YNT-eligible NASL/USL players -- 2017 In-season thread

I think the biggest discussion point for us on these youth boards is the significant difference in "mission statements" amongst the current members of the USLPro. There are the Cincinnati's and Sacramento's with their large fan bases and for whom the primary mission is to win games and trophies. Then you go all the way down to Los Dos. That club believes its had a successful campaign if they've provided a lot of playing time and opportunities for youngsters. Success is the advancement of those youngsters to the MLS squad; not winning games and trophies. They probably don't care if they finish dead last in the league with zero attendance as long as their primary mission of player development is achieved. So the question really is how to create a league in which all of these competing agendas thrive...........................

 

Not much there, but at least they come across as knowing what they're doing. NASL and Peter Wilt need to get their act together quickly and combine in a DIII before the USL closes out that market.

 

I think that it will grow to larger than 100 teams with time. England has nearly 100 professional teams and a ton of semi-professional and amateur teams in a much smaller country. I am not saying that we should be like them, just that we have a ton of room for growth over time.

I like steady, deliberate growth though. Take your time and do it right. USL seem to be the best suited to handle this monumental task.

For what it's worth, they have been talking about this extensively on SiriusXM FC. Some of the NASL folks have been talking about US Soccer people conspiring with USL and MLS folks to throw NASL under the bus in a "behind the scenes", unspoken deal of convenience to the parties involved.

The response to this is that NASL taking US Soccer to court after US Soccer had done them a favor and granted them provisional division II status certainly wouldn't have helped in terms of trust and good will between NASL and US Soccer. When it was clear that NASL wasn't going to be anywhere near meeting division II standards this coming year, US Soccer decided to let everybody know the decision early so they could have plenty of time to adjust accordingly before the upcoming season.

Who knows what really happened but that was what a reporter who talks to all of the parties involved suggested. It is all speculation at this point. This version would certainly be consistent with NASL's confrontational problem solving approach, though. Like I said, who knows.

 

#LosDos and @LAGalaxyAcademy youngster Efra Alvarez trained with the #LAGalaxy today. He did not look out of sorts with the first team.

— Adam Serrano (@AdamSerrano) September 7, 2017

 

#LosDos Subs: Sneddon, Sepulveda, Jo. Hernandez, Estrada, Alvarez pic.twitter.com/dpcSljupzm

— LA Galaxy II (@LAGalaxyII) September 10, 2017

'02 former USYNT Efrain Alvarez is on the bench for LA Galaxy II for the first time in USL play. Joined by YNTers '00 Jonathan Estrada and '01 Leonardo Sepulveda. '99 YNT Eric Lopez continues to start in goal, though I wouldn't be surprised if Justin Vom Steeg takes it away from him soon.

 

The Lopez/Vom Steeg dynamic is going to be very interesting. By nearly all accounts, Lopez has been very good recently. He's only 18 years old (he's younger than Donnarumma for example), and while he's not some world level prodigy, he's progressing really well. Keepers usually develop later than field players, yet at 18 years old, he's a decent USL keeper. One would think that with another year or so of USL action, he could be ready to take the step up to the MLS level. Not all that many field players get a chance in MLS at age 20, would be very impressive if a keeper did.

If Vom Steeg enters the picture at LAG, what does that mean for Lopez? If Vom Steeg does well, that pretty much spells the end for Lopez with LA. They are two years apart in age, so not really some big difference. Lopez will be waiting for years before he's given a chance at the starting keeper spot, if Vom Steeg is good, so US fans are put in a situation where we gotta pick one or the other, both probably can't be big successes with LA, unless Vom Steeg earns the LA starting job next season, does an incredible job, and then leaves to Europe within a year or two. Rarely are there situations like this when Americans are in such direct competition with little wiggle room to the competition. The lack of trades within MLS, lack of ability to request a transfer to another MLS team really makes this situation even worse. Chances are one of the two is going to get a raw deal.

 

Lopez has been one of the bright spots for GII but I think he's a long way from being an MLS starter. He's an acceptable USL keeper but some of the keepers I've seen with the other USL teams (when they play the Galaxy) have looked better and he's still behind all three of the first team keepers, and they are borderline MLS starters. Maybe he improves by leaps and bounds in a year, but that seems pretty optimistic.

 

Plus.................it wouldn't surprise me if the Galaxy go out and sign a veteran keeper for next season. Could they, for instance, sign a Chris Seitz or Zac MacMath. Both may be better than the guys they've been giving starts to.

There are going to be a bunch of guys oft that ilk that are going to be left unprotected in the expansion draft. Clubs may be willing to deal on the cheap instead of the guys leaving for nothing in that expansion draft.

 

Barbir signs for Whitecaps 2:

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Imagine all the posts on Youngesters In MLS Thread has Barbir signed a HGP deal with the Union versus the deal with Man City. MLS/Union/Coaches getting skewered for not playing a player that just signed with USL at age 19.

 

Leo Sepulveda '01 gets the start for Los Dos tonight, his USL debut. Lopez, Jon. Hernandez, Vera, Estrada, and Zubak also in the lineup. Sneddon, Arteaga, Jor. Hernandez, Mendez, and Llanez on the bench.

 

Macon seems like the type of city that could conceivable have a DIII team. The city itself is roughly 100,000 and the surrounding 30 miles there are another 150,000 plus. This is about the same as Wilmington and a little smaller than Harrisburg.

Statesboro only has 30,000 and really doesn't have much of anything around it. It is home to Georgia Southern University, which has 18,000 students. They have a PDL team, so perhaps it is well supported and that is promoting the owners to explore DIII.

Savannah is an hour away and it the type of market that could have a DIII team. You start putting team in Statesboro, GA and you could conceivable put teams anywhere.

 

Yeah I went to GSU and there is absolutely nothing happening in Statesboro during the summer. However, the Georgia Tormenta team there has been "successful" with attendance and getting people to talk about it. Also, Savannah is about 45 minutes to a hour away, so I think people would travel from Savannah to see a team. However, Statesboro's population in the summer is tiny because maybe a couple thousand students stay there and the standalone population without the university is pretty small. It's a risk, but I think it might be a little better of a pick than Macon only because Savannah is close.

 

Statesboro feels like a big reach. The South Georgia Tormenta guy is talking about a 5k stadium in Statesboro, which is so small it isn't even on the Census list of Metropolitan Statistical Areas? Bulloch County has 70,000 people; can you really count on a meaningful number of people driving an hour each way from Savannah?

Where are the fans going to come from? I don't see it being successful when burdened with the payroll of a professional club.

 

It looks like the PDL team was bringing in over 2,000 fans a game in its first season, which is more than a few USL markets. You could make a USL III team work at that attendance level, so I can see why the owner would explore moving up to DIII.

The owner of the club also owns a 64 acre sports complex and wants to build the stadium in the complex in conjunction with office and retail, so it sort of looks like it is a combination of a soccer, real estate, drive people to his other businesses on the property play. Also can host other events out on his property like other SSS, which is in his pitch.

I think this owner might have the right formula to make a market like Statesboro work because of the unique circumstances with his property, but most 30,000 population towns like it would be a stretch. It could also be fools gold and that the initial surge of attendance drops off once the team is established and isn't new. Easier to pull 2000 fans for a 7 game home season when it is new and has a lot of buzz than a 15 game home season year after year, which is necessary for long-term sucess.

It will be interesting to follow if that type of market can have sucess.

 

FWIW the owner also used to work in the Olympics and with different international federations for baseball, so he has a good knowledge of how to run a sports team.

 

In a move that had to surprise nobody, NASL has filed an anti-trust lawsuit against US Soccer. I guess they will slug out our young prospects futures in the courtroom now.

 

http://www.nasl.com/news/2017/09/19...suit-against-united-states-soccer-federation-

And for the hard core folks that want to read the entire lawsuit (because some of us have that much passion for youth national team prospects) -

https://www.scribd.com/mobile/document/359361983/Anti-Trust

Enjoy,

 

http://soccer.nbcsports.com/2017/09...suit-against-united-states-soccer-federation/
NBCSports take on it. One interesting quote -

"The NASL and fourth-tier NPSL took the bold step of filing a claim against FIFA, CONCACAF, and the USSF with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, asking that the United States be forced to implement a promotion/relegation structure."

I hadn't realized that NPSL was joining NASL to file a claim against CONCACAF and.FIFA in addition to the USSF.

Unfortunately for NPSL and NASL, even those of us who like promotion/relegation don't think that it is a fiscally responsible thing to do while all of the leagues are developing and stablizing. It will be a good idea one day, but right now it is a slogan for people who aren't looking at the landscape realistically.

Does NASL really want to enter into promotion/relegation with NPSL who are basically an off-season league for college players? Of course not. I haven't read the lawsuit yet, but I am beginning to get the impression that it may be a joke.

 

Okay. Still a joke.

 

When you've reached the long-shot lawsuit to survive, stage. It's all but over.

Granted, it was all but over anyway, even with D-2 sanctioning. But, this lawsuit just shows how much of a thread the NASL is hanging on by.