ASN: Ramos hails attacking expertise & confidence forward of the U-20 World Cup

Tab Ramos and the U-20 crew are of their closing preparations for the U-20 World Cup in Poland and Ramos talked extensively concerning the crew’s attacking qualities and confidence – which is exclusive compared with earlier U.S. youth natonal groups.

BY

Brian Sciaretta

Posted
Might 14, 2019
8:00 AM

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THE UNITED STATES U-20 nationwide crew is now assembled in Europe and in preparations for the 2019 U-20 World Cup which is able to start in lower than 10 days. This match will mark the conclusion of the crew’s fourth cycle by which Tab Ramos as been in cost. A troublesome group awaits the U.S. crew however Ramos signifies that his crew goes to attempt to go toe-to-toe with any opponent.

It is going to be a daring technique for Ramos, as Ukraine, Nigeria, and Qatar make for a difficult group. Particularly, Ukraine’s U-20 crew has crushed a number of of Europe’s finest groups to qualify. Throughout final years’ UEFA U-19 championships, Ukraine completed first in a gaggle that consisted of France, England and Turkey.

However Ramos, insists that irrespective of which opponent is in entrance of his crew, he’s going to attempt to assault and be answerable for the sport.

“I like the team we have,” Ramos defined. “I think it’s the best team we’ve had. We have the most talent we’ve had. But I don’t know every single team at the World Cup right now. I don’t know if Ukraine doesn’t have the best team it has ever had in their history too. It’s really hard to tell.”

“The idea for us is always the same, we want to have the ball,” he added. “We’re going to the World Cup and trying to figure out how we can breakdown Ukraine, how we can break down Nigeria, how we can beat Qatar. Part of our way of breaking down Ukraine is not sitting all the way back and hopefully countering. That’s not something I am comfortable with, that’s not something I like, and it’s not something that fits our players. Our players want to attack and be aggressive. If it happens that we lose that way, then we lose that way. But we’re losing that way going after it.”

This match might be an vital check for younger American gamers to not solely preserve possession in opposition to good groups but in addition create probabilities with the ball. Ramos has seen large progress within the capability of younger American gamers who can preserve possession however his purpose for this U-20 crew is to see these skillful gamers take the subsequent step.

“It’s amazing. Back when I played, I used to get a lot of credit for being the skillful guy who could have the ball and pass it around to other guys,” Ramos mentioned. “But back then we just didn’t have a lot of possession players.. Now? I mentioned Frankie Amaya but I could have said Christian Cappis, Brenden Aaronson can keep the ball at the highest level. Then we probably have a 100 guys under them who can keep the ball in possession. One of the knocks I have in academy games is that you have a lot of guys who just keep possession and play the ball sideways and backwards.”

“This is why at the U-20 level I pull guys aside like Paxton [Pomykal] or Alex Mendex and say: it’s great that you can keep the ball but how about now making plays?” Ramos careworn. “I need you in the final third to make plays that win games or create dangerous situations whether its passing, shooting, getting fouled, or creating corners. Make plays. We still could use more of those players but in terms of possession, we’re in a completely different world than when I played. There are literally thousands of players who can keep possession.”

Ramos likes the distinction gamers he has on the present crew and was fast to level out guys like Paxton Pomykal, Alex Mendez, Tim Weah, and Konrad de la Fuente.

Relating to Konrad de la Fuente, Ramos has been monitoring his progress intently at Barcelona and needed to carry him into camps all through the cycle however membership commitments prevented that. Lastly in March, Ramos was in a position to usher in the Miami native and he didn’t disappoint when his unimaginable particular person effort ignited comeback that noticed the U.S. crew flip a 2-0 deficit at halftime right into a 2-2 draw.

Listed here are the 2 U.S. U-20 objectives within the 2-2 draw in the present day with France. The primary from Konrad de la Fuente. The second is a fantastic sequence: Carleton to Amon to Keita to Cappis for the end pic.twitter.com/u0AbTUIRMC

— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) March 22, 2019

For Ramos, de la Fuente is the kind of participant that U.S. groups have lacked however elite nations have had. Typically instances, it’s these gamers that may be the distinction between wins and losses.

“Konrad is an excellent 1v1 player who can break teams down by himself,” Ramos mentioned. “That sometimes has been the difference that I’ve experienced between who we have been and who, for example, Brazil is or who Serbia was [in 2015]. These are teams who are in games even when they’re not playing well, all of sudden the ball comes out and one player 1v1 breaks the game down and they score. All of a sudden, everyone is talking about how good Brazil was, but yeah, they weren’t great until that one guy dribbles through two guys and scores. I think Konrad is one of those guys.”

Relating to Weah, Ramos has not had the proficient Paris St. Germain participant at his disposal your entire cycle earlier than the World Cup. Weah has spend the final 5 months on mortgage at Celtic and he spent all of 2018 for Paris St. Germain whereas taking part in for the complete United States nationwide crew beneath interim supervisor Dave Sarachan.

However Ramos has mentioned that he has identified Weah for a few years courting again to his time on the Crimson Bulls academy in New Jersey in addition to watching the 2017 U-17 World Cup and World Cup qualifying groups. He acknowledged that Weah can play each as a wing and as a middle ahead for the U-20 crew however he would possibly play on the wing extra as a result of he believes that’s the place he might be taking part in extra with the senior nationwide crew.

“The thing about Tim Weah is that he has that killer instinct,” Ramos mentioned. “He’s a winner and he’s constantly looking to hurt you to win the game. The fact that he had the opportunity to be on a roster with guys like Mbappe, Neymar, and Cavani for a year, I think that can only help.. I think that growth is something he has accomplished by moving up from year to year. I like his personality; I like that he is aggressive mentally to try to win and to make plays. Obviously, he has great speed, he is a great 1v1 player and he can shoot from outside that box. Those are three qualities that can open up a defense on his own.”

Attacking midfielder Paxton Pomykal is one other participant who might be vital to the crew’s possibilities of advancing into the knockout phases. Coming into this cycle, Pomykal was anticipated to be one of many gamers who Ramos may rely on to play his attacking type. Former U.S. U-18 nationwide crew head coach Omid Namazi gave Ramos a really favorable report that Pomykal was one of the best participant shifting on from his crew to the U-20 crew.

However that wasn’t initially the case and Ramos needed to have conversations with the FC Dallas product about taking his recreation to the subsequent degree. Then at qualifying, it seemingly all got here collectively for Pomykal.

“I had that conversation with Paxton,” Ramos mentioned. “It pretty much was saying: you can do everything. But can you do the things that win games? When you have the ball, go at defenders in the box and get the defenders on their heels. Don’t control the ball and play it sideways so the defenders can take a step towards you. Everything you do, make it forward so that they’re maybe taking a step backwards.’ I think if you watch World Cup qualifying, he did a lot of that…Every time he got the ball it was a positive touch forward towards the box that made the other team go backwards. That makes a big difference. Now when you watch him play for the first team at Dallas, he does the same.”

However it’s not on a person foundation both, Ramos is worked up concerning the crew’s collective mentality and confidence that it has the potential to win each recreation. Whether or not or not this crew can return to the quarterfinals or advance additional, Ramos believes their mentality will solely assist them sooner or later.

“The one thing that is a little bit different from this group than in the past is that I worry a lot – about every opponent,” Ramos mentioned. “I always think that somehow I hate losing more than I like winning. I worry about everything, all the time. This group sometimes goes: ‘we got this, coach.’ It’s that kind of group where they’re like: ‘it’s going to be okay.’ I really like that. When I see us walking on the field and I see guys like Alex Mendez and Mark McKenzie and Paxton – those kinds of guys are so confident when they walk onto the field. It gives you a good feeling as a coach that everything is going to be okay.”

Maybe greater than anybody, Ramos has witnessed the rising technology of American gamers first hand – as both the U-20 coach or working with the latest U-17 nationwide groups because the federation’s youth technical path.

Even when the complete nationwide crew did not qualify for the 2018 World Cup he wasn’t anxious concerning the crew’s future as a result of he felt the U.S. has good gamers coming by. With the improved performances of U.S. youth nationwide groups at World Cups, Ramos preached in opposition to the “tear down everything” mentality following the crew’s loss to Trinidad & Tobago.

However looking forward to Poland, he notices that there’s extra curiosity now amongst supporters for U.S. youth nationwide groups, and he believes that’s wholesome as a result of the gamers deserve it. It even reminds him of discussions he had along with his former faculty coach at NC State, George Tarantini – brother of Alberto Tarantini who was the left again on Argentina’s World Cup successful crew in 1978.

“And they are not just good players here [in the United States],” Ramos mentioned. “I had an old coach in college, George Tarantini, who told me there are very few players who can play. Obviously, that is many years ago but that was when I was leaving college and going to go to Spain. He said: ‘remember, there are very few players who can play.’ So, if you can play, you can play anywhere. And I sort of feel that. Our players are good players and good players can play on any team anywhere. I think we have those so people should be excited about these players.”