I wanted to start a longer look at the history of what has happened to our U17 and U20 team players, to see how development and youth models have evolved over the past 30 years. I will start with U20 and GKs to begin and hope to get time to move to other positions. I lacked roster info for 1991 and 1995 (both teams eliminated in CONCACAF tournaments the year before). My observations as far as evolution over time: Nearly all players played some college, even those signed by European teams. I only found two players who were in training academies in Europe by the time they were included in the u20s, although neither has yet made a big splash at a higher level. 1999 was our top year... BY FAR. I find 2017 to be interesting (and Steffen in 2013) and intriguing. Two players went to Europe either after a year of college or directly from high school. It is too small of a sample to see a pattern yet, but it makes me wonder if we will see more and more US Development Academy and players being deemed worthy enough investments. I do wonder if the late development and longer playing career for GKs leads many to opt for university (having a back up plan while still playing). Consequently, while I think that speaks to the evolution of US player development, I do think NCAA soccer could still be important at the goalkeeper position. Interestingly, I do not recall any MLS academy GK prospects in this list and wonder if that relates again to players and families hedging on soccer and university due to the nature of the GK position. 1989 Kasey Keller: was playing at the University of Portland. Made the 1990 world cup team which gave him exposure and the ability to sign with Millwall. Became one of the US all time greats at GK who worked primarily in Europe (EPL, La Liga, and the Bundesliga) until he returned to the Sounders. Markus Roy was playing at Northern Illinois University; signed by the Dallas Burn (1997) from the Chicago Stingers but I can't find a record of him ever playing an MLS match; academy coach for Chicago. 1993 Jeff Cassar played for Florida International University Played in MLS for a handful of years at for Bolton as a backup GK. Richard Koczak played Division II NCAA soccer at Southern Connecticut State University. At the time was playing for Oakwood soccer club. 1997 Andy Kirk played at Maryland for 2 years and then signed project 40 with MLS. He played 15 matches in MLS over three yars and opted to return to school to finish his degree. Matt Napoleon played at Columbia University at the time. He signed an MLS 40 contract and bounced around the league playing 14 matches before landing at the USL Portland Timbers. 1999 Nick Rimando played at UCLA at the time and became a top notch GK in MLS (5 years consecutive GK of the year) Tim Howard was playing with NY/NJ Metrostars then. Another all time great US GK who went from MLS to Manchester United at a very young age before settling in with a long stint at Everton. 2001 D. J Countess was playing at UCLA at the time. He signed with MLS project 40. He bounced around a few MLS clubs with mixed results before opting not to resign with MLS and headed to Sweden and then Chile. Doug Warren played at Clemson and then a few matches in MLS, where he served primarily as a backup. 2003 Steve Cronin played at Santa Clara before singing with MLS. Became an MLS journeyman playing around 85 matches in his career. Ford Williams played at North Carolina. 2005 Quentin Westberg was playing in France for Troyes. He had initially been in PSG's youth academy. Bounced around Ligue 2. First GK I recall playing in Europe on the U20s at the time of his selection. Justin Hughes played at UNC. Drafted by MLS in 3rd round but never made an appearance. Andrew Kartunen played at Standford. Signed an MLS contract but never played a match. 2007 Chris Seitz signed by Real Salt Lake at the time of the tournament. Had played two years at Maryland previously. Veteran MLS keeper. Brian Perk played at UCLA. Drafted by MLS but only played around 7 matches in his career. Steve Sandbo played at SMU. Opted to not turn pro. 2009 Sean Johnson played at the University of Central Florida. Signed with MLS as a Generation Adidas player. Long term starter in MLS. Josh Lambo was an IMG product. drafted by MLS but never played a match. Went to Texas A&M in 2012 and walekd on as a PK and ended up playing in the NFL 2011 Cody Cropper was playing with Ipswich Town at the time of the tournament. Transferred to Dons in the Championship and played a handful of matches before coming to MLS. Zac MacMath was part of the Philadelphia Union. He had been part of the IMG academy and also played at Maryland. he has played with Philadelphia and the Colorado Rapids. 2013 Kendall McIntosh played at Santa Clara. He was a member of the San Jose academy. He has played in USL. Zack Steffen played at Maryland. He left Maryland to go directly to Freiburg (which bounced up and down the Bundesliga and Bundesliga II) in Germany. Only managed games in the reserves and returned to MLS , then USL, then MLS again. 2015 Thomas Olsen plays at San Diego University. He was a college walk-on. Jeff Caldwell plays at the University of Virginia. 2017 Jonathan Klinsmann played for the University of California. Signed with Hertha Berlin. JT Marcinkowski plays at Georgetown. Brady Scott played with the Da Anz Force in the US Development Academies. He signed a contract with FC Koln.
Thanks for thinking this over and spending time doing the research. I would consider widening your pool. I'm honestly not sure how much value there is to measuring/examining development and youth models based on a sample of just two GKs for every two birth years, particularly since specific tournament selection can be arbitrary if, say, a particular player is unavailable or hurt. That, combined with the built-in issue of making conclusions about GKs based on selection at such a young age (unless, perhaps, you have some baseline comparison data from other leagues/countries) is going to give you some difficult stuff to work with. You might consider widening your U20 study to look at every GK in a given cycle's pool to get a better sense of who was broadly considered among the best players in a given age grouping. (Even then it will be weighted toward the earlier birth year, but it's something...) Here's my U20 spreadsheet, which has more info -- including a column you can use to sort by GKs. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lfMvt087D65kHEJtitNuODh4dPgpKCQTi6Ae9VJ2c0g/edit?usp=sharing
Thanks Dave! Yes, I have been thinking about during a more analytics based analysis of how it has evolved (if it has). It is a huge chore so appreciate you sharing the spreadsheet. I always see folks making assertions one way or another, but I guess my love of the scientific method has me trying to evaluate based on data, as much as that is possible. Will look to continue this with GKs sometime this week and expand it to look at the broader pool.
Thanks for the response. I'm not a scientist, I love trying to challenge "common knowledge," especially in areas like this where there's not always clear, objective data to look at -- leaving lots of room for discussion of how best to study things in the first place. Happy to discuss this with you any time whether on BS or email, etc. At a really high level, I can tell you that the U20 program (if not the Finals roster) by and large catches most eventual U.S. World Cup roster players, especially those who are American-born and/or raised. Whether the specific number is actually high "enough," I don't know, since I haven't compared it to any other countries. Realistically I'm never going to examine this for any other country -- it's too much work. If I were retired, or even just sick for a while, I might expand my callup tracker to some other data sets, such as younger YNTs.