You keep preaching about Nyeman and I got to be honest, it kind of seems like you’re standing on a soapbox screaming at people while they walk by and ignore you. I finally got a chance to watch one of his games and see more than just a few highlights. I don’t like making decisions based on one game, but I think people need to start listening to you about this one. You say he looks to be a 10, I thought he looked more like an 8 in this game, but he clearly is incredibly talented. He makes quick decisions, is incredibly good technically, has a great first touch, marks well, is active and well-positioned defensively, and always seems like he’s a step ahead of everyone else. He makes some mistakes and needs to do a better job of knowing his surroundings, but he definitely stands out as having that star quality you want out of a center mid. I didnt see the vision in the attacking third, ability to make the final pass, or finishing that id like out of a 10, but maybe that’s because the level of his teammates isn’t at his level and this game was against a good opponent. The kid is like 14 but the train is starting to board. On another note, I was fairly impressed with the right back, Villatoro. I thought he was pretty strong in the first half and was good defensively while providing some help getting the ball forward, especially in the first half. I did notice that he tried to dribble out of everything instead of making the easy and good pass. Also, the ref had no desire to hand our yellows. The left back (Gaines?) was completely beat and went in about thigh high in the second half, nowhere near the ball, and got a stern talking to haha
So overall........................bad news at the end in the GenAd Cup Champions Division despite some good showings. All MLS teams eliminated. The four teams that made the semifinals were River Plate, Flamengo, Atletico Paranaense, and Pachuca. NYCFC finished 2nd in their group ahead of Real Madrid. Nothing to sneeze at there. The closest call was FCD, who finished tied atop Group D after beating Monaco and the Galaxy. Even had the best GD in the group. But first tiebreaker at the GA Cup is head-to-head, so Pachuca goes thru. Bummer. Nice showing by all teams in this group, actually. All tight games thoughout. In the Premier Division of the GenAd Cup.............the Sounders, Impact, and Monterrey have advanced to the semifinals. One last semifinalist to be decided out of Group C. With one game left, NYRB sit atop the group. If they can beat the dismal Fire in their last game, they'll advance.
The news is slightly better out of the Dallas Cup U19 Supergroup. The results yesterday for MLS teams were: FCD 1 Red Bull Brazil 1 Man United 1 TFC 0 Atlanta 0 Vitoria 0 Nothing to cry about with those results. The Supergroup takes the 3 group winners and the best 2nd place finisher to the semifinals. Atlanta and FCD have all but been eliminated despite decent showings yesterday. They need a million things to go right for them on the last day on top of beating Monterrey and Queretaro. TFC, however, has a shot. If they beat Tigres on the last matchday, and finish on 6 points..................they can either win the group outright or go thru as best 2nd place team. By the way, I saw in the box score that Ayo Akinola is indeed playing for TFC at this event. I haven't seen any games so can't tell you about his performance. Today’s @TorontoFCIII Starting XI against @ManUtd CatalanoGorgeesDunnSinghPetrassoOkelloCampbellHamiltonDada-LukeAkinolaSchaffelburg#TFCLive | @dallascup— Toronto FC Academy (@tfcacademy) March 26, 2018 In the regular U19 division, there's some better news. Texas is dominating mostly domestic competition. Solar, Texans, FCD Premier (one step below the DA), and the Dynamo U19 DA are all leading divisions. That could turn into an all-Texas battle royale in the semis.
@zlebmada is acquiring quite the twitter following as the GIF master of all BS related opinions Moses Nyeman, 14, is playing for DC United’s U17s at #GACup. Rough tournament for #DCU but Nyeman, who’s gotta be one of the youngest players in the tournament, looks way beyond his years as a center mid. Helps win the ball, drives forward, picks out a teammate on the flank. pic.twitter.com/itQEvLP5pW— scuffed (@scuffedpod) March 27, 2018
I don't even think the "mistakes" matter. He'll get better with that as he gets older, as long as he has a good soccer IQ, which he does. Mistakes also come with playing a creative game. And I think you should watch some of the games I've linked here, his attacking vision is excellent. Maybe it didn't show in this game (although he had two really nice passes that I remember that most players can't play), but its definitely part of his game. Ability in the final third should come as he gets older. Thats another area where a lot of younger players struggle with. As long as the ability is there to create those chances and get into those positions, I think thats more indicative of long-term ability to influence goals and assists than stats in U-17 football.
@zlebmada, if you want to do more gifs, here is a youtube channel that uploads DC United U-17 matches. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEgMlYdKVgtFPZtthu0OvZg/videos He played in the first couple this season, but then sustained an injury that kept him out until the two most recent games listed on that channel. Here's the team page with a game log towards the bottom: http://dcut.ussoccerda.com/sam/teams/index.php?team=3939320 As I'm sure you'll find, that game you gif'ed is a normal performance for him, it wasn't some out of nowhere surprise.
How did you find Nyeman? Were others talking about him or did you run across him just watching a bunch of games. Both speak to your dedication.
Pretty much that he was an '03 listed on the actual roster of an MLS academy team's U-17 team to start the season. A number of players have gotten a few games here or there this season, but he was on the listed roster from the first game, and there are only a handful or so in good/half-decent academies who are listed on the U-17 teams. I put the team into youtube as there are a lot of DA games on youtube, and one of the parent's of a player on his team films the games, so I started watching, and he was punking these kids. I had initially watched Sealy play a few games, and he was good for his age (but not good for any age), not as good as I expected when we've been hearing about him for about a year. Nyeman was that good.
The mistakes are things like knowing when to try to dribble through three defenders and when to make the easy pass, especially in the defensive or middle third when it could lead to a chance the other way. General stuff that he should improve upon as he gets older. You kept talking about him so I knew I’d see him play eventually. From watching his highlights, I wasn’t super impressed, but I knew highlights probably only tell about 10% of the whole story. He looked kind of like Zelalem. Good technically, but a sit around and pass type. After seeing him play, he’s not remotely close to Zelalem. Again, not to praise him too much cuz I’ve only seen him once, but he looks like he’s just well-rounded. I’m looking forward to watching some of his other games now to see some of the creativity you say he has. He looks like hes worth the time and effort.
Btw, fwiw, the last time I was this impressed with a player the first time I saw him was about 2015 and the player was Andrew Carleton. Again, I’ve only seen home once, but he was very impressive. Going to try to binge watch some games tomorrow.
So kind of a interesting thing happening at Dallas Cup right now regarding Jack Maher from St Louis FC, he is playing for Atlanta's U-19s....probably just a guest player according to this twitter but still kinda of odd Starting at CB for the #ATLUTD U19's is Jack Maher, a highly-rated youngster who plays for St. Louis FC in @USL. Likely a guest player for Dallas Cup only #ATLUTD— ATLUTD Prospects (@ATLUTDprospects) March 28, 2018
This is awesome raw material. I will bookmark that YouTube channel. Much appreciated. Anybody have a sense of what the next step is for Nyeman. He seems dominant at the U17 level as a 14-year-old. Where does he go from here?
I think that’s a pretty good question. The rest of DC seems like they will only get the ball forward on the wings, and that always ends with someone trying to go 1v2 and losing the ball. It seems like most of the time Nyeman touches the ball in his own end, he has to make some fantastic pass or dribble through 3 guys. He’s clearly better than the rest of his teammates, but it’s not like he’s going to start telling them what to do and where to go so he can start to combine better with them. But it seems like that’s what he needs. He also needs a better defensive midfielder behind him that can get the ball and pass it forward so he can stay higher up the field. But again, it doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen. For the time being, I guess he just stays where he is. If dc was smart (they’re not), they’d start pushing him like the Galaxy have done with Alvarez. They’d also sign him sooner rather than later.
FT - Reds fall in their second GA Cup match #TFCLive | #GACup pic.twitter.com/EQmKo4SZOl— Toronto FC Academy (@tfcacademy) March 29, 2018
Thread on some standout players that didnt come up on the scoresheet - [Thread] Some interesting stats from the 2018 Generation adidas Cup via @ORTECsports (these stats are only from the group play games)— J.R. Eskilson (@JREskilson) March 29, 2018 Sounders v RBNY in the final - Incredible team play by the boys today! 🙌⚽ Ray Serrano (4')⚽ Marlon Vargas (57') #GACup 🏆 pic.twitter.com/fDU150xSVP— Sounders FC Academy (@SoundersAcademy) March 29, 2018
Next season: U-19 level. Halfway through the 2018-19 DA season (MLS offseason): Sign a first team contract, play regularly with DC United II (supposedly starting up next season). Similar path to what Bello is facing right now, but presumably more of a chance to play earlier, and also a better player. At that point, probably a full season with DC United II (maybe a first team debut, a few first team games). 2019-2020, he could work his way into regular first team minutes.
Is anyone impressed by Serrano? He has a very good scoring record and seemingly is highly rated at Seattle, but his game looks really bland. Maybe I have watched the wrong games he's played in?
Does anyone have his stats from the Ortec GA Cup app? How do we access that app? It is downloadable on iTunes but then requires a login code - what is it?
There has been a virus/bug going through the Sounders GA Cup team. It hit Serrano as well but he never complained and just played through it as best he could. I think the announcers brought it up during the Montreal game. I think he was even laid up in bed all day at one point.
Sounders defeat NYRB to win the premier division. NYRB scored first off a PK earned from a questionable foul Imo. Seattle took control of the game and soon tied it up. Then Serano got a straight red. The announcers did not think it deserved a red. So the Sounders played down a man most of the game. Sounders scored on a counter with 10 min left and held on to win. I didn't watch after the red card. Just jumped ahead to see the result and was pleasantly surprised. This team endured alot this past week and impressed all along the way.
Some championships were decided at the Dallas Cup yesterday. Weather mucked up the schedule at both tournaments, so depth has been highly rewarded. Anyway, the current situation: U13s: FC Dallas Champions FC Dallas U13s Dallas Cup Champions ⚽️🏆🥇 pic.twitter.com/y5TxA9Su5V— FC Dallas Youth (@FCDallasYouth) March 31, 2018 Super U14s: Tigres (Mexico) Champions non-super U14s: Angeles soccer elite champions (Mexico) U15: Chicago Fire Champions Congratulations @ChicagoFire Academy! The 2018 @drpepper Dallas Cup U15 Champions. #DC39 pic.twitter.com/w435iGPlyR— Dallas Cup ⚽️ (@dallascup) March 31, 2018 The remaining divisions decided today (click to expand):
From an FCD perspective, the Champions Division of the GA Cup went very well. They ended up as the highest ranked MLS team after they beat Eintracht Frankfurt 4-2 in the 5th place game. Wins in the Champions Division against Monaco, Galaxy, NYCFC, and Eintracht Frankfurt. Their only setback was the 1-0 loss to Pachuca. The win for FCD over Eintracht was the only win for an MLS club in the two playoff rounds........... Independiente delle Valle 2 NYCFC 1 Real Madrid 3 TFC 0 Monaco 2 Atlanta 2 (Monaco won on penalties) By the way, the GA Cup Champion was Flamengo after they beat River Plate last night 1-0. Seattle managed to win the Premier Division without beating a top foreign club. The only foreign club they beat was Matsumoto Yamaga from Japan.(RLS, Colorado, and Columbus also beat that Japanese team). Not their fault as the Mexican teams (Monterrey, Tijuana, Tigres) were eliminated by others. Still, I would have liked to have seen Seattle against one of those top foreign clubs, as I think the Sounders academy is progressing nicely. Best wins in the tournament for MLS teams (obth divisions) were NYCFC over Real Madrid, FCD over Monaco, LA Galaxy over Pachuca, Montreal over Monterrey, and Houston 4 Tijuana 1...............along with a few others.