In the U-20's? The best were Kasey Keller in goal. Miazga and CCV in defense. Adu and Szetela in midfield. Snow, Eddie Johnson and Altidore as forwards.
Adu and Jozy are easy choices, and they never even played with the rest of the 89's in the '09 U20 WC.
I think we can JOB on there as well. ----------Snow---------Jozy JOB------Adu------Szetela------??? ???------Miazga----CCV-------??? ---------------Keller------------ Bench: Eddie Johnson Maybe Twellman and Gaven as well?
How much did John O'Brien actually play for our U20s.......................???? It tough to think about who actually excelled for the U20s, as our memories are now clouded by what came after. Also, certain players got the stage of the world cup and others didn't. For instance, our leading U20 goalscorer of all time is Freddy Adu. The second leading U20 goalscorer of all time is...............................Romain Gall! You know I really thought was quite good at the U20 level? Kelyn Rowe. In the ill-fated 2011 CONCACAF U20 championships Kelyn Rowe scored three goals with one assist while being our "#10."
Interesting players from groups that didn't make the finals include Mathis and Kirovski from the '95 (75/76) group. Friedel, Joe-Max, McBride, Sanneh and Hahnemann of the 71/72 group didn't make a Finals though I'm not sure how the age limits broke down at that time. Of course the '11 team didn't qualify but the jury's largely out on them. Boss, Garza, Gyau, Kitchen and Wood have all been capped from the 91/92s, along with Agudelo, Boyd, Gatt and '93 Brooks, who were part of that pool but not at qualifying.
Oh sorry, I think the title was misleading. I just meant the best US teenagers. Not necessarily playing for the USYNT. Rowe was great with the 2011 U20s. Almost single handedly won the game for them against Guatemala. Should have been given a PK on a bad tackle too. Think he hit the post at one point in the game as well. Really, I though Gyau and Wood did great that tourney too. But yeah, tough group to rate. Don't know if I'd through them in the best teenager group ever for us but they did well. U17s weren't bad either...
2003 - Bobby Convey* 2005 - Feilhaber, Wynne**, Gaven 2015 - Hyndman * first name that popped into my head ** I don't condone, but going to include Szetela, why not.