Although not defenders McGlynn and Aaronson are from the same coaches. So it seems a soccer family still the major requirement.
Good point. I think you've proven a point that's still a huge gap in our system. I thought Curt Flood and Major Leagues Reserve Clause was ruled unconstitutional and that would also apply to MLS Homegrown Rule whereby the rights to players were retained by the team upon the contract's expiration. After this simple wiki lookup it seems the reserve clause still exists in MLS for some reason. It's silly that he can't go to another MLS team without compensation even when they don't want him AND has never signed a pro deal. It hurts development significantly. Just seems so unfair and idiotic.
It would need to be challenged. Single-entity isn't what it used to be, but it still remains an untested legal argument against some of the labor practices. I think there's a good chance a kid could challenge it and win. But it would take years, which means someone needs to do it for the principle. Because it isn't practically a smart move. Players can actually move academies -- but they can't sign with the senior team without compensation. The going rate is only $50k of GAM, which is a pretty small number for an MLS team these days. Which goes to the above -- if the team you are moving to won't pony up $50k ... perhaps they don't rate you that much? It's not a completely unfettered system, and I'm sure there's some borderline players that lose their chance. But there's been a decent number of prospects moving that if the new team believes at all in the player, it doesn't seem to be much of an impediment. $50k is a cheap transfer fee, and it only needs to be paid if you want to sign them to the senior team. (Although I'm not certain about MLS Next Pro contracts.) Again, not saying it is fair. But it's less than half a percent of a single year of payroll. It's not stopping all movement. ------------------------------------- People should be careful what they wish for. Free movement could have some unintended consequences as well -- I can see some teams simply not wanting to compete for the talent and bowing out of the development game. It's training wheels that England didn't take off until just recently, actually. They should come off at some point, but I'd like it to happen when all the teams are too invested to walk away.
Elton and Sarver? Really need to know your rationale with including those two in the current u20 conversation. You can’t continue to rate players at the current YNT standard for an age group based on who was good 3-4 years ago. Both Elton and Sarver are promising but I wouldn’t include either in this group currently
Sarver had 7G, 4A for a very good NCAA team. He led Big 10 Freshmen in points, and was second on the team in that category behind a guy that was signed to a HG contract. Chifamba played the 13th most minutes for the National Champions. His role also increased as the season went on. I think there’s a Clemson fan who chimes in on some of these threads. Maybe he can tell us exactly how he did, but I would say that’s a pretty good freshman season. I think the bigger point stands, even if it doesn’t include those two, but I would include them.
The OFC qualifiers are apparently next month, but I haven't seen dates. Apparently Samoa is hosting. Two teams qualify and one may perhaps assume it will be New Zealand and... someone else. Last time it was Tonga. If you're interested in learning more about Fiji's team, here's some stuff: https://www.theroar.com.au/2022/06/17/fijis-football-youth-revolution-is-on/ That article mentions a former NZ U17 who apparently has switched to Fiji. Recruiting, man, it's everywhere! CONMEBOL, Asia and Africa have their final qualifiers next year.
Oceania qualifying draw will be held on Tuesday. Tournament is now scheduled for September and will be held in Papeete, Tahiti. https://www.oceaniafootball.com/ofc-u-19-championship-draw-set-for-fiji/
That's like the second or third time I've posted a generic but factually lacking "Here's this thing that I think is interesting" post where the news has happened the next day. I should probably try to use this superpower to my advantage. #TIL that the Tahiti national team technically represents all of French Polynesia. (The island of Tahiti represents like 70% of FP's population.)
Tournament page is up for the Oceania tournament. Will begin on September 7 and go through the 24th. https://www.oceaniafootball.com/events/ofc-u-19-championship-2022/
Oceania squadlists are here! https://www.oceaniafootball.com/squads-named-for-ofc-u-19-championship/ Things are going to start happening to these players now. (Apparently Tim Cahill's son is playing for Samoa and John Herdman's is playing for NZ.)
Is John Herdman's son not good enough for Canada? You'd think he would play for the country where his father is the coach of the National Team. There was this whole debate when Klinsmann was the coach about which country Jonathan would represent, and while he probably wasn't good enough to play for Germany, he also had the option of representing China. He represented USA. It didn't seem like there was ever much doubt about which of the three he was going to play for. Is Canada a lot better than New Zealand at youth level and he's not good enough for Canada?
Official emblem for the tournament was released a couple of weeks ago. I like it! https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/ar...esia-2023-tm-official-emblem-launches-on-host Of more interest to us, perhaps, is that the article states the tournament will "live" on FIFA+. Unclear if that means it will require subscribing to a paid version of the site or it will be free. Stay tuned.
By the by, if I'm reading this correctly, Tahiti's squad came to the U.S. to train and play some American clubs in tuneups. Haven't looked closely into the matter beyond this link. https://www.ftf.pf/la-preselection-des-u19-senvolent-pour-les-usa/
CONMEBOL tourney starts today. 4 qualification spots up for grabs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_South_American_U-20_Championship
From FIFA: Provisional lists can be between 35-55 players, including a required 4 GKs. Apparently federations can petition for changes before the final roster deadline. FIFA says it will not release them, but I suppose federations could release their own. The regulations don't give a deadline for the provisional list, but say it will be in some kind of circular. The final lists are 21 players, including 3 GKs. Same thing about the deadline--not sure when they are due. Players must come from the provisional list. There is room for hardship changes. In addition to the Jan. 1, 2003, age deadline, players can be born no later than the end of 2007. The circulars might be posted here, dunno: https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/official-documents
Interesting early notes from CONMEBOL Qualifying tournament. Brazil and Uruguay are just going Godzilla on Tokyo level stomp fest (between the two of them 17 goals combined, 3 allowed, 5 wins and 1 loss). Both are through, and joined by Paraguay. Interestingly, Argentina stepped on a rake to start the tourney, losing to Paraguay in their opener and getting throttled by Brazil on matchday 2 (3-1 flatters to deceive, Argentina was down 3-0 when they grabbed a consolation goal in the 90th minute), they finally bagged a win against punching bag Peru (already eliminated with 4 straight losses, 1 goal for, 7 against) 1-0. It legit looks like Argentina might crash out of this thing and not qualify. They still control their destiny and play a win or go home in the group stage match against Colombia tonight (Colombia advances with a tie or win, Argentina has to win). The other group is just a hodge podge after Uruguay. Uruguay kicked everyone in the teeth, 10 goals for, 1 allowed, 3 wins, no losses, meanwhile Bolivia is out, as per usual, Uruguay is of course through. So knockout spots 2 and 3 from that group are a battle royale. Ecuador will need to get something out of a match with already qualified Uruguay to insure safety while Chile and Venezuela battle it out in a match where Venezuela probably has to win to advance, and if Chile ties or win, they're good. Interesting tournament. Definitely looks like Uruguay continues to beat the odds (size, population) by producing nice youth teams. You'd have to go back to 2005 to see them failing to qualify, so they've bagged 7 straight tickets to the tourney and 1 ousting in the group stage from what I can see. Equally interesting they've made the semifinals twice, and made a final once and seem to consistently crash out to legit traditional powers like Brazil if they leave early. Interesting. I think I want to avoid them. I also never bothered to notice that this tournament is actually seeded based on the past five tournaments w/special weight for confederation titles won during the latest campaign, so we should be a Pot 1 seed again this cycle. Kinda cool.
Speaking of Argentina…WOW!! Argentina are the World Cup champs. But Argentina’s U-20 team, coached by Mascherano, has shockingly failed to qualify for the U-20 WC. After losses to Brazil & Paraguay, they needed a result vs. Colombia to make the next stage. Colombia’s late winner: pic.twitter.com/PoRvdmYl6L— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) January 28, 2023
Its amazing how much that goal reminds me of Johnson's flubbed stop in Olympic Qualifying that knocked us out of the hunt to qualify for the 2012 Olympics. Argentina flat out sucked. Deservingly go home. I forgot, btw, between Uruguay and Brazil, they've got nothing but wins and the 1 draw, neither have lost (I wrote there were 5 wins and 1 loss, its now 6 wins and 1 draw, zero losses, and now I guess 19 goals for and 4 goals allowed between Brazil and Uruguay in qualifying.