Youth Yanks Abroad, '97-'00 YOBs: 2018/19 Thread

McKennie played RB today for Schalke.

 

I hate what Tedesco has done to Schalke. They were always awful to watch last year, but you couldn't quibble about the results. Now the team's results are as ugly as their play.

 

EPB played 90 today. NAC Breda lost 5-0 to Ajax.

Looking at the highlights, he had no culpability for the first for goals. The fifth goal was a shot from outside the box that hit him, and went back across the way the keeper was diving. He also didn’t make any motion to deflect it any way, the ball hit him. They credited it as an own goal, although that looks incorrect to me because I thought it was going to be on target. Hard to blame a player for that. Bad luck.

Without seeing the game, I don’t think he did that much to lose his place for next week.

 

1097205221212766208 is not a valid tweet id

 

Seems like Haji Wright's status in club not good recently, who played 3 Schalke II games in a row without scoring.

 

From a larger point of view, there's not much good going on at Schalke at the moment.

They're actually not too far away from the relegation zone. They'll probably be OK, but its still not assured in 14th place out of 18 team. There's a little bit of a gap, but a few more weeks on their current course could be really problematic.

There will probably be a complete overhaul in this upcoming summer window regardless of where they finish. Where our young Yanks will stand after that is anybody's guess.

 

Saw this article on ESPN with a quick interview with Ledezma's dad. I don't know if this is old news, but he claims they decided to turn down an offer from Barca in favor of PSV. He also says that he wants Richie to play for Mexico, but he's willing to respect his son's choice.

 

Victor Mansaray '97 former Seattle player and national teams U18 and U20, was signed by B.Binh Duong of the Vietnamese first division.

 

I don’t think Schalke rates Haji. He was a emergency fill in when they had some injuries and played pretty bad. They called up a 18 year old Kutucu who showed why Haji probably won’t play for Schalke every again minus a bubonic plague.

 

Schalke have firmly put themselves into a selling club mode. Anybody with any quality is cashed in on. The current team is atrocious and will basically have a good season if they survive.

Best case for McKennie is somebody sees him play and thinks he’s too good and pays for him to leave. But he came off injured and needs to get some consistency

 

I wouldn’t say pretty bad is a fair chacterization. After the first game or two, I thought he was pretty good. I do agree that they don’t rate him, but Schalke is close to relegation this season. They aren’t such a great club, and moving elsewhere after the season wouldn’t be a bad thing.

 

Being Germans, I'm sure the staff at Schalke know exactly what Haji needs to work on and have told him so in blunt language. They must think there is some possibility that he can come good as he is still on their books and they committed more to him in January.

What keeps him off of Union Berlin is probably the same thing keeping him off Schalke; which is why loans haven't worked out. But he is still a prospect for them; not their most important, but they haven't given up on him.

The interesting question is whether what keeps him from sticking with Union Berlin would also prevent him from banging in 15 goals for the Rapids or Red Bulls...And if he can do that, is he back in the fringes of the NT?

 

After Wright's debut for Schalk 04 I checked Schalk 04 fans comments found full of bad words of him. I watched the replay and I had to admit horrible is a perfect word to describe him. However, in his second game, seems like he made some progress. But generally speaking, I thought he was still not ready for Bundesliga. Considering his failed loan experiences and Schalke 04 coaching staff's criticism on him recently, it is really not positive for his career.

 

Did you check what they had to say after he had a good couple of games or you only wanted to seek out criticism of how he played?

 

Funny. I mean first game. There is actually no good comments on him. And if you watched the game, it's fair enough. Why you act like everyone want to dismiss our youth players?

 

I suspect I read the same thing you read.

Following the first game, there was criticism. He had also been playing against 5th division players for months. It took some time for him to adjust to the Bundesliga.

As he started getting more minutes and showed well, the comments changed. His good play was praised. Fans are often reactionary due to what happens at any given moment.

 

I’ve watched most of his first team appearances. I haven’t read the fan boards but if I were a schalke fan I would not be excited about him as a prospect at all. The best that I can say about some of his better performances is that he wasn’t terrible. He still probably will her like 20 caps since the forward pool is so weak. But wouldn’t shock me if he’s in mls or Sweden in two years

 

After first game, he made some progress and had good moments including one goal, but was at best average and generally not ready for this level. That's why they replaced him later. Their fans also criticize the head coach and Schalke 04 is bad this season, but it's another topic.

Don't act like once prospects you rate lacks playing time, it's because teammates are bad, coaches are bad / bias or teams are bad. Sometimes they are not good enough.

 

This is a complete strawman.

 

A player that's still provisionally cap-tied to the USMNT/USYNTs. A player "in theory" eligible for our US U23 squad. Alex Zendejas.............

Former Seattle Sounder Tony Alfaro made his Chivas debut, starting in their Copa MX match tonight. Former FC Dallas midfielder Alex Zendejas scored the lone goal for Chivas. https://t.co/x2Ml2LNS1v

— Ives Galarcep (@SoccerByIves) February 21, 2019

71' ¡GOOOOOOOOOOOOL de @AlexZendejas8! 🇦🇹 En un centro por derecha, Zendejas anticipa, gana y define para vencer al arquero. pic.twitter.com/zbNS6Q1UPj

— CHIVAS (@Chivas) February 21, 2019

 

Sargent got his first start today for Werder Bremen. Not the best performance. Subbed out in the 60th minute. He's still learning the professional game. He hasn't had that many appearances yet, but has done well for a player of his age in the Bundesliga.

I think its important that we let these young players develop their games, and not rush any of them into being NT saviors. All of these players should be playing in their own age group with maybe the exception of Adams, who has a couple of seasons as a first team pro and many minutes already with the senior NT. Being one of the 23 best might make them good enough to play for the NT, but being good enough to play for the NT doesn't make it best for their long-term development.

 

Wright is back on the bench for Schalke.

Unsere Start-1⃣1⃣ für #M05S04 ⚒️🔵⚪️ #S04 pic.twitter.com/dk6T0Y6ZUK

— FC Schalke 04 (@s04) February 23, 2019

 

McKennie missed this weekends game with an injury, but reports are saying it’s not a serious injury. Wright played 21 minutes.

Palmer-Brown gets his second consecutive start. They lost 5-0 last week to Ajax, but I thought he played extremely well. He was the least of their problems.

 

Wright entered the game as Schalke's last sub in the 69th min, so he got some real minutes. Unfortunately Schalke's slide continued as Mainz won 3-0.

 

Breda kept a clean-sheet and EPB went 90.