Young players in MLS are sending out the message: "Our time may be sooner than you think." This year I've taken upon myself the challenge of naming the best 11 American players in Major League Soccer each and every week. I realized pretty quickly that I may have bitten off a bit more than I could chew, and I enlisted some help in my effort. This task has led me to watch almost every game this season, and two months in, a theme has jumped out at me, and I think a lot of those helping me: The young guys are good. It is not just that they are holding their own on their respective teams. That wouldn't be so noteworthy. What has caught my attention is that in many cases, these young guys are among the best players on their team right now. And even more remarkably, some of these young guys are performing as well or better than their counterparts in the league who have played with the US National Team. Here is a list, by positions, of some young players (less than 25 years old) who through two months into the season have made me think they might get consideration for the US team quicker than we would have believed in March: Goalkeeper: Obviously the toughest position to break into and make an impact as a young player, but Troy Perkins of DC United looks like he may have dethroned Nick Rimando and Doug Warren. Those two have seen time with the senior and olympic US teams, respectively. Perkins looked very solid last night, although I am not entirely sure the goalpost didn't have something to do with that PK "save." Outside Defender: One name that is getting next to no press this year is Matt Crawford of Colorado. With Albright having a break-out season at right back on the league's best team, nobody has seemed to notice the other young right back who defends well, pushes forward, gets off good crosses, and never stops running. Keep an eye out for him. On the left side, Marshall Leonard has looked solid for New England when he's been able to keep his feet. Also, Phil Salyer of Dallas looked good at the beginning of the year, but has slumped a little with the rest of his team. Central Defender: Not since Bocanegra and Garcia stormed the league in the same season have we seen such a great crop of rookie central defenders. Three names stand out right now: Chad Marshall, Jeff Parke, and Ryan Cochrane have each made their teams better every time they've stepped onto the field. Don't forget about last year's revelation, Nat Borchers, who is a lock each week in Colorado. Wide Midfielder: One kid in particular has blown me away this year, and that is 17 year old Eddie Gaven. Today against KC Gaven was a force, turning in what I think was his best performance this year - and he's been great almost every game. I have not seen a better wide player in MLS this year, American or otherwise. Not DaMarcus Beasley, not Bobby Convey, not anybody. Justin Mapp has shown occasional glimpses, but lacks consistency and a killer instinct. Those guys have been good, but Gaven has been great. At this point, a callup to the US team is not a question of "if," but "when." Holding/Defensive Midfielder: Last year we were raving about Ricardo Clark. This year three more young players have stood out. Clint Dempsey, Kyle Beckerman, and Ned Grabavoy have all been very good. Dempsey and Beckerman have gotten more time and been bigger impacts. Both of them may be the best players on their respective teams right now. In fact, they might be the best two players in the league at their position right now. Attacking Midfielder: Landon Donovan is the best player in MLS. He might be the best player in the history of MLS. I can't really say more than that. When Bobby Convey has been given the opportunity to play in the middle, he's been very good as well. Forward: By combining his awesome talent and athletic ability with some brains, finishing touch, and hard work, Eddie Johnson might be the one forward who strikes more fear in defenders than any other forward in MLS right now. Freddy Adu shows a flash of his jaw-dropping talent, and then reminds us that he's 14 on the very next play. Given time and experience, there is no doubt he'll be a force.
Fully concur on Eddie Gaven. I'm a Wizards fan, and every time he touched the ball tonight, I was absolutely terrified. Obviously nobody does something great every time, but with this kid, it seems like he's going to. He'll be 19 in 2006, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him in Germany, especially if Reyna's and O'Brien's injury woes continue.
Eddie Gaven was very good today against KC, but even more impressive I thought was not just how good he was, but some of the hints he dropped at how good he has the chance to become. The kid sees passes only 0.1% of the rest of the league sees, and he's 17. Case in point: At about 60:30 mark (so you can check the video on MLSnet if you like) Amado Guevara has possession in his own half. He hits a pass to Gaven who is about 10 yards off the left touchline. The pass is a little short so Eddie races forward to try and beat two defenders to the ball. He looks up and stares a hole into Mark Lisi in the center as he runs. He gets to the ball first, and he immediately backflicks toward the touchline where Guevara gathers it in dead stride and races up the field. Guevara races up to the top of KC's penalty box where the defense stand him up. Guevara passes square to Gaven who then one touches a brilliant through ball back to Guevara whose in the box and behind the defense. Now Guevara got a bit indecisive and squandered the chance (took three or four touches when he should have shot with his first or at least second), but had Guevara finished it, he could credit two absurdly beautiful passes from a 17 year old kid. Think about that for a second. If some huge Euro club was watching today and was impressed, they would not be allowed to purchase Eddie until the end of October. A horribly difficult decision for the Bruce. It obviously is real early for Eddie to get a callup, but he's not making it any easier. Our next U20's team midfield looks absolutely packed to the gills (Gaven, Szetela, Alvarez and Jay Denny).
Not to mention the flick-on header that Gaven elevated for that led directly to the Metros' goal. Meola was totally beaten on that shot - Gaven was unlucky to hit the crossbar and Woly was in the right place at the right time to clean up. Gaven made that header look a lot simpler than it was. He rotated about 180 degrees in the air to direct that ball. Very nice.
another thing to note about Eddie. He has Irish Parentage and might even have an Irish Passport. Ireland has come calling already. He's also right footed. Also, Convey and Donovan provide two completly diffrent options in the middle. Convey is much better at providing first-time, long balls. He doesn't even hesistate. He can spot those runners vefore they start running. Landon us better at everything else though
Only criticism I have is that I wouldn't exactly hail the performance of Marshall Leanord, he's been adequate at the LB position and I suppose just doing that is nice enough. Although some people on the Revs boards are calling for him to permanently replace Franchino, which probably will happen eventually I personally don't think he's been all that spectacular and I thought that before his mistake caused the goal this week. He seems to do a good job of muscling people off the ball and containing them but his game at this point seems pretty limited. Some would argue that being an adequate replacement for Joe Franchino isn't saying much. However, my oppinion of him may be a little tainted by the fact the Revs SUCK right now. If they're scoring goals and he's helping the defense preserve wins then hey he's our next great LB.... Completely agree on Dempsey. I would think right now he's unquestionably the best player on the feild for the Revs. Outside of maybe Joseph and Matt Reis is there any guy on the Revs you can look at and say, 'Hey they're really playing well right now.' This kid has an absolutely astonishing set of tools. I really like how comfortable he looks with the ball at his feet. So many times I see him do little things in terms of his body positioning to sheild the ball, or to make a deft pass. He has a very compact yet very fluid game and it's impressive to watch. Voros: I took you advice and looked for that clip on MLSnet.com. You were absolutely right about it and did a bang up job describing it. That kid is something else. That sequence of events showed vision, flair and skill that I'm not sure many players in MLS posses.
I don't think he has a passport, but I'm not sure. He's right footed huh? I've never noticed, both of his feet work fine. He's leading the league in assists right now in case you guys didn't know.
nice work again, nutmeg. this is one of the beauties of mls - watching the absolutely unpredictable gems reveal themselves. bruce arena must be smiling to himself.
I thought that if you once knew someone that was Irish, they'd get you a passport and dress you, if you could play. Maybe I'm wrong.
I'm skeptical on his right footed-ness. Maybe I'll send him an e-mail (he does a weekly column on the metros site and asks for replies) and ask. He had an opportunity to night to tee one up for himself and he took it with his left (shot was on frame, but got deflected and then hit the crossbar). Now maybe the play was a bit easier with his left, but there's a whole bunch of right footed players who would have set themselves up for the right on that shot. From what I've seen of Eddie he looks left footed but is very good with his right as well (about the same as Donovan although maybe not quite as good with his right). He doesn't play as a winger for the Metros, he pinches way inside and Leitch provides most of the width on the left side. I think his long term future is in the center of the field as he seems more comfortable there and it fits his skill set too. Should play there for the U20s. If Gaven does have an Irish passport, there's a whole bunch of European clubs who are asleep at the wheel. I don't think he does but you never know. I've never set foot in Ireland in my life nor have I ever spoke with a relative who has, but I'm only one generation away (Great Grandfather was old-country) from being eligible for one.
Landon is right footed.I have seen this several times but I can tell you for an absolute fact that Landon is right footed.
Spector for Germany Cooper for England Szetela for Poland Gaven for Ireland Adu for Ghana Anyone else want to add to the list of players we will have to debate and read 10 million threads about before they get capped? This should be a constant sub category to Yanks abroad - "Yanks We Can Lose Abroad" If we lose one we can start - "Backstabbing Traitors Abroad" Unfortunately, it does seem inevitable that sooner or later we will lose somebody. Too much good young talent with more and more countries watching. No matter how snobbish Euro fans (and US Eurosnob fans) might still act to the US player, the management, coaches and organizations abroad are starting to act differently. The future will be interesting. Gavens the "man"...at 17. Excellent player. Germany 2006 anyone? Bruce...cap him in right mid in any friendly before the 2nd knockout stage, and see what he can do. He will be able to help sooner rather than later.
The only way Eddie could be eligible to play for Ireland is if he either has, or would be able easily obtain an Irish Passport sorry for unintentionally hi-jacking the thread 'Meg.
but let's talk about the kids playing central midfielder. our 3rd weakest area behind on senior side behind forwards and right-sided midfielders because of our lack of depth and lack of skill in players behind O'Brien and Reyna. Mastro, Armas, Mulroony, Zavagnin...all are good players but none of the provide what you need from your central midfielder both offensivly and defensivly. Beckerman, however, is a converted attacking midfielder. He looks good in MLS matches...but I wonder how he looks against international compition. 'meg how did he look in Mexico with the U23s?
But seriously, how many players would we have to "lose" before we're even internationally - in regards to all the players from other countries that we've made American for the sake of soccer? I'm thinking of Regis, Dooley, and Stewart in particular. I'm not thinking of Freddy, because in my view, he became a U.S. citizen apart from soccer, beginning with the immigration lottery his mother won, which has nothing to do with us needing a player on our team and scouting abroad for American blood ties.
Have we really "lost" anyone. Ricketts of course was not a loss because he never could play for the USA. Rachubka played in a youth tournament for England, but with the new FIFA regs wouldn't he be able to play for the USA? Even if we did miss out on Rachubka, I don't think anyone is going to freak out about it now as he'd not be in the top 8 keepers for the USA. The first person I thought we'd lose would have been Dema Kovalenko, but he hasn't progressed as many hoped. I don't see anyone born and/or bred in the USA that we want for the national team playing for another country any time soon. If the player has lived most of his life in another country or isn't good enough for our team, I don't consider that a lost player.
The key here is young up and comers, not guys who couldn't play for the country of their origin because of injuries, or they just were not good enough. Dooley - fringes of German team until major knee injury ended all hope - even asked the German Fed if there was any chance at all to play for Germany before signing up to the US cause at 27-28 years of age Regis - Never close to playing for France (his other choice I believe was Martinque over the US - enough said) Chose the US again after no hope of playing for France and he was 27-28 if I am not mistaken Stewart - Called for Dutch juniors, but was obviously not good enough to play for the Oranje before casting his lot here where he knoew he would play for the Nats and in one cup at least. Was not going to happen in Holland. He was younger, I believe 24. We are talking about 14 through 18 year olds here for the most parts. Guys who have an excellent upside. Possible WClass talent, and others are recognizing it. Willing to try to hijack these guys to see if they pan out. Much different than taking guys who don't have a shot with their primary countries. Big difference. Taaking possible WClass guys, over 2nd, 3rd, 4th tier guys. Again, BIG DIFFERENCE.
Absolutely. Agree 100%. My thought simply was that if we lose one of the teenager and below guys with great potential to someone else, after living here there whole lives, THAT WOULD HURT. I think this will happen, but probably in between the years of 2010-2020. If MLS and our Nats programs are at least doing what they are, and growing slowly. Imagine if one of young kids now played somewhere else. Very little pressure in our media to bust their chops while tons in other countries to try and woo them. Just a thought...that's all.
I don't believe that Arena will be around long enough to see the next generation of American soccer players.
Everyone keeps focusing on Europe, but I believe there are some American born and/or raised latinos that now play in the domestic leagues south of the border. Given the way that latinos have historically been treated by the ODP, I would think it's only a matter of time before a Daniel Hernandez-type actually suits up for one of our confederation rivals.
You are right. That is US Soccer's problem. It's their responsibility to get these groups more involved. Too many are outside of the traditional youth realm and we need to find a way to get to more of them. I know this is a discussion that has been had in the US Fed, but what they are actually doing about it...who knows? I would love to know how our 2 young guys are doing in Brazil. I know the one kid who plays for FC Paranase? (I know I butchered it). I already forgot the other kids name. Sucks. There just isn't the same exposure. It is always so much easier to stick with what you know or what is most comfortable. As far as the youth Lationo issue, I think that's true for both sides.