Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #217: State of the men's youth national teams and upcoming U20 camp

Episode Date: November 5, 2021

Matt Hartman (@MattsHartman) joined to tick through the U20 player pool in detail, lay out the bumpy (at best) transition from the DA to MLS Next, gets enraged at me for suggesting Cade Cowell could be a right back, goes in hard on the 2004 birth year, and tells me he cringed at my answer to the golden generation vs permanent wave of talent debate. Dude absolutely knows his stuff. 0:30 intro and general "how good is the next wave of players" discussion9:20 the casualties from the abrupt end of the Development Academy14:30 how we know the 2004 birth year is a weak one for elite men's soccer talent18:45 the Golden generation vs permanent wave of talent debate (must-listen)22:25 we still got no U20 coach26:00 a review of the leaked U20 roster and the player pool beyond the call-ups Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the Scufft podcast. I'm Adam Bells in Georgia. With me is Greg Velasquez in Iowa. We talk about U.S. men's soccer. Thank you for downloading this episode of Scuffed. I'm joined by Matthew Hartman, an old and loyal friend of the podcast. I'm not saying he's an old. He's not an old person necessarily. He's just an old friend of the podcast. Thanks for clarifying that, Bill. Who follows the youth national team player pools as closely as anyone out there. Matt, how are you doing? I'm doing great bells. How are things in Georgia? Yeah, I'm doing fine. I'm doing great. How's New York? It's good as ever. Can't complain. Good. So the U20s are convening next week for a tournament in Mexico called the Revelations Cup.

They'll play Brazil, Mexico, and Columbia's U-20 teams. They still don't officially have a coach, and we're going to get into the actual roster. A version has been leaked on Malik Sanogo's Instagram. First, let's go kind of big picture. Because you're, you know, you're a no-nonsense guy, you know? Okay. You're not going to say things are good when they're not good. So what's the basic question is, how good is the pipeline right now?

And how good are these age groups and what will that mean for the national team long-term? The U-17s appear to be quite good, but they are still children, right? So I really don't like to, like, guess that far out, especially since, you know, like, We haven't really seen any of them against international competition. The U-20s are a bit harder to, it's a bit harder to say that they're in a great place. The 2003s will make up a bulk of the U-20 roster. And they're pretty good. You know, we've been saying for a little while that the O3s are one of the better groups we've ever produced.

And you could argue that you can argue that there's a lack of top end talent after Peppy. but I think we have enough lottery tickets that some will pan out and hit national team level inevitably. The 0-4s aren't as good, especially the domestic class. I think the top 0-4s are mostly the kids that are in Europe right now. And I'd say among the domestic class, if I had to guess, I'd say that we're currently looking at around like a mid-90s level of U.S. men's national team. team impact. And if we lose a couple of recruiting battles, the wheels could come completely, completely off of the class. That's the 2004 birth year. Yes. What you're talking about? Yeah, what happened? Why is that? Why is that? I mean, there's, there's sort of just random variance,

right? But what's what's going on? Right. So COVID really hurt the 04s and 05s. And like the 04s weren't a particularly good class pre-COVID. And then the majority of the country went and went on to barely play soccer for like eight to 10 months. So like for 04s and 05s, you know, like that's when they're 15 and 16. That's, you know, like the vital age range for for these kids. So if we if like we look at particular, you know, case studies, Kansas City, sporting Kansas city had some like some of the best 04s and 05s in the country.

I'm thinking of kids like. Natty Clark and Gajakaloo and Osvaldo Sennaros and Kansas City played a single digit number of games, of competitive games, you know, against other MLS academies during, you know, the COVID period. So let's say like between when the DA got shut down and the end of 2020, like they barely played soccer. So of those kids, like those three or four top talents that they had, like two of the of the four are nowhere near the level that they were at, you know, at this time two years ago. One of them doesn't play soccer anymore. And then, you know, the one that's left Osvaldo Seneros is a good little player, but he has a lot of work to do to get to national team level.

And that's, that sort of thing is pretty common across the O4 classes, in particular across MLS. So the Red Bulls O4 team, which at one point was one of the, that's, top three teams in the country, basically completely imploded. That defensive group are all going to college. Their top midfielder was Kenan Hot, who is currently playing with Hartford Athletic and is no longer associated with New York Red Bull. Yaya Torre is now somewhere in the Rapids system. They called on Timitoure Yaya.

Yeah, that's his nickname. That seems a little presumptuous. Yes. He is increasingly not deserving of that nickname. Playing for the Colorado. I mean, the switchbacks. The switchbacks, I think. I don't even think he's playing for them all too regularly.

And then, you know, you talked a little bit about it with Buzz when you had him on the podcast, but the Dallas O4s basically hit a developmental brick wall. You know, like outside of Antonio Carrera, I don't think any of those kids are going to get a homegrown contract. Same thing, you could say the same thing with a lot of the Midwest teams who in particular, you know, not that Dallas is in the Midwest that know that you're super particular about your geography bells. It's definitely not in the Midwest.

Okay, okay. But, you know, sporting Kansas City is, right? And Chicago and Columbus, they all had their O4 classes basically disintegrate and front of them. And even the teams that were able to play a good amount of soccer, like Philadelphia and NYCFC, almost all of those kids are going to college. You know, you have a couple of homegrowns in Philly, but, you know, across the country, basically, the O4 class isn't what it should be if you're working under the like the theory that the youth national teams and MLS and American soccer are on on a upward developmental trajectory.

Yeah, if you want to live in a constant state of increasing hype, which I do, you know, that's what I want. That's what I want. Then the 04 class isn't going to help you, I guess, huh? Well, so it sounds like it wasn't that good of a class to begin with. And then COVID really, like, screwed it up for a lot. And like, Ken and Hot was considered a blue chip prospect, right, when he was 15 or something. And now he's going to Duke. Is that right? Yeah, that's the plan for him right now. I think that he is trialing in Europe. He has even he was trialing in Europe even when he was with the Red Bulls But he's not with the Red Bulls because you know the the the the Hots and Red Bull had a little bit of a falling out and

I mean that that exists all over the country and it's not just the O4s it's the O5s as well you know because there were there there was a lot of movement because kids that were you know 16 15 16 were just trying to find games like Like a kid left the sporting Kansas, one of the better sporting Kansas City, I don't recall if he's a 04 or 05, left that academy and went to Philly or, yeah, went to Philly just because they were playing soccer, you know? So there's a lot of stuff like that, a lot of parents that weren't happy with the way that not only COVID-affected stuff, but the closing of the DA affected stuff. And now the 04s are stuck in this sort of twilight zone between U17 ball where they're not really allowed. I mean, they could technically play U17 ball with biobanding. But most of the U17 ball across the country now is mostly 06s. So 04s aren't, it doesn't serve them a whole lot of good to be playing that. And the U19 MLS Next is a disaster.

half of the MLS teams don't even have U-19 teams the ones that don't largely have U-23 teams and since the MLSU-23 team hasn't started off yet hasn't started yet those U-23 teams are basically like nomads roaming the country trying to find whatever game competitive game they can find so these the O-4s like you know they're they just don't really have a place to play right now which also hurts stuff Yeah, that's a bummer.

So the end of the development academy and the beginning of MLS Next has not gone super well, I'm gathering. No, definitely a bumpy start in a number of ways. I mean, we could talk a whole lot about that if you'd like, but can you give us, I mean, I didn't warn you that I was going to ask you this question, but can you give us like the high level bullet points somewhat on that? because I think a lot of people would be interested. Sure. So the scheduling that was centralized in the DA suddenly became, you know, like you find your own games, which especially for the smaller teams that don't necessarily have teams that are, you know, lining up to play them led to some challenges. and then you completely lost centralized recording of games and stat keeping, for example.

So teams couldn't prepare for other teams. Every team was basically like you were going in blind to like tactically to what was going on. The only thing that had to be reported was the score. So teams didn't know who other teams best players were. Why? Why did why? why did we do this? You know, I haven't paid a ton of attention to it because there's been so much going on with

the senior team. Right. But like, why did, what's going on? Why? Yeah, I mean, like the basic excuse that I've been given is that, you know, like, U.S. soccer was spending millions of dollars a year on the Development Academy infrastructure. And, you know, things aren't great economically. and over in soccer house right now.

And they gave nobody any heads up that they were going to close the DA when it happened. So there was no second, like, you know, MLS Next is in a much better place now than it was this time last year. But had... It's good to hear. Yeah, but had U.S. soccer given MLS

or, you know, the teams a heads up as to what was happening, we would have been in a much better place to start off with. So, like, there are more. teams, more like solid teams in MLS Next now than there were originally. There are also some teams that I would argue shouldn't be an MLS next because they're just not good enough and wouldn't have been in the DA. But, you know, like it's a completely different group of people running things. The DA closing and they're not being an immediate alternative led to the complete like fracturing

of entire regions. So you look at loss like the Southern California region right now, right? you might be familiar with teams like Paddyadores who were like a annual great team every year they had a great team that they put together Paddi Adores said we're not wait like we can't wait to

see you know like our parents want to know what team what league we're going to play in they jumped ship to ECNL a number of Southern Californian teams jumped ship to ECNL and now you have like of the whatever say like U-17 right of the top 15 U-17 teams in color in southern California like five of them are playing in three different leagues you know between like

USYS and EC and L and MLS next so you have like the best teams in a region not playing each other because they're not in the same league I'm sure there's a lot that goes into a decision like that but it doesn't seem it doesn't seem good like because because you know a lot of the players that we have talked about over the years like let's let's let me didn't he didn't he hasn't really panned out yet and may never but like sebastian sodo right he's playing him for like san diego surf one of those clubs in the d a and then gets um you know recruited by rsl because they played against him and he was good right yep exactly i don't know why we would want to i don't know what happened with san diego surf are they in the ec nl yeah they're in the ecanl okay so i don't know why we would

why would we, I don't know why we would do all that, just so we could have an MLS youth league? I mean, I don't really think that anybody is to blame here, but US soccer, I think that the finance, like, you know, we're like unaware of how bad things, like the finances were. And maybe they were so bad that they needed to like, you know.

Just cut anywhere they could. Get rid of everybody immediately who knew anything. Like, like, if I were undertaking such like, you know, such a transition as that. I would want like a transition team in place and stuff like that. Like all of the DA people basically disappeared all overnight. Crazy. People that were answered emails and then the next day they didn't answer emails anywhere

because they no longer worked for U.S. soccer. So it's worth paying attention to and keeping an eye on because that's, this is an important part of like having a good national team is having a coherent youth system. You know, I struggle, you know, I was, we were talking on in a group chat the other day about, about this and you said like, definitely the 04s aren't very good. And I was like, well, how do we know? How can we know that a birth year isn't as good when those players are all like 16, 17 right now? Sure. Can you answer that question? Yeah, completely valid question. And the answer is, especially for the 04s, is that they've been surpassed by younger players for important.

minutes at the key clubs right so the key clubs in my mind being like the the clubs that actually pump out homegrowns on a fairly regular basis um so if you look at those teams Dallas Philly exactly so that's and maybe New York Red Bulls right so over in Dallas um you know none of those none of the 04s are playing for their U-17s right and then the next the oh not the that the U-19s exist, right, but it's not a good level. So you'd want those kids to be at North Texas. There were zero North Texas minutes given to 04s this year in Dallas. There were more minutes given to 05s and 06s.

I mean, not by a lot, but Dallas's next good prospects are 05s and 06s. There won't be 04s getting regular minutes at North Texas. Going forward with the possible exception of Antonio Carrera and maybe Hazos Ferrer's younger brother, right? But I would expect at least, you know, Ferreira to go to college. Which, like, if you take that example, that doesn't have to be a calamity as long as the 05s and the 06s are really good or, you know, back to the level

that we've come to expect from Dallas, right? Yeah, for sure. I mean, none of this is calamitous, right, because of how young the senior team is. but it's definitely shows that the way that we are set up right now as a country producing soccer players is that you basically have to,

we could only count on like four or five clubs to produce players, right? And if those clubs have bad years, it's going to be a bad birth year. So it wasn't just Dallas with the 04s, we're going to get like one more, homegrown maybe from the remaining union, 04s and 05s.

The New York teams, both of them, are going to send what looks like their entire 04 and 05 classes to college, barring like, you know, some kid raising his level out of nowhere. And both of those teams,

both of those New York teams, have signed players younger than 04 to homegrown contracts. Chris McFarland is an 07, who signed with NYCFC, and been to Estrella is an 06. So basically all of the major teams that produce players in the United States, they're done with their 04s. Like barring a, you know, like a late bloomer, which happens, like, you know, kids, a bunch of these kids, I'm sure, will go to college and play well in college. And then they'll, there are some of them will be in the running for homegrown contracts.

But those late bloomers are kind of hard to like, you know, predict. count on. So like the thing that as primarily like a U.S. men's national team fan who wants guys like Christian Polisik and Gio Raina like the, you know, these superstar guys, we're unlikely to get any of those from the 04s and 05s, like barring the ones that we'll talk a little about, a little about today. But in just overall numbers, like the number of blue chips that you have in your pocket,

the numbers for 04s and 05 are going to be lower than they were for 99 through 03. Yeah. Okay. And also, okay, so that's a word of caution that, like, you know, I think you told me that you cringed when you heard our answer on the TSS crossover about like, is this a golden generation or is it a, you know, is it a one-off? all the young talent we have with the senior national team. So maybe if you could tell us what specifically made you cringe and then we'll move on. Sure. So I kind of I kind of hate the golden generation versus, you know, continual progress thing topic to begin with because like both of them can be true, right?

Like, U.S. soccer is, and U.S. youth soccer is definitely getting better, right? Like, I can't make an argument that youth development in the country right now isn't considerably better than it was in 2015 and that 2015 wasn't considerably better than it was in 2010 and stuff like that. The thing that we have to like, that I want to avoid is not addressing the problems that exist because we take, granted that that progress is happening, right? So the 0-4s are not better than the, than the 2002s or the 2001s or the 2000s or the 2000s. And that's something that we should look at and say that, you know, why did this happen? How, like, how could we stop it from happening in the future? Because we're in a really lucky place right now, right? That we're, our national team is so young that we don't have to look at, we can look at, we can look

at the 04s and 05s and say, you know, if we get like two players at each of those years, like we're solid, right? Yeah. We'll be good. But it's like a really short term way of thinking about things, right? Because eventually, Giorina will be 32, right? And then the guys who you're supposed to, who are making up the core of the team will have to be 03s and 04s.

Um, and if that doesn't happen, then you're counting on guys that are younger than that. you want like an abundance of of options in every year, right? You want every single year to be, if not progressing, like on part with each other. And it's not like there aren't reasons why this happened, right? Or the reasons why this happened are mysteries to us. COVID, as we said, played a massive part. But I, when, you know, we say things like the points that you guys had talked about as to why this, why we can't look at, like whatever, 1997.

through 2002 as a golden generation. It's like, well, I mean, compared to the next oldest players that we have, that we can realistically predict what they are going to be, which is, you know, the 04s and 05s, like they are kind of a golden generation because the 2003s and the 2001 U20s, like, well, you know, the 2003s, if you gave every birth here their own national team, right, and played, were able to play them against each other when they were all 17. The teams from the early 2000s would wipe the floor with the 04s. And they would probably do so with the 05s, though it's like too early to tell.

And that's kind of what I'm getting at when I said, like, I just, I'm just kind of against. I can't take like the overwhelming positivity that, that you guys, that, you know, come naturally to people like. Joe Lowry and Taylor Rockwell, Rockwell, that, you know, I'm a pessimist by nature about these things, I guess. That's why we love you, Matt. All right. So this team, another reason maybe for negativity is this team doesn't have a coach yet. And I know everybody likes to beat up on the Federation. I'm talking about the U20 team.

Sure. And that is, and just so everybody's clear, that's the 03 birth year is the cutoff. So if you're born on January 1st of 2003 or later, you can be. be on this U20 team because that's when the next U20 World Cup is 2023. That team does not have a coach and they play Brazil on Wednesday. Yeah. So everybody likes to beat up on the Federation and I don't want to be gratuitous about it. But like, come on guys.

Let's get a coach hired. What's the latest on the coach situation? I just can't get over how ridiculous that is, right? Isn't that so crazy that we're going to put a team we have a team that largely hasn't played together at all without a coach that is going to play against the Brazil U-20s in like five days or whatever? Yeah. They'll get what, like two trainings together at best? I mean, assuming we get a coach on the weekend. I mean, a large portion of the roster is flying out on Monday morning.

so I don't think that they're going to get two training sessions together. Anyways, the coaching situation is that Lucci Gonzalez is slash was the Federation's first choice. That was the first phone call that was made. That was the first interview that took place. But the fact that two members of his former coaching staff have also interviewed, that being Peter Lucian and Mikey Vargas probably means that, There are issues with Lucci. I would imagine that those issues stem from the fact that Lucci would prefer to have an amlas job, if possible.

Right. So, or, you know, it might be money. It might be moving to Chicago. Who knows? But there's something there. Great city. Chicago's a great city, by the way. I bet it is.

It's hard to say. Nobody ever goes there, right? Anyways. Larry Sunderland. has also interviewed he was the head of the player development or some equivalent title to that in Portland

and he is now the Cincinnati FC Cincinnati head of player development. He led a large portion of this group I mean most of the 04s that will be on this roster and in this cycle as a whole as a spot coach in that U-16 tournament

that happened in Europe pre-COVID so he's probably I would imagine the backup option. I wouldn't be thrilled about that because head of player development in Portland and Sinci, two teams who are basically bottom of the barrel youth development sides.

I think we could do a little better. So I'm hoping for one of the Dallas guys. And we'll see. I think Brian Schroeder reported that he believed Mikey Vargas was the favorite.

I believe it's Var, there's no G in there, it's Varas. Oh, Varus. For us. No, that's okay. Yeah, I heard that too. I heard, I heard he was close, but, you know, don't take that to the bank. Sure.

I know nothing about Mike Yvarez. I know he was like, I think he was one of Lucci's assistant coaches. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Used to coach at the Sacramento Republic. I think his parents are Chilean. He does speak Spanish fluently, which is a plus.

Yeah, so let's get Let's get into the roster a little bit Why don't I read off the names This is the leaked roster That came out on Sonogo's Instagram We've got Paxton Aronson As a midfielder I'm just going to go down alphabetically

Alexander Borto as a goalkeeper Justin Che is a defender I mean he could be either a centerback or a right back maybe a right back for this group Caden Clark The New York Red Bulls attacking midfielder Cade Cowell

forward at San Jose maybe a future right back we'll see just kidding Daniel Edelman midfielder at the Red Bulls Red Bulls 2 playing in USL

Jeremy Garay another midfielder he plays for DC United in their I don't think like in their academy right and he plays for What do you call it?

Aloud United. Yeah, okay. And then Jacob Green is a left back. Isn't that correct? Yep. I mean, he plays on both sides, but I think he's a left back, long term. Brian Gutierrez is listed as a forward for, he plays for the Chicago Friar. He's gotten some MLS minutes.

Kobe Henry, a big centerback for Orange County SC. Daniel Lava, not getting a ton of minutes, but he is a Seattle Sounders player and a mid-Findsay. fielder. Diego Luna, kind of a winger, attacker, attacking midfielder for the El Paso locomotive.

Jack McGlynn, a left-footed central midfielder for the Philadelphia Union. Long Island Zone. Nice. Nice. Caden Pierre

plays, does he play left back or right back for sporting KC? He's a right back. Okay, right back. And then Rokas Pookstis. Is that how you say that? Pookstis.

I said Pookstis. but I haven't heard his name said out loud in years. Okay. So he's at Heidek Split. That's in Croatia. Okay. He's from Oklahoma. A lot of people have been excited about this player.

We'll talk about him in a minute. Maseo Rodriguez, forward for the Chicago Fire Academy, I believe. And Malik Senogo, Berlin, Germany, FC Union, Berlin, forward. He plays for the U-19s at the moment. Dante Sili Winger Slash Forward Came up in the FC Dallas Academy

He's on loan at PSV Inahoven And tearing it up for young PSV Gabriel Slanina It goes by Gaga Is a 6-4 goalkeeper For the Chicago Fire And a kind of a big prospect Quinn Sullivan is listed

As a forward He's kind of a midfielder Slash forward for the Philadelphia Union Has a younger brother named Kavin Who's hype video on YouTube is an amazing thing to watch. And then Casey Walls is a centerback. He is San Jose Earthquakes player,

but he plays for Austin Bold right now on loan. And then Caleb Wiley, is he a right back or a left back? He's a left back. Left back, okay. So that's the roster. And I guess my first blush reaction to it is that's a nice front five, you know, if you had a front five of Seeley, Cowell, Clark, Paxon, Aronson, I don't know, throw McGlynn in there somewhere.

That's a formidable front five, right? Yeah, it's not a bad front five. I would maybe question how well a front five, how well of a front five it would be with those particular players working together. But, I mean, it's five pretty good prospects. I guess the problem is Cowell isn't a sort of traditional number nine, right? Yeah, I mean, Cowell isn't a traditional number nine

I think that he may even end up playing on the wing in these games as he does fairly often for his club team. And then McGlynn is probably going to be you know, like one of those guys who just solves problems and causes problems in any lineup he's in.

so. Solves problems in possession causes problems out of possession basically. Exactly. Yeah. We have some precedent for that in the international team. So let's start at the top with the strikers. Sonogo, he's left footed. He's big, he's fast, he likes to run him behind.

From what I could tell, looking at his clips, I could not tell how good his hold-up play was or generally how good he is in general. But I'm glad. he accepted the call-up, what do you have on him? Yeah, I mean, I don't know how good he's either, and I'm kind of skeptical of anybody that says that they do. He dominated the U-17 Bundesliga Northeast last season, which is the weakest of the three

Bundesliga youth leagues. So there is that to keep in mind because his numbers were last season, at least, were kind of extraordinary. He's a regular German youth call-up, extremely close-up. comfortable in and in and around the penalty box. And I love that he's not afraid to let the ball run across his body. He's he's, um, he's just one of those like cultured, um, strikers in the box, right? Like he just does things that as somebody who watches a lot of youth soccer games, um,

you know, a lot of youth number nines just don't think to do. Um, but I am a bit skeptical of him as a top tier prospect because like, as you, as you mentioned, he's an extremely physical player. Not particularly good at connecting play. I know, like you questioned his, you don't know how good his holdup play is. I would say not all that great.

He has a couple, like he managed like five assists in his last full season, but if you actually go like and watch the tape, most of those assists were like the ball clanging off of him in one way or another and just the teammate finishing the chance from there. So I mean it is youth it is youth soccer after even if it's in Germany it's youth soccer Yeah I mean definitely true so as a veteran of watching a lot of Freiburg u-19 games I oh man remember those days yeah geez it was just like it was just a bunch of like you know

hyped up German kids running around and then Alex Mendes like kind of in the in the eye of the storm Right. Just like, kids like flying off each other, you know, and then he would play a nice pass to the wing or like hit a banger from 25 yards. Yeah. So Sonongo.

Yeah. You know, like some players that play like he does, you know, like that big physical style, like are able to, you know, maintain that level, that like physical presence into the pro game. But most don't. And, you know,

even if, even if he does manage to hit, I would kind of question how big he is going to be able to hit because he just doesn't do, from what I, you know, the tape that I've seen, he's not doing a whole lot of soccer stuff correctly.

You know, at a high level, I should say. Okay. Well, let's talk about Cowell then, Cade Cowell. You start.

Sure. So, I mean, pretty obvious if you watch even like a minute of Cade Cowell that he's a dynamic athlete. definitely like you know a home run player able to like you know just take take the ball and like he did this past weekend right was it this past weekend or was it midweek where he just ran the length of the field and put the ball in the back of the net that was a beautiful goal I think there could be some questions as to the defending but but yeah he he carried the ball 40 yards in a straight line and then he just did like two quick touches to split two defenders and then outside of the right boot put it in the far corner yes and I we're just gorgeous gorgeous goal. Absolutely.

And I remember saying, you know, like, Cowell was a player that we had been, we've talked about for years, right? Like on those U-17 podcasts that some OG scuffed fans will remember, that he's just great as long as he gets to play in straight lines. He always has been. And that's still mostly true, right? So he's probably a, like, Jordan Morris-style wide forward long-term.

but questions to be asked as to, like in a team where he's probably going to have more responsibility than he has at San Jose, if he's going to be able to, you know, be more than just that home run, he gets the ball with space in front of him and is able to make,

you know, make, turn it into a chance type of player. I would also say that it's worth mentioning that he's 10 months younger than Ricardo Pepe. So he is a young 03. When Pepe was Cade Cowell's age, he had three goals in 26 MLS games. So Cade Cowell is not a finished product by any stretch. It'll only take, you know, like a little bit more consistency and comfort on the ball for him to become, you know, like a eight figure player or whatever it is.

Yeah, I mean, he just would, he would fit so well as an elite right back, you know. Oh, God. Do you want to tell people like this ongoing argument that we have? over kick out. It's like a bit in our group chat where I say he should be, he should go to like go to right back and then he could play it

like be a Champions League level right back because he, I just don't, I think the question is like, is he a good enough footballer to like, to be an attacking player for the national team? And like,

and I think that's a question about Jordan Morris too. I think the Jordan Morris comp is really, really good. It's very similar. He's very, they're very similar players. I think,

Cowell is an even more dynamic athlete than Morris. Right. But. So, so first of all, I, I don't like that you call this a bit because you were 100% serious about Kate Cowell moving to right back. I'm still kind of serious about it, you know? Would you like to move Jordan Morris to write back as well? Well, it's a little late for him. But, you know, Cal's still young, as you just mentioned.

No, I mean, I like, I like the, I like his, I like his ruthlessness in the box. Like, I think that is, I think that's what, that's sort of where you stand too, right? Like, he, he has an ability to just, like, score goals. Yeah, I mean, that's, I mean, it's what he's done his entire career. And, like, I'd argue that the, the worst that he's played, like, in MLS has been when he was, like, one of those guys who's just kind of beholden to the sideline with San Jose. He really likes to just get the ball and run directly at the goal. And, you know, he is just true. Like, how many chances he going to get to do that in like a World Cup qualifier or an important national team game?

It's like, it's like, the circumstances have to be perfect for that kind of thing. And I don't know, man. I don't, I don't, I'm not, I just want to say, like, all, all questions should go to my press officer on this. But, like, I'm not officially saying I think he should be right back. I'm just saying it's a hey consider it consider it everybody you know okay is he he's he's not any more technical than Danny Alves for instance you know Danny Alves was right back without any what are you saying bells I'm like I've completely lost the plot on this like you're saying that he's he's not good enough at soccer to be a right back to be a right

winger but like he's also not as good as Danny Alves So. No, I'm just saying there's no shame in being a right back, you know? No,

there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with it. I'm saying that he's a forward. He's been a forward his whole career

and he's pretty good at it. And like I just don't see he's not, he doesn't have like, it's not like he's lighting up like FB ref on the defensive numbers. I don't know.

I kind of feel like you're, you're pigeonholing athletes into fullback positions. Maybe. Well, so we, Here's what I've got on Cal.

I feel like he's been streaky for San Jose. He's got five goals and five assists and is definitely a problem to deal with defensively. But it's all, like we're talking about, it's all in wide open, it's a lot of it is in wide open space. And so I don't know. He's obviously a lock for this U20 roster, but how do you fit him in as a forward? Is he going to be a winger? Is he going to be a nine? if he's a winger then you got then you got to sit one of erinson or seeley or maybe even

kaden clark if he's unless he's playing as a midfielder yeah i mean i don't particularly care where he plays as long as he's on the field i just think that you know we don't this it's a team that's kind of lacking in a player that's going to you know put defenders on their back foot with you know just pure pace pure athleticism and he's just one he's one of those guys who for his age and you know he's going to be young for this team too right compared to the other player you know i'm assuming that brazil and mexico are going to bring a roster of oe threes yeah as they as they normally would and i assume that i i can't imagine that he's not going to be the most dynamic athlete on the field for any of the teams in tournament He's just like, you know, like one, a generational athlete who is able to control a soccer ball.

And you just don't get many of those. And I think when you do get one of those, you put them in the part of the field where they can make crazy stuff happen. And when that crazy stuff happens, it leads the goals. Yeah. All right. Let's talk about Maseo Rodriguez, the Chicago Fire 03. Sure. So he signed a homegrown contract in October.

He's been pretty integral to the fires. He was pretty integral to the fires U-19. M-L-S-Next trophy that they lifted this past season. He won the Golden Boot there. I think a good comp for him is Jesus Ferreira. He has kind of a similar style. He's a small kid who likes to play in combination and connect play and is able to, you know, come up with breakaways from time to time to get his stats up.

But it's been my belief for a long time that Ms. Hale just wasn't athletic enough to be a youth national team player. He's a player that I've been watching for, you know, a relatively long time. And I still kind of have some of that. But he gives a different look to players like Sonongo and Cowell, if we're looking to play the kind of soccer that you, mandate we play that good soccer that you know he he he he put him my mandate yes okay yeah no well then i'm all for it you know as long as he fits my mandate right you know so i mean if if you're if you're if you're basically getting at is if you're attached to good soccer where the ball you know

pinging the ball around you're probably not going to get that from sonongo or um cow or cow yeah yeah Well, I know I'm not going to get it from Cal. This is what we've been talking about for the last half hour. So we kind of lack a true number nine, like a peppy type. It's funny that Pepe is suddenly the, like he is the standard. But he's been that for a while. He is like a sort of classic number nine. Yeah.

Right. Definitely. And, you know, Pepe himself is in 03. He could theoretically be in this team. So not super worried about. about the that we haven't been able to produce a number nine for this group or anything like that. The problem is that we produced a number nine that's too good for this group, right? Yeah.

That's okay. Yeah, that's, I'm okay with that. There are a couple of names behind this group who could potentially factor in by the end of the cycle. Matt Roo is a college guy. Tyler Freeman, Patrick Waya are names that people may remember from previous. youth national teams Rowald Mitchell a Red Bull kid who is on his way to college

and Christian Torres who's an 04 for LAFC who has had some chances in MLS and hasn't really looked apart as of yet so what's up with Patrick Wea like you know he was a big deal at Minnesota United for a little while

until he ran into Adrian Heath I guess yeah I mean I was never particularly high on him to begin with I think he, he signed a home grant contract, right? So he's hanging out somewhere in Minnesota, I guess. I don't recall him being loaned out, but I guess it's possible. I wouldn't, I don't think Patrick Way is going to be a main, like a big contributor to this U20 team. Okay.

And Tyler, what did you say about Tyler Freeman? Where is he now? He's still playing with Sporting Kansas City, too. Okay. You know, there's kind of a log jam at a couple of positions in Kansas City. Tyler Freeman is increasingly going to have to be a number nine. Like, you know, Tyler Freeman on the wing with the U-17s back in the day wasn't particularly enthralling. And I think as he's gotten older and bigger, it makes less sense for him to be out there.

Okay. Well, he was always kind of an interesting player with the, you know, pre-CO and the pre-CO in the pre-CO youth tournaments. like kind of messy but inventive you know right yeah messy with a why not an eye right so yeah right it's just the less good messy with a why all right let's go to the winger speaking of messy with an eye um Dante seeley we've had we've had some we've had sort of a running disagreement about celie over the years too like he had a hat trick a couple weeks ago for young PSV I think he has five goals and what's even more exciting about the way he's playing right now

is he looks he looks clever and fast in combination also and also very physical in duels I did not see that I did not see the cleverness and the fastness and combination when I saw him play for the youth national teams or for I guess he played for North Texas mostly and a little bit for FC Dallas

yeah I mean he he never looked particularly good at the professional level when regardless of what he he was playing with in Dallas. My, like, bullishness on him being, like, a blue chip prospect was completely based off of his DA days because he looked, like, completely bored of Dallas by the time he got to the pro game, which, you know, like, that's probably not a great thing, right? Yeah, well, would you be bored playing, you know, for FC Dallas when you're, like, 17?

I mean, I think part of it may be that by the time he was 17 that he had already had, like, multiple trials with teams like PSV and PSG. And it was always going to be the case that he was going to one of those teams. But, I mean, like, I'm totally, I'm totally with you that that's, like, not excusable if it was just that. I'm not, I'm not trying to judge it, judge him for that. I mean, like, whatever. But, yeah. But, yeah, I mean, Dante Sili, the player, like, complete winger on his day, no is for, for the goal.

ball secure equally comfortable in combination play and progressing the ball himself on breaks and whatnot probably not a high-end dribbler but more than good enough to create space for himself like we alluded to with his days in Dallas consistency is going to be the key he can look like a completely different player from game to game and you know he had a hat trick a couple weeks ago with young PSV i've watched one of his games since you know a little bit a little bit invisible still not bad but I think that he's in a good place with PSV and I fully expect him to eventually hit that first team but when when do you think he's going to hit that first team it's kind of weird right because I don't know what the what the deal is because he's technically on loan from Dallas right and then the Dallas deals with PSV so does did he get loaned like is he on a double loan to the young PSV is he I'm not just not sure how the specifics work but I would either yeah so I would say that he'll probably train with the first team in January the PSV's first team that is and um we'll see from there but it's a two year

alone I can't imagine that he'd still be playing with young PSV this time next year well hopefully he doesn't get bored you know right I'm just kidding I think I think you know if in Richie Ladezma was was sort of you know he was getting his shot with the first game when he got that that knee injury yeah that was after like that's a year of playing for young PSV right and I think that's that's kind of the trajectory that we're probably looking at Cili's numbers you know slightly skewed by a hat trick in one game but kind of you know kind of above you know what Richard Ladezma was doing through his first couple months in in yeah yeah that's A little bit different role, but yes, definitely.

Quinn Sullivan, let's talk about him. He's at Philadelphia. Yes. Can you tell us? Super talented kid. Probably the only kid on this list to have a professional bicycle kick as for a goal. Was it, it was a totally legitimate bicycle kick goal? It was.

None of the scissors nonsense. It was full on bike. Solid contact. Right. Right. is probably as good as anybody on this list. The questions with Quinn Sullivan are positional and athletic. He can dribble himself into corners,

and he's probably going to need to improve in combination play. But, and, you know, the athletic stuff is that he's not like a bad athlete, but he's probably not going to be a winger long term because of the athletic question. and Philly doesn't really play with Wingers anyways. So he's likely getting a push to play as like a 10-8 or if Philly plays out of a diamond, like the peak of that diamond.

And I think that he is a good, it's a great long-term prospect. I am slightly worried about him disappearing in games that we don't control when we talk specifically about our U-20 team because he is not a find the game player. He is a, does some really nice things and shows up in places to finish stuff,

a type of player. Yeah, we need that elite mentality. We need people to seize the game. Yes. All right, Brian Gutierrez, Chicago Fire, he's gotten some, like, some real minutes in MLS, right? Yeah, he's gotten some real minutes.

he's basically played every attacking position for the Chicago Fire this year. I think he picked up an injury that kept him out for a month or two, so that's why his overall minute number isn't too high, but whenever he's been on the field, I think he's looked pretty good. I would expect that he's going to move inside

long term, but the lack of winger depth in this U20 team means that I'm going to take him as a winger here. He's got great vision. And it reminds me a bit like a more athletic Thomas Roberts. For those of you who have seen Thomas Roberts, who remember Thomas Roberts. He's doing his thing in Europe, I think, right?

Somewhere out there. He's out there somewhere. I kind of lost track. Yeah. And I love that Brian Gutierrez loves, I love that he plays both ways. He's one of those attacking players that is going to backtrack and try to win the ball.

And there are too many attacking players. playing in our youth ranks that can't be counted on to do that. So. Are they watching the modern game or what? Right. I mean, this isn't the first time we've talked about the American player and offball accountability. But he's one of those players that that kind of, you know,

visibly takes pride in doing that sort of stuff. So I really like him as a player. Again, like there are a lot of these players who are going to kind of be, you know, like 10 slash wingers that are in this team because we kind of lack that 8 slash 10 those 8 slash 10 guys

in this age group yeah all right well let's do one more who's on this roster Diego Luna sure um he's he's been lighting up the you know the highlight

the highlight reels for El Paso what's uh what's your read on him Yeah, Diego Loon is an interesting one because he was a former Quakes youth player. He was the guy responsible for many of Kate Cowell's DA goals. And he was one of those guys who was like kind of around the edge of the U-17 roster in the last full U-17 cycle. He moved to the Barsa Academy on a scholarship and fell off my radar a little bit because he spent most of 2020 overweight and not playing defense. and I kind of wrote him off like that sort of, you know, like, a lack of progression when you're 16 is usually kind of like a death sentence for a professional career.

And he moves to El Paso and he kind of got a little bit of stick for the shape that he was in in his El Paso like welcome photos and stuff like that. He did not look. Is that what happened? Yeah, he did not look like a professional. professional soccer player. But he's looked in shape in El Paso this season, especially at the last few months, and I would say probably one of the more dangerous players on the ball in all of USL. So, like, the big question mark surrounding him is going to be his ability to play high-level

soccer because he's definitely got like an untraditional build for a wide player. He's not very tall, but like, you know, very. very, very sturdy looking. You're like big bones. Which is okay. Yeah, totally. Which is okay as long as you're not, as long as you're quick. Yeah, and he's definitely is quick enough for USL.

And we're just going to have to see. Hopefully he gets the chance. At least he gets the chance to see if he, if it tracks up to MLS because, you know, you could kind of draw a comparison in like play style to somebody like, what's his name? Jose Gallegos who, you know, just... Who's also quite sturdy. Yeah.

Although no one would ever accuse him of being overweight, I don't think. Right. No, for sure. But yeah, you know, like, and who is, who is, who is, who is, who is a, guyegos is still in USL.

So hopefully Diego Luna is able to, to maybe parlay this unit, new 20 call up into, uh, MLS interest. But I do think like, the athletic things are going to be question marks. And, you know,

especially in his ability, to defend other players because he can sometimes be left in the dust in USL defending higher caliber athletes Okay Well just real quick Let's talk about two names that are not on the roster

Fedé Oliva Who is in the Athletica Madrid Academy What's What should we know about him Sure so FedA is a 04 He wears the number 10 shirt in one of Athletico Madrid's many youth teams. He's kind of like a jack of all trades master of non-winger.

Reminds me a lot of Mateo Rotasio, for those of you who recall seeing him play for the Liverpool youth teams a couple years ago. Fedet's got a lot of talent, but he's definitely still baking. As an 04, I would say that he's going to be a guy that we hear more from later in the cycle. And then I'll jump right to Edison Ascona, as kona, who is a young O3, might have been the best American player at the Olympic qualifying tournament earlier this year, where he was playing for the Dominican Republic, would be disappointed if he gets captied to the Dominican Republic

because he does a decent Giorina impression. He's like a taller winger who just does not give up the ball. You know, he's kind of like a good cage match guy. playing for currently for Fort Lauderdale where I think he's one could say that he he isn't playing at the level that he played in that Olympic qualifying tournament but I'm true what's up because he was really good I was going to say is that I just said is that true because he was really good in that tournament yeah he was really good in that tournament and I mean there are definitely signs of that like that that is in him for when he plays for Fort Lauderdale and uh you know I don't

particularly mind a player that plays better. for his national team than he does for his club. But I imagine he'll get a shot with Inter Miami this offseason. Cool. Yeah, I was into him in that tournament as a player, obviously. Right. Let's see. Let's talk about the midfielders.

Caden Clark, you know, we were talking just the other day, Waki and I about how he and Kate Cal had lost steam over the summer. and then we had Kade Kow scored that incredible goal that we talked about earlier and then Kaden Clark got his first, I think significant appearance for Red Bulls and he got an assist on the game-winning goal

at the end of the game and also looked very sharp I thought in watching his involvements in the game almost had another assist so like let's fire back up the hype machine on Kaden Clark you know? Yeah totally I mean I thought he looked great in that game

And I was in a similar place to you in Maki where I was starting to worry about Caden not only because he hadn't been getting time with the Red Bulls not getting time with the New York Red Bulls at whatever, you know, 17, 18, whatever he is, isn't the end of the world. But it is kind of not ideal when you're about to move to a Bundesliga team to all of a sudden not be playing MLS minutes.

But yeah, like all it really took for me was one game to seeing him over this past weekend. He looked great. And I know it might be some of that like Dante Sili's stuff we were talking about earlier where he's just ready to go to Leipzig. So, you know, like I think it's just a player that we're going to have to wait and see what happens. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up getting loaned out to, you know, Salzberg or something like that.

I also wouldn't be surprised if he gets, you know, 500, 600 minutes over the course of the spring yeah in the Bundesliga I mean part of the reason he part of the reason he wasn't playing was because of the appendix surgery

he had this summer yeah definitely but yeah he's he's got he's a good passer of the ball he plays soccer the right way Matt okay and then and then okay let's talk about

so that's I'm excited about him let's talk about Paxon Aronson he obviously is Brendan Aronson's little brother and he scored a very nice goal not this past weekend but maybe the weekend before

what can you tell us about him yeah I mean I love Paxton's game he plays a whole lot like his older brother and you can make a pretty good argument that Paxton is a better passer of the ball than his brother was when he was 18 but my favorite thing about Paxton which is also a thing that Brendan does

is that there's just dual machines. And what I mean by that is that like if you look at the game that Paxton played over the weekend, he had like 14 or 15 duels and he, you know, granted he's not winning

most of these, Brendan almost never does wins like 50% or anywhere near 50% of his duels either. But they get into a lot of them. Exactly. Like significantly more than anybody else on the team. And that is that is, that is,

you know, um, so important. Like just the pressure that duels, that getting into that many duels puts on another team, you know? Like I, I'm kind of skeptical of the stat meaning anything in terms of success rates, you know, but the fact that that he's able to, to throw himself into so many, but so many, uh, you know, opposite opposition players under pressure is great. Um, players that can do that and also be a,

plus player on the ball are just so hard to find. So. Yeah. Yeah, because like deciding what, deciding who won a duel can be a little more tricky than you, than you might think, you know. Yeah, that,

that and also like, if a player, you know, if a player doesn't get anywhere near a ball, it doesn't count, you know, like a ball that he should have been, that he could have contested.

It doesn't even count as a duel, right? So like, if you care about dual winning, percentages, you're almost hurting yourself by running as hard as the Aronson bros do. Right. So maybe we should just be looking at how many duels players get into. I've never really thought of it that way.

Okay, yeah, he seems like, he seems like more of a, just a little bit more of a bad man than Brendan too. Yeah, I could definitely see that. He has some, he has some, he has some real, I think Waki's touched on this before, but he has some USL moments where, you know, that were kind of like hoppy-esque, where he'll sit a guy down and then just like stand over him and stuff like that. He just loves that part of the game, it seems. And he doesn't have Brendan's, at least Brendan's MLS tendency to every time he was 1V1 with the keeper to try not to score. Right. Yeah, I'd say it's still maybe early days to say that he isn't cursed with the Brendan Arons.

an MLS shooting at the goalkeeper literally every time. Right. We'll see. We love both of you guys, Paxon and Brendan, just for the record. All right. Jack McGlynn, Paxon's teammate, also ran riot in that game against FC Cincinnati the other day. Big caveat there because they're so bad, but. Right.

I mean, Aronson McGlynn looked really good. Both of them did. Yeah. for sure and Jack McGlynn like you know talked a little bit about how good how good Quinn Sullivan's right foot is like you can apply that same thing to Jack McGlynn's left because

you know that left foot is creating like two or three chances a game by itself but the quite like the question of work with McGlynn is that he's just flat out like he's just flat out unathletic I would say you know like and this is compared to other soccer players not compared to like

Right, right. So he plays very upright. He almost kind of looks a little bit like, like Keaton Parks running around because he's, you know, he just, you know, soccer players generally have some kind of gate that Keaton Parks doesn't because he's so tall and lanky and stuff like that. And Jack McGlynn isn't as tall and lanky, but he just kind of moves around the pitch in this very weird way where he's not kind of prepared to have those, like, Twitch reaction. actions that midfielders typically do. So he probably needs two high-energy midfielers to cover for him in like this U-20 team and most teams that he'll play in going forward

unless he grows athleticism in the way that Paxton Paxton-Pomical magically did back in like 2018 or whatever. But even if he doesn't do that, having those two high-energy midfielers to cover for him is probably worth it because he's just so good with ball at his feet. It is kind of the Alex Mendez dilemma all over again.

Huh. Interesting. Yeah, I notice, I notice McGlynn loves to have a hit from 25 yards like Mendez, like Mendez does. Yeah. Yeah,

he's had like, I don't know, four or five almost Galazosos in the past few weeks. Yeah, and that's a Mendez treat too, right? Like, everybody loved those Mendez shots from distance

that like skim the crossbar, but he like, he never actually scored that. any of those save his friver. Colazo. Yeah, the percentages are pretty low on those. Right. Even if you hit it sweetly.

But yeah, he's doing that. He loves that. Like when there's a corner kick and then the ball gets headed out to the top of the box, he will take it first time. He will. Yeah. And, you know, I like that. Even if it's not a high percentage shot.

All right, Moses Nyman. Not on this roster. I don't, I'm not sure why. Is he hurt right now? Yeah, I believe. he's hurt. Okay. I wasn't sure.

I meant to check before, before this, but I forgot. Okay. He's, you know, Nyman's still a top prospect. I think he definitely would have been

on this team if he were healthy. If he is healthy, if he wasn't, if he wasn't, if he isn't, what am I trying to say? Were he healthy? Were he healthy?

Were he healthy? He would be on this team. He would have. Well, he might, he might be healthy and still not on this team is the problem, right? Like,

that's, I mean, that wouldn't make very much sense to me. Um, So I hope that that isn't the case. Then again, I'm also not entirely sure who's putting this roster together because we don't have a coach. And I'm not sure that like Brian McBride particularly cares about watching youth soccer games. Maybe Tab Ramos has been putting this roster together and that's why he got fired at Houston.

Maybe. I mean, we forgot to talk at him at the top about the coaches thing. But that would be, that would be okay. I'd be okay with taking Tab back. Would he want it back? I mean, what else is he going to do right now? I don't know. Why not? That'd be cool.

Because I think I feel like he's, he doesn't get along with, with Burrhalter or, um, Stuart. That's, that's my impression. He's probably too decisive. Anyways, um, I think that, you better, we better, we better get cooking here. Let's do it. Okay. Um, I, I, I'm definitely starting to get a little worried that Nyman is done growing because he, He is still a really small dude.

So if we're going to have a negative, you know, we've talked a lot about what Moses not knows it. Moses Nyman is good at. So I throw that in there as the potential worry. And I'm kind of bummed that Lassada seems to have chickened out of playing him down the stretch. But it might just be that he has a recurring or injury that is not easy to Google. Yeah. Yeah. he's he's he's he's still very young he's had his problems with dc and dc was for a while a decent

mLS team i don't i think they're out of the they're they're very unlikely to make the playoffs now right yeah but um you know they had a chance to be a playoff team and and he wasn't quite getting it done um but that's that doesn't mean we give up on him how about rocos pookstae puxtas yeah so he he's the you he's Currently playing in Croatia for Hi, how do you, how would you pronounce that? I would say Hydeck split.

He'd like Spitz splits, U-19s. He was previously with sporting Kansas City in the pre-COVID days. It was kind of like an undersized, but Aronson brother-esque number 10 in Kansas City. Yeah. But, I mean,

he plays in Croatia. Who knows, like, what he is these days? I haven't seen him playing well over a year. But he's one of those kids that was super highly rated by basically every coach that he touched. So I'm not surprised that he would be called into this roster. And I'm super excited to see what player he is because, you know, I mentioned the lack of like 810s on this roster.

If there's anybody that's going to be that type of player, it's probably going to be him. Yeah, I remember people being really excited about him too, a wide range of people. Sure. Danny Lava. So he's good. Go ahead. Well, I was just going to say, you know, he was on that 2000, I'm sorry, that U17 team in the 2019 World Cup that did not do well. I think he was probably part of the problem for that team, the midfield that couldn't really get traction in games.

now he's now he's a Seattle Sounders first team player sort of he plays some first team minutes but not a ton what's your thoughts on him yeah I mean I would agree with you that he was kind of a problem in that 2019 U17 team and unfortunately he's kind of a similar player to what he was two years ago um athletic the lack of athletic ability might not be overcomeable um Brian Schmetser clearly prefers Josh Atensio in that midfield. And the Sounders almost always play a two-man midfield. And Leva's lack of ability to cover ground makes it a bad fit. So I'm kind of excited to see him on this roster and hope he looks good in, you know,

like whatever we end up playing a 433 double pivot. I doubt we're going to play like a 4-4-2 or three at the back or anything like that. So we should get a look with two midfielers next. to him and it's kind of like you know put up or shut up time for him if he's going to be a youth national team player i think he's probably going to need to show it in this camp yeah yeah it's like he's not he's not a final third cutting edge kind of player for sure and so he's got to be somebody who can shut the other team down and if he can't get there fast enough to do it even it doesn't matter how intelligent if he is or he is or

how good he is at passing through a defense because I think he's pretty good at both of those things he's intelligent and he's he's a good pass for the ball but if he can't get there to win the ball then uh kind of doesn't matter you know yeah and I mean we have a lot of those guys right a lot of those like good at a couple things but not don't have the athletic ability it's why guys like a guy like Kelan Acosta is in the national team picture and like I just don't I just don't I just don't see Danny Lava overcoming those shortcomings to the extent that he's a solution for the program going forward. But I'd love to be wrong. I really liked watching Danny Lava when he played soccer consistently.

Yeah, I agree. I share your doubts and I hope I'm wrong. Danny Edelman. Yeah, so Edelman plays mostly, well, I guess entirely for Red Bull 2. he doesn't have a homegrown deal yet. He's consistently, I think, the best player on that bad Red Bull 2 team. I think he's going to be a homegrown and a Red Bull staple eventually. Probably not a men's national team ceiling here,

but a guy who works really hard can play both in like an 8 and a 6 and plays fast, which I appreciate it. So maybe he's the solution at the 6 for this team. He could be. He could be. I mean, more so because due to the lack of options, I think. But then. Jeremy Gray.

Yeah. So this is another 03 number six. Decent enough MLS prospect. Nothing that he does really stands out to me. He plays for Loudon primarily, though he is a homegrown guy now as well. He's kind of afraid of using his left foot. very stop and start can slow play down too much. I'd love to see him step up in what is a week number six pool,

but I think he's destined for the El Salvador national team where he already has two caps. He has two caps with their U-20s? No, with their full national team. Oh. Yeah. Hugo Perez is... But he's in this camp.

Yeah, because both of those caps were in friendlies, so... Oh, okay. interesting all right um Zach Booth Taylor Booth's younger brother right so

not in this camp because he's injured um at Leicester City was considered like the blue chip of the O4 midfield group a few years ago

but as I mentioned he really hasn't been healthy for any period of time since moving to England last year so this is kind of a wait and see type of deal

and another wait and see type of deal I think is Leo Torres, who has been playing with the Real Monarchs, if they're still called that, I think so. They are. They are still called that, yeah. And, I mean, a ton of talent there, but he still kind of looks like a child physically and probably not deserving of a call about this moment. But if things go right there, he might factor into things later in the cycle. Kind of strange that he was loaned from San Antonio to the Real Monarchs.

Yeah, I mean, I definitely don't mind it because San Antonio maybe not the best place for talented kids to be. Like they're trying to win games, right? Yeah. The Real Monarchs, I mean, if they're trying to win games, they're not doing a very good job of it. So I don't think that's what they're trying to do. Because the Monarchs won USL, what, two years ago? And now they're like a bottom feeder in their division. Yeah, I mean, I don't follow.

that team close enough to tell you what the what's going on there but i yeah i'm not i'm not asking for a explanation of it i just think it's like it kind of like that's a weird thing to have in a soccer league for a team to be like one year winning the championship and then two years later for sure but that sort of thing is super common in europe right so like young PSV young iax and like bvob2 stuff like that like those teams are regularly either like at the top or the bottom of their leagues like you know depending on the level of talent i was going to say i don't know is young is young psv at the top of their league right now um they aren't maybe young psv is a bad example but young iax is one of those teams that oh yeah swings back and forth you know like byron

got relegated like a season after not getting promoted from the three leaguea because they were right they're not allowed to or whatever all right well the two most exciting defenders i think neither of them is there for this camp and they're both left backs. I mean, they both project his left backs I think long term at the senior level. One is Jonathan Gomez. He's been playing very well

for Louisville City all season. Has eight assists, I think. Still probably some questions about his ability to defend at a high level but those won't be answered until we see him playing at a higher level. For the U20s, he's a lot call-up, but he's going to be busy with.

the playoffs, the USL playoffs. And then there's, of course, the question about his national team preference, about which he has been quite coy. Yep. I mean, I agree with all of that. I think that we're done watching Jonathan Gomez in USL. I think he's answered all of the questions that he needs to answer and that, you know, the question now is just how quickly can he work his way into Real Associated's plans?

and regardless of that, I think that he's, he's the left back for this team. If he'll have us. Right. He told, he was on tactical managers' YouTube show and said that he will be with the Real Sociedad B team at first this spring. And they play in the Segunda division. So second tier.

Not too bad. Yeah. Kevin Perretis. Barreides has accomplished more than Gomez as a left back in domestic soccer, getting real minutes for DC United. Unlike Nyman, he has, Barretis has been, you know, a regular for them until he got hurt a couple weeks ago. So him being hurt is going to keep him out of this camp, it appears.

Yeah, and apparently that injury is a hip flexor, which is one of those that is tricky and could be a rather long time. so we're just going to have to back burner him for now but I think that if he's healthy he's a starter at like three positions for this team I love his I love his game

the effort he puts in start him at left back start him on the wing on either wings you know he'll be he'll be great I think yeah yeah he's got a great spirit I think and of you know

great athleticism too I think that's that maybe is a little bit of the question with Gomez is like is he a good enough athlete to go toe to toe with a Champions League winger? Yeah. I think Paredes probably can do that, you know? Right. Yeah, totally.

At least on an athletic level. All right. Caleb Wiley, who's this guy? So he's the left back for Land United 2. He's a big, strong SEC style. traditional defensive defense first fullback a common presence on that Atlanta United two backline I think that he's one of these guys types of players that like that we've had in you 20 teams in the past and that are always useful that like you can just plug and play and

I think that we'll be fine as long as you aren't asking him to be the guy right you just stick him at at left back he'll offer some something going forward he won't he won't be a him defensively. And as long as you, you know, you aren't asking him to create anything, he'll be, he'll be just fine. I really like his game. I don't think he's ever going to be like, I don't think his ceiling is tremendous just because he's not an attacking fullback.

He's not really, if he's passing the ball, it's likely going to be like, you know, down the wing to his winger or across. He's not going to come in and combine or anything like that. but still, you know, a useful player. I fully expect him to get minutes with Atlanta. He's next in line for that left back position after George Bello leaves. You know what? Just listening to talk there, it persuaded me that Kate Cowell cannot be a right back.

He can't do it. He doesn't have the quality to be a good right back. I'm not sure what it was that I said. That made you think that. Well, I was just thinking about, you know, passing, you know, you know, I could see Cade Cowell passing the ball down the line, I could see him crossing the ball, which is what I was thinking about,

but like being a modern Sergenio Des type fullback who is a playmaker. Yeah, and that's what I was getting at earlier. Like what does like, of course he's not as good as Danny. Like Danny Alves is as good as soccer player as any winger is in the world. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like you still need to be able to do the stuff

that you do as a winger as a fullback. The reason why you're playing fuller back is because you're also a very good defensive player, which Kate Cowell has never shown. I take it all back. I take it all back. I'm glad you've seen the light. Jacob Green. And now I just want to say Kaye Cowell is going to go on to have like a 15 year career at Bayern Munich at right back.

And I'm going to have to like it. It's totally possible, man. Ah, man. Anyways, Jacob Green. He plays both full back spots for Loudon. I like him mostly on the left. He's more comfortable getting forward there, although I think his lone USL goal came from him playing on the right and cutting inside and shooting like a Serginio Dest type shot that fooled the goalie.

Very much an attacking fullback no matter what side he's going to play on. Plays almost entirely wingback in USL because Loudoun plays three at the back. so not a lot of experience as a fullback I think that going into this camp you have to think of him as like the Gomez light since we don't have Gomez in the team okay

let's very quickly move on to right backs you want to take Justin Jay yeah I thought you know there was a point earlier this year where I was like we should bring him in to a national team camp based on how well he played for Bayern Munich 2 and I was going by

like Chris Richards looked pretty good for Bayern Munich 2 and then was immediately plugged in to Hoffenheim was excellent so clearly Justin Shea who I thought looked better for Bayern Munich 2 than Richards did so therefore Shea should be ready for the national team

and I you know that that sort of equation didn't you know didn't quite work out because i as i watched him for dallas like he he had some real speed bumps earlier this summer playing for dallas like he like legit didn't look up to the speed of thought that was required and um that's not to say he's not he's he's probably the best you know one of the top three or four players on this roster still but but yeah i i i got a little ahead of myself on that um Yeah, I mean, it can happen, right?

And I totally agree with what you said. I would also kind of say that having watched a couple of Dallas games recently, I still think the plan for most teams is kind of to attack Justin Chey. He still has a lot of play come down his side of the field. And he still not, doesn't look all that comfortable dealing with it all of the time. But I- It doesn't seem so much like a matter of comfort as it is just a matter of like, does he want to do it, you know?

Does he want to track that runner? And, uh, right. Or not even just does he want to? It's like, is he, does he recognize a danger fast enough? Yeah, right. Exactly. I would say that that's the thing. And that has always been the thing with Jay is, you know, he has a ton of talent on the

ball. And we've talked about him like being moved to centerback. a lot just because that talent on the ball can sometimes lead him to ending up in places where he's not supposed to be. And he's never, he's never really looked like a positionally cognizant. Like he's not a natural right back in the way that some of the other players in our team, that have come through these youth teams have looked.

But another player who I would say, like, you know, came up as a fullback. We talked a lot about him potentially moving to centerback because he just didn't have like fullback instincts is Joe Scali, right? And Joe Scali is now apparently like one of the five best fullbacks

in the Bundesliga statistically. Yeah. Yeah, a lot can change. A lot can change over the next three years for all these guys. I guess I do, it does seem like centerback would be, would protect Shea from some of these

like these deficiencies a little bit more because he wouldn't have to like track the runner on the back the backdoor runners and stuff but um I mean we've always heard he's a he's a natural centerback right like that's the that's the book on on Shay yeah I mean when I've with the Dallas people I've talked to it sounded like that was very much that was very much

always his like long term plan and then it certainly seemed that way when he was with Byron because he played there quite a bit so yeah okay uh holiday tell us about this guy yep so michael holiday is a uh Orlando city o three uh tall and quick not unlike uh Joe Scali also a right back um he runs a lot like Erling Holland which is fun I don't know how much holiday tape you've watched but kind of like a terrifying robot yeah like this like weirdly hunched arm swinging gate. So keep that in mind.

Look out for that for me. Okay. And then also have that he he looked like he was about to nail down a job in MLS before having one bad game with Orlando in August and he just like completely disappeared for the rest of the year. Thanks, Oscar. Yes.

So who knows maybe he's injured. He would be my second choice right back. Pretend, you know, even the starter of Che is starting at centerback. Okay. Devin Tanton? Yep. Is that his name? Yep.

Devin Tannen. He's Fulham's U-23 right back, which is pretty impressive for an O-4 to not to nail that job down. I last saw him play when he was a U-15, like three years ago, three, four years ago. So it's been a little while. He was in Spain for playing for Majorca, I think. was before he went to Fulham and you're just like not going to find any of those games. But can you find the Fulham E23 games? So I've watched the highlight packages that get put up when like Fulham plays like

Man City or teams that people care about. Right. You'll sometimes find those. And he's like almost never futures in those. So, you know, maybe he's just doing his job. Well, I mean like you, you 23. Premier League 2, like, starter at right back. I think he's even worn the captain's armband a time or two.

Pretty impressive for an 04. That is impressive, yeah. So I assume that he'll be involved at some point if he keeps up that trajectory. Okay, last right back is Caden Pierre. He's on, so Tanton's not on, he's not on this roster, but Pierre is. Yeah, exactly. And Pierre sets a really nice floor for the right back group. he put together a really nice second half of the USL season with Sporting Kansas City too

he uses his speed to play endline to end line probably the best one D one v one defender in in this group shame that supporting Kansas City has both Jalen Limsey and Cam Duke at right back because the path is Duke playing right back now yeah he's played right back a lot this season I think like exclusively this season so it's going to kind of be hard for him to get MLS minutes but kind of another you know and line like full back that's comfortable just going up and down the sideline

playing in crosses he's not going to do any of like the Sergenio Dest stuff but definitely a good player he's already playing professional soccer and I bet he has he ends up in MLS sooner than later. Well, maybe Heidek split is looking for a right back, you know? Yeah, I think Heidek splits one of those, it's one of those parts of the world where you just need, you need that Croatian passport or they just don't want you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know, maybe, I shouldn't assume that Kate and Pierre doesn't have a Croatian passport, but I doubt. You never know. Centerbacks, the one, the sort of top one we want to talk about is not going to, it doesn't appear he's going to be in this. camp. He's wanted by the U.S., but he's also wanted by Mexico, and he's taking a lot of Mexico callups as Antonio Leon.

Yeah. What do you think about him? So he's actually in a Mexico camp right now. Mexico is holding a pre-tortament camp. So that's where he is. He's also on Mexico's provisional roster for the Revelations tournament, so he might be there. I would say that he's probably the best 04 centerback by a good distance,

and you can make a serious argument for him to be the most talented 2004 player with an American passport. He has all of the tools you want in the centerback prospect. Maybe you'd want him to be a couple of inches taller, and there are safer options defensively for this particular team, but outside of Che, we don't really have anybody else. in our pool that is going to that isn't going to worry me when the ball's at their feet

and Leonie is just one of those capable centerbacks when they have when they're holding on to the ball so and he was and he was called up for like every single U15 yeah he's actually tied for our most capped U15 player of his cycle

but he's probably been in more Mexico camps than U.S. camps at this point and you know that's kind of a prime example of why youth camps at every age are vital because we live in the age of dual national panic. These kids need to be seeing or hanging out with other top players

in their age group for the national team. Antonio Leone when he was a U-15 player, I had asked, I had talked to somebody at LAAFC about his if he was interested in playing for Mexico. and the answer was like don't worry about it he doesn't speak great Spanish and now he probably speaks great Spanish right he has friends that speaks he has friends in that team

like if we were keeping making him split time between those US and Mexico camps like who knows if the situation is what it is now but until it changes I think we have to assume that Antonio Leone is a Mexico youth player yeah anything can happen Anything can happen, but keep an eye on him. Casey Walls, I've been watching a little bit of his clips, O3 centerback for the Austin Bold on loan from the quakes, as we mentioned. Big kid, long hair, left-footed.

I notice he has a real presence on the field, you know, which you don't always notice that with a young player in USL, but like he's, you notice him. Yeah, it's out there. Yeah, for sure. And I'm sorry I hadn't touched. on, I hadn't written down enough players' haircuts as we've been going through this roster. It's good that you did that there.

Yeah, I completely agree. O3 centerback on loan from the quakes. Good prospect. Not a great player today, but the athletic traits are definitely there. He has a pretty good left foot. Definitely has the size. But he's just inconsistent with the ball at his feet. but I'd say that at 18

I would take inconsistent over not even trying to advance the ball which is where most 18 year old centerbacks are at this stage in their development they're just you know if they don't have it by now they're not trying so he's going to make mistakes

and I think we're just going to have to live with that given our other options at centerback yeah okay Jalen Neal is getting reps for Los Dose, L.A. Galaxy 2 at centerback starting every game. That's not a playoff USL team right now.

So it's not a high bar for him to get those minutes. And I feel like he's a little profligate in possession. But, you know, at least he's a professional centerback. I guess that's what I'd say. Yeah, I mean, that's... I mean, he's still a prospect, right?

Like, the nicest thing you could say about him is that he's a professional centerback that LA Galaxy 2 team tries to play good soccer and that leaves their centerbacks in positions where they have to make plays fairly frequently and

Neil is relatively good at it at the USL level still very much a work in progress it is going to worry me if he's starting against the Brazil U-7 U-20s yeah Yeah. Kobe Henry, who plays for Orange City SC, looks like a better athlete than Neil, bigger and a little faster.

But not quick of foot in tight space, you know, so like a little bit seemed like he was pretty easy to get by in a 1v1 situation. But again, you know, young player and getting plenty of reps in USL. Yep, exactly. Young and getting reps. big kid definitely don't not any worries about where about what his position is he definitely looks like like what you think of a centerback's looking like he definitely like like almost in super raw right like he he wasn't a starter for orange county for a lot of the year and then when he was he was playing in a three at the back formation where he didn't have a ton of responsibility.

I'm probably of all of the players on this list, the player I'm most excited to watch because I haven't, I just haven't watched a ton of Orange County this year. So I'd be interested to see if he can show me something that I hadn't seen in the games that I had watched of him. And there's definitely some potential there. He was a kid who was highly rated when he was in Orlando's youth system. When Inter-Miamy joined the league, he moved to their youth system, and I would assume that the reason why he would leave Inter-Miamy for Orange County

is because he has some sort of European deal lined up. So, again, you know, not nothing unusual here for 17-year-old centerbacks. Things are going to evolve pretty rapidly with this group. I think that he's one of those who things are going to, he's going to sink or swing or swim in the next, you know, two years and he's... Yeah, the system choose these, choose, either choose you up and spits you out or, and you're on, and pretty soon you're on TikTok, making, taking pictures of yourself in, in the, in the meat department of a, of a grocery store or, or you're, or you end up playing in Champions

League, you know, it's like, it's a, it's a tough world, man. Yep. All right. Last centerback, Brandon Craig. Yeah. So not on the roster, but he is one of the more highly rated kids in this group. He's an 04, so there's still lots of time, and he's relatively new to the position. He played mostly at the 6th in USLS season after spending most of his life playing fullback.

He plays currently for Phillies U-23s, which are super hard games to find. find. But since, you know, the actual U-23 MLS League doesn't exist yet, but the word out of Philly is that they are happy with his progress. And I totally expect him to break into this team at some point. Okay. And let's not even, you know, let's not even talk about the goalkeepers that much. It's like, Slinina's like a big prospect, right? Yeah. He's. Gagas Slunina is definitely the top prospect in the group. He should be start. starting like, you know, every game that we actually care about winning. And then we have Alex Borto behind him.

Borto is the sometimes starting goalkeeper for the Fulham U-23s with where he will play with Devin Tatton. He is perhaps even the third keeper on Fulham's entire roster. If you choose to read the roster that way, that like if they have two senior team rosters and then he's the starter at U23s that he may just be their third option but you know who who really knows

with 16 17 year old goalkeepers and then Jeff Dunswap is a real salt lake kid who is most notable because like how many 16 year olds do you know who have the name Jeff right right Jeff it's like do SNAP right do SNAP do SNAP All right Right. So who's your 11?

Give me your 11 against Brazil. I mean, you might as well be the coach. I mean, right? Yeah, as of now. I mean, I don't mean to toot my own horn, but there might not be like 10 people in the world who knows more about this. There are not 10 people in the world. Oh, that's so sad. Yeah.

Anyways, I'm going to go with Sloanina in that. It's like, it's both sad and glorious at the same time. right so I'm going to go with Slonina in that I'm going to go with what are my options because we're missing players

I'm going to go with Wiley at left back Neil and walls at centerback um is Che on the roster I should look at the roster

yeah I'll take so I'll take Che at right back yeah he's on the roster okay I'll take Che right back, Lava at the 6, McGlynn and Clark as the 8-10s,

and then Aronson and Seeley on the wings with Cowell up top. Aren't you a little worried about that midfield? Oh, I'm super worried about that midfield. But there's no, like, there's no construction of the midfield that makes me comfortable

because, like, you know, like, what are you going to do not play Jack McGlynn? And, like,

there's no six that is going to cover, that is going to, you know, play a Tyler Adams level of defense. So then are you sacrificing our best, I think, passer of the ball in order to fit a slightly better defensive player on the field? I guess not a slightly better, but a better defensive player on the field. I don't know.

I don't know if, like, maybe Rokas Puskas is insane, but I haven't seen him play in three years. So, like, I don't. Yeah, I've never seen him play ever. So I'm going to say, like, take this for what it's worth, which is not much. But I'm going to say, Slinina at goalkeeper, Shea it right back, Kobe Henry and Casey Walls as my centerbacks, Wiley, based on your recommendation at left back.

And I'm going to say Edelman as my six, and then give me Gutierrez and Clark as my eights, and then the same front line, Seeley, Cowell, and Aronson. Great. And then, you know, bring McGlynn, bring McGlynn on for a for a banger in the second half. We need it, you know. Yeah. And I think the expectations for this for this team should be that like if, you know, the three teams were playing. I would honestly be happy with three points because these kids have never played together.

I think the midfield is super soft. I'm not sold on the centerbacks. I'm not even sold that the front line is going to is going to mesh together. we don't have a coach they're going to get there like two days before the first game like I just don't think that it should be viewed as a sky's falling situation

if we just get blown out in this tournament yeah I mean it feels like getting blown out is the most likely scenario especially in that first game against Brazil yeah I mean but it's probably maybe Brazil's bringing like their U17C team like I don't know Brazil is one of those countries that like German

It just has like 10 youth teams playing all of the time. Right. Well, let's hope. Let's hope they bring in their C team. That somehow doesn't give me a lot of comfort. But, um, right. Yeah. Well, thank you, Matt.

Thank you, Matt, for doing this and going, uh, nearly an hour and 45 minutes with me. Uh, yeah, always a pleasure bells. Yeah. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you. Thank you.