At this moment and time (today) he is not good enough. He just turned 16 and is still about 5-6 and 125 pounds. As I said U20's do not train fulltime and a single 10 day tournament will not be the asset you think it is. Let him grow physically and emotionally then let Dortmund decide when he's good enough to advance to their U21 team that trains everyday.
Dortmund don't have a U21 team. They have a U23, U19, U17,... team. All of these teams train everyday, once or twice.
No matter what the names of the teams, they will do a good job of determining where Flores will benefit playing based upon his overall development and not his age.
Flores seems quite committed to the US program. I'm not worried about that in the least............... We've had a glaring exception, but 99.9% of Bradenton kids remain USMNT/USYNT players (if they're good enough)
http://www.spax-cup.com/videostream/videostream.php Is playing for Dortmund's U19 right now vs Botafogo in a tournament. Livestream available, see link above. He's the No.18.
good for him!! hope he stays over there and trains and plays tournaments, scrimmages. Best thing for the kid. Bradenton was a waste of time for him. As i keep saying once Dortmund picked him up no reason to have stayed in Bradenton. He could have gone home played u18 DA and take trips every 3 months for dortmund trainings. Much better coaching and developmental environment.
He can't go to Dortmund full time until he turns 18...................which is next March I believe. So he's in a bit of a "no man's land" right now. If he was working with an MLS team, then he could train with them for a while. But he's not. So he'll have to train somewhere while taking those ocassional trips to Dortmund.
Mmmmm perhaps Dortmund could pay D.C. United to train Flores while he waits to join them on a permanent basis kinda like Gyau and Renken did at Vancouver for H'heim
'96 MF Junior Flores has gone 90 minutes in Dortmund's last two U-19 games against Köln and Beskitas. pic.twitter.com/u2yn83SAKC It should also be mentioned that Emerson Hyndman and the Fulham U18s won the U18 Premier League title today. http://vine.co/v/b97WhzrxYlq These are two of the US youth internationals definitely worth keeping track of. Emerson didn't play for the US during U17WC qualifying....................................
The scenario with Gyau et al was unique situation with the head coach at the time. At that time Whitecaps were developing young players and "selling" them to european leagues. Once WC's decided to enter MLS they weren't allowed to do that anymore so the coach left. All Flores had to do was play for nonMls DA who would have gladly accepted him to win games and for advertisement while he did training stints in germany. you can go to germany for 90 days at a time and to reset the clock all you have to do is go to back home or maybe even another european country and comeback and reset the clock.
I vividly rememeber the post nike friendly posts and everyone was boasting and saying how much better we were than brasil blah blah blah. I was happy too but as I said at that time this is our zenith because between then and WC these players from overseas will advance at a pace that will outstrip our kids because at 15-16 they entering pro environment and fighting for contracts and that makes a tremendous difference. And once again (countless) we flounder and brasil is going to u17WC and will definitely make knock out round. Kenedy who is brasil u17 forward 96 is now playing u20 for Flu. In brasil where age groups are more strictly observed it signifies one is a superstar if you get moved up. Yet we continuing with residency for another 2 years, I guess its true stupidity is doing the same thing expecting a different result. smh
Happy 18th birthday......................................Junior Flores!!! He can now officially sign the paperwork and get started at Dortmund.
Why? To be able to play with his fellow Americans, Flores is better off learning German tactics. We're never going to play like the Spanish. It's not like Mario Goetze is lacking technically.
Junior Flores Speaks on Time at Dortmund, Klinsmann http://twelfthyank.blogspot.com/201...howComment=1396275014289#c1203938155312533645 Junior’s commitment to the United States continues to be strong. He likes Klinsmann and sees encouraging signs ahead for the national team and soccer here in the USA. “I like what he’s done with the national team and he’s moving in a good direction. He’s doing a really good job. We’ll see how the World Cup goes, especially in this group.” As a dual national, Junior is also eligible to represent El Salvador but says he is more than happy to represent the USA. Similar to a player who’s been in the spotlight of late in the national team pool, from a dual-national’s standpoint Flores thinks it’s good that Julian Green opted to represent the United States.
Any news lately regarding Flores at Dortmund? He and Joshua Perez at Fiorentina are 2 American youth players REALLY worth investing in, keeping an eye on, and getting excited over!
I haven't seen Flores in years and the handful of times I've seen Perez with the USMNYT, I'll be perfectly honest I thought there were 5-6 players just as good or better. Just not a lot of quickness in thought and feet.
Follow this for all the Flores updates.. http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/junior-flores-signs-with-borussia-dortmund.1976030/page-12
I couldn't find the Yanks Abroad thread, but I heard that he's resigned with Dortmund. Seems like a poor decision to make at 21, but perhaps he's received signals this may be his year?
According to this article, he re-signed with Dortmund. Article also says he wants to play for El Salvador. Then again, it is an article from literally ElSalvador.com. There's this one other article saying Norwich City might be interested in him because Farke used to be coach of the Dortmund reserve team. Sounds really flimsy, tbh.
He should play for El Salvador. He's nowhere close to the USMNT right now. Re-signing with Dortmund doesn't make the slightest lick of sense, but that's what we've heard.