He wasn't? How did you have access to Uruguayan youth matches? Wasn't he tearing it up at Ajax when he was 20?
I was referring to his performance at the 2007 U20 World Cup, where he only scored 2 goals and could not help his team beat the US U20s. Rubio Rubin barely turned 18. 2007-2008 season Luis Suarez had 2 more goals than Michael Bradley in the Eredevisie. Lets see how well Rubin does in a league where the defending isn't that great.
Were you able to watch those matches in '07? I don't think there was any stream of Uruguay games besides the game against the US which is an extremely small sample size. I remember being reduced to watching highlights in '07 on the FIFA website of other matches. It seems like you're just playing off numbers and not watching games. Also, never take youth team matches too seriously. Always take them with a grain of salt.
So what you're saying is that if Rubin is bagging goal after goal for Utrecht in 2 years, he's on track to be as good as Luis Suarez
And for an even smaller sample size, Suarez did extremely well to set up and score Uruguay's only goal in that game. Mind-blowing to think that Uruguay had both Suarez and Cavani on that team.
It should be noted for youth watchers that if you go thru that squad there are those two and one or two others that have moved on to bigger and better things (Martin Caceres, etc.). But the majority of the squad are still in Uruguay or even have fallen off the map altogether. Such is the nature of these youth squads. Sometimes I feel US fans expect 3/4 of their youth team to end up "making it." That just doesn't happen whether its Uruguay, the US, or Spain.
If he's scoring goals then he definitely will be on track...which I think is the main point. The more guys we have that can produce and advance then the greater our chances of producing top talent.
Flores seemingly doing well at this U19 Champions Trophy competition with Dortmund. First game 2:0 vs Japan u19 (goals by Flores and Dietz) Second game 1:0 vs PSV Eindhoven (delivered the assist)
Steven Goff @SoccerInsider · Junior Flores, American at @BVB, sidelined 3 weeks after spraining ankle at U19 tournament
@Germerica posted the news a day before Goff and should be credited for that. I should have posted it the other day in this thread when I saw it on twitter. DieKlinsMannschaft @klinsmannschaft Apr 22 Junior Flores out 3 weeks w/ ankle injury sustained this weekend.
Something to pay attention to in the Bundesliga for any of our players there (Kainoa Bailey definitely). Leverkusen and Eintracht Frankfurt have both abolished their U23 (reserve) teams, and this is expected to start a trend there. They feel their very top prospects basically go from U19 to their 1st team anyways, and other players with potential they like will be loaned out.
If this expedites Bailey's departure from Leverkusen, it's probably for the best. From the way they have been using him this season, it sure seems like he's viewed as little more than organizational filler. He's eligible for the U-19 team, but he mostly spends his time as an unused substitute for the reserve team. In total he's made three appearances (59 mins) for the U-19s and three appearances (19 mins) for the reserves, all off the bench. That's simply not the profile or usage pattern of a youth player who is valued/rated by his club. Whatever Bailey's potential is, he's more likely to reach it if he's in an environment where he can play. Leverkusen might be biting off a bit more than he can chew.
Paul Arriola played the last 10 mins of Tijuana's home gave vs Leon. Game ended 1-2 Leon. Arriola looked dangerous in the limited time he played.
I've never been a fan of Bailey's as when he played for DC United's Academy team, he tended to be a bit of a black hole. Players would pass the ball to him and he would dribble without purpose. He was reading the defender in front of him without reading the game. He has done better than I thought he could at Leverkusen but, at the end of the day, it is hard to all of a sudden start reading the game when you are 18 years old. That said, the kid has a lot of technical and physical ability and, if he is a more focused player now, I am sure that there is a professional level of soccer for him. It isn't as high as a number of people on this board would like, but there is a level for him, none the less. Unfortunately, Bailey learned too late that his technical ability is only as good as it is helping his team to win the game. Studying the game and learning how to problem solve and make decisions faster (and thus building up your technical ability that way) is how you develop a great player. Best of luck to Bailey. He is a hard worker that is not without his strengths. He just learned too late that reading the game has to be the foundation from which his learning and improving takes place.
One more thing that I would like to say about Bailey - this is a kid who moved across country to play for DC United's Academy and then found a way to move to Germany to play at Leverkusen. This is a kid with ambition and guts. I just feel that his education in the game (or lack there of) was a little too much to overcome by the time he was a late teenager. Studying the game is a life-long pursuit and being in a position where you have to play "catch-up" while you are competing for a chance to make a living is really putting yourself behind the eight ball. I am sure the kid will catch on somewhere.