Not trying to be negative, but without Evans dad posting about Evan, do we even he exists? I mean we would be he would be probably be buried 5 pages deep by now. It doesn’t look like Evan is a standout or even above average player at this point. You can only bring so many players.
Well.................I mean, he does play for Schalke. Its not like Matthew Hoppe was lighting the world on fire for Schalke youth/reserves.....................and then BOOM. He's a USMNTer. I just used Evan Rotundo as an example. I could have used 100 other kids. We should cast a wide, wide net across all age groups most of the cycle. Then just take the kids who give us the best chance to win to U17/U20 Championships (in the HC's mind anyway).
I think Rotundo is a player who could still become a good pro, but he’s clearly just not progressed physically/athletically the way everyone would’ve liked and is no longer one of the better 04’s. He’s still a good prospect, but how much do we hear about Allan Juarez or Victor Valdez? He’s over-discussed, which isn’t unusual for players that had some earlier hype. I think eventually though we have to realize that Rotundo has found his level. Him not being part of YNT’s recently is more due to him not being up to the level.
I would have liked to see the US play in the Toulon tournament. I feel like we could have sent an interesting team. It would have been guys too old for the U20s but eligible for the next Olympics. But I imagine they won’t get that team going unless we qualify.
I've been thinking about who are some players we should call into a camp before the U-20 WC next year, assuming we qualify. I came up with a list of 64 I'd like to see get tested out. I'm keeping this to players who've yet to be in a camp. Obviously guys like Leyva, Walls, Castilla, Karumanchi, Hopkins that have call-ups this cycle, but didn't make the final qualifying team should also be considered. GK (7): Dewsnup ('04), Jones ('03), Cordes ('03), Tibbetts ('04), Sunderland ('03), Emmings ('04), Reyes ('03) DF (17): Freeman ('04), Reynolds ('04), Duenas ('04), Smith ('03), Clarke ('05), Baker ('04), Prince ('04), Kinzner ('03), Wynder ('05), Marshall ('05), Alvarez ('03), Foster ('03), Viviani ('04), Velasquez ('04), Travis ('04), Padelford ('03), Cobian ('04) DM/CM (13): Nyeman ('03), Chifamba ('03), Nydegger ('03), Booth ('04), Morales ('04), Hot ('04), Gilman ('04), Raines ('05), Baker-Whiting ('05), Barrera ('04), Ordonez ('05), McCloud ('04), Wolff ('04) AM/Wing (16): Paredes ('03), Bernal ('03), Garcia ('03), Freeman ('03), Aboukoura ('04), Salley ('04), Oliva ('04), Rotundo ('04), Villal ('05), Faupel ('05), Valencia ('05), Torres ('04), Toure ('04), Nava ('03), Borso ('04), Jaime ('04) CF (11): Mitchell ('03), Sarver ('03), Roou ('03), Weah ('03), Ikoba ('03), Bezerra ('03), Yapi ('04), Otoya ('04), Osundina ('04), Sullins ('04), Thaggard ('05)
What opportunities do the U20s have to play as a national team when it’s not the regional qualifying tourney or actual WC?
Not sure I totally understand the question -- isn't the answer that they get together for camps and tournaments like every other YNT? FWIW, under Ramos, post-qualifying the U20s generally got together just once or twice between qualifying and the finals, often for an overseas gathering. But it's a new day, who knows how things will be run now.
Do they get a chance to play in competitive friendlies or friendly tournaments? The point of the question is to try and figure out how much opportunity these teams get to play when the result may be at least somewhat less important. For the continental championship or the WC, my view is that results are more important than style. But working on style is valuable and I wondered when older youth teams get a chance to play competitive games where they can afford to miss a result in the name of development.
I think it's also the case that under Ramos the U20 qualifying tournaments were held closer to the actual U20 World Cup itself, so there were also just less international windows available where the team could gather. The last two were held in February/March the year of and November the year before. In theory if we qualify we have the September and March windows and we could theoretically host a camp during the World Cup or in January for domestic based players.
I think the short answer is we don't really know. During 4 cycles under Ramos the U20s generally got together about 10 times, give or take, not counting major tournaments, each cycle, covering camps and tournaments and whatnot over that time. Most of those were before qualifying. Pools were maybe 80 or so guys. It's a new regime and I have no idea how the program is being broadly run (in terms of what U.S. Soccer sees as ideal) now, but it does seem like fewer gatherings and a slightly smaller pool. Maybe they'll ramp things up post-qualifying, assuming they go through. There does seem to be time for more camps and for more players to emerge.
I have no idea if this is news, but FIFA yesterday confirmed the host and timing of the U20 tournament: In December 2020, as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bureau decided to cancel the 2021 edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup™ and appointed the Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) to host the competition in 2023. Following discussions with the PSSI, as well as consultations with all confederations, the Bureau has confirmed that the tournament will be played from 20 May to 11 June 2023. https://www.fifa.com/tournaments/me...es-increase-of-fifa-world-cup-tm-squads-to-26
Now that we've qualified for the U20s, we can start playing fantasy manager again. Assuming the rules from 2019 are unchanged, I think basically you just get to add another GK. Even setting aside potential injuries, fairly substantial roster turnover can be expected, though as been noted there could be quite a few conflicts with other competitions.
For fun, 2019 qualifying: Akinola Ayomide "Ayo" Amaya Franuel "Frankie" Angking Isaac Araujo Julian Dest Sergino Dorsey Griffin Dos Santos CJ (late injury scratch, replaced by Ochoa) Fontana Anthony Gloster Chris Lindsey Jaylin Llanez Jr. Ulysses McKenzie Mark Mendez Alex Ochoa David Perez Emmanuel "Manny" Pomykal Paxton Real Matthew Rennicks Justin Richards Christopher Rogers Sam Scott Brady Servania Brandon Soto Sebastian Torres Juan Pablo That count looks a bit funky because Richards, Dest and Soto replaced Angking, Fontana and Dorsey partway through the tournament. And 2019 final: Akinola Ayomide "Ayo" (late injury scratch, replaced by Araujo) Araujo Julian Dest Sergino Dos Santos CJ Gloster Chris Llanez Jr. Ulysses McKenzie Mark Mendez Alex Ochoa David Pomykal Paxton Real Matthew Rennicks Justin Richards Christopher Scott Brady Servania Brandon Soto Sebastian Cerrillo Edwin de la Fuente Konrad Durkin Chris Keita Aboubacar Ledezma Richie Weah Timothy Obviously it's a different coach, different pool, different time, so I wouldn't make too much out of it, but still kinda interesting.
Mikey Varas is speaking to the media now. He says they have U-20 camps planned for the fall, winter, and spring - for now - leading up to the U-20 WC next year— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) July 2, 2022
Are there only 3? I would've expected 4-5. There should be two between the end of qualifying and the rest of the year, and then 2-3 next year.
You have the September window and the March window plus a likely January camp. You could in theory also do a camp during the World Cup but anything else will be outside an international window so you’d have issues with releases.
They should stay with the clubs that developed them more and have get together fun less. 3 camps would be enough. And when someone argues about Mexico non stop camps the answer should be "And what?".
I think they should try to do one outside the windows in the Fall and out outside the windows in the Spring. Not all players who are in consideration are players that teams will refuse to release. They did a camp in April, and it worked well. They should be doing one in October/November and then one in April.
As American Soccer Now reported at the time, the USSF did offer a U20 World Cup spot to Folarin Balogun in 2019 after England didn't qualify (he'd have been up a cycle anyway).Balogun declined but the USSF wasn't afraid to make the offer. Okoh is that prospect for this cycle.— ChuckMe92 Soccer (@ChuckMe92Soccer) July 4, 2022
Okoh should absolutely be a big target. Gomez also. Try to get those two guys to play for us at this tournament. Both may say no, but now you can use it as a recruiting tool.
I posted this on twitter, but for discussion purposes here, I did player grades for all the players 1-10 after each game. This is what the final averages ended up being. Alvarado: 8.25 Neal: 7.7 Craig: 7.6 Allen: 7.5 Sullivan: 7.5 Aaronson: 7.29 Brady: 7.16 Hopkins: 7 Ferkranus: 6.9 Cuevas: 6.79 McGlynn: 6.78 Luna: 6.78 Carrera: 6.75 Pukstas: 6.75 Clark: 6.71 Edelman: 6.67 Tsakiris: 6.5 Cowell: 6.5 Halliday: 6.42 Wolff: 6.21
This is interesting in that it probably differs from what one might give for a player's body of work for the tournament rather than breaking it down game by game. That said, the bottom dwellers on the game by game average are close to what I would rate for the body of work. At the top end I'm comfortable with Alvarado being #1, and then I would place Aaronson. Probably the most misleading average is Cuevas, who was played out of position, at LB. I'd like to think that had Varas played him entirely at RB his average would be higher.