FYP. Confidence is high. Unless Taitague is trolling you for some strange reason, he's in. Pretty sad that we have to piece together rosters in this way. Many thanks for serving as our designated stalker.
@LandonDonovan2018 has confirmed that '02 Borussia Moenchengladbach midfielder Pablo Santana Soares will be part of the U17s for this camp. The US connection is unclear but he may be the son of a US serviceman. https://www.transfermarkt.com/pablo-santana-soares/profil/spieler/596377 Edit: '02 SC Freiburg midfielder Max Dietz has been called to the US U17s as well. It's been confirmed he has an American mother.
New Year = New Opportunity!👍 U20 @ussoccer_ynt begins Road to U20 World Cup today with 14 players who did not participate in the @concacaf Championship ... Camp is in FL through Jan 13th ... Assistants @onamazi @TMeola1 @FKlopas pic.twitter.com/vdXB0NWrs6— Tab Ramos (@RamosTab) January 4, 2019
It is good to see that Ferreira, Fernández and Keita were called, they are good prospects. The only surprise of the list in my opinion is Simon Becher, does anyone have any idea how he plays?
No idea on Simon Becher. Interesting to see Mark Salas of the FCD academy make the roster. He's been good at UNC, and has been on my radar for a potential homegrown signing. [His brother Martin Salas, also a USYNTer, has had bad luck with injuries.] So five FCD academy products here...............Ferreira, Pomykal, Cappis, Servania, and Salas. The absence of a 6th is worthy of mention. If Chris Richards was available, then he'd probably be at this camp. Transfer to Bayern imminent? Another surprisingly absent player? Andrew Carleton. Is he in some sort of global soccer purgatory? Has Ramos actually taken an extended look at Carleton for the U20s? I don't think so.
Holy Cross also seemed like a somewhat odd place for a YNT-type player to land, though Becher did end up leading the (losing) team in scoring as a freshman by a substantial margin. Wonder where he's headed, if the fact that he's listed as unattached means he's left.
By the way, the assistant coaches at the camp are interesting. Maybe I missed Omid Namazi being an assistant coach with this team. Would it surprise anybody if he ends up being Ramos' successor with the U20s? Not me. Also...............Frank Klopas? Wazut? A guy who was within a whisker of winning a CONCACAF Champions League is now an assistant on a US youth team. He is the kind of guy you could see US soccer naming as the U23 coach. Just throwing that out there
Taitague being included and not at winter training with Schalke must mean he is not in their plans at all. Injuries have really knocked him off his once promising trajectory. He is now on the Zelalem (injury stalled) or CCV (still young enough and not having broken through at a top club) track from last cycle. Will need to showcase at the U20 WC (if he can make the team) to get a loan or a move. Pretty disappointing considering he wasn't released for the last tournament AFAIK because they wanted him at Schalke. But these are the ups and downs of prospects and while our YNTs will lose a lot of players every cycle to pro clubs needing them, we will probably also pick up a few of these former hot prospects every cycle for the tournament.
Some quick data: We're now at 70 players this cycle (not counting age-eligible MNT-only guys) I count at least 47 professionals including the now-official GA guys (announcement went out earlier); there were 87 all of last cycle Ramos has issued 173 callups; there were 302 all of last cycle 42 '99s, 24 '00s, 4 '01s 9 GKs (most since 2013 cycle, when there were 11) Perry jumps out from the latest list as a guy who, for whatever reason, hasn't been involved in almost a year; of course, there's Lara, too https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lfMvt087D65kHEJtitNuODh4dPgpKCQTi6Ae9VJ2c0g/edit?usp=sharing
UCLA's Matt Hundley is indeed in for the US U19s, though he arguably should have been called for the U20s. About a week ago I saw something on Reyes' IG that hinted at a US callup, as with Lara, and apparently both were indeed called but Reyes was not released by Monterrey. When u don’t get released 😔— jacobo (@jacoboreyes00) January 4, 2019
This could be a good thing though. They could want him to be with the first team preparing for the next Liga MX season?? I think he made the bench one or two times last season
U17s are shaping up: Busio, Dietz, Fuentes, Gray, Imperato, Ocampo-Chavez, Odunze, Pepi, Reyna, Saldana, Santana Soares, van Hees, Yow. There are additional players like Alejandre, Las, Scally that you'd think are likely in but are fairly quiet when it comes to social media. Here's some more info on new U17 player Rickson van Hees, the Arizona native who plays for Dutch side NEC. https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/rickson-van-hees-at-n-e-c-nijmegen.2092461/ I had mentioned Danny Robles because he had flown in to Tampa with Lakewood Ranch close by, but perhaps it's coincidental and he's on vacation.
Durkin is listed as a defender. There are only two real CBs on the roster AFAIK (Keita and Rogers), so it seems like Ramos might be giving him a hard look on the back line. Is Mark Salas a right back?
Very importantly, this is actually the second Germany-based player named "Maximilian" called up during this U17 cycle. Follow the YA forum and (almost) never be surprised by a callup! And it's free!
Transfermarkt has Rickson van Hees as a midfielder, but also lists him as having played left back multiple times for NEC. The US has him as a defender.
How so? The only strange one for me there is why Julian Araujo is with the U19s and not U20s. Other than that, the U19s are usually a holding pen for kids we want to keep in the USYNT pool but aren't quite a part of the U20s. There are players amongst those U19s that have the ability with a really nice camp to push themselves into U20 reckoning. If players like Roberts, Sands, Watts, etc. play well...............then maybe they're moved up to the U20s next.
With strange I mean some names that are few recurrent. I like to see players like Palomino, Roberts, Aaronson, Araujo or Hundley in this call, but what I find strange is to see players like Sousa, Malone, Ferri, George or Terrazas. On the other hand, in the defense I think that Arteaga, Bailey or Ritaccio could have been called. The center in general I think it's good, but strange to see Goslin or Acosta and the forwards I think it's the worst, George is not a recurrent in the U-18 team and his numbers this season are low for a YNT call. I think that, instead of George, they could have summoned Hoppe, Gómez, Díaz, Stojanovic or without going so far to Issa Rayyan, who is one of the best freshmen. If you are right in saying that the U19 is used only as a base for the U20 team, but considering the good players who were born in 2000 and 2001, I think the list is a bit disappointing.
Durkin was moved from dmid to defender in final game of u17's which we lost with Durkin putting in the performance of a "dmid trying to re-adjust all his instincts for cb position". Tab did the same with EPB in the final game we lost, moving hi8m from dmid to cb. I'm getting tired of it. What's the point? Has MLS told him to move Durkin to cb so he will not go to Europe? The guy who plays good cb is Lindsey.