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

Minutes leaders:

810 - Lamar Batista '98, T2
720 - *Samual Rogers '99, S2
644 - Augustine Williams '97, T2
608 - Pierre da Silva '98, OCB
597 - Ethan Zubak '98, LAG II
540 - Hugo Arellano '98, LAG II
540 - Auston Trusty '98, Bethlehem
444 - Jackson Yueill '97, Reno
429 - Adrian Vera '97, LAG II
426 - Shandon Hopeau '98, S2
405 - Erik Palmer-Brown '97, SPR
381 - *Ian Lonergan '99, LAG II
364 - *Alex Juarez '98, LAG II
359 - *Blake Bodily '98, T2
322 - Abuchi Obinwa '97, Pittsburgh
295 - Ryley Kraft '98, OCB
293 - Collin Fernandez '97, Tulsa
270 - Chris Durkin '00, Richmond
270 - Marco Farfan '98, T2
270 - Robert Castellanos '98, LAG II
270 - Mark McKenzie '99, Bethlehem
245 - Felipe Hernandez '98, SPR
242 - Harold Hanson '99, T2
226 - *Kevin O'Toole '98, NYRB II
224 - Lorenzo Ramos '97, S2
220 - Amirgy Pineda '97, Orange County
208 - Coy Craft '97, OKC
180 - Jeremy Ebobisse '97, T2
180 - Bennett Sneddon '97, LAG II
177 - Devin Vega '98, San Antonio
175 - Victor Mansaray '97, Cincinnati
165 - *Wan Kuzain Wan Kamal '98, SPR
159 - *Jorge Hernandez '00, LAG II
125 - *Jacob Montes '98, T2
104 - Ben Swanson '97, Pittsburgh

Plus another 19 guys between 0 and 100 minutes.

 

The Gals lost 3-0 to the Monarchs. In keeping with the 1st team's trending Los Dos are in last place in the West. It's nice that they're giving time to youngsters, but unfortunately I see many of these players as having a USL ceiling. I guess Galaxy management is hoping that some of them will actually develop into MLS level players. I've mentioned elsewhere that the LAG DA has far too many players that show soccer ability and instincts early on but have limited ceilings, mainly due to lack of size, quickness and athleticism.

A prime example is Jose Villarreal. When I watched him as a U18 DA player he was clearly the one player on that team that was most pro ready. However, he was physically maxed out, and has done very little since.

 

Of the 35 players on this list, LAG II has 8 and T2 has 7. Between them, that is 43% of the total. No surprise that those two teams are in the cellar of the USL Western Conference.

Ideally these two teams---given their choices on how to stock their USL teams---would be D3, but the soccer landscape in the US is not quite ready for that yet.

 

Whoops - I transposed the Portland 2 score last from Wed onto the LA game.

 

I saw an blog earlier this year lamenting RBII for not going for a more prospect heavy approach last year despite winning the Shield/Cup. RBII has basically had a lot of younger USL retreads who the team hoped would turn into the next Christian Ramirez type, but basically all just turned into USL players. They also had their draft picks, but was light on prospects. Some truth to that argument although RBII played a decent amount of prospect compared to other MLS teams. They just don't sign them.

The other end of the spectrum is teams like Los Dos and T2 who are primarily just playing a lot of prospects in hopes that a couple of the players swim and become MLS players, but the other side of that coin is you are playing lots of players who likely won't even amount to USL players, so you end up taking a lot of beatings. Debatable that getting beat 0-4 and 0-3 is really good for development long-term.

Right now you got the Monarchs with older guys that have played in MLS like Chandler Hoffman and Sebastian Velasquez that going against a defense comprised basically entirely of HS prospects. Turns into a beating quickly and doesn't allow the attacking unit to really get any good reps either. Probably not the best mix.

 

Perhaps the Galaxy should have a Los Tres also. They are one of the teams that has traditionally spent big in every aspect senior team and academy. Why not a D2 and D3 team?

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Real Monarchs start integrating a few more youngsters when their academy makes the move back to UT from AZ. Right now there's a big geographic disconnect that keeps the two entities separate.

 

Right now that model doesn't exist, so you are forced to do one or the other or a hybrid.

Long-term I think the optimal pyramid is:

Div 1 - MLS
Div 2 - MLS affiliated team in a separate market with separate owners
Div 3 - MLS owned U20 Developmental team.

I envision it like the set-up in Germany. U20 is your top prospects by and large and the wholly owned by the MLS team. Your developmental emphasis goes into those clubs. The best players will simple skip straight to MLS from the U20s. The prospects that need a little seasoning would be loaned to your Div 2 affiliate team. The rest of Div 2 would be younger players and career journeymen chasing a dream and a paycheck. Those salaries would be paid for by the local owner. NASL would role into Div 2.

 

You are probably right.

They have a handful of prospects that could play on a USL level for sure down in AZ. Their talent pipeline is Top 3rd in MLS for sure, which is surprising for a market like Salt Lake, but a testament to their approach and scouting.

 

A number of Galaxy players seem to be caught at the wrong level. A number of the LAGII players should be in division 3, but on the other side, there are a number of young players who are providing depth for the senior team which results in them sitting on the bench too much.

I do have to say that I'm disappointed with the young players at LAGII in the same way as Peretz48. I think of it as we have a team full of "A-" prospects who can dominate the local youth teams full of B players, but we're not generating enough A and A+ players who can make it to the next level.

But the other thing I wonder is if Munoz is having trouble coaching. It's one thing to play well with dominant players but it's another thing to perform well when you're an underdog.

 

Is it just a temporary choice though? If I remember correctly, G2 was a pretty good team last year. They also had a much better ratio of vets and youth. In my head, ideally the team is (starting) about 3-4 vets, 3-4 college age prospects, then sprinkled in academy players as deserved.

Wasn't Etienne on that team last year? Allen? And Adams?

 

Saint Louis FC gave a debut last night to Aedan Stanley, a '99 amateur academy player, who started at left back.

Some independent clubs like Saint Louis, Charleston, and Richmond are in the habit of signing academy kids to amateur contracts, but it's unusual for them to get any playing time.

 

In the Los Dos 2-1 win over NYRB2 the assist on the winning goal was done by Jorge Hernandez, an '00 member of the LAG DA U16 team. However, his DA page lists his nationality as Mexico, so he may not be eligible for U.S. YNTs.

 

Yep, that be him. After the '15 DA season ended, the CUSA DA folded, and Brian Kleiban brought many of the players with him to LAG.

 

Re: Los Dos

I saw that they just brought back Alejandro Covarrubias from OKC Energy. He's not a player who you'd expect can graduate to the MLS team, but perhaps is a guy who is viewed as a known quantity and stabilizing USL veteran among all the younger kids.

 

They also played Tyler Turner and Nathan Smith at FB over the weekend.

I encourage playing the Academy players, but got to have the right mix. They won 2-1 after losing combined 7-0 with the youngsters.

Shouldn't abandon playing the kids but mix them in appropriately with the young pros and a few vets so the team can play at a certain level.

 

17 y/o (birthday was last Saturday) Ben Mines scored for NYRBII

 

Robinson made his pro debut midweek in a 1-0 win. Goslin was an unused sub.

Elsewhere, Dawson McCartney '98 got his first USL minutes, starting for Bethlehem at CM. He is heading to Dartmouth.

 

Looks like a pro debut for Chris Goslin, playing 80 minutes for Charleston on the road against the Red Bulls II with Miles Robinson also starting. The stats show a game dominated by RB II, which had 60% of possession and attempted 172 more passes. For Goslin personally they read 21 passes, completed at 85.7%, 6 duels won, 2 lost, 2 aerial duels won, 4 fouls won, and 3 clearances. This info suggests he did pretty well in 50/50 situations and in physical battles, but spent a ton of time chasing/defending a RB II team that had most of the possession.