Breakout Youth Player in MLS / USL 2026

saw an interesting tweet the other day about how miami have signed so many guys cremaschi doesnt really have a place in the team. would be interesting to see him move to another mls side where he could have a prominent role rather than/before a move abroad.

 

Matt Doyle weighs with his Top 8 here: https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/breakout-player-candidates-who-could-emerge-in-2026

Americans comprise 6 of the 8 (one Ghanian and one Canadian):

Teddy KDP
Taha Habroune
Michael Collodi -- Dallas' GK who apparently was great once he won the job last year
Justin Haak
Brooklyn Raines
Oscar Verhoeven

On his blog, he also did one player for each of the other 22 teams: https://tacticsfreezone.substack.co...e&r=4x5k2&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

That said, there's less Americans on the second list as a %, and the confidence level that they will break through is pretty low on many.

 

Pretty poor performance. Not too surprising though as they seem thrown together without much time together. This new format may start favoring lesser nations that spend a lot of time training together ala Bradenton used to be how the US did it. One thing I noticed was when the defenders had the ball no midfielder came back to get into a space they could pass to let alone several. Oh and it always seemed that the players who took shots from play in the middle always had field goals except for the big forward. He seems like a really good prospect as he hustles, is a big body that bangs and has surprisingly decent dribbling and touch for a big young forward. He reminds me of Musa with FC Dallas.

 

Jakupovic is the big forward. He's the best striker prospect in all the pool and he's a dominant 2009 prospect right below Cavan and Mathis.

 

Eh, Jakupovic's energy and hustle was very binary.

Defensively, he pressed a few times, but other times, he was not moving at all.

Probably more importantly, when we broke forward, he was rarely able or willing to keep up with faster wingers on the attack -- but he didn't trail behind for the cross reliably. Maybe 40% of the time? There were a ton of chances were he simply chose not to run. He's very selectively active and I suspect he needs a LOT of fitness work.

He is good on the ball and he looked good in the air but he has miles to go on making his runs in the box as well. He just was rarely where he needed to be. There was tons of space there and a lot of crosses made it through -- and aside from his one sitter missed ... he really wasn't even in the same space as the ball. Sometimes he wasn't even making a run, or he was way off timing. It wasn't a matter of inches.

I think he's a fine prospect but MILES away from affecting play at a senior level. The work rate needs to increase drastically -- no senior team coach is going to accept a guy who doesn't make runs at the rate he does.

And the second part -- where he just doesn't really seem to have a feel for where to be in the box -- that could be a lack of familiarity with everyone but it's also a pretty common thing for youth strikers. It's the last thing to learn.

I wouldn't put him anywhere near Cavan and Albert. I agree there's very good potential, but I don't think he's very near.

Remember, Chase Adams put up 10 goals on the USVI last year; for strikers, stats in most games are simply not translateable. I don't know who the best striker prospect in the pool is but no one I can immediately think of screams a high hit rate to me. Last guy I really felt was that was was Pepi -- he debuted at 16 and at 17 he was performing against grown adults. 17 year old Pepi would have murdered the DR.

He may eventually pop -- the height is intriguing and there's ball skils. But there's miles to go.

Spivey and Espy were my best prospects out of this in terms of both potential and current play; I think Jakupovic has potential but he screams youth striker that needs to play against better defenses to improv. Garcia has intriguing potential but he basically was playing by himself. Forfor looks like he will contribute but I'd put him a half step down.

I love Ostrander's soccer IQ; I think despite a lack of explosiveness, I think he's going to be a really interesting pro. He was basically the cause of all our offensive organization and while I don't see a super high level for him, I think at the right level, he's going to be a sneaky good player. The team also looked miles better with Steelman and Dimareli in; despite their lack of explosion as well ... both are already very solid, smart players and I think both could be half decent in MLS this year.

All of these guys remind me a bit of David Vazquez -- yes, it's hard to project a USMNT role at an athletic position like winger, but the dude knows how to play soccer and gets it done. Was I shocked to see him go up against Pumas and put a goal in and create another? Nope.

 

I wasn't impressed with Forfor. He seemed too slow for his position and wasn't very good defensively. Almost at the end of the game a pass into space was set up for him to run onto and waste time or even maybe get a dagger goal but he got beaten to it easily by a DR player.

 

We should be paying more attention to the San Diego FC back line starting against Pumas.

Pedro Soma (2006) - Spanish developed. Played in our U17 and U20 world cup squads. First two starts.
Luca Bombino (2006) - The (checks notes) most experienced backline member in CCL. Also in the U20 WC. Started all of 2025 for SDFC
Manu Duah (2005) - Ghanian but probably has a green card. 2025 number 1 draft pick. He has been starting more and more.
Wilson Eisner (2002) - Signed off waivers from San Jose Earthquakes so you know he's probably a loooooot better than expected. Just played his first two starts in MLS. He has been an MLS Next Pro stalwart for a while.

 

Soma has been playing in the midfield, FYI. I know some sites listed him as a fullback but he's been up with Tserkov.

Duah will almost certainly be sold before he can gain citizenship, but he's very good.

 

And David Vazquez. And Leo Duru. And Ian Pilcher (2003). And Anisse Saidi. And Alejandro Alvarado. And Alex Mighten (2002). And Duran Ferree. And CJ Dos Santos, though he's older.

 

This phrase is so triggering. It's clearly in alphabetic order but I feel like a dweeb for having to point it out.

 

Cavan subs into his concacaf champions league in T&T and immediately has an assist. It's not a high level, but everything feels tighter than last year. It's reminiscent of his U17 World Cup form.

Edit: And now draws a penalty.

 

And finished off by drawing a red card from Joevin Jones. He's going to get himself killed out there from being so annoying to play, but it's fun to watch.

 

Yeah -- the combo of skill, soccer IQ and work rate / aggression is something special.

Calling this thread over in terms of "THE" MLS/USL breakout player. It's Cavan. Defense Force is not an MLS level defense, but no one else was doing what he was doing out there.

He's still small and you still want to manage minutes, but he's ready to make an impact.

 

You are underplaying Defense Force here.

Defense Force took third place in the Caribbean Cup; they aren't an amateur team. Are they a good MLS team? No. Did Austin lose not only a match but the TIE to a Caribbean team like 2 years ago? Yes.

But they looked at about USLC level (objective measures agree). They definitely were playing more open than they even were earlier in the game and Caribbean teams tend to be more aggressive either way. But it's a mile above MLSNP.

It was a game against grown men, and while it's not MLS level, for sure, he looked better than his teammates did out there. His Supporter's Shield winning teammates.

As for not starting, Carnell started his A team, like about half the MLS teams. It's also in T&T and Cavan got hit enough in 25 minutes for a whole game. I don't think he's a regular starter this year entirely because of size and injury concerns, and that's a good thing. Haven't we had a ton of theories about how the amount of soccer Reyna played has contributed to his injuries?

He's going to break out this year. We'll see who is right.

 

A lot of professional teams in a lot of countries are backed by a large public institution. My own team in the avatar started off founded by the workers of the government owned airline. You'll see wings on the side of the logo. There's also a team founded by the police but it's more of a second division team.

Does this scale larger than Bolivia and TnT? Yes. In Mexico, Cruz Azul is linked to a cement manufacturing co-op. Tigres and Pumas are tightly linked to two major Mexican universities.

 

Ummm.... I can assure you that this was NOT the A Team starting. Were there a number of A Team players starting? Yes. However, Bedoya is certainly not an every game starter. Ditto Jeremy Rafanello, at RB no less. Harriel won't be playing CB much this season (hopefully). Jesus Bueno is MLS starting level quality, but Jovan Lukic is the starter. Andrew Rick started in Goal. Stas K started up top at striker, his first game with the Union first team (was a MLSNP stalwart last year).