I think that there is false sense of security in assuming that increased number of academies and players turning pro earlier will lead to more technical players. I don't doubt that will lead to some improvement but players develop touch and ball skills even before they get to something like a U15 academy team. Brazilians get their touch from playing futsal and street football as kids. Modric learned to play in the parking lot of an old hotel where he was living as a refugee. Incompatible example, I know, but we largely don't have a culture where kids play soccer 5-a-side in parking lots every day after school. And to the extent we do, it happens in the communities that get overlooked by scouts and left behind by pay to play, as Hugo Perez and Beasley has noted in their criticism.
He hasn't played for Colombia so a one time switch isn't needed and wouldn't have been possible with a naturalized player. Maybe there are some more mundane administrative steps left like getting a physical passport or some registration step with FIFA.
Yes but he didn't have citizenship before 18 and there's some sort of hoop that needs to be jumped through to allow new citizens permission to join a national team. Call it the middle east rich oil country rule. Can't have big or rich countries buy players, give them quick citizenship and then let them join the national team. There's a review to make sure nothing slimy is going on.
You get to take 3 over-age players. I would include Brooks. Not sure who would be the third, I can't think of a better over-aged player than the young ones.
I think he has been approved. Just waiting for the swear-in to make it official and able to get a passport and voting registration.
The overage players should be Steffen, Brooks, and Altidore. We always take overage GK's, Brooks is our best overage player and we need an experience CB, and Altidore is our best ST option and outside of Sargent the depth for that position is bleak at the mens or u23 level
Altidore is never healthy for a whole tournament, and this is only an 18-man roster. I would not take him. GK and CB make sense for the first two but not sure about the third. A need may also materialize in another position if we run into player release or injury issues at that time.
Amazing what playing Futsal can do to your technical ability. Sucks that I’ve played so long that I was lazy to build up the stamina for a full field game. Hell, I wouldn’t even last 10 minutes and I’m 21. I did know how to play under pressure with futsal though, that was always fun. My friend came down from New York who plays for the New York Cosmos, and we have our own 5v5 that we play every Monday night and he struggled to give simple passes through traffic because he never played indoor, and he plays day in and day out with them. That was always fun. If i wasn’t such a lazy piece of shit I probably would have made it to USL Pro at best. Who knows.
We haven't even qualified and the process is very random. But if we want to speculate, this is right. Altidore would not be a good choice. A player like Morris, who can play the wing or #9 would be a better fit. Weah kind of covers both spots too. It is interesting that there are no obvious candidates. If you can only get MLS players: Johnson/Guzan/Turner, Morris, Lima.
Take Morris. He’s been in some of the best form of his life and I think he will be a key player if the US are to get to the next WC.
Or Arriola as a guy that never gives up. Not sure about unpredictable Brooks over someone like Long or Miazga. On 2000 team that got to semis, we had Friedel, Agoos and Hejduk.
He doesn't automatically get to play for the US until he has resided here for 5 years after his 18th birthday. To get around this, he needs to tell FIFA that he arrived to the US for non-soccer related reasons. They review and then approve.
I'm guessing here but I think the following reasoning is being used. First, the main issue in qualifying will be beating less talented teams that concede possession and play on the counter. So, the idea is that this is the style that qualify us. Why play that style against Brazil who isn't less talented. Well, if you play the possession style against a very talented team who can press and counter and find at least some success then you will be that much braver and more confident against lesser teams.
If we can get all of our U23 players released from their clubs, we have a pretty exciting team for qualifying, and then hopefully the Olympics. Potentially, we could go into qualifying on March 20th with this lineup: --------------Sargent--------------- Weah-------Pulisic---------Lewis ----------Mckennie-Adams------- Dest--M.Robinson--CCV--Cannon --------------Freese-------------- It would be a very entertaining team to watch IMO, with a very athletic and attacking oriented squad. A few questions - 1) Does anyone have any insight as to which players likely won't get released by their clubs for this qualifying tournament? 2) What is popular opinion on who is the best U23 Goalkeeper? Based on recent results, its looks like its a competition between Freese, Marcinkowski, and possibly Klinsmann for the starting spot, but honestly I don't know much about any of them. 3) Will Gregg not want players like Pulisic, Mckennie, and Adams to be a part of the Olympic team? As a fan I would love to see this team rolled out, but with the powers that be involved, I doubt we'll see anything close.
I’d be perfectly fine if to barter to get the big guns released by their clubs for the Olympics is we don’t call them into the stupid Nations League matches in June.
I'm sure others know better than me, but I'd guess there's basically 0% chance we see guys involved with the 1st teams of Euro clubs for qualifying. I bet there's a pretty good chance that guys playing with the reserves (Ledezma, Richards, Mendez, etc.) will be available. For the actual tournament, if we qualify, I could see the USSF being fine with including U-23 guys already graduated to the senior team. The senior team will only have 2 Nations League game in June and then nothing until WCQ in September, so it's not like the Olympics will conflict with anything else or the guys will be burned out from lots of other national team games. I'd imagine it will come down to individual players wanting to do it and their clubs allowing them to do it.
I would love to see our best at the Olympics. It’s been so long that I’ve seen the US be competitive that I just want a chance to “believe” again.
Part of the challenge is indeed that clubs are never under obligation to release players for youth events. So the more of our elite youth talent we have in Europe, the harder releases get for events like the CONCACAF U23 Championships. I suspect that the USSF staff has already been interacting with clubs regarding releases for the U23 championships in March. I would say the players that were just made available for the U23 tournament in Spain are likely also to be available for Olympic qualifying. Mendez, Ledezma, Richards, etc. The only two that I think are question marks are CCV and Robinson. They play on teams that could be fighting relegation from the Championship at the time. They may not get released. It could be an "all hands on deck" situation. Most feel like getting first team talent like Sargent, Dest, Weah, Pulisic, McKennie, and Adams for the U23s is going to be difficult. Not impossible. There's a chance. But difficult. Why? I would point out that there are very few opportunities for the full senior USMNT to get together prior to WCQing really hitting the fan. So the notion that Berhalter would send any of these elite guys to the u23s during international windows is a little far-fetched to me. Yes, the Olympics are important. That WCQing match against Honduras in June is the most important game for any team that's on the horizon. All eyes focused on that. By the way, that's true for our MLS U23s as well. Reggie Cannon is an example here. If he's a USMNTer, he needs to be preparing with the USMNT for that Honduras game. Not playing youth matches. Jackson Yueill sure seems like he's a USMNTer now (jumped over at least Trapp in the depth chart).
I think the cutoff should be whether the player is in our top 18 - starting XI and key subs likely to play in the game. By that notion, Cannon should go to U23s because we have Dest and Yedlin. It's more meaningful for him to integrate in thr Olympic team than sit on the bench against Honduras. With Yuell, I think it depends on January camp. He would be behind a healthy Adams for the full team. Hopefully he beats out Bradley head to head in January. I appreciate his experience and all that but he isn't mobile enough for the international level and Yuell showed he had fight and ground coverage in him against Canada. Pulisic, Adams, Dest, and McKinnie are lock starters if healthy. The U23s have to figure it out without them.
Thanks for the post. Good info. One correction though, the match vs Honduras in June isn't really a WCQ match - its the Concacaf nations league semifinals. Even if we lose it we'll still make the Hex/WCQ which begins in August 2020 I believe. On a side note, I just checked Chelsea's schedule, and they play Man City on 3/21, and Schalke and RB leipzig both have games on 3/21 as well. So it looks like we'll be playing the qualifying tournament from March 20th to April 1st with a "B" U23 team. With that said, the Olympic tournament is July 23rd through August 8th. It doesn't look like there's a senior team meaningful tournament in that range, so I really hope we send our best players to the Olympics if we make it. If we include 3 overage players, we can pretty much get together our true senior A team for this tournament. I think this would be more valuable than anything else the team could be doing at the time.
Ah yes, yes. You are correct. That match in June is the National League. There was always a likelihood that we'd play the U23 qualifying tournament with a B team. Hence the importance of the camps that Kreis has conducted so far to "expand the pool." Once you take out the elite players from our U23 pool, the gap from us to the non-Mexico CONCACAF nations is marginal at best. And of course problem B is that the domestic players aren't mid-season. They'll be in pre-season form. I'd also argue that some of the domestic players that we're currently counting on, may not be domestic players after the January window . I'm thinking about Cannon in particular......................
If we could get all our young stars easily, the same would apply to everybody else, and there are U23s even more crippled than ours, specially for the top nations, that have the bulk of their A team already playing regularly in clubs outside their own league. No one has been more affected by the "no forced release for youth competitions" than the South American NTs.