U23 Olympic Tryout Roster

[DCHeather]

Well it looked good the 1st 2 minutes. Now the US heads into the second half in a hole.

calm down and play your game, or no Olympics.

[DCHeather]

Come on USA! One more goal!

[DCHeather]

Yes!!!!!!!! Now hang on!!!!

[nevzter]

Corona!!!

[DCHeather]

What a kick to the gut!

[DCHeather]

Unbelievable...I just can't believe that ended that way. Unbelievable. Ugh.

[nevzter]

Disgusting

[nevzter]

Im so effin' disgusted[quote][/quote]

[Clevelandmo]

Something is rotten in Denmark.

I said this after Cuba and Canada, and i say it now that was NOT a team coached by Caleb Porter. Porter's teams play through the midfield this team never did that. They played it back to the defense, even when there were better options, so they could kick up a long ball or play it to the wingers. I swear Klinsmann had his hands in this. Claudio, let's dribble out of our defensive end and blow our 2006 world cup, Reyna was there right next to Porter so god knows what his involvement was. Porter did not look himself; no eye contact in interveiws. He made no discernable adjustments. The team looked just as confused as the senior team has since Klinsmann took over. Prepare yourselves for a World Cup in 2014 without the US unless der Kaiser gets the axe. This was just awful. Porter knows how to manage difficult tournaments with games in close succession and he did not do it here. I have to wonder why.

[SoCalJoe]

You've got to be kidding me. This is the proverbial cherry on top of a #$@% sundae after watching the ManUre match.

I don't give a crap what Lalas had to say on sportscenter, This is a complete and total disaster, period.

[LaxAttack]

That sucked.

[VegasJustin]

I didn't watch any of the games, but how does a team with this much quality not make it out of the group stages? Unless Porter had no clue what he was doing or Klinsmann wanted him to play a certain style or a combination of both, there is no other explanation.

[DCHeather]

I didn't watch any of the games, but how does a team with this much quality not make it out of the group stages? Unless Porter had no clue what he was doing or Klinsmann wanted him to play a certain style or a combination of both, there is no other explanation.

Unfortunately there is another explanation. It was the god awful play and decisions by the players. The defense and goalkeeping was the poorest I have ever seen from our YNT. It did not help with Porter's decision to use essentially the same line-up for 3 games in 6 days of the competition. In hindsight, he should have started Boyd instead of Burnbury against Canada. Besides Corona's goals, he really didn't do much in tournament. Mix was awful during the tournament. That's why it seemed like we went wide instead of playing through center, because Mix and Corona could not play under pressure. The ball went nowhere with them. Maybe I'm being too hard on Corona?

For this game particular, the second El Salvador goal was just simply really awful. The entire back four were ball watching and not paying any attention to a runner wide on other side for open shot on goal. It was especially bad for Villafana, who was just sleep walking and not paying attention to what was going on. I'll try to find the replay, because that was the play that got me really frustrated with the defense. Although I have hand to it to #9? of El Salvador he was owning Villafana all night with his speed. Again poor defending on set pieces killed us for the opening goal. Hamid was poor this game and the last. And was subbed out with some sort ankle injury, although I think it was more of a pride injury. And Johnson gave up one of the most painful goals in memory after the midfield failed to clear the ball. I thought at first it would go down as an own goal because it was so flukey. I'm not sure I want to find the replay because of that goal alone.

Overall, the players did not execute. Plain and simple. The only bright spots was Corona's finishing and Adu. And I would like to see more of Gyau and Boyd. Shea had his ups and downs, and he needs to go abroad to refine his game fast. Mix and Corona can become good additions as well, but they have to put in better performances. A couple of bad games isn't cause to throw out all the players, but they need to put in a lot of good performances to make up for it.

[Clevelandmo]

Also the ref started out in control of the game but he lost it in the last 30 min. Our guys were simply getting mauled and the ref did nothing. I thought it was stupid on El Sal's part but they got themselves through the stage.

Heather, we didnt play through the midfield against Cuba either. Mix and Corona could've handled themselves against Cuba but we never did it. We continued to play a 4-3-3 against teams that were sitting back on us so we were always outnumbered in the midfield. It was not the players fault they gave everything they had. I agree that Mix was awful last night, probably because he was exhausted from the three games, and should have been subbed off after he made numerous mistakes. Porter should have used his second sub when we went up 3-2. This disaster goes completely down to coaching. I would blame it all on Porter, but I have seen that guy coach 50 or so games and what I saw in this tournament didnt look familiar, didnt look like him. So I dont know what the hell happened, but something is seriously wrong. Most of these guys only get one shot at the olympics and they shouldnt be hindered from achieving that because US soccer and der baker rigidly says we have to play one way.

[LaxAttack]

I felt that another potential error was the roster selection itself.

You only had six defenders on the roster with only two center backs, one of which is more a defensive midfielder (Perry Kitchen). The back line as a whole was pretty bad in all three games. Maybe this cycle of kids is not that great in the back, but the roster didn't help Porter.