The main task for the forward in American Soccer is to score as few goals as possible and play lots of tough defense. Unfortunately we've had a lot of success in both areas. An important note: Danny Mwanga, Andy Najar (I know he's a midfielder, sort of) and others like the will not be on the list. I've been following our up and coming prospects for some time and the number of non-citizens playing in MLS who eventually play a significant role for our National Team number in the low single digits. Yes it has happened (Mastroeni is a good example), but it almost always takes longer than people think, and I can think of many more cases where the player never set foot on the field for us. So if they wind up playing for us, great. But I'd suggest not to hold your breath. 1. Jozy Altidore, 25, Villareal 2. Charlie Davies, 28, FC Sochaux 3. Robbie Findley, 29, Real Salt Lake 4. Eddie Johnson, 30, Fulham 5. Brek Shea, 24, FC Dallas 6. Herculez Gomez, 32, Pachuca 7. Chris Rolfe, 31, Aalborg 8. Edson Buddle, 33, Los Angeles Galaxy 9. Tristan Bowen, 23, Los Angeles Galaxy 10. Justin Braun, 27, Chivas USA 11. Kenny Cooper, 30, 1860 Munich 12. Chris Pontius, 27, DC United 13. Conor Casey, 33, Colorado Rapids 14. Jesus Padilla, 27, Chivas USA 15. Marcus Tracy, 28, Aalborg 16. Jack McInerney, 22, Philadelphia Union 17. Mike Grella, 27, Leeds United 18. Tony Taylor, 25, GD Estoril Praia 19. Fabrice Picault, 23, Cagliari Calcio 20. Francisco Navas Cobo, 23, Hosuton Dynamo 21. Kellen Gulley, 20, Mississippi Chicago Fire Juniors 22. Peri Marosevic, 25, FC Dallas Our support for Altidore in the World Cup will be aging into their 30s besides Findley, and the cubboard looks awfully bare until you get to about the 1990 birth year where things start to perk up a little (of course that may just be that those players are too young to have disappointed us yet). The good news is that at no other position can things change quite so quickly as they do at striker. If Mike Grella suddenly starts playing in the Championship next year and just as suddenly starts firing in goals. He could leap over everybody. Rolfe can definitely get back into the picture by firing in goals in Denmark. As a forward, when you score, the National Team chances start coming. Just ask Buddle and Herculez. That said, this looks not at all great. The best young prospects currently playing regularly are a guy who isn't actually playing much forward (Shea) and a guy who is about to find the bench because two guys who play his position were away at the World Cup (Bowen). Going younger than that there are guys in favorable club situations at the U-20 level, and we'll just have to see how that plays out. I listed Picault, but it just as easily could be Agudelo (NYRB), Bobby Wood (1860 Munich) or any of a number of kids playing in Mexico. The NCAA front looks less promising in terms of goal scorers, though the Davies case shows you can't count out a guy coming from there in a hurry. Obviously Charlie Davies' recovery needs to be very closely watched.
If the folks at starkick send me the check, I'll be happy to add him. Seriously, he starts playing and starts scoring goals and obviously he moves onto the list. But again, that goes for lots of guys. Also here's a link to my attempt for 2010 in February of 2007: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=489179&highlight=prospects Also here was my try all the way back to August of 2004: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=127766&highlight=prospects The 2007 one had 19 out of the 23 players on it (missed Torres, Edu, Findley and Goodson but would have missed Davies too). The 2004 one had 11 out of 23 (but interestingly Davies was on that one as well as a player who did indeed make the 2010 World Cup, but not for us).
Because he's not going to get the chance, and he almost certainly will get one for us if and when he decides to do so.
Schilawski's five goals so far should probably earn him a place somewhere on that list. I agree that the cupboard looks pretty bare beyond the top few players (although Bowen could move up the list in a hurry). I imagine that Dempsey is more likely to make 2014 contributions at forward than in midfield.
This is really a troubling list to look at. Goff was tweeting from Gulati's press conference earlier today:
Also from that twitter feed: What? Edit: judging from the full writeup, what Capello really said was that he was interested in a job with USSF (after having managed Real Madrid) because he wanted a job with less pressure.
Just to collate a bit, and taking 3 GKs, 8 Ds, 8 MFs, and 4 Fs, voros's projected 2014 team looks a lot like the 2010 team: 1. Tim Howard, 35, Everton 2. Brad Guzan, 30, Aston Villa 3. Will Hesmer, 33, Columbus Crew 4. Oguchi Onyewu, 32, AC Milan (volunteer) 5. Jonathan Spector, 28, West Ham United 6. Chad Marshall, 30, Columbus Crew 7. Clarence Goodson, 32, IK Start 8. Omar Gonzalez, 26, Los Angeles Galaxy 9. Jonathan Bornstein, 30, Chivas USA 10. Carlos Bocanegra, 35, Rennes 11. Steve Cherundolo, 35, Hannover 96 12. Landon Donovan, 32, Los Angeles Galaxy 13. Michael Bradley, 27, Borussia Moenchengladbach 14. Clint Dempsey, 31, Fulham 15. Jose Torres, 27, Pachuca 16. Maurice Edu, 28, Rangers 17. Stuart Holden, 29, Bolton Wanderers 18. Benny Feilhaber, 29, AGF Aarhus 19. Freddy Adu, 25, Benfica 20. Jozy Altidore, 25, Villareal 21. Charlie Davies, 28, FC Sochaux 22. Robbie Findley, 29, Real Salt Lake 23. Eddie Johnson, 30, Fulham If that isn't fresh and exciting enough for you, we could take a Logan's Run approach, and eliminate everyone over 30. 1. Andrew Dykstra, 28, Chicago Fire 2. Bill Hamid, 24, DC United 3. Chris Seitz, 27, Philadelphia Union 4. Jonathan Spector, 28, West Ham United 5. Omar Gonzalez, 26, Los Angeles Galaxy 6. Edgar Castillo, 28, San Luis (on loan from Club America) 7. Gale Agbossoumonde, 23, Sporting Braga 8. Marvell Wynne, 28, Colorado Rapids 9. Michael Orozco, 28, Philadelphia Union 10. Brandon McDonald, 28, San Jose Earthquakes 11. Kevin Alston, 26, New England Revolution 12. Michael Bradley, 27, Borussia Moenchengladbach 13. Jose Torres, 27, Pachuca 14. Maurice Edu, 28, Rangers 15. Stuart Holden, 29, Bolton Wanderers 16. Benny Feilhaber, 29, AGF Aarhus 17. Freddy Adu, 25, Benfica 18. Alejandro Bedoya, 27, Orebro SK 19. Geoff Cameron, 29, Houston Dynamo 20. Jozy Altidore, 25, Villareal 21. Charlie Davies, 28, FC Sochaux 22. Robbie Findley, 29, Real Salt Lake 23. Brek Shea, 24, FC Dallas
It is just sad that we can't produce a quality striker while countries a 1/20th our size can on a regular basis.
This is not a hard prediction to make, but my guess is two of the strikers on the 2014 roster are not on any of the lists so far. 1. Jozy 2. Charlie 3. one other from the list (doubt Finley or Buddle) 4. X 5. Y Remember Jozy is 20. Mexico's J. Hernanadez is 21. And its not like we have alot of talent aged 22-26 in the pipeline to fill X and Y. Look toward the Academy program at the 16- 18 year olds. That is where our new talent will emerge.
Not to start the fireworks but....Freddy Adu, 24? Probably best as a forward in this next cycle if we are gonna be in short supply, no?
Thanks to Voros for doing these lists - they're always fun to look at and bullsh*t about. But there's a big oversight on this one. Zach Schilawski is quietly having one of the most remarkable seasons of any striker in league history. Most haven't noticed it because his goal total (5) doesn't jump off the page, and even his goals-per-minute (1/147) ranks as "very, very good" rather than otherworldly. The thing about Schilawski, though, is that he's had only 11 shots on goal the entire season. Of those he's put 7 on frame - one of the highest percentages in MLS history. Of the 7 he's put on frame, 5 are goals. For context, let's compare Schilawski to Juan Pablo Angel in 2007 - his first in MLS, and a year which I think most consider to be one of the truly great performances by any forward in league history. Juan Pablo had 19 goals in 2125 minutes. Those 19 goals came on 97 shots - so he was scoring at a rate of once every five looks at net. Of those 97 shots, 53 were on frame. I'm not going to do the math, but I'm pretty sure that if Schilawski was getting the same number of chance that JPA got in 07, and kept scoring at his current rate, he projects to about 45 goals in regular season play. "Lies, damned lies and statistics," I know, but if we're all pining for a Luis Suarez, David Villa, "fox-in-the-box" type of striker to reveal himself, we may need to look no further than Foxborough (though he won't be there for long if he keeps up this kind of production). For the record, he'll be 27 at the next World Cup. Also, I just hope that someone, somewhere is expediting Danny Mwanga's citizenship process.
Good touch listing Kellen Gulley. He keeps scoring for the U-17s and seems to have a lot of potential.
Give it time, I don't recall myself being overly confident 4 years ago when we crashed out. We'll reload.
I think we're going to have to take solace with the fact that there will be strikers in the next pool that we have no idea about right now. Our top forward in this pool was 16 when we got bounced in the 2006 world cup.
We got some forwards but which ones will step it up. Four years to improve a long time for them all to prove their worth and hopefully many will be playing a lot of games to help push their abilities to a higher level. I do think voros is right we got to wait and see how the injuries could affect Davies career. It was a devastating accident this dude was involved in. Plenty of forwards and four years for them to work through.
I know you mention him, Voros, but I really believe that Agudelo will be high on that list within two years. I think he has size, speed and a really good feel for the game and more importantly, seems to be brought along in a smart, incremental way by NYRB.
Chinn has been playing a bit more of late. He has 3 Open Cup goals and 1 each against Cruzeiro and Juventus in exhibitions. I know those aren't league games but nothing to shake a stick at either. Plus, he is nationally ranked.
Dude, that doesn't really help me...we were trying out forward spots as late as the send-off series this year! That would have been true even if Davies was healthy, too.