of all. 

[Kadenge]

Let's hope one of the 3 MLS teams make an offer for Lopez and keep him in Canada red. Looks like Morgan was impressive in 2023 for TFC academy/NextPro based on some of the articles I have read, so I assume he didn't want to sign a contract vs being cut by the club. May be the commentator got one thing right re him being with the  Brentford system.

[El Diego]

9 minutes ago, Kadenge said:

Let's hope one of the 3 MLS teams make an offer for Lopez and keep him in Canada red. Looks like Morgan was impressive in 2023 for TFC academy/NextPro based on some of the articles I have read, so I assume he didn't want to sign a contract vs being cut by the club. May be the commentator got one thing right re him being with the  Brentford system.

I may be going overboard based on very limited viewings against some weak u20 sides, but Lopez could probably win the TFC starting striker job

[Ian Kennett]

Any highlights anywhere? I was not able to watch today. Thanks!

I am pretty certain that the CSA will have made it clear to all of the top players that they are most wanted and welcome to stick with Canada. I would support it if one or two were invited ahead of any two fringe players to a the CMNT camp for the March match against Trinidad & Tobago.

[Gian-Luca]

Only game of the three I was able to watch. It's difficult to say because we were given more time and space on the ball than we will be against the tougher Concacaf teams, but overall my impression is that the general skill level of this time is higher than the ones I've seen in more recent year....although I am aware that we basically skipped a cycle a few years ago with Covid.

[Aird25]

55 minutes ago, Kadenge said:

Let's hope one of the 3 MLS teams make an offer for Lopez and keep him in Canada red. 

Or one of the CPL clubs?

[narduch]

20 minutes ago, Aird25 said:

Or one of the CPL clubs?

Would be perfect for York United 

[toontownman]

Easy to go overboard not considering the weak opposition but it's been rare (if ever over the past 10 years or so) that I have seen one of these youth teams be so hungry and physically dominant as well as skillful and proactive. We bullied teams and picked them apart when they tried to frustrate. 

In addition I don't remember having such a balanced interchangeable squad. We had two very good teams in this squad and lots of interesting combinations.

Lopez was class

KSB is very raw but you can see the potential.

Morgan and Ciccarelli both really impressed me too. Tavernier has had quite the couple of weeks!

Costa was good but I was impressed with Schaivonies cool and calm demeanor, silky. I also that Badwal was quietly magnificent. Biello was brash and a bit over boisterous but was everywhere on the pitch and led very well. 

Perlman looked the real deal today and did well the game before. Great to see. Stefanovic was good too. Greco-Taylor had a great tournament and Kozlovskiy showed mad potential for his age.

 They all did great really. Diallo was a bit off the pace but showed some promise tonight.

Excited to see how they fare with the real test in the summer and whether some of those fence sitters we were chasing took notice and might consider coming on board.