Cyprus cup U 20's

by Geezaldinho Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:32 am

At the same time the WNT will be in Portugal for the Algarve Cup, the next competition for the U20's will be the Cyprus Cup. Scottish Football Assn.

Group 1: Canada,Russia, Japan

Group 2: USA,Netherland, Scotland

Matches start the 5th of March, Cup Final on the 10th. I haven't seen any announcements yet on ussoccer.com

Looks like the u20 national team players will be getting some more experience.

by Geezaldinho Sun Feb 24, 2008 8:10 am

The other teams in the Cyprus Cup are apparently full National teams. The USA u20's are the only Youth Team in the tournament, If I read the Big Soccer post correctly.

That means Sophie will be there, too, playing for the full CNT. CanadaSoccer (nice pic of Sophie, too.)

It's not real clear how these games will be counted. The CNT site calls the game they have with Scotland a friendly, and not part of the tournament.
Perhaps if they meet the US u20's, that's how that game will be counted, too.

At any rate, looks looks like a good test for the u20's.

by Geezaldinho Mon Feb 25, 2008 6:37 pm

The roster and schedule are out on ussoccer,com

This will be a good test for the Pilots on the team.

Note that Ellie is listed as a defender on the team this time around.

U.S. Under-20 Women’s National Team Roster
Cyprus Women’s Cup 2008
March 2-14, 2008
GOALKEEPERS (2): Kristin Arnold (Texas A&M), Alyssa Naeher (Penn State);
DEFENDERS (5): Lauren Barnes (UCLA), Kaley Fountain (Wake Forest), Lauren Fowlkes (Notre Dame), Elli Reed (Portland), Lauren Wilmoth (UCLA);
MIDFIELDERS (7): Amanda DaCosta (Florida State), Becky Edwards (Florida State), Sinead Farrelly (Virginia), Meghan Klingenberg (UNC), Teresa Noyola (MVLA Mercury), Ingrid Wells (Georgetown), Keelin Winters (Portland);
FORWARDS (6): Gina DiMartino (Boston College), Michelle Enyeart (Portland), Sydney Leroux (Sereno FC), Kelley O’Hara (Stanford), Brittney Steinbruch (Miami), Nikki Washington (UNC).

Group 1
Canada
Japan
Russia

Group 2
Netherlands
USA U-20
Scotland

Cyprus Women’s Cup 2008 Schedule
Date Match-Up Venue
March 5 USA U-20 vs. Scotland GSZ/Larnaca
Canada vs. Russia GSZ/Larnaca
Japan vs. Netherlands* Alpha Sports Center

March 7 Japan vs. Canada GSZ/Larnaca
Netherlands vs. Scotland GSZ/Larnaca
USA U-20 vs. Russia* Alpha Sports Center

March 10 USA U-20 vs. Netherlands GSZ/Larnaca
Russia vs. Japan Dasaki/Achna
Canada vs. Scotland* Alpha Sports Center

Placement Matches
March 12 5th Place Match GSP/Nicosia
3rd Place Match GSP/Nicosia
Championship GSP/Nicosia

*Non-tournament match

by UPSoccerFanatic Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:24 pm

I like the idea of Elli Reed as a defender. Imagine Elli as an outside overlapping defender on one side and Jessica Tsao as an outside overlapping defender on the the other. (Don't know who would play on which side.) Put two of the tall freshmen or Corey Nicholson (or Sophie?) in the middle. All of a sudden our defense starts looking really good. -- An ideal picture, I guess, that assumes the U-20 Worlds won't take Elli and Sophie away. scratch

by fozziewozzie Tue Feb 26, 2008 1:20 am

uspf,
hate to disagree with you, but absolutely cannot see elli playing defense at all. while i luv elli, she is purely an offensive player an even then in the first half of her season she got knocked off the ball pretty easily. she improved defensively over the season, but not nearly enough to play defense 100% of the time. jessica is so much stronger physically an defensively then elli while possessing above average offensive skills. elli defensively i think possesses average defensive skills with above average offensive skills. elli is just too slight to play defense

by A_Fan Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:09 am

Hopefully Megan Sweeney will be back at full strength to wrap up that other outside defender position that she played so well in 2006.

by UPSoccerFanatic Tue Feb 26, 2008 12:01 pm

On further thought, fozziewozzie's right. So, with Sweeney and Tsao, who plays right and who plays left?

by Geezaldinho Tue Feb 26, 2008 12:58 pm

Sweeney played the right. I saw Tsao play both sides last year.

by bluffer Sun Mar 02, 2008 9:15 pm

I want to congratulate Ellie, Keelin, and Michelle and wish them luck in Cypress. It is both an honor and a privilege to play for and represent the U.S. and it looks like all three have a chance of making the final team for the U-20 World Cup. I know some have dismissed the U-20's and other youth national teams as a waste of time when compared to the full women's National Team but the youth teams are a place to learn from National level coaches, play with national caliber team mates and compete against not only other u-20 teams but full women's national teams. That kind of experience is invaluable and will not only help them upon their return to the bluff but should be an aid in recruiting. Hopefully they will have the support of the coaches, athletic staff and school administration. I think that college and club coaches forget how important they are to the development of players and I think that their ultimate goal should be to develop players to a level where they are invited to play at the national level whether it be on a youth team or with the full National Team. I know that losing players to National team commitments will be hard on the college programs and there has been discussion of some coaches not letting their players go (North Carolina, USC) but that kind of thinking is a disservice to both the players and the National Team program.

by UPSoccerFanatic Sun Mar 02, 2008 10:07 pm

I've heard this about UNC, but not about USC. Can you tell us more about your information source for USC?

by Geezaldinho Wed Mar 05, 2008 8:55 am

I got this off the Scottish FA site"

The Scotland Women's team are currently in Cyprus taking part in the Cyprus Cup. Their first match against USA's U20 squad got off to an unfortunate start with the US scoring in the 25th and 30th minute. Scotland fought back and Suzanne Grant scored a late goal for Scotland, however it was not enough to secure their first points in the tournament.

No word on which of our players played or who scored.

by Geezaldinho Wed Mar 05, 2008 9:11 am

The US is playing the u20 team, but all the other countries are playing their full WNT's in the Cyprus cup.

Today Canada beat Russia 2-1 on goals by new young player Julie Armstrong, and on a late goal by Kara Lang.

Christine played, of course. Sophie played the second half.

The interesting part of that is that it appears that Sophie came in for Armstrong at the forward spot between Sinclair and Lang.

It would be cool if that were so.....

Nuke Soccer

by Guest Fri Mar 07, 2008 1:24 pm

Heard through the grapevine the U20's lost to Russia today. Tony changed the formation from the 4/3/3 they have been playing to a 4/5/1.

by Geezaldinho Fri Mar 07, 2008 1:54 pm

The game against Russia was the US's non-tournament match. The score was Russia 2 - USA 0
Diccico was probably experimenting,

There's finally a report on the USA Scotland match on Thursday

ussoccer game report

Michelle scored the first goal off a rebound and was taken down in the box to set up the second score.

Keelin and Ellie played. Ellie's wearing a low number, so perhaps she's playing outside defense?

by UPSoccerFanatic Fri Mar 07, 2008 10:47 pm

If my reading of the Scotland box score is right, Michelle played 78 minutes. Elli and Keelin played the entire game.

by UPSoccerFanatic Sat Mar 08, 2008 2:33 pm

Elli is listed as a defender on the team's roster.

by Harry Redknapp Sat Mar 08, 2008 4:08 pm

Could be great experience for her to play defense; will round out her game in a good way and could help her assume the Woznuk role in center mid for UP next year. I recall that Lindsey Huie played outside d for one of the US teams one year.

by Guest Sat Mar 08, 2008 4:15 pm

The 4-3-3 formation that the U20's are playing is different than you would envision. Rather than having the mid's spread evenly across the field Tony is playing 2 offensive mid's in tight to the center with a defensive (holding) mid right behind, no outside mid's. This makes the outside defender position more offensive, they need to be able to carry the ball into the front of the midfield and when needed run overlaps off the outside forwards. This requires the outside back to have very good endurance, speed, and quality ball handling skills. The other 3 defenders then need to re-position themselves to cover the area the outside mid leaves when moving forward.

by Geezaldinho Sat Mar 08, 2008 4:40 pm

Martin Jol wrote:Could be great experience for her to play defense; will round out her game in a good way and could help her assume the Woznuk role in center mid for UP next year. I recall that Lindsey Huie played outside d for one of the US teams one year.

next year it will be interesting to see who plays center mid. My choice is Megan.

But that's not automatic. Foxhoven, Burke, and Kreminski have all played it at least some, from what I gather.. I'd pick Danielle there of that bunch, but that's just a guess. There are a couple current players who could, too

I suppose it's possible that UP would try a 4-3-3 again, but I don't think so. I think they gave it a go in 2002 and gave it up with that personnel. The staff seems to like the 4-4-2. The assignments are a bit more direct.

by Harry Redknapp Sun Mar 09, 2008 7:39 am

Geezer

I'll be very happy if Megan R plays center mid next season; but I haven't heard if anyone knows if her knee is OK yet. The three you mentioned are all freshmen, and while anyone one of them might turn out to be capable nobody has sen them play at this level yet.

With both Megan and Rachel coming back off serious injury, the possibility of four players gone for U20 international duty, and 5 starters graduated .. it's harder to imagine the starting line up than for some time isn't it?

I did not include Megan Sweeney in the list of doubts because I understand that she was fit by the end of the season last year but that it made no sense to have her use up a year of eligibility on a handful of games; and Jessica Tsao was playing well any way.

by Geezaldinho Sun Mar 09, 2008 8:14 pm

ussoccer.com finally has something up on the U20 game against the Russians (dang, can't call 'em the Commie Russians anymore).

from the roster shakeups, it looks like Diccico was doing lots of experimenting. None of our players played for very long, the alternate keeper played, and there was the max roster swapping allowed. He called it "a useful game for development".

Tomorrow is a tournament match against the Netherlands. If they win that, they are in the finals.

by Guest Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:21 am

U20's 2-0 over the Netherlands. Michelle scored 1 of the goals. Keelin & Elli both played the whole game. Back to the 4-3-3 formation.

Now they will play Canada in the finals game. Should be good experience for them all individually and as a team.

by Geezaldinho Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:52 pm

They already made the finals, so they rested people and played youngsters, including Julie Armsrtrong.

They lost 2-0 against Scotland, but it was their non-tournament match.

Christine didn't play, Sophie only played the last 28 minutes, etc.

It will be a good test for the U20's in the final.

by Geezaldinho Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:25 pm

the Canada Soccer site had a piece on a FIFA conference to change the LAWS OF THE GAME.

They scrapped the electronic goal scoring - probably a good thing

They are considering more rules on official balls - Who cares?

The will standardize the official size of the pitch to 68m X 105m for "A" competitions Anybody know what size Merlo is?

The biggie is that they are considering 2 additional officials to rule on penalties in the box only. This could be good or bad. I see lots of games decided by PK's ---ugh.

Lastly, and for some reason I never knew this, the Laws are decided by the FA's of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland along with FIFA, voting for the other 204 countries.

Fifa gets 4 votes, and a change is decided by 6 votes.

What happened to 1 man 1 vote?

by PurplePrideTrumpet Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:16 pm

If you give them all 1 vote each, then the home nation FAs can change the laws on their own without getting FIFA (and the rest of the world) to agree to the change. This way you need FIFA and two other FAs to get the magic 6 votes.

An electronic system to track the ball has been discussed ad nauseum, usually after the World Cup. Ho hum.

According to one of my old media guides, Merlo is 75 by 120 yards. 68 by 105 meters is 74.4 by 114.8 yards (yes, I used a calculator).

Officials to spot penalties are all well and good as long as they can spot when a player really is fouled and when he is "penalty hunting." Deciding when a penalty is a penalty is probably one of the toughest calls in sports.

Cyprus cup U 20's

Cyprus cup U 20's

It's better than I thought

Re: Cyprus cup U 20's

Re: Cyprus cup U 20's

Re: Cyprus cup U 20's

Re: Cyprus cup U 20's

Re: Cyprus cup U 20's

Re: Cyprus cup U 20's

Cypress U-20's

Re: Cyprus cup U 20's

USA u20 2 - Scotland Nationals 1

Canada 2 - Russia 1

USA U20 0, Russia 2

Re: Cyprus cup U 20's

Re: Cyprus cup U 20's

Re: Cyprus cup U 20's

Re: Cyprus cup U 20's

Re: Cyprus cup U 20's

Re: Cyprus cup U 20's

Re: Cyprus cup U 20's

The Russia match

Re: Cyprus cup U 20's

Canada's in, too

Re: Cyprus cup U 20's

Re: Cyprus cup U 20's