Had a lot of fun going through the 2011 and 2015 editions of these threads and it was fun looking back at all the predictions, so lets start a new one I'll start, Joe Scally
https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/t...-prospect-time-capsule.1647223/#post-22698687 https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/t...-prospect-time-capsule.2017634/#post-31903964 Here are the 2011 & 2015 edition if anyone wants to take a blast to the past.
Reyna is the obvious answer. How his game has developed in the past year is way beyond anyone else IMO. If I was to pick a player that isn't such an obvious choice, I'll go with Jonathan Gomez. I think he has the best combination of a good club situation, top level talent, and a lack of real weaknesses in his game. It doesn't hurt either that he plays a position that is very scarce in football.
Here are my can’t miss prospects in every age group that not everyone will agree with. I am assuming we are excluding any people were weren’t u20 eligible in 2019 following the u20 trend from 2011 and 2015. I’m notably more impressed with the younger age groups than i was with the older u20 age groups: 2001 Tanner Tessmann Jose Gallegos Cam Harper 2002 Bryang Kayo Gianluca Busio 2003 Bryan Okoh Moses Nyeman Caden Clark Dante Sealy Johnny Perez Mauricio Cuevas Cade Cowell Elton Chifamba Noah Hall Justin Che Erik Kinzner 2004 Malick Sanogo Evan Rotundo Kenan Hot Allan Rodriguez Antonio Leone 2005 Nati Clarke Chris Thaggard Sebastian Carbajal Brooklyn Raines Reed Baker-Whiting Grayson Dettoni Nelson Pierre Gage Akalu Matiwos Rumley Steven Ramirez Alex Alcala Serge Ngoma Diego Hernandez Felipe Valencia 2006 Adrian Gill Bajung Darboe Aaron Heard Ransford Gyan Matthew Corcoran Mark Cajamarca Bento Estrela Gael Medrano Jack Brown Ryan Reid 2007 Joah Reyna Axel Perez Henry Bernstein Chris Guillien 2008 Kellen LeBlanc
Here are the obvious can’t miss - Already USMNT so don’t really count: Josh Sargent Tim Weah Sergiño Dest - Definite can’t miss that everyone agrees on Gio Reyna Chris Richards Ricardo Pepi Kobe Hernandez-Foster Uly Llanez Jonathan Gomez Konrad De La Fuente
Out of this my biggest cant miss is definitely Bryan Okoh and Malick Sanogo. My American developed can’t miss is Moses Nyeman
Nyeman is the player I'm worried about. I don't buy any of the excuses people use for why DC hasn't been using him yet. It's not a good thing that he's not been getting on the field yet. The kid is training every day with these players he supposedly can't beat out. There's no reason he shouldn't be outplaying these players, and forcing his way into the lineup. I believe he probably has, so I blame the coach, but not every player always gets the same chance as another player. Some players have it easier than others. I think it's looking like we'll hear the excuses for another year or two about why Nyeman doesn't play, and he'll have it much tougher. It looks like he chose the wrong path (should've went the Gomez path) I also worry that forces are trying to push him further back on the field, and it's going to lower his ceiling. He simply doesn't have the same ceiling when you are dropping him back to his own box to defend. He's undersized and as strong as he is for his size, he's not going to be some great ball winner for a #8 either. He needs to be used as a #10, and even there, he needs to play more aggressive. His offensive aggressiveness has been way too inconsistent. It's almost as if he's being told to play less creatively because I have no reason to believe the tools aren't there.
I don't think the phrase "can't miss" belongs in the same building as 14 year olds. Much less a 12(!) year old. If a single one of those 15 kids from your 2006 and younger lists gets a senior cap, I'll be absolutely stunned.
They have to really, really, really wow me consistently to be considered a cant miss. For the 06 age group, I honestly think it’s the strongest youth national team age group that we have ever had. There are multiple 06’s who i would be totally fine with playing with our 04 YNT and think they could step in today and be fine at that level. The 07’s are bold but those 4 are all ready good and in great environments. Joah Reyna looks even better than Gio did at 13 and look where Gio is now, I think Joah can follow on his footsteps. I did call Gio being this good at 13, to find the tweets you’ll have to go ridiculously far in my twitter to see it. Axel Perez is another diamond talent, Axel has never played in his own age group and is always a standout playing 2 age groups up. As an 07 he’ll be a u17 this year! Same goes for Chris Guillien who is an absolute monster of a CB. Henry Bernstein is such a good player that i thought he was one of the top 06’s for a while but turns out he’s actually an 07 which improved his stock even more. Henry is legit and scouts at Philly all agree that he’s a special prospect. George Okigbo is admittedly a hot take but I love his game. Kellen LeBlanc the lone 08 is 100% a cant miss. He is so good that the Union moved his dad into their system. He is dominant playing up 2 age groups and has the best development environment at home and at his club out of anyone. Because of his dad he will get streamlined to the Union first team and get preferential playing time too. But Kellan is a rare prospect that doesn’t come around often. He’s the only 08 I feel comfortable projecting. Don’t worry, I am prepared to get flamed for this too. Will I miss a lot of these? Yes, but maybe my hit rate is better than the entire 2011 thread was...probably won’t be but I’m optimistic
You named 49 kids to be "can't miss for the US National Team", so even if you're perfectly right, and these end up being the best 49 american players in 10 years... you will still have been wrong about ~ half being on the USMNT. I don't doubt that you have a tweet from 5 years ago saying Gio would be this good, but I wouldn't be surprised if that tweet mentioned 48 other names that I've never heard...
Sergiño Dest. Cheating perhaps, since he is already capped, but if the question is "what american under 20 would I be most surprised if he's not on the 2030 WC squad" that's my answer. Even Gio Reyna, people here talk like he's already a sure thing. I hope he is, I hope he is the best american ever. He might be, but I've seen an awful lot of great looking kids break through at age 17 or 18 or 19, look great for a while, and are now 28 and have been playing at a middle table team in Norway for 5 years. Until someone consistently, and I mean for multiple seasons, looks good at the highest level, you truly never know. No one knows.
You definitely aren’t wrong about me stanning some busts. Some of those busts include Andrew Carleton, Marc Pelosi, Alfred Koroma, Mario Rodriguez, Joe Gallardo, Ayo Akinola (I loved his game), Paxton Pomykal (still hope), CCV, Danny Barbir, Gedion Zelalem, Matthew Olosunde, Emerson Hyndman, and Junior Flores. I got Pulisic, Gio, Adams, Weah, and Sargent right at least. Two guys I don’t know wheee to rank who are panning our better than most expected that I got right are Chase Gasper and Jeremy Ebobisse. I thought Jake Rozhansky would be just as good tbh but the career move to Israel killed that. What makes me more confident in making more picks now than the older age groups is that the younger players are getting more and more opportunities and significantly better coaching than the older guys got so it reduces the bust likelihood by a lot. But no doubt there will be a lot that I’ll take my L’s long but that is a list of players I have very high expectations on
Well sure you got some right but it just seems like you're shotgunning. Based on the premise of this thread, the younger the age groups get the *less* players you should be including, not more. It just comes across as sensationalist. As a general comment, I'm not too sure this thread applies much anymore. Our best U20 prospects are too far along to be called prospects (Sargent, Weah, Dest, Reyna, not necessarily in that order).
Definitely could categorize myself as it. But I’ve watched the DA and YNT’s for a long time and the overall quality and high end potential players are growing like crazy in the younger age groups and it’s super apparent now. In reality most of those players are on track to be top level players but will get derailed for various reasons. The biggest two will be club (mostly coaches not wanting to play or sell youth) or injuries. The injuries in particular robbed the USA of almost all of our 90’s born talent
Limiting myself to 2001 and younger. Tier 1-absolute sure thing Reyna Tier 2-sure thing, will get multiple NT caps. Llanez Araujo De la Fuente Tier 3- my gut feeling Pepi
Reyna is the clear answer. Dest is right behind and both clearly can't miss. Both are USMNT-eligible and both have already made it. In fact, this wave of improved development is making this kind of thread obsolete; if enough U20s have already made it, is there a point here? I know Chris Richards is in a bit of limbo, but I have a hard time believing he never becomes a starting CB is a very strong league. He'd be my can't-miss here, above some of the other favorites. Even as a CB, which can be risky because of the developmental timeline and more intellectual aspects of the position -- experience and soccer iq matter more and develop later. I don't have the encyclopedic view of every player out there, though. I haven't seen enough of Gomez, for example, or Cameron Harper, etc. Honestly, I haven't seen enough recent footage of Konrad to really give him a fair shake, either. There's no point in pretending that my view of him from 2019 is relevant anymore. While it's not clear that he's really at Barcelona level yet, it is clear that he must have improved greatly in performance from then. Have to echo the Pepi love as well, if we are going younger. Probably the closest lock on the U17 not named Reyna for me.
All I can say is that I hope you are right! Also, I wonder...what do we mean when we say can't miss? where is the bar?
We now can confidently say that a bunch of players will be high level pro’s now because of how much the development pathway has changed in the last 5 years. But when looking at the USMNT that becomes more difficult because the competition for spots will be much bigger than we’ve ever had
Can't miss literally should be a 100% chance (barring injury) of being an impact player for the USMNT. At least that's how I read it.
Of course you can't miss when you've already made it: Reyna. FWIW, I was saying it when he was playing in CONCACAF u-17 regionals. When we're talking can't miss, I put a lot of weight on physical ability, mentality, adequate technical skill, & club situation. These are the areas that typical sink players if they're insufficient. Gio checked all those boxes. W/ that in mind, of the u-20 cycle I'd go: 1. Otasowie, 2. Araujo, 3. Llanez, 4. Pepi, 5. KDLF. They check the most. I think Otasowie is another guy who probably checks all the boxes. If there's a concern it's club situation. But of EPL clubs, he's at a pretty good one, and sounds like a loan will get sorted soon like Llanez which boosted a little optimism. But him & the others you got a minor question on 1 or more, just nothing damning. Overall it may be Cowell. I think he checks all those boxes. You could only say he's pretty predictable. But w/ his mentality, you can see him learning step-by-step counters, to make his speed still kill over time. HM goes to 1. KHF, 2. K. Clark, 3. Paredes, 4. Gioacchini, 5. Bello., 6. Kayo, 7. J. Gomez, 8. Bassett
After looking at my way too hot take list. Here’s a more reasonable group 2001: Uly Llanez, KDLF, Julian Araujo 2002: Gio Reyna, KHF 2003: Ricardo Pepi, Jonathan Gomez, Moses Nyeman, Caden Clark 2004: Malick Sanogo 2005: Nati Clarke 2006: Matthew Corcoran (this kid is special)