Brady is a bad birth year, where he's the youngest of the four birth years in this Olympic cycle. Even if he's arguably a better prospect, Brady is likely behind Patrick Schulte, who is more experienced and who is three years older than Brady. So then it's down to Brady vs. Gaga.
Everything you say is completely logical. Luna hit binkie status for me long ago, so logic goes out the window. Djordje has had a great season so far, but I still want Luna on the team over him because I just prefer the way he plays. It sucks for the kid too, “two or three strikers won’t get released so now you don’t get to go.”
Gaga is already in the offseason and I’m sure Chelsea would like to put him out there for more eyeballs to weigh up another loan deployment. But Brady is in fine form right now, though Heitz has been hesitating to release players mid-season in the past.
Wait, in what world is Paredes not a winger? He's a threatening enough attacker to play RM / RW in the Bundesliga, but has to play more defense for the USA U-23s? I think I want him running in behind, not trying to make clever passing combination play. [edit: I now see that Paredes wasn't even released. Which, fair enough... but Griffin fuckin' Yow over Diego Luna? We're now into "insult" territory here. Sidenote, Westerlo released Yow but not Reynolds? C'mon guys, why ya gotta do us like that?!]
As with Scally, Pepi, etc - the teams are not obligated to release for a second tournament in one summer. For Scally it makes sense - Gladbach is counting on him and he played some very rough minutes there at Copa America. For Pepi, you'd think they want him getting in some reps. I wish. I guess you'd have thought that about Gaga too, and yet here we are. Lund might be somewhere in the middle - Palermo starts him, of course, but if he shines at LB and someone in the Big 5 comes calling for him, they're stoked. And he didn't play a minute in Copa, because Jedi is a tank.
Yes, Paredes is a winger. I descending into Football Manager brain, where the game describes both wingers and central attacking mids as "AMs". Everyone in that pool on the roster (Djordje, Aaronson, Booth, Yow) would be competing for the non-center forward slots in the front three of the 4-3-3.
You can just say that you haven't watched him play for Columbus and develop under Wilfried Nancy.
Morris is good and would be a lock for this team if healthy. I think we'll miss his defensive workrate with our quartet of CMs.They're going to need to be good because we're not bringing any true DMs! I'm hoping that Miles will be hungry because his playing time has suffered from being the "bad passing center back", and while...he is a bad passing center back, it must have been annoying to have watched the supposedly better-passing Richards hit one hospital ball after the next all Copa.
GK is usually the way to go for a U23 squad, but gap between whoever you see as the Sean Johnson Memorial #4 Goalkeeper type and Patrick Schulte isn't that big. Not sure the overager would be worth it this time around. He won the MLS Next Pro title with the Crew reserves in 2022, became the youngest starting GK to win MLS Cup in 2023, was part of their run to the CONCACAF Champions Cup this spring in which he made two saves in a PK shootout in El Volcán against Tigres, and already got his first Camp Cupcake cap.Agree on Djordje as an odd choice for an overager. I'd almost rather have sent a goalie. Sean Johnson lifetime achievement award for being a good sport / team player for a decade - hey Sean, you get to go to the Olympics! Or pick someone who's not married and will get full value out of the Olympic Village
It's true, I haven't seen much of Morris for club the last 12 months, only for country. But his performances for the YNTs were kinda ass, he looked slow for the level - which unless you're Pirlo with the ball is kinda a problem, given that we like to play with 1 CDM. Maybe he's been a lot better. But wait, are you saying Morris isnt on the roster either?You can just say that you haven't watched him play for Columbus and develop under Wilfried Nancy.
Pax was a False 9 a few times for his club.
The age cutoff here is players born after 1/1/2005. This squad is okay with some interesting prospects, but the most knowledgable prospect watchers consider these age cohorts to be weaker than those before and after them, perhaps because these kids were at a particularly tough age for development when the COVID shutdowns began. Whether or not that's true, this squad is also missing a bunch of guys.
I believe his stock has dipped in the past few years, I don’t think he’s that guy anymore. Not truly sure who is, particularly on this version of the squad which has a lot of top U20s not released (a good thing honestly, as it means their clubs find them important to keep).
The Scuffed guys had Marcus Chairez on recently, and Medina was one of several players that he talked about. Overall he talked about how young the US team is relative to most others and he was quick to point out that many players in this age group are not on the roster for various reasons. The big name is Nimfasha Berchimas who didn’t start against Jamaica (I turned it off at 4-0 so he might’ve come on later). He’s an electric 16 year old playing up a few age groups. Soma, Tsakiris, Raines and a few others got shouts too. My big takeaway is that he thinks Fidel Barajas might return to the fold.
