[ChrisE]

So, I've been working on compiling a list of all the players who have gone through US Soccer's premier player-development factory. There isn't really a lot of analysis that comes with something like this, but I think it's interesting to see where players are coming from, where they go, etc. It's also just a convenient thing to have around.

I'm not going to post the all-time list, but anyone interested can find it here.


The only comprehensive list that I have so far pertains to State of origin. Of the 122 players who have trained at least one semester at Bradenton, they are distributed by state as such:

CA 31
TX 12
IL 9
NJ 8
MD 7
FL 6
GA 6
NC 6
VA 6
NY 5
MI 4
PA 4
IN 3
OH 3
MS 2
WI 2
AZ 1
CO 1
DC 1
MO 1
OR 1
RI 1
SC 1
TN 1

[mellon002]

I think a lot of them go back to their states of origin because MLS wants players there in a place they are familiar with ala Freddy Adu and Memo Gonzalez.

[ChrisE]

Since, staring at it, I realize that list is totally uninteresting, here's another on the always popular age-bias topic.

I'm missing two birthdates from Spring 2002 and 6 from Fall 2003, so this list is a little bit incomplete; nevertheless, it's probably accurate on the whole, covering 267/275 possible birthdate/semesters.

Spring 1999	3.85
Fall 1999	           4.00
Spring 2000	5.28
Fall 2000	           4.80
Spring 2001	4.80
Fall 2001	           5.17
Spring 2002	3.89
Fall 2002	           4.23
Spring 2003	4.43
Fall 2003	           5.00
Spring 2004	4.78

From the looks of it, absolutely no progress has been made on the age-discrimination problem.

Average birth-month of first five semesters: 4.55
Average birth-month of second five semesters: 4.58

I don't have any suggestions about solving this or anything like that, or even have an opinion on whether it's a problem, but I think it's good to know whether or not things are changing (in this case, they're not).

[ChrisE]

Originally Posted by mellon002

I think a lot of them go back to their states of origin because MLS wants players there in a place they are familiar with ala Freddy Adu and Memo Gonzalez.

I'm not sure exactly where you're going with this, mellon. I think it's clear that MLS prefers to place players as close as possible to their homes, but that's not always the case. Of the 15 players that have gone from Bradenton to MLS skipping college, 9 have been placed with the closest team possible, while 6 have gone to others (the six are Mapp, Magee, Johnson, Capano, Beckerman, Beasley).

I think you see certain clubs, like New England and Kansas City negatively impacted by this fact (I believe Nicolas Colaluca, RI, is the only Bradenton player ever from the New England area), it doesn't seem to have had a huge impact on their ability to compete.

Footnote: I'm trying to record everybody's club team. Does anybody know where (or whether) Damarcus Beasley, Bobby Convey, Landon Donovan, or Alex Yi played club soccer? (strangely, they've been harder than most of the more obscure players)

[mellon002]

I thought I remembered hearing that Donovan played Florida ODP growing up.

You said what I meant to say. MLS tries to put players near there homes is what I meant. It doesn't work all the time but they at least try. Plus I dunno where Mapp is from but he has already been traded.

[peledre]

Originally Posted by mellon002

I thought I remembered hearing that Donovan played Florida ODP growing up.

You said what I meant to say. MLS tries to put players near there homes is what I meant. It doesn't work all the time but they at least try. Plus I dunno where Mapp is from but he has already been traded.

Mapp is from Mississippi.

[mellon002]

Thanks Peledre. I guess Mapp would be closest to Dallas or maybe KC. I think guys like that don't really count though. Freddy was from a DC suburb and Memo was from LA. I'm talkin' about guys like that.

[ChrisE]

Originally Posted by mellon002

Thanks Peledre. I guess Mapp would be closest to Dallas or maybe KC. I think guys like that don't really count though. Freddy was from a DC suburb and Memo was from LA. I'm talkin' about guys like that.

If you want, I've got a real nice spreadsheet. Mapp is from Jackson, Mississippi, played for Jackson FC, was at Bradenton for 4 semesters, etc.

Of the 11 guys who had a clear 'home' club, 8 went to it, with the exceptions being Beckerman (D.C.), Capano (Metros) and Magee (Fire).

[ChrisE]

What impact has Bradenton had on MLS? Has its impact been growing? Here's a list, season-by-season, of players who've joined (i.e. played their first minute) in MLS who graduated our training camp.

2000: 4 (Beasley, Beckerman, Convey, Trembly)
2001: 3 (Donovan, Johnson, Quaranta)
2002: 5 (Akwari, Capano, Countess, Mapp, Stone)
2003: 3 (Gaven, Gonzalez, Magee)
2004: 6 (Adu, Bradley, Cila, Cronin, Detter, Marshall)

MLS has not yet lost a player from Bradenton, so by year, there have been 4, 7, 12, and 15 graduates in the league. This year, the league got its first two four-year college graduates, Jordan Cila and Justin Detter; we should be due a good deal more, as the guys who didn't turn out to be top prospects keep filtering in (guys like Abe Thompson, Jordan Harvey, Chris Lancos, Heath Pearce, etc.).

The number joining per year should rise for the foreseeable future, as US soccer added 10 extra spots in the fall of 2002 and 10 more in the fall of 2003.

[Elninho]

Originally Posted by ChrisE

Footnote: I'm trying to record everybody's club team. Does anybody know where (or whether) Damarcus Beasley, Bobby Convey, Landon Donovan, or Alex Yi played club soccer? (strangely, they've been harder than most of the more obscure players)

DaMarcus Beasley - Citadel Soccer Club
Landon Donovan - California Heat

Alex Yi - probably Potomac Cougars?

Can't find Convey's club. Possibly did not play club soccer.

I just spent 45 minutes searching. Interestingly, I was able to find all of their high schools within 5 minutes, and their high school playing records in not much longer.