Yup. I'd say that until now he hasn't developed the athleticism to be an elite MLS-level player. But he's been around so long that people forget he's still only 19 years old. He misses being part of the 2015 U20 cycle by a matter of days I believe. He's only several months older than Ben Spencer, for instance. It's possible that he'll only develop into an Adam Chrisman type squad rotation player. We'll see. He's got some more time to develop. Target forward can be a position for "late bloomers" as well. How old was a guy like Brian Ching when he got his first USYNT or USMNT callup? Alan Gordon? A player like Chad Barrett has had a long career in this sport. Jack won't develop into the next Zlatan Ibrahimovic. I'm pretty confident of that. But he could still develop into a player with a successful career in this sport.
I agree with you but even if he was eligible I don't think he would make this team. Ben is a better prospect at this time. What the future holds, who knows? I just don't think he will get a chance to develop at the MLS level with the Galaxy. Maybe another MLS team will give him a chance otherwise he will have to rely on USL and NASL to get the needed experience. Peter Bonetti always talks about training kids to think faster on this board and McBean will need to be a prime example of that if he wants to succeed at a higher level than div 2/3. If you watch him he usually has the right ideas or tries the correct play but his tech ability or athleticism just lets him down sometimes. Hopefully G2 is doing that for him but I won't hold my breath with Onalfo at the helm.
Yup. I always harken back to the example of Ruben Luna with target forwards. He was the U16 DA Academy player of the year in 2009, a U18 DA Best XI player in 2010, and the reserve league's leading scorer in 2011. A rocket ship pointing towards the FCD first team. But he juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust couldn't make the jump to MLS. He got into 26 games over a year and a half (more games than people realize). But the fall of 2012 he'd been released from the club and as far as I can tell isn't on a club right now. That's how quickly teams can make decisions on prospects. At some point here the Galaxy may decide to cut McBean loose unless he starts to show that he's capable of playing at an MLS level. There isn't room for sentimentality. If a player hasn't advanced to the point where you think he can be an MLS player, then its on to the next prospect. How much longer are the Galaxy going to give McBean? Who knows? But he's still only 19................there's still time for the light bulb to go on.
I think McBean might have signed a new contract this year as his salary is now half of what it was the previous years. He was around the $100K mark previous 3 years, and is now at $48,500.
I find what's going on in Germany right now very interesting as I see them as a good model for US youth development. http://www.espnfc.com/blog/_/name/bundesliga/id/647?cc=5901 At the request of Bayer Leverkusen, the clubs voted on whether or not to abolish a rule which said that a German club must maintain an under-23 team in order to be granted a license for professional football. Bayer's motion easily won the necessary two-thirds majority, which means that Leverkusen will probably soon dissolve the team which is known as Bayer Leverkusen II and currently competes in the multi-tiered fourth division. Leverkusen has indeed now disbanded Leverkusen II (meaning Kainoa Bailey probably needs to find another team to play with next season), and more clubs are following. [Hamburg, Eintracht Frankfut mentioned in that article, but others are being discussed] So while we on these boards are screeching about the fact that we need more reserve teams, etc.................clubs across Europe in leagues that rake in the cash compared to MLS, are disbanding theirs. [We've had long discussions about clubs in England disbanding reserve teams.] But its also this sentiment expressed by Nuremberg's youth academy director Rainer Zietsch: "Trying out players for four years is too long," he says. What he means is that the best youth-team players are so good these days that they either immediately move to the first team -- as Timo Werner did at Stuttgart and Mario Goetze at Dortmund -- or break through within the next year or two, meaning that once you are 22 and still merely a second-team regular, you probably won't make it in the Bundesliga anyway. Obvsiouly, the main difference between the US and Germany................is their football pyramid is more developed. They can abolish reserve teams and these players can still find clubs to develop at in BundII and BundIII. We need reserve teams in MLS because our 2nd and 3rd divisions are in their adolescence.
Pretty much. If you are still in your early twenties and playing in the 4th division, you probably aren't good enough. When I see guys like Gyau continue to putter along in the "reserves" and struggle to even latch on to a 2. Bundesliga side, you know he is probably not going to make it. In any case, if you do have a player you want to keep around but maybe needs another year, you can loan him out to a lower league side for a season and still give him playing time. If he needs more than a year, well like was said, probably isn't good enough.
Likewise, loaning players out helps a kid to find his level as a player. A kid like Conner Shanoski has pretty much shown his level to be high USL Pro/middle of the pack NASL because he has spent so much time on loan at those levels. Everybody knows that is where he can succeed. Quite frankly, I don't think that it will surprise anyone when DC United finally release him. The key to developing these kids is getting them professional games at the level that is best for them. I don't agree with MLS about a lot of things, but this USL partnership, if you combine it with systematic loans to NASL teams, will be a fantastic tool for the development of 18 - 23 year olds - pushing them to the highest professional level that they are capable of achieving. It will also be great for USL Pro and NASL because the influx of young players raises the level of play in those leagues as well as raising fan interest as people may want to follow young players work their way up the professional ladder. I believe in the system that we are developing. If we continue to make good decisions, I believe that this system will work for us on a fundamental level. There are still a lot of important decisions that need to made though.
A few notes Most Bundesliga teams aren't planning to do this. The ones that do do this won't just need to loan out their 21-year-olds to get them games. They'll need to loan out younger players, too, even 18-year-olds ('95s lose their German U19 eligibility in a few weeks.) The better lower-division clubs aren't likely to want to field very many loanees, especially not teenagers. And the worse lower-division clubs may not be such a good environment. I'm a little surprised that Germany didn't follow something closer to England's approach and replace its U23 teams with U21s.
A lot of Olympic eligible guys in the Seattle-Colorado game. O'Neill had a very difficult time dealing with Martins' movement and speed, though to be totally fair I think Colorado's c-mids provided little cover. Serna scored a nice goal. I was impressed by his movement and technical ability. Marlon Hairston looked reasonably good in his sub minutes. He held up pretty well in 50/50 balls and had two good through passes. He's not just an athlete but a technical midfielder. I actually wanted to see him use his speed more when there was space as there frequently was. Yedlin was very good for Seattle, really dominating his flank offensively and defensively.
Serena and Hairston both played well I thought, Serna in particular. Probably each could have had an assist if Brown/Torres finished better. I only watched the second half but it was a fun game to watch. Plenty of young Americans like Serna, O'neill, Yedlin, Hairston, Remick, Watts, Klute - and then stars like Dempsey and Martins. As a neutral fan that's the kind of league I want to watch, hopefully more teams get on board.
I wouldn't say that. Totally at fault for the goal. Very poor defensive positioning. He is always to far away from the sideline. Playing as the third CB, sometimes his speed allows him to come back in time, but quality forwards will destroy him.
Only one youngster in the 18 for FCD today. Zimmerman starts on the bench. No Garcia, Acosta, Sanchez, etc. I'm wondering if Garcia is sick or has a little injury. He was called up to the U21s, but didn't play in the Tijuana match. He also hasn't played in the recent reserve matches. Acosta has played in a lot of games for US teams and FCD of late. Perhaps just a week off for the youngster. FCDallas XI powered by @TXUEnergy: Seitz, Loyd, Keel, Hedges, Benitez, Thomas, Michel, Diaz, Watson, Castillo, Perez. bench: Fernandez, Zimmerman, Hollingshead, Jacobson, Moffat, Ulloa, Texeira. And that's one youngster more than DCU is using. Nothing to see here..................... D.C. United @dcunited 40m #DCU Starting XI: Hamid, Fernandez, Parke, Boswell, Franklin; Rolfe, Arnaud, Kitchen, DeLeon; Espindola, Johnson #DCU available subs: Dykstra, Birnbaum, Korb, Caskey, Neal, Silva, Doyle
I think this is being overly harsh. Marshall was more at fault for the goal than Yedlin. It was an open game in which few defensive players looked good, but Yedlin did well, especially defending on the flank. This was a solid all-around performance for him.
I've been talking about how good Serna is since last preseason but nobody really took me seriously. Eat crow assh*les.
Montreal 1 Philly 0 Eric Miller played................1 minute No youngsters for the Union. What does Zach Pfeffer have to do to get into a game for a team that's desperate for offense? Jeebus..........is Antoine Hoppenot really that much better than Zach? So today I'm going to nominate Hackworth for the weekly "Schellas Hyndman Award" for not giving youngsters a chance when you're team desperately needs to change things up.
Everybody will just ignore this post but I have been here for a while and have to commend you for going out on a limb so far in advance. He does look like a player that could eventually make a difference.
Speaking of Gyau, he just got a few minutes off the bench for Hoffenheim. It ain't over till the fat lady sings. In Gyau's case I hear her warming up, but... http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...rooks-gets-back-usmnt-radar-joe-gyau-makes-bu Hoffenheim received an active shift from Fabian Johnson and 21 lively minutes off the bench from Bundesliga debutant Joseph Gyau, but squandered a late penalty kick to settle for a 0-0 home draw with Eintracht Frankfurt. Gyau had limited touches in his first bit of senior side action for Hoffenheim in more than two years, but he was the target of some late splitting pass attempts that were not quite able to release the winger behind the Eintracht defense.
Tbf I agreed with you on Serna before. He was very underrated since the u20 WC and played out of position. Right now our 3 attackers under a striker for the u21s should be Serna-Gil-Holmes excluding the u20s. These guys are already making an impact for the 1st team.