Youngsters in MLS (1997 or later)

There have been a number of young US players getting consistent minutes in the region. Adams, Glad, Acosta, Lennon, players like Mihailovic, Saucedo, Redding, Farfan, Vazquez, Lewis, Jones have gotten more minutes than some of the more highly rated players that are talked about. And then there's Jonathan Gonzalez who gets regular minutes in Mexico. There's a number of players in Europe getting minutes. Pulisic is a starter, McKennie gets some minutes, Wright and Perez gets regular minutes on loan, looking like Carter-Vickers will as well. Its not like its impossible to get minutes, a number of teams that our players play for have been giving them minutes.

I think its just up to the situation more than a player's ability. In a lot of these situations, some of the better players we have are not getting minutes or having to go out on loan to get those minutes, meanwhile players who are not really on the radar as big time players are getting minutes due to being relatively quality players for favorable situations at those clubs. It is discouraging, but you have to figure that eventually these players will get their chance, they will at some point not be young anymore and not have that working against them. You'd prefer they all get a chance as soon as possible, but that often doesn't happen. Its holding the NT back because its making the transition from the current generation that is struggling to the up and coming generation that is really talented longer than we'd want it to be.

 

Perez is on the bench for a serie C team

 

I forgot Italian teams have those really big benches, but usually in most leagues, any player who's regularly making the 18 is getting regular minutes. You usually only have 1 (maybe 2) players on the bench at each position, so you gotta be comfortable playing them. Not enough spots to play around with, although it is a little different in Italy. Anyway, he just got there, give it some time. Serie C is not a very high level, and we know Perez is a decent enough player that he should do well in Serie C. Thats not to say he's a star, but he's almost 20 and Serie C is a low level, there's really no reason he shouldn't be doing well in Serie C.

 

I'm just pointing out you said he's getting regular minutes on loan but he's only got 9 minutes.

 

Barrios is, quite obviously, not a good example for this argument. It still stands in general.

 

In case people didn't see this, FCD has signed their 20th academy product. Not technically a homegrown and too old to be thread-eligible. Still, a nice story. I talked about Cortes quite a bit in the past as a potential homegrown some day. He was the starter on the 2012 U18 national championship team. Apparently Carlos Avilez is on an extended trip with the Mexico U8s and they have other camps upcoming. So FCD needed cover. He becomes the 4th academy goalkeeper to sign with the club after Sanchez, Gonzalez, and Avilez. Apparently FCD tried to re-acquire Richard Sanchez as the third keeper, but Chicago picked him up instead.

NEWS: FC Dallas signed its 20th Academy product to a professional contract on Friday afternoon. https://t.co/nJ5d6V9wR8 pic.twitter.com/bjcXnoeLVU

— FC Dallas (@FCDallas) September 15, 2017

 

Just don't call him "chicken."

 

Fc Dallas are going for broke with that lineup no matter what

 

Walkes is getting destroyed. #ATLUTD

— Eric Quintana (@EricQuintanaTF) September 16, 2017

 

Acosta and Glad both start:

Tonight's starting XI. #RSLvPOR pic.twitter.com/0e4h726Gvj

— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) September 17, 2017

I give props to Petke. Acosta made a dumb mistake two weeks ago and got a deserved red card, and Petke has him back in the lineup. Cool to see an MLS coach give a 19 year old some leash.

 

More MLS coaches should learn from this. 6 months ago we were crying that Acosta was being played at LB for the u20s, and after a coach has some faith in a player, he's considered one of our top LB prospects right now.

Same thing happened with Miazga. Guy sucked for a few months, but by the end of the year he was worth 5m to a premier league team. There's not a very large gap between a good youth player and average MLS player, and a little leash will diminish that gap entirely.

EDIT: And, by the way, this is a big reason Oscar screwed up this year. If they were really trying to win MLS Cup this year and the shield wasn't important, then they should've used the past few months bleeding youth and giving them time to succeed. A Cannon with as many minutes as Acosta has had this year would be quite useful to them right now.

 

Arellano is starting for LA, who appear to be using a 3-5-2 tonight.

Yueill is starting for SJ.

 

Sands making his MLS debut coming on for Pirlo in the 67 minute.

 

Anyone knows how Sands played in his actual position?

 

more observation but i thought he was tentative putting himself in some physically demanding positions to compete for headers inside his own 18

 

Yueill is getting a lot of love from this weekend's game.

Armchair Analyst: Worth watching this clip of Jackson Yueill from last evening. Kid's ability to control angles of the game is impressive. pic.twitter.com/FVLfSVjnDz

— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) September 17, 2017

 

Not impressed.

 

Doesn't impress me either. Mix Diskerud 2.0, which is a decent player, but fringe NT player, IMO.

 

Mix has much cleaner touches.

 

I agree that Yueill looks like a Wil Trapp level player. That said he will likely be of note for the Olympic qualifiers.

 

Of the current u20 crop which guys would you put money on to be senior team level?

 

I'd play this game, but I'd feel bad about condemning yet another promising prospect to an ignominious career of disappointment and failure.

 

So it was YOU

 

"The best current player in MLS and the best player in MLS since Tony Sanneh retired in 2009."

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