Links to the 2013 (1996 and 1997 birthyears) squad: 2013 CONCACAF U-17 Championship squads - Wikipedia and 2015 (1998 and 1999) 2015 CONCACAF U-17 Championship squads - Wikipedia The former included Shaq Moore and Rubin Rubio. Junior Flores (who for a while was considered the most talented player in that cohort) was also on the team. The 2015 team had Adams (the only 1999), Pulisic , Haji Wright and Luca de la Torre. No Weston McKennie. Miles Robinson (1997) and Reggie Cannon (1998) are a couple other notables from those birthyears not to have been selected.
My own view is we had a freakish miracle cohort from the 1982-83 birthyears (Donovan, Dempsey, Onyewu, Convey, Beasley) that made it seem we were much further along as a soccer country than we really were. What came afterward was a more accurate reflection of the state of affairs
Outside of 1999, we generally haven't had more than a couple U-17 players per roster who end up graduating to the full national team, though that appears to be changing now. Just for reference, here are all of the players on each U-17 World Cup roster going back to '93 who ended up appearing on a World Cup squad or earning at least 10 caps for the USMNT. 1993 - John O'Brien 1995 - Nick Rimando, Tim Howard 1997 - Danny Califf, Taylor Twellman 1999 - D. Beasley, L. Donovan, B. Convey, O. Onyewu, K. Beckerman 2001 - Santino Quaranta, Eddie Johnson, Chad Marshall 2003 - Jonathan Spector, Freddy Adu 2005 - Jozy Altidore, Omar Gonzalez [+Neven Subotic for Serbia] 2007 - Brek Shea, Greg Garza 2009 - Juan Agudelo 2011 - Kellyn Acosta, Paul Arriola 2013 - Shaq Moore [DNQ for U-17 WC] 2015 - Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams [maybe Luca de la Torre] 2017 - Sergino Dest, Josh Sargent, Tim Weah [probably Sands and Reynolds too] 2019 - None so far [but probably Reyna, Busio, Bello, Scally, and Pepi, at least]
The US has been toe-to-toe for 20 years. We missed out in 2018 but with more points than Mexico had in 2014. The USMNT has the best combined Hex record and also still has 2002. Mexico feels like the boss of the region but that's not what the actual scoreboard since 2001 is saying.
Amon was an exciting player not too long ago. What happened to him? Serna got a good number of opportunities in Colorado. When I look at this list I'm just reminded how many of them had trouble staying healthy and available. Could Pelosi have been a Lletget level player if he stayed healthy? Maybe, maybe not.
Of the guys you listed, I think Shea, Boss, and Agudelo are the could've beens. I'd also add in Renken and Gyau. I can't remember with specificity, but I kind of feel like we lost Davies, Holden, Renken and Gyau, boom, boom, boom, boom, all in like a 12-18 month stretch. I'll grant that some of them came back, but none of them came back the same. But yeah, that group you mention, honestly, very few of them were interesting prospects: Shea, Boss, Agudelo were, I could add Arguez, whose failure to reach really much of anything shocked me. You're probably right to some extent on this, but I also think there's something in the particular about it that's fundamentally different and maybe you're right, w/Bradenton closing up shop, and baby stepping farm systems so to speak....I don't know, I think it's basically a worst case scenario with a ton of things that always happen (injuries, mental make up issues, misidentification) and then fundamental errors on a broad scale to boot.
Like many things, it had many contributing factors. Some more important than others. The more interesting question for me is whether we are now at some sort of local maximum or still the upward sloping part of the curve in terms of talent generation. Pulisic, Reyna and Dest are special special players who will be hard to replace as they age out. It will be a few years before we know whether we are in fact generating the replacements.
Of those guys, Shea and Agudelo may fit the profile of guys who thought a professional soccer career was a given, and didn't put in the work necessary to become NT caliber.
Yeah, it's probably '79 - '85 or so, which would also bring in Tim Howard, Rimando, Boca and Cherundolo. But in those years you really see an explosion of talent that's not really comparable to any other time. Not just in the high end, but lots of depth as well. There were a lot of really good players just outside the NT (or had brief stints with the NT) that came from this era that became MLS all-timers or otherwise really good pros: Wondo, Zusi, Buddle, Brad Davis, Feilhaber, Geoff Cameron, Beckerman, Rimando, Kjlestan, EJ etc. By comparison, the next generation (90 - 95)'s best players have a ceiling around being an MLS great / bubble NT player: Lleget, Morris, Zardes, Yedlin, Nagbe. The players below them are MLS journeymen / washouts (Shea, Agudelo, Finley etc). But when you look at what the generation before accomplished with what they had, it's evident they were simply gifted athletes and exceptional men. Had they access to resources today or what other countries had, they could've been generational players.
He also just hasn't played first team soccer much at all yet. The last start for Arsenal was the first time he's done so. And it's not as if we've had our youth teams up and running to try and get him on board there. US Soccer I'm sure has already been in contact, but if he's starts playing regularly for Arsenal I'm sure they'll start putting on the full court press.
Nope.I think we can afford a few fringe guys going to Central America or the Caribbean but we're not in position to send top prospects to anybody.
When did the term “center forward” or #9 take on a meaning that excludes anyone who isn’t big and strong and plays with their back to the goal? If we were to list the greatest center forwards of all time, what percentage would have those qualities?
I agree, if I could choose I would want a guy with Eddie Johnson's body and Chicharito's nose for goal but there are many ways to get the job done.
For people wondering, those sources are excellent for finding out which players actually have experience playing in Latin America and the Caribbean for youth world cup qualifying cycles in the past (2019 U20 and U17 were both hosted in the United States, but the '13, '15 and '17 cycles all were hosted in a variety of places in the region including Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico and Jamaica if memory serves).
I need to do a better job with the U20's, but yep, the U17's generally produce 2-3, and when they produce more than that, it's a banner year which is why I've kind of moved away from overhyping U17's in exchange for U20's. I don't have time to look at the various U20's over the years but I definitely think that we've been producing at a better clip in terms of depth talent and cream since 2015 (w/the '09-'13 era being the bottoming out of the U20 program, admittedly 2015 wasn't fantastic either, but at least it had a couple of guys (Miazga, Arriola, Steffen, Acosta off the top of my head)).
He was definitely an exciting prospect early on. The loss of Taitague from what was potentially a scintillating winger prospect circa 2014-2017, to an injury riddled early retirement was just a colossal loss for us and for him. I will wonder about him the same way I did with guys like Renken, Gyau, O'Brien, Holden, and Davies. It may be a bit overhyping but many, healthy Taitague was insanely dynamic in the clips I've seen and scrimmages I watched from '17. Just an insanely talented kid. Totally bummed me out to see that he was forced into retirement, and I loved to see the scene of him celebrating with the team (in the stands) in photos from the Nations League Final. That was awesome. Glad they made a point of connecting with him.
Of course much depends on the tactics a team chooses to play. But I think its pretty common these days that a #9 refers to a bigger player who plays with his back to goal a lot. Guys clamor to have a forward like Dike as his physical presence demands attention from the center backs. Here those kinds of comments on here all the time. Certainly not the only way to play. Perhaps we should clarify more specifically but when we are talking about a guy like Weah be a center forward or a striker or a 9 we aren't talking about the same tactical approach as with a Dike or Pefok.