And honestly, we don't even need the overage guys on the backline. Reggie Cannon will be in his 3rd season starting, at right back. And there is always the opportunity to allow CCV/McKenzie/Richards to man the center of defense, in 2020. Those would not be places where I would choose to take overage players, if I were to take them.
Except that England doesn't compete in the Olympics... I agree with most of the rest of this. And I agree that Reggie Cannon can be the answer at RB. Aside from goal, I think the 23s could go into the Games without any overage players. (And goal could change if anyone actually gets first team minutes consistently.) The trick, of course, will be two-fold: qualifying without most of these guys available and getting most of them to play for the 23s instead of the senior team in the summer of 2020.
Yup. The schedule for the summer of 2020 will be interesting. There was one Olympics which overlapped with WCQer preparations. That must have 2008. I remember us talking about what the effects would have been should we have advanced out of the group stage. In the end...……..no effects. That, by the way, was one of my biggest disappointments for a USYNT. Something to keep in mind with overage guys is that clubs that reject call-ups for them...……………………
If people want to put the cart before the horse and think about the Olympic squad itself...…………..there's one big aspect to keep in mind. The Olympics are basically NOW. In 2014 the soccer tournament was August 4th thru August 20th. Anybody else notice that right now in August Euro seasons have either started or are about to start? Is it a good thing for young players to not be at their clubs right now? Particularly if a youngster is trying to impress a coaching staff? There will be significant reluctance from Euro clubs to release some of those big name players like Pulisic, McKennie. We can force the callups, but typically this is something that's negotiated. Also, there's zero percent chance you're getting an overage player on a big Euro club. It would be quite a bad sign if a club like Newcastle released Yedlin at the start of their season (if he's still there). Miazga? Forget it. Hence the reason we took Brian McBride in 2008. He was basically available as he'd just left Fulham. I remember this being a problem for one player in particular. Michael Bradley moved from Heerenveen to Gladbach in the summer of 2008. He missed advanced pre-season with the German club while playing at the Olympics, and it took him a while to get fully trusted by the coaching staff. Good for the US, but it was bad for him. So just because a player is a U23 and can be called up, doesn't mean he should be.
The 2020 Olympics are slated to run July 24 to Aug. 9 and the soccer competition usually starts a day or two prior to the official start of the games. Figure the teams that qualify will want at least two weeks together and you're basically looking at the Olympians being gone from their clubs (and unavailable to the senior team) all of July.
The sad thing is that even thinking about the qualifying roster is putting the cart before the horse, even though it really shouldn't be at this point. The USSF has managerial vacancies at the U23, U19, U18, and U17 positions. The Youth Technical Director is saying that his hands are tied and there's a hiring freeze because...reasons. The USSF organizational chart shows that Youth National Teams are under the joint purview of Chief Sport Development Officer Nico Romeijn and Chief Soccer Officer Ryan Mooney, who keep a low profile and rarely seem to talk to the media. It's unclear if the hiring freeze emanates from one or both of them. "The buck stops with....I'm not sure" should be the USSF motto. Who does Tab Ramos report to? What does a Youth Technical Director do, exactly, if there is some sort of nebulous and unclear structure above him who are the people with, apparently, the real power?
That is so maddening to not even know what the chain of command actually is - despite a flow chart - and who actually has the authori-taiy to make the USYNT hires. Also, who the fu(k are Nico Romeijn and Ryan Mooney and how are they qualified to have such influential jobs at US Soccer?
For what it's worth, Mexico has been holding camps under the name "U21" with mostly '97s and '98s since August 2017, separate from their 2019 U20 cycle. Mexican-Americans Alex Zendejas and Ivan Gutierrez were part of the initial camp but haven't been called up since then, while Abraham Romero has been a consistent callup and starter. Also, Jonathan Gonzalez was one of four '99s-later involved with these U21s in the Toulon Tournament. 📄 | NOTA | #Sub21 | Así nuestra primera concentración en el CAR. ⚽️Conoce a nuestros convocados: https://t.co/x2LwxNUKBB#PasiónyOrgullo pic.twitter.com/t0dkZ2m8Q0— Selección Nacional (@miseleccionmx) August 28, 2017 And Canada has been holding U23 camps for '97s-later since January 2018: https://www.canadasoccer.com/canada...u-23-camp-squad-p161329-preview-1&language=en and more prominently for the Toulon Tournament, including former US U20 Noah Verhoeven: https://www.canadasoccer.com/canada...or-international-tournament-p161576-preview-1 Obviously, their U23 squads have more '99s/'00s than Mexico's because of the talent concentration in those years for Canada. If we were to ask the USSF right now about this problem of why are they not holding U23 camps while Mexico and even Canada are, they'd probably say the last few MNT senior camps have included many U23 players, and the U20 cycle is going on too. But the likelihood of most/any of Pulisic, Parks, McKennie, Adams, etc. getting released for Olympic qualifying isn't good. It would be nice to start having camps with '97s/'98s not involved with the U20s like Marcinkowski, Trusty, Williamson, Vazquez for them to begin to gel, and throw in some foreign-based players too like Sabbi, Jonathan Suarez, Kyle Scott. We're likely going to have to use plenty of those guys for qualifying.
The article with org chart has the "job descriptions" below. I have no idea what makes one qualified to be the CSO. Ryan has been with the fed for 10 yrs... sounds like the right man for the job. I think Nico was the second Dutch guy hired... trying to remember who the other one was. The most notable changes include soccer operations now being overseen by both a technical leader and an administrative leader. Nico Romeijn moves from the head of coaching education to the Chief Sport Development Officer, overseeing all technical areas. Ryan Mooney will serve as Chief Soccer Officer and will coordinate our administrative needs on the technical side. https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2015/06/26/18/48/150626-coaching-dept-adds-romeijn CHICAGO (June 25, 2015) – Nico Romeijn has joined the U.S. Soccer Coaching Department as the Director of Coaching Education. This newly crested postition will have him focused on developing a Pro license while working with Director of Coaching Development, Dave Chesler, to create new educational opportunities and to make modifications to the current licenses offered. A native from the Netherlands, Romeijn previously worked as the Head of Education for the KNVB, the Dutch Soccer Association, where he was responsible for the content and the learning philosophy of the UEFA coaching development courses, as well as leading the charge when it came to the instructors of the UEFA Diploma Course at the KNVB Academy
We may have to accept the possibility that this really isn't a priority for U.S. Soccer, for whatever reason or reasons. There are lots of what seem like reasonable steps that could be taken to strengthen the U23 program and which might have some downstream benefit to the MNT setup. Nothing substantial, as far as is easily visible, has been done for some time.
The problem is..................who are you referring to as "they." There is no USMNT coach, no U23 coach, and our technical director only just started. I'm fairly confident that Earnie Stewart cares, its just that he's starting from scratch. What were we expecting him to do in two weeks? I will not be surprised if a U23 camp is announced soon with Tab Ramos as the coach on an interim basis. Gotta be. Surely.......................... One thing that is true is that the USMNT itself is a U23 team right now. Something like 14 players eligible for the U23s have been called up in 2017 (with more on the way). CCV Olosunde EPB Robinson Adams McKennie Weah Sargent Acosta Glad Parks de la Torre Pulisic Lennon So at least we can say that all of these U23s are currently in the USMNT pipeline, working together, etc. etc. In previous cycles we were sitting around lamenting the lack of talent and prospects in our U23 group. Particularly the last cycle. That's not the problem here. There's as much sheer talent at the U23 level as we've ever had. And that's even without Jonathan Gonzalez.......................who we may not miss at all with Adams, McKennie, and Parks in the CM crew here.
Really good point here. Not to mention brand new president that was very busy getting a world cup. That world cup really does change priorities tremendously. From this point on the number one priority will be having a great team for 2026. You would think that having a great u23 would be part of that vision but we shouldn't kid ourselves on the priority.
Still............................no US U23 coach. Still.................No U23 camps. We are now one year out from the qualifying event (which is early October 2019) in Costa Rica. We've done nothing. Haven't we learned our lesson here? I guess not.
Hopefully we pick a pool of players that have skill instead of just athletes.... I want more Jackson Yueills, Jonathan Gonzalez, and less Lagos Kungas
With the Talent we have at the U23 level we should be expecting to Medal in Japan. Anything less would be a failure. Even in the coaching situation we are in currently.
Only counting domestic players. Not counting Adams since he's leaving in January, but will count Richards because he's returning, as far as we know. GK: Vom Steeg, Marcinkowski DF: Cannon, Acosta, Lindsey, Glad, Trusty, McKenzie, Richards MF: Durkin, Sands, Mihailovic, Yueill, Carleton, Pomykal, Lennon, Pomykal, Lewis FW: Ebobisse, Ferreira Alternates: Garces, Herrera, Robinson, Farfan, Jones, Kuzain, Saucedo, Bwana, Da Silva, Vazquez, Akinola Vom Steeg Cannon-Glad-Trusty-Acosta Durkin Carleton-Pomykal Lennon-Ebobisse-Lewis
I don't know how you can overlook Herrera at this point. He's playing over Acosta. He's playing more than Acosta. And he is more versatile than Acosta. At this point, Herrera has a better shot at Camp Cupcake at January than many of the players listed above. And his ability to play either FB spot well will always make him someone coaches like if he shows well at January camp. We may think Acosta is more talented and we may want to see Acosta playing because we think he's a better player. But right now, Herrera is ahead of him. I still think Acosta can be a national team-level player if he gets in a good club situation, something that will likely require a trade. But right now, Herrera is ahead of him.
I'd agree with that. Lets see how he does at his normal position first. So far, he does not look like a good footballer IMO, and I think its made worse by him playing out of position. This is a youth team. It should not matter who gets minutes where. Call in what you believe is the best cross-section of current ability and potential. Besides, I think we'll see some changes between now and qualifying.
Lots of U23s working together at the upcoming USMNT camp/friendlies. U23 eligible kids bolded. Hopefully we'll see for the first time ever................Pulisic, McKennie, and Adams on the field at the same time for the USMNT. If the USMNT is basically a U23 team, then actually having a U23 becomes less important As I'm mentioned elsewhere, I would have the upcoming USMNT January camp as a U23 camp (with a couple of 24/25 year olds like Zack Steffen). GOALKEEPERS (3): Brad Guzan (Atlanta United FC; 58/0), Ethan Horvath (Club Brugge/BEL; 2/0), Zack Steffen (Columbus Crew SC; 6/0) DEFENDERS (8): John Brooks (Wolfsburg/GER; 34/3), Reggie Cannon (FC Dallas; 0/0), Cameron Carter-Vickers (Swansea City/WAL; 5/0), Aaron Long (New York Red Bulls; 0/0), Matt Miazga (Nantes/FRA; 9/1), Antonee Robinson (Wigan Athletic/ENG; 4/0), Ben Sweat (New York City FC; 0/0), DeAndre Yedlin (Newcastle United/ENG; 54/0) MIDFIELDERS (10): Kellyn Acosta (Colorado Rapids; 19/1), Tyler Adams (New York Red Bulls; 7/1), Jonathan Amon (Nordsjælland/DEN; 0/0), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC/CAN; 140/17), Julian Green (Greuther Fürth/GER; 12/4), Weston McKennie (Schalke/GER; 6/1), Christian Pulisic (Borussia Dortmund/GER; 21/9), Kenny Saief (Anderlecht/BEL; 2/0), Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew SC; 8/0), Tim Weah (Paris Saint-Germain; 5/1) FORWARDS (3): Andrija Novakovich (Fortuna Sittard/NED; 2/0), Josh Sargent (Werder Bremen/GER; 3/1), Bobby Wood (Hannover 96/GER; 41/12)