There's a perception that his reps with some of the youth teams (not U23) was silly and he was not in the right pecking order, maybe U20, probably U17 etc and I'm not gonna quibble with that, but I find it 1000% believable that like 99% of my Mexican-American students, he grew up surrounded by El Tri mania and dreams of playing for El Tri. Why wouldn't that be so? I think it's fantasy to believe that this isn't the starting point with a large majority of Mexican-American players growing up, the question is whether they also feel the pull of their new adoptive country or not, and the opportunities it has brought or not, and the desire to where the shirt. Seems like some kinda do, but in every one of these recruiting efforts, when it comes from fandom perspectives from childhood up, El Tri will virtually always have the advantage. Its up to us to make the stars and stripes at least as attractive. Thankfully we've pulled, so far, probably the most consequential of ones we've had a chance at in Pepi, at least in these more recent wars over dual nats anyway. I don't have any regrets on Araujo, what he had to say about his heart and all that, is very much in line w/what every single student soccer fan I've ever had of Mexican-American heritage has said. I just wish there was a way to figure this out ahead of time so we wouldn't be wasteful of caps, playing time, etc on obvious lost causes like Araujo. There isn't though, so it's just gonna be a source of aggravation.
I didn’t know people were blaming Berhalter for Araujo. Not even Koleosho. And we should even say we’ve been aggressive with Jonathan Gomez. That said, I am concerned about Brian Gutierrez (youth)and Noel Buck (youth). I think we also need to push for Lennard Maloney, Max Dietz (youth), Mauricio Isais (youth), Nathaniel Brown (youth), Miguel Perez (youth), Esmir Bajraktarevic (youth), and others.
I think Araujo was a similar situation to Jonathan Gonzalez. We identified him first, had him in our youth national teams.................and he was happy there. The column he wrote after switching indicated as much. But once Mexico became interested, it was over. That was his dream. We wouldn't be doing our job if we weren't identifying such players and bringing them into the program. And we do retain a bunch of these kids (Pepi and Gomez, for instance). We just talk endlessly about those that "got away." My opinion is still that we've never lost a dual-national to Mexico that would have made a tangible difference to the program. Yes, it would be nice to have Julian Araujo amongst our RB options. He's in that band with Dest and Scally. But we do have Dest and Scally. He's not BETTER than them. We're not beating Holland in the WC round of 16 if we have Araujo starting instead of Dest. We have to get to the place that a nation like France is with dual-nationals. They have guys constantly being peeled away by nations all over the world (particularly North Africa). A recent example seems to be Amir Richardson to Morocco. They just do their best to ensure they grab the guys they think have the highest ceilings. And sometimes they do get their evaluations wrong. Just like I think Holland got their evaluation of Dest wrong as a youth player. Then they came back for him later, but it was too late. But these nations don't look back. They trust their developmental programs to keep churning. Lose Koleosho? OK. More attacking players are coming up in the US. He's not the last.
Agree.. USMNT is nowhere near France maybe in the next 50 + years. We are close to the Netherlands but still need time to see what happens. Losing players that start for any team in the EPL, La Liga, or Ligue 1 is going to hurt us more than you think. We are losing Luca Koleosho because he was not so good in the US camps. So he never got called to our camp again until the U20 WC was near. His mind was made up before the U20 WC. He was going to play for Italy for the U20 WC and then file a one-time switch to play for Canada. Now Canada has an issue and doesn't have a coach. From what I hear, they will get a CPL coach. What attacking player do we have in the comes up? Malick sango, Rodrigo Neri and damion downs. U17 doesn't even have any good CF or wingers. We have to wait to see what happens to the 08s. Luca Koleosho might be the best winger we have until the 08s.
Jonathan Gonzalez had waited for the US. But Bruce never called him. Araujo had always been leaning El Tri. That's an interesting conundrum. Do you take the U17 dual national based on potential, or do you take the best player at that time and at that level? Once someone else gives them a chance, it can be hard to get them back.
Any player is based on potential and there's no player who will start in the EPL at the age of 18. Luca does not look bad for his age and the league.
There are famous examples of that on the youth boards. When guys just weren't good at their first couple of youth camps, and were out of the running for a while. I haven't heard that about Koleosho before, but it's of course possible. The one I always remember is DeAndre Yedlin with the U20s. Apparently hadn't been good in early camps with Tab Ramos while he was still at Akron. Wasn't selected for the 2013 CONCACAF U20 Championships. By the time the U20WC rolled around, he was starting to make a name for himself with Seattle. Then he was selected. [DeAndre Yedlin, as we know............was a sorta dual-national. There was no risk of losing him, but he was a dual-national. His mother's side of the family is Latvian. His father is serving a life sentence in prison, and DeAndre has reportedly never met him. He was basically raised by his maternal grandparents, and got a Latvian passport. No risk of ever losing him, though.] Youth cycles move friggin' fast. The 2023 U20 World Cup ended in June. Qualifying for the 2025 CONCACAF U20 Championships start in this region in March 2024. The US doesn't have to play in that event, but a nation like Canada does. Then the CONCACAF U20 Championships are later in the year. Maybe June-Julyish. We don't even have a coach yet, and we have a major event in 9 months or so. There's no greater "hindsight is 20/20" team than the U20 level. The U17 level is even harder. That's one coach's selection from a sliver of a player pool of unpolished guys that mostly have done nothing yet.
I would add one thing to my comments above. The start of the 2023 youth cycles in 2021 were a bit challenging. The cancellation of the 2021 youth cycles, as well as youth leagues/events around the world in 2020 due to COVID......................meant that scouting of these players was more of a challenge. So when we say players X, Y, and Z were left out of USYNTs in 2021 (start of 2023 cycle)......................I cut our youth staffs a little bit of slack. What were they actually able to see of Luca Koleosho in 2020-2021? Try to find information online about what Koleosho was doing in 2020-2021. He was in Espanyol U18/19 type teams. Were they even playing? Youth talent scouting is an inexact science. Even more so when you don't see as much of the players as you'd like.
Great player but his very injury-prone. Who's our next good winger? 17+ Fidel Barajas- USL and with Mexico U17 Cole Compbell- BvB U19 and with Iceland U17 Federico Oliva- Almería U19 at the age of 19 Fabián Luzzi - Third division of Spain There are more and could be good but no one has surprised me as of yet. Like Luca
Paredes and Cowell are the guys who the U20 coach liked the most as wingers. It will be interesting to see how they do vis-a-vis Luca. Fletcher and Ngoma (been out this year with injury) are probably the most talented wide attacking players on the next U20 team.
Varas wanted Luca in the U20 squad by the end of the cycle. Hard for us to know who wouldn't have been in the squad if Luca had chosen to play with us. [And Varas has told us that USSF/USMNT leadership was part of those discussions in order to relay their longer-term plan.] ..............but it was Luca that chose Italy U19s over US U20s. His choice. Varas' first U20 camp was in November of 2021. The CONCACAF U20 Championships were June of 2022. [A competition we won, by the way.] U20 cycles move fast. Then it seems that Varas tried to get Luca before the U20WC.
I don't believe Mexico holds an advantage as it did before. Most 1st gen Mexican-Americans are older now and the next wave of Mexican Americans are 2nd generation while still close to Mexican ties they grew up in a different environment where there is more MLS academies, MLS is also 30 years into it's inception so there is a bunch of little kids growing up with support an MLS and Mexican team and leaning towards the more successful team. So the influence they have now makes it a lot harder to choose who they want to play for.
I had been saying this for the longest time. Luca's mind was already made up before Varas and USSF even tried to call him up. Luca's plan was to go with Italy U19 for their U19 UEFA and then play with them in their U20 WC. After all of that, he would file a one-time switch to play for Canada. That's what many people who were close to him told me. Luca's mind has changed since all of that happened. Canada now does not have money for camps and doesn't have a coach. They are not going to get an upgraded coach as so many people think. Most likely they will get a CPL type of coach. From what we know it's between Italy and the USMNT. All we can do is give our support to him.
There are two issue Mexico need to fix. One issue that is hard to fix is that many Mexican fans don't like Araujo because he never played in Liga MX and doesn't speak good Spanish. When Mexico don't qualify for the U20 Olympics or WC. There were two Mexican Americans who got so much hate that they had to delete their pictures and disable their Instagram comments. It's easy to get them in the youth but getting them to the first team is hard say then done. The second issue is that right now they can rely on dual nats but in the next 10+ years more third-generation wave to come. They will not have the same or any connection the Mexico which will make it hard for FMF to call them up.
David Ruiz of Inter Miami's senior team has been contacted by the US and told his services are wanted. Didn't clarify senior or u-23, but it must be the former, and for the future, which I'll get into. He's said he's on the fence about who to choose - the US or Honduras. But he's already been capped by Honduras' senior side, and it was an official match (CNL). I think that means he can't switch until he's 21, and if he has 3 more appearances for them between now and then, he couldn't ever transfer, period. He's expected to be called up next CNL camp by Honduras. I think he'd have to stop accepting Honduras senior call-ups after that one at least, if he doesn't before. Then he'd have to wait 1.5-2 years to be called up by the US. And he won't be Olympic eligible, because by that date, the tourney will be over. So he made this complicated by getting capped. https://www.sporthiva.com/index.php...-el-interes-de-estados-unidos-por-convocarlo/
Historic. Da’vian Kimbrough makes his professional debut at 13 years, 7 months, 13 days with his hometown club. pic.twitter.com/SNjsxQPlA5— Sacramento Republic FC (@SacRepublicFC) October 2, 2023
I'm pretty sure the latest rules don't *require* you to wait until 21 to switch, just that the caps in question have to occur before a player's 21st birthday.
It's changing all the time. Hard to keep up w/, or remember. But this is good to know. So he should just decide to try and make the Olympic team, ultimately. However, he shouldn't switch for friendly camps for juniors nor seniors. Just don't accept anyone's call-up while he firms his case playing for Miami thru middle of next season.
I’d never want to question your take on the rules as I feel like you know them better then anyone, but I do believe they do require him to wait since it was an official match with the senior team with Honduras. Top of page 31 here https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/ccab990abf45fcf6/original/ro8mje8vw98yp3rvfbmi-pdf.pdf
I was wrong, but for a different reason. The age of 21 isn't important, but he has to wait 3 years after the appearance to make a change. So Ruiz has to wait 3 years before he could make a change, meaning it's not going to happen.
All we can do is keep letting dual-nats know we're interested. I mean, everyone is a dual-nat. They all are. You're picking dual-nats over dual-nats. Somebody mentioned Kevin Paredes above. Also a dual-nat. Also not yet permanently cap-tied to the US. On the wings we're starting Pulisic and Weah. Dual-nats. Reyna. Eligible for at least 3 nations. At forward our top four might be Balogun, Pepi, Vazquez, and Ferreira. All dual-nats. We can go around and around the squad like that. Tillman. Dual-nat. De la Torre. Dual-nat. Musah. Dual nat. Blah, blah, blah. We can't offer opportunities for everybody. That's the challenge. Its particularly challenging at the youth levels at which the players aren't finished products. They're bubbling up and down the ranks all the time. So you can't really promise anything other than an opportunity. That kid Ruiz, the Honduran-American described above..............is a 19 year old midfielder. He's not eligible for the U20s. So that must be with the Olympics and the U23s in mind. I guess. If he's eligible for the switch. I mean, he did get a straight red at the U20 World Cup for slapping a South Korean. Maybe the coaching staff decided we need more aggression in the team. But we've talked about our logjam of young midfielders for the USMNT, and trying to find opportunities for them. I don't know where Ruiz fits in, quite honestly.
I agree. At the same time, there are some dual nats that we need to win like Luca Koleosho, Tyler Meiser, Amir Richardson, and Manu Romero. There is more to this list On the other hand, there are some dual nats that will more likely never going to play for their other option. Rodrigo Neri, Grayson Dettoni, Montrell Culbreath, Maximo Carrizo, Noel Buck, and Benjamin Cremaschi. There are way more that will never play for their senior team so just don't panic over them. The USA has dual nats all over the place and should take advantage of this. Mexico wishes they could do this.