YNT-Eligible MLS Players, 2026 In-Season Thread

Olympic hopeful Nolan Norris continues his run of good games for FC Dallas, scores his first ever pro goal against Seattle tonight

A dream realized.

Homegrown Nolan Norris scores his first career MLS goal‼️ pic.twitter.com/YLqTWPNOKn

— FC Dallasić (@FCDallas) April 26, 2026

 

He didn't score it, but Dos Santos hit the heck out of a FK against Cincy, and it's notable I suppose that they're letting him take those at all.

 

Foresberg was on the bench who’s their normal free kick taker. I watched most of this game live, first NYRB game that makes me understand why Bradley values this kid as much as Hall and Mehmeti. Although Mehmeti seems like the highest of the 3 prospect wise.

 

Also thought Chirila played quite well for 17yrs old as a CB. Surely a position of need for the future. Similar situation to Cavan where he has an older brother on the team.

 

A couple charts showing that in terms of total sums of minutes, we are seeing significantly more youth minutes at this stage of the year than we've ever seen in MLS before.

 

I mean that was a pretty wild NYRB lineup all around!

 

Huh, the last five years have been a new plateau in U21 numbers but this year will probably surpass them completely.

 

I agree that the total number of minutes matters (the more guys getting minutes the better) but anybody tracking this as a % of total minutes played?

 

Tougher to do a running % and make it meaningful but here it is over entire seasons:



FWIW, the U18 numbers started very high but have been coming down (still the highest it's ever been) but the U21 numbers have been fairly steady across the season so far.

 

Norris is surprisingly good at aerial balls. It's been defensively until that goal but his positioning is always spot on and he must have hops because he's going up against taller players a lot.

 

Norris is valuable as a versatile player who can play a lot of positions all well. But I think the next step for him is to lock into a main position. He's playing mostly as a left back now, but is it central defense? He can also play defensive midfield.

There is value to being a utility guy who can cover anyway, but ask James Sands about that - he said that you shouldn't wait too long to pick a position that you focus primarily on. After Sands returned to NYCFC from his Rangers loan, he said he needed and wanted to focus on being a defensive midfielder, not a central defender. The club worked with him and it got him to the Bundesliga.

Norris eventually is going to have to make a decision. I am not sure what is best for him, but what is best for the Olympic team (and if he is good enough eventually for the USMNT) is that he be a central defender. There continues to be a huge generational gap in that position and that is exacerbated if Banks bolts the program.

 

From watching him he's a tweener. He's quite good attacking on the left but not elite. He's also likely not tall enough to be a CD in a four back set. I haven't really seen him much as a defensive mid so I can't add much there. He does seem made to be that tweener LCB in a three back set. He gets to occasionally attack, he's a physical and good defender if not matched up the whole game against huge C forwards and he's good at passing out of the back and some occasional long switches (needs more work on his accuracy on those). He's lucky three back sets came back in style.

 

Cooper Sanchez & Luke Brennan start for Atlanta tonight in the Open Cup against Charlotte

 

Reed Baker-Whiting starts for Nashville tonight against Tigres

 

Goal! Cooper Sanchez

18-year-old @USYNT midfielder Cooper Sanchez takes advantage of the open net 👀@ATLUTD lead 2-0! pic.twitter.com/SPSay7pSb7

— U.S. Open Cup (@opencup) April 29, 2026

 

Kind of weird that they can only score if you actually play them. Will they actually get some MLS minutes now?

 

Cooper Sanchez has 735 broadly terrible MLS minutes this season. Tied for 5th most on the team.

 

I guess it's Brennan that I've heard never plays.

 

I don’t think he’s looked amazing or anything, but the way they’ve utilized him isn’t leaning towards his strengths.

He’s not really a forward player. He shouldn’t be playing as anything higher on the field than an 8, and he may be more of a 6.

If you take it in that context of evaluating him for what he profiles as positionally, I think he’s looked alright. Maybe playing too many minutes for his performance level, but I don’t think he’s looked out of place.

 

Chase Adams goal in the Open Cup

First @ColumbusCrew first-team goal for Chase Adams alert 🚨 pic.twitter.com/B8HXr6rayM

— U.S. Soccer YNT (@USYNT) April 30, 2026

 

A cool thing about the Habroune goal is that just moments before it started, he tried another, similar, play that the defense parried. (Not in the short highlight, but you can see it in the full highlights.) Then he got the ball back and did it again and scored. Love the confidence. A breakthrough by this guy gets the MNT pool a really interesting player.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bmYgAU6u-FE

 

Gozo had another goal. Reminds me of Dembele in a way when he was with Pulisic at Dortmund. He’s not as selfish as Dembele but usually has some amazing moments or loses the ball too easily.

Sanchez had a nice assist. Feels like he isn’t mentioned enough as a 17yr old in the midfield.

Red Bulls youngsters were a bit disappointing this weekend, but they’re young so and Bradley seems committed to them.

 

Not good for Frankie Westfield

Tough to see this after Frankie was in clear pain. We’re all crossing our fingers that he’s ok #doop

📸 : @BenBrecher18 pic.twitter.com/so7p0P5eoF

— Mike Barrera (@mbarrera1323) May 10, 2026

 

Hall had some nice goals, as did Gozo. Both of Gozo’s showed a lot of composure, he made it look easy to beat a goalie 1:1. I really hope Hall’s Mom doesn’t try too hard to get him to play with Poland.

Ian James started for SKC, anyone know how this kid is?

Chrilla didn’t start for Cincy; he subbed in. He crashed into his goalie that gave away the goal that lost the game. Announcers felt it was the goalies fault. More importantly he definitely looked like he got a concussion.

 

Wouldn’t let me edit: I knew Hall had pace but I didn’t realize he’s nearly as fast as Miller and Gozo. I actually think he’s gotten faster since last season.

I’m guessing most here on BS aren’t able to watch midweek games/highlights? Was surprised no had said anything about Hall or Gozo in what was probably the best matchday of the season so far for our younger players in MLS.

RSL reportedly upped Gozo’s value to $20M. Suggesting he deserves more attention in this thread than many players who are valued less are getting in Yanks Abroad.