I think the biggest problem with this age group right now is that there's not a coach whose watching these players weekly, evaluating their play, speaking to their coaches. Thats why I think we've seen so many terribly picked YNT rosters in the last year, and this one is starting to look a lot like most of those. It won't effect the ultimate development of the players because that happens at the club level and club teams need to employ coaches, but its leading to a stretch where I think squad selection is by far the biggest issue with our YNT's.
Vassilev is eligible. With him emerging at Villa and Kayo being with the USMNT it really throws a good curve ball into this age group. This cycle is incredibly talented with Uly, Gio, Konrad, Vassilev, Harper, Otasowie, Kobe, Araujo, Booth, Gallegos, Jona Gomez, Nyeman, Kayo, Leyva, Cardoso, Sousa, Scally, Ritaccio, Ochoa, Las, Odunze, and more that I’m missing that are all very high end talent players who could impact the USMNT sooner or later. Personally I still think the 03-05 cycle would obliterate the current u20 cycle. The weakness in this group is there is no standout 9 and the CB’s are very iffy unless you put Otasowie back there.
Big soccer and USMNT twitter would explode if that happened. Balogun single handedly takes us from a quarter final level team to a tournament favorite.
The safe bet is someone who doesn't have to file a switch to play for us. Just for fun, I'll guess Yunus Musah.
Musah is a good guess, but since he plays for a Big Euro Club will he be too exciting to meet the guidelines? I’ll offer up Erik McCue. Sonewhat boring, not cap-tied, plays a position of need.
For whatever reason, a few folks (including people in this forum who typically know things) have recently re-engaged with an old "Hey I found this guy" tweet of mine about Leon Flach from 2018. He's an '01. So maybe that's a clue that we're both wrong https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/leon-flach-at-st-pauli.2082357/
Leon will be on the roster. He has had previous experience with the Germany u18 teams and is currently at St Pauli.
Another kid Houston Great job on finding him before Chuck, Joey, Charlie, or Hartman found him. That's hard to do.
Kurowskybob Pierre is on the roster, is a dual national, but would have to file a switch to play for the USA. And yes. Flach is on the roster.
I don't want him to go very far solely because spelling his name will be such a struggle down the road.
Knowing the roster that will get released looks nothing like this here is my depth chart. Open for any criticism or discussion as it’s for the greater good.
Getting word Anthony Hudson is the new U.S. under-20 men's national team coach.— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) January 7, 2020
Expect it to be announced soon: Anthony Hudson is going to be the new U20 men's national team coach. He brings experience of coaching youth national teams (New Zealand u17 and u20) in the past and is a good hire if it's true. Here is his wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Hudson_(football_manager).
His coaching inspiration is Marcelo Bielsa which is a very good thing for us who want a high pressing, possession based team. His New Zealand teams for the quality that they had actually did pretty well in possession. Rapids never let him open the check book to get him the players they need. If he is as successful as he was with New Zealand we are in great hands.