Recruiting Rankings-Yanks on Foreign YNT's (1997 and Later)

Discussion in 'Youth National Teams' started by ussoccer97531, Aug 18, 2019.

  1. ussoccer97531

    ussoccer97531 Member+

    Oct 12, 2012
    Club:
    --other--
    Which players on foreign YNT's should USSF be trying to recruit the hardest? Give your list in order. It could be a short list (as little as 3-5) or a longer list (15-20).

    Players you could name include Alvarez ('02), Balogun ('01), Okoh ('03), Malone ('00), Milijevic ('01), Alstrup ('04), Perea ('00), Munoz ('02), Goggel ('02), Tillman ('02), Flach ('01), Skyum ('04), Gonzalez ('03)

    That's not a complete list either, so list the players that you want to list. For players like Carrera ('02), Gomez ('03), Perez ('03), who have recent caps for multiple YNT's, you can use your own criteria to say if they should be listed or not.
     
    USSoccerNova repped this.
  2. butters59

    butters59 Member+

    Feb 22, 2013
    1.Balogun
    ---
    ---
    ---
    5. Milijevic
    That's it.
     
  3. ChuckMe92

    ChuckMe92 Member+

    Jun 23, 2016
    Columbus, OH
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #3 ChuckMe92, Aug 18, 2019
    Last edited: Aug 19, 2019
    This might be my Top 10.
    1. Balogun
    2. Pierie
    3. Alvarez
    4. M. Tillman
    5. Miljevic
    6. Malone
    7. Musah
    8. Okoh
    9. Sabanadzovic
    10. Perea

    Among those who are recently no longer eligible for their foreign YNTs, then Siebatcheu and Philippe Sandler would deserve mention. I'd consider Jonathan Gomez to be a toss-up or leaning US, so not willing to rank him yet. Ian Hoffmann I think also leans US based on his social media. He and Goeggel were born/raised in the US and neither has a serious chance of making it with Germany. Jonathan Perez and Julian Vazquez clearly lean Mexico but would not make the top handful anyway. Not willing to rank someone like Alcala yet who is very young. I wanted to put McEntee somewhere because he's an '01 apparently doing well for Newcastle U23s, but he's a CB and the US has pretty good young CBs, and I'm not sure he's a big talent like Okoh seems to be. Munoz looks interesting, but I'm not sure he would make a full-strength US U17 squad unless we moved him to winger.

    I think most would say the top spot should be Balogun, Pierie, or Alvarez. There's a good argument for Pierie being #1 based on his professional resume for his age and that he can play left back, particularly one that would fit Berhalter. Third-youngest player in Eredivisie history to reach 50 matches. Balogun has obviously torn up the U18 and U23 PL showing some outrageous ability, and is one of the top youth forwards in all of England. Alvarez deserves to be in the rankings but would probably not be #1 on merit over Balogun or Pierie. Naming him #1 would be in significant part because he'd be a top Mexican-American flipping from El Tri to the US, an example to show off to other Mex-Am prospects on the fence, and to take away perhaps the top prospect of our main rival.
     
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  4. ussoccer97531

    ussoccer97531 Member+

    Oct 12, 2012
    Club:
    --other--
    1. Pierie
    2. Balogun
    3. Okoh
    4. Malone
    5. Tillman
    6. Alvarez
    7. Musah
    8. Flach
    9. McEntee
    10. Perea


    Pierie is the most proven. He was a good starter at a good Eredivisie team last season. Not being able to break into the starting lineup of a Champions League Semifinalist at age 19 doesn't mean he's not very good. Balogun is scoring at incredible rates. Okoh is maybe the most under the radar dual-nat. Malone has been very productive now for a number of seasons. Tillman vs. Alvarez is a tough call for fifth, but Tillman has a built in advantage being at Bayern. After that, the list of players drops off.
     
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  5. ChuckMe92

    ChuckMe92 Member+

    Jun 23, 2016
    Columbus, OH
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #5 ChuckMe92, Aug 19, 2019
    Last edited: Aug 19, 2019
    Pierie at #1 is the safe, smart choice. There's no looking past that he was the third-youngest player in history to reach 50 Eredivisie matches, and consistently had decent-to-great ratings in his Heerenveen matches, and is a perfect fit for LB for the USMNT. He's the only one who is clearly already senior-ready. I had Okoh down the list, perhaps unfairly, because he's an '03 and because CB is a relatively better position for the US, but he could very well deserve to be high on the list. Already playing/starting in the second tier of Austria right now, and the RB Salzburg pipeline produces very good young CBs. Justified to say he's somewhere in the top 5. Captained the Switzerland U16s and looks to be a well-rounded CB prospect in compilation videos. Musah, who seems to have left Arsenal for Valencia, is another one who I think could move up.
     
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  6. butters59

    butters59 Member+

    Feb 22, 2013
    Pierie will never play for us. We better not to waste breath on that endeavour.
     
  7. Clint Eastwood

    Clint Eastwood Member+

    Dec 23, 2003
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    What I would say is there's little reason for Pierie and Balogun to make a switch at this point in their careers. None. But the USSF should be keeping in touch and trying. At some point if it looks like a senior international career isn't available to them with Holland/England, then we can pounce.

    As far as the rest of @ussoccer97531 's list.......................I'm not sure any of them are superior to what we already have in the pool in their age groups. Don't get me wrong. I have no problem if they're integrated into the team. I'm just not all that bothered about it. We should be keeping in touch with a player like Efrain Alvarez, and putting in the effort...............................but I just can't get worked up one way or the other. There's a kid who chose already to switch away from us.

    I think that some of the youth like Jonathan Gomez are very much still in play for us. He's accepted Mexico youth calls, but will probably still accept USYNT calls. Ricardo Pepi style. Just keeping all avenues open and exploring opportunities.
     
  8. Dave Marino-Nachison

    Jun 9, 1999
    Not trying to hijack this conversation, but dual-national recruiting seems like a timely and interesting enough topic that I feel like it needs a better tracking system than I (we?) currently have, so I'm thinking up a new structure for a, wait for it, spreadsheet that would ideally track both inbound and outbound players.

    Looking for help once it's set up, and may ask for feedback on how it would work once I have something in mind.

    A question: How do one-time switches work, mechanically? I ask because it appears that, for example, Danny Acosta was provisionally cap-tied to to the U.S., then was on the Honduras Gold Cup roster, then came off it and presumably is still with us. So what exactly happened there? Did he file a switch, then un-file it? Or do switches not actually matter until you suit up? Or something else?
     
  9. ussoccer97531

    ussoccer97531 Member+

    Oct 12, 2012
    Club:
    --other--
    I'm not of the opinion that every player that gets called into a YNT for a country with a decent program deserves an immediate call into the US program, but I think some of these players definitely are better than American players.

    If we are going to say that Bryan Okoh isn't good enough for the US program, which '03 CB's are better than him? The way I see it, he'd be talked about among the best players in the year, if he was American.

    Are we sure that Soto, Sargent and Weah are better than Malone? I'm not.
     
  10. gogorath

    gogorath Member+

    None
    United States
    May 12, 2019
    What I heard on Acosta is that Honduras misfiled or didn’t file the one time switch paperwork, so Acosta has not yet made the switch. He intended to, but it didn’t happen.

    No idea if this makes him question the switch overall, as it hardly makes you confident in their fed or the interest level in you.
     
    Dave Marino-Nachison repped this.
  11. Dave Marino-Nachison

    Jun 9, 1999
    Not doubting you, but was this reported somewhere? First I'd heard of it. Would perhaps make more sense than some other theories, though we did also see the somewhat odd Benji Michel situation during the Gold Cup -- which, of course, didn't require a OTS...
     
  12. TarHeels17

    TarHeels17 Member+

    Jan 10, 2017
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    https://www.diez.hn/copaoro2019/129...a-para-jugar-seleccion-honduras-copa-oro-2019

    "Danilo Acosta refuses to sign the paper to play for Honduras during the Gold Cup"
     
  13. gogorath

    gogorath Member+

    None
    United States
    May 12, 2019
    I heard it on Extra Time. Here's an article (translated by google because my Spanish is not good) that goes into Acosta's side of it ... which seems to be that the paperwork was late so there was no assurances he could play for Honduras in the Gold Cup? That basically no one seemed to know that the forms needed to be submitted in time for FIFA to process. I could be wrong -- but that's what Gass on Extra Time seemed to imply as well.

    https://translate.google.com/transl...onduras-fenafuth-fifa-estados-unidos-polemica
     
    Dave Marino-Nachison repped this.
  14. Balerion

    Balerion Member+

    Aug 5, 2006
    Roslindale, MA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    An outlier test case for these issues cropped up in the 2017 Gold Cup, when French Guiana was informed that Florent Malouda was ineligible to play for them, but decided to use him in a game anyway.

    It seems like countries can name whoever they want to tournament rosters without confederations doing any real vetting in advance, but there will be a punishment should a player take the field who is ineligible. CONCACAF didn't stop French Guiana from starting Florent Malouda, but they did automatically award the game 3-0 to their opponent.
     
    Dave Marino-Nachison repped this.

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