Where's Paxton Pomykal? He's the best '99, IMO. Also missing Durkin, Gloster, Garces, Weah. Gooch, Akale, Hyndman, de la Torre, Lennon are not particularly good, IMO.
Here's a Top-23 USMNT prospects squad (listed with their current club, and a speculative projection for future league in 2026) that could represent the US at the 2026 World Cup. I also added 7 more to make a full 30-man provisional squad. Their ages by the 2026 WC would range from 22 (Federico Oliva) to 31 (Horvath, Steffen, Miazga). GK (3): Ethan Horvath (Club Brugge, Top-5 Euro league), Brady Scott (De Anza Force U17/18, Top-5 Euro league), Zack Steffen (Columbus Crew, Top-10 Euro league) FB (4): Corey Anton (Hoffenheim U19, Bundesliga), Marlon Fossey (Fulham U23, Premier League), Xuxuh Hilton (LA Galaxy U15/16, Top-10 Euro league), George Bello (Atlanta United U15/16, Top-10 Euro league) CB (4): Matt Miazga (Chelsea, Top-5 Euro league), Cameron Carter-Vickers (Tottenham, Premier League), Erik Palmer-Brown (Sporting KC, Top-5 Euro league), James Sands (NYCFC U15/16, Top-10 Euro league) CM/CDM (4): Weston McKennie (Schalke, top Bundesliga side), Chris Durkin (DC United, Top-5 Euro league), Sidney Friede (Hertha II, Bundesliga), Ian Hoffmann (Karlsruher U16, Bundesliga) Wing/wide/attacking mid (4): Christian Pulisic (Dortmund, top La Liga side), Timothy Tillman (Bayern U19, top Bundesliga side), Andrew Carleton (Atlanta United, Top-5 Euro league), Samuel Shashoua (Tottenham U23, Premier League) Forward/striker (4): Josh Sargent (Scott Gallagher, top Bundesliga side), Konrad de la Fuente (Barcelona U16, La Liga), Haji Wright (Schalke, Bundesliga), Federico Oliva (Atletico Madrid U14, La Liga) Standby (7): Chris Gloster (NYRB U15/16, Top-10 Euro league), Justen Glad (RSL, Top-10 Euro league), Kevin Lankford (Heidenheim, Bundesliga), Nick Taitague (Schalke U19, Bundesliga), Lateef Omidiji (Feyenoord U15, Eredivisie), Maurice Malone (Augsburg U17, Bundesliga), Timothy Weah (PSG U19, Ligue 1) With many other promising prospects missing, both foreign- (Olosunde, Zelalem, Perez, etc.) and domestic- (Farfan, Pomykal, Ferreira, etc.) based. Sadly, I think Edwin Lara, Uly Llanez, Efrain Alvarez, and potentially others to come, will likely get poached by Mexico. Also, I think Kik Pierie will likely be good enough to play for the Netherlands, otherwise he'd be on here. Fortunately for the US, it will be extremely difficult for Anton, Friede, Tillman, Malone, Shashoua to break into Germany and England. Obviously this is quite rosy with the projections, but one can at least dream. I do think the US can be very good by 2026 even if it isn't this spectacular.
Come on. The guy got minutes before his 21st birthday at a premier league club this season, even if it was a bad one. He's already got somewhere at a young age that a lot of guys on that list will never get to. Same goes for Hyndman. Bournemouth thinks highly enough of him that they've already said he's going to be with the team next year. Saying players aren't particularly good by US standards that are in the squad for premier league teams at that young an age is crazy.
I could rattle off the list of players who've gotten playing time of some sort in a big league at a young age. Not every player ends up being a Pulisic, there are some Bryan Arguez's. Thats only my opinion though of which are actually good and which aren't based on the list you named. If someone is typing out a list on a website that fans discuss soccer, I'd expect they'd want feedback from others. I'm not saying I am definitely right, but it is my opinion of the list that person wrote.
I've been waiting for someone to make a projection of this sort and assumed it would probably be in a new thread. I am gratified that you chose to reinvigorate this one, which I had feared was destined for obscurity. I will, therefore, overlook your snub of my boy Emo, who will captain this side .
I really like the list but CM/CDM is really underpopulated and you dropped Hyndman, Acosta, and Gooch in favor of a U16 player which is a little, um, aggressive. Also, I think Yedlin will still be a factor.
I felt a little bad leaving out Emo. I think he'll at least be part of the future player pool, and he could potentially start for and/or captain the team if he reaches his potential. I just personally couldn't quite include him over others I mentioned. At deep-lying playmaker, I really like Chris Durkin, who could be a better version of Bradley, has trained with Inter Milan and could eventually be in Serie A or another league. At DM, Hoffmann is one of our best U16 players to the point he appears to be the first American-born-and-raised player in history to get a DFB invite. For box-to-box CMs, McKennie and Friede are really good, their club accomplishments in Germany speak for themselves. Lankford has been getting regular minutes, including a couple starts, for an upper-table 2. BL side. At the #10, I really like Pulisic, Carleton, Tillman, Shashoua, and Taitague. (Obviously, not all of them will end up playing that position, some of them will be primarily wingers.) All in all, there are other young players who I feel possess a higher upside than Emo, so I couldn't quite include him. But I could certainly be underestimating him.
Proximity has to be a criterion. The farther away a prospect is time wise, the more that can go wrong. I was impressed with Garces, but GKs don't usually break in until, what 25-27? Can't put a guy as a Top 20 prospect when he is 8+ years away. All those guys are young. Sargent is young, but started for the U20s yesterday. I don't doubt in three years many of those guys would be on such a list as other players make it or don't. I think Hyndman is actually very good. I think Hyndman could get 1000+ minutes in the Premier League next year. I think LDT is also very good and the kind of player that will look better when playing with better players than he does on Championship reserve teams or youth teams. Lennon crosses the ball better than any American consistently since maybe Beasley. That low driven cross with a bit of bend that fools defenders and freezes keepers is not something that is common even in the highest levels. Can he get the space to use it is really the question mark. But I won't say he can't yet.
We're talking about the year 2026, though. Hyndman, Acosta, and Gooch would all be 30+ by then. I do like all three, but don't feel they quite possess the upside of some of the others on my list. Yedlin, a player who relies a lot on his pace, would be 33 by then. Hoffmann has been doing so well with Karlsruhe that he became the first American-born-and-raised, Germany-eligible player to be invited to a Germany youth camp. The first American at a DFB camp who wasn't raised in Germany. Just my opinion, but I'd hardly say it's aggressive to include one of our better YNT players who the DFB has been thinking about poaching and who'd be age 25 by then, starting his prime. I wanted to populate the squad with guys like Bello, Hilton, Sands, Durkin, Hoffmann, de la Fuente, Oliva, Omidiji who would be in their early-mid 20s -- it won't be all 30s-and-late-20s guys.
I looked at the MNT squads from the 02, 06, 10 and 14 WC squads and averaged the number of players age 25 or below. It came out to be 7.75, round that to 8, players per squad who are 25-younger. I don't see why that trend will not essentially continue to hold, with the US continually developing promising young players, and also the dual-national pipeline looking very strong. My hypothetical 2026 squad actually goes under the average of players who'd be 25-younger by then (i.e. who right now are U16 or below).
i cant understand the logic of (for example, im not jumping on any particular post here) "sure, gooch may have played in the prem as a 20 year old but that doesnt mean he will pan out" followed by hyping a 16 year old. obviously pick/back whoever you like but recognize youre the one whos guessing way more in that equation.
So anyone who's played for the absolute worst team in the Premier League has all of a sudden made it? If this is the level we are talking about, we surely will have not progressed by 2026, like Arena stated. I personally have higher expectations for our players. I don't think Gooch is talented enough to reach much higher than where he's at right now. I think others are. Will they get there? I don't know, but I think we are at least talking about a rational high ceiling with the players I named, whereas I think its just catering to the known commodities by naming Gooch and some others.
I do agree that on a case-by-case basis, it's defensible to pick someone like Gooch over some hyped kid who looks better than Gooch did at that age, but has a while to go before playing (or failing to play) in a top-flight league like today's Gooch actually has. It's just our opinions and no one really knows for sure in his specific case. But generally, there does need to be some guessing/optimism toward those younger players. Recent history shows the MNT's WC squad typically has about 8 players who are age 25-younger. That will likely hold, if not increase, due to our rapidly improving youth development. At the 2026 World Cup, that would mean 8+ players who are born 2001-later, likely including one or two born 2005-later. Inevitably, there will be a lot of players born 1995-2000 who will be squeezed out. If someone (not you, just speaking generally) has a predicted squad for a decade from now which almost entirely excludes players who today are U16 and younger, then it's simply not going to happen. At some point, one needs to exclude a Lynden Gooch for a Gio Reyna or a Federico Oliva -- perhaps not that particular case, but if not, it needs to happen elsewhere. All in all, I have no problem with defending an older, "safer" player on an individual case-by-case basis. But if a predicted squad broadly picks those players at every position, it almost certainly won't turn out correctly.
If thats the conversation you want to have, we can just end it here. I have no interest discussing Gooch until he shows some high level talent. In my opinion, others actually show some high level promise, Gooch does not. I couldn't care less whether he has more Premier League minutes. Means absolutely 0 to me. He needs to improve to be a NT level player, just like many of those "16 year olds" that you are rubbishing.
as i said originally im not making an argument for or against anyone in particular, im just saying the point to exclude a gooch for a reyna should occur when reyna has more of a case than simply being 5 years younger and (our) feelings.
Acosta, Hyndman and Gooch will all be 30 in June of 2016. We tend to have a few of those. Yedlin. Sure.
The big thing that I take away from your post is the number of guys who aren't even listed. For example at FB you left off Cannon, Olosunde, Dest, Payne, Robinson, Farfan, and even guys like Nick Lima who are starting to figure it out. The same could be said for every other position. I just hope we get a forward thinking coach after Arena who's willing to play the younger better players rather than reward veterans who have proven they're not good enough.
It's a guessing game, that's all. When guessing for a future squad or list with limited spots, do you take Player A who is older and has actually played in a top-flight league, or do you take Player B who is younger, indisputably better than Player A was at that same age, and is one of the best youth prospects of his age group in the country, but has years to go before playing (or failing to play) in a top-flight league? You're going the safer route with A, I'm gambling on B, and I understand both sides. It's certainly nice that we have so many promising young players that we can have this discussion.
I like all three of those guys. It was more about really liking the guys on that list rather than anything very negative about those three. Gooch in particular, it's going to be extremely tough for him to deal with the younger attacking talent we have. Pulisic, Carleton, Tillman, Shashoua appear to be on another level. I'd say long-term, Hyndman and Acosta have the better chance of being MNT mainstays, but still not that great, with McKennie, Durkin, et al in the way.
It really is crazy. We could create a whole extra future squad, multiple extra squads, that would look promising, too. A lot of prospects will inevitably fail, but the sheer volume of promising ones makes me believe enough will succeed. I think we will look very good a decade from now. Not top-level-European-side good, but good enough to be the best in CONCACAF and somewhere in the FIFA top 10-15.
Germany won the 2014 with all their goals scored by players under the age of 25 (except for 2 by Klose). I would expect that as the USA gets better, our WC rosters will get younger on average. There are probably a few 10 year olds out there that will be on the roster in 2026.
That's a great point. We have '05s at Benfica and Hertha, '06s at Espanyol, Inter Milan, and Leverkusen, an '07 at Roma, an '08 in the Netherlands, and a bunch of other similarly promising kids both domestically and foreign-based who we don't yet know about. My squad was also missing Malik Tillman (Bayern), Dante Sealy (FCD), and Jack Panayotou (interest from Bayern), who could be our best '02, '03, and '04 respectively. There will likely be plenty of players born 1995-2000 who will be squeezed out.