Youngsters in MLS (1997 or later)

Nice to hear about Glad, I think he might be ready for Camp Cupcake in January. I try to watch RSL disproportionately to other bad MLS teams because of their young Americans, but the lack of recent usage has made me watch less of RSL of late.

I have more of a complaint about no Acosta than no Lennon. I find Acosta really underrated because of his struggles a few years ago, he was awful, no doubt, but he's really improved, and he's a LB. Meanwhile, I find Lennon's game kind of limited. He had some success with the U-20's and is on Liverpool's books, but I just don't see him as a big impact player in the pro game. Saucedo, I don't see MNT upside, his decision making is very poor and he's not that talented offensively.

 

I like Glad, but he had a tough start to the Homegrown game. Granted, he was an RCB in a 3-4-3 (or whatever), but he had a couple misplayed balls and mistakes. I'd much rather see EPB get a call up if he keeps performing, or CCV if he can get some playing time. I do really like Glad, and he could eventually be better than either of the other two, but I like the ceiling of EPB the most and also think he's easily the best of the three right now.

I don't know what you or anyone else sees in Acosta. Every time I see him play, he makes a few horrible mistakes that lead to chances the other way. Maybe he can improve, but I haven't seen it in the last few years. At least not as much as is needed.

Saucedo is just bad and I don't care what happens to him.

 

https://sportsday.dallasnews.com/hi...axton-pomykal-good-reason-still-lives-parents

 

I'm assuming EPB and CCV are unavailable due to playing in Europe (I assume EPB will go there once the season is over). Glad's NT prospects shouldn't have much to do with the other two. I don't think he's ready for the WC, but Camp Cupcake? Yeah, he should get a call up, as he could play a part during the 2022 cycle, and isn't more than a year or two off competing for a best 23 spot.

I'm always accused of not changing my opinion enough, yet somehow when I do about Acosta because I think he's clearly improved, people don't agree with me. Maybe I'm wrong, just my opinion. I thought he had a pretty decent U-20 WC. I definitely didn't go into the tournament thinking he was good, but from what I've watched of him at the U-20 WC and with RSL, I think he's done well. He's making smarter decisions defensively, and has offensive skill and athleticism.

 

I also thought Acosta had something during the U20 WC. Still a bit raw but showed that if he honed down the rough edges he could be a good player. Just needs games.

 

In general, I think people sleep on Acosta's national team potential. He has a very good chance at getting a lot of caps, simply because he's a left back.

The NT LBs at the moment are usually Villafana, FabJo, or Beasley, all of whom are at least in their late 20s. The younger players behind them are really Acosta, Marco Farfan, and.... Desevio Payne? I mean, Taylor Kemp got a call-up in the last 8 months, so it's not like we're bursting with depth there.

Glad is certainly the better player, but he'll be fighting with CCV and EPB for caps his entire career, not to mention Miazga, Brooks, and whoever comes up behind them. Acosta's path to the national team is much clearer.

So it's a position of weakness for the national team, and Acosta is getting regular MLS minutes there at age 19. In my book, that's an excellent prospect.

At least he would be getting regular minutes if it wasn't for Chris freaking Wingert.

 

Straight from the mouth of an RSL player... brooks will be a solid MLS player nothing more. Bofo has the real potential he just has to be more consistent in possession

 

Bofo will be lucky to be a solid MLS player

 

lol this is a first for you!

 

Long Island.

 

I do not agree with that RSL player. Lennon has more potential and talent than Saucedo.
Your comment on Saucedo reads alittle like 'he'd be better if he was better'.

 

The real problem with FCD has nothing to do with how much playing time Pareja is giving to Pomykol and Ferreira. Those players are really young. Paxton's a week too old to be eligible for this U17 team. He's only two months older than Josh Sargent, who's never played a professional game. FCD got him some game time, which is a better step than other clubs are doing with kids his age. Ferreira would be one of the youngest players on our recent U17 CONCACAF Championships team if he was eligible. Consider that there's really not much of an age difference between Uly Llanez and David Ferreira. Four months? Nobody is saying the LA Galaxy should be giving first team minutes to Uly Llanez right now. And if they are..............that's ludicrous. Uly Llanez is getting minutes to grow and prove himself for Galaxy II.

The real problem is that FCD doesn't have FCDII in order to give these kids (and Reynolds) meaningful playing time. If the coaching staff think these kids aren't ready yet for consistent minutes at the MLS level...................that's fine. But they need games at a higher level than the Development Academy, Dallas Cup, etc.

FCD's management dragged their heels on FCDII, and it's probably getting started three years after it should have been. These kids are currently the ones paying the price for that.

I know I'm preaching to the choir on this one..............................

You don't have to sell me on the fact that some of the minutes being given to guys like Tesho, Harris, etc. should go to the youngsters. Tesho and Harris aren't chopped liver, though. These are good MLS players, along with Hollingshead..........who also eats into those minutes. We know why JaviMo is at the club. JaviMo was signed to fill in for Mauro Diaz during the CCL in the first part of the season. He really serves no purpose now that Mauro is back.

 

Maybe I should change my name to "Lookingforgoodleftbacks." That list is anything but inspiring to me. I agree that Acosta could get some caps but to me, he'd just be another Villafaña, but maybe with different deficiencies. I probably feel the same with Gloster.

 

I was as surprised as you.....

 

There were three players on the U-17 WCQ team younger than Ferreira, he's a late '00. There were three 01's on that team. I didn't actually advocate that Ferreira deserves that many minutes this season, I think he's more of a guy who could benefit from USL this season and next season he starts to get more minutes, but he's shown that he plays at a higher level than the U-18 level. I think you at least have to keep challenging the kid. He should've gotten more than 19 first team minutes between three competitions. I've long said the two bigger gripes are Cannon and Pomykal. I never claimed they should be starters, but they should've been regulars in the squad all season, and if they outplay the starter, they could earn a spot in the lineup.

Cannon is 18/19 this season, he's not really that young anymore, considering that MLS is a pretty low level. So if Cannon is any good, MLS at this age should be a level he's capable of playing at. And from the few minutes he got, I don't see why he wouldn't be. I also think its dishonest to have him leave UCLA, if he wasn't going to play any minutes. About Pomykal, I realize his age, but I also realize he's a '99, and there have been two 99's in MLS this season that have gotten regular minutes. Just from a US standpoint, I think he's a better player than Adams, yet Adams is an every game starter, and Pomykal can't get on the bench most matches. Pomykal also plays a position where he should be ready for minutes at an earlier age, and from what I've seen of both, I think he's currently more ready for MLS minutes than Adams. I think Pomykal's the best '99 in our player pool. The best '99 in the player pool should be ready for MLS minutes at age 17, otherwise our player pool is of a very low level.

Thats not to say FCD is a terrible club or anything like that, I know you'll support your team against criticism and thats fine, but I also think fans who concentrate on American players when they watch MLS would be upset about FCD has handled things this season. They aren't the only club though, there have been many discussions in this thread about other teams.

 

What's MLS ranked globally? Maybe around the 20th best league? A bit behind the C'Ship and 2Bund in overall level of competition?

The advertised most youth friendly team in this nation with the advertised top academy and some of our most elite YNTers should be playing more youth, especially at this level. It's not like we're asking a Schalke or BVB to throw Pomykal out there to the wolves. We're asking why he isn't even making the bench for a team whose current level is "can't score a goal vs the Rapids" and who got smoked by Van.

Bigger picture says MLS is at or similar to a level like the 2Bund, where clubs send youth to get time/mins. But MLS is so caught up in everyone can make the playoffs that playing youth is not a priority for most. Sad. Getting caught up in "win now so we can make the playoffs" is incredibly short-sided. Not only do NBA/NFL teams in closed system play youth for the future but clubs across better leagues also both try to win and do it while playing more youth with much harsher penalties on the line.

“Some clubs in MLS are doing that. But they're still afraid to take a chance on a young [player],” he said. “But I also think that we need to do better in preparing them and identifying them – and giving them a program.

“Everybody needs to work together for the good of soccer. Because at the end, our kids here have a future in MLS,” Perez added. “And MLS is not going to get better by just bringing in foreign players. That's not going to happen. The only way they're going to get better in their football is by having their own players here, developing them in the right way and then the most talented ones, giving them a chance to play – if they're good enough – with the first team at 17, 18. I think until that gets better, we're still going to take steps by steps, but it's going to take longer.”

Hugo is spot on here. The problem is teams/coaches are simply afraid to play youth. And that issue is brushed off with the argument of "every coach is trying to win games". But that misses the bigger picture. EPL clubs try to win every game, as do Ered, Ligue 1 and Bund clubs. And one is not like the other three.

 

The easiest way to deal with that would be expanding upcoming year salaries cap for the teams reaching mandated minimums for youth players. If we have that cap let's at least use it properly.

 

How would this work though? I agree its good to incentivize teams, but by adding cap for teams with youngsters, they're just going to get better players to play ahead of the youngsters.

 

Why?

 

I mean, just by adding cap you're giving them a way to afford better players salaries, which gives them a reason to not play youngsters. I'm just wondering if you had any ideas on how to implement it.

 

I don't see that happening. MLS wants to keep salaries of Americans down. This is a good article on it today.

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/us/feat...urce=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_m_medium=t

 

Let say you have EPB on your team, and making a decision between him and Ellis.
You know what you get from Ellis, you understand that EPB is a different level of talent, but Ellis gives you just enough. Would you take a risk? Some will, some won't.
And now you are told that if your U20 kids play let say 1,800 mins you will get extra $500K next year. And you think what if let say Dwyer comes bitching about salary or Benny. Way more people would play EPB. And yes, if he sucks, you might use those $500K to buy another CB, trade Dwyer and sell EPB let say to Benfica.

 

Interesting, Tenorio also feels that this is outdated approach. Let them realize how much money they miss with Pulisic/McKennie/EPB etc.

 

First thing that occurred to me when Arriola got 1M/Y from DC is that there is no way he'd have gotten anything near that if he had signed with LAG. Hell, Arena told him to move on because he wasn't good enough to get time for LA.

But that's just an example of and a byproduct of a number of issues plaguing our youth scene and incentives.

Not only is MLS not built to play youth but worse, it's built to push our top youth overseas. Bund is the 2nd highest paying league. I guarantee within 1-2 yrs McKennie will be making a fair amount more than Acosta does as a 22 yr old. I guarantee when/if Sargent breaks thru in the Bund he'll make a fair amount more than Morris at a younger age. Pulisic likely makes 2M+ per yr, far more than he'd be getting had he signed with MLS. It's not just those examples or how guys like Mix/Shea both got 520-700K/Y, more than Nagbe, for Euro experience or the Bedoya example but a guy like Cameron will also make far more when he ultimately returns than had he just stayed in Houston. No way would Wood be getting 3M/Y if he never left for Germany. And I'd bet he gets Jozy type money if/when he does sign with MLS. MLS pays much more if you get yourself into the global market, which means as a player, get yourself into the global market ASAP. And that's part of the drain of elite prospects overseas. But it's a dare IMO, a dare to take that risk. MLS banks on most not taking that risk. I don't blame them for the time being, makes sense until more kids take that dare and succeed with it.

But we're trending towards that happening. Right now there's not a single MLS American lifer on 1M+. But Cameron, Howard, Wood, Yedlin, Dempsey, Bradley, Jozy, Bedoya, Pulisic, Arriola, Fabian, Chandler, Brooks, all make 1M+. Those are our highest paid NTers. Those are the guys who operate/ed in the global market and get paid accordingly. And that applies to this thread as the ability to cash in like that starts when you're much younger.

A huge difference is here, you get a HG contract which locks you into a salary for 4 years. Overseas, you'll get a youth contract, like Pulisic had, McKennie/Haji types likely have right now but once you get into the 1st team, you get a new contract and paid accordingly. So McKennie might go from a 200K youth contract to 1M+ within the next yr but his FCD counterpart in Acosta is stuck on a sub 300K HG contract at age 22. So do the math, by the time McKennie is 22 he likely stands to have ~2.8M more saved up in earnings than Acosta. And as we see with Acosta, McKennie would not get that had he signed with FCD instead of taking the dare to jump ship. And that's a huge difference in earnings. It really adds up. It almost projects to what Acosta might earn for an entire MLS career compared to what McKennie will have saved up by the time Acosta comes off his HG contract. Of course, if McKennie becomes a key player for Schalke with three years, his following contract would be substantially more than that. Then compare that to Nagbe's 565K....

 

FYI, I just read from a fairly well-placed inside RSL guy on the subreddit that Acosta is sitting due to some kind of off-field issue. It's not due to his play.

I'd share details if I had them, but it would explain why he was sitting. Petke has been good about playing younger players, and he showed a lot of faith in Acosta when previous coaches didn't. So sitting him for Wingert wasn't just weird, it was really out of character for Petke.

Take all of this with a grain of salt. But it sounds like Danny did something wrong and Petke handled the issue internally, rather than embarrassing the kid publicly.