Wow, we have 4 guys in MLS as good as Gio? We should really waltz through qualifying then and have a solid Cup. Might be tough to get Pulisic on the field with all that talent in another year or two.
That's...basically the same thing though. They don't have those passports and its an impossible assertion to prove or disprove.
Implausible. Not too many 17 year olds of any nationality break through into one of the top leagues. It is unusual on a global basis.
There probably are not many U19s in MLS with the potential of Reyna because any such player is not usually in MLS. When they are that good and they are ignored by their in territory MLS team, they are almost always gone. If they are that good, they usually don't want to sign. Nyeman and some of the other players who signed at 15 would be the place to look for such potential. If Nyeman had a passport, he might have signed with Dortmund himself last November. He will be an interesting test case. Nyeman signing with DCU is a real gamble on his part.
It is possible, though highly unlikely, that Gio could choose to represent another country internationally as well: https://theathletic.com/1628620/2020/02/24/ornstein-reyna-giovanni-usa-guendouzi-arteta-var/ Perhaps Portugal? England is trying to see if Gio could represent them as well.
That would be a sad and gut-wrenching turn of events for the son of an important former USMNT player to play for some other country (but, yes, unlikely).
There aren't many American U19s in MLS with Reyna's potential because there's been like 2 Americans ever with his potential. This whole conversation is silly because of that.
Honestly that was a wrong question to start with. Especially on this forum, where literally nobody rated Reyna that high. And beyond this forum the only one who did as far as I know was Claudio.
He doesn't have the physical attributes to do so, I don't think. This board tends to underrate the need for strong physical/athletic attributes in assessing upside. It's almost as if there has been a wild overcorrection from the days of throwing athletes with less skill out there.
Weren't people over the last year wondering if Reyna had the physical attributes to succeed at a high level? Not just that other thread recently, but I think it was a fairly common talking point, especially after that world cup failure. I don't disagree, but I think people go a bit overboard on physical attributes of 17 year olds. A lot can change in late teenage years. Just because Adu didn't develop physically doesn't mean other players won't.
That's my thesis for the missing generation. LAG and FCD listened to all the technical talk folks but it ended up most of their players were very lacking in athleticism. Other teams /academies were doing the same. Seems the US has finally figured out it's not an either / or but both. Since the awakening the youth national teams have played pretty good and lots of talent has started moving up the conveyor belt towards the full team.
Yes. In the Youth National Teams forum there was lots of discussion about who the best prospects were on the last U17 team. It always surprised me reading through it how little love Gio got. It almost seemed unfashionable to like his potential for some reason. I say unfashionable because it never seemed tethered to any sort of real insight or logic.
Interestingly, Michael Bradley is one player who seems to have picked up some speed (relative to his peers) after his mid teens. He was viewed as a bit of a plodder (to coin a phrase) who was just not athletic enough to make it at a high level.
Yep. Once these kids get to 18 or 19 or 20? OK we can start pushing more definitive ideas of the player. But a 15 or 16 year old who hasn't played much outside of ynt? I would rely on who wants the player (dortmund) than anything I've seen over 3 games at a youth wc where the team was built to STINK under eggs system.
I don't really have a record of people's criticism. I've always been a big Reyna-stan, but I think a lot of the criticism revolved around perceived selfish play / questions about passing and just a general resistance to hype because of his last name. In general, I think the big mistake with younger players is people tend to focus on what they can't do, rather than what they can do. It's no guarantee someone will develop, but focusing on the negatives doesn't allow for the fact of growth. I think the same is true with size and athleticism. If a player truly is an elite level athlete and/or has great size ... they aren't going to lose that. Yes, if the players is totally dependent on that, and they are young enough that almost no one else has gone through puberty, sure. But by 15 ... and with the skills Reyna clearly had, it should be viewed as a big plus. If a player is slower, or doesn't have it, you don't write them off as you can improve it. Danny Leyva is a good example of a kid clearly growing into his body -- docking him too much last year for how he runs was silly. But over time, tactical understanding is probably the easiest to improve and can come latest, core skills are much harder to improve, and finally, step changes in athleticism can be incredibly hard and basically impossible past a certain age. So it gets harder to ignore the negatives as people get older. Docking a 16 year old Reyna for being selfish was docking someone with great physical attributes and great skills for tactical understanding. It's focusing on the wrong thing.