Want to add another name to this list, Sergino Dest at Ajax. He's been playing winger for the U19 team and over the international break, he played 90 minutes with the first team at RB. I like his game a lot and he's very versatile because he can playing RB or winger. I don't think he'll really be close to the first team in competitive matches but he is definitely progressing nicely there. For those of you that haven't seen him much, here are two all-touch videos from youth games that I made. vs PSV U19: https://streamable.com/xzans vs Utrecht U19 (I actually can't remember if this is all-touches or not): https://streamable.com/8p720
If this was just about the National Team, it might still be Adams, but you'd have to say Tim Weah has broken out for the USMNT. When he subbed out last night, I knew we were finished, and we were. That is strange for a guy that was maybe the third most heralded prospect at the U17 WC last year. Most thought he probably shouldn't start and was not starting for the team in qualifying, IIRC. I don't know, I might be able to be talked into Weah.
He got praise for his assist in the game against PSV in the UEFA Youth League, but haven't found anything about how he did against the kiddie Spuds. I suspect he's more a candidate for next year.
He's also been sparingly seen at USYNT camps. There's been a low-lying, bubbling, level of concern about that from USYNT watchers....................as he's also eligible for Spain. @ussoccer97531 might know this better than me, but I have his last youth callup as almost a year ago with the U18s for some friendlies.
Two U-18 friendlies early in the year against Costa Rica. de la Fuente was called up to Barcelona B for this weekends match. Barcelona B plays in a professional league, so if he plays it'll be his professional debut.
Not any good. Konrad de la Fuente, y'all. pic.twitter.com/q9U6v7dnrr— Joseph Lowery (@joeclowery) October 21, 2018
people get to excited over highlights and short clips. the kid is young let him play before message board scouts start bashing him because they don't know what they are talking about.
Just to be fair...…………..real life human being scouts are quite high on this kid. He's not 12. He's 17. He's older than Geroge Bello, Gianluca Busio, and other MLSers. In fact, this season nine kids appeared in MLS as 17 year olds or younger (at the time they played). Bello, Busio, Bassett, Fuentes, Davies, Ferreira, Carleton, Johnson, and Mines. All US or Canada eligible. Davies was so good over the last year and a half that he's been sold to Bayern. And then you see that eleven 18 year olds played, some with regular minutes. That includes kids like Durkin of DCU, Lindsey of SKC, and Sands of NYCFC. It's OK for folks to analyze the game of a 17 year old. They're not scouts and they don't know what the hell they're talking about That's fine. Its no less true when players are 30 This is a message board meant to be fun. Let them speculate away. It's also a legitimate concern for folks to wonder why a kid moving up the ranks at a major Euro club has been sparingly brought into USYNT camps. The answer could be as simple as Barca not releasing him for meaningless (up till now) youth events. Or is it that Konrad is waiting to see if Spain will be interested, because he's also eligible for them. [Hence why he was able to move to Spain at such a young age.]
louisz is the top scout in the states he regularly finds the elite talents this country has to offer he says this kid isn't as good as he'd expect someone in his position to be. I like the kid...but people still hang too much on highlights. everyones highlights look good.
Lots of twitterverse scuttlebutt that today could be the day for Sargent's debut in the Werder 18. One to keep an eye on...….………... Dafür heute beim Abschlusstraining dabei: Sturm-Juwel Josh Sargent. #Kohfeldt: „Mal schauen, ob er morgen dabei ist. Wir werden sehen.“#Werder #SVWB04 Foto: @AndreasGumz pic.twitter.com/G9gRCkwev6— BILD Werder Bremen (@BILD_Werder) October 27, 2018
At this point I must withdraw Matt Miazga's candidacy as 2018 Breakout Youngster due to recent events. Novakovich is currently injured and has been a month without scoring, so he's no longer my fallback recommendation. Sabbi was injured and has not done anything since his return. So at this point it's Amon, who's playing well in Denmark, since Gall's league is ranked far too low to consider him. Of course if Sargent gets to play in the league, he'll shoot right up.
You shouldn't have had them there to start with as they are too old. Miazga is almost an AARP member.
After a certain age, anyone under 40 seems young. Actually, 23 is still young, particularly for a defender. And, for me, a true "breakout" means earning a starting spot in a top league, at 23 or under.
Two months to go and my breakouts for calendar year 2018: MLS: Reggie Cannon, Auston Trusty; Mark McKenzie Europe: Jonathan Amon; Antonee Robinson; Andrija Novakovich
Not sure why you would have anyone from MLS over Tyler Adams. But I don't think it is even close and it is Tyler Adams for 2018. He didn't even have a cap at this time last year. Think about that. Do you know McKenzie's contract status? He seems like a contender for 2019. He is making the rapid progress at the end of this season that Adams made last year. He could star in the U20 World Cup and then dominate MLS or move to Europe. I'm thinking Cannon might be out of the playoffs and thus available for the friendlies coming up. Would like to see more of him as he played well versus Peru. But he hasn't really accomplished anything but play well regularly in MLS. He is not dominating games. I don't think Amon moves before 2018 ends and he has certainly emerged. Hope he stays healthy. Robinson is kind of where he was last year. An incremental step and is nominally the USMNT starting LB. But he might have an injury or is having a down dip in form at the moment.
Eh, I figured Adams broke out last year. Last year was a big breakout year for McKennie and Adams. Frankly, I figure a player who played in 32 matches for a taltented club team and made their national team debut could have been considered a breakout last year... especially due to the influence he had with NYRB. So in short, I didn't include Adams because I thought he broke out in 2017. McKenzie has not been as dependable as Trusty, but does seem to have upside. Have to see if he is available for the U20s based on Philly's match. Cannon has been one of the top if not the top RB in MLS this year, playing very consistently and showing good defensive and offensive chops. I am not sure we have a single defender in MLS or abroad who is dominating games and not sure why that is a criteria. I agree and am doubtful that Amon will not move before the end of 2018. He has played well. he has some defensive and tactical shortcomings that he will need to work on to be a complete player, but I liked the aggressiveness and promise. Robinson has been up and down which is not uncommon for a young defender. I think he really came on for Bolton in the 2nd half of the season which was in 2018.
My personal opinion is that Tyler Adams was the MLS breakout LAST YEAR. He was a full-time starter LAST season and earned USMNT callups based on that (already at 7 caps). Same for Justen Glad of RSL. Here's the table put together by @Sandon Mibut of minutes for US U23-eligible MLS players this season. My personal vote is for Reggie Cannon as I think he was the best US-eligible right back of ANY age in MLS in 2018. [He's also a year younger than Lennon.] I think a case can be made for any of the players in the table down to Durkin. Chris Durkin is the youngest of the top group, and got >1500 minutes for a team that's a real contender now for MLS Cup. [Top 4 MLS teams in terms of minutes for youngsters were not suprising: RSL, Philly, FCD, and NYRB in that order] Auston Trusty (98), D, PHILADELPHIA – 34 GM/34 ST, 3060 MIN, 1 G/1 A Reggie Cannon (98), D, DALLAS – 33 GM/33 ST, 2921 MIN, 1 G/3 A Justen Glad (97), D, SALT LAKE – 33/33, 2910 MIN, 0/0 Brooks Lennon (97), D/M, SALT LAKE – 33/32, 2850, 0/5 Tyler Adams (99), M, NEW YORK RB – 27/26, 2348, 0/7 Mark McKenzie (99), D, PHILADELPHIA – 18/17, 1629, 0/0 Chris Durkin (00), M, DC UNITED – 23/16, 1503, 0/1 Jackson Yueill (97), M, SAN JOSE – 21/15, 1293, 0/3 Aaron Herrera (97), M/D, SALT LAKE – 15/13, 1238, 0/0 Sebastien Saucedo (97), M, SALT LAKE – 28/10, 1021, 3/4 Danilo Acosta (97), D, SALT LAKE – 12/10, 896, 0/2 Djordje Mihailovic (98), M, CHICAGO - 9/8, 583, 1/4 Jaylin Lindsey (00), D, KANSAS CITY - 7/6, 555, 0/1 Marco Farfan (98), D, PORTLAND – 11/6, 515, 0/0 Handwalla Bwana (97), M, SEATTLE – 12/6, 491, 2/1 J.T. Marcinkowski (97), GK, San Jose - 5/5, 450, 2.20 GAA, .656 save pct. Jeremy Ebobisse (97), F, PORTLAND - 9/5, 449, 2/1 Derrick Jones (97), M, PHILADELPHIA – 11/3, 369, 0/0 Kyle Duncan (97), D, NEW YORK RB – 4/4, 360, 0/1 Mason Toye (98), F, MINNESOTA – 17/2, 340, 0/1 Wan Kuzain (98), M, KANSAS CITY – 6/3, 307, 1/0 Cole Bassett (01), M, COLORADO - 6/3, 307, 1/0 Miles Robinson (97), D, ATLANTA – 10/3, 272, 0/0 Matt Real (99), D, PHILADELPHIA – 3/3, 236, 0/0 James Sands (00), M, NYCFC - 3/3, 223, 0/0 Jonathan Lewis (97), M/F, NYCFC - 14/0, 219, 1/3 Cam Lindley (97), M, ORLANDO – 3/3, 201, 0/0 George Bello (02), D, ATLANTA - 3/2, 177, 1/0 Eric Calvillo (98), M, SAN JOSE - 3/2, 165, 0/0 Andrew Carleton (00), M, ATLANTA – 7/2, 161, 0/1 Gianluca Busio (02), M, KANSAS CITY - 7/1, 153, 1/1 Paxton Pomykal (99), M, DALLAS – 6/1, 125, 0/0 Anthony Fontana (99), M, PHILADELPHIA – 5/1, 98, 1/0 Ben Mines (00), M, NEW YORK RB – 1/1, 90, 1/0 Tommy Redding (97), D, NEW YORK RB – 1/1, 90, 0/0 Brandon Vasquez (98), F, ATLANTA – 8/0, 86, 0/0 Pierre Da Silva (98), M, ORLANDO - 2/0, 49, 0/0 Ayo Akinola (00), F, TORONTO - 4/0, 45, 0/1 Sam Vines (99), D, COLORADO - 1/0, 45, 0/0 Isaac Angking (00), M, NEW ENGLAND - 3/0, 36, 0/0 Shaft Brewer (99), M, LAFC - 3/0, 29, 0/0 Joshua Perez (98), M, LAFC - 2/0, 22, 0/0 Jesus Ferreira (00), F, DALLAS - 1/0, 3, 0/0 Gilbert Fuentes (02), M, San Jose - 1/0, 1, 0/0
Players emerge, players break through, and then they break out. Adams emerged last year and got a cap at the end of the year. He was in the HG game, nobody considered him for the regular all-star game. He was starting or subbing on in MLS, but he was not influencing games until near the end. He was playing on the wing, not centrally. This year, Adams moved centrally, dominated games, was named to the All-Star team, and is on the ballots of many for Best 11. He started multiple USMNT teams and is generally considered to have been our best player in many of those games, especially against the harder competition. Adams is generally included in all the USMNT first choice 11 threads here and in the media (except by some who will only consider him a right back). He is set for a move to a top Bundesliga team at the conclusion of the playoffs. Adams did emerge last year. But he broke out this year. There is a difference. Cannon has emerged, much on the same path. We will see if he can break out next year. The same as McKenzie.
Hey that is all good, but you listed Weston as your 2017 breakout player. He only played 5 complete matches in 2017 and had around 1.3 of the minutes of Adams.
Competition was not as steep haha It used to be on the European Calendar, this thread. One reason I moved it to calendar was because it was easier with MLS players and just keeping track. So, it was last Spring too, IIRC, where he was a full time starter and Schalke finished 2nd.
Out second tier CBs Trusty and McKenzie were exposed in a do or die game vs NYFC. I guess these kids are not big game players at this point in their careers.