Youth Yanks Abroad, '01-'04 YOBs (and Younger): 2018/19 Thread

I hear you, but Kelman is a little different than the others you mentioned. Kelman was never offered a spot in the DA system. This was even after Kelman single handedly destroyed the current FCD DA kids in a game 4-1 where Kelman was guest playing for team not in the FCD system. Scored a hat trick and made the backline look silly for the DA group. Luchi Gonzales standing there watching yet Kelman still not brought in to the Academy.

Talent Evaluation is not easy but this was one pretty obvious.

 

'01 Owen Otasowie is now free of brace/crutches:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BqN5Fx9A4pq/

 

If the talent was obvious then the only acceptable explanation was that he was committed to going to Europe and FCD didn't want to waste resources on a player who would never appear for their first team.

 

Maybe...……………

The talent was so obvious that he left Dallas for the youth academy of a mid-table League One team! We're not talking about Ajax here. In fact, its an extremely easy argument to suggest in the grand scheme of world football that FC Dallas (or any MLS club) is a bigger club than Southend. Bigger stadium. Bigger budget. Bigger youth academy. Better facilities. Transfermarkt "market value" of Southend players: 5.6 million pounds. "Market value" of FCD players...…………...18.4 million. Now that's not an exact science, but its not particularly close. News flash: Moving from FC Dallas to Southend was in fact a step down the football pyramid. That's a good thing. He moved down to find an opportunity. One step back to hopefully take three steps forward.

It should surprise nobody that in 2018 there are players deemed not good enough for an MLS DA team that are good enough to move to a League One academy. Next are we going to freak out about a kid leaving the Fire academy for Accrington Stanley or Fleetwood? Call me when Uly Llanez leaves the Galaxy for Wycombe Wanderers.

Could Charlie Kelman develop into something special? Sure. We all hope so. That's not the point of my rant. And if that happens then FCD will have made a mistake in youth/talent evaluation. Every club on Earth makes mistakes in youth/talent evalution. Bayern, Barcelona, Man United...…………….they all do. But don't expect me to think FCD has screwed up here because Charlie Kelman left for South-frickin'-end. Egads. The inferiority complex of US Soccer fans knows no bounds sometimes. Charlie Kelman is the same age as Jesus Ferreira. Give me Jesus Ferreira any time and twice on Sunday.

 

Don't know if you are right about the size and prestige of Southend United but will concede you are right there. It doesn't matter as Kelman will soon be with an EPL team and no one would argue an FCD MLS team is comparable to a team in the EPL.

Main point was FCD missed big on this one to let him get away. He had the talent clearly on display against the best FCD had to offer and it was not that close. You are right in teams miss talent all the time so its just one that got away. Weston got away and from what I hear about what the players in the academy talk about, FCD and other MLS teams will miss out on a lot of players as Europe is coming calling at a more frequent rate.

As I've said before, its a tough situation for the MLS clubs. The best kids in their academy don't want to be in the MLS by and large ( maybe some do) but I would trust Chris Richards opinion on this. https://sports.yahoo.com/fc-dallas-u-product-chris-140000467.html. If a player can get to a top league, that is where he wants to be. Richards doesn't want to be back at FCD and it's seen as a fall back. That's not new or surprising to anyone.

I think you are wrong about Ferrrera, he is an 00 and Kelman is an 01. We will see in a few years if Kelman is playing in the EPL against Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal compared to Ferrara playing in Frisco. Hopefully FCD starts selling their young guys to Europe (will Reggie be the first) and Ferrara gets to a top league during his career as well.

 

If FCD could just develop one player and sell him on to Europe for a decent fee it would probably change the calculus for guys like Kelman. While the kids want to go to Europe, they probably don't mind Mom cooking and doing laundry and speaking English.

FCD reacted to McKennie by signing a lot of guys. But I wonder if they had simply sold Acosta two Summers ago to Germany or Holland if they would be in a better position. Because they really weren't prepared to bring through the HG guys they signed.

Please, don't tell me there were no offers. That is not how these things work. Offers are made rumor and then public after things have been worked out. If FCD wanted to let Acosta go to Germany, I'm sure Klinsman would have made that move happen. JK got Morris a move to Bremen and he had never even played in MLS, much less dominated a CCL game.

Maybe FCD didn't foresee the injury and the falling out with Pareja. Or maybe the falling out was sour grapes from Acosta for not letting him move. It is all water under the bridge but an interesting thought experiment. At least interesting to me, not many other people I'm sure haha

 

I can see someone become disillusioned if they didn't get there move and were told to hold on a bit longer then a major injury happened. Kind of changes their whole life.

 

Brek Shea?

 

He wasn't a HG. FCD has sold HG players to Mexico. I think at this point in time Europe feels they can cheap MLS out of players. Teams have to take a bit of a hit and do their players a solid.

 

After Brek Shea's success, its no wonder they don't want to offer much for MLS players. His highlight in Europe may have been flipping off fans.

Europe is in a good spot as the young kids in the MLS academies want to go overseas and don't need to sign HG contracts. MLS needs to find a way to fix this or simply keep training kids and watching them go to Europe for free.

 

Shea was injured. He had a bad foot injury and was never the same after it.

 

Shea wasn’t HG but he was drafted at 17 y/o. About the same age their HG players do sign at.

Europe will pay if they find value. See Miazga, Davies, Adams.

 

'01 #usynt attacking midfielder Marcelo Palomino is on trial with FC Porto. Palomino played in the Houston Dynamo Academy. He is garnered interest from all over Europe pic.twitter.com/TkNQISXA1A

— Joey (@USAprospects) November 16, 2018

 

Whether it worked out for Shea in Europe or not...……...this point still stands:

FCD drafted him as a 17 year old, gave him an opportunity, trained him up to the point where he finished top 3 in MLS MVP voting one year, and sold him for millions to the Premier League.

That's the way it should work. Brek then went to Europe and crapped the bed. That had nothing to do with FCD. Brek was constantly in the doghouse at FCD for what Schellas Hyndman used to call a lack of "emotional intelligence." That reared its ugly head later for him.

[Brek coming to FCD as a 17 year old is about the age when Reggie Cannon came to FCD from Solar. This whole HG or not-HG designation is a little silly, but whatever. The point is to develop young players. Another example? FCD drafted Walker Zimmerman as an awkward, injury prone teenager and now he's gotten USMNT caps.]

FCD is no different than any MLS club. We always talk about how coaching has to improve at the youth levels in this country. So does talent identification and scouting. In a huge market with just one MLS club like DFW...…………..there SHOULD be more talented youngsters than can fit into DA squads. That's what SHOULD be happening. FCD SHOULD be having to turn away youngsters like Kelman and Dunning. Just like every club in Europe in big markets, they'll be second guessed if those youngsters end up being great elsewhere. Those two happened to have Euro passports and have found opportunities abroad.

We can easily point out that many, many of the attacking youngsters in Kelman and Dunning's age group are also youth internationals. But that's besides the point I guess.

All of this is a healthy sign. Too many good youngsters leading to difficult choices for administrators, scouts, and coaches.

Kelman moved to Southend, and we're all hoping he really succeeds there.

 

California-born striker Jordan Adebayo-Smith has scored five goals this week. Hat trick a few days ago, and a brace today.

The moment Jordan Adebayo-Smith secured his hat-trick in the #FAYouthCup! 🎩💫 pic.twitter.com/XCi1XeHlnP

— Lincoln City Academy (@LCFCAcademy) November 13, 2018

Jordan Adebayo-Smith adds two more to his tally for the season as the Under-18s secure a 2-2 draw away at @drfc_official.

Well done lads! 👏#ImpsAsOne pic.twitter.com/N92FIjMwji

— Lincoln City Academy (@LCFCAcademy) November 17, 2018

 

Do you ever get the feeling that FCD would or should add a second team at certain levels? Since they're expanding their recruiting does it not make sense if they have enough quality players to have a U-17A and U-17B squad at the DA level? I know they have select, premier, etc teams but the metroplex is 5m people, surely they could field a second DA squad at various age levels, especially when you add in all the kids they bring from El Paso and other cities/towns.

LA has had this in effect done for them by having LAG and LAFC. Without another MLS team to spread the talent out and second DA squad with FCD would still be better than their premier teams or Solar, imo.

 

Eh. They probably could, but you can only sign so many players.

I'm a big fan of the "Southampton way" in England, which became the "Fulham way" after Huw Jennings moved to Craven Cottage. They have a limited number of youngsters in each youth team. But they're the elite youngsters and they invest heavily in them.

So yes, you do have to make difficult, tough choices regarding who those elite youngsters are.

I mean, its nice saying FCD has thousands of players under their umbrella. Which they do with all of their affiliates. But the point Is really to winnow and winnow and winnow down those players down to the best of the best for the DA teams and then HG contracts. If kids don't like the evaluation after being left in the Premier/Select teams...……………….then they can try out for the Texans or Solar. Or any number of the good non-DA teams in DFW. Or if they have Euro passports (as Kelman does) then they can go overseas.

I know that's harsh, but its just reality.

The dumb part (as we've been thru ad naseum) is that a kid can't leave the FCD academy and then go to the Dynamo. Because if they really develop while at the Dynamo academy, then FCD can challenge the subsequent homegrown deal as the kid is from their territory. Petty and stupid, but clubs do it.

 

That really is a big problem. You hear about prospects all the time in England and the Netherlands that get discarded by their home club and move to another one of the same caliber and end up playing top level football. You essentially have 1 chance as a player to get into MLS, and if you blow it, you have to go in the draft. That's it.

 

That's why its so important we have freedom of movement so talent can find its team, system, coach and environment. Its a basic concept of worldwide soccer development but MLS tries to stifle it under the guise of salary expense reduction.

 

I don't know if this guy is an '00 or '01.

1064189586316976130 is not a valid tweet id

 

Top Drawer Soccer lists him as part of the 2020 graduating class. Chances are he's an '01, but that's not certain until we find out his actual date of birth.

 

His old DA profile has him as an '01.
http://plda.ussoccerda.com/sam/teams/index.php?team=1401332&player=33761356

 

Reyna turned 16, six days ago. I haven't seen any news, did I miss something Dortmund related?

 

I was wondering that too. There were hints he would sign somewhere as soon as he turned 16. Could he be waiting for the second half of the season now as this half is almost done and Holidays are upon us.

 

Can he sign outside the transfer window?