I haven't seen either game. Acosta was presumably just insurance on the bench last night. If he had played 90 last night, he presumably wouldn't have been available for the U20's. The U20's have games today and tomorrow. I think we'd agree that three games in three days is too much, even for an 18 year old As I've said, this is a tough decision for Pareja. Loyd is a veteran leader on the team. He's recovered from his injury, but didn't play at all in pre-season. He's just re-gaining his match fitness. I expect to see some rotation there the rest of the season. I do have faith that Pareja will get Acosta playing time. The young player we should be worried about at FCD is Zimmerman.
At this stage of the season with Loyd regaining match fitness, I think that Acosta has more to offer. He has been combining well with Diaz and Watson, and part of the reason for Loyd's vanilla performance was that Watson had a weak game and Diaz was looking slow. I think Acosta's energy was needed. I agree. With Jacobson coming back soon and Moffet getting some minutes, I don't think we'll see him at DM in Dallas. Still, he's a pretty darn good LB to keep Lloyd on the bench.
The thing is may not have to be better than Loyd (although I agree with you) but better than Loyd or Benitez. I think Acosta or Loyd could also play left back (so can Moises Hernandez) so it's a real scrum for those two spots.
Of course you could argue that FCD's best two homegrown players in the NCAAs are fullbacks as well (LB Mikey Ambrose and RB/CB Boyd Okwuono). Next off-season will tell us a lot about that. My gut tells me that Acosta's going to end up as a DMid.
I would have disagreed with you until watching him last night vs River Plate. Thank you Time Warner random channel flipping. It may have been one of the best youth performances I have ever seen. It was like Bradley's first half performance vs Mexico but for the whole game. Selfishly I still would like him remain at outside back because we are so weak there from a national team perspective. We have so many more DM prospects than international quality LB's. Just want to pencil him in at LB then start worrying about the rest of the team rather than the other way around.
In case people were holding out hope for Carlos Salcedo of RSL.................................it looks he's been called up by Mexico. Good for him. Carlos Salcedo @csalcedojr 14h a privilege to have this opportunity, thanks to my family, my club, the fans for your support, thanks to FMF for believe in my performances. Gibrán Araige @GibranAraige 14h Real Salt Lake adelanta convocatoria de Carlos Salcedo al Tri Sub 21. La primera convocatoria dl zaguero con México. pic.twitter.com/CR1qwrAikO
While I think he's a good young defender who would have been among the best in his age-group on defense, he is looking at such a long wait for citizenship that it will be several years before he could play for the US. Gotta take the opportunities for things like this when they're there and right now they're there for Carlos with Mexico. Besides, it's just a camp and/or for some friendlies. It's not like this is going to cap-tie him. Why not take it?
If a team like Mexico is looking for players developed here that means we're doing something right with development. And especially considering they are the reigning Olympic Champions...
I hate to be a party pooper, but Salcedo was developed largely in Mexico. He was born in Guadalajara and spent time in the academies of Chivas and then Tigres. He came to the RSL-AZ academy in early 2012 and signed with RSL about 12 months later.
True as that is, it'll still be a feather in RSL's cap if Salcedo continues to earn call-ups (big if). Incidentally, I don't believe that either Richard Sanchez or Uvaldo Luna has been in the mix for them yet.
For their pre-Olympic team? I don't believe so. Although I haven't actually seen the roster for this Mexico U21 team, just that Carlos is a member of it. http://www.realsaltlake.com/news/2014/04/carlos-salcedo-called-mexico-under-21-national-team-camp A Guadalajara native, Salcedo is the fourth Real Salt Lake first-team player to be called to a youth national team in the last month. RSL DF/MF Jordan Allen and FW Benji Lopez were both called to the U.S. U-20’s last week, while recent Homegrown signing DF Justen Glad recently wrapped a stint with the U.S. U-18’s. Glad was joined at the U-18 camp by RSL-Arizona Academy players GK Christian Herrera and FW Sebastian Saucedo. In addition to the club’s youth internationals, Real Salt Lake had four players called into the U.S. Men’s National Team’s most recent camp, with Captain Kyle Beckerman, GK Nick Rimando, DF Tony Beltran and MF Luis Gil all called up for the U.S.’s April 2 friendly against Mexico.
That is the beauty of our situation in the US, almost anything we do would be an improvement over the status quo. In fact, it is not so much an issue of what to do as to where to start. We have seen some real progress from the MLS in the past 5 years in opening up from the "NFL model" but there is clearly still a long way to go to remove some barriers to normalcy that would permit and encourage more player development. I would love to at least hear some talk from US Soccer that they are aware of the problem and are prodding the MLS along in the right direction. Hopefully, those conversations are going on behind closed doors.
Center back. Decent size. Reads game well for his age and better than average feet by MLS CB standards. Not afraid to bang. A good prospect but by no means a can't miss player. I liked what I saw out of him last year but RSL is stacked at CB and he has found minutes tough to come by when everyone on their back line is healthy. He has to beat out Kwame Watson-Siriboe and Aaron Maund just to make it third on the depth chart behind starters Nat Borchers and Chris Schuler (who I think can be the Jay DeMerit or Jimmy Conrad of the next WC cycle.)
I agree. He is decent, but I don't know if he could become one of RSL's starting CB's in the next couple of years. I don't think he's going to stick around another three or four years waiting to become a starter. Schuler has really emerged as a force at CB in MLS, and unless he leaves for Europe later in his career like Cameron did, he's going to be starting at CB for a long time. Borchers is 33, but he's still going strong. I don't think he's near retirement. RSL also has US U-18 CB Justen Glad who they seem to be very high on. Salcedo has a lot of competition for playing time in the next couple of years. I think Salcedo might already be good enough to start in MLS, but not with RSL. He'd need to find a new club.
Glad definitely won't be ready until 2 years minimum. Salcedo is higher in the depth chart for sure. If you saw the highlights with him with the u18s against Mexico he was pretty bad tbh. Pineda seemed to do better. EPB and Redding are better prospects imo.
I agree with you about Glad. He's at least a few years away at CB. Maybe his best position is DM. He's definitely not as good as EPB or Redding at this stage. I still don't think Salcedo is in a good position to become a starter with RSL. 3rd on the depth chart at 20 years old is pretty good, but when the starters are rock solid veterans who will probably be around for at least another few years, its hard to see how Salcedo becomes a starter for RSL in the next few years.
Tab Ramos names roster for U-21 Pre-Olympic camp: http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...21-national-team-olympic-prep-camp-california (MLS'ers in my bold) GOALKEEPERS (2): Jonathan Kempin (Oklahoma City Energy; Leawood, Kan.), Kendall McIntosh (Santa Clara Univ.; Santa Rosa, Calif.) DEFENDERS (5): Christian Dean (Vancouver Whitecaps FC; East Palo Alto, Calif.), Juan Pablo Ocegueda (Tigres UANL; Riverside, Calif.), Shane O’Neill (Colorado Rapids; Boulder, Colo.), Dillon Serna (Colorado Rapids; Brighton, Colo.), Oscar Sorto (LA Galaxy; Los Angeles) MIDFIELDERS (7): Luis Gil (Real Salt Lake; Garden Grove, Calif.), Alejandro Guido (Club Tijuana; Chula Vista, Calif.), Marlon Hairston (Colorado Rapids; Jackson, Miss.), Benji Joya (Chicago Fire; San Jose, Calif.), Collin Martin (D.C. United; Chevy Chase, Md.), Esteban Rodriguez (Club Tijuana; Bell Gardens, Calif.), Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew; Gahanna, Ohio) FORWARDS (7): Daniel Cuevas (CF Lobos BUAP; Sacramento, Calif.), Danny Garcia (FC Dallas; Dallas), Jack McBean (LA Galaxy; Newport Beach, Calif.), Jordan Morris (Stanford Univ.; Mercer Island, Wash.), Sean Okoli (Seattle Sounders FC; Federal Way, Wash.), Victor Pineda (Chicago Fire; Bolingbrook, Ill.), Jose Villarreal (Cruz Azul; Inglewood, Calif.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...c91a1e-c72c-11e3-b708-471bae3cb10c_story.html I know that Andrew Dykstra is a long, long way from eligible for this thread, but this article shows how the USL/MLS relationship can not only help a player improve and build his career, but also how an MLS club can use it's relationship to USL to develop young players not quite ready to contribute. Take out Andrew Dykstra and insert any thread eligible player who just needs time and experience. What I like the most about this relationship is that, even if it doesn't work out with the player's current MLS club, the player can build up a resume with the USL club that he has been playing for so that other MLS clubs have access to seeing what a player is capable of doing while playing with professional adults, even if it is at a lower level. This relationship is a major upgrade for the league from the reserve league and it is great for the USL Pro league because the MLS reserves are really upgrading the level of play. Now a player in the USL Pro league knows that he will playing against MLS reserves, kind of like how AAA baseball players know that they will be playing against MLB reserves or injured stars working their way back to fitness.
Pineda came on in the 87th min and just drew a PK with a rebound shot that Kevin Alston blocked with his arm, the ensuing PK by Anangono was horribly taken and blocked. O'Neill starts with Serna on the bench. Cochrane was an unused sub.
Gil on the bench. I suppose its because he wasn't in the 18 last week. Was he injured? If so, they probably want to ease him back into action.