A couple of their guys are on books with New York (academy?) and a few with the French U-teams. But, of course, a French/Belgian club can snap the US based players without a transfer cost and the Haitian clubs are not in the position to say no to a baguette and a bottle of cognac. Style-wise, the prospects are pretty similar to the African players that populate France and Belgium also. Most of them won't pan out but there's a lot of raw talent to work with. They dominated both CR and the US with their speed.
Well, we can kind of think of them like the Nyassi's and a couple of other young Africans that came into the league. Cheap, raw materials. Some will stick. Some won't. But there's some things you can't teach, and that's raw athleticism. Boyd Okwuono is a good NCAA caliber defender. He'll play in MLS some day soon (or at least be on FCD's roster)...............and they roasted him.
Who said Haiti was bad ? Not me. They were very athletic and, as I pointed, had a better game plan going in that we did. If they could have finished better, they could have won 5-2. Its not so much that they were bad, its alot more that we were.
This evening we have ... Panama v Puerto Rico (in Jamaica's group); and El Salvador v Curacao (in Mexico's group)
That leaves Panama and Mexico well-positioned to finish first (with respective draws in their group matches tomorrow). Panama v Jamaica should be a real battle (to avoid Mexico in the KO quarterfinal). Doubt El Salvador will surprise a rested Mexico, with both teams looking ahead to the QF match.
How many NASL and USL clubs does canada have? Canada should be improving by just having 3 MLS teams and I know Ottowa is joining NASL sometime soon. Isnt Edmonton also in USL I think. 5 clubs isn't too shabby.
3 MLS clubs, 2 NASL clubs by 2014 with Ottawa joining. FC Edmonton just signed 5 Canadian kids aged 20 and under to the first team this week. The pro clubs are starting to have a big effect.
n NASL may even be better than MLS teams in terms of grooming young players. Young players in MLS just tend to rot on the bench. With NASL, the hope is, due to the lower level of play, the young players will get playing time and improve.
Lets not go overboard. Just because NASL is of lower quality it doesn't mean quality young players can just take the field and get good quality youth training and coaching. It seems we really don't have knowledge about the step laddered approach to development. There is a process to the growth of a quality player and its not just games against anybody who'll play them.
How well has it gone for homegrown signings over the last few years? Have young players improved after signing with the league? I'm not saying NASL is going to mean automatic playing time, but one would have to imagine younger players would have a better chance of making the transition in the right environment, compared to MLS. As a Canadian fan, MLS hasnt given our young players a place to play yet, just fill out domestic requirements. Is MLS trying to address it? Yes, but it will be a while. As a young player if I sign with Montreal for example, I know I'm not playing, if I sign with FC Edmonton, a club thats proven to be dedicated to young development, as least I know I have a CHANCE to get meaningful playing time.
I'm not familiar with Edmonton FC's commitment. My point is that I agree MLS doesn't have a great infrastructure from academy to young professional to reserve team to loan to first team. That doesn't now mean NASL does. I don't think the logic holds. There is a connective thread to the upward development to first team and just by saying NASL doesn't mean they have any integrated growth ladder better than MLS. In fact with MLS gaps they have a better professional development environment than most NASL teams who don't have any budget to build the limited infrastructure MLS does. FC Edmonton excluded.