As for a head coach, I assume Bruce gets to pick, or have serious input, on who the U23 head coach is. I would be mildly surprised if he took the gig itself as a swansong but while I wouldn't bet against it, I suspect it's a long shot. I could see Dave Sarachan, who has a lot of international experience as an assistant coach and has head coaching experience in MLS and is one of Bruce's buds, getting the job. I can also see Bruce giving it to one of his younger assistants, like Pat Noonan, whom he is every fond of, or to current lead scout Thomas Rongen. I can't see any current MLS coach leaving that job for the Olympics so I don't expect it to be anyone like Oscar Pareja or Jason Kreis. I could, however, see someone like Sigi Schmid going after, and getting the job. And, while I could be wrong, I don't see the USSF going the foreign outsider route here. Finally, I could see Tab Ramos getting the job and while he has a good case for it, I think it should be someone different from the U20 coach so that different eyes are evaluating the players and making the selections, just to broaden the pool.
I don't think it has been announced. For 2016 they did it in October 2015. For 2012 and 2008 then did it in March of the same year.
Bruce may not be the head coach by the time the U23 team kicks into action, assuming he leaves after the 2018 WC. Last cycle they did a "U21" camp in April 2014, which they decided to call U21 because no one age-eligible for the 2016 Olympics had turned 22 yet. Tab Ramos coached. Herzog wasn't named U23 coach until January 2015. I don't endorse this timeline, but if we followed it again we won't have a U23 manager until January 2019.
Qualifying is 20 players. Goalies: Vom Steeg, Marcinkowski Defenders: Fossey, Lindsey, Gloster, EPB, CCV, Glad, Farfan Midfielders: McKennie, Durkin, Adams, Zelalem, Pulisic, Carleton, Perez, Pomykal Forwards: Wright, Sargent, Ebobisse Vom Steeg Fossey-EPB-CCV-Gloster Pulisic-McKennie-Durkin-Carleton Wright-Sargent
Tata Martino will be picking. Ok, I'll bookmark this thread for a time when I have less hair atop my melon.
You (along with everyone else) wish. "I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members." -- Groucho Marx This is always the story of Olympic qualifiers. If EPB, Pulisic, McKennie, Wright, and Sargent are available for these CONCACAF games, you'll have jumped off a bridge because it would mean all of their careers derailed off current trajectories...bigly. Tab Ramos just experienced unprecedented problems in getting the players he wanted for the U20 World Cup, a summer tournament for 18, 19, and 20 year olds. Olympic qualifiers take place during the Euro season, so getting 22 year olds who hopefully will be first team players by then is simply not going to happen. We may be able to get some 99s and 00s who are good but who haven't broken into the first team yet, but it's hard to rely on younger and less experienced players to lead the way in the cycle. It is essential that we have a strong base of MLS talent because that is the core of what we will have to work with, short of someone pulling a Mix Diskerud and literally writing it into their contract that the club must release them -- which isn't going to happen.
I know, just posting what the four year generation looks like. Pretty talented. The previous generation was nowhere near as talented.
I also want to add that I believe that the last two U23 cycles have been hurt by poor management and administration. I thought Caleb Porter was an interesting hire. He was a young and hungry coach who showed the ability to put a solid brand of soccer on the field at Akron and who was looking for bigger stage. The reality is that YNT jobs aren't that sexy, so we can either hire mediocre retreads or use it as a platform for up-and-coming domestic managers who want to make a name for themselves. However, Porter was hired on 10/20/2011, a mere five months prior to the start of qualifiers. He also continued to coach Akron that fall, which divided his attention. The U23 is a weird gig so letting him stay with Akron was a reasonable concession IMO, but the hire needed to be made MUCH sooner. The next cycle, we had Andreas Herzog who was named manager on 1/23/2015. This time the manager had about eight months to prepare, which is still pretty bad. The MLS preseason was about to start and qualifiers had been moved to the fall, so he was never given a full winter to work with domestic U23 players. On top of that, Herzog seemed relatively incurious about the player pool and was slow to expand upon the (shitty 2013 U20 team-heavy) pool bequeathed to him by Tab Ramos. Hence all the ridiculous Alfred Koroma call ups and waste-of-time rosters like the one we used at Toulon. I recall a @bshredder article in which Herzog was asked a question about specific players and it didn't seem like Herzog was even familiar with Tim Parker, starting with Vancouver at the time. (Unemployed and broken-down Will Packwood made the qualifying team over him; finally Parker was given a shot in the doomed playoff against Colombia the following March.) It shouldn't be too much to ask for the USSF to put their U23 manager in a position to succeed and for the U23 manager to put the player pool in a position to succeed. But some things in life are needlessly difficult and this, for some reason, is one of them.
And this is why I don't bother making fantasy U23 rosters anymore. Seems like we're more likely to have What If Our Best Athletes Played Soccer? come true than ever see one of those teams take the field...
I would like to see us a) name a coach in the next few months and b) hold an U-23 camp cupcake, maybe in Florida, in January. We'd end up with a roster similar to what we will have in 2020 anyway (almost entirely domestic). Even if we could not get international opponents, we could still play a few domestic squads in preseason. Maybe they'll hire Hackworth to coach since the residency program is shutting down and the U17 World Cup will be over by then. (dodges tomatoes)
Sounds like your spreadsheet work is at a crossroads. Availability issues aside, this is kind of a boring time to make U23 fantasy rosters anyway. It's basically throwing together your preferred configuration of U20s (which we've all just talked about endlessly) with a few elite 99s and 00s peppered in (and we all know who those guys are thought to be at this moment in time). It'll be more intriguing in a year's time when the pecking order of the pool has churned a bit.
We're doing the same thing on every other thread, so why not this one? Who doesn't enjoy a nice game of "Mix the Same 30 or So Names Around a Bit" at the start of a YNT cycle...
The Olympics are more than 3 years from now so there is a lot that can happen between now and then. Pro seasoning will make a huge difference. As good as the CB depth is this, it could be even better once guys like Miles Robinson and Auston Trusty get more pro experience. And I wouldn't rule out a late-bloomer like Lamar Batista, an elite athlete who is getting 90 minutes weekly on the USL at age 19. I also expect some forwards to blossom - though I don't know exactly whom - and I won't rule out Jesus Ferreira, either.
Even when we announce a coach early................the U23 level is different than the u17/U20 levels. We'd hope that almost ALL of the players would be unavailable for callups outside of FIFA windows, etc. At no point in the last Olympic cycle did Herzog actually have both his best Euro and domestic U23s at the same time. So he really had to fill out rosters with some real fringe players. What needs to happen is simply for us to name a coach ASAP and get U23 camps/squads going during FIFA windows. And yes, that meand the kids like Pulisic (and hopefully others real soon) will be with the senior USMNT instead.
This is tangentially related to something that has been concerning me. It is well understood that Arena is here only until next summer (at the latest), and that he is only concerned with qualifying, with no focus or concern regarding the direction of our program post-Russia. My question is why is there seemingly no one in place now who is in charge of planning for the future? Let's say, for instance, that we wanted to name a U-23 coach in the next few months; who makes that call? Arena will have been gone a full two years when the Olympics roll around. Is it Tab, in his position as youth technical director? Gulati? Is another technical director the answer? As I understand it, we didn't have one before JK assumed the position, and even he didn't do a whole lot with it, but instead delegated a lot of duties to Tab. For all I know, there is someone behind the scenes who has all of this under control. But, publicly, it seems like there is a void when it comes to a post-2018 gameplan. Personally, I would like a new technical director named soon. However, I would not allow him any say regarding Arena or the full national team until after the World cup. For better or worse, Arena is here, so let him do his job without the new guy interfering. Instead, the new TD would be laying a foundation so we can hit the ground running with a fresh start with a new program once the World Cup is over.
I'm all for this. And believe we should do it every year. I.e. Until 2020, we go with a camp of 97+ and after 2020, we set that at +01 and so forth. A pretty good hypothetical camp in January 2018.... (assuming none go abroad or called up for senior January camp) GK: Marcinkowski, Klinsmann, Scott, Stajduhar, Garces DF: D. Acosta, Cannon, Farfan, Arellano, Borges, Herrera, Glad, Redding, Palmer-Brown, Robinson, Trusty, Lindsey, Gloster, Vasquez MF: Jones, Adams, Sands, Williamson, Swanson, Yueill, Lennon, Saucedo, Mansaray, Lewis, Craft, Kunga, Lindley, Durkin, Goslin, Ferri, G. Acosta, Ferreira FW: Carleton, Sargent, Gallardo, Lucatero, Vazquez, Ebobisse, Akinola *Cut from group first: Lucatero, Gallardo, Durkin, Goslin, G. Acosta, Swanson, Mansaray, Ferri, Gloster, Lindsey, Vasquez, Stajduhar Starting XI -------Sargent--Ebobisse--- Carleton-----------------Lennon --------Jones---Adams------- Farfan---------------------Glad --------EPB----Redding------ -----------Klinsmann---------- In the Rotation: Akinola/Vasquez Kunga/Lewis/Craft/Saucedo Sands/Williamson/Yueill Cannon/Herrera/Acosta/Borges Trusty/Robinson Marcinkowski/Scott
The current U-20 coach, Ramos, would be the logical person to be in charge of Olympic qualifying. I think the Olympics are a side show in Men's soccer; but it seems important to USSF. I think they will go all out for qualifying. I also suspect CONCACAF will change the format to what they used for the U-17 WC qualifying, which is less about knock-out games and what side of the bracket you are on and other luck factors. If we get into the Olympics, I could see ussoccr97531's dream team playing. If Neymar can play, anyone can play. Could also see Wood, Horvath, Acosta as overage additions. The 2020 team might look a lot like the 2022 WC team.
I was not aware of that, so thank you. It's a painful loss for me, as his name would have been a great one to work with. We'll soldier on without him, somehow ...
No paperwork necessary for Mansaray, as he's never played in official youth games for the US. If he gets into an African Cup of Nations qualifier, he'll be permanently cap-tied. Seems like a logical move for him.
I think mostly it's the quality of the older half of the cycle. The 2013 u20s weren't good and the 2015s couldn't save them. 2009 and 2011 we're both putrid so no surprise we didn't go.