We should go after dual nationals but with a stronger domestic player pool I would suspect the value of recruiting marginal dual nationals would diminish.
I suspect that the value of recruiting will diminish for at least two reasons: 1. losing out on a dual national will have less of a negative effect as the quality of domestically produced players increase 2. As the quality of play increases in our NT system, we will be the 2nd choice for fewer and fewer dual nats. The dual national players will recruit themselves to a degree. We may still have to identify the players and make that phone call but perhaps not much more than that for some
Regarding dual-nationals, the primary concern for the future might not be recruiting foreign-produced dual-nats, but convincing our own domestically-produced dual nationals, the best American-born-and-raised players of Mexican descent, to play with us instead of Mexico. Edwin Lara, Uly Llanez, and Efra Alvarez may respectively be the best '99, '01, and '02 the DA has produced. Alvarez has reportedly drawn early attention from Euro clubs including Napoli and Utrecht. But the US may not get any of them back unless El Tri eventually does not want them. We can afford to lose the goalkeepers -- Gonzalez, Herrera, Romero, Avilez, Mercado don't compare to Horvath, Steffen, Vom Steeg, Scott, Garces -- but we may lose some very valuable field players. Beyond Alvarez who we've lost for now, Diego Lopez of FCGS and Victor Cano and Marco Ceja of LAG are three of our best '02s who are with the US U15s -- I could easily see Mexico eventually going after them. The latest US U14 roster ('03s) appears to have at least six Mexican-American attackers, and Mexico is probably watching them as well. And I could see them going after Marco Farfan. Beyond Mexico, you have some other odd cases such as US-born-and-raised, FC Dallas product, Niko Hamalainen of QPR, who is probably better than any current US U20 left back, but was poached by Finland. I agree the potential loss of them can be mitigated by producing other quality domestic players, but just wanted to note that the dual-national battle is being fought on two fronts.
This was an exercise in projecting the last manager's thought process and at the time I thought he was going to ride Bradley and Jones all the way through the cycle but that, long-term, McKennie would be a regular.
If McKennie gets minutes like Pulisc did when he got called to 1st team, then I think McKennie will be fast tracked. J.Jones is on his last legs.
Cristian Roldan, Erik Palmer-Brown, Haji Wright, Derrick Jones, Joshua Perez, Andrew Carleton, Tyler Adams, Matthew Olosunde, Kai Koreniuk, Marco Farfan, Marlon Fossey, Joshua Sargent, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Matt Miazga, Jonathan Lewis, Jesus Ferreira, Ethan Horvath, Weston McKennie, Kellyn Acosta, Christian Pulisic hm - Chris Durkin, Miles Robinson, Justin Vom Steeg, Justen Glad, George Acosta, Bryan Reynolds, Andrija Novakovich, Keaton Parks, McKinzie Gaines, Djordje Mihailovic, Reggie Cannon, Julian Green, Jonathan Gonzalez, Paxton Pomykol, Brooks Lennon, Brandon Vazquez, Eryk Williamson, James Sands, Isaiah Young, Mukwelle Akale This is not even to mention established 22-24 year olds who could help us 9 years in the future in their early to mid 30's like Geoff Cameron and Clint Dempsey are to us now. There will be players who come out of nowhere like Cameron, Holden, and Besler did. There will be new emergences in the next 9 years. And I listed 2 groups of 20. So not everybody or even a third are going to have to pan out to be assets to a goal of the U.S. contending in the World Cup in 2026. MLS academies naturally starting to bear fruit and Pulisic blazing a trail in Europe to lighten the pressure on our promising players there is creating a new era of American futbol.
Galaxy have won every game since he has been out injured despite being replaced by at best average MLS players in Baggio Husidic and Rafeal Garcia. Team functions better without a freelancer in midfield. Just needs a player to play a role. Not USMNT, but same with Pirlo. Not even making the 18 for NYCFC anymore. Sometimes you just have to move on.
Nothing new. Interesting only in that it is written for a mainstream sports audience or general readership: Burgeoning Soccer Scene in the United States is Leading to Influx of Great Talent The youth national teams are absolutely loaded with ability In Other Sports by Marc RhodesJune 1, 2017Burgeoning Soccer Scene in the United States is Leading to Influx of Great Talent The youth national teams are absolutely loaded with ability ”" class="meta-comments">Leave a Comment http://newarena.com/other-sports/bu...-states-is-leading-to-influx-of-great-talent/
I'll take an updated crack at this, obviously only will include players eligible for this forum, and I'm gonna make it 97's-01's, not yet ready to rank the 02's for sure. As for tiers, 1-6 is all very close, 7-10 is very close, then its scattered. 1. C. Pulisic ('98) 2. Palmer-Brown ('97) 3. Carleton ('00) 4. Wright ('98) 5. McKennie ('98) 6. Carter-Vickers ('97) 7. Pomykal ('99) 8. Glad ('97) 8. Garces ('00) 9. Scott ('99) 10. Sargent ('00) 11. Booth ('01) 12. de la Fuente ('01) 13. J. Gonzalez ('99) 14. D. Acosta ('97) 15. Perez ('98) 16. Taitague ('99) 17. Cannon ('98) 18. Adams ('99) 19. Xuxuh ('01) 20. Araujo ('01) Honorable mentions: Farfan, Llanez, Redding, Fossey (what happened to him), A. Robinson, Ebobisse, Lindsey, Durkin, Lennon, Zelalem, Lewis, Akale, Olosunde, etc.
Of course there are light years between your #1 and #2 unless you believe that at some point half of Real/Barca starters will be on our NT and we will win a couple WCs. There are also 2 #8s.
You forgot Gains. Also, JG should be way higher in your rankings, he is a starter in Mexico's #1 team. I think your top 6 should be: Pulisic, McKennie, JG, CCV, EPB, Wright
So I get that people may jump down my throat for this, but I have to ask... when is the point where we start bumping Palmer-Brown down these lists? I get that his lack of playing time isn't totally his fault. I get that he needs a move, and that Vermes should play him more. I don't disagree with any of those points. But he's still a 20 year old CB who isn't getting MLS minutes, and you've got him ahead of a midfielder who played in the Bundesliga last week. Ask any GM in MLS who they would rather have, and I'd be surprised if even one didn't pick McKennie.
Was he? I don't remember. I think I probably just assumed he'd get citizenship, but we don't know that he has a year later, so......... Pulisic is way more accomplished than someone like Palmer-Brown, but I don't think believe we are talking about a big difference in ability, just my opinion. In fact, I might give the pure talent advantage to Palmer-Brown. Pulisic is way more accomplished than most of these players, but I do think we have a few players with similar potential, they just haven't gotten to the point he has yet. Thats not a slight on Pulisic, he's #1, I just don't believe Pulisic is some system anomaly.
The fact that he was dominant for the US U20s at their recent events, including being named Player of the Tournament at the CONCACAF Championships, still has meaning for a lot of folks. Yes, we don't see him for SKC a lot. We also don't see CCV at all for Spurs, but we all still rank him highly. I do think, in the vein you're talking about....................that we should bump players up on a list that are playing week-in and week-out against adult professionals. For instance, I'd consider moving Justen Glad and Tyler Adams up on my list compared to @ussoccer97531 's. Adams would be in my top 10. He's a '99 who's playing very well at the MLS level already. My view of his ceiling is probably just different. Brooks Lennon would make my top 20 over really young kids like Xuxuh. Sometimes the players that we never see are given the benefit of the doubt. Players who we do get to see are picked apart, analyzed, and pushed further down the list. These lists are by definition subjective, though. Its just one person's opinion.
I'm just not that high on what I've seen from De La Torre or Gaines. Neither really stands out to me as type level talent. Both players could certainly become USMNT players, they aren't "bad" players, but I'm of the belief that there are players that would come before them, but to each their own.
We've seen enough of him that the eye test is more than any playing time, at least for me. All those games in CONCACAF/WC proved it, and then I watched one full game of him at CB (EDIT: for SKC) and it was immaculate in every single aspect. I forget who it was against (edit edit: against Philly on 7/6) but he was so clearly above the entire league that I see no reason he won't be playing at a very high level in a few years.