re: United State of U20 Yanks vs shite CentroAmerican Country | CONCACAF U20 Championship | FS1

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So why was the previous format so much worse for the US?

Is it because it is a fall tournament where teams don’t have to release their players? Therefore, all of our U-23s in Europe are unable to play? And it’s basically our MLS guys versus everyone else’s domestic plus MLS guys?

Whereas this is a summer tournament and all interested players are going to play since there are no club matches at the moment?

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I think in the lead up to 2012 and 2016, it was because our U23's were just not very good. Go back and look at the rosters for those squads that failed to qualify, many of those players hardly or never sniffed the full national team.

However in the case of last year, our U23's were so good that they made up the majority of our full national team and first teamers in Europe and their clubs weren't releasing them for a U23 tournament, so we sent Jackson Yueill and the MLS All Stars.

Granted, we still should be qualifying out of CONCACAF regardless of the talent we're sending. But, and I'm not just saying this because we finally qualified, I like the idea of having the U20's qualify two years before the Olympics. It allows you to bring a full strength youth squad and those guys could very well be factoring in a U23 setting in two years anyway.