It's a bit strange since the Olympics haven't happened yet but the draft has, but a reminder that there will be a spring college soccer season. Soccer America has a useful round-up of what that means: Play begins next week in 12 men's conferences. Even though the start of the 2021 season is just around the corner, not all conferences have released their schedules or announced their plans for postseason play. The NCAA will hold scaled-back tournaments for both men and women at the D1 level in April and May. https://www.socceramerica.com/publi...-ncaa-division-i-mens-soccer-spring-2021.html I guess we need to let the '97 YOB cutoff ride for this thread? Or should we get going on the next round and skip to '01s and younger?
I think we should meet in the middle and really note the 99’s and younger because there’s likely 1-2 players in that age group who could still emerge. But I don’t think it’s worth talking about the 97 and 98’s anymore in youth threads unless it’s about if they’re in serious contention for the Olympic team
I think its time to turn the page and go with the 01s. I'd find it hard to believe that any of the players being discussed in this thread will be on the CONCACAF U23 Championships or Olympic (hopefully) squads.....................
Is all the discussion in this section only geared towards YNT's? A lot of the discussion is general discussion about the players. There are going to be some players younger than '01 emerge from college soccer that will be good MLS contributors (or better). They won't be any less relevant towards YNT's than any of the multitude of bad professional '97's-'00 that are discussed in this section.
Man, next time I'll just make up a dang rule rather than asking a question. It seems to me it's fine to make this thread for '01s and younger playing collegiately in 2021. Of course, I haven't even looked. Are there any?
1356081757418737667 is not a valid tweet id It’s good the path exists for late bloomers and some who fall through the cracks, but right now a few guys who play a couple years of college ball can maybe improve enough to one day get up to the B team (Jordan Morris the exception that proves the rule)... without major changes to college soccer will that even be the case a decade from now?
And outside of Dike and Freese, the rest were born '97 or later. Zimmerman most likely would've been an Atlanta United HG player, Lewis an Inter Miami HG had they been around at the time. With the shift in Chicago, Pineda would've been signed before college, Chris Mueller likely would've been a Fire academy product. Unlikely a Cristian Roldan gets overlooked by both the Galaxy and LAFC. Yueill a Minnesota United academy player, or maybe not with whatever they're doing up there. There's a reason colleges have been recruiting internationally a lot these past few years. Hoping to find a Julian Gressel.
Some numbers... In yet another sign of how things are changing for the #USMNT and American soccer, of the 70 players Berhalter has capped, 44 DNP @NCAASoccer and only 9 played 4 seasons of college ball.— Brooke Tunstall (@YesThatBrooke) February 1, 2021
Camp Cupcake keeping the college players numbers, especially the ones who didn't leave early, from being any lower. Besides Matt Turner yesterday, Chase Gasper (20) and Christian Ramirez (19) got their only caps at the end of January camp. Same with Jeremy Ebobisse (19), who played 2 years of college soccer. Besides Turner yesterday, AJ Herrera (3 years of college soccer) and Daryl Dike (2 years) are the former college players to make their USMNT debuts after January camp. As more and more American players turn pro as teenagers and the few elite ones that do matriculate to college leave early, I suspect we'll see fewer college players, especially 4-year ones, even in January camp. There will always be exceptions in American soccer who, for whatever reasons, play 4 years of college ball and still have a good enough pro career to get some looks with the national team. But the day has already arrived when players like Aaron Long, Matt Turner and Chris Mueller having sustained looks from the USMNT are the exception and not the norm.
One collegian who had an interesting season was Penn State freshman '01 Peter Mangione, who had 6 goals and 6 assists on a winning team. https://gopsusports.com/sports/mens-soccer/roster/peter-mangione/10637 He's a Baltimore guy who spent some time in Orlando's academy but mostly played elsewhere. I haven't seen him play but just figured I would call it out. His father is Sam, not Chuck, but that won't stop me from posting this:
And, for the heck of it, one more: Pitt Soph. Veljko Petkovic, an '01 who has had two good seasons statistically for the Panthers. The USSDA says he's American (though he appears to be from BIH) and he played for NYCFC -- this season, he was fifth in total points nationally. http://nyfc.ussoccerda.com/sam/teams/index.php?team=1655947&player=74885021 https://pittsburghpanthers.com/sports/mens-soccer/roster/veljko-petkovic/11001 “OH MY GOODNESS A WONDER GOAL FROM VELJKO PETKOVIC!”Thoughts on this @SportsCenter?#H2P | #SCTop10 pic.twitter.com/9nrFAfF4xU— Pitt Men's Soccer (@Pitt_MSOC) May 10, 2021
Congrats to Marshall, which won the title this spring, beating Indiana in the final. Looking at its roster, it's somewhat what you might expect in 2021 -- long on international players (notably Germany and Brazil) with a national reach for Americans. In terms of regular season minutes, the biggest contributor of possible interest here would seem to be '01 Jacob Adams, a redshirt freshman who was in the Riverhounds academy.