YNT-eligible NASL/USL players: 2017/18 offseason thread

I love seeing the USL teams sign underclassmen.

 

Yeah, I remember Austin signed Mikey Ambrose a year early and made a pretty big deal about it.

He's in MLS now so it worked out OK for him.

In Waldrep's case, he can still take classes at the same school since he isn't leaving town to go pro. Academically, assuming the club or his parents can/will pay tuition, he isn't taking much of a risk so there's not much to lose.

Imagine if Louisville's USL team went after the underclassmen at U of L or Ky. or if NC went after some of the talent from the Triangle schools.

 

Ray Serrano signs a pro contract w/ Sounders 2 -

At just 15, Ray Serrano becomes the youngest signing in club history.

He scored 17 goals and had 6 assists in 17 games for the U-17s this season. pic.twitter.com/JaYY1qXQ1J

— Seattle Sounders FC (@SoundersFC) February 14, 2018

 

I was just coming to post this.
He travelled with the 1st team for preseason and got some decent time in preseason games.

He comes from where I grew up in Spokane. Playing with Spokane Sounders. Aka Spokane Shadow. Which their top teams used to be the Skyhawks before rebranding the youth teams to the Shadow which was a relatively successful PDL team which has now been reformed in the local EPLWA league.

 

He wasn't all that impressive with the U17s but he did alright in preseason.

 

I think Ocampo-Chavez and Atencio would've been better signings, but maybe they didn't want to sign.

 

Sounders have 4 signings direct to S2 from the academy.

It all depends on the player and their family.
Mansaray signed direct to the first team but was moved on.

Others have played a few years in college before signing.

Sounders still help with tuition and schooling after signing the academy players to contracts.

 

One thing I've noticed with the kids who turn pro early in the US, either in HS or college underclassmen, is a disproportionate number of them are Hispanic, African-American and/or immigrants or the children of immigrants.

I would guess over half of the players who turn pro before 4 years of college fall into one of those groups but aren't nearly that much in terms of the overall numbers of kids who play.

So the inference there is that cultural and economic issues factor in rather bigly in influencing which kids turn pro early.

This isn't to suggest that middle-class white kids don't also turn pro early. They do. And it's not to suggest that there aren't Hispanic, African-American or immigrant families that are of means or who greatly emphasize education over sport.

Because we know there are.

But if you look at the GA classes and the kids who take homegrown deals or who leave school early for a long-shot in Europe or Mexico or the USL, a lot of times that player is either a minority or an immigrant or immigrant's child.

 

It is important to remember that college soccer is a partial scholarship sport, so unless you are extremely good then chances are high that you are picking up some of the tuition bill. A tuition bill that is rather steep even if you only have to pay 1/3 of the costs.

Also the better the program the even better you have to be to get a larger scholarship coupled with out-of-state tuition being higher it can be a financial burden to attend a quality program.

You are lower-SES and you are looking at a USL deal plus college assistance at a local school that is probably mediocre versus a 2/3 full ride to say SMU and the USL deal looks pretty better than middle or high-SES evaluating the same offer especially since most of those type of families probably put an overemphasis on the value of a college degree from a good school versus NH online.

 

https://www.dirtysouthsoccer.com/20...-united-2-continue-to-add-to-inaugural-roster

Anyone know anything about Laurent Kissiedou and if he is close to citizenship? I’ve seen a few things about how he’s from the Ivory Coast but came from the Atlanta United Academy. He was with Charleston Battery with Okwonko as academy players at some point last season too. Interesting to see Atlanta signing more academy players regardless.

 

I hope he is. The ATL2 and Atlanta 1st team scrimmaged each other for a bit he was great.

964367112717320193 is not a valid tweet id

 

Quick feet. ATL2 looks like they are gonna be just as entertaining as the first team.

 

https://www.socceramerica.com/publi...aign=18666&hashid=KKzyfLDjtlWkffH1g6Ao4aF3IlM

NASL loses it’s appeal (to the surprise of no one). There are still some options but “circling the drain” would not be a bad way to describe the league right now. Unfortunately, a lot of potential jobs lost for players.

 

Bello and Kunga started for ATL 2 in a scrimmage against GA state/Furman -

GOAL LAGOS KUNGA! Terrific counterattack started by Bello. Kunga did very well to cut through State’s backline and score. 1-0 AU2 in the 18th.

— Dirty South Soccer (@DirtySouthSoc) February 24, 2018

Guys. Bello’s pretty darn good. Just turned 16 and absolutely no fear in him. Has started a counter on multiple occasions with precision passing.

— Dirty South Soccer (@DirtySouthSoc) February 24, 2018

26’: Terrific buildup play. Bello finds Samuel with the through pass, Samuel crosses it into the box, Kunga nearly finds the back of the net again

— Dirty South Soccer (@DirtySouthSoc) February 24, 2018

Both came off in the middle of the 2nd half

 

I don't think there's a youngster at Atlanta who's situation they are handling correctly. Busio had well over 100 preseason minutes, Bello had like 10. Kunga had 0 first team minutes in preseason, and is unlikely to see any during the season.

Can't find confirmation, but I'm pretty sure this guy is an '01. He should get a contract soon.

U17 and greatest name in the world Vixamar has impressed today. He’ll look to earn PT for AU2 this season.

— Dirty South Soccer (@DirtySouthSoc) February 24, 2018

Speaking of Vixamar...GOAL VIXAMAR! In the 44’, 2-0 AU2!

— Dirty South Soccer (@DirtySouthSoc) February 24, 2018

 

Wait so after less than a half of preseason soccer, Carleton gets left out of an AU2 scrimmage? When is the next preseason game?

 

I’ll be a big boy and look myself. Today at 7:30 Eastern, against Charleston.

 

Allegedly, today’s game for ATL will be a reserve team, so Carleton should/better get minutes.

 

It seems like ATL played the least number of games this preseason out of all MLS teams. Dumb considering they have a bunch of solid prospects that could actually use the playing time.

 

I was pleasantly shocked at Busio’s time in preseason. I don’t think we’ll see him in MLS this season, but Vermes showed a lot more confidence in him than I expected, so maybe he can get some swope park minutes.

 

Carleton gets the start at the 10.

https://twitter.com/ATLUTD/status/967547167555637249?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet