oh i rate/dont rate players too. but just for S and G, give us one player from the current u17 pool that doesn't have "it" to you...
Sometimes people don't let off even though the guy goes to multiple WCs. The one guy who never seemed to be troubled by anti-fans was Clint Dempsey and that's probably because he was relatively unknown as a youth.
Booked a spot: Las, Scally, Cuevas, Alejandre, KHF, Gray, Leyva, Reyna, AOC, Pepi Fringe: Odunze, Saldana, Fuentes, Busio, Freeman Not good enough: Armour, Tolkin, Kayo, Yow, de Vries Goalies: 1. Las-'02 2. Wilson-'02 3. Trejo-'02 Las has a spot locked up. I'd like to see some different names in the back up keeper mix. Odunze isn't bad, but I don't think he's among the three best keepers. The fact that Wilson and Trejo have 0 caps is incredibly puzzling, IMO. Cervantes and Odunze would probably come next somewhere here, but I think they'd miss out. A lot of depth at this position. Defenders: 4. Scally-'02 5. Cuevas-'03 6. Alejandre-'02 7. KHF-'02 8. Gray-'02 9. Bello-'02 10. Gomez-'03 Scally and Cuevas are on the right side. We simply don't have depth in RB's, so there's not much here to choose from. Those two should have spots locked up, although I would not hesitate to use Scally centrally at times and Cuevas as the starter at RB/RWB. We lack central defenders. I don't know if there's a good CB to add to this mix. I'd run CB tryouts. Call in Judge, Walls, Carrera, Neff to the next camp. I don't think any will end up being good enough for this roster, but maybe one could sneak their way onto this roster. In the case that none are, I think you just keep KHF at CB. We can get away with lacking aerial ability centrally in games at this level. We might not be able to at the U-20 level, but U-17 is still an age group where undersized CB's can play. I think we could also try a three CB formation with Scally playing the central of the three CB's between Gray and KHF with Bello and Cuevas. If another CB finds their way onto this team, Alejandre gets cut. 11. Atencio-'02 12. Leyva-'03 13. Chifamba-'03 14. Stroud-'02 Atencio and Stroud would provide a much needed #6 presence in this team, Atencio more of the deep-lying playmaker, Stroud more of a destroyer. That could allow Leyva and Chifamba to compete for a #8 role, although both do have versatility to play a #6 role. I could see an argument for Saldana over Stroud, but I'd prefer an extra destroyer over a versatile CM(Saldana). I've seen Saldana struggle too often against good competition. 15. Nyeman-'03 16. Reyna-'02 17. Dunbar-'02 18. Busio-'02 19. Sarver-'03 20. AOC-'02 21. Pepi-'03 If this team is going to add playmaking that can compete at the highest levels, it'll be from Nyeman. The most needed addition to this age group by far, IMO. Dunbar is a better option than de Vries. That decision by Wicky made no sense. AOC and Pepi are the two #9's. There are two spots left in the attack. I'd like to have another winger off the bench. Freeman, Garcia, Arce, Sarver should all be options, but I think Sarver brings the most right now of the four. He also has the versatility to be used as a #9, which doesn't hurt his case to make this team. Last spot here would come down to Busio, Fuentes and Penagos for a back up #10 spot or secondary striker role. I've said that I don't think Busio should be a lock, but I think a secondary striker makes more sense than an extra #10, so I think Busio takes the last attacking spot over Penagos.
Lol at busio not “booked a spot” Dude loves his favorites and will knock anyone who he hasn’t liked. Amazing.
I’ll say Scally was the biggest disappointment for me in this tournament. He was horrible tonight. Yow got exposed and aside from having a nose for goal, I don’t really understand why they are so devoted to him. Because he presses? Didn’t do that well tonight. Busio and Reyna showed some good chemistry the last two games and it seems a given that they will have a chance to keep that going. Pepi>AOC imo, and I think he showed it tonight. I still like AOC though. Leyva is a lock at the 8, Reyna at LW, Pepi at the 9. It seems like there are a lot of questions after that. I guess De Vries was hurt and that’s why he disappeared, although he was pretty meh when he played. Freeman had a few flashes in the tournament but was really bad tonight. I wish Nyeman could come in as the 10 but it seems like they love Busio too much. I don’t mind Busio, I just wish he had more creativity and vision. Nyeman has both. Fuentes showed some flashes but it seems like he is equal parts bad and good. A lot of people like Kayo but he was only okay to me. It didn’t seem like he was very good in tight spaces but he does have some talent. There are plenty of players who I won’t be broken up about not seeing in October. I just hope the new blood that comes in is top quality.
I'll add that I thought grey was good with very comfortable with the ball in possession until these past two games where he looked shaky. Stock went down a bit for me
Really? I thought the opposite on Gray. I thought he was a little inconsistent with the ball all tournament but was pretty good defensively until that first goal tonight
I thought it was only really noticeable these last two. Hopefully is was an outlier and he's not trending towards austin trusty
This has been mentioned before, but Michael Wentzel is the captain for Gladbach U-17's, and is eligible for this team. He's another option at CB. We called in one of his teammates at Gladbach U-17, so they must be aware of him. @ChuckMe92, I know you keep close track of the dual-nationals. What do you think of Santiago Munoz? Is he a player who would be good enough to play for our U-17 team? Does he have potential to play for the USMNT eventually?
I'm pretty sure I've read that when the U17 WC was pulled from Peru and moved to Brazil, the tournament was also pushed back from October to November.
Now I'm not the biggest Yow fan, but put that guy on the ball for each of our shots in the first half and it's 3 or 4 nothing. At least the dude is clutch.
I think this sums up m thoughts. It's why I look more at the overall level of play rather than individual play at the u17 and especially u15 level. U18/19/20 is really when individual play should be looked at more critically. 1129171903124426752 is not a valid tweet id
Per Wiki, U17 WC dates are still TBD. I've read November (originally October). "The 24 teams will be drawn into six groups of four teams. The hosts Brazil are automatically seeded into Pot 1 and assigned to position A1. The draw will be held on 22 June 2019 at the Riocentro in Rio de Janeiro. Countries from the same confederation will not be grouped in the same group."
Based on this one team............................perhaps. But this is one coach's selection of a small part of the player pool. There's always a danger of reading too much into U17 results; both positive and negative.
I think some people (I'm not referring to anyone specifically, more of the consensus view) are taking one half, and extracting it to a conclusion that this is a good age group. If you want to extract anything, it should be that this age group has struggled for many years against good teams, and that includes against Mexico. I do think our overall program is better than them, but what's wrong with admitting they are better than us in this age group? They have the results to show for it.
Frankly, as a Quakes fan, I was hoping Fuentes would show a little more than he did in this tourney. He doesn't look bad, just didn't seem like a difference maker and drifted in and out of the games that I saw him in. Almeyda said at the start of the MLS season that Fuentes will see minutes this year for the Quakes. And so far, I can positively say that Almeyda doesn't just say crap and do something else instead. He's a straight shooter and thinks long-term. He also has a penchant for developing young players. So I am hopeful he'll be getting time soon. As to Cade C, he isn't eligible to play in MLS until June or July. He's such a wild card, I don't know how to even begin to rate him yet. He did look decent and immediately scored when he came on in a friendly earlier in the season, but that was just as much due to the service he got, which if I remember correctly was Fuentes. Fuentes also looked good in that friendly when he came on.
The problem with evaluating this group over the last couple of years is that they have rarely, if ever, had the top group of players together. They looked a lot better than Mexico last night. Imagine what that gap looks like if you take Efra off that team and put him with the US.
Because it’s too early to make any definitive assumptions on this age group. Players grow and improve. Most of these players are in a pretty good place where they can grow and improve. We have no idea which ones will and which ones won’t. But you really need to go back and watch the first half of yesterday’s game because I respect your opinion, but if anyone watched that first half and said that Mexico was better than us, I’d laugh at them and say they had the darkest shade of El Tri glasses on imaginable. I’m not exaggerating when I say that we made them look like Barbados. It was a slaughter.