Well, Mendez's YA thread made it to 1000 posts, so there's that. @bungadiri While we're promoting Mendez (out of the Academy to full YA), we need to update the thread title as well, to include FC Vizela. We could build off the old thread title, something like ... Still Making a-Mendez: Alex Seeks Redemption @ FC Vizela ... or try something new. Many thanks!
Alex Mendez starts in FC Vizela's opening game of the season against defending champions Sporting Lisbon. Big game for him. #USMNT pic.twitter.com/3kYjh2dSNA— 11 Yanks (@11Yanks) August 6, 2021 @bungadiri it's time they lost 3-0 btw, hopefully someone watched and maybe even created an all touch highlight package
That's more than I'm capable of, but I did think it worthwhile to try to work up a Cliffs Notes on the starting lineup for Vizela for context's sake. Charles — Brazilian GK, 27, got his breakthrough with Maritimo, cup of coffee with BYNTs Koffi Kouao — Ivorian D, 22, has played mainly with Vizela, YNT experience for CIV Marcos Paulo — Brazilian D, 33, long stint with Le Mans B, other substantial stints with Panetolikos and two Portuguese clubs Kiki — Portuguese D, 26, journeyman’s career in Portugal, cup of coffee with PYNTs Ofori — Ghanaian D, 24, journeyman’s career in Europe, some GYNT experience Guzzo — Brazilian M, 26, came up with Benfica, competitive PYNT caps Samu — Portuguese M, 25, came up with Boavista, cup of coffee with PYNTs Mendez — American M, 20, no first-team experience, extensive USYNT experience Francis Cann — Ghanaian M, 23, has played mainly with Vizela, competitive YNT caps for Ghana Kiko Bondoso, Portuguese F, 25, has played mostly in lower divisions in his country Cassiano — Brazilian F, 32, journeyman’s career in Europe and Brazil I'm sure that's not authoritative but I tried to keep it simple. Mendez's first-team inexperience really stands out in that group, which is not to say it's an all-star lineup. It's also not really long on untested youth; his teammate Tomas Silva has a bio that's sort of in the neighborhood of his in terms of his age and background and who knows, maybe at the end of the season it'll make for an interesting comparison.
First 23 mins. of the game, are missing. I give him a 6/10, for his performance. I hope he gets to start vs Tondela, because he should play better. Playing your first professional game, against a team like Sporting CP, is not easy.
People talking about USL as his level already need to take a pill. Several pills. Maybe even the entire box. At not quite 21 his moves - BL1 side at 17, Ajax at 18 and a Portugese D1 bottom-feeder at 20 - are logical for any player, European or American, who's not the next Christian Pulisic and is trying to find his level, which he probably won't do for another 3-4 seasons. Until then, he has to keep slogging away, whether in Europe or in the States, until he's shown and/or found out where his ceiling is. Then can then make an adult decision about whether to keep slogging away in Europe or move to, well, a USL side And even if he does move to a USL side at 25, that doesn't necessarily mean that that's his final level. This time last year Rubio Rubin joined San Diego Loyal, which was seen as the end of his serious career. Now he's a lock starter with 5 goals and 4 assists in 18 games for RSL. And, of course there's Lee Nguyen. At 23, he was slumming it in the wilderness of the Vietnamese League; at 26, he was a starter in MLS. A more extreme example is Nate Weiss. At 21 he was washing out in the League of Ireland D2 (sweet Jesus), the he washed out in Latvia and spent two seasons on the German semi-pro circuit in leagues that Transfermarkt doesn't keep any stats for before, at 25, as it happens, reaching his peak - as a stalwart for a Bayernliga side's reserve team. At that stage you'd have said time to make the PDL his final shot, but he didn't. He moved into coaching and took his licenses with the DFB where he really impressed on the courses and the DFB offered him a full-time job. He's now on the coaching staff at Stuttgart. VFB Stuttgart. MLs has improved immeasurably over the last decade, and so has the USL, but Europe is still where football is at. Player salaries are still higher and the coaching is, unquestionably, far superior overall. He owes it to himself to see how far he actually can go in Europe and how much he can learn about his trade there before reconciling himself to a series of one-season (not one-year) contracts in USL.
Checked out his old teammates from his time with the Freiburg U19. None of them made a big jump in development. Most of them play for the reserve now or have moved to the lower leagues. At Transfermarkt Mendez still has the second highest market value among his old teammates. If you look at it that way and ignore all the hype, he's actually on a good track. Yannik Keitel €2.000.000 Alex Mendez €500.000 Matteo Di Giusto €500.000
Keitel has had back to back XI for Freiburg 1st this season. Brokethrough Freiburg 1st squad last season and closing in on 20 caps with 1st. So inaccurate to say none. with Freiburg II getting 3rd Liga promotion, club less inclined to loan out and jump to 1st smaller now. as for his old teamates another 4 from Mendez U19 days have moved up to 1st squad and club praised 4/4 too and 4/4 01-onwards in age so younger players. And club looks to have more promising players too. Maximillian Dietz for one won't benefit since guys on loan and younger all preferred over him. also transfermarkt values means nothing since Germans tend to have very small value, even a lot of rated ones. So majority of his ex teammates have low sums. Some only jumped in 400 000 range after Freiburg promoted them and not before. Freiburg is a small club that makes almost everyone play II before 1st. Smaller clubs won't risk players with no adult footy experience. But Mendez jumped ship post U19.
On the bench: 🧐🇺🇸 Alex Mendez on the bench for Vizela in Portugal's top tier pic.twitter.com/wuO7zu4HR1— 🇺🇸 ⚽ east (@eastdeflection) August 22, 2021
I see that Mendez subbed in at 73' with Vizela trailing host Vitoria 1-0. The bad news is that the game ended 4-0 against, the final Vitoria goal a PK at 95' (of 97' total). Probably not his finest 24', but I'll wait for the all-touches video ...
On the bench: 🇵🇹 Primeira Liga🧐🇺🇸 Alex Mendez on the bench for FC Vizela pic.twitter.com/YDNCGWCti4— 🇺🇸 ⚽ east (@eastdeflection) September 12, 2021
On the bench: 🇵🇹 Primeira Liga🧐🇺🇸 Alex Mendez on the bench for FC Vizela pic.twitter.com/0uuytp9GOK— 🇺🇸 ⚽ east (@eastdeflection) September 19, 2021
Vizela got a draw with a 90+7' equalizer. Mendez not mentioned much in the match tracker here: https://www.zerozero.pt/match_live_com.php?id=8050165