Not sure I agree with the initial top 5. UCSB and Indiana never seem to make the discussion when it comes to recruiting, yet they are continuously in competition for the title. Still a good discussion with some of the players from a few of the top programs in the country. Thomas Haws - Wake Forest Cole Nagy - UCLA Darius Madison - Virginia Andrew Sounders - Akron Recruiting Classes
I can't speak for Indiana, but I think why UCSB is oftentimes overlooked by the folks that rank recruiting classes is b/c UCSB does not land the bulk of their recruits from the traditional elite route. Instead, there is a mix of internationals, guys from MLS academies, some jucos, and hustle players that somehow fell through the cracks. It's easier for the people that rank classes to compare apples to apples. School A got this many U-17 US players and that many players from ODP or prestigious club teams. You then compare that to other relative known quantities. They simply don't know what to make of players from Ghana, England, Australia, or players that played in amateur Mexican leagues in southern California. Guys like Eric Avila and Sam Garza were known from their youth US days, whereas guys like Chris Pontius, Andy Iro, Rob Friend, Luis Silva, Machael Davis, Michael Tetteh, Ema Boateng, Achille Campion, etc. etc are relatively unknown until they show what they can do on the field at UCSB. I'm cool with it. Those other schools can have the primadonnas. I prefer the truly hungry players that bring some flair and a bit of an edge.
In most cases the kids that have trained over seas could potentially have more important assets to provide to the team. They have an understanding that the game is not won with one big name, but instead with group of guys that utilize one another in order to improve the team as a whole. The sport is designed in such a way that being a favorite before a game becomes irrelevant once the whistle is blown. The same can not be said for sports like Basketball for instance. The Miami heat will always beat the Bobcats in a 7 game series. UNC is not always going to beat a team like Old Dominion.
While not meaningless, the ratings/rankings of players are far from accurate. Often a kid matures early and gets a spot at Bradenton and remains highly ranked even though many of the kids on his team have long passed him by. Other times you get local kids that schools know about that don't appear on any lists because they don't play on a big name team. Then there are international kids and JC kids.
And yet, year after year, rarely does the college soccer team that wins it all have more than 1-2 internationals and often has none.
Last years UNC team had 3, the year before Akron had 4, but the year before that Virginia only had 1. For the most part, I would agree that foreign players mostly are recruited by schools that can't get blue chip US players. But I'd say even the bluest of the blue chip schools seem to have a small number of foreign kids. There are some notable exceptions such as UCSB who have a lot more. Akron also seems on the higher side for a top program.
But most of those foreign kids at UNC and Akron didn't play much. A quick glance at UNC's roster from last year shows 2 players brought in from outside the US, a Bahamian, Anton Sealy, and a Canadian*, Daniel Tannous. Sealy DNP last year and Tannous played in 9 of 26 games, starting 2. That's it. Of the four international players on the 2010 Akron roster, the only one that was a major contributor was Darren Mattocks. Costa Rican Reinaldo Brenes (who went to HS in the US), started all of one game in 2010 and appeared in 14 others. Venezuelan Enrique Paez (who also went to HS in the US), played in all of 5 games for 53 minutes. Jamaican McKauly Tulloch played in 10 games with no starts. So, A) they didn't play very much and, B) have of them went to HS in the United States thus they weren't "training overseas' to develop the "important assets" to provide the team with their "understanding of the game." Go back past Akron. Virginia's 2009 title team had ONE foreign player on the roster, Ole Hengelbrock, a German from the unfortunately named town of Hitler, who DNP in 2009. On Maryland's 2008 championship team, the only foreigner was a third-string Canadian* GK named Aaron Chinn who DNP that season. The Terps 2005 championship team didn't have any foreigners on the roster. Wake Forest's 2007 team didn't have any foreign kids on the roster. The 2003 and 04 Indiana championship sides were exclusively American (perhaps even exclusively Midwestern). UCLA's 2002 title team was All American (and almost exclusively all Californian). When UNC won their first title in 2001, the only foreigner to contribute (besides the coaching staff) was England's Danny Jackson. So going back over a decade, the only foreign players to contribute to a championship team were Jackson, Darren Mattocks and the guys on the 2006 UCSB side - Andy Iro (England), Nick Perera (Spain), Brian Byrne (Ireland), Tyler Rosenlund (Canada*), Free! Eric Frimpong (Ghana but went to HS in the US), Andrew Proctor (Canada*), If you go back further, neither Sigi Schmid (3) nor Bruce Arena (5) had any international players contributing on their national title teams and they won 8 between them from 85 to 97 and the titles Jerry Yeagley won in 88, 98 and 99 were done without players recruited from outside the US though IU did have the Hoosier-kranians, who came to NY State to start HS, on those championship teams in the 90's. * We're talking Canadians here. These aren't exactly Italians and Spaniards in terms of footballing culture. Sure, it's technically a different country but in terms of soccer development it's pretty much identical to the US. In other words, I'm pretty comfortable with my clam that aside from UCSB in 06, very few, if any, international players have contributed to recent NCAA championship teams.
I don't think my comment materially disagreed. You follow the college game a heck of a lot closer than I have. I personally think US based talent has improved significantly. So even though I think schools are more agressively recruiting world wide and I think interest in US schools has increased, I agree with you that schools that can recruit top US players are at a big advantage. What will be interesting is to see how the recent rule change of playing with professional players changes things.
Ahem ... "Hilter" (easy to mis-read) Getting back to your point about national titles, I suspect that the days of the overwhelmingly American-based champions are starting to fade. If Maryland were to win this year (they're the favorite, imo), their Norwegian import will likely have a big role to play. If UCLA were to win, their Spaniard and their German would need to come up big. And while those schools are still mostly American-based, you've also got successful programs like South Florida and UConn whose important players are mostly imported.
10/11 and 9/11 is still overwhelmingly American. I think UCSB does well because they are from the most fertile soccer state in the country. They get the kids who may not have been the best player on the team, and thus not the one everyone knows, but who are still extremely talented.
And what was South Florida last year, maybe 3/11? At any rate, perhaps I chose the wrong word for UCLA and Maryland, but a decade ago, were they looking at international students at all?
Sasho has adjusted to cast the recruiting net wider. Sasho has adjusted a bit and why not look over the internationl kids. I believe more and more schools will follow this strategy. Guys like Helge Leikvang and Wydner Saint Cyr are internationl kids that have played very well for Maryland. Look for more of the same from Sasho. Tman
Hmmm... I don't recall saying that UCSB doesn't have or hasn't had any prima donnas. I did say I prefer hungry players with some flair and a bit of an edge. But, hey, don't let what I actually wrote get in the way of taking a shot. And that goes for the individual that repped your post, too
But you did imply that a lot of the players recruited by schools like UCLA, Akron, North Carolina, Indiana, etc... are prima donas, as if just because they came through the YNT system and had a big rep coming in to college they weren't going to be of the same character as the plucky overlooked kids who become Gauchos. That's your right to think that, but it's just as off-putting as the statement that got your ire up.