News: 2023 FIFA U20 World Cup (May 20-June 11 : Argentina)

Gold Cup and NL would get the A side guys, as it's not an off year Gold Cup to my mind, and who knows, maybe at some point the Nations League people start thinking again about the rumored champions tournament that was brought up back in '17-'18 before Covid seemed to shut down all ambitious talk.

I still suspect it's A side guys for the senior tournaments (they still matter for seeding points), and the kiddo's for the U20's except for any that might be promoted to senior status over the next 11 months.

 

Getting back to who to call for the tournament, I'd personally want to win and so I want to send the strongest team. If I'm a player, the idea of playing in a World Cup, no matter the age restriction, would be really attactive as opposed to the Nations League or GC. I'd be lobbying the coach to go to that tournament over the others.
Is there a website that has a cronological breakdown of all of these upcoming tournaments? Love to actually see what the overlaps are.

 

Considering we have 4 years to build chemistry for the World Cup, no need to worry about qualification, I don’t see why we wouldn’t be trying to send every player that isn’t a usmnt starter to the u20 World Cup. I would only expect Ricardo Pepi to be the one that wouldn’t be with the u20’s.

With regards to releases to the u20 World Cup, MLS clubs will all send their players with minimal push back unless that player is a vital member to their lineup. For European players, I would be surprised if their clubs don’t release them for the u20 World Cup. Again, the only ones who likely won’t get released are serious contributors for first teams.

These are the only players I’d consider in jeopardy of not getting released: Ricardo Pepi, Justin Che, Kevin Paredes

 

If Che, Slonina, Paredes and Pepi aren't available to the U20s, and Gomez isn't with the program, than who are the consensus additions to this squad that would be clear improvements based on what we know now? Certainly there are players already called in who might turn out to be, as well as others who will emerge, and there is absolutely time for the depth chart to change, even setting health and availability aside. Still surely, those top prospects aside, it's hardly clear-cut at this point.

 

Who are getting minutes in MLS? Wiley, young Wolff, Vargas, Pierre, Ngoma..
Anyone else in Europe?

 

Gutierrez.

 

A rough approximation of what I'd do.

GK: Brady, Dewsnup, Ochoa
DF: Freeman, Cuevas, Neal, Craig, Walls, Allen, Wiley
MF: Karumanchi, Chifamba, Alvarado, Leyva, Nyeman, Clark, Aaronson, Gutierrez
FW: Cowell, Sullivan, Mitchell

It's tough exactly. In that scenario, I could see Carrera, McGlynn, Ferkranus, Edelman, Hopkins, Halliday from the qualifying team earning spots, but I'd probably suggest against it for now. I'd also suggest that players that weren't on the qualifying team like O. Wolff, Booth, Beavers/Nelson, Bajraktarevic, Fletcher, Clarke, Toure, Williams, Sarver, Foster, Viviani along with many others. If someone like Okoh wants to switch, you have to consider it.

I think it should be a pretty open competition for spots though. Of that roster I named, only 10 made the qualifying roster. No reason it should be 17-18, and then cut a few guys on the end of the roster.

 

Who is Mitchell?

I know Chifamba was a big prospect, but isn't he playing in college? Is he still anywhere near the prospect he was?

 

Alex Borto. Has his reputation faded? He seems to have gone from a guy we all had written into this squad who has now faded from view somewhat.

If Luca Koleosho commits to us, would he make the squad?

I'll be very intrigued to see if any of these Europe-based guys take a "next step." There's a bunch of them with potential. Sometimes kids figure things out. Dante Sealy, Malick Sanogo, Evan Rotundo, Devon Tanton, Kristian Fletcher, Rodrigo Neri, and on and on.

There is going to be a guy not really on our radar right now that's going to jump to the forefront over the next calendar year.

 

Roald Mitchell. Plays at Wake Forest. Played for NYRB II before that. I think they wanted to sign him, but he preferred to go to Wake Forest instead. He's better than someone like Ngoma. They played together last season on NYRBII, and Mitchell you could see is the much better player, although Ngoma is two years younger. We hear less about Mitchell though because he plays college soccer.

I don't watch college soccer, but Chifamba got regular minutes for the National Champions, and his minutes increased as the season went on. I doubt his game tailed off that much in the course of less than a full season.

 

Two things that occur to me is that finding enough CB cover that Craig might get a look at moving up to DM would help the team bring an interesting different look.

On McGlynn, it just seems like you can see that guys on the team dig it when he has the ball. Guys who can receive cleanly, get their heads up and deliver make movement better; guys who can move make good passers better. Luna kind of offers something similar but with a different look and in a different spot on the field.

All of that said, competition within the pool is vital and while practically you might assume some roster spots are safe you want as many positions feeling pressure as possible. Here's hoping everyone feels the heat ahead of Indonesia, if not for a spot than at least for playing time.

 

I've not seen much of Borto. Only when he played for the U-20's at the Revelations Cup in November. He looked like a good, reliable GK there. I don't know that his reputation has faded. He was viewed as the best GK in a weak GK age group. The 04's have a lot of good GK's. It doesn't seem too unlikely that it's viewed as close between Borto and Carrera, and they went with Carrera for qualifying because he has a little more upside and excitement to his game. I don't think he's out of it, by any means, but if he's already behind Carrera and Brady, it doesn't seem like the percentages are in his favor if you add Dewsnup (and potentially Slonina) to the mix.

As for Koleosho, I've not seen him play in a few years, so I don't like to be too sure about what I'm saying. I was not impressed though with what I saw from him for the U-15's a few years back. Didn't look like a real prospect. It's not as if playing a few minutes for Espanyol guarantees you are going to make it as a top level footballer. I want to see more before I'm any more sure about my assessment and I think getting minutes for Espanyol probably earns him another call up or two, but if he simply was beat out for a spot by guys who play in MLS, USL, NEXT Pro, College, I wouldn't be surprised.

 

[QUOTE="ussoccer97531, post: 40609394, member: 214277"]Roald Mitchell. Plays at Wake Forest. Played for NYRB II before that. I think they wanted to sign him, but he preferred to go to Wake Forest instead. He's better than someone like Ngoma. They played together last season on NYRBII, and Mitchell you could see is the much better player, although Ngoma is two years younger. We hear less about Mitchell though because he plays college soccer.

I don't watch college soccer, but Chifamba got regular minutes for the National Champions, and his minutes increased as the season went on. I doubt his game tailed off that much in the course of less than a full season.[/QUOTE]
No clue how he is doing now, but quality of finishing and the variety of goals Mitchell was scoring last year were quite impressive. Him going to college was really strange.

 

You really do wonder how much of a pride factor there is with these rosters. Mitchell, Chifamba, Karumanchi, Sarver. There are plenty of college guys who could've been of help to the US U-20's, and should be considered options for the U-20 WC.

It looks so much better to say everyone is a pro. It might be used as an incentive to the college guys that they aren't going to be part of the roster for a big tournament, unless they find a pro environment.

However, we'd be foolish to believe all the best players are guys that immediately went pro. We know how it works that by the time it gets to be U-23, U-24 for these players and the college players are in the pro ranks, there are a few guys on the team who played college soccer.

 

I would say it's almost always a bad idea to go to a college for attacking players.

 

Another thing that would be revolutionary is retiring the dinosaurs in the US mainstream media that hate Soccer and replacing them with people who treat Soccer with respect.

 

I'm going to push back some on Craig being good on the ball for a CB let alone a CM. While Neal and Ferk were nimble on their feet and positioning their body and moving it while receiving the ball until release. Craig never quickly shaped his body to receive the ball and shift his feet to then quickly pass the other way. It's a standard CB movement used dozens of times a game, yet Craig struggles with it. I really think he struggles technique wise while receiving the ball through release. He stands straight up, stops the ball while standing straight up, with both his legs together then takes 2-3 small steps to regain his balance to then pick a pass. He was getting absolutely no pressure so he could constantly do it. It was really annoying me every time I saw it. I think we are getting enamored with him because he is a very good long ball passer, and free kick taker. I was surprised by it too but I'd rather have a CB being able to quickly receive and release passes and I just didn't see it. He also struggled with balls being pushed by him and he is not quick to move, he's slow. 2 to 3 times players easily sprinted past him. It's the same issue I saw with him from the U17s. He's alot bigger, better on free kicks and long passing (where he's a CB Unicorn) but has the same technique and straight up style that doesn't allow him to crouch and shape his body mechanics to bring in and release the ball quickly. I'd much rather have my FK taker to be someone else so the tallest CB on the field can challenge the defense close to goal on them.

 

I think you have to keep in mind that Craig is only starting to learn the position. He played a lot of other positions growing up. He was a RB and midfielder earlier in his career. He doesn't know how to play CB as well. I think he's only been playing it for like 3 years. What you are suggesting are some of the little fundamental things about the position. I think those are easier things to learn. It's a lot harder to learn his free kick accuracy or passing accuracy. That takes a lot more skill and repetition than learning how to do some of the little things that come with the CB position. Those other kids have been playing CB for years, so have more time working on those things.

 

I personally think it's a good precedent to set. Your talent, and that level that it has achieved, with the minutes you've earned on a professional team/level playing vs men/tougher competition should be a solid way to express to your pool on how to earn exposure and roster spots on national teams. Challenge yourself against the highest levels and we'll in turn judge that. We need to graduate to firmly state Professional is higher and better than College. This isn't your Dad's development system anymore. We've matured to an International standard. I do understand your point but I think it's a good understanding to send to every player. We just have so many good professionals that to look at 4 or 5 college players doesn't provide me with the economy of scale benefits needed for so few players.

 

For the record, I raised it not so much because I think Craig needs to necessarily be seen as the first-choice DM on the squad but rather because on a short roster you might like a mix of players where you could move him up situationally. During qualifying, right or wrong, Varas seemed to decide that wasn't an option (or a need, I suppose). Two other strong CBs and Craig lying deep and getting forward on occasion just gives the team another option during a tournament as situations arise.

Agree on the FK thing, of course.

 

I think you and I have always disagreed on him as a player. The technique I think he is lacking is an every position, general soccer movement every top soccer player needs to have. I'm just surprised no one and has trained it out of him. For me it's so basic making it so frustrating. Its not personal against him, it's the movement and technique that annoys me. I blame his coaches not him.

 

I agree with your premise, but we also know the system doesn’t properly account for every good player. San Jose Earthquakes didn’t give Tarun Karumanchi a HG contract. What can he do? He cannot easily join another MLS club. He couldn’t have easily trialed in Europe until he had already joined UCLA due to COVID. The Independent USL club pathway is still rather new, and a work in progress. It’s not like we are Germany or Spain where every player can be accounted for. There are still a lot of good players that, for one reason or another, are not capable of finding a suitable pro environment prior to the age they’d attend college. Until the system is further developed to allow for that, I think we punish players who cannot do any better by having that type of rule. I also think it makes us worse to have that type of mindset.