YNT-eligible MLS players: 2020 In-season thread

Pomykal always blew me away at the youth level compared to how Busio did. But Oscar Pareja did terrible job bringing Pax into the first team just like how I think Peter Vermes has done a bad job helping Busio improve his game.

I think Busio does have potential at the 8 but he has a major flaw in that position because Busio is very nonchalant in his movement off the ball. Busio gets on the ball maybe 7-8 times a half which is not nearly enough and a lot of it really has to do with his off the ball movement not being direct enough. Brenden Aaronson has this same problem but Brenden at least creates goal scoring opportunities on the ball.

Busio has a great MLS career ahead of him but nothing in his game points to him getting to a level above that

 

As we hopefully approach FCD versus Nashville it seems like Servania is in doubt.

Luchi call:

team has a few knocks, Servania for example he says hasn't been able to train in a week and a half.

— 3rd Degree (@3rdDegreeNet) August 5, 2020

And no surprise here. Cannon has been the consummate professional since arriving with FCD.

Luchi says Cannon's mindset is amazing, really mature. He's focused on the present and if focused on FC Dallas. "Control what he can control."

— 3rd Degree (@3rdDegreeNet) August 5, 2020

 

True enough on the U17 angle.

 

For obvious reasons I watched several Disney land matches of him and he was, being politely, not good.
So this could be because of the odd circumstances soccer matches take place in. I saw top Euro club matches with top players not playing well either after the corona break.
Of course I'venot watched pre corona matches of him, so I have no material to compare his current performance with.
For Busio I hope what he showed was just a corona dip.

 

He was a good U17 player but I agree with you. He can't run, his touch is good but not great. Isn't going to grow, get faster, or bigger to be a defensive ball winner.
Just stopped developing. Kinda does remind me of the Joe Corona line. You want him to be good but he just isn't.

 

B. Aaronson with a great game in the semifinals tonight against Portland tonight. All the more impressive that it was done against one of the best bulldogs in MLS -- he owned Charra on at least a couple of occasions while showing flash, tidiness, and athleticism. Great to see how he has come along over the last 12-16 months.

Sounds like he's heading to Germany any week now.

 

His teammates didn't put a lot of efforts into getting him a ball. The first 20 mins of the second half they kept the ball strictly on the right sideline letting Aaronson run around waving his hands.

 

Monteiro, especially, was pretty poor. Despite that, Aaronson created a lot of danger.

 

Yup nearly had a pretty nice assist running at defenders. Was marginally offsides.

Announcers were saying there is now some serious interest. I think they had said there are offers already being made.

 

Seems like he is going to be sold. Anyone have a guess at a value??

 

So we're not even gonna discuss that Jeremy Ebobisse scored for the fourth time in the tournament or that Eryk Williamson was arguably man of the match and has emerged as one of the best two-way mids in the MLS is Back tournament?

On a team loaded with Latin American national teamers* and veterans of European soccer, a kid who played three seasons at the University of Maryland has been its best player not named Sebastian Blanco.

Maybe we should talk about that for a bit.

*Portland has 15 players on its roster who have been capped by a senior national team (including Villafana and Ebobisse and his 1 cap).

 

Don't forget that Williamson played in Portugal. So, he could be considered a veteran of European soccer...

He has made strange career decisions, but is playing well.

Ebobisse is a classic case of the fact that strikers just take time to cook. It is rare to have one as young as Haaland doing as well as he is. It is rare to even have one at Sargent's age doing what he is doing. Dempsey, Altidore, McBride all broke out at Ebobisse's age or older.

If you divide the #9 that Gregg wants into three jobs, Ebobisse can probably do all them at a good level. I haven't watched him enough to know if he can distribute with a guy on his back or press, but he is technically sound in a way Zardes is not. He seems to be able to get in the box as well as Zardes and finishes as well. Ebobisse should probably get a run and any minutes Zardes was going to get over the next 9 months.

https://chasingacup.com/my-league-is-better-than-your-league/

 

Yea good point. I think there’s less excitement about those two given that they’re a bit older, and we’ve seen what Ebobisse is capable of.

I might be alone but I see a higher ceiling for Williamson compared to Ebobisse. I’d be excited about Ebobisse if I saw that he was more dangerous from outside the box and was able to create more chances for himself. He had a great goal from a wide angle on the left previously, but I’d need to see more like that. I see his ceiling being capped by his technical skills.

Williamson has a more complete range of skills for his position from his defensive work, his distribution, and he has the ability to dribble past players with a decent shot! He just needs more game time to improve on his decision making. He’s a more aggressive #6/8, outside of last night his aggression has caused some turnovers is bad spots, but if he plays like he did last night consistently then we could see him in Europe at some point.

 

Ebobisse is on pace for a very quiet 20+ goal season if we had a full one. Nothing's been spectacular, but that's a pretty good scoring rate even for MLS.

I've watched pretty much all MLS is Back and I'm glad Eryk Williamson is getting run, but I did not get second best performance on the Timbers out of his play.

I think he's been holding his own and adding a little here and there. But he's got Diego Chara to clean up and a decent run of creators in front of him. He's doing his job, but his job is pretty low in impact. What am I missing?

 

Regarding Williamson, he is a great fit for the Timber's system, but he's a cog more than a standout. Cogs are extremely important, but it also means there are serious limitations. I think he compares to Roldan in a lot of ways. He's a nice player but pretty pedestrian when compared to accomplished players like Adams and McKennie and other up and comers like Pomykal and Tessman -- all of whom are younger.

 

Yep. That's more of what I am saying. His emergence has been a big plus for the Timbers, because in MLS if you can get solid players for cheap out of nowhere, it's a big plus.

But cog seems a good word to me.

 

Roldan used to be a lot more than a cog. He was another big Pac NW standout MLS' club's key player arguably. He's just devolved into an anonymous one.

Williamson has more potential because he has more athleticism and dynamism. Needs to pick up the effort/involvements. And he should be motivated by playing in MLS to not stagnate like Roldan. This is a new experience for him, for now.

 

https://voetbalflitsen.nl/nieuws/fj...en-bekijkt-twee-middenvelders-tijdens-topduel

Today I learned that Aaronson plays for SKC and Busio can play center back. @feyenoordsoccerfan, is this publication remotely trustworthy?

 

For me it’s hard to get too excited because Ebobisse and Williamson are finally breaking out in the MLS at 23. These guys are 1-2 years away from their prime and most likely won’t get much better. I’m happy to see it as an MLS fan but as a USMNT fan they really shouldn’t get excited about anyone at all at their age unless they’re a CB or GK... especially when we have younger players breaking out both domestic and abroad.

 

Yeah, I felt like that was right along the lines of what you were saying.

For Ebobisse, I'm not ready to say much about him one way or the other -- it seems like he has a ways to go before reaching his ceiling, but also doesn't seem certain that he will reach that ceiling. He appears to be on the verge of being a lock MLS starter, but I don't see him ever becoming a really dynamic attacking player. His finishing ability is good but could still progress quite a bit, which would put him at a pretty high level and probably a pretty decent national team player.

For what it's worth, it does appear that Portland has handled both of these guys' careers very well considering their role and success right now as they are still yet to enter their prime years.

 

That was pretty much how ALL of our best players broke out with a few exceptions. The typical pathway was to first go to college than enter pro soccer. Altidore was the one player above that didn't go to college. It might be interesting to list the all time great US players that didn't play college soccer. The list would be pretty short. I am sure others could come up with a few but I can think of O'Brien, Beasley, Bradley and Donovan. Altidore too but I don't know if he fits in with all time greats or not? Who else? (guys raised in other countries don't count for this list...Stewart, Jones, Dooley etc)

 

Our forward pool is so shallow, though....................that Ebobisse getting on a scoring roll is important.

How many U23 forwards have actually scored goals for far this MLS season?

Ayo Akinola
Jonathan Lewis
Jeremy Ebobisse
Ricardo Pepi

Who am I missing?

It seems like a million years ago that Ricardo Pepi scored against Montreal.

It seems to me that Ebobisse being in good form is crucial if the CONCACAF U23 Championships are actually happening again in our lifetimes.

Heck, one can convince me to include Ebobisse even if the Euros are hypothetically available. Sargent and Weah, sure. But after that, am I picking Soto or somebody of that ilk over a forward actually scoring goals in real life?

 

You've got the main guys.

TIm Howard is the obvious one here if we're including goalkeepers.

I think you travel pretty far down the caps list to get to the next guy. I think it might be Hugo Perez actually.

 

Wynalda turned pro at 20. But hard to pin an actual breakout for him. Altidore turned pro at 18. Had his breakout season at AZ at 22-23. Eddie Johnson turned pro at 17. Not sure he ever really had a great season. Had his first productive season at 20-21. Agudelo turned pro at 18; but never really had a big season.

But, true, most American players started older.

 

Forgot about Hugo Perez. Didn't know Howard skipped college.