Here is my best 23 for the '03 age group. GK: Jones, Cordes, Watson DF: Cuevas, Halliday, Walls, Che, Ferkranus, Huckaby, Gomez, Sorenson MF: Leyva, Karumanchi, Chifamba, Quinones, Nyeman, Garcia, Sarver, Paredes FW: Pepi, Roou, Bernal Best XI: Jones Cuevas-Che-Walls-Gomez Chifamba-Leyva Nyeman Sarver-Pepi-Garcia
If Jonathan Perez decided to come back to USA would you have him in this roster as a 10 or wing? I think he’s a quality player but this is an abnormally good age group. Also if you took a stab at a 2006 11 what would it be?
I’d drop a CB from the roster for Perez, and he’d be the backup for Nyeman. I find this age group to be the hardest one for players to get into. I realized after I made this list that I didn’t even include Sealy or Freeman, two players that would probably make it in almost any other age group, but IMO, they simply aren’t best 23. A second 23 of the 2003’s would be extremely strong, as well. I don’t want to put out an XI of 2006 because I simply don’t know enough. I couldn’t name an XI of players from that age group that I think are good prospects because I haven’t seen enough of that age group to give an opinion on 11 good players in the age group. Someone like @bpet15 would probably give a more informed take.
I’d like to thank you for your dedication to this. I’ve probably watched 100+ games over the years of the 97s and younger, I still don’t think I’d trust my eleven. The fact that you can do this is pretty wild. I have only seen like 7 of these players play.
I agree with all of this. The other change I would make is swapping out Bernal for Sealy because I think Sealy has very high upside and if he can continue his Nike friendlies form where he was the best 03 imo then I think he may be a starter for this group. He really needs to show it in USL and MLS this year. For the 06’s I can think of starters for every position except one CB, RB, and LB. Every other position has an early emerged player who is very talented. Bajung Darboe, Aaron Heard, Matthew Cochoran, Mark Cajamarca, Adrian Simons-Gill, Cole Campbell, Michael Luande, Diego Bravo-Acosta, Gabriel Brandon, and Diego Kochen are all very good talents. I know nothing about full backs from that age group though. @ChuckMe92 and @bpet15 probably have a spreadsheet full of them already.
Man, I wish I did and this is the time of year I would normally begin to identify this age group. You definitely have four or so (Darboe, Corcoran, Cajamarca, Heard) domestic players that really stand out, but after that I really just haven’t seen enough of them play. Come to think of it, I really haven’t seen any outside backs that really stand out. There is a kid named Ryan Reid at SKC that I really like. He is a winger. My withdrawal symptoms are really starting to show up.
My only way to hold onto sanity is Watke's spreadsheet of all of the DA games. I have to work from home in isolation and it's the only thing keeping me from going crazy.
Maybe @ussoccer97531 can start a thread for the 2006 age group, just to keep things consistent. It's very early in the cycle right now and these kids are just now starting to make their mark, but it would be a good place to go for discussion on this age.
Check out The U15 program 2020-21 It doesn't directly list about being for the 06's but most people who will have made their way to the youth national team forums probably know that already.
So, by my count, there are already 13 03s who are signed to MLS contracts. Javier Casas, M, CHI Cade Cowell, F, SJ Tyler Freeman, F, KC Christopher Garcia, M/F, RSL Brian Gutierrez, M, CHI Danny Leyva, M, SEA Alex Monis, F, CHI Moses Nyeman, M, DC Kevin Paredes, M, DC Ricardo Pepi, F, DAL Jonathan Perez, M, LAG Dante Sealy, F, DAL Casey Walls, D, SJ If you figure several of these guys make up the core of their (2023) U20 cycle, it's going to have am unprecedented (for the US) amount of pro experience for a U20 cycle.
Sam Sarver, Mauricio Cuevas, Elton Chifamba, Anthony Sorenson, Selmir Micsic, and Patrick Bohui are the others I’m expecting to sign in MLS before they graduate high school
Not an expert on the year, but a second-team 23 might be something like: GK (3): Gavin Krenecki, Anthony Ramos, Andre Zuluaga DF (8): Prince Amponsah, Niklas Dossmann, Kyle Genenbacher, Jacob Greene, Noah Hall, Adam Lundegard, Jalen Neal, Ralph Orquin CM/AM (9): Javier Casas, Gerardo Duran, Tyler Freeman, Jeremy Garay, Jack McGlynn, Nick Pariano, Daniel Rios, Dante Sealy, Tyler Wolff CF (3): Patrick Bohui-Kader, Cade Cowell, Patrick Weah Shaping up to be a good year. There are some other wild cards like Jonathan Perez, Kevin Bright, Vaughn Covil, and Patrick Leal. (And Bryan Okoh, however unlikely.)
What I think is notable about age group is that there is actual defender depth. Most other age groups have 1-2 defenders who standout but the 2003’s have guys in the second team who i think are impressive players.
Luckily lately what is a weakness in one age group has tended to be a strength in the one in front of and behind. Woe would be us if every group had the very same strengths and weaknesses in positions. We sort of used to be this way with a lot of good to great keepers, really good defensive but not very able attacking defenders, one dimensional midfielders and occasionally good attackers. lots of those players got tons of caps because there was little competition. I expect those cap records to not be broken as more and better players emerge and no players ever get 150+ caps again.
Let's take a stab at a third-team 23 for '03s who would accept a call-up now. This isn't a bad team. I'm surely missing others. GK (3): Mitchell Budler, Isaac Acevedo, Andrew Noel DF (8): Adrian Aguilar, Jalen Calloway, Israel Carrillo, Benjamin Do, Mitchell Ferguson, Dylan Hooper, Tom-Julian Kanowski, Eric Kinzer CM/AM (9): Paxten Aaronson, Kevin Bright, Matteo Carbone, Caden Clark, Vaughn Covil, Brian Gutierrez, Sota Kitahara, Patrick Leal, Selmir Miscic CF (3): Alex Monis, Tega Ikoba, Caden Stafford
Patrick Weah is listed on the DA site with Liberian citizenship, but @charlie kennan confirmed Weah has US citizenship and is able to represent USYNTs; just hasn't been called up yet. Striker who trained with Minnesota United first team in preseason and could be a HGP candidate.
Patrick Weah like the other members of his family is physically dominant and very good on the ball. His weakness is off the ball positioning. The first HG prospect at any club comes with a risk of the Andrew Carleton treatment but he is an amazing prospect.
Hopefully he's better than this guy (US-eligible at one time) whose uncle ruled a country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faiq_Bolkiah