http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/grant_wahl/news/2003/02/27/wahl_soccer/ In Grant Wahl's latest article, he says: "• I'm still fascinated by the following stat: Of the 144 eligible players who competed in the 1999 under-17 World Cup, only three (Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley and Brazil's Kaká) graduated to their nations' World Cup 2002 rosters. Given that two of those three players are Americans, is there any chance that the American developmental system might actually be more effective than believed? Or might Donovan and Beasley have been remarkable aberrations?" Man that is incredible - very impressive. I'd love to stack this up with the 2006 stats when they come and see how our youth system fared...
You could read that two ways 1) Landon and DMB have a lot of talent, deserved to be on the team, and are going to be stars. or 2) The US side lacks depth so it had to have 2 20-year olds on it. I think its a little of both.
Grant's not really in the know in this area IMHO. What we have with Donovan and Beasley are the first U.S. domestic players to ever be trained in an immersive style European/South American soccer environment. And if we trained more players in this method, some of those would begin to outshine even the older, more experienced college trained players. So yeah, our development system is good, for about 20-30 players, which doesn't even scratch the surface of our long range potential.
i think No. 2 is the right answer ... many other countries can wait longer to move guys up than we can.
maybe you should look at it from the standpoint that breaking into the us national team is alot easier than other countries. Wasnt saviola one og the 144 players at that tournament-and he couldn't make the argentine national team. Beasley and Donovan arent even in the top 500 of world players under 22, let alone deserving of being mentioned in the same breath as saviola.
I think that would classify you as being an idiot. Ajax offered $2 million for Beasley, Leverkusen wouldn't part with Donovan for rumors of up to $10 million. If that doesn't put them in the top 500 players in the world under 22, I'd like to know what does.
You could have gotten away with saying that they aren't in the top 100 of all the players in the world. But not with saying there are 500 players under 22 who are better than them.
I would lean towrds this as to why they managed to get on the team as starters. However, they proved that they could compete at a World Class level.
Kaka Kaka never played for Brazil in the U-17 World Cup. There was a player from his club (Sao Paulo) named Caca that played for Brazil, but they are certainly not the same player. So, I guess that leaves LD and Beasley from the '99 U-17 WC.
Re: Kaka The letter 'K' is not officially part of the Brasilian alphabet. It is used only in proper names -- mostly of foreign origin. It is quite possible that Caca and Kaka are the same player. Plus, I doubt any Brasilian player would have the nickname 'Caca' -- it means 'poop'.
Aside from the fact that Donovan and Beasley are indeed among the top 500 players under 22, Argentina did not even qualify for the 1999 U-17 World Cup, so no, Saviola was not in that tournament. I believe you are thinking of the 2001 U-20 Championship, which Argentina won.
Re: Re: Kaka No, it's not possible. I have a tape of a game played between Australia and Brazil from the U-17 World Cup. Caca played forward in that game. The Caca that played for the U-17 Brazilian team resembles Tyson Nunez. Here is a picture of the Kaka that played last summer in JK. http://www.lacancha.com/Selecao_KAKA.html These two players also have different birthdates. There is NO chance in hell that it's the same guy.
we must also take into consideration that landon and damarcus, were voted the two best players in the '99 u-17 tournament, i think that might be why they were only two players to come out of that tournament to play in 2002. not in the top 500, hahaha
I think 2) might apply to Beasley a little, but certainly not Donovan who looked more dangerous in the World Cup than he has since. I'm guessing Donovan would have made at least half of the 32 squads in Japan/Korea and wouldn't be shocked if he made more. Also remember that Donovan was voted the best player of that youth tournament so you'd think his chances of making the WC squad would have been as good as anybody's.