YNT-eligible MLS players: 2019/2020 Offseason thread

Those who can't beat that competition aren't very exciting prospects to start with.

 

2000 seems to be a year when they put something special in the water. You definitely seem to be onto something with the year 2000 and it is showing up in the numbers too.

If we look at the U21's going into this year (1999 and younger) and compare with last year's U21's (1998's) at the same stage this is what it looks like.

1998: 8,915 total minutes pre 2019 season. (17,931 by end of season)
1999: 9,626 minutes now.
2000: 9,988 minutes now.

I think it is rather amazing that the 2000's actually have earned significantly more minutes than the 1999's to date. Of course it is also true that if Adams had stayed, than 1999's minutes would be significantly higher but I still think the point stands as to the overall quality of the year 2000 and the number of minutes that age group has been earning.

 

Yup. Other than a few kids on the top end, the draft now is all about finding "diamonds in the rough." Maybe not stars, but contributors. If you can get Jacori Hayes in the draft, that's a win.

I know we've done this analysis a lot, but its true.
You can tell that from the excitement on these youth boards about the draft.
Fifteen years ago we talked endlessly in the run-up to the draft about the prospects and then really discussed the results of the draft excitedly. Now.................almost nothing.

Here was the first round of the draft from 2016. Enough time for us to make conclusions about players. How many USMNT caps came out of the 1st round of that draft? And this isn't really a one-time bad draft. If folks want to see a bad one, see 2018. Even the 2nd overall pick in that draft is already out of the league.

 

Hearing per multiple sources that John Tolkin has been offered a contract by #RBNY and is likely to sign with the first team. U17 national team player is a big Homegrown signing for club.

Can play outside back or central midfield.

— Kristian Dyer (@KristianRDyer) January 10, 2020

 

1 January cap. I would count that as zero, but USSF counts it as 1.

Thinking about the draft as having implications for the USMNT is not in keeping with recent history. It barely has any implications for MLS. Most of the players will play, if at all, at the USL level and never higher.

 

Several teams have gotten a lot of advantage at the MLS level out of the draft recently. Atlanta is one, with Gressel and Robinson. Minnesota is another.

It’s never deep, but there’s still a bit of real value there.

 

At the top of the draft. Robinson was #2 overall. Gressel #8.
When we look at the top of that 2017 draft above, the #1 overall pick is a Championship level player.

The days of Tim Howard being available in the draft are over. A lot of that has to do with the fact that the USMNT-caliber youngsters are either signing homegrown deals or heading abroad. Which is great.

Let's not get it twisted. If an MLS club isn't trying to develop their own domestic talent thru their academy, its getting increasingly difficult to acquire it. Particularly as more and more teams enter the league and the pool is spread thinner. A club's chances of getting a Tyler Adams or Jordan Morris or Paxton Pomykal in the draft are very low. Sure, one club in a given year will draft Miles Robinson. The 2nd CB taken in that draft was Lalas Abubakar. OK. MLS level player. After that, nothing. So every club HAS to be trying to develop their version of Auston Trusty or Mark McKenzie.

 

I knew that Dieterich was in the draft and RSL did have his HGP rights, so presumable they passed on him and nobody was willing to trade anything for his rights.

I don't really know where he fits at this stage of his career. He started as a CB for Clemson and just progressively moved up the field until he was playing where the #10 plays this past year as a SR. He obviously isn't a #10, but was playing some sort of high-up the field ball winner that you would only see in the turnover heavy style of play in college.

Nashville is a good landing spot. He is from Tennessee. They are just building a roster and he can perhaps swiss army knife his way into some minutes, but long-term I don't see any real MLS potential with him.

The only two players on Clemson that have real long-term MLS type potential are Robinson and Phillip Mayaka. Mayaka is from Kenya, so is irrelevant from a thread perspective and is more likely to go overseas.

Some would say Grayson Barber. SKC have his rights. Barber and Robinson grew up about an hour apart and Robinson is a year older, but Barber was with the U17s for many camps and Robinson was off the radar. Robinson is a lot better though and shows that some prospects can still slide under the radar.

 

I guess its possible that he didn't maintain eligibility thru his college years.

Its weird, though...............right?
If a player is good enough to be drafted 28th overall, then he's good enough to be given a shot with the team he's HG eligible for. One team passes on a player they've already invested quite a bit in as an academy player, and they have a simple mechanism to acquire?

There seemed to be a lot of this in the draft yesterday. Rey Ortiz, formerly of the Galaxy, was taken 29th. Does the Galaxy not need a layer of young domestic depth. There were two former Philly Union players taken in the first two rounds I believe (Jack Skahan and Joey DeZart). Does the Union not have to stock Bethlehem Steel with players as well? Chicago Fire had a former academy player drafted (Jesus Perez).

This has happened before in other years. There just seemed to be more of it this year.

I expect former Beachside, San Diego Surf, Solar, Chicago Magic, Sockers type of players in the draft. Not RSL academy players that for some reason RSL doesn't want. I mean, the 4th round YES. Not the 28th overall pick.

 

I don't know what happened behind the scenes with RSL and Dieterich.

Yes. You would assume that RSL could have extracted some value (or some of those clubs that had HGP drafted could have extracted some value for their rights), but with the relatively limited value coming out of the draft perhaps that isn't the case even for 2nd Round picks.

 

2000 is looking like a golden generation throughout the pitch. The amount of good CF’s is notable, but there are a lot of other very good players at other positions breaking out. I also think the best player in the age group hasn’t yet gotten the chance to break out that others have gotten, so I suspect it’ll get better.

1998 was talked about as the first great year of this talent improvement we started to see with the 1997 age group. It produced Pulisic and McKennie. It also has some other viable players (Cannon, Wright, Toye, Trusty, Mihailovic, Vazquez). 2003 is looking like another great year, as well.

I didn’t understand the extent of the complaints for the failed U-17 WC a few months ago. Those who followed that team knew the 2002’s were an extremely weak age groups. There were other problems with the team, but there wasn’t a reason to use the results for that team as an indication for the whole program. Player production is cyclical. Some years produce a lot of talent and others don’t.

 

Clemson would play with 3 Forwards with Robinson, Kilmarni Smith (English) and Grayson Barber playing up front and then sub-on Brighton and another FW to just run at teams with fresh legs.

Brighton ended up with 6 goals and 2 assists, so a pretty good tally for College Soccer playing ~35-40 minutes a game. Clemson definitely sacrificed defense for offense and scored 70 of goals because of it, so less impressive in the context of an offense that produces a ton of chances.

He is behind Barber (10 G, 9 A) right now as a prospect in my book and both are in their 2nd year in the program. Barber is sort of a fringe MLS guy IMO, so Brighton is probably more of a USL prospect, but he has pretty good tools and upside if he can tap into it.

 

I don’t think he’s good, but this signing was inevitable and NYRB will get as much out of him as any team could. I wish they had more talent in their academy.

 

There should be major changes with Pareja in charge. I'd think their academy will be overhauled and any decent young players will get a real chance. I wonder what Oscar can do with that huge rookie forward (have him watch tapes of Blas Perez)?

 

Some Friday night #DCU news: I'm told United are signing 16yo academy talent Kevin Paredes to an MLS Homegrown deal. Will bring him to preseason with their 1st team. Gifted attacker, reliable scorer dating back to U14 level. Scored for US U16s @ recent Nike Friendlies.

— Charles Boehm (@cboehm) January 11, 2020

 

NYCFC officially announced the signing of Gedion Zelalem.

Preseason training for the 5 MLS clubs in the 2020 CONCACAF Champions League (Atlanta, LAFC, Montreal, NYCFC, and Seattle) opens today.

Training camp for the rest of the league opens next Saturday (the 18th).

Also, I didn't see this posted in this thread but in November after Orlando declined Mason Stajduhar's option they re-signed him to a new one year contract with multiple option years.

 

And with those training camps starting means academy players getting to partake in preseason. Montreal brought six academy players, but I'm guessing they're all Canadian: https://www.impactmontreal.com/en/post/2020/01/10/six-academy-players-invited-training-camp

NYCFC, however, are bringing 10 academy kids:

📋 | SQUAD UP!#NYCFC Announces Travel Roster for @Florida_Cup 👕

📰 READ ➡️ https://t.co/dcOb7J2UQz pic.twitter.com/n3csYNEwfo

— New York City FC (@newyorkcityfc) January 12, 2020

'04: Acito, Flax
'03: Amponsah
'02: Sucheki, Lansade, Kim, Jasson, Fatah, Kapanadze
'01: De Rosario

Amponsah was highlighted in a Men In Blazers feature a little while back:

We made this film 2 1\2 years ago. Congratulations to Prince and to @NYCFC as he makes the first team preseason squad today 🙌🇺🇸 https://t.co/QbbWXH3rPt

— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers) January 12, 2020

It will be interesting to see who Atlanta, LAFC, and Seattle bring with their academies being so good.

 

'97 right back DJ Taylor who spent the last two season starting for North Carolina FC is in camp as a trialist with NYCFC.

USSDA lists NYCFC academy player Osaze de Rosario's nationality as Canadian. He is Dwayne's son (who's first season with San Jose was in 2001) and apparently joined NYCFC less than a year ago from Toronto FC. NYCFC's Tijani Fatah is listed as Ghanian.

 

I knew D Ro’s daughter before he got traded from DC. I’m like 99% sure they’re all American citizens. But she called herself Dominican so.

 

Here's a video of Cooper Flax from GA Cup qualifying this past fall https://streamable.com/jk8wl

Seems like this is the first time Kamran Acito has been mentioned on BS. He doesn't have a number listed on the DA site, but he wore #40 in u17 GA Cup games that are on Toronto's youtube if you're interested. He's a tall center back type. I think the reason he wasn't mentioned here relates to his not having had too standout of a game against Montreal. That and he's only listed as having played 6 career games in the DA.

 

I think Jasson will be their next homegrown signing. Joe Suchecki is an under the radar player to watch, IMO.

 

Atlanta United is sorting out a loan for Carleton. My bet is a USL championship team, but you never know

#atlutd is sorting out a loan for Carleton. Team tbd.

— Doug Roberson (@DougRobersonAJC) January 13, 2020

 

This is so sad. He is the most identical burn out to Freddy Adu that we've seen yet. Signed early and flamed out because he's an idiot and not because of an injury.

 

The Justin Bieber of MLS.