College soccer and the YNTs - the writing is on the wall and it says "go pro ASAP."

The 23-man roster for the US senior team's 5 upcoming games - 3 friendlies, 2 qualifiers -was released today and there were actually TWO players on it who played four years of college soccer.

Here's how the roster breaks down, by seasons of college soccer played.

Did not play college soccer: 11 (Altidore, Beckerman, Bradley, Boyd, Castillo, Donovan, Gomez, Howard, Johnson, Jones, Torres)
Played one season of college soccer: 1 (Corona)
Played two seasons of college soccer: 3 (Cherundolo, Guzan, Onyewu)
Played 7 seasons of college soccer: 6 (Bocanegra, Dempsey, Edu, Goodson, Parkhurst, Rimando)
Played four seasons of college soccer: 2 (Cameron, Wondolowski)

33 seasons total, an average of 1.43 per player.

By college:
2 - Maryland (Edu, Goodson), UCLA (Bocanegra, Rimando)
1 - Chico State (Wondolowski), Clemson (Onyewu), Furman (Dempsey), Portland (Cherundolo), Rhode Island (Cameron), San Diego State (Corona), South Carolina (Guzan), Wake Forest (Parkhurst)

The college soccer representation in tonight's 5-1 US win over Scotland.

USA STARTERS
Tim Howard, 0
Fabian Johnson, 0
Carlos Bocanegra , 3 (UCLA)
Geoff Cameron, 4 (Rhode Island)
Steve Cherundolo, 2 (Portland)
Maurice Edu, 3 (Maryland)
Jermaine Jones, 0
Michael Bradley, 0
Jose Francisco Torres, 0
*Terrence Boyd, 0
Landon Donovan, 0

USA SUBS
Kyle Beckerman, 0
Herculez Gomez, 0
Oguchi Onyewu, 2 (Clemson)
Joe Benny Corona, 1 (San Diego State)
Brad Guzan, 2 (South Carolina)
Edgar Castillo, 0

From last night’s game with Brazil…

USA STARTERS
Tim Howard, 0
Steve Cherundolo, 2 (Portland)
Oguchi Onyewu, 2 (Clemson)
Carlos Bocanegra, 3 (UCLA)
Fabian Johnson, 0
Maurice Edu, 3 (Maryland)
Jermaine Jones, 0
Michael Bradley, 0
Jose Francisco Torres, 0
Herculez Gomez, 0
Landon Donovan, 0

USA SUBS
Clint Dempsey, 3 (Furman)
Michael Parkhurst, 3 (Wake Forest)
Terrence Boyd, 0
Kyle Beckerman, 0
Edgar Castillo, 0

16 seasons, combined, averaging 1 season of college ball per players and 10 of the 16 DNP college soccer.

I was busy Monday when this was released and forgot till today to post it. Here's the roster Tab Ramos released for the US U20 team's trip to South America in June.

Of the 20 players, 9 played college soccer last season and are still enrolled to do so this fall and a 10th will be a freshman this fall.

GOALKEEPERS (2): Cody Cropper (Unattached; Athens, Ga.), Tomas Gomez (Georgetown, Soph; Webster Groves, Mo.)

DEFENDERS (6): AJ Cochran (Wisconsin, Soph; St. Louis, Mo.), Christian Dean (California, Soph; East Palo Alto, Calif.), Jordan McCrary (North Carolina, Soph; Marietta, Ga.), Eric Miller (Creighton, Soph; Woodbury, Minn.), Juan Pablo Ocegueda (UANL Tigres; Riverside, Calif.), Boyd Okwuonu (North Carolina, Soph; Edmund, Okla.)


MIDFIELDERS (6): Luis Gil (Real Salt Lake; Garden Grove, Calif.), Benji Joya (Santos Laguna; San Jose, Calif.), Mikey Lopez (North Carolina, Soph; Mission, Texas), William Packwood (Birmingham City; Concord, Mass.), Caleb Stanko (SC Freiburg; Holly, Mich.), Wil Trapp (Akron, Soph; Gahanna, Ohio)


FORWARDS (6): Villyan Bijev (Fortuna Düsseldorf; Fresno, Calif.), Daniel Cuevas (Santos Laguna; Sacramento, Calif.), Daniel Garcia (North Carolina, Fr; Dallas, Texas), Victor Pineda (Chicago Fire; Bolingbrook, Ill.), James Rogers (New Mexico, Soph; Salt Lake City, Utah), Jonathan Top (FC Dallas; Fort Worth, Texas)

Of note, of the 10 college players, most are defensive types, One is a GK, 5 are backs and one is a d-mid. Also, four of them are from MLS academies: Okwuonu and Garcia (Dallas), Trapp (Columbus) and Rogers (Salt Lake).

Here are the lineups from tonight's USA-Canada game. I included the Canadians because, unlike most US opponents, many of their players often play college soccer.

USA STARTERS
Tim Howard, 0
Steve Cherundolo, 2 (Portland)
Carlos Bocanegra, 3 (UCLA)
Clarence Goodson, 3 (Maryland)
Edgar Castillo, 0
Michael Bradley, 0
Jermaine Jones, 0
Jose Francisco Torres, 0
Clint Dempsey, 3 (Furman)
Landon Donovan, 0
Herculez Gomez, 0

USA SUBS
Oguchi Onyewu, 2 (Clemson)
Jozy Altidore, 0
Maurice Edu, 3 (Maryland)
Chris Wondolowski, 4 (Chico State)
Michael Parkhurst, 3 (Denmark)


CANADA STARTERS
Lars Hirschfeld, GK Vålerenga, 0
Ante Jazić, D Chivas USA, 1 (Dalhousie)
Kevin McKenna, D Köln, 0
André Hainault, D Houston, 0
David Edgar, D Burnley, 0
Nik Ledgerwood, M Wehen Wiesbaden, 0
Julian de Guzman, M Toronto, 0
Will Johnson, M Salt Lake, 0
Dwayne De Rosario, M D.C. United, 0
Tosaint Ricketts, F Politehnica Timişoara, 4 (Green Bay)
Olivier Occean, F SpVgg Greuther Fürth, 4 (Southern Connecticut State)

CANADA SUBS
Simeon Jackson, F Norwich City, 0
Pedro Pacheco, M Santa Clara, 0
Iain Hume, F Preston North End, 0
Samuel Piette, M unattached, 0
Mike Klukowski, D Manisaspor, 0

So not counting the two games the US played during Camp Cupcake when almost all of the regulars weren't available, here are the minutes played by four-year college players in the 11 games under Jurgen Klinsmann.

Geoff Cameron (Rhode Island) – 1 game, 90 minutes
Tim Ream (Saint Louis) – 1 game, 18 minutes
Jeff Larentowicz (Brown) – 1 game, 14 minutes
Chris Wondolowksi (Chico State) – 1 game, 10 minutes

He sure sounds like one.

Great job tonight by the college boys in getting a draw in a tough environment including a couple four year guys in Besler, Cameron and Zusi, and Dempsey, Gonzalez, and Edu with three. Seven of Eleven starters with college experience and six of the seven with at least three years. Can't put my finger on what was different between this game and the game against Honduras other than there was a certain contingent missing. Guzan looks like a winner and future captain.

Yeah, the players with the college experience certainly tend to bring some grit that is often needed to grind out these CONCACAF results.

That's something our coaching staff would be wise to remember. Also, Matt Besler is a pretty damn good player, four years of college or no.

While the trend of fewer and fewer four-year college players on the NT remains, it's nice to see there's still a place for a few of them like Zusi, Besler and Cameron.

Totatally rep this! There is still value in collegiate soccer.

The 1997 team that tied at the Azteca was also presumably one with mostly college players. We know they weren't development academy kids...

Sandon - re your Feb 13 reference to Camp Cupcake, thought this from Dan Loney's blog ( http://www.bigsoccer.com/soccer/dan-loney/2013/03/27/stolen-one-point-last-seen-fleeing-mexico-city/ ) was interesting:

" ... guys like Gonzalez, Besler and Guzan passed their finals with flying colors. I don’t know how Sporting Kansas Wizards intend to deal with Besler’s future (or for that matter, Graham Zusi, who I thought was just electric out there), but if you live in an MLS town, try to stop by and wave to Omar on his way out. You can’t spell Gonzalez without “gone.” LA was lucky to have him this long. Go with God, tall guy.
Hey…turns out Camp Cupcake actually mattered. Knock me over with a feather.
Oh, one guy who was not anonymous, and probably owes us a follow-up? Omar’s club coach. Wait, gotta cue up Rick Derringer’s “Real American” real quick.
Did you happen to catch how many guys for the US were born in Germany? Try none of them. Did you happen to catch how many guys for the US spend or spent significant time in MLS? Try every god-damned one of them. It was as if Klinsmann picked out a lineup, and picked out a series of injuries, just to make Bruce Arena look silly."

Hallelujah brother...the lord works in mysterious ways.
The all-American line up worked!
Kept it pretty simple, got a bit of good fortune, rarely threatened Mexico's goal.

What happens on the return leg when we're supposed to get three points?

we beat them dos a cero again. any more brain busters?

we did it without any of Jurgen's bundesliga boys - no jones, no chandler, no williams, no fabian (and no t.boyd)

Yeah, it was "revenge of the old school system"--all 14 players we used got their start in MLS, a most of them went to college first, etc.

8 of 14 went to college first.

Guzan - South Carolina, 2
Cameron - Rhode Island (via West Virginia), 4
Gonzalez - Maryland - 3
Besler - Notre Dame, 4
Edu - Maryland, 3
Dempsey - Furman, 3
Zusi - Maryland, 4
---
Davis - Saint Louis, 2

Beasley, Bradley, Gomez, Altidore and subs Johnson and Shea DNP college soccer.

All, as you said, are either current or former MLS players. (Gomez actually started his career in Mexico, the USL and even indoor - talk about a throwback! - before breaking out in MLS.)

Will be interesting to see makeup of U-20 squad in regards to how many college players make final roster.

I'm gonna guess that at least two of the players from the qualifying roster who are still in college will get dropped.

(Granted, one of the likely replacements is someone who played 2 years of college. )

A lot will come down to X-factors beyond the college kids' control. Will John Anthony Brooks opt to play for the US and do it in the U20 WC? He could play for Germany, play for the US in the Gold Cup or sit out all summer and postpone any national team decisions.

Will Walker Zimmerman get healthy soon enough to get match-fit. Same with Omar Salgado and Victor Pineda.

Will Tab look at any professional GKs - there are some to choose from - to serve as backups?

And so on...

I suspect we'll have a better idea when we see who is called for the camp later this month and hear how things shake out there.

Well, after the latest u17 results,

The writing is on the wall and it clearly says Bradenton is a waste of time and money and the USSF should close it down now.

Not disagreeing with any of that, just not sure how it's germane to this thread or to a board about college soccer since all the players in question are in 11th grade.

THE SKY IS FALLING!!! BURN BRADENTON!!! HANG ABMOD!!!

It is germane to the thread for all the college soccer haters who believe that the academy, home grown, and US Soccer has all the answers for development as we continue to go backwards having not qualified for three of the last four youth world cups at three different age groups.

I thought the thread was about the handwriting on the wall...