http://tinyurl.com/dz9a And no Adu, Jr on the roster this time... Wonder why? U.S. Under-15 BNT Roster Goalkeepers (2): Bryant Rueckner (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.), Stephen Sandbo (Columbus, Ohio) Defenders (7): Jesse Henderson (West Bloomfiled, Mich.), Eric Lichaj (Downers Grove, Ill.), Ofori Sarkodie (Huber Heights, Ohio), Jeff Scannella (Alpharetta, Ga.), Julian Valentin (Lancaster, Penn.), Kenneth Walker (Wickliffe, Ohio), Tim Ward (Waukesha, Wisc.) Midfielders (5): Kevin Austin (Baltimore, Md.), Michael Bradley (Pennington, N.J.), Michael Dalpra (Bronxville, N.Y.), Brian Mascarnehas (Marietta, Ga.), Dan Szetela (Clifton, N.J.) Forwards (4): Bruce Ayala (Maspeth, N.Y.), Rodrigo Hidalgo (Atlantis, Fla.), Quavas Kirk (Aurora, Ill.), Blake Wagner (Tampa, Fla.).
I don't know much about an of the pre-17s; I don't tend to get too involved until they get to the U17 level. The only reason I noticed this was because Adu, Jr (or whatever we are calling him) was on the U15s when they played last. I looked on the roster expecting to find him and, when he wasn't there, I figured I'd post here to ask someone why...
This appears to be a mix of 87s and 88s. Bradley's kid I believe is an '87, and Kirk and Lichaj, both Chicago Magic kids, are '88s. Is the age rule here that you can turn 16 in the year of competition, and still be classifed as U15, a la Olympic and other international competition? That would explain the mix of '87s and '88s here.
Geography You mean West. Yes, quite odd. The effect is so pronounced it's hard to believe that it's coincidental.
Sandbo,Valentin,Ward, Mascarnehas,Szetela,Bradley and Hidalgo are all 87's that have been in residency on the U-17's. Sandbo,Valentin,Ward,and Szetela were on the U-17 team that recently was in S Korea. The rest are 88's. The tournament in Italy is a U-16 event and the U-15 coaching staff requsted a few of the 87 residency players for the trip.
You mean all the '87s that were in residency. Robbie Rogers was also listed on the original roster posted on the tournament website. This should be a good tournament for developmental purposes, but I can't us getting many results when more than half our roster is playing a year up.
Hell, who does at age 11? The reason we're even having this discussion is because Freddy's one in a zillion! A kid that has half the talent of Freddy might be a great player. If Freddy, Jr. has to live up to comments like "he's extremely overrated and nothing like Freddy" when he is 11 years old, I don't know if the kid has a chance. I almost feel bad for the kid - he obviously has a great talent to have made the U15s at age 11 but if he has to live up to Freddy? Man - it has to be tough to be told at 11 that "you'll never be as good as your brother" or to have to live up to Freddy's talent.
Italy - USA (R) USA gets crushed 5-0 in the opener. http://www.mundialito.it/images_2003/file/risultati.htm
Certainly not a great result and Germany will be extremely tough. Very large team. I think we need to keep in mind that we are playing the Italian and German U16 national teams with 5 players from our U16 national team and 12 from our U15 team. This team had a chance to train twice together before playing the Italians. Additionally, there is a tremendous developement difference between 15 and 16 year olds.
U15 Setup In hindsight, this trip was set up to fail - 1) Relatively speaking, our U15s are worse off than our U17s. The 17s have had the advantage of daily, year-around play at a high level at Bradenton. The 15s are kids practicing 2x or 3x per week at their local clubs -- far behind what those Italian or German kids are experiencing. 2) The age difference, as you mention -- mostly U15s against U16s. 3) For whatever reason, it's an East/Midwest only squad. I looked -- the bigger U.S. U15 pool has a lot of California/West Coast kids. But they weren't brought on this trip. 4) Squad is brand new and hasn't had a chance to play together. (Although that may be true of the Italians & Germans, too?) 5) Damn good competition -- this isn't like starting off against El Salvador and Haiti. Maybe it's some kind of hazing ritual? You know, scare the new national youth team recruits, show 'em how much better they need to be to be competitive? Otherwise, I don't really understand this trip ... because the lambs are being led to slaughter.
Re: U15 Setup The 17s have had year round training basically against themselves while most of the other U17 national team players from around the world play against older youth and reserve team players day in and day out. So, while Bradenton is better than local club team participation, it is still not ideal. #4 is just an excuse IMHO. These Euro teams don't put as much stock into youth tournaments so it's highly likely that their players have played together much either.
Re: Re: U15 Setup Agreed. As my Juventus friend says, "But who do those guys in Florida play?" With Bradenton, we go from 100 yards behind to 40 yards behind.
Re: Re: U15 Setup Germany's U-16 team has played 11 international games since Sept 2002. I'm sure the other European teams have played a similar number of games. 26.08.2002 Switzerland (1:1) 28.08.2002 Switzerland (3:1) 20.10.2002 Wales (2:1) 22.10.2002 Wales (3:0) 12.11.2002 Netherlands (2:1) 15.11.2002 Spain (1:1) 18.11.2002 England (2:2) 18.03.2003 France (1:3) 20.03.2003 France (2:3) 08.04.2003 Austria (1:2) 10.04.2003 Austria (1:1) I agree with John that this is like a hazing before they get to Bradenton.
Let's see how they fare against Germany. Imagine and hope that this will serve notice to the 88's that playing for the US against other national teams is quite different than the region trips where they have been exposed to playing international junior club teams. In July the full 87' U16 team will be in England playing. That should be a read on how we are playing.