Agree. COVID seems to be a real factor. That said ... when people talk about '08-'09 being a new normal as well ... Every country has cycles, even those with far more developed ... developmental systems. It's not an assembly line. I'll also toss out that we may be disappointed with results if we don't get anyone coming up suited to play defense. If we simply looked at anyone born after 2000, and asked where the CBs, CDMs, and even 8s are, we might be one of the worst developmental countries out there.
Yeah, I honestly have no idea. We know: 1990-1995: disaster scene. 1996: Previously thought to be kinda okay, in retrospect wasn't (that '15 U20 WC that I obsess over was not as relevant as I'd hoped). 1997-2003: Variations of good to great to superb depending upon the year. 2004-2005-2006: For the most part it looks like a decent chunk of guys that would in previous generations have been borderline starters or reserves, but for this group, due to the quality of the 97s, 98s through 03's, are more reserves, or non-relevants. 2007s, 2008's and 2009s: generally speaking they look like pretty good, very good, potentially great. No doube its going to bounce back and forth naturally, it's not like every year of the 1980's was superb after all, and by and large the fall off started for the most part around 1985 and beyond, but guys like Bradley, Altidore, Davies and a few others covered for what ended up being a decline that even started before the nineties. The weird truth is that generally speaking, for the most part, the first golden generation was probably about 1966-1983, seems like it dipped a bit from '84-'89 and then collapsed with 1990 for five years. Looks like MLS baby stepped academies but by about 15-17 years ago progress really started accelerating, and now we can see that things are humming in a lot of regions but not everywhere, DC United has gotten multiple kicks in the cojones from interviews with 3 different top prospects the past few years complaining about the club not really having a coherent plan with youth players analogous to what Dallas, or say Philly have had, but there's no question things are humming better than ever before, and if not for covid, maybe we'd be on a decade long run, instead of a run, then a sputter, and now a run again. I'm just hopeful that the '08's and '09's are a sign that prospect cohorts analogous to those great 97-03 years, will continue. Its quite exciting to see so many interesting attacking players in particular, and odd that what we used to do well (defenders, cbs, keepers, but not so much playmakers and atackers) has swung in a totally opposite direction with great wingers, some exciting CM's etc. Hopefully we can get striker going again though, since Sargent and Pepi came through with I think the '99 and '03 cohort birth years if memory serves we've produced nothing else at all, I was hopeful for Figueroa but he wasnt impressive in U20 qualifying, and missed most of '23-'24 w/injury so I don't know whats going on w/him. All of this makes Berchimas hitting all the more important, and even more important than all of this is HEALTH.
Who'd have ever thought that we'd have so much trouble with keepers, C Defenders and D Mids? That used to be our bread and butter. Maybe it's the switch to working it out of the back and trying to chooses and develop players who can do that? I mean Zimmerman is a throwback defender and many here don't like him because of his passing but is his passing actually worse than say Onyewu was back in the day?
Agreed, though I will say that I think Tessmann, Aidan Morris, Maloney, Johnny etc, aren't worse than prior D Mids, they are just a different type of player, with Maloney more the standard type, Tessmann, Morris and Johnny more offensively oriented and defensively limited (well, except for Morris who seems to be good at both). The CB thing is just crazy. There was a time 3 or 4 years ago I critiqued the habitual rippings of the CB's as I viewed the position as deeper than ever before, and it is, but the problem has been that generally speaking, we haven't had a consistently reliable elite CB in forever. We've been persisting with these limited, solid, but mistake prone types for eons. Its been quite frustrating, we seem to have uninterupted string of solid+ options including borderline elite guys with Gooch and Pope for 20 years, but now? Yikes, its all moderate floor, low ceiling, flawed, across the board. Nobody has become elite. Quite frustrating. The keepers needless to say, it felt like we were Toyota/Japan in the eighties, just assuming it was Americanness, playing multiple sports etc that was why we produced big 5 level keepers with ease and little else for 2 decades, and then suddenly, like Japan, we realized we were wrong in a crushing decade of horse ---- goal keeping since basically 2015ish, w/zero guys developed worth a damn w/in the set up since Howard more than 25 years ago.
There is a lot of randomness by birth year. Probably need at least a 5-year moving average to have a reliable read of trends. There is even more randomness when you look at players at a specific position. I suspect a lot of the current weakness at CB and goalie is nothing but noise. The randomness at those positions is about to turn given what is in the pipeline. Goalie: Schulte, Slonina, Brady, Kochen, Beavers, Beaudry, Eyestone CBs: Banks, Akinmboni, Pierre, Neal, Wynder Add a couple guys already with the senior team like Richards and McKenzie who are still relatively young and I think we are going to be fine at CB. I also think it is a position where some relatively obscure player in his 20s will turn out to be a significant senior team player when all is said and done. CBs often develop later. Plus guys who could switch positions to CB such as Maloney and Tessmann. Not to mention youth level players currently playing other positions who will end up at CB.
I think the most exciting thing right now is that: '97-'03: Best ever 6 year run. '04-'06: Clear downturn, but still produced quite a few guys with a chance to be complimentary players and the potential to be useful. '07's to '09's: Quite a few potential stars, a return to the '97-'03 historic run in terms of quantity, and cream. The good news is that even w/covid shutting down soccer nationwide for nearly a year and shutting it down and causing players to quit the game in some players for 18 months or more, we still produced a solid crop in '04-'06 not all that different from say the '84's to '89's and maybe even a little bit better. I think for now anyway, we seem more than capable of producing a '94-'14 level performance as a floor going forward in terms of talent, and I really tend to doubt '15s to '18's are gonna happen again. The game's been planted in the country and is clearly growing, the academies are kinda working and as it becomes more and more obvious how well the lottery tickets pay, more teams will do it, or fall hopelessly behind... I'm excited, just frustrated. I never thought mental make up would be an issue for these guys but it clearly is. Wow.
USMNT issue with those positions is that we aren't developing GK or CBs. Those positions are very weak for 2026. They are very young for 2026.
Sure. But GK and CB can be late-developing positions. We have quite a number of CBs and GKs that never played in USYNTs at all. Hell, Matt Turner didn't even start his freshman year at Fairfield College. Wasn't even drafted by MLS. Picked up as a free agent by New England. Really, the only reason Matt Turner exists is that Brad Friedel became New England coach and saw something in him. How many caps did Patrick Schulte get with USYNTs? Prior to the U23 level. 2? He was a fringe USYNTer. Maybe he's one who would have had more if the 2021 cycles weren't cancelled due to COVID. [By the way, a lot of the dual-nationals currently being lost to other programs are ones that we didn't build a connection to during the that cancelled 2021 youth cycle. Noel Buck, etc.] Any players for the 2026 WC at those positions would need to breaking out by now. We have keeper options being developed. That pool is building, even if some (like Kochen) won't be ready to start in 2026. I'm seeing many more keeper options emerge for 2026 than CB options. It is more realistic, in my view, that a real youngster makes the roster in attacking positions than at CB or GK. As I've said I think right now they'd be more likely to come from the Cole Campbell age group than the Sullivan/Albert age group. Yamine Lamal is an exceptional situation. Cavan Sullivan would be YOUNGER at WC26 than Yamine Lamal was at the Euros. Right? Expecting any player currently in our U17s to be ready for the World Cup level in a year and a half is a little over-the-top. Its not impossible, but highly unlikely. And I believe the recent camp was the first U17 appearance for Sullivan. He's only now getting into our U17s.
It depends on what Poch does with the team. He could go younger. We don't know. Cavan age group will be after 2026 WC. Young but not old enough for 2026.
I dont think anyone expects Cavan to be ready in time for '26, I think some people are just hopeful that something magical can happen, most people seem to be in the 1-15% area of predictions. I've seen one or two that post about 50% chance, but that's like 1 or 2 of the like 40 or 50 people who've posted about him.
Well, now we have the equivalent of the Freddy Adu and Pele picture. I don't think Cavan played last night as Miami beat Philly 3-1. He was on the bench. Respect 🤝#DOOP pic.twitter.com/ELwcwu6vah— Philadelphia Union (@PhilaUnion) September 15, 2024
Take a once in lifetime opportunity to have a photo with the greatest of all time. "I WISH HE WOULD FOCUS ON SOCCER MORE...FREDDY ADU 2.0!"
Yeah, it wasn't a photo shoot or anything. He was at the game as a PLAYER on the bench for Philly. So part of his job as a soccer player.
Too many unknowns to assume any single youth player will contribute to the full squad. Just need 400 such players at age 15, 40 at age 18, and hope 4 of them become Pulisics. Fun to watch them get better though.
Let’s just hope one day we look back at this photo as one world class player at the beginning of his career taking a photo with one of the best ever at the end.
That and 10 million tons of old and new media blitz on prime time channels, cable, and print. Except none of that is happening at all. You've got like 1 or 2 write ups, and no major coverage anywhere. He's a known commodity in Philly amongst that cities soccer fans, and among nuts like us and literally nobody else in the country knows his name.