The U.S. U-20s’ reliance on collegians leaves them a step behind at the World Youth Championship. Everyone is disappointed.

In the search for reasons – or excuses – following the U.S. under-20 squad’s earlier-than-anticipated departure from the World Youth Championship, there is plenty to choose from:

  • Final-four expectations, the product of the U-17s semifinal run in ’99 and the presence of Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley and Bobby Convey, were unreasonable.
  • Last-minute integration of four starters – Edson Buddle and the big three – left Coach Wolfgang Suhnholz inadequate preparation time and played havoc with on-field chemistry.
  • There was a distinct difference between the U.S. pros and amateurs, and in the decisive game, three of the pros couldn’t (Buddle) or shouldn’t (Beasley and Convey) have played because of injury.

The plain truth is, the Americans were an ordinary team that did not play particularly well. A reliance on college players produced a group that, for the most part, lacked the tactical experience, organization and composure on the ball their foes possessed.

Despite shortcomings, Coach Wolfgang Suhnholz says the semifinals were in reach. The Americans had their chances to go ahead against Egypt and they thought they matched up well with the Netherlands in the quarterfinals.

“But it would have been putting a beautiful film over your eyes,” acknowledges Suhnholz, “because eventually for us to be consistent [on the U-20] level, we have to be on the same playing field, the same level [as the other competitors].”

What was clear from the U.S. under-20 team’s adventure in Argentina is that, at this moment, the Americans aren’t.

What has happened since November 1999, when the U-17s – seven of them U-20 first-teamers – were penalty kicks away from the championship game? Most went to college – only Donovan, Beasley and Convey among the U-17s grads on the U-20s are pros – while their colleagues around the world were turning pro.

“The 17s were pretty much who had the most talent,” said Donovan. “There wasn’t a lot of organization, not a lot of tactical soccer. It’s who’s more talented, me or you? We were very talented, and the same players are still as talented. But you can see the difference [between the collegians and pros]. It’s pretty evident in the way you play and in the little things that happen in a game that you know how to deal with as a professional.”

The differences were dramatic, embodied in dozens of little things, from movement off the ball to quality of angles to on-the-ball decision-making.

“With us,” Kelly Gray, a midfielder at the University of Portland, observed, “we’d get the ball, and if we didn’t know what to do with it, we’d kind of freak out. With them, they just relax, take their time, find something to do with it.”

Said Virginia midfielder Kyle Martino: “A lot of guys came in here and didn’t get away with the things they normally get away with and kind of got their eyes opened a little bit.”

What they saw was the huge gap between college players and opponents who, as Suhnholz said, “have to compete to secure a living.”

The Americans played with grit and fight, and it enabled them to compete despite disadvantages in midfield, where opponents’ organizational superiority placed the U.S. defense under almost constant siege. If not for goalkeeper D.J. Countess’ brilliance, Donovan mused, “some of those games could have been 6-0, 7-0.”

“[Scouts in Argentina] comment on our speed, our workrate, our will, our really good attitude,” noted Francisco Marcos, head of the U.S. delegation. “But what we’re still missing is what the Argentines or Brazilians would call the hip movement – the waist, to speak. Sometimes we get so easily caught out of body position and our body movement.”

Egypt, in particular, was able weave the ball through traffic, often leaving U.S. defenders out of sorts, and carve paths into the U.S. box, where Countess had to play God.

“We thought we were going to do the best the U.S. has ever done,” Martino said. “We felt it was our year to turn heads.”

It wasn’t, and it likely won’t be until the entire U-20 pool is filled by professionals. Marcos guesses it will be three more U-20 cycles – 2007 – before that occurs.

“This time we had four pros,” Convey said. “Next time, maybe eight.”

Education remains important to many players (and their parents), and MLS wages sway some but not all.

“We’ve come a long way,” Suhnholz says of American soccer, “and we have so many talented players. We have to get the talented players as quickly as possible to the next level. I don’t mean that 22- and 23-year-olds can’t become professional players, but if you get them younger, the more time they have to develop as players.”

by Soccer America senior editor Scott French in Buenos Aries