The USL released the PDL First and Second team’s today and 8 players who will be playing college ball this summer made the first team and 4 who will be playing this fall made the second team. That’s more than I thought would make given how sparsely college players were represented throughout the season on the PDL’s Team of the Week. PDL First Team All-League G-Matt Pickens, Chicago FR (SW Missouri State) D-Denny Clanton, Chicago FR (Dayton) D-John Swann, Mid Michigan (Indiana) D-Jake Ward, Southern California (Azusa Pacific) M-Jason Acres, Chicago ES M-Tomas Boltnar, Des Moines M-Anders Kelto, West Michigan M-Mike Mariscalco, Kalamazoo (Butler) F-Carlos Garcia, Williamsburg (William & Mary) F-Hamid Mehreioskouei, Chicago FR (Bradley) F-Mike Tranchilla, Memphis (Creighton) Here are links to the bios of the current college players. Pickens – no link available Clanton – http://www.daytonflyers.com/story/team_member_bio_denny_clanton_1498.html Swann - http://www.indiana.edu/~athlweb/graphic/sports/m-soccer/players/swann.html Ward – http://www.apu.edu/athletics/soccer/mens/bios.shtml#anchorward Mariscalco – http://www.butlersports.com/soccer/men/roster/mariscalco_michael.htm Garcia – no link available Mehreioskouei – http://www.bubraves.com/soccer/archive/2001-2002/roster/hmehreioskouei.html Tranchilla - http://www.fansonly.com/schools/crei/sports/m-soccer/mtt/tranchilla_mike00.html Acres played at Judson College back in the early 90s, Boltnar played at California of Pennsylvania and was a senior last year and Kelto played 3 years at Brown before spending his final season at Michigan St. last fall. PDL Second Team All-League G-Chris Sawyer, Indiana (Notre Dame) D-Joard Odera, Texas D-Jerry Rybak, Indiana (Alliant International) D-David Wagenfuhr, Boulder (Creighton) M-Jeremy Bleyenberg, Kansas City M-Vitor Moreira, Bradenton M-Tom Poltl, Orange County M-Bo Simic, Vermont F-Ron Badanai, Thunder Bay F-Jason Thompson, Boulder (Eastern Illinois) Here are links to the bios of the current college players. Sawyer – http://www.fansonly.com/schools/nd/sports/m-soccer/mtt/sawyer_chris00.html Rybak – no link available Wagenfuhr – http://gocreighton.ocsn.com/sports/m-soccer/mtt/wagenfuhr_david00.html Thompson – no link available Odera played at Midwestern State in the late 90s; Bleyenberg played at Lindenwood and was a senior in 2000; Poltl played at UCLA and was a senior in 1999; Simic played at Jacksonville in the late 90s; Fray played at St. Gregory’s and was a senior in 1999. I couldn’t find any college info on either Moreira or Badanai. There is a good amount of talent on these teams. Tranchilla and Thompson have been called into the U23 camp and Pickens, Clanton, Ward, Mehreioskouei, Sawyer (who was the GK on SA’s All Freshman team last year) and Wagenfuhr are all age-eligible and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if any of them get a look from Mooch. (Rybak may also be age-eligible but his school didn’t have a bio. Still, he’s a player to watch as he is a two-time NAIA All-American.) Further, all of the aforementioned players are legit pro prospects and several of them will make MLS rosters next spring or the year after. Mariscalco, the only repeat member of the first team, will also get a long look from MLS, though he’s too old for the U23 team. Also too old is Swann, an unsung player at IU who helped the Hoosiers lead the country in defense last year. It’s funny, at the time, I found it odd that no IU back made any All-American teams so I’m glad to see one of their defenders finally get some love. Garcia, who is from Colombia, is a good little player though I don’t know how his citizenship issues will impact his pro career here. BTW, Boulder is in the final so it’s no surprise that they have 3 players on the first or second teams. But, fellow finalist Cape Cod got shutout, which I imagine will provide plenty of motivation for them come Saturday. The individual awards will be announced Wednesday.
Sandon... Thanks. I also find it interesting that 6 of the 11 1st team players are from Great Lakes Division teams. (Chicago FR, Mid-Michigan, Kalamazoo, West Michigan, Dayton). Like I've said before, toughest division in the league. I share your opinion about Swann's lack of recognition at IU: midfielders and forwards have been a staple of recognition for them over the years, and defenders (except for Garcia) have languished in the polls. Neither Tranchilla nor Mariscalco played complete PDL seasons, although both were in the top 5 in points per game. Clanton is an exceptionally good center back that can play both in a 4 back or 3 back system. Myernick should look at some or all of these guys, although I suspect that their collegiate backround runs counter to the professional spin that USSF wants with the U23 team. Swann is definitely too old as he is a redshirt senior this season. Based on his bio, I would have guessed that Mariscalco's birthday would have put him just inside the edge of the requirement.
PDL All-Stars vs. U23 Nats If a combination of the 1st and 2nd All-PDL teams played vs. the USA U23 National Team, who wins? Hatch
Re: PDL All-Stars vs. U23 Nats If your talking about the full U23 MNT with Donovan, Beasley, et al, I doubt there'd be much question.
Being from the Great Lakes region, I've seen most of the 1st team players and several from the 2nd team. It's like anything else, if you put both teams together and they could train and play for some period of time, they'd be very good (fitness is always a PDL issue since many teams don't train everyday and substitutions are more liberal than FIFA rules). As to your earlier question, however, if you throw them into a match with the full U23's, the 23's would very likely prevail, if for no other reason, pace of the game. It would be an interesting game to watch, however.
If the PDL team played the U23 team with all the pros, then I think the likes of Donovan, Beasley, Onyewu, Quaranta, Countess, Whitbred and Stone would win without too much difficulty. I'm not saying it would be a cake-walk, but it wouldn't be an epic struggle. However, if the PDL players played the U23 players that are still in college, then you'd have a helluva game. For the record, there are 20 current college players that Mooch Myernick has looked at for the U23 team - Guy Abrahamson, Rutgers (Sr.) Kenny Arena, Virginia (Sr.) Brian Carroll, Wake Forest (Jr.) Ned Grabavoy, Indiana (So.) Alecko Eskandarian, Virginia (Jr.) Adolfo Gregorio, UCLA (Jr.) Nate Jaqua, Portland (Jr.) Ricky Lewis, Clemson (Jr.) Logan Pause, North Carolina (Jr.) Trevor Perrea, Duke (Sr.) Paul Souders, Clemson (Jr.) Curtis Spiteri, Portland (Sr.) David Stokes, North Carolina (Jr.) David Testo, North Carolina (Sr.) Jason Thompson, Eastern Illinois (Jr.) Scot Thompson, UCLA (Sr.) Mike Tranchilla, Creighton (Sr.) Doug Warren, Clemson (Sr.) Jason White, Princeton (Sr.) Chirs Wingert, St. John’s (Jr.) Take out Tranchilla and J. Thompson from the U23 pool because they made the All-PDL teams. However, you can add many of the college players in Thomas Rongen's U20 pool who are part of the U23 pool but haven't been looked at by Mooch yet. This includes Steve Cronin and Ryan Cochrane (both Santa Clara), Ricardo Clark and Chefik Simo (both Furman), Knox Cameron (Michigan), Chad Marshall (Stanford) and C.J. Klaas (Washington). On depth and talent, the edge would likely go to the 23s. However, experience, tougness and hunger would be in the PDL's favor and they have several skilled players like Mariscalco who haven't gotten a whiff of a youth national team but have a lot of talent and skill. I think it would be a very good game. I still think the 23s would win, but it would be close and quite entertaining. Perhaps Marcos should arrange a challenge for next year with the All-PLD team playing a game against the U23 team.
FYI, Dayton's Denny Clanton, who played for the Chicago Fire Reserves this summer, was named PDL Defender of the Year yesterday. http://pdlsoccer.com/PDL_Awards_2002_II.htm That's a sweep for the defensive awards for the CFR as Matt Pickens, who plays college ball at SW Missouri State, was named PDL Goalkeeper of the Year.
All-PDL vs. U23 MNT I like Sandon's idea of a PDL vs. U23 MNT game. What would be the score of this matchup? All of the PDL players listed below are currently U23 age players. I don't think Mehreioskouei, Noonan, Mariscalo, Bleyenberg, and Swann should be discounted as players because they aren't currently in the U23 MNT pool (their birthdates don't coincide with the next Olympics) MLS/A-League teams should not ignore these players. ^I think PDL MVP Tomas Boltnar is Czech. As far as I know, the rest of the players are USA citizens. *All-PDL 1st or 2nd team Forwards: *Mehreioshouei(80) Noonan(80) Midfield: Cronkite(81) *Mariscalo(80) ^*Boltnar(79) *Bleyenberg(79) Defenders: *Wagenfuhr(82) *Ward(81) *Clanton(82) *Swann(80) Goalkeeper: *Pickens(81) All of the players listed in the lineup are currently U23 age players. The US U23 team only has players born in 81 or later to prepare for the next Olympics. This lineup is made without Tranchilla and Thompson (All-PDL players and US U23 National Pool). I replaced them with Indiana University's Pat Noonan (Mid Michigan) and Portland University's Erik Cronkite (Boulder). Hatch
FYI, according to his bio on the Bradley Univ. website, Hamid Mehreioskouei was born in 1981. A link to his bio is at the top of this thread. By the way, Noonan made the All PDL team last year and, given the propensity of award-givers to honor offensive players, is my early bet to win the Herman and MAC awards.
Yes. You're right. Mehreioshouei is an '81. Why isn't he in the U23 MNT pool? When players like Hamid are not recognized it makes me wonder. Would U23 PDL midfielders Boltnar and Bleyenberg dominate U23 MNT midfielders Convey and Carroll? Yes. Sandon, you're in charge of organizing the PDL vs. U23MNT game! Hatch
This would be a good game. All Sandon needs to do now is talk Marcos into writing a couple of checks to make it happen.
Is this a true all-PDL team? While the Great Lakes division may be very tough, it is a little suspicious that so many of the all-PDL players were from the Central Conference. I think the all-PDL teams break down like this: Central Conference: 14 Southern Conference: 4 Eastern Conference: 2 Western Conference: 2 Is the Central Conference really that much better? Not that there's a conspiracy, I just wonder how well-organized the voting was. Or maybe it's because the Central Conference has more teams. If more Central Conference coaches voted, it would make sense that they vote for players that they have seen. I have seen most of the Northeast teams play, and there were some very deserving players left off the list. Simic from VT was on there because he was high in a statistical category, but noone else was included. Not that the players on here are not good in thier own right, but it does make you wonder... About the U23 issue, Brooklyn had a kid from the U20s I think, and he was a nice player but didn't really stand out as much better than the other forwards in the league.
Re: Is this a true all-PDL team? The Central Conference is the largest of the 4, with 14 teams, and thus the highest concentration of both players and coaches. It's probably not that much better, although sometimes perception and reality can be the same thing. Actually Chicago FR probably skewed the results more than any single team. A couple of notable statistics: Teams over .500 Central - 7/14 (50%) Eastern - 4/11 (36%) Western - 4/11 (36%) Southern - 5/11 (45%) Average goal differential of teams over .500 Central - 21 (1.17/gm) Eastern - 19 (1.06/gm) Western - 15 (0.83/gm) Southern - 16 (0.89/gm)
I totally agree with you Hatch. I think Hamid should have been selected over Jason Thompson. Why do you think Myernick chose Thompson? Does it have to do anything with Thompson playing for Colorado and that Myernick used to coach for the Rapids. Coincidence? I think not.
Well, it is a coincidence and it isn't. I certainly don't think Mooch picked Thompson because Mooch used to coach the Colorado Rapids and Thompson plays for the Boulder Rapids, which are very loosely and thinly associated with each other. Certainly Mooch has no loyalty to the Rapids and even if he did, Thompson didn't join Boulder till this May and Mooch was canned in November of 2000. So the idea of some kind of nepotism being at play is misguided. However... Mooch lives in Colorado and that means that his chances of seeing Thompson play with Boulder - and see him play more than once - are greater than the chances of Mooch seeing the Fire Reserves or any other team play on a regular basis. So, simple geography and proximity likely played a role in Thompson getting his call-up but not nepotism. That said, it should be noted that Thompson has earned this call up by being a consistent goal scorer, both at Eastern Illinois and in the PDL. In 2000 he was second in the country in goal-scoring and tops among freshman - and had a solid year last year. He scored about a goal a game, playing about half the season, for Texas last summer then had a strong season for Boulder this year. He also played well at last year's Soccer Festival (the only time I've seen him play) where he scored a couple of goals and got picked to the Amateur National Team. While Thompson is still a long shot to make the Olympics because of the depth at forward, he has certainly shown that he is a player who should be looked at. Now, back to Hamid. Like Thompson he has also put up strong numbers both in college and in the PDL over multiple seasons. I certainly think he has played well enough to earn a look and hope that at some point Mooch gives him a call-up. In fact, on the junior team board I started a thread on college players who are age-eligible for the Olympics but haven't been looked at yet by Mooch and Hamid was at the top of the list. For those who are interested, here's a link to that thread. https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=4314
I admit Jason Thompson had a great freshman year in college, but I have not seen much since. I just think that Mooch could have done a better job.
Care to elaborate on that thought? I'm not arguing with you, but I'd like to hear which players you think Mooch has overlooked but who are deserving of a look. And, as I said before, we have a thread about this going on over on the junior team board. Follow the link I referred to 2 posts back. BTW, it should be pointed out that Thompson and Hamid play in the same conference (MVC) and that both players have scored the same amount of goals in their college careers - 26. The difference is that Hamid has scored 26 goals in 3 seasons while Thompson has done it in 2. Now, in fairness, Hamid has been the better all around player, totaling 26 assists in his career compared 12 for Thompson. And, Hamid has been more consistent, scoring 6, 11 and 9 goals each season while Thompson scored 21 as a freshman but just 5 last year. But, taken collectively, Hamid's numbers aren't so much better than Thompson's that you can consider it an outrage that one got picked over the other. (BTW, their PDL numbers this year are pretty similar, though Hamid has a slight edge: Both played 16 games with Hamid scoring 14 goals and 6 helpers while Thompson scored 13 and 2. Of course, Thompson's team will be playing in the PDL final Saturday while Hamid's team lost in the first round. And, it was the Rapids Reserves that eliminated the Fire reserves.)
Well their numbers are close, Thompson does the majority of scoring with Eastern, while Hamid managed to put up impressive stats sharing the wealth with former Bradley teammates and current MLS players Bryan Namoff and Gavin Glinton. If you had to pick a 2004 U23 MNT who would you pick as your four forwards?
No one who is still in college, that's for damn sure. Let's start with Landon Donovan and Conor Casey with Santino Quaranta and Edson Buddle backing them up. You can argue that Quaranta will end up playing right mid (though I'm not convinced that will happen) and Donovan center mid so that opens up a slot for Eddie Johnson. Devin Barclay could play up top - he played there last year with Tampa Bay - but it appears both the Quakes and 20s are trying to move him to right mid. At that point, and only at that point, does there create an opening that could be filled by a current college forward though the next forward spot could be filled by Mike Magee or Bryce Wegerle. If I was going to pick a college forward, it would likely either be Portland's Nate Jaqua or Virginia's Alecko Eskandarian, though I really like UNC's David Testo as well. I'd consider Thompson and Hamid but in the end, they're pretty far down the depth chart. BTW, I'm still waiting to hear why you think Mooch didn't do a good job and who you would have picked instead. If you're gonna make strong statements like that, I'd like to hear you back them up.
My only point was that Mooch could have done a better job picking Hamid instead of Jason. You even admitted yourself, "Hamid has been the better all around player"