The U.S. U20 Men’s National Team crashed out of Dallas Cup in forgettable fashion last week. The youth national team finished with a 1-1-1 record and concluded group play as the third-place team in Group A.
On the surface, Dallas Cup is one of the best youth soccer tournaments in the world and the U.S. did take on teams that train together year-round. However, this was not a very strong group in Dallas Cup and the U.S. should have advanced with ease from the first three games of play.
The end result of the tournament hardly matters in the bigger picture for head coach Tab Ramos or his staff, but the tournament should be used as a clear indicator about where this group needs to improve in the immediate future in order to qualify for the 2017 U20 World Cup.
The easy fixes are going to come from player selection. Ramos shifted his lineup throughout the event, which suggested that he was looking for different combinations between players on the field to see how it looked. There were positives from some aspects of that, but there were as many negatives as well as players struggled to find cohesion or establish roles between each other in those situations.
Given that a change is needed in the squad, here are some players worth a look for the U.S. U20 Men’s National Team in the near future.
