Review: 2015 U-20 World Cup: Tournament Takeaways

I think you can go to just about any large multi-ethnic country in the world and find natives with parents or grandparents from another country. That's nothing new. Take a look again:

Requejo - Mexican ancestry, but he was born and raised in the US, and came through the US system.

Carter-Vickers - Yes, a true 'foreigner' in terms of not growing up here, but he still has a father from here who's family he is very close to. He's already talked about spending time here in the summer with his other half of his family.

Miazga - Born and raised in the US. Came through the US system. Polish parents ok, but think about the vast amount of people here with Polish, Irish, Italian, German, etc ancestry, whether it be first, second, or third generation. You might as well call most Chicagoans foreigners if that's the case.

Payne - Yes, not born here, didn't come up through the ranks here, but half of his family is here. That's good enough

Delgado - Mexican parents. Nothing new here.

Ariolla, Rubin - same as Requejo, Delgado.

GZ - ok, he's probably the only player who is eligible purely on the slightest of technicalities. He was born in Germany, his parents are from Ethiopia. But, thanks to a few teen years spent here in the states, his ticket had been punched. I like him, but yes I'll agree, he's really a foreigner we were just fortunate to get on our team.

 

Also, look up Gundogan, Bellarabi, Podolski, Klose, Ozil, and Boateng

 

Well-stated for an issue that can be delicate. To me, it helps to illustrate how much of player development is not about coaching in the sense of how much a young player learns from formal coaches after about age 12. US kids who come from most immigrant backgrounds or from soccer families experience soccer as a higher prestige sport. They know more about it at younger ages, play more of it, and take it more seriously, just like kids in Germany, Colombia, Serbia, and many other countries where soccer is the highest prestige sport. So it makes sense that many of them emerge as among the best US-raised players. To the average American kid, soccer is just one of many sports, and while there are some benefits to kids not over-specializing at young ages, it certainly seems that the best soccer players are produced from immersive environments. None of the points that I'm making is new or original of course, but they are relevant when coaching and structure are brought up as the main causes of the US' continued failure to produce elite or "world-class" players. I would contend that the US, despite its large number of youth soccer players, has not only a lower number of serious players per capita than, e.g. France and Germany, but also a lower aggregate number of serious players at younger ages, despite its much larger population. That's not to say that coaching and structure do not continue to need improvement; I just don't believe that our coaches are as bad across the board as some want to argue or that they are the only factor that works against producing elite talents.

 

GZ actively pursued being a part of the US team, though. He thinks of himself as American and that's good enough for me.

 

I think a lot of that has to do with TIjuana (and Liga MX teams in general) changing coaches so rapidly.
I think Paul Arriola went to Tijuana in 2013. Since the beginning of 2013, Tijuana has had four managers............................

He's probably getting different messages, being told to play different positions, with different styles, etc. etc. It must be pretty difficult to continue to change directions. He made some progress when he first got there under one regime, and the the club completely changed course.

We've had quite a high number of prospects go to clubs like Tijuana and get stuck in some sort of odd youth limbo. We can rattle off names just at Tijuana. Stevie Rodriguez and Alejandro Guido were fairly highly touted prospects around these parts with the US U17s. They've just kind of floundered around between brief Tijuana appearances, Dorados, and assorted youth teams.

I would love for Arriola to move elsewhere. Hell, the Galaxy could use him......................

 

Seeing it at a very young age on TV, live games, etc. probably also makes a difference. Those images make an imprint. That is more likely to occur in immigrant families. Also, we just have a ton of immigrant families in the U.S. In some of my daughter's schools, students who come from "immigrant families" (parents who were not born in the U.S.) make up >50% of the student population.

 

I don't know if you really read my post. You seem to have interpreted it as asking whether the U-20 players were "American enough" for the national team. That is not what I'm getting at, at all.

 

THE REPORT CARD FOLKS

Starting XI:
GK: Zack Steffen --- A
I want to give him that perfect A+ but he has some room for improvement. He did allow 3 goals vs. the Ukraine and as many noted, could work on his distribution. Otherwise, he was outstanding. Great in the air. Great on set pieces, and an absolutely superb shot stopper. He's the best youth keeper I've seen in our system since Howard and he already blows away Cody Cropper.
Player Projection: 40-70 national team caps; Starter in Big 5 League

RB: Desevio Payne --- A
He looks like a great two way fullback at a position where we are lacking on those. The Colombian that belongs to Chelsea, Rodriguez, didn't have a prayer on the left flank against him. Correct me if I'm wrong but we didn't concede with him on the field. Consider me excited.
Player Projection: 25-55 national team caps; European Starter

CB: Cameron Carter-Vickers --- A
The fact that he was the youngest player on the field and perhaps the best in 4 of the 5 contests warrants such astounding reviews. His positional sense is about 10 years beyond his age, and he didn't commit one foul in a dangerous area. He's already great in the air and given that he's 17, he may have an inch or two left in him. He has to be a top 5 center back prospect in the world for his age.
Player Projection: 50-100 national team caps; Starter in Premier League

CB: Matt Miazga --- A
Yes, yes, another A for a member of the backline, and once again, consider me impressed. He only conceded once off of a set piece that had little to do with him. He's awesome in the air and I was so impressed with him in 1 on 1s. I think he's on the first plane out of the MLS after his performance since some European team will jump all over him. I still question his athleticism back there but I think he can be a better a Clarence Goodson.
Player Projection: 15-45 national team caps; European squad rotation player

LB: Kelyn Acosta --- C+
I was disappointed in Acosta. He left a bunch to be desired on the offensive side of the ball and that red card almost cost us the quarterfinals. I won't be so harsh on him since he was playing out of position and I think he'll have a decent MLS career.
Player Projection: 0-10 national team caps; MLS starter

CDM: Marco Delgado --- C
Can we give Marco a bit of a break. Yeah he lacked range and yeah his distribution wasn't great but the kid never stopped working the whole tournament and we all know he wasn't supposed to be in that position. For as much as people worried about our vulnerability on the counter, we were really good against it (even though that had so much to do with CCV and Miazga)
Player projection: 0 national team caps; MLS squad rotation player

CM: Emerson Hyndman --- B
I'm still a big Emo fan. He was a class above the rest during the Myanmar and New Zealand games and actually played well in those knockout games, despite not being that effective in the final third. I'll give you one thing though - his set pieces are weak. I think he'll eventually just be a relaible center midfielder that's good on the ball but not outstanding at anything. He definitely has a national team career though.
Player projection: 30-70 national team caps; European starter

CM: Gedion Zelalem --- B-
He gets a B- because of the hype. He deserves a B. I really think he bought into this group. He's obviously as technical as technical gets and he's going to be a welcomed addition into our player pool. I just hope he can force himself into Arsene's future plans because he certainly is in JK's.
Player projection: 30-80 national team caps; starter in Big 5 league

RM: Paul Arriola --- B+
I love this kid. Alejandro Bedoya type work rate on the right with a little bit more pace. Definitely has no fear. He really played like he belonged in Tijuana's first team. He could have been another who a French or German team might have fallen in love with over the past two weeks. P.S. if he doesn't cut it as a winger, he could be a valuable fullback.
Player projection: 10-40 national team caps; starter in Mexico or rotation player in Europe

LM: Bradford Jamieson IV --- C+
I'm not the biggest fan. He's big and athletic and looked good vs. NZ but he has a long way to go. The injury was really unfortunate since he was better than Jordan Allen. It's a good thing he's so young since he does have NT level potential.
Player Projection: 0-15 national team caps; MLS starter

ST: Rubio Rubin --- B+
He was great in the group stage and even better against Colombia. He had a rough game vs. Serbia but let's not forget how opportunistic that Colombia goal was. It was unfair to him that he had to play as a lone striker. If Novakovich was here, I think many would be giving Rubio the Clint/Dempsey comparison treatment. But if anything, he has a good long career ahead of him.
Player Projection: 25-65 national team caps; European starter

BENCH:
GK: Jeff Caldwell --- INC
Player Projection: N/A

GK: Thomas Olsen --- INC
Player Projection: N/A

CB: Erik Palmer-Brown --- C-
He didn't play because of the guys in front of him, not because of a lack of talent, but when he was out there he did nothing exceptional to suggest he should have been forced into the lineup at LB or CDM.
Player Projection: 10-40 national team caps; European squad rotation player

CB: Conor Donovan --- INC
Player Projection: 0 national team caps; MLS squad rotation player.

RB: Shaq Moore --- D
Player Projection: 0 national team caps; MLS squad rotation player or lost in Europe

LB: John Requejo Jr. --- B
He really held his own against Zivkovic of Serbia, which was impressive. I would have liked to seen him play more (with Acosta at CDM)
Player Projection: 0-10 national team caps; Liga MX squad rotation player

CAM: Joel Sonora --- C-
Some glimpses of potential and technical ability but left a lot to be desired. He's going to have stiff competition going forward with Junior Flores and Christian Pulisic.
Player Projection: 0-20 national team caps; Starter in Argentina

CAM: Tommy Thompson --- B
I'm not a huge Tommy fan but I think he did an awesome job in this tournament for what he was asked to do. I love his fanciness. I just felt like he was bound to get us a PK but fortunes weren't on his side.
Player Projection: 0-15 national team caps; MLS starter

LM: Jordan Allen --- C-
I wasn't impressed with him at all, given the great reviews he was getting from RSL fans. He has speed and plays both ways decently so maybe fullback is his future position.
Player Projection: 0-10 national team caps; MLS starter

ST: Maki Tall --- INC
Liked him a lot when he was on the field.
Player Projection: 0-20 national team caps; Squad rotation player in France.

 

With rising World Cup ratings, MLS expansion, and more soccer on TV generally, I feel like there's been a cultural shift in the last decade, even in the larger non-immigrant population. I have the completely unscientific impression that a lot more kids these days are wearing Barcelona jerseys, talk about watching soccer nonstop, etc. I wonder if that's ever been quantified, and if real, whether it will translate to more top-level players.

 

Non-U.S. born folks and their U.S. born children represent about 1/4 the population of the U.S. And that number appears to be growing. In my part of the country it is growing very, very rapidly. In other parts probably very slowly or not at all. U.S.-wide that percentage is going up slowly.

But if we look at the areas of the country where soccer is popular enough that players would be likely to get the youth coaching / experience necessary to excel, I wonder if the immigrant population is growing fast enough to kind of counter-balance the growing popularity of the sport among non-immigrants?

 

C'mon, the guy is and has been one of the best players on earth. You cannot mention a guy like that and compare to anyone not named Messi, Bale or Cristiano. He is a special talent.

 

I believe that after Bocanegra, the cap-leader amongst Mexican-Americans is Bornstein. [I always have to remind myself that Balboa is of Argentine descent.]

We tend to put all Mexican-Americans into a neat folder labeled "Mexican-American," when each story, family situation, etc. is different. Players like Bornstein and Rimando are also Mexican-American, each having at least one parent born in Mexico.

Mexican clubs tend to have pretty large pools of youth players, particularly the "bigger clubs." Look at all of those Chivas youth teams. They have large "failure rates." We tend to focus on the couple of American youth prospects at these clubs without looking at the broader picture.

I mean, Alejadro Guido had a GenAd offer from MLS. That isn't a guarantee of success. It is usually a guarantee of some level of playing time and a chance to prove oneself, however. Guido also had a long trial in Holland with Vitesse. He chose to sign with Tijuana, and has just been lost in the wash. I hope the same doesn't happen to Arriola............................

 

My biggest takeaways:

1)Our youth coaching needs to get better. That's not just at this level, it's at the younger levels, as well. Tab, in this case, just didn't seem to read the game very well and thus, was unable to react and make any meaningful and/or useful tactical adjustments. This also could be attributed to a general lack of tactical coaching ability, I don't know. This group(and our younger groups) have loads of potential but it doesn't seem, to me, that Tab is a coach that can get the most out of his players and hopefully, this won't hurt development(I'm of the mind that it won't as the majority of the players' training/development takes place at club level).

2)This was not our best team at this age group. Obvious statement here but it just confirmed the thought that I just laid out. 2 big ones would be Canouse and Novakovich being able to play. With that said, this team competed well and played with a very good Serbia side for 120 minutes. To me, that bodes very well.

3)This CB pairing could be a great one. Obviously CCV and Miazga are young guys that need to continue to develop and reach their potential but they looked to work VERY WELL together and the defense as a whole came up big(aside from the Ukraine match, which didn't feature the CCV/Miazga pairing). Overall, the CB pool of the future MNT looks very deep.

4)I'm looking for Arriola to make a big jump in the next 1-2 years, not only at the NT/YNT level but at club level. I think he has a good skillset and will be a quick riser in the next couple of years. To me, he was one of the more exciting players to watch on this team and I think he gained a good deal of confidence that he can carry over to his club with him.

 

I think the U-20 player whose stock has risen the most as a result of this tournament, at least among US fans on these boards, is Andrija Novakovich

 

... and the other 20% are SoCal, which has long been over-represented.

 

Your comment sent me back to the archives. I did find a reference to Smith as a stronger DaMarcus Beasley or some such thing, but more generally, here is a rough 2007 equivalent to this thread.

http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/us-u20-world-cup-final-grades.569275/

I had forgotten how favorably Sturgis was received.

 

If you look at the families of a lot of the best athletes in the US, a lot of the time they have immediate family with professional sporting experience, often more than one parent. In another 20 years, we'll see more and more kids whose parents were former soccer pros, because that already happens here in other sports. I imagine it has to do with growing up around the sport 24/7, coupled with easy access to a family member that can teach/play the game at a high level, coupled with some pretty good genetics.

 

IF there's one lesson that us long-time posters have learned its that we should be wary of making grand prognostications of the future based upon the U20 World Cup. Some of the best performances at the U20 World Cup have been from players that have fallen off the face of the earth only years later (not just for the USYNT/USMNT, but many nations). And some of the role players and even players excluded from the team can go on to have the best careers. There's a real danger of "overanalysis." Even six months from now, folks will have whole different picture of this age group. Particularly at the end of the 2016 season when all of the NCAA players excluded from the group have started to play professionally. And even though nobody on this board will have mentioned a name like Trevor Haberkorn or Andrew Brody in a year, people will still call Ramos an idiot for not selecting them

 

Alvarado. Folks can say what they was about him, but Klinsy sure does like him. And so do I.

 

The bolded is simply not the case (not in this tournament nor with RBNY). Miazga is an excellent passer of the ball and very comfortable with the ball at his feet. To the extent that he has had developmental hiccups (during his stretch starting last summer and through the beginning of this MLS season), they have not revolved around his passing.

 

Miazga had a little turn with the ball at his feet late in the Serbia match that was quietly amazing -- a neat, subtle juke in his own half to free space to continue possession while under some pressure. Incredibly confident and something you don't see plenty of senior players attempt. Also a sign of the utmost confidence he had in the rest of the defensive unit to back him up.

 

I pretty much agree with everything here. Good post

 

Pretty common in other sports in the US, too.