Losing the Gitau brothers would be a huge blow. That academy needs some real success stories to build momentum and give top prospects reasons to go Orange or remain orange. So ... what could an "unconventional option" be?
After yet another bad regular season, no Open Cup run and obviously on playoffs run, it was Dynamo 2 and the very tangible proof that new, better days are on the horizion. So losing both Gitau brothers as they shun their path to pro contracts via their own local pro team just reeks!
I saw someone respond to that, and take this with a grain of salt, that because of their family’s Kenyan heritage they could join a club in the UK. Again I have no idea if there’s any accuracy to that but that’s the closest thing I’ve seen to an idea so far.
Thanks. I didn't know that. Not sure I would consider joining a UK academy unconventional but that is not your doing.
i took unconventional to be either sign USL short term until he turns 18 -- diego luna -- or maybe go play in a UK academy, if he has commonwealth or UK citizen hookups. they are kenyan. kenya is commonwealth. commonwealth has their own way into the UK. in theory it could also be something like go play texans, but their pro pipeline has about dried up -- is there any dominant club in town anymore that produces pros post-baker? -- and i am not sure, regardless what he thinks of us, if that leads to a superior signing outcome than just gritting teeth until he goes pro. or maybe if MLS gets rid of regional dibs, as is rumored, he goes to some other academy. but that doesn't sound unconventional. there isn't a barca academy out in AZ anymore. is there anything else like that left?
the subtle detail people kept missing is he never played HD2. i thought it was a dumb risk to showcase him, have him play well, and he's not under contract. that slalom run goal becomes your tape anywhere you want to go.
Gitau was easily in Bundy's plans. Nagamura did indeed take the teenager to preseason camp and he did perform well, that goal we all saw from him. My main point was that our first attempt at a revamped MLS Reserve squad showed well and our teens like Soto and Gitau were off on Youth National Team duty all Summer. Gitau being the youngest player at the MLS Next youth ASG. Our FO just did not sign the kid and stack this on top of getting Euro club interest, well him n his brother and mom n dad are weighing their options. No hate on that front. Good on dem boys. Just want to see them in Wildcatter Orange once again.
somebody's tweet, grain of salt, said the gitau financial offer wasn't "fair." this implies a number was given and was too low. i got shot down earlier this season -- as with the politicized stuff on HH -- by people taking an organization position on this, saying they went to the parents and got turned down. those people acted like they talked to pat about it. i suggested they missed the obvious followups, such as did we make an offer and what was it. with the cat now out of the bag, perhaps ask that question. you got turned down, you say, but why. losing a US U17 who exploded onto the scene in the preseason -- if that's what happens -- deserves an inquest. all due respect to pat on this, but in this type situation, it's not done til he's absolutely gone. nothing is officially announced. he's not signed in the UK someplace. or USL for next year. go apologize and make a better offer. we seem to have a sh*t track record making these kind of "last and final" offers, including the kid they were trying to get from brazil on deadline day (whether i think that was wise or not). my broader point is sometimes you pay the going rate upfront -- take a performance risk and lock them down never having kicked a dynamo ball -- and sometimes you make someone trial. i think it was unwise to trial a prized U17. as with raines, you lock them down and then sort out precisely what you have -- which you should have a pretty good idea of from internal as well as US U17 status. you take that risk. they put him out there without a deal -- which you usually do to players in a position of roster weakness -- and he looked good. he bid up his price. we apparently didn't keep up with that reality. reality doesn't revert to you hoped to lowball him onto the second team while he worked on his game. personally i think we're so cheap and pro veteran what likely happened is we expected something akin to what happened with castilla. solid but unspectacular performance, modest salary demand, signed and delivered, socked away at HD2 even if the first team could use them, spend the money on 30 year olds who can finish next to last again. personally re the USMNT my long term argument has been that we should favor the next young beasley donovan pulisic with career ahead of them over playing reyna his last awful world cup hoping for magic. bet on upside instead of hope against erosion and downside. in terms of the dynamo, they continue to bet heavily on 30+ HH-types even though recent history should suggest if we have any upside it's "elis," "manotas," "sebas," players age 20-23 on their way up. i think it reflects a short cut desire to just slap together a playoff team to shut the fans up, instead of a longer term project built around players with years of career ahead of them. who would also have more transfer value if we were so inclined. and i don't think the fans care if they are old or young if they win, but i think the narrative of old farts getting their butts whooped speaks for itself.
talk is cheap. get some people across the bridge if you want more to start walking across it with you. talking up how good HD2 supposedly was, and the U17s may be, is patting your own back if you don't start actually getting those players pushed upwards. press releases about U17 appearances and HD2 playoffs are just ego boosting if you don't do anything with it. dallas, philly, they play, they get sold places. players want something of their own career and they aren't going to play along with some organizational ego trip about how the academy is getting fixed followed by a low ball offer or relegation to the reserve squad.
I bet if they were in the FC Dallas program they would not go the "unconventional" route. Dynamo have really generated nothing in 15 years of the academy. Brutal
to elaborate on my point re "back patting." a press release about a U17 selection, though briefly ego boosting to the player, could also be understood as the team taking credit for them, which they might or might not appreciate. if they have any ego they will want not just the association and credit to the team, but the beginning of individual integration. sign me, pay me well, get me into the first team, use me, start me. they may even see their U17 or U20 accolade as suggesting they are ready to be integrated. if, god forbid, you take this kid/family who already think highly of their future, and put them on a preseason MLS field without a deal, and they show something, there is no going back, and you have proved to them that they are as good as they think they are. you then either pay up and make the "we will get you on the field" sales pitch, or you lose them. our pattern of late is we routinely lose them at this point while we fill the roster with 30 year olds who can't get us playoffs today and have little tread left to do it tomorrow either. this was why i expressed concern with people patting the team on the back like the academy was fixed for having kids on U17. it's not that this has never happened before. it's not that we had no talent in the academy. it's getting pina, servania, valdez, raines, palomino, cappis, etc. over the bridge and into the team. the press release is about ego. getting them on the field at the end, is about actual success. i knew some club kids my age who were 4 year subs in college but went to the name brand school they wanted, so they can say they played for x. but i doubt most U17 or U20 YNT kids are going to be that mentality. they aren't going to be content to sign for "houston" and put their careers in our hands. particularly after recent years. they are going to want to see better results. and they are going to expect a competitive contract and sense of their role within the team. and my guess is we made no promises -- because we grow kids like mushrooms in the dark -- and we offered a modest salary. you will lose the ones after prestige and money to europe. you will lose the ones after playing time and an immediate role to USL. you will lose the ones after a proven academy pipeline to FCD or philly. and i keep saying this over and over but a poor team trying to build itself up needs a personnel specialty. good at academy. good at the draft. good at veteran transfers. something. and you can't fake it. HH is faking being a veteran team. the academy is faking being a youth movement, as they don't play here. kind of like i keep saying pick offense or defense and get good at it. if nothing else, we do x and y well. you do that, and there are quite a few nashvilles and dallases and minnesotas and salt lakes who just kind of plod along at a rate but do their set of things well almost every year. and that will get you playoffs most of the time. if you mouth the words but don't actually do the deed, talk is cheap. pat talks like playmaking and young players matter, but what does he actually do. exactly. neither looks like a priority. just curious what the priorities actually are.
Interesting thread about the Dynamo academy, will share a few of the tweets below. US-based MLS Academy Rankings.13. Houston Dynamo: https://t.co/pak7mjkyUO— USMNTProspects (@ProspectsUsmnt) December 11, 2022 Top Prospect: Luis Moreno ('06). A magician of a midfielder. He sees the game multiple steps ahead of everyone else. There are a lot of questions in his skillset and I think he's very boom/bust, but his soccer IQ and current level of play are elite and he's also a good passer.— USMNTProspects (@ProspectsUsmnt) December 11, 2022 Top 10 Pros1. Luis Moreno (‘06)-CM2. Brooklyn Raines (‘05)-CM3. Brian Alanis (‘06)-LB4. Juan Castilla (‘04)-DM5. Omar Bolanos (‘08)-DM6. Nolan Anderson (‘06)-GK7. Gianmarco Alvarez (‘08)-GK8. Agustin Zuniga (‘08)-LW9. Sebastian Rodriguez (‘07)-DM10. Jose Nunez (‘07)-RB— USMNTProspects (@ProspectsUsmnt) December 11, 2022 A couple of thoughts of mine on this. I’m not sure if being ranked 13th (in the tweet writer’s opinion but still) says more about the Dynamo or the state of MLS academies as a whole. Also interesting that the two biggest names fans are probably aware of regarding the academy are 2nd and 4th in his rankings. Hopefully we hear more good things about Moreno and Alanis soon.
Paul Holocher appears to be out Per Source, Paul Holocher is out as Houston Dynamo Academy Director.Holocher was appointed in 2018, after previously being with the San Jose Earthquakes. #HolditDown ⚫️🟠 pic.twitter.com/4WbXxBViIW— Somos713 (@Somos713) December 21, 2022 1605647558466015232 is not a valid tweet id This is bigger news than you think and a lot of bad stuff for American soccer has been going down recently for Houston.Let me explain why. 👇 https://t.co/cxMEcKYG4H— USMNTProspects (@ProspectsUsmnt) December 21, 2022 1605607474236514309 is not a valid tweet id
How credible is USMNT prospects guy? He’s scathing of Onstad and Dynamo treatment of academy players in general.
I’m gonna be honest I have no idea how trustworthy he is. No name and no publications. That being said I don’t know if there’s a counter argument to the idea that the Dynamo are treating prospects poorly other than saying the prospects aren’t actually good. at which point you’re then just arguing the author’s credibility so who knows
i would generally criticize the whole HD organization as seeming to be stuck on "positional" soccer in a 433 which strikes me as a contradiction in terms. if you're gonna play 433 stuck in channels then why not just play hoofball 433 like 1990s england teams and skip all the buildup risk and transition turnovers. as it stands all we do is whack in hopeful crosses like an old school english team anyway. just after the idiocy of trying to force a 20 pass buildup. which is like a scrimmage drilll where you have to start from the back and play within restraints on purpose. good for teaching. lousy for game soccer. if you insist on crossing but can't find your 9 play a 442 for 2 targets. part of the reason we can't find sebas is him personally -- as it was with cubo -- but part is the single striker concept itself. there is no garbageman. all or nothing. we haven't had weak side cleanup since elis and manotas left when memo would get some goals just standing back door. personally i think the US is confused about the 433 and how to properly use it. if you're not going english then play positionless. we keep talking false 9s but not committing to broader sliding around. that to me is the benefit of the setup and allows you to keep moving downfield in possession soccer, is forget positions and just keep running and showing ball. and while you're at it sign technicians. tells me what i need to know we and the USMNT play 433 then load the midfield with hustle players to defend. hustle players cannot string passes. how do you expect to create and possess in a 433 pretending vera or coco is somehow pep or some such passing 6. kind of like i wouldn't be depending on mckennie to string passes either. he is an athlete who crashes the box. not some barca technical clone. what i saw at the world cup soccer has cycled back around to the 352 (and probably by extension 442). if teams want to try to possess in positions, sit back compact, let them come to you, f*ck up, counter down the open wings. pat is in the neighborhood seemingly sniffing around fast wings but they aren't technical enough to properly feed a single striker. get sebas a running buddy and shift over to counter soccer a la elis where it's less of an issue if they can hit a cross and instead you get chances on breaks where they just have to roll a ball across the field. the dynamo weren't bad when thor could feed it across to sebas on the ground. what was brutal was 20 aimless dorsey crosses looking for sebas with a magnifying glass. no one on this team is brad davis or brian ching. this should not be a crossing team.
y'all are biting on the bait of the personality driven thing here. my deal is step back and tell me is the academy working, regardless of the name at the top. i would want to know why everyone good keeps leaving before they get to the end of HS. i would want to know why we seem more competitive at U15 or so -- start of HS -- and not the age groups as they progress to the end of that phase. along those lines why do we seem to have U17 YNT in occasional pulses but even when those pulses come through they fizzle before either our first team or U20 YNT. i get some failure but routine failure makes no sense. it should be a rate. 3 guys on U17 maybe 1 or 2 should pan out. none is just odd. kind of like i don't think bringing "tab ramos" into it helps when we were already sitting last in conference. the numbers already tell the story. "but he has a reputation" only seems to confuse the issue when it should be clear. all this being said i would meanwhile want to know what it is where people seem to want to flee here right after U16, or go to college instead, even when they have U17 YNT creds where they these days would normally be signed age 18 to a senior team and either come off the bench or dominate the B team. those payers are either heading to dallas or going to college and not turning out. but i raise the broader questions because as with the first team head coach situation, if you don't fix the broader issues swapping the man at the tiller doesn't change much. we kicked clarkson upstairs and little apparently changed. so firing holocher isn't enough. to me it sounds like we lowball the kids and systematically prefer playing 30 year olds even more so than kinnear would. but it also feels like we have a lot of pina type players who just completely blow up after U17 recognition. skip dynamo pro ball for college. disappear. that i don't know why. do we tout or coddle them too much where they believe their clippings. do they give up. do we yell too much. is our indifference to youth players demoralizing. is the quality of coaching poor and just periodically we get good players by accident, who we then can't further develop unless they leave for dallas. are we cheap. it's different answers depending on specific whys.
Dynamo Academy product Lionel Gitau called up to the U15s. Lionel is no longer listed as a Dynamo Academy player. #HoldItDown https://t.co/M9nGA9hp3e— Foxtrot (@DynamicFoxtrot) January 4, 2023
https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...rep-with-first-camp-of-2023-in-south-florida? "Andre Gitau (Unattached; Richmond, Texas)" pooch officially boinked by the HD brass
so they called the 19s 17s 16s 15s and we have ONE guy total. to be fair soto is a U17 regular on the eve of their world champs -- close to a lock -- who is only 15 and playing up. but ONE dude. how does ezekiel soto show up as dynamo academy with a california hometown?
(1) why us and not the socal teams. (2) i am curious how they practically picked us. (3) i am curious how it practically works. when i was playing select here in the older age groups, the texans had some kids driving from el paso or flying in for U19. el paso is a day drive each way to play in games in greater houston. further away means $500/flight adds up when you have to fly every game. so how many games do they go to? and they can't practice. i always thought the kids who drove cross town to practice with my team had chutzpah. cross-state? cross-country? (4) it's also different than having a player from beaumont or katy on your kingwood team because they might occasionally save a trip when their hometown team hosts. that would almost never happen in a regionalized youth development league. every game is a road game. even if we play at HSP. you can clown on me but these questions are fairly obvious. and to be real the primary thing i was asking for was a basic factual answer. "used to live here." etc. why does one join a crap academy from california.