Speaking for myself a few years ago I was desperate for a talent upgrade for the national team and there were a lot of candidates. Now the team will only be adding rue stars and doesn't have to play players that aren't ready like last cycle. It is good players are still being produced but the US will be more like other national teams now instead of the youngest in the world.
How many of these potential MLS homegrowns have signed with USL now? Should we call this the Jonathan Gomez (FC Dallas -> Louisville City) / Kobi Henry (Inter Miami -> Orange County) route... of course the original was Haji Wright (LA Galaxy -> NY Cosmos -> Schalke). Fidel Barajas (San Jose -> Charleston) Matthew Corcoran (FC Dallas -> Birmingham) Ethan Kohler (San Jose -> Oakland) Drew Murray (San Jose -> Oakland) Nathan Worth (NYRB -> Tulsa) Sources: US youth int'l CM Nathan Worth is signing with USL club Tulsa.Worth, 16, a standout for New York Red Bulls academy. Made 7 apps with RBNY II.RBNY tried to sign him to a homegrown deal, but Worth inks a 2-year deal with Tulsa to leave for Europe after turning his 18. pic.twitter.com/G00copSq1A— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) March 19, 2023 This is surprising and a new scenario that we have not seen before. RBNY wanted to sign Worth to a HG deal. They have been high on him for some time, but Worth has decided to go to USL likely because it offers him first team minutes sooner and potentially a path to Europe sooner. https://t.co/8QHwBKFIDn— Marcus Chairez (@chai_asc) March 19, 2023 Since the main motivation seems to be wanting to leave for Europe at age 18, and this will incentivize MLS teams to treat their homegrowns better (whether it's more playing time or more of a willingness to transfer them abroad), this seems like a great development from the perspective of USMNT fans.
The first second U-20 eligible forward to score in MLS after Pepi isn't Darren Yapi (who to be fair has come close 3-4 times) but 19 year old Tega Ikoba for Portland #RCTID brings one back through Tega Ikoba. pic.twitter.com/A3OCGqkZ5f— Major League Soccer (@MLS) March 19, 2023
with Eduvie Ikoba being one of the top forwards in Hungary’s top flight, it’s great to see his younger brother breaking through. Great times for their family. ive spoken with Eduvie before, great guy
Pineda adds that he believes Caleb Wiley can get past any fullback in the league.— Felipe Cárdenas (@FelipeCar) March 23, 2023 Caleb Wiley hype train going from diesel to shinkansen
Bruce said that at some point Buchanan realised that nobody in MLS can stop him one on one, and after that he became a different player. Very similar players, but Buchanan was 23 when that happened and Wiley is 18.
Yeah, it'll be interesting to see whether it works. Usually it's easier to get a guy who's too aggressive to dial back than not-as-aggressive to dial it up. (Even if it doesn't, Wiley's got a lot of interesting qualities so I'd guess he'll make an impact in some sort of European league.)
This is as of LAST weekend.... 54 American YNT eligible players got minutes in MLS through the first four weeks plus CCL... not many big YNT names missing, Niko Tsakiris has been injured (adductor), Braden Craig is fourth in the CB depth chart, and Noah Allen is also injured (knee)... Jack Panayotou was said to be starting before an illness... other than that from the U-20 qualifying roster the MLS guys with no minutes are Antonio Carrera, Marcus Ferkranus, and Tyler Wolff... So just from MLS and not counting guys in Europe, LigaMX, USL, etc. that's around 60 youth eligible players. There are around 120 other USYNT-eligible players on MLS rosters with no minutes. 30 YNT eligible players with over 70 minutes through the first four weeks plus CCL 24 others with less than 70 minutes (Sullivan and McGlynn double counted due to CCL) young Americans in #MLS week 4 pic.twitter.com/zOBaf1qth1— Justin Moran (@kickswish) March 23, 2023 young Americans in the season so far.excluded players with < 70 minutes.both #MLS and #CCL included: pic.twitter.com/xtL3nTKucb— Justin Moran (@kickswish) March 24, 2023
Cam Harper is playing pretty well, both as a right fullback and higher up in the attacking midfielder/wing position.
It's so hard to assess players in Red Bulls system. When it's a no. 6 destroyer...ok, pretty much any other position I take with a grain of salt because they just don't try to do the things normal teams do. ~200 passes attempted yesterday with <50% completed.
Seemed like a pretty great week for US Youth in MLS. New England was the star of the show starting 3 teenagers. Buck continues to impress and scored the winner. Revs are turning into appointment TV, and I didn’t see that coming. Plenty of other action as well with lots of guys on international duty. Raines in Houston, Neal in LA, I saw Gutierrez with a great run + assist on the winner in chicago. Just playing is one thing, impacting games is another for teenagers.
Watching Tega Ikoba against Jalen Neal, Ikoba looks like a player worth a look. He's a physical stud and was giving Neal fits. The Fox announcers were saying Neal projects to grow to about 6-4 but that seems like a stretch (no pun intended) for someone who is already 20. He's listed at 6-3 but unless Ikoba is 6-6 (he's not), he looks to be about 6-1 (6-3 with the fro).
Gutierrez did have another good game. He needs to play centrally even when Shaqiri comes back. Loved seeing NE with 3 teenagers getting a win away from home, although against what might be the worst team in the league. I think the two guys on the wings have proven they deserve another start if Borrero could use a break after playing on Friday and tomorrow (if he does).
I don't see a 2023 lower division in season thread, but Corcoran played the first professional 90 minute game of his career on Saturday. He had the highest rating of the field players. Did anyone see it?
Two YNT-eligible's starting for Real Salt Lake today - '02 Ilijah Paul and '05 Gavin Beavers. An interesting bit of trivia is that Beavers will become the first Real Salt Lake player who wasn't born when the club played their first game. RSL's first game was April 2, 2005, and Beavers was born later that month on April 29. The XI for our rendezvous in the midwest.#CLBvRSL | #RSL pic.twitter.com/HaYc2vJQaZ— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) April 1, 2023
Yup was just going to mention Beavers getting the start. This is awesome to see. Hope he does well. I’ll be watching the two young NE players getting the start.
Diego Luna subs in and, as usual, looks like RSL's best player. Good news for Luna is that Mastroeni's days look to be numbered, so maybe RSL will soon have a coach who will give him more minutes.
For RSL: Paul didn't do much, though to be fair I doubt Harry Kane would play better with this RSL team. Beavers was OK. Had a couple good saves. Was mostly (not entirely) at fault on 1 goal and not really the other 3. Wasn't his fault RSL lost. Diego Luna was terrific and when he came on RSL was able to possess and attack for the first time. I think he's the best midfielder RSL has and I don't know why he doesn't start consistently.
1642388469522505729 is not a valid tweet id USA u21 MLS Minute leaders through week 6 1.Aidan Morris - 526 2.Noel Buck - 472 3.Cade Cowell - 465 4t. John Tolkin - 450 4t. John Pulskamp - 450 6.Cole Bassett - 442 7.Caleb Wiley - 440 8.Michael Halliday - 420 9.Cameron Harper - 413 10.Owen Wolff - 405 11. Jalen Neal - 385 12.Darren Yapi - 382 13.Chris Brady - 360 14.Brian Gutierrez - 334 15.Ted Ku-DiPietro - 292 16.Tayvon Gray - 285 17.Nathan Harriel - 283 18.Jack McGlynn - 255 19.Jacob Greene - 214 20.Daniel Edelman - 201 21.Josh Atencio - 182 22.Sebastian Berhalter - 147 23.Abdi Salim - 136 24.Brooklyn Raines - 132 25.Jack Panayotou - 124 26.Miguel Perez - 122 27.Quinn Sullivan - 115 28.Matai Akinmboni - 108 29.Justin Haak - 107 30.Jackson Hopkins - 103 31.Peter Stroud - 101 32.Malik Pinto - 92 33t. Noah Cobb - 90 33t. Gavin Beavers - 90 35.Andres Jasson - 86 36t. Cameron Dunbar - 76 36t. Diego Luna - 76 38.Gabriel Segal - 65 39t. Damian Rivera - 64 39t. Ilijah Paul - 64 41.Esmir Bajraktarevic - 62 42.Jackson Conway - 56 43.Obed Vargas - 48 44.Tyler Wolff - 45 45.Javier Casas - 42 46.Tega Ikoba - 38 47.Ben Cremaschi - 18 48.Aziel Jackson - 16 49.Max Arfsten - 15 50.Kristian Fletcher - 14 51.Danny Leyva - 11 52t. Erik Duenes - 9 52t. Alex Monis - 9 54.David Ruiz - 8 55t. Luis Flores - 6 55t. Jacob Davis - 6 55t. Ethan Dobbelaere - 6 58.Kayden Pierre - 4 59.Sota Kitahara - 3 60.Bode Davis - 2 61.Hayden Sargis - 1
It would be interesting to compare that list to various top 50 MLS prospect lists... plenty of guys who still haven't played. TDS: 2023 Top 50 MLS Prospects Matai Akinmboni Noah Allen Esmir Bajraktarevic Reed Baker-Whiting Nimfasha Berchimas Christopher Brady Noel Buck Matteo Campagna Antonio Carrera Maximo Carrizo Juan Castilla Justin Che Brandan Craig Benjamin Cremaschi Daniel Edelman Bento Estrela Kristian Fletcher Alexander Freeman Caden Glover Jacob Greene Brian Gutierrez Micahel Halliday Jackson Hopkins Tony Leone Danny Leyva Diego Luna Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty Cruz Medina Christian McFarlane Jack McGlynn Jalen Neal Serge Ngoma Emmanuel Ochoa Jack Panayotou Jonathan Perez Kayden Pierre Brooklyn Raines Nathan Saliba Dante Sealy Quinn Sullivan Dantouma Toure Kosi Thompson Niko Tsakiris Obed Vargas Jude Wellings Caleb Wiley Thomas Willams Owen Wolff Darren Yapi Rida Zouhir
Yea I hope that one mistake Beavers made doesn’t cost him playing time. It certainly was an error but if the two defenders next to Morris were more instinctive to beat him to the ball and clear it then it wouldn’t have been a goal.
So far this season, the club that has given minutes to the most YNT-eligible first-team players is... DC United, with six. (Ku-DiPietro, Greene, Hopkins, Fletcher, Akinmboni and Sargis.) Also odd - he much and deservedly-heralded FC Dallas academy has produced zero YNT-eligible players who've played an MLS first-team match this season. (Of course, 4 of them - Pepi, Reynolds, Tessman and Gomez) are already on European teams where they play regularly.) Akinmboni is the only 2006 to have played in MLS so far this season. All told, 73 YNT-eligible American players have made an MLS appearance this season. (4 of them are provisionally cap-tied elsewhere.) 4 USYNT-eligible GKs have played. (Beavers, Brady, Pulskamp, Schulte). Besides Akinmboni, only 4 other US eligible YNT CBs have played in MLS so far. - Neal, and Abdi Salim are the only ones to have played more than once. This is gonna be a real issue for the U23 team unless some guys start getting some minutes. (A healthy George Campbell probably helps this.)