My suspicion is that in the case of health, availability and form, it's more or less a wash, at least across the universe of teams that might be considered potentially competitive in the tournament. I will certainly cede the point to anyone with sufficient knowledge of other countries' player pools to illustrate otherwise. The dual-national issue probably also matters more widely than we realize, though I do understand there are some interesting cases out there for the U.S. (I get the sense that it's a pretty big issue for Nigeria, for example.) Balogun seems like a stretch to me, since it would be a permanent switch and he seems to be doing fine for England at present. There's another UEFA tournament coming up he can play in, and he'd be up a FIFA cycle. If he really wants to play for us, and he can leverage this into a U20 finals spot, good for him and good for us, I suppose! Based on nothing but a gut sense, I'd almost be less surprised to see Alvarez on the roster than Balogun.
Another example would be Tim Weah. There really is no club conflict for him that would prevent him from playing in the U-20 WC UNLESS Celtic reach the Scottish Cup final. The Cup final is right at the start of the U-20 WC. The larger provisional roster size allows Ramos to keep Weah in play for longer.
Tab's love affair with Real really needs to end, leadership and all that jazz but he's not good enough period. There's a reason Philly went out and bought a young left back from Germany this off-season. Yeah Tab has been playing him at CB, but he's even more useless there.
Not a lot of Ligue 1 guys; probably most of them will be soon. 2 years ago they sent a bunch of players who turned out very good but hadn't yet broken out like Jean Kevin Augustin and Allan Saint Maximin. Probably not quite as strong as that squad but time will tell.
The goal may need to go to the Dubious Goals Committee. Gol de LlanezMinuto 90 2-2USA 🇺🇸- 🇫🇷 Francia @USYNT - @equipedefrance Internacional Sub20— Pinatar Arena (@PinatarArena) March 22, 2019
This cycle hasn't been particularly deep at CB after the Richards, McKenzie types. I imagine that guys like Keita and Real are at this event competing for a last roster spot in defense. Keita will probably get the next game.
Why isn't Mackenzie here. He's not playing/starting for Union and he's not playing with U20 in this tournament.
Good result I would say against a very strong French team. Although they played with a mixed team between starters and substitutes you could say that it is a very good draw. This team with some inclusions like Araujo, Sands, McKenzie, Aaronson and maybe Weah and Sargent could calmly fight for the title of the world cup
Along with Pomykal, a healthy Taitague, and top GK B.Scott this would be a fun U20WC. Let's throw in Adams too.
He started most of last year and starting this year noticed Jack Elliott playing opposite Trusty. With all the Tab Ramos talk of Union already saying that they don't want to release McKenzie for the U20 WC was wondering if his not starting had anything about his present availability or possible U20 release implications.