They forgot to mention the #1 ranked player Wesley Wade. He scored the winner against Mexico during the U17 MNT game. Nice see the future of the team is in good hands, at least for the time being. Red Bulls Academy Products
I remember watching him score a winning goal against I think France... and didn't even know he was our player. You never know how players will transition from this stage to the professional game but its good to know our academy players at least on the radar.
Dont worry--if Hans is still around when these guys come up he'll manage to trade or release a majority of them. As far as I can see, Hans does not believe in building up a team via player promotion from the academy but rather he believes in building it through free agency. As a fan, it's frustrating to see but there's nothing that can be done. Hans has gone on record previously stating how most American products are very low in skill by comparison--so that is the reason why he doesn't really regard the draft as important or place too much stock on the academy.
His gameplan is simple, the most talented players at this very moment will get as much playing time as their health will allow, and unfortunately sometimes more playing time than their health will allow. It has nothing to do with a bias against Americans, because the reality is that the majority of players who come out of the draft are poor quality whether MLS fans want to admit it or not. The young Americans who have proven worthy of performing at the level of MLS teams have gotten their playing time, like Ream, Agudelo, Lade, Dax, Tchani before he was traded. I know they aren't all academy products but they are all young Americans... It is a "win now" attitude that may not be the best for keeping a group of core players together over multiple seasons, but hey, that's what you get when your fanbase goes apeshit and calls for a coach's head when he can't win an MLS cup in 2 seasons.
Yup we are all on "Backe watch" --and it is not necessarily about not winning MLS Cup in 2 yrs-it is about not winning anything period! No MLS Cup, no SS, no USOC ( in fact he "threw" the USOC in favor of a meaningless european firendly), no CCL participation and looking quite bad while doing so. But hey--there's still plenty of time left this season, I hope he winds up making believers out of all the fans that are skeptical of him.
No one in MLS has ever built a team through the academy so far. It's almost impossible to build a team through the draft now with the amount of picks a team has as compared to maybe just 5-6 years ago.
No question that that is what the "WIZARD" will do, you know with luck if you can have a say 3/5, 26/28 years old free agent players is possible to win a cup, maybe not in the first year but in the second is factually, but in the third we will be one more time in zone "0", because we will have to start of new looking for another's free agency to take the place of the ones before, because they will become old pretty fast....At the contrary if you build the team with youngsters, beside that they because are locals boy will pull the fans little by little and they too will last 6, 7 and 8 years as players giving time enough to the team to develop new ones year after year....
This is a tired argument. Whether you're talking about home grown players or draft picks, the players the Red Bulls have kept have generally been able to help the team. If you're a good player, who has a future, you likely will be kept and eventually transferred to a European club. If you're not, you will either be cut or traded. The players who didn't stick, have generally not gone on to bigger things. Of the two academy players who got cut last off-season, Sacir Hot is currently without club and Matt Kassel is in the USL with Pittsburgh. Neither player got a sniff from other MLS clubs. Traded players like Danleigh Borman and Austin Da Luz aren't even in the league anymore. Tony Tchani is a part-time player. Of all the players the team has ever traded really only Brad Davis and Eddie Gaven have ever amounted to much. Neither is national team caliber. But the club does have a decent track record in identifying and nurturing talent. Tim Howard, Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley and Tim Ream have been transferred to Europe, and the team did not stand in their way, reaping handsome rewards in the deals. All of those players are national team caliber. My point is, the thesis that the club screws over American players is a bit of a myth. Granted, I'd like to see more longevity of service. But it's hard to argue with the track record that club does the best it can in developing players given it's overall record of mediocrity. Compare this to New England, which pretty certainly does not make deals to benefit players, see Shalrie Joseph and Clint Dempsey. Joseph is looking like he's done, giving his best years in service to a club that underpaid him and could have dealt him to a European club, but refused. Clint, smartly played out his contract and left, knowing that NE was not going to look after his interests. Juan Agudelo has his future in his own hands. If he puts forth the effort, he'll continue to get opportunities. And if he performs well, Europe will come knocking. And the Red Bulls will once again reap the benefits. My guess is that Wesley Wade, et al. are looking at that track record and fully discounting Kassel and Hot when it comes to signing as a Home Grown.
Maybe not the Academy, but certainly not just signing foreign veterans, either. The best clubs cast a wide net. They sign good players any way they can. Draft picks are nice, but there is also the supplemental draft, American free agents, allocation, foreign free agents and DP's. Then there is the Academy. A number of clubs have produced players capable of starting in MLS, and most of these programs are only a few years old. That trend will continue. The Red Bulls went out and got several players who are starters or capable of starting and they did it in a variety of ways. One draft choice, Meara. One academy product who would have been drafted, Lade. Ruthven and Barklage were acquired off the MLS discard heap. Holgersson came from Europe. Cooper came here through trade. All made contributions yesterday, beating LA. Six new players. Only one was European.
I agree but people who think you are gonna build soley through the academy are gonna be really disappointed. Using all the different routes to acquire players is the way to go as you mentioned. Using all your options is the proper way to go about things.
You think RB management is bad? Try this one: http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/st...anks-venkys-blackburn-troubles-just-beginning Yikes. For some reason, this story made me think of RBNY. Don't know why so please don't be offended.
Tyler Ruthven is a solid CB.. So far he's playing like a rock in the back. He's only 23 years old and might be Ream 2.0.. Lade is also 22 playing solid for a rookie and Barklage is playing great as well (25yrs) Not to mention Dax who's developing into a great DM(25yrs) And how can I forget the beast in the cage? Meara(21) Although it's not good to hype up youngsters but it looks like we may have our future backline right there.. Almost all of them came out of nowhere.. crazy
You have to be out of you mind to expect to build at this time the team with only Academy or any other way local players, we don't have a second and third team like those leagues in Europe to develop those players, but when a young local players is drafted or acquire in any way, the decent thing to do is give him chance to demonstrate what he is capable to do and not waive him with out that chance, I not mean one game, you have to try them several games, let them build that confidence in them self and to play the game they love.....in the long run, we will love it too....See what happen, we have seven starters in the DL and Backe has been forced to use those kids and because they have to do it for more than one or two games, now we know them and we realize that they are decent players that can do the job.....But Jesus, don't wait until some body die to give them that chance.....