16-year-old Julian Hall levels things for the Red Bulls in the final moments of the match! ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/Uj5qBOEUkW— Major League Soccer (@MLS) September 8, 2024
LAFC locks in two USYNTers. [They also promoted former USYNTer David Ochoa to their first team from LAFC. Ochoa is no longer US-eligible, though.] Luca Bombino and Adrian Wibowo are Black & Gold.📝 #LAFC signs defender Luca Bombino and forward Adrian Wibowo to Homegrown Contracts with options through 2027.Luca and Adrian are the sixth and seventh Homegrown players in club history.— LAFC (@LAFC) September 13, 2024
Andrew Rick was fantastic for the Union tonight. He made seven saves (career high), and earned his first MLS win of his career.The 18-year old has a bright, bright future!#Doop pic.twitter.com/gGX0stTq5d— Todd Lewis (@ItsAToddLife) September 19, 2024
DANUHNUH DANUHNUHPickle Rick pawed his way into @espn TOP 10!!!#DOOP pic.twitter.com/h20x02m6Is— Philadelphia Union (@PhilaUnion) September 19, 2024
U20 World Cup dates announced. September 27th until October 19th, 2025. Just about the absolute worst time for it to occur. Europe and Mexico in season. MLS in playoff push portion of the season. Releases are going to be quite a challenge. Three tournament dates for 2025 were also confirmed, including for the first ever FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/6tm7BKCWha— FIFA (@FIFAcom) October 3, 2024
I know we talked about it in other threads/forums...........but here's the U20 roster for this window. We're still a full calendar year from the World Cup and are running both U19 and U20 camps in this window. Lots of players being evaluated. [And of course had a different group of U18s get together in September for a trip to Japan.] This roster is really strong. Probably even stronger than the one we took to the CONCACAF Championships. We have some key dual-national additons like Duru and Dausch. The positions seem all over the place in this roster. Not sure why Baker-Whiting and Miller are listed as forwards. But whatever. There are some notable ommisions of players who seem to have been dropped to the U19s. Cruz Medina of San Jose. Nimfa Berchimas of Charlotte. Keyrol Figueroa of Liverpool. We're keeping them in the pool, but also they've got work to do.] Goalkeepers (2): Gavin Beavers (Real Salt Lake; Henderson, Nev.), Julian Eyestone (Brentford/ENG; Dallas, Texas) Defenders (7): Noahkai Banks (Augsburg/GER; Dietmannsried, Germany), Noah Cobb (Atlanta United FC; Chattanooga, Tenn.), Leo Duru (Blackburn Rovers/ENG; Manchester, England), Ethan Kohler (Werder Bremen/GER; Campbell, Calif.), Nolan Norris (FC Dallas; Fort Worth, Texas), Oscar Verhoeven (San Jose Earthquakes; Pleasant Hill, Calif.), Joshua Wynder (Benfica/POR; Louisville, Ky.) Midfielders (7): Benjamin Cremaschi (Inter Miami CF; Key Biscayne, Fla.), Taha Habroune (Columbus Crew; Columbus, Ohio), Bryan Moyado (Los Angeles FC; La Puente, Calif.), Sergio Oregel Jr. (Chicago Fire FC; Chicago, Ill.), Brooklyn Raines (Houston Dynamo FC; Chicago, Ill.), Pedro Soma (Barcelona/ESP; Coconut Creek, Fla.), Niko Tsakiris (San Jose Earthquakes; Saratoga, Calif.) Forwards (6): Reed Baker-Whiting (Seattle Sounders FC; Seattle, Wash.), Luke Brennan (Atlanta United FC; Atlanta, Ga.), Aidan Dausch (Coventry City/ENG; London, England), Peyton Miller (New England Revolution; Unionville, Conn.), Ruben Ramos Jr. (LA Galaxy; La Puente, Calif.), Marcos Zambrano (Vitoria Guimaraes/POR; Gladwyne, Penn.)
Weather in Chile I think. The summer months are actually the winter there (though never having been to Chile I have no idea what the climate is like in June/July). But only reason I can think of.
Partly. I mean, we talk about the U20 World Cup a lot on these boards. But is this a competition actually valued by the really powerful organizations in the soccer world. Does the European Club Association care about it? No. We'll have to see who we can get released. It very likely overlaps partially with a FIFA window. Partly. But we know we have trouble getting even players from reserve teams in Europe released outside of FIFA windows. Soma and Kochen from Barcelona would be a problem. A notable absence from the U20 roster above is Cole Campbell. We could have potentially gotten him in say.............June. But I find it hard to believe we'll get him in September. Maybe this time next year he'll be in the full USMNT. Noahkai Banks and others too. So any player from Europe that actually has matches to play during that month will be a problem. We'll do OK with MLS-based players. But this time of year is really the playoff push and even the start of the playoffs. So will an important contributor for a team in the playoffs be released? A Ben Cremaschi? I don't know. But really...............this time of year is about as bad as it can be for us. September is the one time of year when we have all of Europe, Mexico, MLS, and USL matches. Even MLSNP and the NCAAs. Its the most crowded time of our calendar. We talk about this all the time. Build and build and build and build our depth. Have as many U18, U19, and U20 camps and competitions in every window to keep building the depth. In the grand scheme of things, the U20 level is a means to an end. Not an end unto itself. If we can't get our top 25 U20 players released because they're deemed too important to release by their clubs...................that's ultimately a good thing. Its like the realization that most of our top 10 U23 players weren't at the Olympics. That's OK.
Noticeably weak in the middle of the field, right back continues to be a weakness, and center forward is still a question mark. On the other hand, goalkeeper and center back are improved. Miller is a bump at left back. Attacking mids/wings, I’m undecided yet on my opinion. Some good and some meh.
The thing is there a league in the world that doesn’t play in September/October? The timing doesn’t seem to be convenient for anyone. My speculation is has to do with the seasons being flipped in Chile but open to other explanations.
MLS Next Pro regular season ended yesterday. In terms of teams.....................the inevitable happened. North Texas (aka Dallas) finished with the most points and won the West with some ease. They absolutely obliterated Minnesota this past weekend 8-2. In the East, Cincinnati and Philly finished with the two best records. So now the playoffs start. A Philly versus North Texas final would be the most fun. The top scorers this year: David Poreba; Chicago Fire 18 MyKhi Joyner; St. Louis 16 Taylor Calheira; NYCFC 14 Edward Davis; Philadelphia 13 Medhi Oumari; Chatanooga 12 Oumari is a 25 year old Algerian international on the independent MLSNP team, Chatanooga. He's not of interest to us, although independent USL teams are interesting as a general concept. The most interesting player amongst that group to me is Mykhi Joyner. He's signed a HG deal with St Louis and will likely be a first team player next season. He's in the U19 camp with the US this window. St. Louis CITY SC Signs Academy Forward Mykhi Joyner to MLS Homegrown Deal | St. Louis SC (stlcitysc.com) [Although anybody notice that last year's intriguing young St. Louis player Miguel Perez..............totally disappeared this year. Loaned to Birmingham Legion. 0 goals and 0 assists on the season. That was a total surprise.]
Was Perez injured? Does anyone have a best XI from MLS Next Pro? Or other stats? It’s a hard league to follow.
Top eight young American MLS players this season for “End Product” (G+A) in all comps:T1. Diego Luna (‘03): 16T1. Cole Bassett (‘01): 163. Quinn Sullivan (‘04): 144. Duncan McGuire (‘01): 12T5. Brian Gutierrez (‘03): 11T5. Max Arfsten (‘01): 11T5. Logan Farrington (‘01):…— USMNTProspects (@ProspectsUsmnt) October 7, 2024
Peyton Miller ✍️ Scouting Report: Peyton Miller (‘07, 🇺🇸) 🗒️ NE Rev’s latest breakthrough academy product is a fantastic full back. He only earned his MLS debut in July but has been indispensable since due to his outstanding performances at just 16 years old. 🕵️ @jrietikerwright⤵️ pic.twitter.com/zgipJvgpYY— Youth Scout1ng (@YouthScout1ng) October 21, 2024
We're down to the final 8 in the MLSNP playoffs. Crown Legacy (Charlotte) versus Chicago Columbus versus Philly North Texas (Dallas) versus Tacoma (Seattle) The Town (San Jose) versus St. Louis The big seed to get eliminated in the last round was the #1 seed in the East. Cincinnati was eliminated by Crown Legacy. Some guy named Smalls scored two goals in stoppage time to win the game 2-1. [Say it with me.] Columbus eliminated the #3 seed Inter Miami. We've had chalk in the West. Those are the top 4 seeds. North Texas was the best team in the league this year and stays on track after beating Vancouver. They romped in that game statistically but won 2-1.
Ummm.....the semifinal matchups haven't been determined yet..... 2024 MLS NEXT Pro Pick-Your-Opponent Show - Conference Semifinals https://www.mlsnextpro.com/news/2024-mls-next-pro-pick-your-opponent-show-conference-semifinals
Marlon LeBlanc and Jon Scheer of Philadelphia Union II have selected Crown Legacy as their opponent in the Conference Semifinals of the MLS NEXT Pro playoffs.LeBlanc’s side defeated Crown Legacy 3-0 earlier this year in North Carolina, with goals from Soria, Westfield, and… pic.twitter.com/ATQDVVCglh— José Roberto Nuñez (@JoserNunez91) October 22, 2024
We're down to the nitty gritty of the MLSNP playoffs. Two quarterfinals were last night. The powers won and we're still setting up nicely for a Philadelphia versus Dallas showdown. North Texas (aka Dallas) 4 Tacoma Defiance (aka Seattle) 1 Philadelphia II 1 Crown Legacy (aka Charlotte) 1; Philly advances on penalties. Philadelphia has enormous USYNT firepower on their roster but has eeked out wins in the last two rounds. [And yes, Crown Legacy's keeper is Chituru Odunze.] Dallas has a lot of firepower too; there's just less of its that of USMNT/USYNT interest. US U20s captain Nolan Norris starts for them in central midfield, though. North Texas is sort of an FCD U23 team. They seem more mature as professionals while Philly II is more of a direct academy link. Younger players with higher ceilings. Average age of Philly II last night was 18. When you look at North Texas, it's almost a USL-Championship style roster. 🇺🇸 CJ Olney (‘06) with the perfectly placed corner for an assist! He’s got 7 goals and 10 assists this season, including one of each in the playoffs 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/6SGguUJdz9— American Ultras Talk (@ameriultrastalk) October 26, 2024
Columbus II took down Chicago II to reach the semifinal (or conference final). For some reason they're called the Capybaras. It’s not the Eastern Conference Finals without the Capybaras 😎Columbus Crew 2 will face Philadelphia Union II in the 2024 @MLSNEXTPRO Playoffs Eastern Conference Final on Saturday, November 2nd at Subaru Park. 👊#Crew96 | #VamosColumbus pic.twitter.com/rfTXH9R3tP— Columbus Crew 2 (@ColumbusCrew2) October 27, 2024
Sources: Legia Warsaw have opened talks to sign USYNT wingback Jeremiah White IV from Carolina Core.White, 17, turns 18 in February. He made five MLS Next Pro apps this year. Previously spent time with Philly and RBNY academies. pic.twitter.com/6UcWzyh8Fd— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) October 29, 2024