College vs. A-League Players for U20

I doubt that they do -- the last minor-league player I'm aware of to be considered for a youth national team was the midfielder from Portland U. who ended up an alternate on the most recent Olympic team. (Brian Winters, I think.)

Personally, I'd like to see US Soccer call in a few of these guys (Charles Kim, Manuel Brazil, those guys from El Paso -- well, there aren't that many that I'm aware of) even if for no other reason than as a courtesy, to reward them for their courage, and maybe even as a "laboratory experiment" to see how they stack up and how their experience might have affected their play.

Then again, it's possible they have already scouted these guys and just aren't that impressed. There are also several youth-eligible players in Europe who don't get called...

In the end, however, I do believe that if MLS and European players suddenly were carried off in a spaceship and the World Cup was tomorrow, Arena would look at a team of A-Leaguers (and lower-level pros) before he would youth players.

 

It seems as if very few top youth players are willing to go with the A League, even with MLS only able to sign a few players right out of high school.

I don't know if this speaks to a perception about coaching in the A League vs. college, or just the relatively low salaries (if you factor in the costs of a scholarship, colleges probably pay at least equal to what a kid signing with an A League team right out of the chute).

I should check some A League rosters for 18-22 year olds and do a story about that, to see if El Paso is the exception to the rule. I remember a story on these boards, about 3 meltdowns ago, of a, 18-year old kid from Hollywood, CA who signed with Pittsburgh. Anyone know offhand if he made much of an impact.

One scenario with a U20 residency program is for a "team" to be established in the A League, playing a full schedule of home and away games from the California base. Could be interesting.

 

If you want to talk about pure level of play, of course the A-League is way higher, collectively, than college soccer. But I think we are talking about culture, uncertainty, and lack of knowledge for our young players.

The A-League is mostly comprised of players that were very successfull college players that basically just missed the cut when it came to playing in MLS, the median age in the A-League is probably 25 or 26.

I think you will find this question to pose alot of uncertainty, why would a kid pass up a full scholarship, get a free education, be surrounded by college women, and have a chance to attain more notoriety in a college setting than enter the real world?...by playing for a second division team/league that still doesn't get any credibility from the soccer media in this country or the youth programs???? The culture in this country still directs great young players through the college route, and to be honest it's going to be very hard to break that mold in America. I think it is fair to say that College (as great as it is) screws up the devlopement of our younger best players, except for those that go straight to MLS.

And by the way, the only great player recently that went straight from High school to the A-League was Edson Buddle in 2000 (Long Island Rough Riders), of course now a growing star with Columbus. But Gersman, I don't think you would find any impact players that are in the A-League that are under 21, except on the Canadian teams (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary), but that is mostly because the soccer culture up there is more like the European structure where the best players don't go to college.

 

Charles Kim is the kid from California who signed with the Riverhounds. I believe he had a tough season -- didn't get much playing time and also had to go through a coaching change.

Manuel Brazil was a high school teammate of Adolfo Gregorio's who signed with a D3 team out of high school. Was rumored to go to Portugal this season but it didn't happen. D3 ROY and All-Star two years ago but I think this season was tougher. I've read mixed reviews.

I believe the El Paso kids aren't bad -- one or two of them were on loan to a Mexican second division team last season and did well. No idea whether they are MLS prospects.

I'm not aware of other current players, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. Saavedra's brother may have left high school early for the A-League but I don't remember much about it.

Generally speaking I'm not sure the A-League is a great situation for young players as it seems to be a very veteran- and results-based league. They don't stand to make much money selling/developing players.

It's more of a long-term thing, but definitely interesting to watch as minor-league clubs build out PDL, SYL and other teams.

 

Agreed....PDL and Super Y are definitely the future, it will be interesting to see the growth 5 years from now.

 

Brian Winters was the one. He was in Columbus at the beginning of 2000, but was released and ended up with Minnesota Thunder that year. He now plays for Portland Timbers and had a good year.

Doing some research, I've found only 21 players that will be U23 in 2004 (looking at the Oly's) on A-League rosters.

463 players were used in the A-League last season, though I only have birth dates for 301 of them. That works out to 7% (21 players out of 301) of the players that are U23's, or for 463 players, around 32 or so if you look at all the players.

Most of these 21 are not eligible for the USNT or are MLS players on loan. Only five are straight up A-League players: Paul Dolinsky (1983-Indiana Blast), Miguel Saavedra (1983-Milwaukee Rampage), Chuk Kim (1984-Pittsburgh Riverhounds), Davind Henning (1984-Milwaukee Rampage), and Samuel Sucevic (1984-Milwaukee Rampage).

Sucevic is the coaches son, who is an imigrant; however, I think he is closer to playing for the USNT than for his native country. Saavedra, while with Milwaukee was a Chicago Fire player, but was released in November. He will likely end up in the A-League this year.

If you take away Saavedra and Sucevic, only three players in the A-League are eligible for the USYNT's.

Chuk Kim played 3 games for 52 minutes. He did score a goal.

From what I found Manuel Brazil didn't play in the USL this season.

The Y-League may be the future for U17 player development because top level youth clubs will be involved, however the PDL is only an extension of the college season, which is why it isn't now and why it will not be a "true" developmental league. It is doing an adequate job at the moment, but how people on the board see development, it isn't doing a good job.

BTW, in my opinion top level NCAA soccer - by this I mean the top 16-32 teams - is better than the D3 Pro and PDL USL leagues and is the 3rd division of U.S. Soccer. I would say after #32, you're looking at a similar level of play that D3 and PDL offer, but how many teams after #32 I haven't put a finger on yet.

I do believe the PDL could be used by MLS as a league to park players, or an entire MLS club's U19 youth team, for development. But the truely independent clubs - no connections with MLS or A-League teams - will not be any better at developing U21/U19 players than FC Delco, Dallas Texans, Chicago Magic, or La Jolla Nomads.

The PDL's future will be where MLS, A-League, and Youth Clubs can have U19 teams playing in top level competition. I don't see this happening until 2006 at the earliest.

The A-League needs to be used by MLS for the reserve teams MLS might have one day when rosters in MLS are 30 players strong. I don't see this happening until 2010 at the earliest.

In 2011 you might see this...

MLS Senior side plays in MLS (duh).

MLS Reserve team plays in the A-League. Technically speaking the reserve team is made up of Senior team players who just need to get a game. Of course youth team players can play in these games too.

MLS U19 side plays in the PDL.

MLS U17 sides play - though players haven't signed a pro or "trainee/apprentice" (amateur) contract - in the SYL U17, U16, U15, U14, U13, U12 divisions.