USA opens with 6-0 win at 2023 Concacaf U-20 Women's Championship
- by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, May 27, 2023
The match in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic capital, was originally scheduled to be played on Wednesday, but all Group A games were pushed back to to bad weather.
Sentnor, the U-20 captain, is the only player on the current team who played in the 2022 U-20 World Cup in Costa Rica, where the USA was eliminated in the group stage.
Jordynn Dudley, Kat Rader, Lauren Martinho and Ally Lemos (on the third penalty) also scored for the USA, which has won 15 games in a row in Concacaf U-20 play, dating back to the 2018 final, which it lost to Mexico on penalty kicks.
May 26 in Santo Domingo
USA 6 Panama 0. Goals: Dudley 1, Sentnor 41 pen., 49 pen., Rader 45, Martinho 64, Lemos 71 pen.
USA -- Wy; Thompson (Klenke, 73), Evans, Emri,King (Dellarose, 63); Lemos; Aikey (Martinho, 63), Harvey; Dudley (Gamero, 63), Sentnor (Cagle, 71), Rader.
Panama -- Garay; Montenegro (Hincapié, 46), Madrid, Rosas; Salazar (Capt.) (Name, 73), S.King (Espino, 63), Pon, Gil, Cargill, Rivera (Goldstein, 63), Gross (Rojas, 72).
Yellow Card: Panama -- Garay 29.
Referee: Katia Garcia (Mexico). ARs: Mayra Mora (MEX), Santa Medina (DOM), 4th Official: Astrid Gramajo (GUA). VAR: Benjamin Pineda (CRC). AVAR1: Ivan Barton (SLV)
Attendance: 50.
I only watched about 35 minutes and couldn't take any more. I could not really assess the US team because Panama was not challenging enough.
My fear is that the US players were developing very bad habits in terms of tactical decision making because the opponents were so technically and physically poor that the US players did not have to play smart. After the first feigned injury by the opponent's captain enabled the coaching staff to talk to the players, the US players appeared to try to play more deliberate. At that point the tactics looked like high school ball.
This was not a positive experience for player development.