I still can't wrap my head around where our prospects fall off between 17 and 23. The amount of talent we have that has stalled or fallen off the face of the earth at those ages in the states has been absurd. My guess is it has to do with the actual game time that these kids are getting. which is a huge concern for me pertaining to the MLS kids. As long as the likes of Weah, Taitague, CCV etc. continue to get in game minutes no matter the level until they are 23-24 I am fine with whatever level they are playing at. Carelton and Llanez in my opinion only have one option.....move overseas as soon as they turn 18 even if they aren't with the first teams they will be playing in a higher level of match week in and week out. There just is not enough games to be found in the states until we open up the system and move to Pro/Rel.
I bet out "failure rate" is in line with the rest of the world. I read in 4-4-2 once that the "failure rate" in English football league academies is over 90%. And you see that all the time in Premier League academies. Most of the prospects at Chelsea or Liverpool or wherever never amount to much. We talk about the greatness of the kids coming out of La Masia that advance to the Barca first team, but most kids at La Masia are Ben Lederman types that seem to stall. They fall off the face of the Earth and folks forget they existed. Because our pool of prospects is smaller than a nation like France or Argentina, and we focus on just a couple dozen prospects, our failures are magnified in our minds.
What I would say is that you have to have kids that have actually proven themselves against adult professionals highest up on the list. I mean.........................Antonee Robinson plays week-in and week-out at a Championship level. He can't even make the list? So does CCV. How can they be ranked behind kids who have proven nothing? Folks here are seduced by the unknown. Seriously, Tyler Adams turned 19 yesterday. He's an MLS starter of distinction and has received multiple USMNT caps already (played well doing so). And he's ranked behind Bello and Busio? Really? I just give credence to performance against adult pros over performances against the Colorado Rush U15s. These lists are subjective. So there's no right or wrong. Everybody's is going to be different. That's what's fun about the exercise.
Probably too high on Pynadath, especially for how little I’ve seen him play. He is very technical, tho, and seems to have a good shot. Think if we saw him more he wouldn’t look too out of place up there. Think you’re looking at the list differently than I am. I was going with players with the most upside. Kind of a “where will they be in ten years,” not “how good are they now?” But also, playing against pros is great, but for some reason, people glorify kids getting minutes when they easily could turn into the next Dilly Duka and nothing more. I learned a long time ago playing fantasy football that you have to trust your eyes. That’s why I rated Adams so low. I love his aggression and work rate, but no matter how many times I watch him, his passing doesn’t get better. I know he’s 19 and I’m hoping he improves cuz even tho he’s not the most technical, if he can just complete the simplest pass consistently, he’ll be way better than most of these guys. It was nothing against Reyna and Robinson. I’ve literally never seen Robinson play and I didn’t feel like I’d seen enough of Gio to rank him. I also might’ve ranked Amon and Parks higher if I had seen them more. They both do some things well, but I also can see how they may never be more than average pros.
90% isn't bad at all for academics.....I am talking about kids that are on our youth National Teams. We have so many youth national players that don't even play professionally. My gut is really telling me it has to do with the number of high-quality games between the ages of 17-23. No matter what top prospects in Europe are playing at minimum 90 minutes per week. What is Andrew Carelton playing in minutes per week? Probably not enough.
Most young youth nationals throughout Europe play on FIFA Amateur contracts. Not professional ones. They start being signed between 16-18. The issue is our system doesn't have integrated, established, leagues and teams for our players to play through that's connected to first team play. We have DA teams connected to ether, not to professional teams. Stupid. Every youth player should be in a system where the top rung to the ladder is first team football. In Europe's top leagues top 17 yr olds play in U19 leagues. Top 18 yr olds can play in reserve teams. They have an over abundance of teams and leagues for youth players to find their stretch level. We are trying to establish USL for top youth but its too high level for some, too low for others, and most teams don't even have USL teams and those who do don't use them or farm their talent out to affiliated teams who don't benefit from playing them because they aren't their player. We should have a USL2 for each MLS team and have them use them for top 90 minute games each week. We have so many gaps in our systems but still try to compare it to Europe. Apples and Oranges.
I actually like Akale a lot. But I can’t really ignore that his lack of size and defensive ability are a problem. I do think he has a future, but I could also see him getting lost in the u23s for the next few years. Still tho, any other day and I might’ve put him on that list. Whenever I did my list last, I remember kind of struggling with filling 20 spots and just put on some guys other people liked. This time, I have about 5-10 guys I could easily put on this list that I had to leave off (Akale, Reyna, Scally, Robinson, etc).
Can someone tell me more about Roberto Hategan? 16 years old and playing for a USL. That’s pretty decent
I can't give you a scouting report, but it's fairer to say that he's under contract with a USL team. He got a token late sub appearance at the end of last season, but mostly he's been playing with Sacramento's DA team, not their pro team.
Yeah, but go back and look at U17 or U20 national teams that won the World Cup. Even Brazil, Argentina, or whomever. There's a couple of youngsters on those teams that hit startdom, a couple that end up in big leagues, a couple that stay in Argenting/Brazil at a high level....................and half of them fall of the face of the Earth. The failure rate of elite prospects around the world is very high. The difference between the United States and Argentina is that their pool of prospects is much larger than ours. A 90% failure rate for them still means a host of international caliber players. A 90% failure rate for us means we've only got a few. I would point out that our "failure rate" is high whether the prospects are in Europe or being developed domestically. Lots of Danny Barbirs out there that just disappear. We kinda just forget about them. Plenty of our prospects that were completely developed in Europe or Mexico haven't developed. I mean..................Tata Martino is running the show in Atlanta. He was brought in to build a European-style club. Are we judging the US development system based on the advancement of Andrew Carleton? The pathway is there for his development now. The route from the U19 academy to the USL (last year Charleston, this year A2) to the first team is there. There are opportunities for 90 minutes a week there across a bunch of levels. If he doesn't develop its that particular club's fault. The USSF can't force Tata Martino to play Andrew Carleton or Chris Goslin or whomever in the first team................ I should point out that there are nations that take youth and player development seriously. That, surprisingly, doesn't translate to improved results at the senior level. I mean....................people would probably say the Eredevisie is the best league for youth and player development. They didn't qualify for the World Cup and the Eredevisie is in the dumps. Older fans like me remember when Dutch teams were serious contenders for the Champions League title every year. They are no longer at that level. I saw a bunch of news articles after the demolition of Porto by Liverpool this week about the demise of the Portuguese league. They're very worried about it, and what that means for the future of the Portuguese national team. Because without Cristiano Ronaldo, they're mediocre at best. You become a developmental league for the big boys at your own peril. MLS doesn't want to view itself that way. They're trying to balance player development with truly pushing themselves into becoming one of the top leagues in this hemisphere. Its kind of a really difficult challenge, because the development academy is only 10 years old. In fact, half of the league didn't exist 10 years ago. People seem to be expecting Portland, who in its MLS guise is only 9 years old, to be developing players like they're Borussia Dortmund or Villarreal or something. Not happening. MLS itself is only 20 years old for Pete's sake. What do people want? Do people expect Minnesota United to develop Sergio Aguero? Eefus. The clubs that started to really invest 10 years ago are starting to see dividends. That's the RSL, NYRB, FCD, etc. clubs. But international-caliber prospects are coming out at a trickle. One McKennie here, another Tyler Adams there. We need patience as much of the league is only starting to invest now..........particularly at the U14 and younger levels.
I wasn't very impressed. Looked like a secondary striker who had some movement and mobility, but little else in his locker.
Without p/r they would be playing in the second division in the US. With p/r they would be playing in the second division in the US. ??? But at least if they go overseas at 18 it will give the Galaxy a reason to shut down the academy and save the money.
I hate to continue beating the European bush here but Villarreal has given me a real education on youth development. They have The first team, Villareal B, Villareal C, Juvenil A and Juvenil B where they can develop their players and all of those teams play at an extremely high level. Most MLS sides have reserve teams but they don't have decent enough competition to get games in. The damage Sunil and Don Garber have done for the game in the states is a travesty. Locally here in the midwest the NPSL is the closest thing we have to real "Clubs" in the United States. MPLS City, MED City, Minnesota Twin Stars, VSLT FC, the grassroots of the sport will come from that league in my opinion.
One of the main reasons I follow USL expansion is that the eastern region is the only area where the league has kids playing in an adult league, and not the other way around. Out on the west coast, for teams like T2, S2, Los Dos, VWFC2, and all of those guys, it often just feels like the Premier League's u23 league instead of a real adult league a la Germany or Spain. Frankly, I don't really care whether pro/rel is implemented. If we can fill out the pyramid so there's a seamless transition from the u12 level all the way to the first team with no inordinately large gap in skill level, then I'll be happy. Also, Carleton's contract is up in the winter, so he'll be 18 and a half.
Please grace us with your knowledge of what makes a "real" club. Because uber soccer hipsters follow these amateur teams with attendance in the 3 digits? 40K people showing up to watch Seattle and Atlanta makes them not a real club? Will FC Cincinnati no longer be a "real" club if they join MLS? Nashville SC was as "grassroots" as it got and that got the attention of a billionaire.
Right.............but Villarreal was founded in 1923. So they've had generations worth of a head start on MLS clubs. MLS first teams just started up for the most part. What are folks expecting from reserve and academy teams that are even younger? I understand that we as Americans aren't known for our patience. But we have to be patient here. MLS is investing and investing and investing and investing in many of the initiatives we're talking about here. Its just going to take time before we see results. Not to mention the fact that its not a moving target. While we're investing and improving..............Germany, Spain, France, etc. are investing even more. I mean, we can "blame" Sunil and Don all we want. MLS probably doesn't even exist today without Don's work in the early 2000s, so saying the damage he's done is a travesty..................................is a little silly. For the first decade of the league, MLS was in survival mode. Now we're in growth mode. We all understand that a lot of the infrastructure of the league is stuck in survival mode still..................and needs to be changed to fully realize the needed growth. Its happening. Also worth noting that most of the infrastructure of MLS is negotiated with the MLSPU as part of the CBA negotiations. And as others have stated in many places, a lot of the initiatives people really hate are SUPPORTED by the player's union.
Right, but we shouldn't be trying to create our own system. We should be emulating the succesful soccer cultures around the world that are already established. Promotion and Relegation is the only medicine that will fix our broken system
Do we know if the transfermarkt listing is accurate? Pomykal's contract is also listed as being up at the end of this season.