Subject: [U21] vs Norge

We play Norway in a U20 friendly tomorrow. They are ranked in the top 30 and would give us a challenge with a full squad. Even with a couple key pieces missing we still expect to make a good showing.

Line up posted in the U21 ASS.

cheer the boys on

Woohoo GO USA!

nice score there, though to be honest I think it was a bit lucky

Quick notes (personal opinion):
1. I think their chances were a lot better than ours. While we did double their shots, a lot of them weren't from the best positions and were just kind of decent shots while almost all of their shots were on breakaways or just seemed better quality.
2. 17' or so thank goodness they hit the crossbar :) cause that beat our offsides trap badly
3. 77' (I think) wide open net miss by them lol woohoo!! (Easily could've been the equalizer)
4. 10' Tucker is such a diver, they weren't even close to fouling him!
5. of Tucker's 3 breakaway chances, only once did he make it to where he wasn't interrupted, and he scored on that time. I know he's only 19 but maybe if we have a faster paced forward for that slot? Idk cause they had some pretty fast defenders there to catch up to him.
6. I felt like sometimes when they really got the ball down in our court, there was a lot of separation between the midfield and forwards. Like if they were a tiny bit better or if they just were able to get the ball in our 1/3 a little more I feel like there would've been a lot of trouble clearing from danger. Maybe push a midfielder or two up just slightly to kind of cover the clearance so it can't just be put back in


it's just some things I saw while watching the game, do with them what you want! Congrats on a nice win over a top 30 team!

-Llama (your favorite A-hole)

P.s damn 29 day injury...sucks

2 or 3 of there best chances were from our players making piss poor passes, no tactic could account for them.

I think if you take out those chances they only had the counter attack(what you called a breakaway in the 17') a bit unlucky I think, it was a rebound off 1 of our good scoring chances. How would you like me to tactically account for that?

They didn't generate any offense on there own, I would even say the game was going just the way we wanted. Did you consider our best mid was out, 2nd best forward was out, 2nd best mid got hurt early in the match? Only Cullen is faster than Tucker, and its minimal enough you didn't notice.
(edited)

Although I said a lot it really only pointed at a couple of things, I was being very pessimistic and I think a majority of the game was definitely in our favor and played very well

Their counterattack wasn't anything you could tactically account for and simply was a counterattack that beat our defense, nothing unheard of.

Besides the very first minutes of the game, I agree they didn't create much offense which is why I think my point about the midfield and forwards being spread didn't hurt us much because they never really created the offense to get down there. That suggestion was more based on if we played a top 10 team or something and they were in our 1/3 more, I think we would really struggle getting out.

and yes I took into account our early injury but not that our best midfielder was out, though I don't feel the game was much affected by that except maybe for a couple of bad passes.

Overall it was a very good result, those were just some very minor things I noticed and you don't have to take them into account because you got the win against the higher ranked team

It did sound a bit pessimistic, don't worry about it.

I liked that you took the time to watch the match and to post your thoughts. I expect to see your comments next week.

fyi thats 7 wins in a row, 4 against higher ranked teams. Can you smell the top 32?

yea I've watched all the NT and U21 matches, just figured I'd start posting some comments here to give a different perspective

and I'm very pleased with the little win streak, top 32 looking GOOOD :)

on a side note, I actually thought it was only fair they missed the shot on the breakaway in the '17

Since it came from a miss on our part?
Or since we controlled the whole game?

and if it was that miss I think it came from when their defender tapped the ball away from Tucker as he was going to strike it so it was pretty well played, kind of reminded me of the actual USA in the world cup when they scored on the counterattack ball thrown by Howard.

Except thankfully they didn't score

Didn't the defender get the ball from a rebound off the post from a shot with a decent chance to score? I'll have to re watch later.

I'll double check on that whole scenario

and why didn't Hale play?

Edit: Ahhh I was thinking about a different chance we had, you're right it came off of a rebound a defender got that they just sent up the field
(edited)

He was still slightly injured when I finalized the line up late last night.