Gotta say I agree with this. Pulisic is an outlier. The blueprint is that there's no blueprint We're all..........................snowflakes. There is no Christian Pulisic blueprint. https://t.co/5dpexGX2fq— Will Parchman (@WillParchman) June 14, 2017 Love this embedded video. Pulisic as a 9 year old..........
Between Acosta, Hyndman, McKennie, Adams, etc. we have a lot of nice central midfield prospects. Will be interesting to see who comes out on top in a couple years.
We used to have a special thread dedicated to those boys wonders. Dozens of kids. None of them turned into average MLS player. There are thousands decisions taken by parents between this clip and BVB Pulisic. There is a blueprint.
As far as U20 go, Jones' has been the biggest pleasant surprise of the season so far for me. He's got a lot to work on, but the tools are there............................... All of these central midfielders folks are talking about this thread aren't #6s. [McKennie, Adams, Acosta, Hyndman, and on and on] Chris Durkin of DC United is a U17 #6 that I have high hopes for..........................
I don't actually think Jones is that talented. He's athletic, mobile, strong and good in the air, but his passing is not good, he gets lost positionally, and he makes a lot of errors, IMO.
Looking better all the time. Actually, even if he is an instant hit in Europe, it may be tough to break into our back four.
A potential breakout player. Not this year, but perhaps next year.............. He really does have a lot of potential. The story of James Sands' rise to becoming the first ever #NYCFCHomegrown pic.twitter.com/FxudUcbrOM— New York City FC (@newyorkcityfc) June 21, 2017
EPB has a lot of interest according to reports. Ajax, Porto, Chelsea, PSG and other French clubs. It is crazy that he couldn't play for Sporting KC...really dumb roster management and player development.
In case folks didn't see this yesterday. U20 Forward McKinze Gaines, from Austin, has transferred to Darmstadt in Bundesliga 2. A nice move for playing time. Will be playing with Terrence Boyd. Trainiert ebenfalls schon: @McKinzeGaines #sv98 pic.twitter.com/Iyk8B6APC2— SV Darmstadt 98 (@sv98) June 22, 2017
Gaines didn't seem to get any thought on the recent U20 roster. Didn't even see any discussion on these boards that that was a mistake.
Tall and lanky Winger/forward out of Lonestar in Austin with blistering pace. Same club that Kekuta Manneh and Khiry Shelton came out of. 7 goals and 9 assists last season for Wolfsburg U19s. Some recent stories with background. Opportunity knocks for U.S. prospect McKinze Gaines at Wolfsburg http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/66/u...nity-knocks-for-us-prospect-mckinze-gaines-at Is McKinze Gaines America's next young Bundesliga breakout? https://www.fourfourtwo.com/us/feat...ga-breakout-usmnt-pulisic#D82hsX84uDCZKrxu.99 Gaines Seeing Star Ascend with Wolfsburg http://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/743205?referrer_id=2436046 This paragraph from the last article is a pretty good scouting report: “He’s somebody when you first see him, he’s just got world-class speed, and that immediately takes your eye,” said Dalglish last week. “He’s breathtakingly quick, and he’s got that ability, much like a player at Liverpool when I was younger called Steve McManaman, to run away from you with the ball without even looking like he’s going fast because he’s got such an efficient running style that he’s lightning-quick without looking like he’s trying hard to run quick.” [That's Paul Dalglish, who coached McKinze at Lonestar.] The question with McKinze has been whether his technical skill, etc. can catch up with his physical traits. He's always seemed like a kid that has a lot of raw ability to me. As for why he wasn't with the U20s, that's anybody's guess. Tab did have quite a lot of trouble getting kids out of Europe, and Germany in particular. This one seems like more of a coach's decision than the McKennie, Wright, Perez, Akale, etc. situations. And yet, people confuse the names of two of our top prospects all the time: McKennie and McKinze. By the way, McKinze's younger brother is also a highly touted prospect and youth international. That's Julian Gaines. He's been part of our U15 squad this spring, and could easily be in the next U17 CONCACAF/World Cup squad. In the past he's also done some training in Germany.
It's incredible how much opportunity that our guys (especially younger guys) have had in the Bundesliga I believe it was Wynalda first achieved some success there when most other Yanks labored in second/third divisions around Europe
Eric moved there in 92. They'd been looking at Americans prior to that in the late 80s a little bit. Paul Caligiuri, for instance, first moved to Germany in 1987 when he went to Hamburg. Eric Eichmann moved to Bremen about that time. There are a couple of others. Its true that the Bundesliga has been a great option for our young American players as foreign player rules are lax. It'll only increase from here..
Wright and McKennie? Both were excellent today for Schalke. Wright had four goals and an assist, McKennie an assist, probably the two best players on the field, in a 9-1 win.
I'd say the next three youngsters to get capped are CCV (who's been called up, but is still uncapped), Wright, and McKennie. Talent-wise EPB is in that grouping, but its unclear if he's going to get enough playing time to leap over a whole lot of CB talent right now. I'd like to see either Eric or Justen Glad at January camp. Also, its really unclear to me how much playing time Josh Perez is going to get this season. If he gets more playing time at Fiorentina than a year ago, then I don't know how we can ignore that. To some degree it depends on what are priority is at January camp. If, heaven forbid, we botch WCQing this summer/fall........................then we could really turn the page at January camp with a lot of younger guys like Tyler Adams. Alternatively, its more likely that Bruce is going to use January camp as a last chance for veterans to make a push for the WC team.
Its hard to know what that Schalke game means. Bundesliga teams tend to play these early pre-season games against lowly, local rivals of really low quality. Its an opportunity for youngsters to impress and become a continuing part of pre-season matches against bigger clubs............hopefully leading to first team opportunities. I think we can all make a list of youngsters in Germany that crushed it in pre-season games like this. Then the regular season came around and they didn't get opportunities with the first team. Julian Green really stands out in this regard at Bayern Munich. A pre-season monster for them. What I'm trying to say is its really good that Wright and McKennie are playing in these games and performing well. They're taking advantage of the opportunity. However, there's a danger in reading too much into it. Its kinda like watching an early spring training baseball game and seeing a 19 year old prospect crush 2 home runs. Then you start considering that he hit them off of a pitcher that's nowhere near MLB level...............
Your comments have a lot of truth but there is one variable that you haven't touched, LUCK. Let's take Pulisic as an example. He played in friendlies and, he did well in his first game, not as well as Wright but had a solid game. What catapulted Pulisic minutes was the combination of solid play and that established players ahead of him were injured. Getting those minutes early in league play opened the door for him to be an option in the rotation. So for Wright and even McKennie to make it right away, they will not only have to play well but also get lucky that other players can't play ahead of them at the start of the season.