The word of caution is that the USA U20 men have not arrived; there is still work to do.
Yes the Junior Eagles beat Netherlands; yes they beat Uruguay; yes their next opponent, Kenya, is 0-2; all of that is true. But expecting the Kenya game to be a foregone conclusion isn't smart.
Looking back on the USA's 32-15 defeat of Uruguay, we can see that the Americans had some serious scoring chances in the first half, and couldn't convert. So yes there were some things they needed to do to finish off chances, but it was also clear that they could get into scoring position.
A snappy little cross kick from Ollie Cline almost produced a try and some aggressive running and good ball movement also came close to producing a try.
"We were a little bit frustrated to be honest," Head Coach Neeths Gericke told GRR. "We were not really capitalizing. But we were getting into scoring position and we knew what the fix was."
And the fix came in the second half. Much of that was ensuring they play in the right areas of the field—two 50-22s from Cline, both right out of the top drawer, helped a lot and led to points each time. They focused on defense, forcing a couple og key penalties but, more importantly, making tackles, reorganizing, and making Uruguay work for it.
"With the ball we were more accurate in the breakdown and we cleared out better," added Gericke. "We know we've got some electric backs, and all we needed to do was be patient, play in the right areas of the field, and then let then show that ability."
