Yeah they had the game in the bag up by 2
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Really tough loss and a really poor final possession.
Clock and game management is critical
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Tough loss for the boys. He’s just not a closer.
Hard to argue with Spains shooting though. Better shot selection, and accuracy. Spain on the counter was impressive. Interesting stats. We took nearly 2x the shots and with two players on USA accounting for nearly 60% of all shots 
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I don’t have a dog in this hunt. What would you do differently?
Who is not a closer?
Better last possession, run clock, dump the ball if needed. Never turn the ball over up top (x2, X3,x4)
That type of turnover leads to a counterattack goal
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Not sure if we were out of timeouts, but if the 6 on 5 timeout was our last, might have needed to talk about upcoming scenarios in final 2 minutes.
Easy to second guess now. None of us know what this group was actually able to go over in training heading into this tournament. But possession with :40 left and the 7 on 6 did not look like we knew what we were doing though (after giving Diaz a great look to make it a one goal game). Hopefully all involved learn and grow.
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Here’s the game film teed up to 1:48 left in Q4 coming off of Spain’s time out at 9-7:
This was a great back and forth, very closely fought game, the kind where the Spanish faithful were all sorts of convinced that they were playing 7v9 (ahem, those pesky refs). Up by 2 with 1:48 and again at 1:07 . . . it is a hard loss (we saw lots of these close games at JOs, too).
This is more of world aquatics / microplus complaint, but, why don’t they track who earned the exclusion or penalties? That’s a basic stat.
We don’t know whether or not the coaching staff told them that. I’m sure there’s more than one coach on this board who has had their players do something as far as possible from what was discussed in the huddle. Not to mention that this was probably the biggest moment of most of these kids’ careers, everything is going out the window.
Maybe call a timeout after the Spanish goal at :40?
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For sure hindsight is 20/20 here but my vote in the up by 1 scenario with :40 seconds left is to spread out and have the goalie hold the ball until about 8-10 seconds left on the shot clock and play a quick moment of offense with a center pass to either earn an exclusion or goalie tip-out with a shot from center.
I think with players at 2/3/4 being behind half too kinda kills any counter attack and if the other team does get the ball with :12 seconds left it’s not a lot of time for the bottom line to get down the pool and shoot (Spain had used both timeouts).
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Here is my unsolicited 2 cents. Agree with poloobserver that Ian had to call time out at 40 seconds left to tell kids what to do. Agree with retiredguy that you keep the ball until there is only 12 seconds left for Spain and your defense is mostly back. Unfortunately US player #14 did an unforced error/bad pass back, as at the time of his pass he was not guarded, his defender left him. Then, coach puts that same player to shoot penalties, when kid is probably in his own head, dwelling about his error. My final observation for the whole tournament is that US player #10 had a green light to shoot whenever he wants, which didn’t work well in the last two (serious) games. Not even the best players on the planet have that luxury (I guess player #10 plays for Ian at the high school). Perhaps a bronze medal on Sunday. 
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Also, the defense when they were up 10-8 with 1:07 left gave Spain’s best player a wide open uncontested shot at very close range. Hoping they can get the bronze!
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This game was a great learning experience for both the athletes and coaches. Get the Bronze.
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I did not watch the easy early rounds, but looking at the two recent games against tough competition it seems the US team is trying to rely on two guys to do all the shooting. That seems like local club/HS type of approach because of limited depth on offense. If this is the best players in the country we should not be looking at two guys as our offensive strategy. I know Spain was dropping a lot of Taylor but we have to figure out how to get him more touches, or get more outside shooters involved. Go get the bronze.
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I think they should use Coleman inside a bit more and have more offense via movement.
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I disagree with this. Coleman is one I’ve been watching. I get to see Harry Siafaris, Grayson Taylor, and Owen Marks all the time. At the start of the tournament, I wasn’t sold on Coleman at all. I was wrong. Coleman is great, but he needs to be played as they’ve played him the past two games. Do not change a thing with Coleman. Early in the tournament, he was inside a bit more and it wasn’t good.
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All four of those players are great. Grayson T was virtually unstoppable in 4th quarter of the quarterfinal. Seems like they’re not utilizing them all in the best way.
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Agree on Coleman. He probably has to do a lot for HS and club, meaning play wherever the best opportunity to score (ie. Post-ups and center play). But his center defense and top row shooting has been excellent.
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