Certainly aren't short of goalscorers in this side, even when you lose! However, as Scott says it is the defence that definitely needs a tightening up sooner rather than later.
The end of my first adventure as manager just ended. I went back into my apartment in Chicago and laid down in my bed. Enjoying the peace. The last few days were quite hectic: Four flights, two matches, extreme Colombian heat and more. It was nice to be back home, if I could even call it my home. Despite the fact I lived there for a little while already boxes were scattered throughout the living room, simply because I didn’t have the time.
It surprised me how hectic international management truly is. I always thought it was having a week or two of work and then simply watching some football matches. I always thought it was such a simple job, I was wrong. I can’t count how many flights I’ve had in the last two months in order to watch matches. The simple truth was, I had to do the same thing once again.
We had a very important few months coming up, with four friendlies in October to fully prepare for the North American U20 championship in November. A start was luckily made and I could take things a little slower.
21 September 2019
After spending a week in order to settle in I had a little over a week to get my squad together. However, I was content with the games we had, despite the Colombia result, and wanted to keep the squad together as much as possible. I had a few games lined up to watch to see some potential players and look at some players who made my first squad again.
24 September 2019
The nightmare of every international manager. Your star player unavailable for the matches coming up. Haji Wright got an ankle injury and would therefore be out of the squad for both the 2 friendlies coming up and possibly even more upcoming friendlies. I didn’t know how to feel, Wright was easily our best player in the Chile game and was one of few to actually play well in the Colombia game.
Unfortunately for me things went south from there. I started to realize that more players were unavailable. With my squad to be confirmed in a week I had to really tinker with the squad. As much as I wanted to keep the squad together and as more time passed on, the more I realized I wouldn’t be able to.
3 October 2019
After days of traveling watching football matches and scouting players, the time has come. I had to send in my squad of 23 players for the upcoming friendlies.

The big missing name in the squad must be Haji Wright, the Schalke striker (currently on loan at FC Magdeburg), suffered an ankle injury and is ruled out. Another big miss for the squad will be Auston Trusty, the central defender, who formed a couple with Philadelphia Union teammate Mark McKenzie in the earlier friendlies. He was pulled out of the squad by his team after just recovering from a minor knee injury.
Philadelphia Union is still the main supplier of players of the side with 3 (tied with FC Dallas), just like last time. The majority of players play their football in the United States, with only attacker Pierre da Silva and midfielder Ayo Akinola playing outside of the United States.
We will line up to play Panama first, before heading to Willemstad for the clash against Curacao. The Curacao match will be an important one for us as we play them in our U20 Championship campaign as well. Despite the fact both games are away from home, we will be favorites for both games.