Another '07 Polish-American, Patryk Stechnij, has USMNT callups from Goalkeeper U. Zach arrived only last season, replacing Adin Brown. The real professor is Fire FC Academy GK coach Igor Dimov. Dimov is (was) partners with Marek Los in a goalkeeping academy. Besides the CFFC academy, they have coached several other major college & pro keepers. Dimov is on the bench at Fire II matches.
I can. I think there's a very good chance none of the three seriously factor into the senior team set up. Oh, the way we integrate players, there's a good chance at least two of them get a look, but at this age and where our senior team is going, I have no idea why you are so certain all three (and you would need all 3 for 80%) would be any kind of factor with the senior team with that certainty. I don't expect you to agree. I have this argument with all the prospect gurus. Once I even dug back to their projections at this age and showed them how terribly wrong they were. But people are always certain.
Much of the baseball scouting structure is actually just subjective, but the actual scouts generally have a good common sense of what the words and numbers mean. Physical Speed Projected Size Acceleration/First Step Work Rate Technical First Touch Ball control Passing Accuracy Shot Power Shot Placement Off Foot Tactical/Mental Coachability Off Ball Movement Defensive Positioning etc.. Heck, just use the Football Manager Buckets if that works. Instead, I see prospect rankings where they will talk about the close in ball control of one players but never mention the athletic ability. Or the shooting of another player but not positioning, etc. It leads to hype, because there's not a systematic evaluation of a total package. And the lack of actual numbers on things leads to everyone having the same level of something a positive instead of forcing differentiation that exists. It's simply a better way to communicate. I'd imagine the actual teams have systems; it's just our prospect gurus write short paragraphs.
Gotcha. It will be interesting to see how this evolves over time. Baseball clearly has a lot more in it's infrastructure. I also do think that it's more difficult to gauge this stuff in soccer. There are just a lot more variables interacting with each other at the same time and less definition when it comes to what qualities a certain player in a certain role needs to have. Also, even though the game has become more athletic, the most important skills in the game are still related to decision making and game intelligence. Edit: Then, there is the whole idea of "creativity..." How do you measure that?
People get very, very, very angry when you show them. Even when they were the ones who wrote it. Many then just double and triple down with regards to their thought process and then turn the person who showed them their own words into the evil enemy.
I agree. Maybe not all of the players that I have named will be on the senior team but I'm talking about 2030 not 2026. No one knows what going to happen in the future. It also depends on what level players are playing at. Let's say Brenden Aaronson is playing in an average team but maximo carrizo is playing in a better team which one would you take? It all comes down to projects, injuries, and the level players are at by 2030.
We'll get another data point when they play Nigeria. Right now I wouldn't rate the smallish attacking players on this team (Perez, Carrizo, Morales, Outman) as highly as Cruz Medina. Granted Cruz is a 2006 and the players on this team are 2007s except for Carrizo who is an 2008. But having seen Cruz at a similar age and more recently, I think his talent is pitched a bit higher than the foursome on this team. And Cavan is obviously above Cruz and them. Now development is not linear and the current pecking order is not written in stone. But that's the way I see it right now. I would also put Cavan and Cruz above guys on the U20 team like Wolff, Tsakiris and Luna. Again nothing written in stone. But these are the sorts of conversations worth having among those of us who follow the youth teams. There are several things that make Cavan and Cruz better in my eyes. Aggression. Incisiveness. Vision. Work rate. Cavan is also superior physically (adjusting for age). He's going to be stronger and faster than all of them. Combined with his skills and aggression, this is going to allow him to hold the ball a lot better under pressure than the others. Some of this is already apparent, but I think a reasonable projection is that the gap will be even bigger by adulthood. I think Cavan will surpass Gio Reyna. The others won't.
You're right that they might be the best players right now, and most would agree. But Josh Sargent is a 2000 who, while at the U17 level, scored goals in bunches at the U20 world cup, an right now you'd probably say he's not going to make the 2026 roster at what isn't a strong position for us. Your players are even younger than Sargent was when he did that, and haven't done anything at even close to that level. What would you have said about Sargent's chances? The truth is you just don't know. I think Cavan is the greatest prospect I've seen, and we have a reliable athleticism indicator in his brother, and I still wouldn't say he's anything close to a sure thing. Life is hard to predict.
Is there any way to simplify futbol scouting to Branch Rickey's "The Dodger Way"? "If they can run and throw we can teach them the rest." (They later added power hitting & character) Or is futbol scouting too complex to simplify like that?
Yes and no. Take dribbling. It is a very instinctive thing. But can also be taught and improved by training. I think the best dribblers are born not made. The training just refines it. 80% instinct and natural talent. 20% training. That's my verdict and I'm sticking with it. So if you are scouting dribbling, you shouldn't project much. The player in front of you is what he is. If he is a tremendous athlete but keeps tripping over the ball, don't assume you can fix that.
I was not watching soccer when Sargent was playing. Do you think he will be better than Gio? His too young to know that.
Yep. But that's why you have scouts. It's not really an objective measure, but rather a systematic way of being able to compare subjective evaluations. So creativity might be a bucket ... or it might be broken down into other things. I dunno. It's really just about how valuable a common language is, and eventually a common scale. In baseball, if someone has a 65 raw power score ... people get what that is. It's not actually an objective measure, but rather an aggregate of scouts saying "this guy has almost elite raw power." And that "almost elite" means something pretty concrete.
That's essentially what I am saying -- saying a 15 year old will be a consistent USMNT player with any high level of certainty is inconsistent with the past. There's a few guys who are really, really locks -- I'd say Cavan is one that is probably there though until he grows, he might not be -- but otherwise, even a half step down ... there's a substantial error rate. And that rate is higher at younger ages. You can look at how much the age group ratings have changed between 14 and 15, then will change again. So your commentary -- that from this mess of a game we can already pick out who will be good ... I don't think we can. With a few very rare exceptions. TBH, the only person I've ever been 100% sure about at this age is Pulisic. Reyna was a half step behind. But if you back to when each player was 15, the certainty around Andrew Carleton was higher than the certainty around Reyna. And no one called Adams, McKennie, Dest, Pepi, etc. sure things at these levels. I like watching and scouting, but we're looking at possibilities and little more.
I'm not really sure that the Dodger Way functioned quite like that. Lots of people like to simplify. But it is also worth noting that Rickey was a long time ago. The man started the farm system model; he was really the first person to focus on development. I just think that has moved much younger than when Rickey started, and that's definitely true in soccer. I'd actually be really interested to see team scouting reports, just to see the level of detail and at what age. I think it is more important in soccer because style means a ton.
Entertaining half. I thought our number 6, Adyn Torres, was outstanding on both sides of the ball (except for one bad giveaway). Team looks a lot better than against Holland.
USYNT U-16 starting XI vs. Nigeria 👇Z. CAMPAGNOLO D. ALEXANDRE N. ALMEIDA A. BAIERAC. MCFARLANEA. TORRESS. JIMENEZ S. MORALESJ. SHORE N. SANTOS N. BERCHIMASStream on JFATV: https://t.co/8Tnowf1lvC— Footy Access (@footy_access) June 4, 2023 25’ | 1-0 | United States 🇺🇸 Goal scored by Noah Santos, assisted by Adyn Torres pic.twitter.com/gPGicBuz9d— Footy Access (@footy_access) June 4, 2023 63’ | 2-0 | United States 🇺🇸Goal scored by Santi Morales, assisted by Bryce Outman pic.twitter.com/UM3q26q5Dl— Footy Access (@footy_access) June 4, 2023 Full Time | 🇺🇸 2-1 🇳🇬25’ Noah Santos63’ Santi Morales 85’ Solomon Udo The USYNT U-16 squad finish the International Dream Cup 2-1-0 ☑️— Footy Access (@footy_access) June 4, 2023
One big new thing people don't seem to realize or talk about. MLS Academy are starting to make players because of brenden aaronson. As a red bull Academy Scout has said " The main focus for us as an academy is developing talent that can go to the first team and that’s also sellable." We have never seen a player pool like the U15-U17. So we don't know know how many players can overpass other players. I understand the hype cavan sullivan but people need to calm down his only 13 and turn 14 later this year. If he gets to the U20 and still is considers one of the best 2009s then the hype will be real.
How quickly they establish themselves with their clubs is a better yardstick for determining whether the hype is real or not. There was a big difference between the first half and second half against Nigeria. Our coach played out bigger and stronger players in the first half. Little guys in the second half. We got pushed around a lot in the second half. Especially the first 20 minutes. Later we were able to exploit the fact Nigeria was pushing up and hit them on the counter.
soccer parents + social media = In two weeks only three trainings and not even 90 minutes played. He lost 12 days of training with first and second team, lost 4 games with NYCFC II. We gave it a try, but USYNT is not the right place for Maximo. Thank you for the opportunity. We are moving on.— Augusto Carrizo (@AugCarrizo78) June 4, 2023
And let's don't forget fans egging them on. Carrizo was anonymous versus the Netherlands in a blowout loss. Was that because he was too small? Maybe. But that's kind of the point -- the obsession with playing up isn't necessarily what is best for the team OR the player. But, you know, status. Morales scored in the two other games, and we won. I fail to see how there's any data that it was inexplicable to start a player who failed to make any impact in Game 2. Except, of course, hype. The US teams should be about earning your spot. Not getting mommy and daddy to complain about it.
His dad is going to ruin his career. This will be an extreme statement but I hope Carrizo grows to resent his input sooner than later or he will end up making the wrong moves for his career.
Of the munchkins I thought Morales had the biggest impact. I think the coach made the right call in giving him most of the PT as the 10. The big question with the little guys is how well they adapt to the physical side of the game. A really difficult question to answer. But there are lots of little guys who do it. The one thing I do question a little about coaching choices is the decision to go with a double pivot most of the time. Jimenez and the two Torres shared those duties and usually two of them were out there. It would have made some sense to change it up some by going single pivot with two attacking mids (two of Santi, Axel and Maximo).