And by the way -- if you want to take over my old U17 callup document, the offer still stands! I'm gonna let it go. It's pretty low-maintenance.
Good on USSF. They beat me to it. I didn’t think there was almost any chance we’d get a release this week, but it looks like they are getting better. I was going to release their roster for them no later than Sunday whether I had the whole thing 100% confirmed or not. I had most of it, but was waiting for a few confirmations and admittedly a few guys they called in I didn’t anticipate. A few players I had heard also pulled out for various reasons. I’ll give my reaction later to the names.
U17 roster announced... first roster in 18 months!!! https://www.starsandstripesfc.com/u...t-roster-first-mens-youth-camp-covid-shutdown Clubs represented: Philadelphia Union (5): John Andrus (DF), Bajung Darboe (FW), Chris Olney (FW), Diego Rocio (FW), Luke Zielinski (FW) San Jose Earthquakes (4): Oscar Verhoeven (DF), Cruz Medina (MF), Edwin Mendoza (MF), Fidel Barajas (FW) Houston Dynamo (3): Brian Alanis (DF), Luis Moreno (MF), Andre Gitau (FW) Real Salt Lake (3): Fernando Delgado (GK), Gershon Henry (DF), Jude Wellings (MF) LA Galaxy (3): Riley Delgado (DF), Paolo Rudisill (FW), Zion Vaughn (FW) Los Angeles FC (3): Christian Diaz (DF), Javen Romero (DF), Tamir Ratovitz (MF) FC Dallas (1): Julian Eyestone (GK) Inter Miami (1): Tyler Hall (DF) Chicago Fire (1): Aaron Deppe (DF) Portland Timbers (1): Milo Wray (MF) Saint Louis City FC (1): Aaron Heard (MF) New England Revolution (1): Ryan Carney (GK) Sporting Kansas City (1): Edgar Bazan (MF) FC Cincinnati (1): Matthew Schenfeld (MF) Austin FC (1): Micah Burton (FW) Seattle Sounders (1): Michael Luande (FW) Slackers: Atlanta United, Nashville SC, Charlotte FC, Orlando City, DC United, Minnesota United, Columbus Crew, Colorado Rapids, New York Red Bulls, New York City FC, + no Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal Non MLS clubs represented: North Carolina FC (1): Nicholas Holliday (GK) De Anza Force (1): Christian Metelitasa (DF) Total Futbol Academy (1): David Vazquez (MF) Barca Residency Academy (1): Moises Arciniega (FW) Yank-Abroad: FC Barcelona (1): Adrian Gill (MF)
SJE u17 is a very good side. Lost to LAFC 0-1 and Tied LAG 2-2 all while attempting to play good soccer. But his call-up is of 06s so the better question is, was SJE u15s pretty good last season?
Goalkeepers: I think it's hard to fault USSF too much with this group. There are a lot of depth names at the position IMO, and no one has really emerged as the top keeper. All of these four are relevant prospects, so it'd be quibbling to say I'd select a few different goalkeepers. Defenders: A few players I think are weak selections (Andrus, Deppe). Admittedly, I know nothing about Metelitasa. The top RB and the top LB are both there (Schenfeld and Alanis), so they got that right. Dalgado and Diaz I don't want to give much of a comment on. I believe I've seen both play, but never really noted that they were real prospects. It's certainly possible that I'm wrong about that. The other guys, I'm not going to quibble over as I think they are good enough players, although likely they wouldn't have been selected if I was picking the team. Midfielders: Wellings, Gill, Moreno, and Medina clearly deserve spots IMO. I'm not sure I would've selected Bazan or Heard, but I don't mind either player. I believe I've seen Vazquez, Ratovitz, and Mendoza all play before and didn't note that they are real prospects, so that is probably some type of indication to me that they might not be the best selections, but I could be wrong. I don't want to take too strong of a stance on that. Wray plays for I believe the only MLS academy (besides the new ones) that I haven't seen yet the previous two seasons, so I have no opinion on him. Forwards: Arciniega and Darboe are good selections. I don't mind Zielinski, Luande or Rudisil as prospects, although I wouldn't have selected them. Burton, Gitau, and Olney are all fringe guys IMO, but I wouldn't consider them as non-prospects. Rocio I've heard great things about. On second look, he's actually the only '07 that made it to the final roster, so he's likely pretty good, although I cannot endorse that opinion yet. Vaughn and Barajas weren't the best selections IMO. Overall: Not too bad. They got most of the major names. There's always going to be disagreement on the margins. Only a few picks that make absolutely no sense. The divide of the regions they came from makes me think we will see the next roster have a much larger tilt towards the South and East of the country. Biggest snubs: Matthew Corcoran, Miles Perkovich, Owen Presthus, Jaden Francis, Izaiah Garza, Alex Perez, Kelvin Da Costa, Zach Stanton, Agnaldo Germano, Alejandro Urzua, Jaime Kabuusu
The Union, Earthquakes, Revs and RSL all made the semifinals of the U-15 playoffs last year while playing pretty good soccer. So the Revs are the only slackers with the others all having at least 3 players called in.
The SJE u15’s were good last year but I thought Cruz Medina was the only one YNT level out of that group. Cruz was fantastic in Dallas and earned his place
The notable names not included in this camp for me are Matthew Corcoran, Bento Estrela, Christian McFarlane, Alex Hauschild, Cole Campbell, Miles Perkovic, Isaiah Garza, Diego Kochen, and Brent Adu-Gyamfi. Outside of those guys pretty much all the noteworthy names of the pool are there
The call ups overall highlight the three main weaknesses in this 2006 player pool: right center back, defensive mid, and striker. All three positions are still very thin and none of them have in my opinion truly YNT level players in camp at those spots
I'd rather call it California U17 Camp Roster. No players from DC United, Red Bulls or NYCFC and some other MLS clubs in the east coast. In my opinion, DC united 06 and Red Bulls 06 are two top teams in the country. The roster doesn't represent the 06 age very well.
I agree with you for your thoughts of the players I have some knowledge. For John Andrus and the Luke Zielinski, they are good and smart players in the MLS club level, however they are not ready for the YNT level, at least for now, because of their physical body. For Aaron Heard, he is very talent player, however I haven't seen him stand out from the 06 YNT id sessions in the past two years. For Alex Perez, I watched the MLS next Cup games (especially the final game), the league games and the YNT id session in Philly last month, my opinion for him is that he is a good defender with technical skills, however he is not a top Middle Fielder because of his vision and decision making issues. Philly union 06 needs an engine in the middle field, Alex was trying to play that role, however unfortunately he is not very successful in the last season. For Jaden Francis, he originally came from FC Delco, he is a very good technical player, however I can see that sometimes his decision making is slow. He wasn't selected for the two YNT id sessions in Philly this year. Also, I agree with you that the roster should represent the regions more accurately and more widely.
These camps do tend to lean one way or the other a bit too much. The next one might look more favorable to other areas. Having 3-4 Regional camps makes the most sense IMO at this stage of development. With an annual round-robin. Would be nice.
The DC United 06’s are a good team and play with a good collective but no player in the team outside of Gavin Turner really has the individual quality for the youth national team level. Gavin being a 2007 makes it pretty hard to make this roster when the 10’s for the 2006’s are pretty deep. Same goes for NYRB but replace Gavin with Bento Estrela who I’m not quite sure why he isn’t on the roster For NYCFC I thought that Alex Hauschild should be in the roster. Mark Cajamarca has a shout but physically may not be able to keep up with the pace of this level anymore. Mark is the same size and speed that he was before Covid, you need highly technical and tactical players in your team but if they can’t physically keep up then they can’t be in the roster. Christian McFarlane struggles with fitness often or he probably would be there
You wonder if they had their last "ID camp" near the West Coast and have recency bias. Kind of strange that almost nobody East of the Mississippi or across the Atlantic was called.
Has to be they have divided the country in two, right? If so, which of your snubs plays west of the Mississippi?
Perhaps... I don’t mind if he has a bunch of camps; and therefore, jumps around the country to find his guys. What I worry about is if he limits himself in the long term. It’s a bit puzzling that there are no NYRB, NYCFC, and Atlanta players, and FC Dallas are so underrepresented. I’m happy that Houston seem to be turning a page. That’s good news for them and for us. RSL continues to be a powerhouse for development. And Philly seems to be leaving everyone in their dust... minus, surprisingly, San Jose.
Sometimes players that were on the initial list can’t attend. I believe that happened with a few of the East coast players, so there might’ve been an initial effort to make it a little more diverse geographically. This is a very weak Atlanta age group. They could’ve had a representative or two, but it’s hard to say they had any real snubs.