10 Freshman/Sophomores to watch

TDS is a bit of a follower..... the sophmore class they describe is simply those whom they thought did well as freshman.. no mention of players who will do well, but perhaps were injured last season, or played behind someone else who did exceptionally well on the year... I could have put this list togethre.. where is "the news"....

 

Definitely missed out on Eriq Zavaleta at Indiana. Dude was Big Ten Freshman of the year last season, led the league in scoring (goals+assists total). Not having Andrew Oliver up top, he'll have even more success.

 

Here's TDS's own ranking of last year's top freshmen. In spite of its severe bias toward eastern schools, I'd consider its top ten to be a better indication of which sophomores to watch this coming fall.

http://pub5.www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer/college-national-freshmen-top-100/men

#1 Trapp
#2 Okwuono
#3 Blake
#4 Palodichuk
#5 Zavaleta
#6 Gallego
#7 Lopez
#8 Gentile
#9 Bevin
#10 Yedlin

 

In general, I'd say they made a nice list of Top 100 freshman. Order/ranking definitely questionable, but a comprehensive look. The Top 10 Sophomores not so much...

But I think everyone needs to be paying attention to the Big Ten if we are talking Sophomores:
- two of the top GKs in the nation in Wolverton (PSU) and Miller (NW)
- three high profile CBs in Zavaleta (IU), Boxall (NW) and Cochran (Wisc)
- two teams forced to play a lot of Freshmen last season in Ohio State and Michigan State

It should be extremely interesting to see how these Freshmen transform into Sophomores in the Big Ten.

 

zavaleta is not a cb. he played up top all season last year.

 

Its not last season anymore. Zavaleta was a CB for the U-17s and played CB this spring for IU... with Meyer and Estridge graduated and Oliver coming in, I figured it was a definite that he would slide back to CB this Fall to bolster the backline. As well, its been reported that his pro prospects are much higher as a Back than a Striker.

 

hmm. he played up top against mexico this spring, but i didn't see the other matches.

 

Either way, he is a high profile player at either position. I was simply defending why I listed him as a CB. Should be interesting to see how the Sophomores in the Big Ten perform.