Not a lot of creativity there, to be sure. And, compared to the U20's, it's clearly not as good. But I think qualification depends more on how good the other teams are. I don't know much about other countries' U17 programs, so I'd be interested if anyone could give an idea of the strength of the U17 teams we'd be playing. Doesn't really matter if we don't have a great team if all the other countries aside from Mexico have crap U17 teams.
I think your standards have just gone up. ‘17 had a lot of chemistry and fit very well together, but exactly 0 of those players were getting MLS minutes by the WCQs. This team has 2 who have already made their first team debuts, and more who may have significant minutes in MLS or USL by the time the tournament starts. What concerns me and why I could see us struggling is the team lacked a 10 in the Nike Friendlies, and the wings weren’t creative enough to create goals consistently. Pepi isn’t really a target forward type, so they need guys like Fuentes and Leyva to create offense and play well together. Last time I saw Fuentes, he wanted to dribble the ball into the goal every time he touched it. Now that I think about it, he was kind of Bofoesque. I’m hoping he’s improved and has a better feel for when to pass because his speed and movement could be a real asset. Leyva is an upgrade over Saldana, imo, so hopefully that makes a difference. I think some kids could emerge as good prospects after this tournament.
I don't think Leyva or Fuentes are good enough to make the qualifying team. Leyva probably won't, Fuentes likely will. Pepi should make the team, but he's not close to as good as Ocampo-Chavez, in my opinion. I don't know why Pepi would be in contention to start, unless we are using two strikers. He probably shouldn't, anyway, considering its very hard for 03's to belong with the best 02's. I think he's a back up caliber player in this age group. I think its asking too much for him to play a starters role.
Check out @JREskilson’s Tweet: Inspired by @USAprospects, here's my guess at the U17 MNT roster for the Concacaf Championship (also assuming that Busio, Reyna, and Bello aren't available) pic.twitter.com/jELR8EHzSL— J.R. Eskilson (@JREskilson) February 19, 2019
I know you like Ocampo-Chavez and you rate him higher than Pepi, but Pepi started 2/3 Nike Friendlies, trained with FC Dallas' first team in preseason, and figures to start for NTSC this season. I think you're going to be disappointed and Pepi is going to be given the chance to take the 9. If he falters or isn't ready, Ocampo-Chavez is also very good and may turn out to be a better player than Pepi. One thing we can definitely agree upon is Nyeman getting a chance as the 10. If he's eligible, I think he's easily the best option
Yow as a 10? That would be... bad. It’s also interesting that he has Perez as a starter over Dunbar. Maybe this is what he wants instead of what he thinks will happen. This is more what I’m expecting... personally, I wasn’t impressed with Armour but I know nothing about Tolkin and I thought they liked Armour. I think they are going to try to press and win close, ugly games. That’s why I think Gray and Stroud will both start. Neither provides much offense but both are aggressive defenders. I wouldn’t be surprised if they rate Saldana over Leyva for the same reason. I’d also rather see Nyeman as the 10. I’m not really sure what they’ll do there because if they liked Fuentes, he would’ve been rostered for the Nike Friendlies. I think someone could slide in there and surprise and I’m hoping it’s Nyeman.
Leyva and Pérez really have a level for this U17 team? I know it is a very weak group and there is not much depth, but I remember that until 2 or 3 months ago nobody had considered them for this team and about a month ago they all started talking about them. have they improved noticeably?
This is a similar lineup to what I predicted a few months ago: Ocampo-Chavez Busio-------------Reyna Fuentes----Nyeman Atencio Bello--Gray--Judge--Scally Las Bench: Pepi, Robles, Pynadath, Stroud, Hernandez-Foster, Freeman, Yow Notes: - I don't think Busio, Bello, and Reyna will be withheld. It is very rare for U17s to stay with their club in this situation, and I don't see any of them being so important to their team that they wouldn't be released. Reyna might be the most likely, but I would think that it would be a huge improbability if any more than one of them are not available. - AOC is significantly more polished than Pepi right now. That is not to say that he would always have the biggest impact on the game or that he is the better prospect. - The center back and 6 positions will be crucial to how this team performs, and those positions look like potential liabilities at this point. Gray is an interesting player. His ceiling is something like Tyler Adams given his athleticism, but I don't think he is nearly as tidy with the ball at this point. I'm not sure he'll be considered as a center back for this team, but that's where I'd prefer him. Maybe Hernandez-Foster is better there though? - I'm also not sure where Atencio fits in on the depth chart, but he's a player that I'd like to see at the 6 due to his ability as a ball circulator. If not Atencio, I think Stroud is the best player for that role right now. What might be lost in distribution could be gained in defensive prowess. - Nyeman is a bit of a mystery at this point. I really haven't even seen him play all that much, but that is true for a lot of the players in this age group for me. I think Robles or Freeman could play in that spot if his fitness is not there or if his form has not rebounded after his recovery from injury. Reyna or Busio could also play centrally if a player like Pynadath is good enough to start on the wing. - Fuentes has an important role on this team given his creativity and ability to play into the front three. There are not many players with those qualities in this pool. - Bello and Scally can be dominant at this level and be very dangerous providing width in the attacking half.
If you haven't been following Leyva with the Sounders this preseason you are missing out. Kid has been impressing everyone and was the last of the Defiance and Academy kids still active with the first team. He just got some minutes vs Nacional from Uruguay and showed well. He has been playing as one of the two DMs in a double pivot and looks to control the tempo.
https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/who-we-are/news/update-on-the-fifa-u-17-world-cup-2019 U17 World Cup will no longer be in Peru
Wow. There are probably only a couple countries that could put it together now. I doubt they’d do it here cuz of 2026 but you have to think we are the ultimate fall back option since we have the ability to host it on very short notice, if need be.
It would be very interesting if the World Cup was played here, but it is more likely that FIFA, assign a European country to host the cup.
I asked Tab about the ongoing coaching vacancies on the YNT staff. He said they don't affect his prep or logistics for U20WC in May/June. And that "we have continued the interview process for the Under-17 job and [are] hoping that someone will be named very shortly."— Charles Boehm (@cboehm) February 25, 2019
American Jamie Dunning, u17 #FeyenoordAcademy player off to u17 US Boys NT camp in Mexico in coming week(s) @TopDrawerSoccer @travismclark @JREskilson #jamiedunning pic.twitter.com/LnkNtvYOxO— Sevy Sucurovic: FEY Dir. of Business Affairs - USA (@sevy_IPM) February 28, 2019 Maybe it's just me who sees it a bit confusing, but apparently there will be a camp in Mexico in the coming weeks and Dunning will be in the call
The Canada U17s will be in Mexico starting Monday. Dunning is listed with their squad. https://canadasoccer.com/?t=project&sid=1285
Thank you for the correction. I think there must be 2 options, the first one and I think the most feasible one is that the person who issued the information was wrong with the country of the call (which is something strange since Joey Anthone and Travis Clark retweeted his tweet and in my opinion are very reliable sources) and the second option is that Dunning first received the call from our U17 and accepted it, but then rejected it with the call from Canada. The truth has left me with doubts about whether there is a camp or not, in addition to this, it is added that USSF is very slow at the time of giving information about the youth teams and the camp is three days from its start and I have not seen much more information about it.
I doubt there's a camp. There's no coach yet. I don't think everything Anthone retweets is something he verifies himself. He shouldn't be expected to, IMO. Clark might be a reliable source for news reports, but I don't think he has much info and I think his overall knowledge about the youth pool is low, considering he focuses mostly on college soccer.
Ok, I apologize if the information I gave is incorrect. I just saw that the Mexican U17 team is on a tour of Los Angeles from February 28 to March 10 (Letayf, Efra Alvarez and Santi Muñoz are in their call). Nor does the date coincide with the Canadian camp, really confusing.
I'm a little surprised Mexico hasn't bothered to call Sagir Arce to even one camp. Either that or he simply prefers (for now) the US who called him first. At least statistically, he's significantly outperforming Munoz. In U17 Liga MX, Arce has 15 goals in 1100 minutes. Munoz has 8 goals in 1300 minutes.
I do not know specifically if the Mexican federation had any contact with Sagir, but an explanation of why Mexicans do not call him with his U17 is perhaps what usually happens in many cases and is that the guy has a loyalty to the United States for the moment and prefers to play with us
What really happens is that Muñoz is a much better player than Sagir, you only see statistics, Mexico sees the way to play.
30' GOALLL!!! 💥Ricardo Pepi levels the game with a close-range volley from David Rodriguez's cross!!— North Texas SC (@northtexasSC) March 3, 2019 I know I’m going to be like @zlebmada was about Ledezma, but I think I’m going to be talking about this kid all season. It’s only USL League One, but I think he’s going to be scoring a ton of goals this season. And for a 15 year old, that’s pretty good.