So, the folks at FIFA canceled the World Youth Championship that was to begin later this month in the UAE. No new date has been set. http://www.fifa.com/Service/MR_A/52335_E.html I'm thinking this could impact the college season. If the tournament is moved to the fall, most likely the college players will be asked to take the semester off (They're already taking this one off) to stay together to train. Even if they don't take the semester off, we're still looking at some top programs being without some of their top players for about a month of the season. To review - here are the college players who have made Rongen's final 22. (Two would have been dropped for the final roster.) Knox Cameron, F, Michigan Ryan Cochrane, D, Santa Clara Steve Cronin, GK, Santa Clara Ned Grabavoy, M, Indiana Jordan Harvey, D, UCLA C.J. Klaas, D, Washington Chad Marshall, D, Stanford Drew Moor, D, Furman Justin Moose, M, Wake Forest Heath Pearce, D, Portland Ford Williams, GK, North Carolina With the chances of them having to miss all or a good part of the college season, will some of these players just say screw it and sign with MLS or try to get a European gig (hard, but not impossible under the new FIFA rules) now? Also, this doesn't just impact the schools with American U20 players. Several Canadian U20 players go to US colleges. This includes - Josh Simpson, Portland; Jelani Grant, Louisville; Gavin Hobbs, Washington; Alim Karim, Syracuse; Winston Marshall, Wright State and Andres Arango of Mercer CC.
How many weeks is the Youth Championship? Is it a 32 team field like the World Cup? Unless that is the case, I don't forsee the need for them to take a semester off. I know this might be a bit off topic, but the sooner we get a good development programs rolling the better, not to mention having a better developed club system. The fact that we still are considering college soccer a major hunting ground for talent is bad.
The juxtaposition of this news with the recent recruiting cycle is instructive. The opportunities for and demands on the nation's top college-age players must be a constant source of concern for the coaches. I've heard that some of the college basketball programs deliberately avoid players likely to leave early. I had not thought that this type of reasoning would come to college soccer, but perhaps it will (or has?).
world youth championships My bet is they will be rescheduled for june or july, before the next season, and i don't mean college season. remember this is the WORLD championships and international teams will want their players by august.
i saw drew moor today and talked to him for a few minutes. he said that he thought that FIFA would reschedule the U-20 WC for some time in November. i then told him that he was not allowed to go. i was only half kidding. if these guys go in november then that means that they will miss 3 weeks or so prior to train and then 4 weeks for the tournament. all this happening in november during the last weeks of the regular season, conference tournaments, and the NCAA tournament. i really dont know what is going to happen or what the schools/teams will do. hopefully it will be rescheduled for the summer.
you may be right about it being rescheduled in november, perhaps right after women's fifa which is gonna be in late sept. to early oct. (different host countries for fifa youth and women, of course)....just a thought......