International Duty - Part 3

Yes, that time is on us again. First up are the youngsters:

Steven Sessegnon has been invited to play for Englands Under-17s in the Algarve Tournament starting on Friday, having spent the past week training at St George’s Park. England face Portugal, Germany and the Netherlands in the six-day friendly tournament.

[Fantastic for the twin, after losing so much of last season through an injury]


Both Marlon Fossey and Luca de la Torre have been called up to represent the USA Under-20 squad for their three-week World Cup Qualifiers. They hope to make sure that the States are heading to South Korea for the Under-20 World Cup this summer. The qualifiers take place in San Jose and the USA will face Panama, Haiti, St Kitts & Nevis with additional matches to be confirmed.

[Fantastic pair. Young Fossey occasionally 'flatters to deceive' because of his laid back attitude but his athleticism, pace and skill are phenominal. Luca is something else with the ball at his feet and if he can strenghten a bit physicall has huge potential.]

 

Steven Sessegnon's England beat Germany 3-2 over in Portugal earlier today.

 

Marlon Fossey and Luca de la Torre didn't get off to a good start in the Concacaf U20 tournament as USA went down 1-0 to Panama.

 

Back on track for Marlon and Luca as USA U20 beat Haiti 4-1 yesterday, Luca de la Torre getting one of the goals.

please log in to view this image

The stucture of this CONCACAF tournament is horribly complex but it's doubly important for our lads, and their team, since the top four teams will qualify for the U20 World Cup in Korea this summer.

 

Marlon Fossey and Luca de la Torre helped the USA U20s to a historic win against 13 time competition winners Mexico last night in the CONCACAF tournament.

please log in to view this image

Captain Erik Palmer-Brown headed them the winner in the 29th minute; the only goal Mexico have conceded in the entire of this year’s tournament. Their defence kept Mexico at bay, only allowing three shots during the 90 minutes, and none of their efforts finding their way on goal. Marlon Fossey played the whole of the match, and has featured in every game during this campaign. Luca de la Torre played the lmajority of the match, only making way deep into injury time. He had been rested in their last two games.

This landmark win gives the USA lads control of the classification stage and is only the second time the USA have beaten Mexico at this level, the last time before these players were born - during the 1986 CONCACAF U-20 Championship.

As said earlier the structure of this competition is really complex. In summarry this is where it stands:

To get to this round the USA had to navigate their way coming second in the group stages. Wins over Haiti and St Kitts and Nevis secured their passage into the Classification Stage, having lost their opening match to Panama. Since that match they have turned things around with three wins on the bounce, and will be hoping to win just two more to be crowned champions. The country that finishes top of each Classification group goes into the CONCACAF final being played on March 5th. The top two of each Classification group qualify for the U20 World Cup which takes place this summer in South Korea.

This means that if Mexico beat El Salvador on Wednesday then the USA will only need a point in their own match against El Salvador to qualify for the World Cup and reach the CONCACAF U20 Championship final.

 

They did it! Yesterday Marlon Fossey and Luca de la Torre became CONCACAF U20 Champions in Costa Rica by beating Honduras in the final on penalties.

please log in to view this image

"The match was scoreless after 90 minutes and the USA made history by winning 5-3 from the 12-yard spot. This is the first time the USA have ever won the CONCACAF at U20 level, and took their opportunity in their fifth final in the competition.

Both Fulham Academy players Fossey and de la Torre had a hand in the win, playing for the entirety of the game. Luca de la Torre was the man to give the Stars and Stripes the advantage by smashing his penalty into the top right corner to make it 4-3, and the win was sealed by USA’s Danny Acosta.

Fossey and de la Torre not only had a hand in this match, but were imperative to the USA team throughout the tournament. Both the Academy boys played 90 minutes in five of the six matches, and were rested for the St Kitts & Nevis match. Fossey also appeared early in that game due to injury. The USA did it the hard way, they lost their opening match to Panama but then subsequently won five games in a row, including beating favourites and 13 times winners Mexico.The team also had to navigate victories over Haiti, a game in which de la Torre also scored to give the USA the lead, El Salvador in the semi final and of course Honduras in the final.

Fossey and de la Torre will be joining up with the U20 USA team once more this summer for the World Cup as CONCACAF Champions."

 

The way to take penalties ... well, 8 of them. Including a cool cracker from Luca de la Torre among the good ones.

 

Lasse Vigen Christensen has been selected for Denmark's U21 friendlies against Spain and England later this month. These games are preparation ahead of the U21 UEFA Championships in Poland in June.

And gives cause for Burton Albion to celebrate.

http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/burton-...-and-england/story-30189666-detail/story.html

 

Tom Cairney called up by Scotland, but no place for Kevin McDonald. Their loss, to be honest.

 

Well deserved, obviously. But I really do wish Strachan had continued to ignore him ..for a wee while longer anyway.

 

About time Cairney got called up, been saying it for months! Disappointed McDonald didn't make it, definitely a few players in there he could easily have taken the place of.

 

Missed it but Chris Martin has also been called up for Strachan's Scotland.

 

Quite a few off on duty. The most deserved though has to be Steven Sessegnon coming back after the horrible time he had with injury last season. Here's the full list as it currently stands:

Senior squad:

Floyd Ayité (Togo) – Friendly
Tom Cairney (Scotland) – Friendly & World Cup Qualifier
Stefan Johansen (Norway) – World Cup Qualifier
Jesse Joronen (Finland) – World Cup Qualifier & Friendly
Mattias Kait (Estonia) – World Cup Qualifier & Friendly
Tomas Kalas (Czech Republic) – Friendly & World Cup Qualifier
Neeskens Kebano (Congo) – Friendly
Michael Madl (Austria) – World Cup Qualifier & Friendly
Chris Martin (Scotland) – Friendly & World Cup Qualifier
Tim Ream (United States) – World Cup Qualifiers

U21s

Marek Rodák (Slovakia) – Friendlies
Jon Dagur Thorsteinsson (Iceland) – Friendlies

U19s

Tayo Edun (England) – Elite Round Qualifiers
Ryan Sessegnon (England) - Elite Round Qualifiers

U17s

Steven Sessegnon (England) – Elite Round Qualifiers

 

Has Steven Sessegnon had another injury recently, because I saw a video of him with the heading first game back after injury and it was a recent match ?

I think McDonald deserved a call up to the Scotland squad too.

 

So far as I'm aware, since he returned in September, Steven has been a regular in the U18s SuperBri and not been out injured. He did get a nasty knock when he played for the U23s on Monday but I believe he's fine.

Agree about McDonald. And he doesn't always get the credit he's due with us either.

 

Burton's other international, Cauley Woodrow has been called up for England's U21 friendly games against Germany and Denmark ahead of the U21 UEFA Cahampionship games. So, he could be up against his mate LVC in that Denmark one.

 

desperation.

 

Both Tayo Edun and Ryan Sessegnon played in England U19s 3-0 Euro-qualifier win over Norway this afternoon. Young Edun getting one of the goals with a belter into the roof of the net from the edge of the box.

Here's a link to the FA report of the match:

http://www.thefa.com//news/2017/mar/22/england-u19s-norway-report-220317

 

Martin and Cairney both start for Scotland tonight.

I'm very pleased about one and less so about the other, leave that to you guys to decide for yourselves.

 

Well, as Strachan said pre-match, "we're bringing Tom Cairney in, we want to play a system that's similar to Fulham's" and they did - going 1-0 down to the ice hockey giants - before our pair got in the act. Albeit a bit part from one of them.