Of possible interest, some video/audio of Coach Tskakiris: The mission: Bring home a 🏆Go inside U-16 BNT training as we mic'd up head coach Shaun Tsakiris. pic.twitter.com/6CAgGvwaCU— U.S. Soccer YNT (@USYNT) April 17, 2018
It's a funnel. But each level of the funnel matters. So let's just say that, in a perfect world (and this is certainly debatable) the goal is to get an extremely high percentage of the best players into MLS academies, which are presumably free with the ability to accept players regionally/nationally. The level below that is, I guess, lower-division pro club academies and/or non-MLS DA clubs -- even though they might compete against the MLS clubs. (You can see why this is debatable.) The level below that is high-level non-DA soccer, then regional/state, then local. All of these levels need to function and be connected. It's not enough to just expect the best guys to be picked at 12 and then they'll all get "developed." And there needs to be allowances for surprises, late bloomers, mistakes, exceptions, etc., at every level, perhaps even up to the YNT level. Not lecturing you in particular. Just thinking about how this works as the system currently sets out.
We're on the same page. It just doesn't surprise me that so many of a U16 team would be at MLS DA clubs. To some degree MLS clubs are the entities doing the scouting of these regional/state/local teams and recruiting these youngsters. A USYNT scout probably isn't down in El Paso watching youth soccer there very often. But FCD seems to be.......................
I suppose. I do wonder what the right expectation (I don't mean at a particular camp, but over the course of the program) for that ratio should be. It seems logical that it should move in favor of pro/MLS clubs as players get older and the "bigger clubs" have more time to evaluate and recruit.
I've watched a lot of 2003s in the SW -- DA, ECNL, elite random state teams. This includes quite a few looks at national team players players in national team camps. The differences between the national team players and top players on an ECNL or a state team are often not apparent or very, very slim. It is much closer, at least to me, than one might imagine. The US coaches, IMO FWIW, should keep looking in the ECNL and top state teams for players. I saw in the Dallas Cup, for example, that Tuzos, a random top team in AZ, beat two DA academies (Lonestar and Solar), tied UANL Tigres, and then lost to Albion DA 1-0. Those are not MLS academies, but it shows a very good state team can play with normal DAs without a problem. My point is that MLS academies are scouted non-stop. That is fine. However, hardly anyone is scouting state teams. They scout ECNL some. There are still lots of extremely good players floating around outside the MLS DA or regular DA. Selecting MLS DA players to such a degree is easy to do (everyone knows everyone it seems), but the imbalance does not reflect reality.
Just so we're on the same page, Tuzos Arizona is a youth affilate of Liga MX powerhouse Pahcuca. I don't know how much assistance, if any, they get from Pachuca..................but that is in fact the case. I believe there are three kids from that club at the current U14 USYNT camp in California. I often say that the gap between the non-star UYSNTer and the really good youth player anywhere in this country is slim. But you have to scouted and you have to have a good day when the scouts happen to be watching. The Dallas Cup happens to be one of those tournaments when kids from outside of the power structure within DFW can get noticed. There's a long history of that...........Jose Francisco Torres, Edgar Castillo, etc. Of course, they were noticed by Liga MX scouts!
2003s are U15 here is everything except the YNT structure. These teams work on a two year cycle. These boys will stay U16 next year as well, and then age right into the U18 program.
That's the way USSF works, so if you are going to call the 02's the U-17's at the beginning of a cycle and the 99's the U-20's, everything has to be adjusted accordingly. Instead of adjusting it every year, they do so based around the U-17 WC and the U-20 WC cycles. There's no actual difference in what the teams are compared to other countries, just called something different.
While investigating if the upcoming U-16 matches at the Torneo delle Nazioni might be streamed, I found these from the video archive, although posted fairly recently.
Thank you Top row: Krenecki, Leyva, Don't know, Stoup, Bohui? Bottom row: Toure, Casas, Don't know, Sealy, Cuevas, Miscic
Toure (I think) just had a very long, like from beyond half field, run down the left flank. You couldn't see if he had any options but ultimately he ran out of space and the GK ended the play as he tried to cross from pretty close to the goal. I'm not watching closely, but we're winning 1-0 just shy of the 30 minute mark. When I've been able to tune in, the match has not been of particularly high quality.
Seconded. There might be someone who can say who a bright spot it, but I wouldn't particularly say either team has been great
Is the game over? I forgot about this because I didn't think there would be a stream. I don't see anything on Udinese.tv right now other than a news conference.
I believe the "don't know" on the top row is Walls and the "don't know" on the bottom row is Sorenson. I agree that the question mark is Bohui. Would probably mean the lineup looked something like this Krenecki Cuevas-Walls-Stoup-Sorenson Casas-Leyva Miscic Sealy-Toure-Bohui CB's could be switched as could the wingers, depending on L-R.