You can't expect the USSF to be able to scout everybody. Holcomb is just a guy who is repeatedly one of the top scorers in the DA playing for a large club in the biggest youth market in the country.
They've seen him. Unfortunately 6'0" fast forward isn't a priority now. If someone knows any 5'5" DMs please contact scouts immediately.
No way the folks who didn't take Jonathan Gonzalez to the U-17 World Cup or the U-20 World Cup could screw up like that...
You know, Holcomb is a 2000. We all know that even-year players have a harder time getting U20 call ups because they are one year younger and have one less year of development under their belts. Honestly, that's understandable. It's just too bad that the USSF doesn't have some sort of U19 program to look at players of Holcomb's profile!
I think there's actually a better case for him playing on the U-17 WC team than U-20. That U-17 team was awful centrally, could've really used McKennke and Gonzalez. It's not like they weren't among the options that cycle, the coach preferred to stick with the players who had been passed by other players. For the U-20 WC, no one advocated for Gonzalez. He had played in qualifying, he wasn't off the radar, I don't see the problem here.
The most important thing for youth national teams is to develop players for the full national team. Jonathan Gonzalez was LigaMX Best XI in his first professional season at age 17-18. Derrick Jones has ~700 professional minutes for the (mediocre at best) Philadelphia Union at age 21 . Maybe it's too early to tell, but as it now it certainly looks like the YNT decision makers backed the wrong horse. Not surprisingly it was the older, bigger, more athletic, horse.
I'm pushing back on that a bit. He was selected as underage player for the u20 qualifiers. That is typically a sign of great favor regardless if you play or are taken to the WC. I don't think anyone was expecting for him to have the breakout he had later that year. The big issue for Jonathan was in the U17s. Timing took care of everything else.
Sixteen new clubs join the Dev. Academy for 2018-19. Most notably, @TorontoFCIII makes the jump: https://t.co/Nveu4gYmM0— Travis Clark (@travismclark) March 9, 2018
Beyond TFC: Nice to see DA representation in the Rio Grande Valley. It sounds like it is RGV FC affiliated, so hopefully the Dynamo step up with the funds to make it affordable to local talent there. The McAllen-Edinburg metropolitan area ranks 381st out of 382 in per capita household income. (Laredo is last.) RGVFC will have a lot of LONG trips at the U17 and U19 levels, though. All away games in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Denver, and KC. It looks like San Antonio FC is slowly building up to full membership status. They added a U15 team this year. The San Antonio area has no U17 or U19 teams at present. Cincinnati's sole DA youth club is also getting representation up to the U15 level. LAFC and Minnesota United are going up to U15 next year. Interesting to see Tigres San Antonio join the DA. As the name suggests, they are affiliated with Tigres UANL. How many Liga MX-affiliated US academies have competed in the DA before? Also interesting to see the girls' DA get representation in Omaha and OKC. There's no boys' DA presence in those areas.
https://sportsday.dallasnews.com/so.../groups-announced-generation-adidascup-frisco GA CUP groups are announced Champions Division GROUP A: C.A. River Plate, Atlanta United, Atletico Paranaense, A.S. Monaco FC GROUP B: D.C. United, Flamengo, New York City FC, FC Dallas GROUP C: Eintracht Frankfurt, Independiente del Valle, Real Madrid C.F., LA Galaxy GROUP D: Toronto FC, Portland Timbers, Sporting Kansas City, Pachuca Premier Division GROUP A: Columbus Crew SC, Matsumoto Yamaga, FC New England Revolution, Seattle Sounders FC GROUP B: Club Tijuana, Colorado Rapids, Montreal Impact, Philadelphia Union GROUP C: Chicago Fire, New York Red Bulls, San Jose Earthquakes, Tigres UANL GROUP D: CF Monterrey, Houston Dynamo, Orlando City SC, Real Salt Lake
That's interesting, I guess they changed them around since the first "leaked" groups we saw had NYCFC in the same group as Real Madrid.
Houston notoriously has an awful academy, but (01's) Marcelo Palomino and Heriberto Soto are doing extremely well with the U-19 squad. Palomino has been a fixture with his YNT age groups, Soto should probably get a call up soon enough. Over a goal per game at the U-17 level, 9 in 12 at the U-19 level. Is there an '02 forward Soto in the DA who deserves more YNT call ups? There's an '00 and an '01 with that surname who deserve more YNT call ups. Gage Akalu ('05) scored for SKC. I can't find his stats as he's not listed on any roster, but he's playing up two age groups. The Atlanta academy is probably the most interesting academy in the league, so I look at the boxscores from their youth teams closer than other teams. The first player promoted from their U-13 squad was Jonatan Vilal ('05) who has now played two U-14 games, and has 1 goal. Pavel Romero an ('06) playmaker was promoted to the U-13 squad, the first player from the U-12 squad promoted to the U-13's. He's now played 3 games for the U-13's. Their U-12 squad is mostly 06's, but the leading scorer is '07 George Okigbo who has 25 goals in 14 games. The leading scorer for the U-14's, Alex Hernandez ('04) has played 3 U-15 games, but hasn't scored. Only 13 goals in 19 games at the U-14 level, which comparatively to some of their top scorers at other levels isn't that good. Goalkeeper Dagoberto Romero ('04) has played up this season with the U-15's, playing in 12 games. He rotates with an '03 keeper. Why has he yet to be called up to the U-15 YNT if he can play up for a full season in the top academy in the league? Other 04's to play some games with the U-15's include Efrain Morales (4 matches), Bryan Casanova (3 games) and Caleb Wiley (2 games). I believe they play CM, RB and CB, respectively. Like Romero, ('04) Nigel Prince has played all season with the U-15's (with 3 U-14 games sprinkled in), but hasn't played recently, maybe he's injured. Axel Picazo ('01) had two goals for the Union U-17's. I think he should be playing with the U-19's. He looked very good at the DA showcase. Dantouma Toure ('04) update. He has played 12 U-17 games and has 7 goals. Two U-19 games and has 1 goal. FC Dallas U-17's won 7-0. Pepi ('03) and Redzic ('02) both scored. Pepi has 5 goals in 10 games playing up a year (only 5 starts though). Redzic has 14 goals in 12 games. Dante Sealy ('03) has 5 goals in 9 games (7 starts) also playing up a year.
Moses. I recommend watching, but for those who don't have the time, this was Nyeman's first game back with the U-17's. He had played a game or two with the U-15's, I believe. The creative ideas combined with the passing range, footballing IQ and athleticism are so elite. IMO, Nyeman is the top youth prospect who has yet to play a pro game. If Zlebmada from twitter who does the gifs of young Americans play reads this and wants to make gifs of Nyeman, there are a number of games archived there on that youtube channel. You can check the game log here: http://dcut.ussoccerda.com/sam/teams/index.php?team=3939320 He played the first couple games of the season, and then got injured, so there aren't that many games, but I think enough for a full highlight video. Most people have no clue who Nyeman is, but its probably worth people figuring out sooner than later, if you had the time to put that together.
Supposedly there's a lot of animosity between FCD and the Dallas Texans right now on and off the field, and FCD loooooooooooooves running up the score against the Texans' DA teams. FCD has some interesting homegrown decisions to make over the next year. Cuz there are a lot of 'younguns that they should be looking to wrap up. And that doesn't include the Padilla, Cappis and the U19 youngsters. Looks like they lost out on Richards, but we'll see. By the way, you wanna see a monster at a young level? Keyrol Figueroa Everybody I talk to says "legit, legit, legit" monster prospect. As much as there can be a monster prospect at the U13 level. Sometimes you can watch a kid at that age group and just know, though. He's over 20 goals now and the season is half over.
Richards was back playing this weekend. He was out a few weeks with an injury. Maybe there's hope for fcd
The Union have a World Cup winner as a U12 coach Times are a'changin. 972215557394194434 is not a valid tweet id
Watched RSL U17 and U19 both beat Galaxy today 2-0 (after wins over Golden State yesterday). Good games between top teams in southwest division.
Scored both today for the 19s. The saying “ all he does is score goals” definitely applies. Haven’t seen him in person many times (mostly focused on U17s), but he works hard, combines well with teammates, and most importantly for a #9, finds the back of the net regularly and in a variety of ways.
I found a full match of Atlanta's U-13 team on youtube. There's actually two matches listed, but watching one is enough. Just a few general impressions, and obviously keep in mind these are 05's, so its hard to judge much. Atlanta's three best players were Jonatan Villal, Alan Carleton and Joel Gonzalez. Villal is an attacking player, looked like a winger. Skilled, good passer, scored a nice goal. Wasn't that involved and came out early, but you could see he was very talented. Carleton is similar in playing style to how his brother currently plays (not how he played a few years ago), but he's way flashier, if thats possible. He plays like a street-footballer. Outrageous footwork. Joel Gonzalez was a tall center-back who passed the ball very well. They had some other notable players who are putting up big numbers. Daniel Sebhatu is an overpowering winger, he was the tallest player on the field and he was fast. He had some skill on the ball, wasn't just an athlete. Chance Gray was a target forward who was also rather overpowering. He had footballing ability though, as well. There's a defender on the team Ty Smith who's averaging over a goal per game, but he didn't play in this game, so I can't add anything about how he plays.
Another U13 academy showcase full match (also in Oct, 2017), you can do comparison. I watched the beginning of this match, thought FC Dallas U13's game is on another level, very good ball.