Most of the rosters are pretty strong, u14’s and u17’s in particular will be very good when at full strength. U15’s offense is loaded but the defense is shaky. Almost all of the u19’s will be rotating or full time with the 23’s so the u19’s will be very thin
Are the “23’s” the same as Crew 2? I know they are ramping up the Crew 2 staff. I didn’t know we had a U23 team.
U23 is an abbreviation for the new developmental league that'll launch next year. We don't have such a team now. And, if rumors, reporting and Bez's own words are to be believed, the league won't strictly be U23. It'll also include some senior roster players who need minutes, and senior players seeking to regain fitness after injury.
I'd underline that this is not strictly a U23 league, as you point out. This also has nothing to do with MLS Next (ie the Academy system).. That ends at U19. As noted above by the learned Mr Kerr, they can and will pirate the 19's when they feel a player should be moved up and will undoubtedly raid even lower if circumstances warrant it. The beauty of an MLS owned, stand alone Div 3 league as opposed to simply entering USL at some level ( aside.of course from not having to pay money to USL which is starting to get pricey) is the ability to make their own.rules to suit themselves. If you want to bounce a guy down for.injury rehab or just to stay in game shape.or whatever other reason you like, and do it.3 or 4 times in a single season or any.other of a hundred things you can write.the rules however you like. So while the effort is pri.arily aimed at college aged players who have aged out.of the academy, you can send out.your 32 year old center back.for a.couple weeks whenever you want, or bring in guys for 10 day trials even if they're 35. Flexibility will be the name.of the game.
True, several players were recruited from out of state, but the majority of those listed have been with the Crew for at least a year already.
Crew II is synonymous with U23. They have been scrimmaging recently but as a poster previously mentioned, the actual league wont start until the winter/spring timeframe.
With the amount of scouting that occurs on this board, this is a great opportunity for those folks to get paid. ;-) In all seriousness, with the academy foundation that Crew have built (new training facilities, new coaches, billet program), they now have the necessary resources to entice good players to come to their academy. The hiring of scouts will round out the program nicely. Just need to do a better job of first team integration IMO.
Do you have a roster or any information about how their contracts are structured? The "U23" league will be playing under MLS/pro contracts, near as anyone knows.
Sadly, I don't live anywhere near central Columbus but if I were in the area this would be really interesting. Porter as an MLS coach has never been good at integrating youth players so unless he gets some sort of mandate I imagine this will continue to be an issue
I think this is false narrative. Ever heard of Aiden Morris? Or Abubacar Keita? Or Alex Matan? How about Milton Valenzuela? All got significant playing time/starts while being 21 & younger.
From the academy perspective, Aiden Morris & Abubacar Keita came through the academy so yes, there has been some success, but relatively speaking, integration not so great. Can you suggest any players in the academy to get excited about that seem to have a shot at the next level? I can name a couple but not even sure they are getting any attention from the higher ups. Not suggesting that the Crew start handing out Homegrown contracts like candy. Maybe with the Crew II, and having that team help bridge the gap between the academy and first team, we may see more integration. It would be nice if he showed up to some academy practices or games to scout things out. Maybe he believes he has people to do that for him...... I remain bullish on the future.
That's exactly the what Crew II's mission is. I will say this about academy prospects, it seems like every time we start hearing about young academy player showing promise and the team takes them to training camp with them, they seem to get a little full of themselves and think they have it made only to fade away into the abyss. They seem to think they've made it and and are somehow instantly a pro and significantly better than their academy teammates. But I do think that is part of the process. To be a pro you have to be humble and continue to put in the work. Even after you get a HG contract you have to earn your keep and continue to improve and work on all aspects of your game. If I had to throw a name out there I would say from college ranks MAYBE Sean Zawadzki might have a shot. 3 really good years at Georgetown and now a senior. He was THE top prospect in his teens getting NT call ups and tons of accolades. For some reason they either valued Parente more and signed him...OR simply they offered and Parente was willing to sign and Zawadski wanted to stay in college and finish his degree. There are some younger guys coming up but it will take a special person on/off the field to rise up to first team in their teens/early 20s.
Agreed that you can't offer a contract to just any 16-20 year old and that makes them instantly better, but other MLS clubs have figured out how to get production out of their academies and the Crew certainly seem behind. Unfortunately it isn't something that can be fixed overnight and is likely a 6+ year turnaround (assuming you start with some 12 year olds and have an opportunity to develop them through 18).
Not false at all but I should clarify I meant home grown players and not just young players bought. Look at HG minutes from his entire tenure as a professional coach. In Portland he basically never played any HG players. For all the love we have for Morris he only has 450 professional minutes. Matan/Milton are non-HG expensive acquisitions that do not show an academy player the club has a culture of developing, signing and player local kids. They combined cost over 2 million dollars so you have to imagine they will get played. Keita is the only one that is SORTA a success but he has been sporadically played for his 3 seasons.
As Myers noted a couple days ago, when Mensah gets back and assuming the other guys are healthy, Keita is the fourth choice center back. If he's the best example of an HG being a rousing success, we're nowhere, and if I had an elite 16 year old son I'd seriously be looking into.other clubs. Maybe Morris would be tearing up the league right now but if Artur was healthy he wouldn't be seeing a lot of minutes either.
It’s a player by player basis. I think both Sam Sarver and Elton Chifamba are pretty close. Sarver needs to be more involved in the buildup and add more skill to his dribbling. Elton needs to bulk up. Both Levi Stephens and Caleb Borneo have been really progressing well and I think they’ll be homegrowns
Sarver is no longer with the Crew and is now playing for Indiana University. Scored his first goal of the season against Xavier earlier this week. Talented kid. Wish him well.
Yes, Sarver is "eligible" for a Crew HG deal. Some people felt that he and Chifamba should have been offered a year ago. And we don't know but that they were and declined. What we do know is that Sarver was essentially kicked off the team for vague reasons which were described as " getting too big for his britchea" or some such meaningless rubbish. So what we're left to try and discern is whether Sarver is upset, angry, contrite or some combination thereof. It appears.though that, whatever the details, he and the club have parted company. It's kind of like saying that Jack Sticker is eligible to be elected to the US Senate. It may be true but it ain't gonna happen.
Elton Chifamba isn't getting many minutes for Clemson this year, but I know next to nothing about college soccer
You can't really compare HG minutes for Portland. Was a different time in MLS evolution and we don't know if Portland even invested in their academy. Morris lack of minutes is obvious - injury. Had he not been injured we certainly would have much much bigger body of work to judge him by - due to Artur injury. But the limited body of work was really good. I man do we need to look any further the MLS cup game?