U20 Trivia: Squad regulars who didn't "break through"

Okay, I think it's Johannsson and Chandler. Neither ever played for the USYNTs and the only players to make a WC squad born in 1990 or later are Diskerud, Brooks, Yedlin, and Green.

 

But Green did have USYNT appearances prior to World Cup selection.....................right? I know he had at least one U18 cap in the 2011/2012 timeframe. You're "too obvious exclusion" was quite cheeky!

Harrumph........................Johannsson seems like a great guess by Balerion. Seems right.

 

Only the potential embarrassment of providing the wrong answer!

Here's a trivia question for all.

Without cheating, who are the top 5 goalscorers in the history of the US U20s?

Hint: This is almost impossible if you don't already know the answer. I think there are about 3 people who regularly post on the youth boards that even have a chance without cheating. You're one of them, so good luck

 

Freddy Adu has got to be up there since he was eligible for so many cycles.

Are you counting just qualifiers and World Cups or friendlies, too?

 

This is everything.....................(keep in mind that I'm going by wikipedia).

Freddy Adu is indeed one of the 5. He's #2.

You're definitely on the right track. These are players that had to have been available for selection A LOT.

I'll provide a hint that you already know (others might not). The challenge is that many of our U17 stars and future USMNT goal-scorers either skipped over the U20s or weren't available. I believe Donovan, Dempsey, Altidore, Beasley, Convey, and Pulisic combined have fewer goals for the U20s than Will John.

4 of these 5 should be achievable. Without cheating nobody can get the 5th. I'll give a hint to apparently you alone, because DMN is out. Think early 90s and blowouts against Caribbean nations! This is really bordering on obscure even for us.

 

Yup. This is a player whose name at least 98% of the posters on the board wouldn't even recognize. The only hope is that a long-time youth watcher just happens to know it.

I'll give even a further hint for Sandon if it helps. The tempting answer for folks who know that era is Steve Snow, but its not him. Steve did have a pretty good scoring record for the U20s if I remember correctly. This is way more obscure. Its the 93 cycle, and he didn't make the 93 U20 World Cup team. Also not on the 92 Olympic team if that helps (it won't).

By the way, I was curious..................did Chris Henderson never play for the U20s? That one would be a surprise to me. I mean, he was getting full USMNT callups at 20. Wiki says no U20 appearances.

 

Romain Gall scored a ton of goals, but he was only around for one cycle so I’m not positive he’d make the cut.

 

A guy named Chris Faklaris scored a hat trick in a U20 World Cup in the early 90s. He played college ball at South Carolina and led them to an NCAA final but never did much as a pro and I don't think he ever played in MLS.

I wonder if he's on the list.

 

No......................even more obscure. You'd have to just know this.

Gall is indeed top 5.

There's an obvious one. Prolific goal scorer at the U17 and U20 level since 2000................golden shoe at a U20 World Cup.

 

We might as well provide his name to the folks here to see if anybody knows him.
It's Scott Kennedy from the 93 cycle..........................

I did a google search for him about a week ago now and there is a high school coach in California of apparently some distinction by that name:

https://www.sfgate.com/preps/article/COACH-ON-A-MISSION-Academics-the-key-to-2485365.php

Something else I learned about Mission High School. Alma Mater of Lothar Osiander................who was a USYNT coach, when? 88-1992 Olympic soccer coach for one. Famous for calling Steve Snow a "cocky twerp" while coaching that team !

I'm putting pieces together for a puzzle that doesn't exist.

 

Don't think it's the same guy as these links say he was in the Marines after high school and make no mention of any U20 appearances.

https://www.internationalsf.org/page.cfm?p=619&teamID=134&display=Coaches
https://goodmenproject.com/families/boys/mission-soccer/

I had never heard of this cat. You could have given me 100 guesses and I'd never have gotten it. Great trivia question and I would argue that while be a puzzle that doesn't exist, it's definitely a feature story begging to be written.

 

We might as well give the top 5

1) Brek Shea
2) Freddy Adu
3) Romain Gall
4) Scott Kennedy
5) Eddie Johnson

Folks got Adu and Gall. Eddie Johnson was the obvious guy, cuz he was a monster at the youth levels. Shea and Johnson were available as MLS youngsters and got many chances. Both drafted by FC Dallas as GenAd teens....................of course.

I have no interest in doing the research, but I wonder which MLS club would be the current holder of the title "most U20 callups for rostered 1st team players." In other words players who got U20 callups while they were on the first team roster. DCU, NYRB/Metrostars, FCD, LAG? It would take a lot of work.

 

His full name is Javan Rene Torre Howell, so I'm guessing that, in Latin tradition, his father's last name is "Torre" and his mother's last name is "Howell."