In yesterday's Whitecaps-Rapids reserve game, the only USYNT eligible player to appear was Rapids 94 Dillon Serna, and he only got 16 minutes. No Omar Salgado. In the Galaxy's reserve game with LA Blues, Sorto went 85 mins, and academy 95 Justin Dhillon went 35 min off the bench. Mendiola played for 19 mins, too, but of course, he's not American.
Mendiola is a 94 correct? So we are possibly missing out on a player who can contribute to U-20's? Is he really 5'5" 125lbs?
One thing you will notice is that the style preached to first team and reserves under Olsen is not what is taught to academy and there is a disconnect. The best thing that could happen is Olsen to get fired and get a real experienced coach who can really describe the total futbol system that DCU is proposing as their new pathway. I don't think people realize the extent of Silooy's stature and he is more qualified to coach first team than Olsen.
Yedlin not in the 18 for Seattle vs SKC tonight, Mikey Lopez is on the bench. Not sure if DeAndre is hurt or if they're just looking to give him a day off, Sounders also play on Saturday. Gil starting for RSL.
Gil got subbed out. I thought he was probably the best midfielder in the game. Wish Kreis would start Velasquez instead of the useless old Gravaboy.
Andy Najar was a pretty decent signing for a HG player, and so was Bill Hamid. Unfortunately, Najar will never play for the US, and it's looking like Hamid won't either, unless they fix their screen-door-on-submarine defense, pronto. As you say, there are more promising kids coming through the pipeline, so we'll have to wait and see how well the team evaluates, and how well the kids perform.
Omar Salgado undergoing surgery for the third time on his right foot, this time to repair a tendon that he re-injured during training. He will miss the U20 World Cup.
There first two signings were dream signings. Andy Najar was rookie of the year and got the club a strong transfer fee from Anderlecht. Bill Hamid became a starter within a season and became a US National Pool player. You aren't going to replicate that kind of success consistently. The numbers just will not allow you to do so. In addition, DC United do some things just about better than anyone else. They brought in Sonny Siloy to run their academy program. They have stayed with Conor Shanosky longer than a lot of clubs would have, giving him two season long loans to give him time to prove himself as a player, even when their starter in Conor's position is younger than Conor and it looks unlikely that DC will ever need Conor. At least the kid has gotten the chance to prove that he is a strong minor league player. This is a club that is doing a lot of thing right. The problem is that, in doing so many things right, it is frustrating when they turn around and go with the most athletic player or the one who is the biggest. It is like they just can't get themselves to take advantage and sign their best prospects. They always talk about how they want to play the game a certain way, but when it comes time to sign homegrown players, they don't really practice what they preach - at least after the first two signings. Cristhian Najar is the fascinating one as far as I am concerned. He clearly has MLS level talent, but he doesn't attempt to control his hair trigger temper. This may not sound bad, but if you saw him routinely self-destructing, usually for the tiniest of reasons, you would understand. Cristhian is a player who might thrive under Ben Olsen who would finally expect him to mature and be brutally honest about it with him. My problem is that I don't know Crithian personally so couldn't tell you anything about his future as a pro. It will be interesting to see 1. if Ben Olsen continues to coach DC United as he is losing a lot of games and 2. if DC United sign Cristhian Najar.
In Colorado's 2nd straight clean sheet as well, and the 4th shutout Shane has been a starter in this season. His improvement at CB has been rapid (no pun intended), he played only CM last year in reserve games. I don't know if he was getting some practice time at CB last year with the Rapids, but Tab is the one that gave Shane his first game action at CB. And somebody can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe he was a Forward a few years ago as well.
Nope. According to Tab "The Genius" Ramos, excelling at the MLS level doesn't mean you should even have a place on the U-20 team.
Shane did start every game of qualifying. If we have Brooks, it's up to Tab to see if he moves Stanko to DM or chooses between Stanko/O'Neill playing next to Brooks. I expect Caleb to be a starter at one or the other seeing he was also the team captain. A defensive spine like this seems pretty damn promising: ----Stanko---- JAB----O'Neill
Sorry I was making a reference to Ramos not rating McBean. I think Shane is quality. I agree. O'Neill should get the start since he's been playing CB in MLS. Anyone know what Stanko has been playing in Germany?