It's wild that a U-20 center back (Brandan Craig) is literally the best set piece taker in the entire USMNT pool.
Curb Your Enthusiasm: US Youth National Teams, Prospect Hype, and Youth Development Thread [The DA is DEAD updates]
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This makes four U20 quarterfinals in a row for the US U20s, which is a pretty nice record. Next up is the winner of Gambia-Uruguay, which for some reason is being played on Thursday so the US will have two extra days of rest.
The US were already the only team in the group stage not to concede a goal, and now that streak has been extended.
The US were already the only team in the group stage not to concede a goal, and now that streak has been extended.
Gambia-Uruguay is a match of two countries with a combined population less than the Boston CSA
Obviously the keeper whiffed but seeing a back post run result in a goal nearly brought a tear to my eye.
I don’t know if Cowell’s rep is as a right foot only guy, he kind of gives the vibe for some reason. But he has two goals off the left foot in this tourney, both well struck especially today’s which showed really nice technique.
I don’t know if Cowell’s rep is as a right foot only guy, he kind of gives the vibe for some reason. But he has two goals off the left foot in this tourney, both well struck especially today’s which showed really nice technique.
NZ came out with 2-3 nice opportunities on the counter in the first 15', one of which forced some tidy intervention in the box, but they were basically done with offense after the first goal went in.
He definitely wants to cut in and shoot on his right, but his left is already stronger than like a Jordan Morris's at the same age (unfair comparison probably, as the later was suiting up for Stanford and not for his 100th pro game at the time)
The U-20s are out at the QF stage yet again, which is a bummer because they were fun to watch. Final result was 2-0 Uruguay but it was one of those equal games where one team took better advantage of their chances. I thought maybe Mikey got it wrong in starting both Wolff and Halliday as the lack of creativity in the final third hurt, but overall it was a good tournament. It does burn knowing that the next opponent would have been Israel with the winner going to the final, but really what we need to see is 4-5 guys per cohort who can make a difference for the senior squad keeping in mind the absences.
I was super impressed by Craig’s passing. If he has at least some speed and can defend at a passable level, we might have something there. Che’s passing was impressive too but not to the Craig level. McGlynn looked decent but will need to be better in tight spaces to really become a difference maker. Luna remains my favorite prospect* (maybe ever) and I almost feel compelled to apologize for questioning his fitness. Vargas looks like he will be a player too.
Weaknesses in guys like Sullivan and Halliday were already known. Wolff didn’t look great but he was playing much more advanced than he does for Austin. Edelman is what he is, a traditional ball winning 6 who hopefully will improve on the ball. Wiley had his moments but really needs to clean up his crossing or he will be Jedi 2.0. Not saying he will get to that level but have similar deficiencies in his game. I’d love for him to get as good as Antonee.
*Favorite prospect in terms of players to watch. I’m fully aware the he might not ever amount to much in terms of the USMNT but he’s hella fun to watch play soccer.
I was super impressed by Craig’s passing. If he has at least some speed and can defend at a passable level, we might have something there. Che’s passing was impressive too but not to the Craig level. McGlynn looked decent but will need to be better in tight spaces to really become a difference maker. Luna remains my favorite prospect* (maybe ever) and I almost feel compelled to apologize for questioning his fitness. Vargas looks like he will be a player too.
Weaknesses in guys like Sullivan and Halliday were already known. Wolff didn’t look great but he was playing much more advanced than he does for Austin. Edelman is what he is, a traditional ball winning 6 who hopefully will improve on the ball. Wiley had his moments but really needs to clean up his crossing or he will be Jedi 2.0. Not saying he will get to that level but have similar deficiencies in his game. I’d love for him to get as good as Antonee.
*Favorite prospect in terms of players to watch. I’m fully aware the he might not ever amount to much in terms of the USMNT but he’s hella fun to watch play soccer.
Wynder had a disasterclass. Arguably principally responsible for both goals.
The first one was a breakaway where Che attempted a slide tackle and missed, and Craig fell asleep and let his guy (Duarte) get behind him. The guy with the ball, De Los Santos, who had beaten Che on attacker's left, was coming in at a pretty narrow angle. The only other attacker in the play, Duarte, was middle of the box, and Wynder was the only defender between him and the net. So DLS looks like he's going to have to drive right at Slonina and take a narrow-angle shot (which would be low-percentage). But instead, Wynder leaves Duarte, slides over towards DLS to I guess force the shot sooner, but instead DLS squares it past Wynder right to Duarte at the penalty spot. Tap-in for 1-0. If DLS blasts a cannon past Slonina at a wide angle, fine, that's on Che, but Wynder leaving the centering pass available turned it from like a 0.1 xG to a 0.5 xG kind of situation.
Second one, I hardly need to describe. Centering pass to basically nobody, Wynder is waiting in the middle, stabs at it and deflects it neatly into our own corner. Slonina gets a fingertip to it but just not enough. Sometimes, own goals are a situation where if he doesn't make an attempt at it, failure means the attacker has a tap-in. Sometimes it's a freak deflection where the defender had no time to react. Not here; Wynder had a brain fart, in a position where this happens 10% of the time, and wouldn't-cha-know-it, it happens.
We had a lot of other near-goals and near-goals-conceded, but those were the moments that decided the game. Tough place to be. Craig and Che definitely saw their stock rise more than Wynder I'm afraid. Would be curious what those who watched the games would say for players who most helped themselves with how they showed out. Cowell and McGlynn seem to be leading most lists, perhaps followed by Craig and Obed.
The first one was a breakaway where Che attempted a slide tackle and missed, and Craig fell asleep and let his guy (Duarte) get behind him. The guy with the ball, De Los Santos, who had beaten Che on attacker's left, was coming in at a pretty narrow angle. The only other attacker in the play, Duarte, was middle of the box, and Wynder was the only defender between him and the net. So DLS looks like he's going to have to drive right at Slonina and take a narrow-angle shot (which would be low-percentage). But instead, Wynder leaves Duarte, slides over towards DLS to I guess force the shot sooner, but instead DLS squares it past Wynder right to Duarte at the penalty spot. Tap-in for 1-0. If DLS blasts a cannon past Slonina at a wide angle, fine, that's on Che, but Wynder leaving the centering pass available turned it from like a 0.1 xG to a 0.5 xG kind of situation.
Second one, I hardly need to describe. Centering pass to basically nobody, Wynder is waiting in the middle, stabs at it and deflects it neatly into our own corner. Slonina gets a fingertip to it but just not enough. Sometimes, own goals are a situation where if he doesn't make an attempt at it, failure means the attacker has a tap-in. Sometimes it's a freak deflection where the defender had no time to react. Not here; Wynder had a brain fart, in a position where this happens 10% of the time, and wouldn't-cha-know-it, it happens.
We had a lot of other near-goals and near-goals-conceded, but those were the moments that decided the game. Tough place to be. Craig and Che definitely saw their stock rise more than Wynder I'm afraid. Would be curious what those who watched the games would say for players who most helped themselves with how they showed out. Cowell and McGlynn seem to be leading most lists, perhaps followed by Craig and Obed.
The Revs academy got to be pretty good at some point. The U17 level is probably more of a big deal than the U19 level, but still —back-to-back!
View: https://twitter.com/NERevsAcademy/status/1672984768613437440
View: https://twitter.com/NERevsAcademy/status/1672984768613437440
BJ Callahan says some nice things about Jalen Neal, who really impressed in his game and a half so far. Two years ago, Miles Robinson used the Gold Cup to prove that his standout CB performance in the Nations League (especially vs Mexico) was no fluke, and he essentially became part of our top choice CB pairing in WCQ until he got injured. Neal may be en route to repeating the feat that made a lot of people sit up and take notice.
https://www.goal.com/en-us/lists/jalen-neal-usmnt-gold-cup-rising-star-american-soccer/blt1e3958e12c49e542
https://www.goal.com/en-us/lists/jalen-neal-usmnt-gold-cup-rising-star-american-soccer/blt1e3958e12c49e542
18 year old Espanyol winger and Connecticut native Luca Koleosho will play for Italy at the U-20 Euros. I’ll never really understand why the good folks at US Soccer did not rate him highly or give him more of a look. He’s eligible for the US and Canada but would need to file a one time switch on the future.
I don't know that much about him.
I would have some concerns about his ability to play for the USMNT. Japan has very strict dual national laws. People who acquire a new nationality are required to forfeit their Japanese citizenship. People like Suzuki who were born with multiple nationalities are required to choose when they turn 22.
My understanding — and if someone has confident knowledge here, please speak up — is that Japan does not actually enforce the age-22 choice all that strictly. However, suiting up for a foreign NT might draw some unwanted attention in this regard. There have been a number of Japan-raised Japanese-Americans that I have tracked over the years, but none have ever been part of the USMNT or USYNT system, so I've never seen a real test case.
So apparently the Croatian league kicked off today, with defending champions and perennial power Dinamo Zagreb losing in added time to Hajduk Split, last season’s runners up. The winning goal was a grown man’s header off a corner in traffic scored by US U-20 Rokas Pukstas.
View: https://twitter.com/footballreprt/status/1682483922838470658?s=46&t=XvGOrrWIyL-5CHVVL_0JYQ
View: https://twitter.com/footballreprt/status/1682483922838470658?s=46&t=XvGOrrWIyL-5CHVVL_0JYQ
Let’s not talk about Valencia’s defending. Just enjoy Keyrol’s banger.
View: https://twitter.com/usmntotaku/status/1683712185770426368?s=46&t=XvGOrrWIyL-5CHVVL_0JYQ
View: https://twitter.com/usmntotaku/status/1683712185770426368?s=46&t=XvGOrrWIyL-5CHVVL_0JYQ
We've got a coach for the Olympics.
View: https://twitter.com/amcalabrese12/status/1697210147943108624
Mitrovic is from the Veljko Paunovic coaching tree, @67YAZ. He was Pauno's assistant with Serbian youth NTs, and then with the Chicago Fire and Reading. He didn't follow Paunovic to Chivas, and was most recently the US U19 coach.
View: https://twitter.com/amcalabrese12/status/1697210147943108624
Mitrovic is from the Veljko Paunovic coaching tree, @67YAZ. He was Pauno's assistant with Serbian youth NTs, and then with the Chicago Fire and Reading. He didn't follow Paunovic to Chivas, and was most recently the US U19 coach.
I’ll admit that Paunovic’s performance in Chicago was probably more due to the club than his coaching ability. But man, he’s a prick. I think he’s been hated - by players and directors - at every job he’s ever had.
hopefully Mitrovic doesn’t take after that aspect of his mentor.
Also, no surprise we ended up with a guy who was already living in Chicago. How much interest was there in the job?
hopefully Mitrovic doesn’t take after that aspect of his mentor.
Also, no surprise we ended up with a guy who was already living in Chicago. How much interest was there in the job?
It's a manager for a single tournament for an age-bracket team that we otherwise basically do not have as part of the national team setup, so the U19s manager seems as good a choice as anyone else and I can't imaging there was a huge influx of resumes. Only other option that I could have seen would have been having Mikey Varas do it since he coached the U20s who qualified and will make up a major chunk of the Paris roster, but if they think he's more useful on the senior team staff (which is where he was just moved to), then that takes precedence. Olympics are cool, but the Copa America is cooler.
The Olympics squad is going to be a lot of fun though. Firstly we can roll out our U-20s but bolster with a couple of the senior-teamers who end up not quite making the Copa America cut, but want to join in (3 over-agers plus anyone born 1/1/2001 or later).
So beyond the U-20 WC roster, from the senior pool, consider who is at least age-eligible:
GK Gaga Slonina
GK Chris Brady
CB Jalen Neal
RB Joe Scally
RB Bryan Reynolds
LB Kristoffer Lund (the guy Gregg unearthed yesterday, to much consternation)
LB / LWB Kevin Paredes
DM Johnny Cardoso
DM Aidan Morris
CM Yunus Musah
CM Gianluca Busio
CM Benja Cremaschi (he is eligible for the 2028 olympics!)
CM Noel Buck (him too!)
AM Malik Tillman
AM Gio Reyna
AM Brian Gutierrez
RW Taylor Booth
CF Ricardo Pepi
CF Folarin Balogun
...leaving aside that many of them will be doing Copa America if healthy (June 20 - July 14, same as the Euros), with few if any pulling double-duty with the Olympics (July 24 - Aug 9) a la Miles Robinson 2021 (NL + Gold Cup). Even aside from injury risk, many of their club seasons will be starting up (UEFA), or resuming (MLS). And yeah, sure, Gio and Musah aren't going, no matter how awesome they think it would be. But I'd bet at least half of the list above won't make the Copa America squad, maybe more, so that leaves a LOT of potentially bolstering of that U-20 squad, if we want to really send the best realistic squad we can. And that U-20 WC squad had some respectable names: Wynder and Craig at CB, Wiley at LB, Luna McGlynn Edelman etc in MF (Obed Vargas is 2028-eligible!), Cowell on the wing, Paxten Aaronson up front, etc. Throw in some senior over-agers (your Acosta / Roldan / Arriola types who would kill for another chance to wear the crest, and/or your Auston Trusty / Sam Vines types who aren't going to make a healthy A-team roster but are next down the depth chart) and pretty soon our olympics roster could be pretty frisky, given that France will deploy, at best, their D-team.
And then remember that the Olympics is something that will bring in American viewers who would normally never watch soccer. It's a chance to actually swing for the fences, have the whole country watching you, maybe even win an olympic fuckin' medal, and by the way, you know what goes on in the Olympic Village after dark, right? So overall, I feel like the gig might be appealing to many coaches and players, even if its prestige is lower among most of the footballing world. At least, it ought to.
So beyond the U-20 WC roster, from the senior pool, consider who is at least age-eligible:
GK Gaga Slonina
GK Chris Brady
CB Jalen Neal
RB Joe Scally
RB Bryan Reynolds
LB Kristoffer Lund (the guy Gregg unearthed yesterday, to much consternation)
LB / LWB Kevin Paredes
DM Johnny Cardoso
DM Aidan Morris
CM Yunus Musah
CM Gianluca Busio
CM Benja Cremaschi (he is eligible for the 2028 olympics!)
CM Noel Buck (him too!)
AM Malik Tillman
AM Gio Reyna
AM Brian Gutierrez
RW Taylor Booth
CF Ricardo Pepi
CF Folarin Balogun
...leaving aside that many of them will be doing Copa America if healthy (June 20 - July 14, same as the Euros), with few if any pulling double-duty with the Olympics (July 24 - Aug 9) a la Miles Robinson 2021 (NL + Gold Cup). Even aside from injury risk, many of their club seasons will be starting up (UEFA), or resuming (MLS). And yeah, sure, Gio and Musah aren't going, no matter how awesome they think it would be. But I'd bet at least half of the list above won't make the Copa America squad, maybe more, so that leaves a LOT of potentially bolstering of that U-20 squad, if we want to really send the best realistic squad we can. And that U-20 WC squad had some respectable names: Wynder and Craig at CB, Wiley at LB, Luna McGlynn Edelman etc in MF (Obed Vargas is 2028-eligible!), Cowell on the wing, Paxten Aaronson up front, etc. Throw in some senior over-agers (your Acosta / Roldan / Arriola types who would kill for another chance to wear the crest, and/or your Auston Trusty / Sam Vines types who aren't going to make a healthy A-team roster but are next down the depth chart) and pretty soon our olympics roster could be pretty frisky, given that France will deploy, at best, their D-team.
And then remember that the Olympics is something that will bring in American viewers who would normally never watch soccer. It's a chance to actually swing for the fences, have the whole country watching you, maybe even win an olympic fuckin' medal, and by the way, you know what goes on in the Olympic Village after dark, right? So overall, I feel like the gig might be appealing to many coaches and players, even if its prestige is lower among most of the footballing world. At least, it ought to.
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I've heard from someone who knows things that Walker Zimmerman is a strong candidate to be an overager for the Olympics. I think it makes a lot of sense.
I don't like this, but it's only friendlies:
View: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1697577299711848767
I don't like this, but it's only friendlies:
View: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1697577299711848767
Helps get him on front of more parochial English scouts, which might be useful for his likely winter transfer.