Now that we have re-visited the 2011 edition, I think its time for the 2015 edition. Here is your challenge: Pick one player under the age of 20 who you think is the number one can't miss international prospect for the United States national team. Just one. Post their name and defend your choice as well as you can, and feel free to rip others' choices to shreds. Bookmark this thread, and come back in five years to see what bragging rights (or shame) you've earned. Simple, right? Who's willing to give it a go?
Acosta is a guaranteed pro but Hyndmann looks the best of the lot, while accounting I haven't seen Zelalem play.
Its tough. I want to say Flores, Steffen or EPB because those are the three I rate the highest, but I think Carter-Vickers is the most can't miss. I'm going to say Carter-Vickers.
For the U-20's I'd have to say Carter-Vickers. What he's accomplishing at his age is very impressive. For those beyond the U-20's, Christian Pulisic is the easy choice.
So the main thing that would win the thread seems to be playing for the national team. I will take Zelalem. Going off the Yedlin model in looking for a sleeper, one should look for a player who has signed pro with an MLS team and may have a pathway to immediate first team playing time earlier than some of the guys in Europe. Yedlin obviously benefited from the pool of American fullbacks being a bit thinner than some other positions. While Zelalem is my pick, Bradford Jamieson seems like a reasonable sleeper since he plays positions that are generally thin.
Can't miss ≠ highest upside. I'll go with Rubio Rubin. He probably doesn't have the very highest upside of all of our prospects, but he's already shown that he can be productive against adults at a fairly high level, even if he's hit the rookie wall this season with Utrecht. Picking Rubin is obvious and will not make me look like a genius down the road. But shouldn't a "can't miss" pick be obvious? Hyndman would be a close second. Again, maybe not the upside of a Zelalem or a Pulisic. But I've been following prospects for long enough that I've gained an appreciation for what it means to see a player succeed against adult pros. Hyndman is not an established starter at Fulham, but he's shown in games that he belongs, at the age of 18.
Perhaps we should take those players already capped by the full USMNT out of the equation. I mean, they've already "hit" in a sense. If somebody is picking a player other than Rubin or Hyndman then they're just trying to be different. [Julian Green as well. He's already been on a World Cup roster.] I think a great pick is Zack Steffen. Heck, I haven't been impressed with our keepers at the U23 level. [I don't know what to think of Crropper yet.] Steffen might be our best U23 keeper on top of best U20 keeper. He could easily be our keeper for Olympic qualifying next year, and be called into the full USMNT quickly after that. So that's my answer. Zack Steffen.
I disagree. Getting a few caps doesn't mean that anyone has made it as a can't-miss prospect. I don't even think a World Cup vet like Green is a "can't miss" prospect in terms of having a long-term presence on the USMNT. Rubin and Hyndman were capped in friendlies during an experimental phase because both are prospects who have advanced further than their American peers so far, but they haven't "made it", either. Gale Agbossoumonde has been capped.....enough said. Rubin/Hyndman are boring answers, but the question is one that requires a boring answer for the most part.
One! Dang it all! One! It's killing me to pick one and I have no patience with a guy who dnr'd the first post.
Rubin, Emo and CCV are all good choices but 'll go a different way and say Joel Sonora. Think he has all the tools to succeed as an attacking midfielder.
... and he's not an anomaly, either. Szetela, Adu, Kamani Hill, Zizzo, Quaranta, Kirovski, etc. There's also a steadily growing category of players who didn't exactly miss but also didn't contribute much to the national team. Did Spector miss? Chad Marshall? Eddie Gaven? Lee Nguyen? Gringo Torres? Conor Casey? Bobby Convey? I suspect that a fair number of people would even say that Eddie Johnson missed, and he's one of our top ten all-time goalscorers. As for the question at hand, I'll shy away from Pulisic in order to make an unfairly maligned play. Is Julian Green eligible for selection? If so, him. If not, I'm tempted to pick Jonathan Klinsmann, but I'll have to go with Haji. People need to look at what he can do. Also, if we'll be looking back at this in a few years, I'm awfully interested to see what happens with Mauricio Pineda. Not a flashy prospect, but an unusually good defender.
I'm kinda surprised nobody else has mentioned him: Tommy Thompson. Great combination of skill and work ethic. I don't think he will fail.
I'm picking three; although he hasn't even played for any of our youth teams, I'm going to say Desevio Payne. I like his situation, and I want to be original. Next pick is Junior Flores, because I played against him a couple times and he's an all around nice guy. Final pick I'm picking me because a 97er can dream <3. I got an invite to some training thing, with the U-14 when I was like 13 twice but never went. Regardless it's call up in my heart.