i hope you're not talking about that galaxy jersey at the top of the page. those are TERRIBLE!! but freddy on the roster. lookin' good! i bet he scores AT LEAST 10 or 12 goals. before halftime.
Let's face it... the kid is legally thirteen, but he is really probably fifteen. He doesn't look like he is any younger than the rest of his teammates to me. In any case it is not an issue becuase he is playing in the U-17's. This is my opinion. That said, this is far and away the best U-17 team we have ever fielded. Every player on the field is a future pro for sure. I think that they will be competitive with the top teams like Spain and France for the first time. In the past we have had individuals who were at the top level, but only a few. ALL of these guys are awesome, even the defenders. They are an attacking team, but they have structure on offense and maintain possession very well, unlike most of our teams of the past. I am predicting a top four finish for these guys, and they have a real chance to win it all. Compared to the U-20's, the 17's have much less of an experience disadvantage. Probably no one in the tourney has any real pro experience.
CHICAGO -- Freddy Adu, a 13-year-old forward from Ghana who gained U.S. citizenship this month, was among 18 players picked Tuesday for the American team that will attempt to qualify for the FIFA Under-17 World Championship. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=259170&cc=5901 In North and Central American and Caribbean qualifying, the U.S. team plays Jamaica on March 5, El Salvador on March 7 and host Guatemala on March 9. The winner of the four-team group qualifies for the tournament, scheduled for Aug. 13-30 in Finland.
adu is the third smallest guy on the team. so he doesnt do what he does by being bigger than everyone else. im tired of all this he cant be 13 stuff, no one has ever had any proof that he is not. and im sure every team he has torched has wanted to argue it but no one has found anything, nothing at all. so i think people really need to drop it. do you think ellinger and arena would risk US Soccer by fielding an player with illegal/incorrect documents, if they had a doubt about his age???
It’s like knowing you aced a test, and you have known it for a while, but when you actually see the A on top of the test, that is a whole other feeling. That was the point I was trying to get across, but it’s hard to articulate that one.
I'm pretty sure it's just one European-based player: GK Quentin Westberg. Jonathan Spector has just signed to join Manchester United, but hasn't started there yet and Julian Valentin doesn't play for THE Leeds United. Julian Valentin played for FC Leeds United in Lancaster, PA, not England, before joining the academy in Bradenton, FL. Here's the club's website with a write-up about Valentin: http://www.fcleedsunited.com/whatsnew.asp. I wonder how often the media will get this wrong. Already today the NY Times' Jack Bell totally botched it in his article (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/25/sports/soccer/26SOCC.html. Sorry, Jack Bell. You should have done just a little research. And a moderate dose of skepticism never hurt either.
There's only one that I know of--Quentin Westberg(sic) who plays with a youth team in France. That Valentin kid lists his club as Leeds United, but that is a rip off name of a club in Pennsylvania.
If every player on the field is a future pro, why are so many of them going to college? What formation does this team play, and what position does Eddie Gaven project to at the MLS level? He seems to play forward for the U17s, but I've seen him projected as a holding/dmid in the pros.
Thank you. This is a talented team, no dount, but it's a little early to project them all to become pros. Brandon Owens is a 6-0 centerback. If he doesn't keep growing, he might be a little small for the pros at that position. Chris Germani, the left back, is like a southpawed version of Steve Cherundolo. But, like Stevie, he's wee, only 5-6. That could hurt him if doesn't keep growing. And Brian Grazier, the D-mid, is good but it remains to be seen how far he'll advance. Two players who are likely future pros are right back Adrian Chevannes and right mid John DiRaimando. The latter is supposed to be a trememndous crosser who also has a good nose for goal. The former is a physical specimen in the Onyewu mold who is still more athlete than soccer player but is learning fast. While Adu, Gaven, Spector and Memo get most of the ink, and deservedly so, those other 2 players are star quality and should be getting some hype as well. BTW, pretty embarassing gaffe by the Times guy. Didn't it strike him as odd that A) there was a kid playing at Leeds and he'd never heard about it and B) that while they listed Troyes as being in France, they didn't list Leeds as being in England. Gaven's former youth club is called Hibernians and they're a team in Jersey, not Scotland. Good thing he signed with the Metros or Bell could have had another one wrong.
Westberg joined Troyes this season from INF (Institut National de Football) Clairefontaine, a French national youth academy.