I've been looking a little at which colleges' players have advanced to the US national team, so I'm planning to post some notes about it here. For starters, there are four colleges who've had multiple players capped in 2012. 1. Maryland leads the way with four, Edu, Goodson, Zusi, and DeLaGarza. 2. UCLA is next with three, Bocanegra, Rimando, and Feilhaber 3. Portland has Cherundolo and Pearce 4. Furman has Dempsey and Clark The only players above who played college soccer in 2005 or later are Edu, Zusi, and DeLaGarza, all from Maryland. If Omar Gonzalez hadn't gotten injured, he would likely have made this list, too.
What I've actually done is look at caps from 1993-2012. Not surprisingly, the ACC and Pac-6 come out tops. Note that when I list a school, I'm putting the year of its most recent cap in parentheses, along with the relevant player or players. Seven ACC schools have been on the board within the last three years. Maryland (see above), Wake (2012, Parkhurst), UNC (2012, Loyd), Clemson (Onyewu, 2012), BC (Bedoya, 2011), NC State (Mastroeni, 2009) and Duke (Heaps, 2009). Impressive as that is, it would've seemed unthinkable a decade ago that Virginia (Olsen and Albright, 2007) would be off the radar. Behind them, none of Virginia Tech, Syracuse, or Pitt has had a cap since at least 1992. Before San Diego State (Corona, 2012) jumped ship, The Pac-6 was the only conference where every school had been represented, although Washington (McCarty, 1999) and Cal (Woodring, 1993) haven't made it for a while. The other member schools are UCLA (see above), Stanford (Marshall, 2010), and Oregon State (Findley 2010). Newcomer Cal St Bakersfield has none, while the now-defunct Fresno State program had Tim Martin in 1996.
A couple of conferences show a funny sort of pattern, where the dominant program doesn't have any caps, but some less prominent programs do. In the MPSF, New Mexico hasn't had a single player capped. On the other hand, Denver (Borchers, 2010), San Jose State (Suarez and Brown, 2003), and departing Sacramento State (Enochs, 2001) all did. With ex-UNLV player Nick DeLeon in strong rookie form, it seems likely that this list will grow. The story is similar in the Big West, where UCSB hasn't had a single player capped, whereas UC Irvine (Evans, 2012), Cal State Northridge (Franklin, 2011), and Cal State Fullerton (Franchino, 1998) all did.
A conference that's been almost irrelevant is the Big Ten, where Indiana (Alexander, 2011) is the only school that has any caps at all. The Big East hasn't done a lot better, with 12 of last year's 16 members missing out. The absentees include some surprises, like Connecticut, Louisville, and Notre Dame. Perhaps Tony Cascio and Nick DeLeon will break the drought? Here are the most recent ones from the Big East schools who've made it 2012 Seton Hall, Kljestan 2011 South Florida, Wallace 2009 St John's, Big East, Wingert 2007 Rutgers, Big East, Gros none for the any of the other 12 schools For its own part, the WCC has far better representation than the Big Ten or Big East, although all of its players left school a long while ago. 2012 Portland, Cherundolo and Pearce 2010 Gonzaga, Ching 2005 Santa Clara, Cannon 1994 San Francisco, Doyle none LMU, San Diego, St Mary's
One of the clear lessons here is that even though it's hard for anyone to make the national team, it's not impossible to rise from a pretty obscure program. Here are recent examples, with some schools being more obscure than others. 2012 State Farm CC, Buddle 2012 Chico State, Wondolowski 2012 Drexel, Parke 2012 Rhode Island, Cameron 2012 JMU, Sapong 2011 Seattle Pacific, Hahnemann 2011 Illinois-Chicago, DeMerit 2010 Evansville, Perkins 2009 Dayton, Rolfe 2009 West Texas A&M, Arnaud Note that this doesn't count schools that players transferred up from, like Cal Poly Pomona (Bornstein) or Cal State Dominguez Hills (Hartman). Also, to go along with defunct Fresno State, both East Carolina (Simms, 2005) and Alabama A&M (Harbor, 1996) are represented even though they got the axe.
Good thread. Thanks for the info Hararea. Do we have any stats on players that have played in college soccer in the last 5 years that have represented their nations at full international level other than the United States?
Here is a list of active MLS players who have played internationally. Some have been out of college for a while. Gonzalo Segares, Costa Rica, Virginia Commonwealth Rodney Wallace, Costa Rica, Maryland Steve Zakuani, Republic of Congo, Akron Ante Jazic, Canada, Dalhousie Adrian Cann, Canada, Louisville Patrice Bernier, Canada, Syracuse Greg Sutton, Canada, St. Lawrence Steve Purdy, El Salvador, California Dominic Oduro, Ghana, Virginia Commonwealth Patrick Nyarko, Ghana, Virginia Tech Jean-Marc Alexandre, Haiti, Lynn Shalrie Joseph, Grenada, St. John’s Omar Cummings, Jamaica, Cincinnati Shaun Francis, Jamaica, Lindsey Wilson Ryan Johnson, Jamaica, Oregon State Tyrone Marshall, Jamaica, Florida International Dane Richards, Jamaica, Clemson Khari Stephenson, Jamaica, Williams Andrew Boyens, New Zealand, New Mexico Michael Boxall, New Zealand, Santa Barbara Kei Kamara, Sierra Leone, Cal State Dominguez Hills Julius James, Trinidad & Tobago, Connecticut Scott Sealy, Trinidad & Tobago, Wake Forest Alejandro Moreno, Venezuela, UNC Greensboro
Here is a topdrawer story that appeared yesterday about a former Division III college player that had a pretty successful pro career with an interview and some comments about his college experience: http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/camps-soccer-articles/only-college-player-in-champions-final_aid24436
Nice list. I'd had Hondurans Ramon Nunez (SMU) and Roger Espinoza (Ohio State) to the list. Both were on Honduras' World Cup team. And Tyler CC's David Somma played for South Africa. BTW, in WC qualifying last week, Olivier Occean (Southern Connecticut State) started and scored for Canada against Cuba and Tosaint Ricketts (Wisconsin-Green Bay) also started. And Purdy started for El Salvador while Richards and Johnson started for Jamaica.
Prior to Ohio State, Espinoza played at Yavapai, which was also represented at the 2006 World Cup by T&T's Avery John and Kelvin Jack. Pretty amazing accomplishment for the school which is also the alma mater of Alan Gordon and Justin Meram. Speaking of which, http://www.goroughriders.com/index....roughriders-score-goals-in-the-same-mls-game/
Fellow Buckeye Danny Irizarry has an International CAP for Puerto Rico vs Honduras in a WCQualifier. Unfortunately Roger was called into the Honduras side in the next round after the Home/Away series was completed.
Don't know how Espinoza didn't make it in post but here are a few other current non-MLS players from more well known countries: Vedad Ibisevic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, St. Louis Rob Friend, Canada, Santa Barbara Neven Subotic, Serbia, South Florida Ryan Nelson, New Zealand, Stanford Tony Lochhead, New Zealand, Santa Barbara
I don't count Subotic - spit! - because he only spent the spring semester at USF and didn't play in any games that count. Here are a few others. Bakary Soumare (Virginia) plays for Mali. Bouna Coundol (Albany) - plays for Senegal. Both have played in the African Cup of Nations. A few more: Yura Movsissyan (Pasadena CC) - Armenia Steward Ceus (Albany) - Haiti Dejan Jakovic (Alabama-Birmingham) - Canada Andy Dorman (Boston University) - Wales Dan Keat (Dartmouth) - New Zealand
Yavapai's program is amazing. If I ran an MLS club, I'd hire their coach for a prominent role in scouting and/or player development.
Mamadou Danso, Gambia, Southern Polytechnic Bill Gaudette, Puerto Rico, St Johns Josh Saunders, Puerto Rico, Cal St Fullerton and Cal Efrain Burgos, El Salvador, San Jose St and Cal Poly (called up but no caps)
VCU's Jose Carlos Castillo, a rising jr., debuted for Guatemala's first team in an April friendly vs. Paraguay. http://www.soccerway.com/matches/2012/04/26/world/friendlies/guatemala/paraguay/1253770/ http://www.vcuathletics.com/sports/msoc/2011-12/releases/20120425v2znut
