The '97 will be able to participate in the Olympics games next year https://www.marca.com/en/football/international-football/2020/04/03/5e87a91cca474196658b45b6.html
It only makes logical sense since they never want to have it in the same year as the World Cup (even if it is a Winter World Cuo.) They also don't want it in 2023 cause that is too close to when the France one is supposed to happen. Can't have Olympics back- to -back years and step on Paris' toes. (We also must consider qualifying/Trials and such.)
Here's a supposed list of Mexico's best U-23 players. Two of them play outside of North America. Some of these LigaMX based players aren't even regular starters in that league. Once this age group makes up the prime-aged players on their NT, I don't know how they can compete with players like Pulisic, Adams, McKennie, Dest, Reyna playing at the top level in Europe. They have a few good players on that list (Macias, E. Alvarez, Alvarado, Montes), but it's the type of crop you'd expect out of Costa Rica, not Mexico. The best ell tree u23 players according to tudn.Where’s.....never mind. pic.twitter.com/wgewkpRvVD— Daniel (@DanielSmith1022) June 15, 2020
A 100-player shortlist for the 2020 Golden Boy award was released today.Four are from North America 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/o6E7xZm8vM— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) June 15, 2020
Pretty strong list, balanced and with lot's of experience at a young age. I think it's weird how LigaMX is severely underestimated considering most of these players are starters for some major LMX clubs.
Would you mind sharing your impressions of some of the players you like the most from that group -- especially if they're not guys we might know as well from past youth national team involvement?
Is anyone else worried that we have 22 players from '97-'00 capped for the NT, and not only are none GK's, we don't have any GK's starting in any first division that are eligible for this tournament? I'm not suggesting it's going to have much of an effect on the NT (because you only play one at a time and they can play for 15 years if they're very good), but it does seem like MLS teams don't give enough of a chance to young keepers.
Yes. Its been a problem since Steffen. And it hasn't mattered what development path they've taken post-academy (Europe, MLS, Mexico, NCAAs....................) Its not like Brady Scott is advancing. I'd add I guess that I really didn't expect much from this generation. I wasn't expecting a lot from Jonathan Klinsmann, JT Marcinkowski, Matt Freeze, and company. Keeper can be like that. You can have a 5 year drought. Then you have another generation come thru that provides the "next guy." So maybe the next USMNT keeper after Steffen comes from the Ochoa, Las, Odunze, Wady, Wilson, etc. group. There are some major soccer playing countries that go thru keeping droughts. Argentina in the 2018 cycle is an example.
I think the way we judge the talent is to assess them prior to pro football. I don’t think we should be saying the group isn’t good enough because they don’t yet start. Having followed these players youth cycles and their careers within the academy league, I have always thought this crop of keepers was no worse than average. It doesn’t make sense to me that none have emerged yet. It’s not even like these guys have gotten chances to play and failed. They haven’t gotten chances to play. Outside of the Klinsmann nepotism, I also never was worried about the quality of keeper we were fielding with this crop with YNT’s.
I don't know, the whole group always looked mediocre. They might not getting playing time for a reason. Won't be surprised at all if some college keepers whose names I don't even know will jump over them.
I don't know. When I saw Howard as a youngster, I thought he had "it." When I saw Steffen as a youngster, I thought he had "it." I never got that feeling with any of the keepers in this U23 group. Keeper can be a weird beast. Its a late-developing group, and there are big surprises that emerge when the players are hitting their primes. I had paid no attention to Nick Pope until I watched some of Burnley this season and thought "Who the hell is this? He's awesome!!" He's 28. His career is below. So when he was a U23, he was being loaned around the bottom of the barrel in the football league.
The core of the U23 team of GK should be the 2017 U20 class right now. That was Brady Scott, JT Marcinkowski and Klinnsman. I don't know who'd be included there that was not on the team -- Scott was the youngster. The 2019s had Scott, CJ Dos Santos and David Ochoa as the youngster. Out of those five GKs, I haven't seen enough of Dos Santos, but the rest of them haven't impressed me much except Ochoa. And even he's not in the class of Howard, etc., but obviously super young. Honestly, there's a reason 40%+ of the teams in the 2016 Olympics used one of their three overage players on the GK (out of 9% of the roster). GKs develop slower but the age restriction is the same.
Okay, who should be playing or get a shot to play? 97s Callender Marcinkowski Stajduhar Vom Steeg 98s Freese Silva 99s Avilez Ejimadu Lopez Muse 00s none 01s Ochoa Pulskamp 02s Rodriguez 03s none 04s Brady Emmings Slonina For me, I'd guess that the three closest to playing are Marcinkowski, Vom Steeg, and Ochoa (not necessarily in that order). For everyone else, I'm not sure they are even close. Fortunately, the large majority of players on this list have fairly easy access to USL starts. With GKs there are always late bloomers, but for now the 97-00 cohort simply looks rather weak to me.