Yanks Abroad Flavors of the Week: 2022-2023 Thread

Does our next generation (current age: 14-18) look as good as this rising generation (19-23)?

 

Still early to tell but my initial impression is it's deeper but the top talent may not be as good

 

We’re going to need to improve that top talent. It’s got to be the next generation of
Pulisic’s, Adams’, Musah’s, Reyna’s, etc. who are going to take the team to the next level. Granted, it’s almost impossible to tell who is going to be a world class talent at that level, but I really hope we don’t see another lost generation for a long, long time.

 

Agreed that it's a bit early but I will add that the 19-23 year olds are buoyed almost entirely by the 2000's (Pulisic, Adams, McKennie are 98's so one year off). We haven't had a year like the 2000's ever. The Euro powers and Brazil/Argentina produce teams like that most years.

I say that to add that the younger generations look very similar to the older age groups outside of the 00's.

The 05's look a bit like the 03's to me with a lot of really good players and I would predict a few NT pool guys at minimum but I personally don't see that one star. Some people see it with Nati Clarke but he relies so much on overwhelming athleticism that I'm a bit more wait and see. He is probably a center back/6 prospect although he plays right back as well. I think that's my issue as a whole with the 05's. They have athleticism by the boatload but a lot of them seem like early growth guys to me so we'll see which ones stay on that trajectory and which plateau. Good age group overall though.

I think the 06's have more soccer players and are probably deeper in guys i think we'll see in Europe at a decent level.

Probably way too early to go much further but Jack Mize is an 08 at Borussia Dortmund who is progressing pretty quickly. Forward as well!

Last thing I'll add is that the US has had a lot of good players in age groups before but we've always lacked development from about 16 up. It's getting better. We'll see how much better.

 

Well, for one, this generation of Pulisics, et al, will hopefully continue to improve. They are the first group to take us to the next level. Not just the stars improving, but the Josh Sargents improving can make a massive difference.

The second thing I'd say is that we're looking at a conveniently bookended span of 5 years (1998-2002).

At this point in the cycle, no one had heard of Yunus Musah or Chris Richards. Sergino Dest was on a U17 team, but not hyped. Aaronson was a nobody. Reyna was known, for sure, though many though overrated.

Matt Turner, Walker Zimmerman and Tim Ream were various levels of out of the pool, so there's also room for existing 1998-2002s or older to actually develop more.

But the next five years -- 2003-2007 birth years ... well, you got this U20 team. Paredes, Slonina, Pepi, Gonzalez and anyone else you like in just really the 2003/2004 segment.

2007s are 15. We have no real idea, but there's a few names. Same with 2008s and 2009s. I don't know how we know who is going to be a real star. Pulisic and Reyna were big names even at like 14, but there's plenty of guys who aren't considered high upside at that point who ended up being high upside.

I will say ... I think the next group lacks some of the athleticism this one has.

 

Strikers look much better. Keepers look much better. Hopefully CBs will end up better. LBs should be better.

 

We used to have false hope after Donovan and Beasley broke out in the scene.
Right now, we still lack some important developments. For example, players like Musah type, like Dest type etc.

 

Booth

 

if he keeps it up its possible ill come around on the idea that he should retroactively be added to the roster for the world cup that just ended (for us)

 

Things will pick up in this 14-18 range very soon.
There's a lot of talent there.
Most of those guys are just bubbling to the surface now in MLS, etc. Our team just won the CONCACAF U20 Championships with relative ease, and that was without the top of the age group (Pepi, Paredes, Slonina...................Jonathan Gomez if he picks the US).

The best player in this age group in terms of current performance level is Gabriel Slonina. He's still only 18. He just had the best season for a teenage keeper in the history of MLS. By far. Howard, Hamid, etc. didn't become full-time starters until 20. We sort of tuned out how young he still is.

In terms of overseas, young dual-nats................its hard to know who's going to develop. It seems like players bubble to the surface, we get excited, and then they disappear. So Malick Sanogo. What is his future? We don't know.

 

Booth had a totally lost year in 2021-2022. Really killed any chance of making the squad. It was a shame. He had a good 2020-2021 in Austria, then Bayern kept him with their reserves in the German Regionalliga last season (that's 4th tier). He even played most of that year out of position at right back. Ridiculous. Now that he's made the jump back up to the Eredevisie in central midfield, he looks AGAIN like a USMNT-capable player.

Keep in mind a player like Busio was getting good reviews in 2021-2022 for his play in Serie A! He didn't make it. In terms of 2022-2023 disappointments so far in Europe, Busio has to be at the top of the list. He and Tessmann have totally fallen off the map.

 

This is what’s going to be interesting. To get to that next level, essentially, we need to have as good of a u23 crop come up this cycle as we had last cycle. We’re going to still need that pipeline to continue and not stagnate.

 

To add to Busio, once Venezia's form fell off a cliff in about January and they went more to bunkering and countering Busio really struggled. When he was impressive in the fall (and he was) Venezia had him defensively as an 8 and then rooted him to a playmaker 6 on offense. They really let him set the pace.

That kind of limits him

 

There's no evidence that's going to happen based on results we're having at the youth levels.

Recent U16 results at a November tournament in Spain:

Spain 2 US 2
US 4 Wales 1
US 2 England 1

[Spain won the event. We played very well in that game.]

By the way, the England U16s started NYCFC homegrown signing Christian McFarlane. One measure of our progress is how many domestically produced youth players are being called up by foreign national teams. Recently, they've been called up to Argentina, Portugal, etc. too.

As of right now there's no reason to believe that the Pulisic, McKennie, Adams group is a "golden generation." They were the start of a sustainable talent surge. Talented kids will hopefully rise up to challenge this generation.

Of course, the majority of these aren't "Yanks Abroad" until they're 18. Paxten Aaronson, for instance, just moved to Germany. He was 18 the majority of this MLS season.

 

I hate to see Busio and Tessman labeled "disappointments." They're 20 and 21 respectively. If they were on the reserve squad at a bigger club. the rhetoric would be that they should have gone somewhere they could play. I'd like to see them given time.

Peace, have a great day!

 

Busio seems like the type of player that a coach might want to call in for a redemption call up early in the cycle to help right the ship with him.

 

Their 2022-2023 seasons have been disappointments.

They are indeed young enough to turn this around.

Plenty of other players had disappointing seasons that seemed on the cusp of first team soccer in Europe. We have a "Breakout Player" thread and we had trouble even nominating Europe-based players in 2022. McKennie, Pulisic, Adams, etc. were previous winners. Scally may be have been the choice, but he really broke out the previous season so we were cheating.

Guys seemingly on the cusp like Justin Che just didn't get the opportunity. It happens.

 

He's gonna need to right the ship with his club first. Venezia is awful and Busio has been in and out of lineup.

 

By 17-18 it isn’t that hard to rule someone out though.

 

Right now I don't see the 17/18 yr old starlet who is following the Puli/Reyna trajectory.

Doesn't mean someone won't suddenly breakout in the next 12-24 months.

 

Agree. Or even 36 months.

I do think the fanbase is a little too obsessed with the Wonderkid path of development, but it isn't the only one. We also tend to fixate on a certain type of player -- dribbly, solo playmakers.

There's multiple paths to development and contribution.

I'd also say we don't necessarily need more of those types -- we need the ones we have to get better, but we more need to improve depth, upgrade certain positions and I'm actually much more eager to find a slightly more diverse talent set than we have.

 

Look at the development Aaronson made. I remember when he was called up for his first January camp people weren't super excited about him, but he developed into a Best 11 player a year laterals has had a big trajectory.

I think there's a decent amount of players that could be in line for the Aaronson trajectory if they're smart with their transfers

 

Yup.

Circle your calendars for the 2024 Olympics. It's essentially an 18 month stretch from now until then. Breakout talent should be on that team unless they're so good they won't get released. But that's a fair timeline to assess new talent for this coming cycle.

 

i dont know how to respond to a serious reply to an obviously not-serious one. i understand that sarcasm doesnt always translate well in written form, but i really thought the time-travel would have...

 

Lol. Weston McKennie 2017-style.