He would have been nice but we had decent defenders, we have never had a forward put up numbers like Rossi did in La Liga.
It's fair; I'm not really trying to big him up necessarily, either. I honestly don't know how he compares to others at his age group. I think the most impressive thing about him right now is his technique (particularly his passing and striking) and field awareness. In his 3rd start, he's already organizing most of the attacking sequences for the squad.
Two teams with several interesting US Youths battling it out tonight. Colorado and FC Dallas are both on a roll and Dallas just took the lead before halftime. Colorado: Bassett has been fantastic of late and has been solid in this one too. He seems so much more confident now... often moving back into the midfield to get touches and knowing where to go with the ball. Had one nice shot in the first half that just went wide. Vines had been so disappointing all the way thru the MLS is Back Tourney and into the regular season but is starting to string together a few decent games. He is starting to serve better crosses and to be a bit more aggressive on the attack overall. Trusty, Lewis and Acosta are also in tonight and doing OK despite the goal that came against the run of play... Trusty did get beaten pretty badly for the goal but I think if Acosta doesn't fall down it wouldn't have been a goal. Dallas: I was so frustrated when Cannon left and they didn't start Reynolds immediately at RB... but this is a couple games in a row there and the kid looks legit. He has elite pace and a good amount of whip on his crosses into the box. He is climbing my prospect list in a hurry. He looks more athletically gifted than Cannon and I am not sure it is all that close. Of course, it isn't all about athleticism but this kid looks electric at times. Tessmann was all the rage early in the season when he burst on the scene with a few solid games but struggled pretty badly in his appearances after the tourney. But this is two starts in a row for him at CM and he looks pretty solid. He appears to have a real knack for shooting low thru the box from just outside the 18. He has hit two grass-trimmers in this one and seems solid in possession. Obviously he needs to continue to show consistency... but I guess the same could be said for most of these young players.
Well... 5 total goals in this one... 4-1 FC Dallas and w/ all those US Youths on the field not a goal or assist to speak of :-( Back to Reynolds... made a couple of mistakes in this one towards the end but otherwise played well. Man... when the dude gets forward he looks legit. And during one of those attacks when he came running back with Lewis in tow you got a real glimpse of just how tall he is. Dude is 6' 3"!!!!... I was thinking while watching him fly around in the last game that he kind of reminded me of Davies... but Davies is 5' 11". How many RBs are that tall?... And with that pace? Color me intrigued.
Yep. That is the MLS business plan. MLS is going hard for MexAm fans. I've posted many times that MLS would rather develop the next El Arbol star than the next USMNT star.
I don't think a single person would have picked Bryan Reynolds as the MLS "youth breakout star" of 2020 prior to the season. Not even FCD fans. We would have picked Pepi, Tessman, and others over Reynolds. Apparently the FCD insider types saw it coming. Buzz Carrick wrote a column about a month before Cannon's departure about how great Reynolds was looking. He picked Reynolds to be the successor at the position, which wasn't obvious. After screwing around with 3-back systems for a month, Luchi Gonzalez finally returned to a 4-3-3. The team has looked much better. The loser in the formation switch has been Ferreira. He's not a #9, he's not a winger,he's not a central midfield. So.........................where does he play? He didn't get off the bench last night. Pepi is the forward off the bench. Picault is the winger off the bench. Servania and Cerrillo were the midfielders off the bench. All USMNT or USYNT players. It just seems Ferreira is in a pickle.
Ferreira he did well in the position when played there last season. He did well there in the Costa Rica friendly. He's a short striker. While there is room in the game for such players, the tendency is to convert them into midfielders.
Reynolds is intriguing. He reminds me a bit of Alaba at BM. A winger converted to outside back but with height enough to move to CB once he gets experience. Imagine that pace in the back along with the skill. He could be what a lot of folks though Shea could be. An eventual beast at center back. I believe he even played a few games there at some youth level. U18,U19?
How much shorter is Ferreira than Jara? He seems a similar type forward so it may come down to who among the three practices best with both Pepi and Ferreira also candidates at left wing. Jara will get the bulk of time and starts at forward but it may be helpful for Ferreira to watch how to play the position from a guy who's scored a lot in Mexico. By next year he should have a handle and be ready to challenge (Pepi also).
as far as Mexican citizenship, Mexican parents means Mexican citizenship. If I'm not mistaken, all he has to do to "claim" that citizenship is to formally request it. If he has represented Mexico, he surely has done that
and they should. It is important for everyone to be able to take pride in who you are and our heritage is part of that, Of course it can go too far,,,,and often does but that isn't what we are talking about here. (I hope)
Wow. No spoilers... which I have been definitely guilty of here. But it means I could have posted after every game... but with so many Yanks featuring for teams abroad there was just too much soccer to bother taking notes. W/ respect to the games after the KC/Dallas game... these are a few things I took note of: I am a big fan of Aaronson and he had a couple of passes against Montreal that were world class... but for all the chances he appears to create and be involved in it just seems like the stats don't reflect his play. Last night he had wide-open net with the GK on the ground and the keeper actually blocked his shot with his hand. Pretty unlucky (and a great play by the GK)... has anyone else noticed that he appears to be a bit unlucky?... especially with respect to how many assists he has? To put it in context... Aaronson now has 3 goals and 3 assists in 1245 minutes this season. That is 1 g/a per 207 minutes. It just seems to me like he has played better than that... In comparison... a guy who entered the season w/ relatively little hype was Cole Bassett. He has the same tally as Aaronson for goals and assists but has done it in 475 minutes... That is a g/a in every 80 minutes. Bassett has surely made the most of his opportunities and Colorado would be remiss not to feature him down the stretch. A couple of Aaronson and Bassett's teammates deserve mention too. I had nearly written Vines off but the LB scored his 1st goal a couple of games ago and got his 2nd assist against the galaxy on a picture perfect cross. Another young US player that is throwing darts from the back is Real (RB) for the Union. Since taking over for an injured Wagner, he has a goal and an assist according to transfermarkt... but I thought he actually had two assists last night? Whatever. His teammate Fontana has been the hottest of all of them with 3 goals in his last two games. Could have got an additional one against the Impact too. A couple of more player ups... I have been leading the Paredes bandwagon around here but I had to wait for him to appear against Toronto as he started on the bench. But the coach brought on the homegrowns in the 2nd half to great effect... Paredes was very involved after being brought on and played well. Moses Nyeman got a little cameo appearance as well. But the star of the show was Griffin Yow... He played the entire 2nd half and had an amazing goal off a volley in the box. If you have not seen it take a look... it was very impressive: https://www.google.com/search?clien...ct=5#sie=m;/g/11lb3ddksk;2;/m/0jfpf;dt;fp;1;; DC United might have an impressive core of homegrowns. I am sold on Paredes but I still need to see more of Yow and Nyeman. Time will tell....
DCU also lost both Bryang Kayo and Michael Edwards from their academy to the Bundesliga. Its not in the tier of Philly or FCD, but they're comin' along. Right now I suspect Philly and FCD are duking it out for the title of "most homegrown minutes." Pomykal's injury might sway it in the direction of Philly. Not only that but as of right now Philly is 2nd in the East and Dallas is 3rd in the West (with a game in hand). So they're young AND winning. Of course FCD's academy was founded 3 years before Philly's franchise even existed.
I do not understand DCU's strategy. They are apparently sitting on one of the great talent pools of the country. They have made some good money off of it with zero investment. Heck, they still charge academy fees! Over the last decade they have let Philly walk in and have had zero reaction. Again, they are still charging fees!
Would say Aaronson has more responsibility for orchestrating the attack, whereas Bassett is more able to focus on getting onto the ends of plays.
numbers of assists (and even goals) has a huge luck factor.... some players seem to be consistently lucky/unlucky when it comes to these things.... i.e. being in position to tap in an MLS goal is not indicative IN ANY WAY of being able to socre in world cup....but people still look at number of goals when they rank forwards...they even include PKs...as if that matters to whose game translates to international play.... perhaps chances created is a better proxy than assists if you must use numbers to compare players....
Am I the only one noticing Anthony Fontana?? If I was a euro team i'd buy him right now. (I think curtin is keeping him in the background on purpose for when aaronson leaves)
Interestingly, at least to me, was that Fontana actually got the start as a CAM for a few games right before Aaronson broke through. He got a few, and then I think Marco Fabian came in, and then Aaronson took over. Glad to see he’s getting his shot again.
Speaking of Kayo, what was his situation with DCU? watching him play with Wolfsburg 2 it’s hard to believe they would be happy to let him walk to a USL side a year ago. Was it just a situation where he made it known he was going to Europe as soon as he turned 18 and didn’t want to sign a HG deal?
He plays LB. Minor quibble. He can also play CB, and LM/WB as well. Not the case at all. Bedoya, Montiero, Martinez and Aaronson are clearly ahead of him. Fontana's best position is the same one Bedoya plays, and he's not starting over the captain. We have to take into account that Fontana has been coming off of the substitutes bench and running at tired defenders. Yes he's talented, and is in good form. When he is given the chance, he'll need to show he can play that way for up to 90 minutes. Also, Brenden's replacement is his younger brother Paxten, who will join the Union in January (currently showing well with Union II in USL). Actually, as it turns out Fontana got a start (his only in MLS) before Borek Dockal was signed in 2018. Aaronson wasn't with the senior team until 2019 (last season), and played so well he forced Marco Fabian to the bench.
playing time at philly has been weird to me...quite a few players under curtin have shown really well but gotten limited minutes....ayuk, derrick jones, alberg, trusty, tribett, rosenberry, epps etc come to mind.... ...they are doing well as a club. standings-wise...but hopefully a few more players can be developed and moved on to bigger and better things as well....it seems quite a few players have shown promise only to be out of mls/soccer a few seasons later...
It's not weird at all. Ayuk was sold to Osmanlispor in Turkey Derrick Jones had issues off the field that was affecting his day in, day out performance with the team, and he was traded to Nashville to get a change of Scenery Rosenberry was struggling with an injury during his last season in Philly. Gaddis is serviceable and dependable. Plus they had M'Baizo who they are high on. His rookie deal was up, so they traded him to Colorado due to the depth they have at RB. Tribbett, please. He was barely MLS caliber when he was in MLS, and the league has only improved since then. He's playing at his level in USL. Trusty - The Union have depth at CB. Contract renegotiations broke down, so they traded him to Colorado, rather than have him walk for free. Epps - See Tribbet. He's maybe a squad player. He struggled to break into the NYRB's after leaving Philly. Ever since he's been in USL. Lots of players "Show Promise." That's great. It's up to those players to turn those moments of promise into consistent good play. Moments are easy, it's being a consistently good player that's difficult.