So much can change in a year and change, but here are my concerns: Striker - Ebobisse hasn't looked great when I've seen him for the Timbers. Vazquez isn't a bad choice, but still seems like a weakness compared to the other positions. Center Back - After watching the NYRBII game last weekend, I am kind of down on Tommy Redding. He seems really slow to read plays as they develop and was overrun by AUFC2. I'd honestly rather see McKenzie from the Union at this point. But Trusty and Glad would be the starters there anyway I suppose. I don't have as much of a problem with our holding mids. I like Goslin (I am biased) and I think Sands is really good. Jones is pretty inconsistent, but has shown well at times. Overall, I think it's a roster that is better than I thought it'd be, but still not great per say.
I think Adams, Carleton, Durkin and Glad are in their last MLS seasons. GK: Marcinkowski, Vom Steeg DF: Cannon, Lindsey, Redding, Trusty, Rogers, Acosta, McKenzie MF: Sands, Goslin, Mihailovic, Lindley, Pomykal, Bwana, Lewis, Ferreira, Mines FW: Ebobisse, Vazquez Standby: Garces, Duncan, Robinson, McKenzie, Farfan, Jones, Yueill, Saucedo, Lennon, etc. Vom Steeg Cannon-Redding-Trusty-Acosta Sands-Mihailovic Pomykal Bwana-Ebobisse-Lewis This isn't great.
Here's the roster from last cycle, which is both informative and incredibly disturbing: https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...u23mnt-mens-olympic-qualifying-roster-release Two things. First off, the depth is improving a lot. We could have more than a few players that aren't called up even for a domestic-only camp with thousands of pro minutes. However, I don't see much improvement in top end talent domestically, and I don't think that's going to change, highlighted by your first sentence. It's about to become really hard to get onto the full national team unless you're already in Europe by ~22, and with agents here realizing that, our best prospects are going to start jumping ship earlier and earlier, especially as they get signed to contracts at such young ages that they're already running out before they hit 20.
Just how bad it is, and has turned out, especially for the older members of the squad. There are like 2.5 guys from '93 and '94 that are anywhere near the national team at this point. I hope that the program never stoops that low again. This was peak "dark ages" of the Development Academy, and realistically the program will only ever get better from that point. That's easily seen from just how good '97 through '00 are. Like, I'm fairly convinced that a group of '97-'00 All-Stars versus '93-'96 right now would be a fairly even battle, and that's 17-21 year olds vs 21-25 year olds. The younger guys might even be favored because of how unlikely it is that the older front 6 manages to score. There might not be a single other country that has that right now. '93-'96: ----------------------Morris Saief------------------------------------Arriola ---------Acosta----------------Hyndman ----------------------Trapp Yedlin----Brooks-------Miazga-----Moore ---------------------Steffen '97-'00: -----------------------Sargent Weah---------------------------------------Pulisic -----------Carleton------------Parks ----------------------McKennie Robinson----EPB-----------CCV------Adams ----------------------Klinsmann In terms of long term prospects, how many guys on the older team deserve national team starts over their younger counterpart right now? I say 6 (Saief over Weah, for now, who isn't really a winger, Yedlin over Robinson, Steffen over Klinsmann, Acosta over Carleton, and the two CBs, at least for now), and 2 of those switches are guys developed in other countries. I mean, how is the best winger produced in this country over a 4 year span Paul Arriola? Literally *every* year should produce a winger better than him, and as of '98 and on, it seems like that's now gonna be the case.
I think you bring up a decent point that the top end domestic talent isn't improving, but I would argue that the top end domestic talent is now in Europe or in this case, will be in Europe. So that top end talent was there, but they were too good for this roster. And I think we will see that we have more players unavailable for this roster (due to being too good) than prior rosters.
But still we had 4 players from that team starting versus Paraguay an Morris would be on the roster if healthy as well. That we had a hole in 1992-1996 is well known but in some positions we were actually OK. Herzog being an idiot didn't help much either. But as of now we are happy that Hugo's boys are coming to age, but Hugo isn't there anymore, so who knows what happens next.
There's no chance that 93-96 side scores a goal in open play. Maybe Miazga or Brooks on a set piece. They also don't have a left back. I think the younger group, so long as EPB and CCV can hold it together, would win.
I've been away from the internet for a bit. What's the deal with Palmer Brown? seems like he hasn't even played for that crappy Belgian team he got loaned to?
He started one game, and did pretty well, but it was because one of their regular CB's was suspended, so he was back to the bench the next game. They brought him in mostly because they needed a back up CB. I think one of their regular CB's in the rotation from earlier in the season is injured, so he's just cover for the squad. It seems like he's had to deal with that type of thing a lot throughout his career. Hasn't gotten many chances to earn a starting role.
Next fall he really needs to go to a place where he gets playing time. He no longer needs to learn from the bench. I've been very impressed with him every time I see him but maybe there's something going on in practices which several coaches don't like. If not just play him and he will improve rapidly as all the tools are there.
When EPB signed with Man City he knew he was going to be loaned out. When you're loaned out like this you're at the mercy of clubs/coaches who aren't invested in your long-term development. Same thing will happen next year and the year after and the year after until his contract runs out or he's good enough for Man City. Man City, however, can just go out and buy virtually any world-class CB that they want.
Carter-Vickers has now gotten two loans in a row where he went straight into the team. EPB's situation seems similar to Miazga who had to wait a few months to earn a starting spot.
That may be due to CCV going from one English league to another while the other two made jumps from very different leagues.
@bshredder 's team http://americansoccernow.com/articl...u-23-team-look-like-in-2020-a-medal-contender
Brian Sciaretta on the full national team roster for the Bolivia game. 4) there really should be a lot of U-23 chemistry whenever that team starts. EPB, Pulisic, McKennie, Sargent, CCV, Parks, Robinson, Weah, & Olosunde, are U-23 eligible & on this roster. Add in Adams and there is your core. That team will have a lot of experience together by 2020— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) May 20, 2018 It’s the core but there are still others beyond Adams not on this roster. I think Cannon is the starting U23 RB. Amon is a key winger. Taitague & Carleton are two I think can emerge. Glad & Trusty are CBs - probably in back of EPB & CCV. Still a lot of competition https://t.co/4Ipsdon5Td— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) May 20, 2018
Yup. Meanwhile, Mexico and Canada are at Toulon with a U21 team and the US hasn't even named a coach or had a camp for its 96-97s since the U20 WC.
Sarachan may want the job, and it certainly doesn't help us to have the program lie dormant for long periods of time, but it also doesn't seem to make much sense to give someone the job without having a MNT coach in place. Would you then tell the person who gets the job that they effectively have to keep Sarachan on board? That job seems to make the most sense when it's also an MNT assistant. The new guy may prefer someone else. If U.S. Soccer wants a caretaker U23 coach right now, it could do that in any number of ways without naming the Olympic coach. Heck, Sarachan could do it as an interim for a few extra bucks. Or Ramos, for that matter. Generally, I continue to find it hard to believe that few YNT jobs are all that desirable, for us or any country, with the possible exceptions of the U20 and U17 jobs that have regular FIFA tournaments attached. Most coaches, I could guess, would prefer pro club jobs. With that said, upgrading the U23s, even if it's largely for amateurs and prospects, does seem worthy.
Its a job and it's a paycheck that's not too labor intensive to help rehabilitate his reputation after Bruce dragged it though the gutter. Beyond that it's also likely he sees this as an opportunity. Coaching in the Olympics is a big deal here in the US. He's got to realize this is a good group of players with a legit chance to make the tournament. Then if they medal he can parlay that into a full time coaching gig in MLS or USL without much issue and probably a better salary. I'm not a huge fan of his but putting him in place as the U-23 coach this summer so camps can start makes more sense than waiting to see who the USMNT coach is because I highly doubt whomever that is will have a say in the hiring of that position.
Well, this is all about him. I maintain, generally, that there are lots of jobs most people would prefer to YNT jobs, but of course this might be a good opportunity. It might even be something he really wants to do! I have no idea what, if any, other options he has or will have. He also turns 64 this summer and I also have no idea what his professional and personal aspirations are. I would assume he does not need this job to get a USL gig, but I'm not the one writing the checks. I guess this is what we don't know. Klinsmann ended up giving the job to one of his people; if I was the kind of person U.S. Soccer presumably hopes to attract, I would probably care, and could probably get my way. That's just a guess, of course!
I'm not a huge fan of Sarachan running the Olympic team, but we could do worse. You know there is a guy with U23 coaching experience that did go on to win an MLS Cup.......................and he's currently unemployed. I know people probably wouldn't want Caleb Porter based on his previous failure with the U23s. Still, we could do worse. I'm not convinced we gave Porter the best chance to succeed for the 2012 cycle. Who's Dave Sarachan's top assistant with the USMNT right now? It's Richie Williams. Dear God. Porter is probably waiting to pounce once the inevitable coaching changes occur in MLS. If we want to start the U23 cycle we could name him as coach with a handshake agreement that he can leave if an MLS job opens up. We need to start. This U23 team looks tasty on paper. I worry about forward and that's about it. Keeper isn't the deepest position amongst this group either........................
There's nothing wrong, generally speaking, with hiring Porter or whoever. But there's no reason they couldn't just call in a camp or two this summer using coaches already working for U.S. Soccer. Call in a CONCACAF opponent or just play lower-division teams. Shoot some video, take some notes and give whoever the next MNT coach is a leg up on the vast still-amateur portion of his pool. There might even be some nice publicity benefits if you spread the callups more or less evenly across the USL/PDL/NPSL and maybe even some high-amateur teams. U.S. Soccer liked my youth summit idea. Maybe they'll steal this one, too.