YNT-eligible lower-division pro players: 2018 In-season thread

The announcers mentioned nothing at all about it being an own goal, so unless they were completely wrong, its a goal from Carleton. It looked on target, as well.

 

He hasn’t been credited with a goal yet on the USL website, but maybe that’s due to the weather postponement as the game isn’t finished? Who knows.

I thought he played very well. Scored/forced the goal, had some great cross field switches of play, a plethora of great touches to open up space, and minimized turnovers. Everything good offensively ran through him.

 

It was a fairly obvious OG...

The wait was worth it 😉 pic.twitter.com/OrIww68uDL

— ATL UTD 2 (@atlutd2) June 17, 2018

 

It looks on target. It can’t be an OG.

Regardless, it doesn’t really matter. It’s not like it’s the difference between him playing well or not in this match or that this match does him much good towards the first team. He could be the USL MVP and he still wouldn’t play.

 

It very obviously a cross being squared across goal, I don’t think even Andrew Carlton himself would claim otherwise.

Goal or OG it doesn’t matter at all, I just think it’s indicative of a bigger problem of your arguments involving AC; they tend to be a little sensationalist. I agree with a lot of what you say about Atlanta’s handling of the situation, but you’ve gotta be able to be objective when facts are staring you in the face. Otherwise it weakens your whole platform.

 

Matt Doyle brings up a interesting point in his potential 2026 World Cup USMNT article: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018/06/19/armchair-analyst-well-you-asked-it-2026-usmnt-roster

He asks: "Here's a question: How much does it matter with regard to his development that Monarchs (currently atop the USL standings at 11-3-1) go out there and try to win, while Los Dos (3-7-4) and Atlanta United 2 (2-7-5) are terrible? My own take is that I don't think it's an accident that NYRBII – who've won a USL title, and are contenders every year – have been the most successful USL team at producing top-tier talent thus far. My hope is that Carleton and Mendez overcome that handicap."

Wonder what people think? It's tough to say how much of an impact that has since MLS 2 teams are still relatively new. But who knows, maybe because AUFC 2 is so bad and disorganized that Carleton gets in a bad habit of trying to do too much with the ball? That's purely hypothetical of course and I am leaning towards that being a part of a bad MLS 2 isn't a "handicap", but I dunno.

 

There was a big discussion a while back about this in the breakout youngster thread, so I'm just gonna quote myself.

 

I have said this numerous times, but young players playing for a team that can’t compete can’t be ideal for development especially for anything outside defenders and goalkeepers.

Ideally you would build a quality team around your featured youth. You can get your fridge youth players minutes here and there, but throwing st a team of 5 academy players to get railroaded helps nobody.

The team doesn’t need to be top of the table, but it needs to be better than S2, T2 and Los Dos have been in previous years.

Los Dos this year is just good enough to not be a big deal, but ATL2 is below the line although they should be better based on their parts.

 

D3 should be a good option for the weaker MLS2 teams.

 

Its hard to figure out what the best strategy, but I don't think its so straightforward.

Is it easier for individual young players to stand out in a veteran team that is good? Yes, I think so. But teams like Atlanta, Dallas, LA have more than 2-3 academy age players that they need to try out, so its really not a good option to do what a club like RSL is doing. RSL's strategy works because they pretty much only have Ledezma, Soto, Mendoza as academy players in '99 or '00 that they'd want to test out.

And its worth mentioning that the good players will do better than the bad players, whether the team is good or the team is bad. USL is a development league, so you don't need them to play great or never make errors. You are looking for improvement and looking for whether they have ability that will play in MLS. From there, you make your determinations about the players in your academy that got a chance. Some should be signed to a pro contract, and others should be allowed to go play college soccer.

Take the example on Atlanta's team of Crain vs. Edwards. Both of them have played with a lot of bad footballers around them, and weren't in an ideal development situation. The difference is that Edwards looks completely lost, Crain looks inconsistent. The good players will show something, those who aren't good won't even show nice sequences of good play. They'll be way out of their depth, and I think its good for teams with 5-10 YNT level players in their U-19 squad to be able to try these guys out, and see what they show. You really don't need them to be great, but you want to know how these players will do against pro competition.

 

With so much turnover for lower level teams, how do you decide what are the weaker teams and what are the stronger teams? Could it fluctuate to much from year to year or from regime to regime within that same org?

 

I suspect player availability hurts S2 somewhat.

Big academy tournaments, us call ups, etc.

I think you definitely need to strike a balance. You need some experience on the field. Call-ups and injuries have some of that experience being played out of position for S2.

If they can keep these kids in S2 for a good four years before either selling or signing to the first team you start to build some of that within.

Sounders want to keep S2 in division 2 I think.

T2 isn't playing as many academy kids if my memory is correct?

 

Yeah I think I agree with what most people are saying that there needs to be a balance between a team of all youngsters and some veterans.

Although I think a issue that I know AUFC2 faces and maybe some other MLS 2 sides face, is lineup consistency. I mean AUFC2 has used 31 players this year through 14 games!! That kind of turnover is not good for having a team gel. I think if they should have 7 starters who play every week and then 4 players who are either coming down from ATL (like Carleton) or some backups/youth players.

 

Yup. And as the quality of the independent teams in the USL grows, its going to be increasingly difficult for MLS II teams to be competitive. MLS reserve teams aren't interested in results, but they also dont' want their youngsters to go out there and get curb-stomped.

The current top 13 clubs in Group A of the USL.
You got NYRBII and Bethlehem hanging on with ~0.500 records, but the MLS reserve teams are anchoring the division below this even. There has to be a realization amongst USL leadership that there are teams trying to win and teams not actually trying to win here.....................(not that MLS clubs aren't "trying to win." Its just not their primary goal.) Teams whose primary mission isn't to win games should be in D3.

 

I can see your reasoning but I also wonder how that would affect the development of the top MLS prospects that perhaps aren't quite ready for MLS, for at least a prominent MLS role, but might be quality D2 players. Would it be better for them to play at the D2 level? There is enough consternation about Carlton, for instance, imagine if he were playing in D3?

Another possible approach would be to gear the MLS reserve sides for the top prospects and try to create .500 D2 teams by filling in the missing pieces with veteran quality D2 players. I agree that getting "curb stomped" isn't the best approach but am not sure that the only response is to lower the level of the competition. Some of the players in the system should be able to compete at the D2 level.

Ideally, there would be a team in D2 AND D3 but realize that is not feasible....at least not for quite some time. Perhaps when the USL D3 does materialize, some of the players that aren't quite ready for USL2 could be loaned out to partner clubs (I know it hasn't worked too well to this point with USLD2, but it may be better than nothing). I just think that the MLS clubs would get more out of focusing on the development of their top players, but it would still be in their interests to continue working with players that have potential to be MLS quality players. Would it be better to have guys like Carlton, Servainia, Ferreira playing at D2 or D3? (I'm not really qualified to answer this but my guess is that it would be better to have them at D2).

 

Kuzain scores a banger.

We see you, @LeKuz7! 👀🔥

It's 3-1 in Kansas!#SPRvLV pic.twitter.com/jdX5U5XI5N

— USL Championship (@USLChampionship) June 24, 2018

 

Some other notes from the two Sunday USL games:

• Weirdly (because he's been around for quite a while), Christian Herrera made his professional debut for SPR
• Little known '97 keeper Angel Alvarez seems to have won the Las Vegas starting job. He's now started the last two games - and hey, it didn't seem like there was much to be done about that Kuzain FK!
• James Murphy made his first appearance for Las Vegas on loan from LAFC
• Academy CM Roman Knox '99 has been playing fairly consistently for SPR in the last month or so.
• Tommy Redding was an unused sub again. One is forced to speculate whether there is something going on off the field with him.
• Felipe Hernandez '98 sure has an unusual playing time-to-prospect chatter ratio. He's now appeared in over 40 USL games.

 

Brandon Servania started for Tulsa yesterday as well.

Here is TRFC's Starting XI for tonight's match in California against @orangecountysc. Kickoff is at 9:00 p.m. CDT. #OCvTUL pic.twitter.com/rp2SfVSn44

— FC Tulsa (@FCTulsa) June 24, 2018

By the way, another FCD youngster is having a really nice breakout USL season. @CANPRO will be happy that its Adonijah Reid.

64' GOAAAALLLL 🔥🔥🔥

Throw your caps! @King_Nijah adds his third of the game and completes the hat trick!

NY 0 | OTT 3 pic.twitter.com/6DuuySoqh1

— Ottawa Fury FC (@OttawaFuryFC) June 24, 2018

By the way, I noticed '98 Ryley Kraft on the bench for Oklahoma FC this weekend as well. I don't think he's gotten into a first team game with them this season, but he must be close.

Here’s how the guys line up tonight against Los Dos! We’re just a few minutes from kickoff, so if you’re not at Taft, here’s the stream:

📺 https://t.co/O9j6yPic0X#OKCvLA | #ForCityAndClub pic.twitter.com/QaMMcJ6hst

— Energy FC (@EnergyFC) June 24, 2018

 

I feel like somebody else has mentioned it, but I couldn't find it. What is Hernandez's citizenship deal? I know he was born in Colombia, but is he USYNT eligible?

 

SKC claimed he has dual citizenship in the signing announcement.

https://www.sportingkc.com/post/201...-midfielders-felipe-hernandez-and-will-little

 

@Clint Eastwood re: Adonijah Reid - I haven't watched him lately, but he was the best youth player age 15-16 that I've ever seen in Canada. He played on teams with Alphonso Davies and looked more dangerous than Alphonso.

Good to see him score. He has good physical tools and a nose for goal that is natural.