There is no actual definition, so anybody's opinion is as valid as anybody else's. I would just say that this is breakout in terms of the USMNT, not club football. This is the USMNT forum. Tyler Adams' first callup to the full USMNT was almost a full year ago in November 2017 (which he earned based on his play in MLS in 2017). Prior to the 2018 MLS season, he was already a full USMNT player. My personal definition of breakout from the 2018 MLS season is somebody who wasn't on the USMNT radar prior to the season, but had moved into the USMNT pool by the end of the season. Reggie Cannon didn't play a single second in MLS in 2017 (made an appearance or two in the USOC). Nor was he a member of the 2017 U20 CONCACAF Championships and World Cup squads. Players like Adams, Lennon, Trusty, and Glad from MLS were all part of that team. So those candidates for the breakout distinction were already recognized as being elite members of the USYNT pool with a path to the USMNT. Reggie wasn't selected (while fullbacks like Aaron Herrera were). By the end of the 2018 season Reggie's performances had been at such a level that he received a callup and was capped by the full USMNT. So my vote goes to Reggie Cannon........................ I'm biased, but I think the argument is compelling.
Cannon has had an outstanding year. Thank God too because we need some help at fullback, with Chandler’s injury woes and difficulty translating to the international game, Moore seemingly taking a step back, and Yedlin in somewhat of a slump.
Cannon didn't play in 2017 because of decisions Dallas made. They had a high priced RB with a good resume, so he never had his spot under threat. Cannon didn't magically become good in a matter of months. He was finally given a chance to prove himself. He wasn't on the U-17 or U-20 WC teams due to bad decisions. He should've been on both of those teams. If you watched Cannon play any of those years, you knew he was one of the better fullback prospects in the system.
I expected him not to have an excellent game. Picault does his damage in open field counter, tough to do that when he has to play in a phone booth of a field.
Cannon is a unique MLS product. He plays like an English Premiership player. He has no problems getting forward and plays defense very well. He's also quite fast. He has something a bit German in his play as well: he's smart on both sides of the field.
Your logic would apply to many. Robinson, Sargent, Weah, Steffan, Delgado all broke into the pool and are farther along with the USMNT than Cannon.
Sure........................but that doesn't impact that the fact that he's the 2018 MLS "Breakout Youngster." There are actually disturbingly few real candidates for the award, and in my mind none of them are attacking players. Its Trusty, McKenzie, Lennon, Cannon, Adams and Durkin. A case can be made for those 6 guys. [As I've stated, I believe Adams broke out last season.] How far down the goal-scoring and assists charts, for instance, does one have to go before they encounter a US U23 eligible player.............................?
Third leading scorer in the 42 team U-19 Bundesliga. Sebastian Soto's game-winner Saturday for the Hannover U19s over Hamburg (his team-leading 9th league goal of the season) was an ambitious strike from distance. Caught the keeper out. pic.twitter.com/N2aGUZ1dMV— scuffed (@scuffedpod) November 5, 2018
Soto's performances this year are a real eye-opener. He's impacting the U19 Bundesliga to an even higher degree than Pulisic and McKennie did. Hannover must be thinking about ways to challenge him more right now. Soto isn't 16 like Pulisic was when he moved there. He's 18. Time to think about the next level................
He’s not impacting the game the way Pulisic did. Pulisic was completely unchallenged by the U-19 Bundesliga a couple of games into playing in the league. He was promoted after the first half of his first of two seasons. A lot of good players don’t even start regularly their first season. Soto (like McKennie) didn’t get that first year due to a lack of an EU passport, but what he’s doing now in the goal scoring department is very impressive. It’s reminiscent of Wright’s second season from an offensive standpoint. I tend to think it’s a minimum requirement though. There’s no guarantee that this season will get Soto into the Hannover first team immediately, but he’s doing what is required of him and showing he’s got a high level pro future somewhere. I remember hearing from some how Taitague was assured of playing for the Schalke first team because there would be a clip every couple of weeks of him displaying nice skill. It never made sense to me. This is a youth league. If you are going to be promoted to the first team in an attacking position, you better be producing goals and/or assists left and right. Soto is doing that, which makes a promotion possible at some point soon enough, but it’s not a given. Regardless, he’s doing what he’s been doing for years. Soto scores goals prolifically, and he scores them in every which way. He does it with excellent hold up play, and very good ball skills for a #9. He’s not on the USSF hype list, so he hasn’t been given a USMNT call up yet, but he’s right there with those two. It’s impressive that we’ve produced three really good #9’s in one year.
Soto and Sargent have basically just picked up where they left off at the DA level. It is encouraging that a player can step out of the DA and step into the U19 Bundesliga and continue to perform at an elite level. Sargent is doing it in the 4th tier of course. Different Bund teams do it differently. Some have the U23 as the stepping stone and others the U19.
I don’t understand what he does well as a winger other than run fast. USSF should stop using him there.
Some guy did something like that to me in FIFA on my XBox a few years back. One of the only times I ever rage quit.
The US U20s steamrolled Costa Rica last night at the CONCACAF Championships to book their place at the U20 World Cup next year. The future is sooooooooooooooo bright. The failure of the senior team in WCQing masked the fact that our work at the youth levels is continuing to bear lots of fruit. In this thread, we've been talking about it for quite some time. This was basically a "B" team that was missing U20 eligible players like Amon, Adams, Durkin, Sargent, Weah, Carleton, and others. They blew past the competition with relative ease. [Not that it was easy. They made it look easy.] A player we probably haven't talked about in this thread as much as his Galaxy academy teammates Uly Llanez and Efrain Alvarez is midfielder Alex Mendez. He scored this absolute cracker last night. I believe he's left the Galaxy academy for Freiburg in Germany. [Uly Llanez has reportedly also left the Galaxy academy for greener pastures in Europe.] 1063592408338898944 is not a valid tweet id
US soccer has no future. All the overhyped worthless "youngsters" will end up on the bench in some 3rd division Euro league or back in retirement #fakeleague MLS where they can be a complete lazy ass and still get paid. MLS is pure garbage and it's infuriating that people still pay money to see a bunch of unskilled piles of raw sewage play "competitive soccer" ffs.
The kids to keep an eye from this age group are Lainez and Pomykal. They look very polish for their age. I haven't seen enough of Soto to comment. One final note, anyone noticed that almost half the team is latino?