Ike Opara did well and helped San Jose get a shutout against a very good RSL team. Jon Busch looked great too in his first game overtaking Joe Cannon. Good saves, good distribution. And Chris Seitz seems to remember he is an quality young keeper with lots of upside, good job by him today but he needs to keep that consistency up to erase the early first half of the season shockers. and Phili has one hell of a stadium, that thing looks nice.
Danny Mwanga has to get citizenship. Hard to believe he's only an 18 year old kid sometimes. He doesn't play like it.
if he gets his citizenship before the U-20s hes gonna be a fun one to watch in that competition. Maybe he and Jack Mac up top? and Okugo in the midfield.....could have three Union players starting in the U-20s.
Danny Cruz scored a nice goal and nearly had another for Houston. I and I think a lot of other people may have underestimated his potential; he just keeps improving. I thought Dax McCarty looked lively for Dallas, who seem to be still working out their attacking cohesion. Chris Pontius looked dangerous for DC, but couldn't find the net.
We got ourselves a threeway dogfight for ROY between Mwanga, Opara, and Najar. All had very good performances tonight for their respective clubs and all three had goals. Blair Gavin also netted himself a goal. Young guns stepping up this weekend. we gotta get Najar and Mwanga citizenship with a quickness. and it looks like Chris Seitz fancies himself a goalkeeper all a sudden after a shaky early start to the season.
Mwanga is something else. That goal tonight was clinical. The guy is the future and the present. Can't wait to see him in a US jersey, the sooner the better.
Najar still seems like a real longshot to play for the US, and thats fine with me, he belongs to Honduras first. Mwanga on the other hand, we should put alot of resources in making sure he plays for the US, he could be a talented enough guy that some 3rd country besides the US or Congo (France, Canada etc) could give him a quick path to citizenship, have to make him a priority.
Is Michael Stephens ineligible because he has prior professional experience (he played for the Chicago Fire Premier)? Otherwise I'd say he's definitely in the running.
They're PDL correct? I'm pretty sure he's still eligible. Don't most college players play in PDL in the offseason?
Chicago Fire Premier isn't professional. It's just a PDL club with Chicago Fire branding. I think the Fire does use it to evaluate college players for future drafting purposes, but it isn't really integrated into their organization. Anyway, I think Michael Stephens and Blair Gavin belong in the conversation with Mwanga, Najar, and Opara. Stephens and Gavin have played almost every minute for their teams and done well. I don't think either of them have the upside that M/N/O do, but for ROY purposes they deserve to be in the conversation. I think it's nice that a guy like Zack Schilawski, who's bagged five goals for a horrible NE team, isn't even in our hypothetical Top 5 (and I don't really think he should be).
http://phitv.neulion.com/mlsvp/console.jsp?catid=1880&id=6561 Click on the right side to bring up the highlight. I have a macbook pro and I had to install Microsoft Silverlight when first using the site.
this could very well be the deepest MLS draft class ever. There are some flat out performers out there this season that are already making significant contributions to their respective teams. Mwanga, Opara, Najar, Ream, Gavin, Schilawski, Stephens, and ill throw in Zach Lloyd too... are all helping their teams here, and now, and in a big way. And this doesnt include guys that might be baking 2 or 3 years in the oven like Tchani, Bone, or Bunbury (god i wish San Jose could have made that tradeup to the Crew for Bone happen!). Its great for the league, and great for our talent pool, thats for sure.
OK.............let's talk about FCD for a second here. They've quietly only lost 2 games this season, and they aren't doing it with smoke and mirrors. Their defense is top notch. The player who's quietly having a great season for FCD is central defender George John. He's in his second year, and has been great. He's big and strong.........not the fastest in the world..........but he might be worth a look. He's keeping Kyle Davies, who's a young player I really like, on the bench. I waffle on Brek Shea. Sometimes he looks really dangerous, and sometimes he looks like he's just average. Either way, he's a shoe-in for our 2012 Olympic team. And I'm going to say something that might get me in trouble. The best American player on FCD this season in my mind has been Daniel Hernandez. He's 33, and not on the USMNT radar for most of us anymore, but that doesn't change the fact that he's performing at a very high level.
Eddie Gaven & Robbie Rogers were good Ike Opara Scored a Goal vs Dc United Pontius did okay Sj defended well vs him Blair Gavin & J Bornstein did well also with Chivas USA
Gaven was good. Rogers was his typical frustrating self. If I had to pick another Crew player to mention, I'd have gone with Marshall.
Opara. - No nationality issues. - Super athlete. - Smart kid, 21, finished his degree while in MLS despite having to train with his college team 3000 miles away. - Very good defensively, not error prone, makes big plays defensively. - Scored his 3rd goal last nite in less than 10 games. In 2 years he'll be in the EPL and on the Nats. I know that's a crazy guess but I've never been as excited about a young centerback in MLS. Even Pope played fullback his first few years. I like Ike.
He's quality. I think this could be one of those years like in '06 where the rookies where strong. Kljestan, Wynne, Sturgis etc. had good rookie seasons. I'd expect this year's class to exceed them. Great for the league and for the depth of the national team. Opara is a shoe-in for camp in January. I'm still the more excited about Mwanga though, since forward is more of an urgent need and his finishing skills are insane.
The fast and the furious, MLS stars and starlets to USMNT (multiple R's, if you want) Hey, that Robbie Findley is good (just as I say it, he blows a breakaway).
Re: The fast and the furious, MLS stars and starlets to USMNT (multiple R's, if you want) Haha, that was pretty awful. He knew what he wanted to do, couldn't pull it off.
Re: The fast and the furious, MLS stars and starlets to USMNT (multiple R's, if you want) Wait, I saw this before. Like a week ago!