Youth Yanks Abroad, ‘01-‘04 YOBs (and younger): 2019/20 Thread

Sounds like he’d be perfect as a right CB in a three CB formation.

 

Somewhere between an 8 and a 10. Tremendous passing vision, combines really well, very high soccer IQ, excellent movement. Very small and slow. Doesn't have the dribbling, creativity, goals, assists in his game to be a 10, but probably lacks the defensive bite to be an 8. He's a situational type of player. If you play a double 8/10 formation that allows him to patrol the third quarter of the field, he will add a lot to the possession flow of the team. He's an excellent support player in possession. Always knows how to provide passing outlets for teammates.

In a different type of formation, you probably have to try him out as a 10, but he hasn't developed the attacking skills I thought he was going to. The athleticism was always a problem once he got to U-15 level. There are some tremendous tools (passing, soccer IQ, combination play, tactical fundamentals), but it's going to be tricky for him to have a career at that level of first team.

 

3rd Degree, an FCD follower onTwitter, announcing Real Betis is sending a goal keeper coach to the United States to try out Seth Wilson. Rumor is they are looking at him for a spot on their first team. Would be incredible to get a US keeper in La Liga at age 18 or 19 and see where it takes him.

Thank the good lord FCD never got their hooks into him to prevent this kind of opportunity.

 

I disagree, I think he has a very good floor and ceiling for first team football. I agree that his main traits are his passing vision and accuracy as well as his soccer IQ but I think you fail to give him enough credit in his dribbling and creativity.

One of his best attributes for me is his ability to create space with one touch. He's not fast, but he's one of those guys whose intelligence with his feet makes him faster on the ball than not on the ball.

A lot of these tapes here showcase his ability to create space when the ball is played to him that almost none of our youth players can do. Of course, it's not showing the times he gets dispossessed, but most players can't take a lot of these touches at all.

https://streamable.com/8x044
https://streamable.com/zfths

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I really like Evan as a player. There's something that just instantly passes the eye test. It's the way the ball pops off his feet, the way his body turns, and the way his legs move and shift directions. He's not a Pulisic or Reyna level prospect, but I would compare him to a McKennie in terms of potential. I think Schalke is perfect for him. His game is the exact game that translates to the pro level, and moving to Schalke, especially at 16, will make him smarter, quicker, and better. He's the exact type of player that will thrive with an early Europe move.

 

Foreign interest is heating up on #FCDallas Academy GK Seth Wilson.

I'm told later this month, a Real Betis 1st team GK coach is coming to Dallas to train/evaluate Wilson over 5 days. That's some serious interest. #DTID pic.twitter.com/dTGe7N1M3v

— 3rd Degree (@3rdDegreeNet) July 9, 2020

 

I hope you’re right. Rotundo is exactly the type of player I’d be a big fan of. I’ve found what I’ve watched in the last year of him to be very unfortunate. I was fully expecting to think he’d become a superstar. Hopefully he proves me wrong.

 

I’ve heard Wilson has interest from some very good level clubs. I think he was one of the players that was effected most by COVID with trialing around Europe, so his situation might be sorted out a little later than it would in a normal year. I think we would’ve already heard by now where he’s signed.

With goalkeepers it’s always tricky to figure out what is the best destination. It’s usually where you can play earliest, but I’m glad professional clubs rate him as highly as I do.

 

An 18 year old keeper is quite a way from first team action in elite European soccer (other than the truly elite ones like Courtois). So you just gotta go where you think you can maximize development. Real Betis? Who the hell knows. I know they've done squadoosh for Diego Lainez' development. Manuel Pelligrini was just installed as coach there and he's 108 years old.

I've been wrong soooooooooooooooo many times when it comes to predicting future success for young keepers. Its almost impossible to predict.

 

I don't think he can ever become De Bruyne or Eriksen since he doesn't appear to have the ball-striking ability of that caliber, but I don't really see a difference technically or IQ-wise from Brandt. The only thing is the athleticism and we have no way of knowing for sure what will happen there for a kid who turned 16 today, and even if he doesn't match Brandt levels in that, there are plenty of clubs around the world happy with midfielders worse than Julian Brandt.

 

I remember that when Reyna left for Europe folks on this board picked apart and criticized his game ad nasuem. Lots of doubters here.

We don't really know how a 16 year old is going to turn out. What I do know is that the "failure rate" of young prospects is really high. Will Evan be one to "make it?" Hell if I know........................

 

He's a lot of fun to watch. It's hard to think he won't succeed somewhere. His adult athleticism will likely determine where.

 

Sure, there are clubs happy with midfielders worse than Brandt, but that's not why we're here. We want to see players turn into stars for the US, not make sure they have careers playing soccer.

 

I think Evan can become a Bundesliga level player depending on the team. I’m not sure his game can elevate any further than that. If he can grow to his older brother’s height and put on some muscle then he will have a better chance. But very few players his age around the world have his ability to read and react to the game.

 

Vassilev got six minutes today. It's looking likely that Aston Villa will be relegated. I think he'd get more playing time if they were relegated, so that might be the preferable outcome. It would be great if they went down, he established himself as a starter, and then they came right back up with him as a starter in the Premier League. That sometimes happens for young players on teams that get relegated from the Premier League.

 

Those people are idiots.

 

It also sometimes happens that the team goes through the Championship down. I'd prefer them to stay and him to move up the roster to become first or second sub. He is versatile enough for that.

 

They’d bring in a player for 20M to do that. It’s not as easy as you are making it out to be.

 

Hearing now there are teams in Denmark and Norway also chasing Wilson. Being on the first team in La Liga would be a tremendous opportunity but it looks like he will have options if the world ever gets back to normal.

Not surprising teams are interested in a 6'4 US Youth National Team keeper with great shot stopping ability and good feet and distribution. Will be fun to follow his career trajectory in Europe and hopefully see him on the US Senior National team when the current group heads to retirement ( Guzan almost there)

 

With Gonzalez possibly on the ropes in Dallas he might have had a chance to be the starter by the end of the year had he stuck around. I don’t blame him for not with Gonzalez in the way. No way to predict that and the outcome is still up in the air.

 

Here's an '04 US-born, Germany-raised midfielder with Hoffenheim U17s: https://www.tsg-hoffenheim.de/teams/tsg-akademie/u17/team-u17/einzelportraet/show/lucas-tamarez

 

Nah........................unlikely. Jimmy Maurer has that job.
Seth had already committed to going to Clemson, so its really Clemson that's getting torched again here. They also missed out on Tessman!!!

This move for Seth, if it happens, is a good one for him.
I'm not a fan of Spain as a destination for our youth internationals. The overwhelming majority get stuck in the situation that Mukwelle Akale is in now.

I'd much prefer the other options that Runhard mentioned in his post. Go to a good club in Belgium, and start advancing.

Youth goalkeepers are almost impossible to predict. I think we've had one success story of a keeper going straight from the DA to Europe over the past decade. That's Ethan Horvath. This season he was a bench player in Belgium. Hooray!

Goalkeeper is a very tough business to get established in. We routinely mention our youth goalkeepers moving to Europe on these boards. After the twitter announcement of their moves, we almost never talk about them again. They just disappear. Heck, we have an even lower success rate of youth goalkeepers moving to Mexico. They enter a witness protection program as far as I can tell.

I'm hopeful that Damian Las can establish himself at Fulham. His plight is typical, though. Fulham have four, FOUR, England youth international keepers that are more established than Damian. Magnus Norman, George Wickens, and the two Ashby-Hammond brothers. Luca Ashby-Hammond is very highly regarded. What is Damian Las' path for advancement at Fulham? Its going to be a real battle. I'm not saying he can't do it, its just going to difficult.

If Seth Wilson signed for FCD, he'd immediately be competing with Avilez for 3rd string. There's a faster path to first team soccer there. But there also is at clubs in leagues like Belgium and Norway. That path to Scandinavia worked well for Horvath.

 

As much as keeper careers are unpredictable, there's no chance of Wilson starting with FC Dallas first team any time soon. Recently, another academy graduate, Michael Collodi, was invited to practice with North Texas SC this summer. His fall season at Columbia was suspended and whether education is virtual in the fall or not, he could very well continue practicing with North Texas SC for a while. I think he'd be unable to play games since it'd impact his NCAA eligibility.

He has two and half years before he finishes his degree. Maybe he'll finish and sign a HG contract with Dallas? Timing seems feasible with other Dallas first team keepers aging. It's worth noting that throughout the academy years, FC Dallas staff always rated Collodi higher than Wilson. As others have pointed out, it's always good to look at pecking order.

 

That's interesting knowledge but sometimes keepers grow a lot and go from small to very tall. Not sure if Wilson was one who had a big growth spurt or not. Just another example of the FCD assembly line though. It looks like they're losing a great keeper but may have an even better one stashed in college.

 

I think it could've been an option, but I also think that this is yet another example of Dallas not using their homegrown slots properly and asking a player who can get a good gig elsewhere to take a very unappealing USL League One contract. Thats happened with a number of these kids. I also think it probably would've been a good situation for Wilson. Best MLS club currently at playing youth. It's very hard for young keepers to break into the first team.

This stuff isn't all Dallas fault. MLS needs to better account for the dispersion of HG talent in the different academies, and allow Dallas to sign more of these players to better deals. MLS shouldn't be penalizing Dallas for having a number of HGP's that went to college, and a number who came from the academy. They should scrap the "HGP" distinction, and split it up into different categories for players who played college soccer and those who came straight from the academy system. That would allow players such as Cannon, Munjoma and Servania to be grouped differently than Pomykal, Pepi and Ferreira.

At the same time, some of their decisions, such as everything they've done surrounding Reynolds, how early they signed Sealy and the money they gave him, and signing a guy like Cerrillo inevitably hurt their ability to sign players such as Gomez (2X), Wilson, Carrera. It goes both ways. They deserve some blame, but the structure the league has put in place doesn't help Dallas.

 

Barça B won today’s friendly 3-0 vs Europa.

⚽️⚽️ Monchu
⚽️ Konrad

Monchu continues his form as B Pichichi and Konrad gives an argument for him start in a week! https://t.co/4EuF9bZjR5

— La Masia (@Youngcules) July 11, 2020