Are we hearing anything about Parks' future once this NYCFC season ends? Is NYCFC trying to obtain him on a permanent basis? If he returns to Benfica, then are they putting him with the first team? If he returns to Benfica then his involvement with this team is again questionable. What if they loan him out to a Euro team at which he's a first team player? Also worth pointing out that Jesus Ferreira has been playing almost exclusively as a midfielder with FCD for a while now. Not as a forward. He' might play as a forward with this U23 team due to the paucity of options there. But we might start thinking of him soon as more of a #10 type of playmaker. And that puts him in competition with some of the kids on your list there. Since July 4th, I think Ferreira has played only two games as a forward. All of the rest have been as an attacking midfielder. FCD won neither of those games that he started at forward. One was the lifeless and listless loss to Orlando.
Aside from the fact there was no option to buy, there's not been a lot of news on that front. Parks really seems to like NYCFC, but will Benfica's price be too high? Benfica's first team has been running a 4-4-2 exclusively while Keaton IMO is best in a 3 man midfield. 20 year old Florentino Luis has been very good as a more defensive midfielder, but they've had 3 other veteran midfielders rotating through that aren't impressive. He could have a shot there.
That is impressive data mining or recall. But, I did specifically rule out the back-door UCL entry from countries like Norway. Has anyone played 4-years of college soccer, play in the UCL, and get a cap for the USMNT?
That is a winner. But, world soccer and the level of player has changed quite a bit from 1990. I think much of the "Lost Generation", is that the type of player that can be developed in the NCAA was good enough in the 90s, and was not good enough by 2010. It is only recently that American players have skipped college in large numbers; it took that long for people to figure it out.
I've long thought this has been a problem in MLS. They are now willing to play young Americans more often, but not young keepers. Players like Vom Steeg and Marcinkowski have at times been the #2 keeper for teams with weak starters. In most other leagues, the team makes the transition from the weak starter to the young up and coming kid with potential. What do you have to lose? If your starter isn't good, if the young back up is slightly worse, are you going to lose a whole lot in a worst case scenario? The keepers in those age groups probably aren't a good generation of keepers, but I find it hard to believe that none of them are first division caliber players. Some will surely emerge eventually because keepers always emerge later, but I think that's besides the point.
Why? Is that his skill-set? I don't think the NT should be making decisions based on how club teams use players. Play them where their skill-set fits. Ferreira might not be a target forward style of #9. He's probably best used as a secondary striker, which in a lineup could look similar to how a #10 lines up, but tactically the role is very different, and I don't think Ferreira plays the position like a CAM as opposed to a SS. FCD can line him up as a #10, but he plays the position like a false 9 who plays more of a floating striker role than a main playmaker in the center of the field role.
I wrote a piece a while back on how the USL is essentially giving a new lifeline to American goalkeeping, as there are a number of young professional goalkeepers unlike we've ever seen before: https://www.everybodysoccer.com/eve...1/usl-expansion-is-saving-the-american-player TLDR: lots of young goalkeepers in USL While I would love for MLS to run with younger goalkeepers, I would prefer for MLS to trust the USL a little more so we'd see younger goalkeepers moving up. I mean, which MLS starters have a chunk of time in the second division? Vega has 74 appearances. Crepeau 61. Richey 57, Bush 51, Miller 35. Some backups have some time down there but for a 24 team league, there aren't a ton of Ameican goalkeepers coming out of the USL with two season's worth of appearances. Maybe that's changing. Hopefully MLS teams were paying attention when Josh Cohen went from Sacramento Republic to an Israeli Europa League club. Orlando brought in some USL guys and while they didn't get any first-team minutes really, it's still a positive sign. Attinella has crawled out of the NASL, against all odds. It feels like MLS is happy to have the USL as a little brother but (majority-wise) isn't going to his birthday party for a few more years.