2 years ago Erling Haaland scored 9 goals against the U-20 Honduras Team. I'd say their current U-23 is a lot of the same players.

The US youth development is abysmal to say the least

I'm only exaggerating slightly. If you were to put together a first-choice USA U23 eleven, you'd have taken something like seven or eight players who are probably first-choice starters for the senior team.

They might very well have put 9 past this Honduras team.

They would have beaten Honduras down quickly. The problem is that the players that were there should have still beaten Honduras. And Kreis should have selected some of the available MLS players (not all were because of CONCACAF CL).

I only responded to the post because a reference to Haaland makes an apples-to-apples comparison involve the first-choice U23's for the U.S.

I'd add that (continuing on the same theme) the U.S. has been performing consistently well at the U17 and U20 levels through the latter part of the last decade, which also goes toward the criticism not being well-founded.

There are certainly issues with how the team was ultimately fielded. I'd like to keep the criticisms on point and focused on the real problems, which in this U23 generation have more to do with Kreis's selection and tactics than in the state of player development.

Tab did a great job with the youth teams. The talent is there. I'm actually very happy with the talent development in the program in the last 10-15 years. I put this recent failure on Kreis' shoulders.

The game management was just awful. They were low energy and absolutely without any movement through the middle of the field. Everything was going up the wings in the first half. It was all useless. Then, his big halftime change was...Saucedo. Nope. Then he keeps Ferreria on, who was invisible, and drops him back for Soto. Should have never taken Mihailovic off in the first place. And don't even get me started on dropping Yueill so deep when Perea was just fine as the deep mid the prior matches.

I feel for Ochoa, but that mistake should have never mattered. I don't care if this is a B/C team, they should have never been CONCACAF'd like that.

I can't really figure out why he keeps getting hired. He's basically been on a downward spiral since leaving RSL.

I watched maybe 10 minutes of the match and realized I had seen enough. I really don't care about Olympic soccer, especially with it being a glorified U23 tournament.

* the first goal was pushed across the line by an arm. It was incidental -- he brought it down with his hip and it was going goalward, but he went to ground and ended up knocking it in with his arm -- but enough that it shouldn't have stood.

* the second best chance in the dying minutes would've been 1-on-goal in the box or a penalty, except that the ref inexplicably decided that Lewis "hooked" the defender, despite never initiating contact, at most doing some one-for-one hand fighting after the defender realized he was fucked.

* standard "oh, we're up a goal? Time to writhe on the ground for minutes at a time at any opportunity"

... but all that said, this is on Kreis and the players, not the ref.

Let's not forget the big brain decision to host a tournament at 5000 feet when the temps would be in the upper 80s and 90s.

the CONCACAF handbook for jobbing the USA, and as SD indicated, was in a very crucial part of the field.

On the other hand, the second goal for Honduras was on an absolutely atrocious and inexcusable clear-out by Ochoa.

Several of their people used the word. FOX also had a graphic showing the US' last three failed attempts in major international tournament qualifying:

- 2016 Olympic qualifying
- 2018 World Cup qualifying
- 2020 Olympic qualifying

They could have also added at the bottom of the graphic:
"Brought to you by your friends at the USSF"

1. Hey MLS, play in the same fucking time of the year as the rest of the world (save the Nordics), and maybe your domestic players won't be out of shape and useless during all the major tournament qualifications, the confederation champions league, etc.

2. Hey MLS, you exist only beause of US Soccer, don't fucking hold our domestic players out of Olympic qualifying. Fuck you Atlanta, in particular. Oh, it's a disruption to your preseason? (A) pre-season. (B) See point 1.

3. Hey US Soccer, don't think you're blameless: you're pushing so hard for players to move to Europe ASAP. Well guess what? That means they won't ever participate in Olympic qualifying. Maybe that's worth the price -- I could be convinced! -- but you have to recognize that it's a different ballgame versus Mexico who have almost all their top young players playing domestically (funny how a high-paying, strong developmental league can achieve that). Thus, it's your job to get the US pipeline, whether in MLS or elsewhere, up to the standard where our B, C, and D listers are strictly better versus all non-Mexico teams in the federation, even with their A listers.

Of course, that still doesn't entirely excuse this result, since our C-list roster has mostly MLS starters, versus MLS scrubs, USL players, and Honduran domestic players who kicked our ass tonight. Which brings me to ...

4. Also US Soccer, hire a coach who isn't the very epitome of "MLS 1.0" and thus decides to bring 4 defensive mids, a bunch of "effort guys", and limited actual technical quality.

I don't give a flying fuck about a glorified U23 tournament. They were held out of pre-season under a new coach with CCL matches starting the first week of April. I'm glad they were held out. I'd want them held out every time regardless of the MLS schedule.

The failure to qualify will have consequences that reverberate on the USMNT program for a decade.

Now, if you want to talk about a useless tournament, let's talk about the CCL.

That's always going to make it problematic. We can't bring our best European U23 players? Fine, FIFA hates the Olympics anyway (they're a competitor). But MLS clubs don't have to release, either, and it's just further evidence USSF isn't willing to flex one bit. Guys like Morris and Bello and others would have been a boost to this squad. There were too many thin positions.

Honduras, on the other hand, can do whatever it needs or wants. That's why they keep going to the Olympics but can't qualify for the WC.

(to be clear, this doesn't excuse Kreis)

U23 players are the majority of the lineups. A few exceptions for players over that age classification. I don't see how it has any impact on the main national team program. I don't think it has driven success for other countries. We're currently looking at the best collection of talent at the senior level. Have any of them played in the Olympics?

that the senior level players would be eligible for.

Our program has been total garbage. Finally, with all of the schedule congestion this summer, we were going to get the opportunity to develop three levels of players - creating >unprecedented< depth for the program.

We struggled in the last six or so years to field anything more than a best 11 and everything thereafter was a dumpster fire. Jozy hurt? We're screwed. Brooks hurt? We're screwed.

The pool is right on the edge of becoming respectable and the chance to build on our program and give real international tournament experience to a new group of guys is going to be a massive developmental hit, especially in light of the already damaging failure to qualify which stripped Pulisic of experience that would pay dividends one and two Cups from now.

of young technically gifted players. We are nowhere near the level of the US and Mexico, but I can see Canada causing some headaches in the hex. I'm really curious how we will do against your US Team.

Of course if Alphnso Davis gets hurt, we will get our asses kicked like teams of old.

He sticks out like a sore thumb on that Canada team, especially when David isn’t out there.

then everyone else.

Pulisic and Dest are going to give CONCACAF defenses nightmares. And be on the receiving end of a lot of fouls. Without bookings.

Musah and Reyna are fun to watch on the ball.