Seeing pictures of Robinson, it's hard to avoid making some assumptions about Robinson and why he may have been ignored by El Tri and would prefer to play for the USNT. Memin pinguin and all that. (Not that we don't have our own bleak history with race in this county.)
Also have CB Erik Palmer-Brown, who'll be with the U18s, that is a pro. I'd guess he has a good chance at being loaned to Orlando or Oklahoma City in USLPro this season.
This may go without saying, but you're pointing out an example of how winning trumps development. We do what you describe because young defenders make mistakes that cost games, and because talented young attackers can atone for a lot of mistakes with a single game-changing moment.
Nothing against MLS academies, many of them are very good, but almost all the development of Iloski and Baird came through San Diego Surf, not through LA Galaxy or RSL-AZ (and, in Baird's case, the time he spent in Residency at Bradenton). Individual coaches make a huge difference at the 16-18 age level, IMHO; numerous academies, including MLS academies, have old-style coaches -- it is coaches who make the real difference: like Munoz (now at LAG), Pareja, whoever's in charge at NYRB, Raz (who did a great job at Real So Cal before taking a college coaching job), Kleiban (now with Chivas) in Southern Cal, and Tsakiris (De Anza), Ben Ziemer (assistant to Hugo Perez and runs the NorCal league), Gregg Thompson, et al in Northern Cal. Good clubs hire these excellent coaches with a forward-looking attack-oriented approach to the game, and let them flourish -- whether they are MLS academies or non-MLS clubs or the Residency program in Florida.
I just hope the USL-Pro relationships allow youth professional to develop prior to throwing them to the lions in games that matter. We will see.
Meet :: us U20s Brazilian Midfielder Luis Felipe Lipe Fernandes, http://owhentheyanks.com/2014/01/06/meet-luis-felipe-lipe-fernandes/ #usynt
Tommy Thompson is a starting XI player that if given a fair opportunity he will be the starter at the forward position or the false 9 depending on the formation.
I wish him the best. And from the earlier article here on him in Portuguese, he says that he speaks English pretty well and sees himself fitting in with the guys pretty well (admittedly he is saying this when he was on the way to the airport for his flight to Florida). We shall see how it all turns out.
I found some follow up information on a few guys here: Sounder At Heart reported back in September that Markey was likely to redshirt for non-injury reasons. So while it's good to have an explanation for why he didn't play a single minute, "we didn't need him" isn't really an explanation that one would expect for a U-20 national team player. FWIW, this article about NC State refers to Wannemuehler as a midfielder: It's editorializing by the author to fill in the blanks and not a direct quote, but it does suggest that he wasn't used as a forward in 2013.
I don't think one season not contributing for a top college program means that much about a player. It's a big adjustment going to college and playing up in age. I feel that talented prospects should be starters or major contributors by their second year. Andrew Oliver's failure to be significantly better as a sophomore, for example, is a bigger red flag to me than Markey's redshirting.
Interview with Tab from camp http://www.americansoccernow.com/articles/tab-ramos-opens-up-about-the-u-20-national-team
Doubtful. If he didn't have the grades to get into UNC he wouldn't have been admitted. He likely redshirted because the other CBs were the ACC defender of the year, Boyd Okwuonu, and a very solid likely future MLS player in So. Jonathan Campbell. "Biz" Markey and Campbell will likely be a very formidable CB pairing next year.
I was surprised that he revealed as much info as he did. Looks like our Brazilian friend Luis Felipe is doing well thus far: "Especially as a 1996, making him a year younger, you’re always a little skeptical whether they’re going to be physically ready. I think he can help the team. I think that’s been a surprise at least to start the camp. He’s got very good feet and can go forward well, although he’s more of a defensive player." And looks like Rubin, Pfeffer and Moreno are well thought of: "Rubio Rubin continues to do well. Every camp he just looks better than the one before. He’s really turned out to be a very solid, professional-type player. Zach Pfeffer and Amando Moreno, these are guys I think we’re going to be able to count on for the full cycle. You don’t want to give people a free pass but these are guys who work very hard every practice, every game. I’m pretty comfortable saying these are guys we can probably count on for a while."