There's a 2010 USA-Mexico dual nat named Cameron Jefferson playing for PSG's international residency in Geneva. He played for Solar and DKSC before moving to Europe last year.
‘08 CDM Pietro Moreira played for the US team in this tournament, which appears to be Bayern-selected all-star teams from various countries.
4-1 win by NTX this evening to put them into the conference finals. Standout assist by '06 Garcia on the first, great finish by '05 Ramirez on the fourth (and generally an impactful appearance off the bench). '05 Scott was bright off the bench too.
FCD 18s v Capital City SC, 10/20/24, W by a lot Lineup (L-R, where applicable): Montoya; Torquato, Scabin, Charles ©, Cortalessa; Kaakoush; Outman, Swann; Orejarena, Salazar, Contreras Subs: At halftime, Gaundique and Wheeler come on for Salazar and Montoya. 15min into the 2H, Mendonca comes on for Outman. 10min later, Swann and Torquato come off for Hickam and Dozier. 5min later, McCloud on at LCB for Charles (Scabin slides over to RCB and Cortalessa takes the armband) and Murphy on for Kaakoush. Goal(s): · 19:43 – Swann gets a headed ball from Orejarena in his half shimmies by a defender, and plays right through Outman to Contreras on the wing. Contreras waits a moment before Swann catches up and finds him in the pocket down the right halfspace just outside the box. Swann draws a foul (a very Swann thing to do). FK in a good spot. Contreras puts in low into the far side netting. Not clear if his shot went left of the wall or through the wall. · 22:48 – Swann’s carrying into the middle of the field from the right after FCD recycles possession on that side. He finds a flat ball to Torquato, who’s pinched into midfield, and Torquato flicks it back to Scabin to (delay an unnecessary moment and) zip it wide left to Orejarena in the final 3rd. Orejarena cuts inside, plays 1-2 with Swann, and does an elastic pass around a charging defender to get it to Salazar at the top of the box. Salazar leaves it back to Contreras in the D, where Contreras fakes a shot to come back onto his left and scoop a pass between defenders to Salazar on the PK spot. Salazar takes it off his chest, turns, and finishes cleanly inside the left post. Great team goal. · 30:49 – CC goalkick that Scabin reacts first to and heads back upfield, where it bounces a round a little before a defender clear to Swann in the middle of the field about 40 yards from goal. He dribbles around/through four defenders and into the box before shooting with his right from about 8 yards out, forcing a save that’s spilled into the middle. Orejarena pounces and pokes it home from close range. · 43:54 – FCD CK taken as an outswinger by Contreras. He aims it near post, where a CC defender gets to it first but only puts enough head on it to deflect it to the PK spot, where Swann controls it and fires, pounding it though the GK’s hands. · 1:17:48 – Swann’s won a foul on the left side about 35 yards from goal. Contreras hits an inswinger at the back post that Scabin easily gets to and nods across the face of goal for Charles to bundle home. · 1;27:13 – Charles deflects a CC pass into the FCD defensive third, Swann grabs it and navigates three defenders to play it in front of Kaakoush up the field, Kaakoush hits a throughball down the middle of the field into an acre of space for Guandique, and Guandique finishes his 1v1 with a little chip. · 1:52:45 – Contreras is shimmying on the ball out wide after a short CK. He eventually passes backward to Cortalessa, who floats a ball to the back post where Scabin heads it down into the middle for McCloud to nudge past the GK. Other Key Chances: · 22:03 – Capital City LB carrying upfield before Contreras pressures him near midfield and he dumps a ball in behind. Kaakoush runs it down but Montoya has come out too (seemingly to support Kaakoush?), but he’s too close, so when Kaakoush passes it to him (after a little double-clutch that doesn’t help) he’s got little time to control the ball and move it before the players that were chasing Kaakoush get to him. Under pressure, he pokes a pass at Charles, but it’s intercepted. The attacker shoots immediately, forcing a no-mans-land save from Montoya that rebounds clear to Torquato. · 33:03 – Torquato’s on the ball near the touchline in his third after some buildout from FCD. He tries to play inside to either Swann or Outman, but neither goes to the pass and it’s intercepted. CC strings together a few passes to get a W one-on-one with Kaakoush out wide right of the box. He cuts back onto his left and hits a cross at the back post. Cortalessa tries to jump it, can’t quite get there, and now he’s fighting for the ball from behind the LW, eventually pushing him down. PK. Montoya saves it down to his right and puts the rebound out wide of the box. · 38:48 – Montoya is on the ball just outside his box and hits a (totally unnecessary and seemingly pointless) giant diagonal at the CC LB with no FCD players anywhere nearby. CC combos up the wing a little ways, Outman/Kaakoush/Cortalessa get their marking assignments mixed up, and CC finds a FW in the left channel pocket in front of the box. (basically this exact sequence happened at 36:00 too except the pass into the pocket didn’t come off) Now he’s 1v1 with Charles while entering the box, he cuts right toward the middle, Charles can’t get in front of the ball, and the FW finishes hard, low, near post past Montoya. · 1:12:43 – The CC RB intercepts a ball near midfield on FCD’s left but quickly coughs it up to pressure when Swann manages to poke the ball forward to Gaundique, who lays it back to Contreras, who puts in Orejarena down the left in the space that the CC RB has vacated. Orejarena carries into the box, fakes a shot, cuts back onto his right, and fires from about 12 yards but right at the GK. · 1:20:18 – Scabin’s on the ball inside CC’s half and fires a pass between the lines to Contreras, whose first touch is loose and loses the subsequent 50/50. Swann wades into the melee, wins two duels back-to-back, and then carries the ball into the box, making a bit of space to squeeze off a shot from about 17 yards with his right, just missing the far post. · 1:45:45 – Contreras gets off the RW with a 1-2 to the middle with Murphy and then goes across midfield to Hickam, who pushes forward to Orejarena. Orejarena waits a beat then finds Dozier inside, who bumps one more to Contreras, who slides a pass through a defender’s legs to Orejarena’s run from the wing. Orejarena is now 1v1 with the GK and tries the coup de grace, dribbling around a bit to try to find an empty net, but eventually the GK manages to take the ball off of his foot. · 1:48:20 – Hickam wins a battle for a throw-in just inside CC’s half, poking it to Guandique in the middle of the field. He turns, takes a couple of touches, and finds Contreras’ right-to-left run behind the defense, so now Contreras has the ball at the top of the box with just a defender and the GK in his way. He fakes a shot, comes back onto his right, and tries to fit a shot into the left post, but it’s deflected out for a CK. · 1:51:49 – McCloud as intercepted a pass in behind and is now carrying into midfield. He finds Contreras out wide right and Contreras cuts inside (passing on playing Guandique up the line while drawing the CC LB out to stop him), plays 1-2 with Mendonca in the middle, and then pokes a pass through to Guandique up the right channel and into the box. Guandique loads up from about 12 yards out and blasts a shot low and far post but gets a fine kick save out for a CK from the GK. Notes: · FCD lacking some technical sharpness in the final 25 yards to start the game. Getting the ball in good spots, trying good ideas, not clean enough to have it come off. · Swann’s obviously the hero of the third goal, but he has a fantastic string of actions in the five or ten minutes thereafter. Goes on a heater. EG: watch Swann make a counterattack by himself at 34:36 with his awareness. Typically useful amount of foul-winning in dangerous areas. Clear MOTM for me. · Foolish tackle attempt by Contreras at 36:44. If the attacker is more thoughtful, that’s a PK every time. Until pretty late into the 2H, apart from the free kick deliveries, this might be the game where I have seen the fewest net positive plays from Contreras. Not his best (but the usual caveat that the majority of FCD's best chances involve him). · There’s a non-zero amount of evidence that Orejarena and Contreras don’t like being asked to co-exist together in the same team. Both want the whole attack to go through them – it’s not possible to make both happy. · Ayooooooo, check out the skill by Orejarena at 44:48. · Outman’s 18-22 yard shot is rough in this one. Gets 4-5 opportunities and puts every one 5+ yards over. · Charles grew an inch or two? Regardless, he’s slowly sliding down my personal rankings until he shows some more progression.
And now a 3-0 win for NTX in extra time over STLSC2 to give them the right to host the MLS Next Final against Philly. Collodi kept them in the game in regulation while NTX couldn't quite connect on their best chances (a foot or two off on the final pass). Pretty much owned extra time, though, as game state shifted in their direction. Goals from '05 Ramirez (came off the bench and was positive; got to think Michel's considering starting him in the final over Sali), '03 Pedrinho (on a PK won by Herb Endeley, who was fantastic in this one), and '01 Henry-Scott (who subbed on for his brother who subbed on for Farrington early after Farrington got hurt; STL's CBs were clearly interested in playing a super physical game; knocked Farrington out of the game off the ball and led to Tarik Scott picking up a ton of fouls to put himself at red card risk). '05 Norris had a tough game on the ball, but also played about 3/4ths of the game with a yellow and finished the final 40min at LCB. '06 Garcia struggles to find the ball some in midfield, so when he's not affecting the game by arriving late as an attacker he can be quiet, like tonight.
I would kinda have preferred for it to be in Philly. I don't like the games in the former baseball stadium. Choctaw stadium or whatever. [Anyway, its fine that it really hasn't been reported that North Texas was the best team in MLSNP this year. The point isn't to win MLSNP trophies. The point is to develop players in MLSNP that help the MLS team win. And I'm just not sure how many of these North Texas players will do that. In theory, that's what Philly II is doing.] Neither Philly or Dallas even made the playoffs. So the leadership of both organizations needs to figure some things out.
Just rumors, but this suggests that ‘09 Liam Vejrostek got his first callup to the full age group national team. Cook’s out injured and maybe Eason too, otherwise they may have been here.
Oh. Maybe there's some conflict at Choctaw.............................. There's supposed to be some holiday lights spectacular at Choctaw stadium starting in mid-November. Imagine being kicked out of your stadium so they can set that up!!!
My understanding is it’s being played at Toyota as a reward for reaching the final. Strange situation honestly. I get the “you’ve earned the right to play at the big stadium”, but you’ve played at Choctaw all season, on turf and now you’re changing for one game?
Could just be a venue issue at Choctaw and them not reserving it for this game early enough ahead of time while they own Toyota Stadium and have no problem with dates there.
I don’t want to take credit. That’s what Flashscore App, which is accurate 99.9% of the time for soccer info, said.
It actually doesn't surprise me. I suspect the Hunts want to be there in person to watch and would rather be in Frisco so they be in their suite and club.
FCD 17s v Capital City SC, 10/20/24, W 5-0 Lineup (L-R, where applicable): Jordan; Vo, Hernandez, Easterly ©; Molomo, Saucedo, Alvarez, Wygant (’09); Lee, Hart, Sedeh (’09) Subs: At halftime, Rodriguez comes on for Easterly (and Hernandez shifts to RCB while Rodriguez takes the hybrid stopper spot) and Vega comes on for Alvarez. Soon after the third goal, Fuentes, Eason (’09), Gibson, and Vejrostek (’09) come on for Jordan, Hart (Sedeh goes to the #9), Wygant, and Vo. Goal(s): · 23:09 – FCD in possession at halfway. Vo walks it forward into the final third, finding Lee between the lines in the left halfspace. Lee dwells a moment under no pressure before turning and playing Molomo down the left side of the box. Molomo hits a first-time cross low at the top of the six, and Hart’s made the urgent run around his CB to get there and tap it home. · 1:02:21 – Vo in possession near halfway on the left side. He quickly finds Sedeh in the pocket, and Sedeh plays immediately flat to Hernandez in the middle. Hernandez takes a touch forward and hits Saucedo wide open in the right halfspace about 35 yards out. Saucedo carries to the edge of the box, cuts onto his left, and shoots from 18 yards off the far-side crossbar, down, and in. · 1:28:34 – Vo cleans up a CC pass that trickles through to his side and he turns toward halfway where he finds Saucedo checking across the middle. Saucedo executes a very nice turn to get away from his marker and burst upfield before hitting Molomo out on the LW in the final third. Molomo tries to flick it around the corner for Sedeh, but it doesn’t quite come off, and then a cavalcade of errors happens for about 10sec before Molomo gets the ball again dribbling at the box. He pushes it into Hart for a 1-2 at the top of the box, but it’s cut out and Hart gathers the loose ball, finishing lefty, low, and far post from about 17 yards out. Ugly goal. · 1:49:31 – FCD regains possession after CC clears a CK, and the ball swings out to Saucedo on the left wing. He (again, see the 1:37:23 chance below) dribbles through about five defenders to get to the top of the box and fire from just inside the D, scoring in the left upper corner. · 2:04:18 – Vejrostek is on the ball in the left halfspace well inside CC’s half. He dwells for a few seconds before measuring a pass to Eason, who’s checking into the space right in front of the CBs on the near side of the D from his spot on the RW. Eason flicks it through his legs and out to Sedeh on the other side of the D, and Sedeh receives the ball while spinning to get around the CC LB who was following Eason. Sedeh takes a touch forward while riding some contact and hits a hard shot low into the far half of goal, scoring through the GK’s outstretched hand. Pretty sweet goal. Other Key Chances: · 25:08 – Easterly’s on the ball in his half and he drives into midfield up the right halfspace before laying it off to Sedeh inside (after some smart movement from Sedeh to adjust to Easterly’s run). Sedeh takes a touch forward into the attacking third before passing wide left to Molomo, who attacks the box on the dribble, jigging around a couple of defenders before poking the ball back to Sedeh just beyond the PK spot. Sedeh lets the ball run across himself before taking his first touch back onto his left to make a space to shoot and hits one hard to the GK’s left, forcing a smart diving save. Ball goes out for a CK. · 29:11 – Wygant loses a ball near the sideline and CC carries upfield a ways before a touch gets loose and Hernandez swoops in the bang a clearance over the top that Lee and Hart run onto. Hart challenges for the ball, allowing it to run through to Lee, who shoots from the top of the box, forcing a nice, low save from the GK. The rebound goes to Hart, but he was offside at the time of the shot. · 44:08 – Saucedo drew a foul in the middle of the field about 33 yards from CC’s goal. Alvarez is standing over it but plays square to Vo on the right, and Vo cuts back onto his left and lofts a ball at the back post, where Easterly has come free, rising up to meet the ball about nine yards out and direct a header at goal. Not a bunch of power on it; easy save. · 54:24 – a CC CB stumbles on the ball near the sideline as Hernandez rushes in and strips him of the ball. Hernandez then posts up and flicks the ball behind his back and around the corner to Hart moving at the left side of the box. Hart picks his head up and rolls the ball to Lee wide open at the back post. Lee gets there just before the GK and can’t poke it past him. Lee collects the rebound and recycles possession. · 1:30:36 – Wygant cuts around a presser and bursts to midfield before flipping it out to Lee over midway and overlapping. Lee turns and carries to the right corner of the box before going around a CB to the endline and cutting it back across the face of goal, where a retreating defender manages to clear it out before an FCD player can get there. · 1:37:23 – Molomo throw-in down on the left side in CC’s half. He goes to Vega, who takes a touch forward and then pokes a ball through to the endline to chase. He turns and goes back to Lee, who goes back to Molomo, who goes back to Saucedo near the sideline about 45 yards from goal. Saucedo then dribbles straight through about five defenders to get to the left side of the six yard box and try to finish over the onrushing GK, only for him to block the shot out for a CK. · 1:57:43 – Hernandez has given away a FK about 28 yards out from FCD’s goal. Kick’s taken and strikes the wall and the taker recovers it before passing out right where CC has a 4-on-2 going. One attackers gets it, turns, pulls away from his marker (Vega), carries into the box, and fires from about 15 yards out, forcing a nice low save from Fuentes. Notes: · As per usual with this team, the formation flexes between a 343 and a 433 / 4231 with Hernandez stepping up as a #6 or sitting back as a CB. He runs everywhere and does everything. Sneaky two-footed too. · Not a great chance, but crazy how quickly FCD goes back to front at 19:05. Easterly finds Sedeh in behind, but his shot isn’t great while being harried by two recovering defenders. · What happened to any of Moreira, Razo, and Bronald? None of them are getting much run with this group this year. · Sedeh and Wygant obviously get a look here, but over players I would have thought FCD rated in the ’08 group: Rosales/Vega and Gibson. Anyway, Sedeh was up and down – too many unnecessary turnovers in midfield. Vega was impressive after he came on (as basically a true #10 in front of Saucedo and the flexing CB/DM Rodriguez). · Much better from Easterly early in this game at finding useful passes when he drives into midfield. Maybe benefits from losing his security blanket named Gibson at RWB. · Related, Sedeh’s pretty good at peeling off of defenders into channels to receive the ball in midfield. Makes space for himself a few times that way. · Whatever happened with Molomo back around the end of last year is clearly behind him. He’s been blowing away this age group of MLS Next for about six months. Devastating from that LWB spot. Excited to see if he gets a real shot with NTX next year. Not without room for improvement (see 34:41 – if you’re reading Sedeh’s run, you’ve got to see that he’s dragging two defenders across and leaving the entire back post open for Hart; also struggling in 1v1 duels). · Back onto my thing about two-footedness being a MASSIVE value unlock for basically any field position. Watch Easterly turn back at 28:16 – if it’s mirrored and he could hit the pass with his right, that ball is 100% going to Saucedo wide open in the center circle (the pass into Saucedo in that pocket was on all day, by the way). Instead, Easterly goes backwards because he doesn’t even think to hit the left-footed pass. Money left on the table. · Vo’s a fine LCB (where he’s been for most of this season), maybe even good, but I think they’re wasting him back there (doesn’t project to be a pro LCB based on frame). See 33:07 – with his weaker right foot, hits a perfect cross-field diagonal through the channel into Wygant’s path, and the only reason it doesn’t connect is because Wygant stops running because he thinks it’s gonna be intercepted. Get this guy on the ball in midfield and let him cook (have him replace Alvarez and play Vejrostek as your LCB). I mean, all of FCD’s goals while he’s on the field start on his foot. · Nice team play at 54:55 that is eventually called offside (erroneously?). Vo to Sedeh to Saucedo to Lee. · Tadesse Hart seems to be making the full-time shift to ST this year. I think that suits him much more than W, where I basically rated him as an end-of-the-roster Academy player. At the #9, he can be dangerous leading the press and darting into different spots in the box and he doesn’t have to do volume on the ball to be effective. Not sure I prefer him to Meese and would definitely prefer either Rosales or Wostl, but at least they’re not still trying to make him dribble past guys. · I just can’t quit believing that Saucedo’s dribbling tool is going to turn him into something.
I’m with you on Molomo @Agent_Orange. Watched two of their games earlier this season and I thought he looked great.
Shots fired... but also, no lies detected (plenty of salt though) Congrats to all the grown men who won a reserve development league, hope you feel good about yourselves. FC Dallas are such a joke, how can you claim to have one of the best academies in the country but only play two prospects when it matters most.— American Ultras Talk (@ameriultrastalk) November 10, 2024
Kind of a stupid argument. Two teams that didn't make the playoffs arguing about who had the best reserve team. North Texas was the better team all year long. If we're not talking about who had the higher ceiling UYSNT prospects, but who had the best team, then it was Dallas. Philly II should have won that game. They had a 2-0 lead. But they didn't........................ FCD just built their reserve team differently than Philly II. As we said earlier in these threads, theirs is really a U23 team. Evaluating draft picks, trialists, signees, etc. in the Bernard Kamungo vein rather than a direct academy link. The winning goal is indicative of that. Draft pick Herbert Endeley (a forward they're converting to a fullback) to Tomas Pondeca (a trialist that came from USA futsal) to Pedrinho (a young Brazilian they signed from Flamengo). Pedrinho's father, by the way, is former Brazilian international Beto. They do play young USYNTers and youth internationals. Like their starting midfield of Nolan Norris and Diego Garcia. PEDRINHO CALLS GAME!📺 #MLSSeasonPass: https://t.co/wH3dUjy08z pic.twitter.com/HTHZ9Pzc0v— MLS NEXT Pro (@MLSNEXTPRO) November 10, 2024
Not sure I understand why anyone would be upset. Teams are free to build a roster as they see fit. Philly chose to use basically all local HG kids and FCD chose to use mostly 21-24 year old players they scouted around the world. FCD was easily the better team last night, but Philly has a clear pipeline with their young players while FCD doesn’t come close. I have zero issue with how they have chosen to use older players. What I do have a problem with is replacing 19 year old Tarik Scott who started 20 games and scored 8 goals with a 22 year old first team player. That reeks of desperation.