Players' form goes up and down, and guys get hurt. There will be opportunities for guys like Gil and Trapp. Look how important a role Kyle Beckerman, a former U-20, played after being more or less ignored for most of his pro career. If the team changes formations, a fringe player who seemed to have no role may suddenly fit the system. As far as 2018 is concerned, young players who play attacking roles will have the best chance because that is where the pool of talented older players is thinnest.
I think injuries play a big role in players never fulfilling the potential they show in the youth tournaments.
Gabe Ferrari's wiki, the saddest words a soccer player ever heard: born in New York, New York, an American soccer player without a club. He, like Freddy Adu, is 26.
For the record, I think our only difference was that for 2005, I counted Bradley in addition to Holden . Yes, he was playing up during that cycle, and made a subsequent U20 roster, but he was called in twice and could be said to have been part of the pool. In any case, a technical point.
I'll give you Trapp, but Gil was a miss. O'Neill, Miller, and Villareal were misses. This group was terrible. You once again at least have the best players near the top and the worst players at the bottom.
Gil was one of our best players in that tournament. I remember him being the best player on the field in a game we got beat badly by a good Spain team. He was a tweener positionally. Didn't have the attacking skills to be a high level #10, but didn't have the defensive game to be a high level #8. I got fooled by his U-20 WC performance and the "hype" surrounding him. That was one of the easier cycles to predict the careers of the players. There were a lot of bad players, and only a handful of good players. Maybe you'd be wrong on how the careers of one or two of them turn out (I was wrong on Gil), but it wasn't that hard to predict that most players on that team wouldn't be high level professional footballers.
The bad players were really bad. You did well on good ones. Gill really managed to screw up his career. Whatever twiner he is there is no reason to be worse at 23 than at 18, and he is. Santino and Gaven with similar drops come to mind. But with Quaranta the reason is obvious, Gaven and Gill are mysteries. Rubin is moving in a wrong direction right now.
Of this age group (not so much the team), the only sure things have been Brooks and Yedlin. Aside from them, only Trapp and Morris have had an extended run in the NT. A very mediocre couple of years which only shines in comparison to the previous two cycles.
Here is the U20/2013 roster GOALKEEPERS (3) : 1-Cody Cropper (Southampton FC; Maple Grove, Minn.), 12-Kendall McIntosh (Santa Clara; Santa Rosa, Calif.), 21-Zach Steffen (FC DELCO; Downington, Pa.) DEFENDERS (7) : 13-Eric Miller (Creighton; Woodbury, Minn.), 3-Juan Pablo Ocegueda (Guadalajara; Riverside, Calif.), 5-Shane O’Neill (Colorado Rapids; Boulder, Colo.), 18-Oscar Sorto (LA Galaxy; Los Angeles, Calif.), 4-Caleb Stanko (SC Freiburg; Holly, Mich.), 14-Javan Torre (UCLA; Santa Monica, Calif.), 2-DeAndre Yedlin (Seattle Sounders; Seattle, Wash.) MIDFIELDERS (5) : 16-Kellyn Acosta (FC Dallas; Plano, Texas), 10-Luis Gil (Real Salt Lake; Garden Grove, Calif.), 8-Benji Joya (Santos Laguna; San Jose, Calif.), 15-Mikey Lopez (Sporting Kansas City; Mission, Texas), 6-Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew; Gahanna, Ohio) FORWARDS (6) : 20-Daniel Cuevas (Santos Laguna; Sacramento, Calif.), 17-Danny Garcia (North Carolina; Dallas, Texas), 7-Victor Pineda (Chicago Fire; Bolingbrook, Ill.), 19-Alonso Hernandez (C.F. Monterrey; El Paso, Texas), 9-Mario Rodriguez (1. FC Kaiserslautern; North Hollywood, Calif.), 11-Jose Villarreal (LA Galaxy; Inglewood, Calif.) The only players that are still playing at the MNT level are: : Steffen Yedlin Acosta Trapp Not enough made it.
This was an especially poor team. We knew it at the time if we were honest with ourselves. The only guys I'm surprised didn't make it were Luis Gil and Benji Joya.
I think in a way they were a bit overrated (Steffen has pulled out and made good) because they played up so I thought they must really be something. Instead it was more about how poor the actual kids in that cycle were. Coaching, development all get blame but opposite a golden generation must be a lead or pewter generation that drags down teams for a cycle or two just like the opposite lifts them up.
Kids that play up seem to have a better chance of getting 5+ caps. Adams, Steffan, EPB, CCV all played up correct? Am I just forgetting players in 2013-2015 that played up and haven't contributed? In the last cycle it was Sargent (with Jonathan Gonzales one of the last cuts).
Moderators, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE fix the apostrophes in this and the 2015 threads. It's driving me crazy. If you don't, I will either 1) stop posting here for a month or 2) keep posting here for a month. Whatever works.
this is the worst position group ever called in for a national team camp, in any age.. ever. my word.
So as of 2019 who panned out for NT Yedlin (for sure) Trapp (and everyone hates him being in the NT) Has an ok Club career and gets a few looks at the NT Steffen Who? Eveyone else. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_FIFA_U-20_World_Cup_squads#_United_States
I get why we focus on the teams here, but for me the pool is more interesting. Here is Tab's entire 2013 callup pool: Acosta Kellyn Akinyonde Bolu Allen Brandon Ambrose Mikey Bijev Villyan Brooks John Anthony Casiple Seth Cochran Alec "AJ" Cropper Cody Cuevas Daniel Cunningham Sean Dean Christian Decker Ethan Delgado Hector Dia Amadou Duarte Christian Dunn Matt Edwards Dakota Fehr Mobi Fender Holden Gallego Bryan Garcia Danny Gil Luis Gomez Tomas Guido Alejandro Guzman Jesus Guzman Flavio Hairston Marlon Hernandez Alonso Joya Benji Kaminski Kamil Kavita Phanuel Kempin Jon Kiesewetter Jerome Koroma Alfred Lacroix Duke Lopez Mikey Luna Uvaldo Madison Darius Martin Collin McBean Jack McCargo Tyrone McCrary Jordan McGuire Jake McIntosh Kendall Medina Daniel Metzger Dan Miller Eric Miller Tyler Morris Jordan O'Neill Shane Ocegueda Juan Pablo Okoli Sean Okwuonu Boyd Oliver Andrew Packwood Will Payeras Jeffrey Pelosi Marc Pineda Victor Potts Daniel Robinson Jalen Rodriguez Mario Rogers James Salgado Omar Serna Dillon Sorto Oscar Stanko Caleb Steffen Zach Top Jonathan Torre Javan Trapp Will Villareal Jose Vogel Derek Wendelken Matt Wiesenfarth Matt Wolverton Andrew Yedlin DeAndre Zimmerman Walker
Yeah, there's a lot more to this pool than just the guys that made the U20 WC roster. As there always is. Walker Zimmerman might just be the best domestic CB we have right now. He was out injured for an extended period of time prior to the World Cup. Of course he returned for FCD in time to play MLS games, but Ramos wasn't comfortable picking him. I suspect that the some of the last cuts from the World Cup roster were Jordan Morris and Marlon Hairston. They were at the Toulon Tournament right before the World Cup announcement. I'm not implying this is a great pool. There's a very low success rate there. But there are osme good players. Steffen will likely be our #1 keeper thru this cycle.