Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #274: Up-and-comers roundup with Matt Hartman and Marcus Chairez

Episode Date: April 28, 2022

The wheel keeps turning and we’ve got a new crop of male American soccer prospects emerging, especially at the U17 level. Marcus Chairez and Matt Hartman join the podcast to highlight the top players at the Generation Adidas Cup tournament, and we do a quick rundown of news in the men’s youth national teams.Roughly in order, here are some of the players we discussed:Cruz Medina, CM, San JoseBryan Destin, FW, Inter MiamiStu Hawkins, CB, SeattlePedro Faife, CDM, Inter MiamiAngel Martinez, CB, SeattleDeCarlo Guerra, CM, LAFCAndrea Gitau, FW, HoustonLuis Rivera, CB, Real Salt LakeNoah Santos, FW, PortlandIzzy Boatwright, RB, Inter Miami...and many more!Marcus on Twitter: https://twitter.com/chai_ascMatt on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MattsHartmansupport Scuffed on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedjoin the Discord: https://discord.gg/X6tfzkM8XU buy our merch: https://my-store-11446477.creator-spring.com/drop us a question at this link and we’ll try to answer it: https://forms.gle/rfzSEZJwsvnWSCxW7 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 scuffed podcast. I'm Adam Bells in Georgia. With me is Greg Velasquez in Iowa. We talk about U.S. men's soccer. Today we're going to try to get caught up on the men's youth national teams, a return of a distinct U19 national team, a new coach, a crop of emerging players at the U-17 age level, and I mean, at all age levels, really, many of whom just played a bunch of games in a big tournament in Dallas, so that's a lot to pick through. And I've got two guests, both close observers of that whole world. Making his scuff debut is, Marcus Chores, who writes for Chasing a Cup.com and lives in Northern California. Welcome. And thank you for doing this. Thank you. I'm a big fan of the show and excited to contribute. So I appreciate the opportunity.

I appreciate the even-handedness of Marcus's writing and the clarity of his writing. It's worth reading. And our other guest today is Matt Hartman in New York. He is by my count today featuring. on Get This, the Scuff podcast for the 10th time, which is a lot. Thanks, man. No problem, Bells. I assume my plaque is in the mail.

Yep, it's a really, really, really nice plaque. Fantastic. Let's start with the Generation Adidas Cup in Dallas. All the MLS Academies were there, or at least a lot of them, but also Santos Laguna, Tigres, and Club America from Mexico and then Celtic, Manchester United, Valencia, AS Roma, River Plate, and, Flamingu, which players should we be paying attention to? And let's start with, I mean, because there's so many, right? Let's start with Matt. Sure.

So the first name that comes to mind is Cruz Medina. He's a center midfielder for the San Jose Earthquakes. He's a 2006, so U-17. I consider him and most people that follow the youth system, we consider him one of the blue chips of our entire youth system. he's an outrageously gifted midfielder that has the dribbling ability to make stuff happen off the wing the ball just seems to like stick to him through contact and changes of pace and he almost always attracts the attention of multiple defenders and has the division the vision to turn that into odd man rushes

for his teammates um you know he's just an exceptional player i think i've said to you i've said in our group chat in the past that like there are players that you need to you know have some level of scouting ability to see that they're special but any soccer mom or soccer dad that's watching cruz madina play soccer can tell that he's just a special player and he had some special moments in the GA cup in Dallas from the nodding of your head it looks like you don't disagree marcus yeah no not at all i think um what's funny is as matt and i were putting our lists together before this we both put crews down first. So I think that says a lot about the level of talent that he is.

The one thing I look out for when I'm watching young players is can they kind of creatively get out of sticky situations? And he seems to do that very consistently. And you just, no matter who he's playing against, he typically looks like one of the best players on the field and it doesn't take too long to notice that. I think even in the U-17 match against Argentina, it was the same thing. He just, he sticks out and you can just see him creating havoc through the half space and through the center of the pitch. So, yeah, I think he's a really exciting 2006 to keep an eye on. And I think he just made his San Jose earthquakes. I don't know if he

got on the on the field matt you might know but he made he he was on the bench but he didn't get on the field he kind of glide i haven't watched as much of them as you guys have but i noticed he kind of glides rapidly with the ball at his feet in a way that reminds me of richel dezma a little bit and um and yeah he what i agree he was the best player in that that argentina game the u7 the u s u 17s versus argentina scored the u s's goal in that game and a master class is probably a little too strong, but he was highly influential in the middle of the park throughout the game.

Right. And I mean, if there's any worry about his game, it's on the defensive side. He's a willing defender, but he's just not a great disruptor in the center of the pitch. And San Jose generally has other guys that do that dirty work for him. So we haven't really got to see him,

you know, as a, we don't really get to see him as a true. eight for his club team often having to play both ways but man what a skill set and uh you know the best teams in the world are watching him pretty closely still not on a homegrown contract so as if right now he he's he's free to to go to europe if he so chooses can't go until he turns 18 though right he doesn't yeah all right your turn marcus who's your who's your next one yeah i'm going to start with a player that I really didn't know a lot about ahead of the Generation Adidas Cup that

stuck out and had a really big match in one of the broadcasted games against Atlanta. He plays for Inter-Miamy at the U-S17 level. He's also 2006. His name is Brian Destin. And I think we're going to talk a lot about the Inter-Miamy Academy in general. They've got a lot of talent, and I think they were To me, from what I saw, the most talented U-17 MLS Academy, they didn't win at all. But there were just a lot of players that caught your eye. But Destin is a 9. He's a striker. What I really stuck out to me was his hold-up play and technical ability.

You don't typically see a lot of great hold-up play at this level, but he really uses his body well. He leverages his body in a smart way, and he's got a strong frame. And he just knows how to find his teammates and kind of help the attack kind of build behind him. And he had a really, really nice goal against Atlanta. Can you describe that goal? How did it happen? Yeah.

So I think it was off of a corner that was deflected out. he sort of recovered on the left side, left far side of the 18, had a nice first touch that sort of created some separation between the defender. And I think he took a touch or two and just had a nice driven low shot that just got around the outstretched arms of the goalie. Took a bounce, right? Yeah, I think it took a bounce before it got there. So Keeper might have, you know, might have been able to do better with it. but it was a nice sequence of skill. And I thought, especially at the 2006 level,

he's got a good physical profile and shows a little bit more skill than you tend to see from strikers at that age. And to my knowledge, he hasn't been with a youth camp quite yet. And I think it'll be interesting to see if that does happen in the near future because the last time the U-17s got to. together, they pretty much played without a striker. They played with a lot of guys that were sort of deputizing as a striker.

So he's definitely one I'm going to keep my eye on. Yeah, Hartman, what's your take on Destin? By the way, it's B-R-Y-A-N-D-E-S-T-I-N, if anybody's curious about the spelling. Yeah, I mean, similarly to Marcus, he's not a player I was super familiar with going in. I didn't take the time to look up what his background is. You know if he's a Weston kid, Marcus? Is that where he came from? He just popped out and that we're from?

I don't. I don't know, but let me do a little bit research while we're talking. Sure, yeah, for those who don't know, Inter-Miamy tends to get a lot of their players from an academy in the Miami area called Weston. But yeah, not a name I was super familiar with going in, but he appears to be pretty special. I agree with basically everything Marcus said. Great engine, great technique.

His ability to ride contact and maintain possession was really nice. The first note that I wrote down about him while watching was that he reminded me a little bit of Tim Waye. And that's like U-17 Timwaya and not modern Timwaya, but U-17 Timwaya was a guy who looked basically unstoppable at the A level. and I haven't seen a whole lot of Brian Destin, but from what I have seen and from the stats he's putting up, he seems to be similarly unstoppable thus far in his age group. You guys are talking about how he rides contact. There was one moment in that game against Roma,

the Into Miami game, which they won 1 to 0 against Roma. He was initiating contact with the centerbacks when the ball was in the air. And instead of letting the centerback come flying over the top of him, every time he was like putting a shoulder into him as he was backing into him, which is, I think, pretty unusual to see from a striker that young, you know. Yeah, it's just, it's not something, it's not a technique you see developed that, that early to establish contact, be able to get the ball away from his body and the defender's body

and then also have a good sense of, you know, where his, where his teammates kind of coming to support him. So. Yeah. The technique to do something with it. Yeah. Yeah. That, to me, is just certain skills just stick out at certain levels where you're like, oh, I don't see that that often.

Right. Who you got next, Hartman? I'm going to do a two for one here and take Anhele Martinez and Stu Hawkins, centerbacks from the Seattle Sounders U-17s. They were the starting centerbacks the whole way through the Seattle Sounders. run to the GA Cup championship. Martinez playing right centerback, Stu Hawkins largely playing left centerback.

Stu Hawkins was named the U-17 MVP. He played every minute at the GA Cup but one, which is a pretty tremendous accomplishment, given that this tournament's like seven games played in 10 days or something like that. Anhelle is a tremendous talent and has been thought of as a top talent in this age group since he was like 12.

The two of them only allowed one goal in the seven games on their way to the U-17 title. And outside of the final game outside of their final game against Tigrace, they never really looked all that likely to get scored on. Both of them read the game exceptionally well

and do a tremendous job of timing their tackles. They rarely put themselves in emergency defending situations. both of them have super bright futures. Hawkins is probably a little more ready athletically to play minutes for the youth national teams. And he has been a starter at left centerback for the U-17s. He just has a good athletic profile for that more so than on Helrodite Martinez, even though he's around 18 months younger.

But both of them were just exceptional centerback play. in the tournament in the GA Cup and worth a shout out. So my question about Martinez, like he's undersized to play centerback and likely will be, even as he gets older. So can he become a six? What do you guys think? Because it seems like he's got,

he's intelligent, he's a tough defender, it's a pretty good passer. How good of a passer is he? He's a pretty good passer. He's not really, you know, there are centerbacks that,

like you know go for the exceptional right he's not really one of those like uh where he's going to you know break two lines with his passing type of player but but he's just he's just extremely accurate extremely comfortable on the ball i'd say that you know even when he was a i mean it's weird to say when he was a kid because he's still a kid but years ago you know he was um he kind of jumped off the screen with with with um how good he was passing out of the back i'm not sure that he's like you know going to be so exceptional at that that you can get away with playing a kid who's probably not likely to hit six foot one six foot two at centerback um just to get his passing ability on the field so i think a move to to the six makes a little bit of sense but those those same

questions exist, those same athletic questions exist at the six as they do at centerback, you know, because it's not just a hate thing. He's not a super athletic kid to begin with. Yeah, and I would echo that. I think he makes the right play and the right pass more times than not looking for the spectacular pass. So I don't think it's a matter of he can't do it. He's just he's just a player that's, I think, wired to do the right thing at the right time. And I agree. I thought the biggest reason why Seattle won that tournament was because they were just defensively sound from beginning to end. And so those two definitely deserve a ton of credit for that. And no real differing opinions on a possible

transition to the six. I think similar physical questions would be asked. But yeah, I mean, the hype thing becomes, I guess, less of an issue. But I think for a lot of the young people we're talking about, how they pan out physically will have a lot of impact in, like, where they end up. So where we see them today isn't necessarily where we might see them, you know, in two, three years. Yeah, I mean, I guess we didn't do this at the beginning, but we got to give us sort of the standard disclaimer that basically nobody knows anything about players this young. Right.

It's just fun to talk about. So we do it. Next player to you, Marcus. Yeah, and I'm going to go way too young on the next one, but I think a player that stood out to me was a six, a defensive midfielder for LASC. His name is DeCarlo Guerr. He's a 2008.

So he was playing, you know, I know. He was playing with 2007s for the most part. There were 2007s playing up at the U-17 level that we're going to talk about. But DeCarlo played. At the U-15 level, I think like Inner Miami, I thought L-AFC was probably the most talented U-15 or one of the most talented U-15 squads, but I also did not win the tournament. and that's how these things go.

So DeCarlo is, I think, a really, really intriguing player. He's... What kind of player is he? Is he a hard man? Is he a good passer? Like, what's he do? He is a distributor. He's the deep lying six that has an incredible feel for the game.

So I think he progresses the ball in a number of different ways. He can carry the ball. He can pick out a player 40, 50 yards away. He can drive a ball on the ground and break a line. He's just got a lot of skill at a young age and a lot of, I think, tactical and mental processing that's happening that you, again, just don't see a lot at this age. and so that's what that's what gets me excited about watching him is he just controls the game in a really smart and creative and skillful way from the sixth and you know it's not as if he's not also you know contributing on the defensive end i think he uses that intelligence to

to uh to to control space as well so there's a ton to like but again we're talking about many, many years till he even would have the chance to impact the senior national team. So who knows what's going to happen, but he played really well. Is he, is he by chance in that tournament, the U15 tournament in Italy right now? Or? He's not. He, in general, I thought the U15 tournament that's happening, I would have if a lot of questions about roster construction for that.

I don't think we need to get into that, but he has played with the U-15s in other camps, but he's not in this one. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I agree with almost all of that. The word

that comes to mind with him is just how much of a calming presence he is in that LAAFC midfield. It's just on both sides of the ball that team can really count on him to make something happen. And he just never seems to make a bad decision with the ball at his feet, you know, going into a tackle.

He's just a super, super solid youth player. And even though he's in 08, you wouldn't know it by looking at him because he's generally one of the taller kids on the field when he's playing. The thing I worry about a little bit with him is upside just because the six probably has the worst translation rate to the pro game of any position in the academy. For whatever reason. Yeah, what is the reason for that? You have to be sort of an elite athlete to do that at the international level.

Is that what it is? I don't know. I don't know that it's that as much as the fact that, like, at the 6th in the academy. And I think DeCarlo kind of has a little bit of this, too. it's like the game is is kind of simplified in a way especially especially in that team that I think like as Marcus alluded to the LAFCU 15s are probably the best team in the country at that position and if he wasn't in the lineup there's still probably one of the two or three best teams in the country um so it's just kind of not not a ton of problem solving that needs

to get done or or um just a very familiar situation I guess happening over and over again. There's been a number of like, you know, U15 number sixes over the last like, you know, five, ten years or whatever long I've been doing this that I've really liked. It just kind of seems like none of them. Like it's always the eights that get moved back to the sixes

once they reach the program that ended up making it. But yeah, he's definitely a youth national teamer for me. And I mean, he had an exceptional tournament. He was definitely the best, the best defensive midfielder in that U-15 bracket from the games that I watched. Okay. I think you make a good point about why that is, and I think it's, if you are not getting, you know, tested with a certain part of the game, if it's, you know, with the tactics of the game or, you know, the mental aspect of the game, once you get to that level where all of a sudden, you're, you're. you're sort of dealing with a different beast, that could be, you know, a real make or break moment for a lot of players. And so if, you know, at that specific position at the six,

that's not happening until you're, you know, at a much older age. That could be tough to recover from. So maybe there's something to that. And actually had a question on that. when you say that the defensive midfield role is the toughest to translate from youth to more senior levels, do you see that sort of, is that an American problem or do you think that's more of a global problem? Yeah, I mean, I haven't really thought about this too in depth. It's just, it kind of seems like of the guys who I have on like, you know, these youth national team spreadsheets who I rate super highly who don't end up making it it's a lot of times those

defensive midfielders. I would be surprised if this is an American problem, but it does kind of seem like, you know, we kind of have, the six is a little bit of a, has been a little bit of a whole positionally for us at kind of every level from like U-17 to the senior team for a little while now, save Tyler Adams. Yeah. It does seem like we have a, we have not been able to produce like a six who is stout defensively and like truly has quality on the ball.

Yeah. I think it's, both of those things at the same time. And the elite sixes that are more ball playing and less of the like, like the sweeper six. Um, they are really, really elite at that stuff.

at processing the game, at distribution, and we just maybe haven't produced someone that can be that profile of player and not have to worry so much on their athletic ability like a Tyler Adams does to play it. And so maybe a trend to keep an eye on. Let me ask about a player who did kind of look like he might do these things both well. Pedro Fifei.

He played for Inter-M Miami. I guess he's listed as Cuban. Is he not a dual national? Or is he, is there any chance of him playing for the U.S.? I should say he scored a nice goal. He scored a really nice goal in that game against Roma, like a curler from 20 yards,

just hit it sweetly. And then also look tough to me. Right. It's super interesting that, that you, you put them in our in our in our like pod spreadsheet and stuff like that because i've been watching a lot of that team and where i'm like man this this pedro fifay kid is really good it's not somebody who's been on any of my like spreadsheets or anything um i don't think he was

listed as having u.s citizenship when the d a website shut down he's listed as cuban on most on every website that you could find that lists his nationality um so i don't i really didn't pay too much attention to him, but he's kind of hard to avoid paying attention to when you watch Inter Miami because, man, does he do a lot of work in that midfield? And man, does he have a sweet right foot talking earlier about, you know, some Brian Destin and some of the stuff that he's done? It wasn't in GA Cup. It was actually, I think, in the game that they've played since GA Cup, where Pedro Fife has a... just a ridiculous ball from the sideline, just curling into Destin's foot, like a 30-yard ball

to put him in on goal. So I don't know. I don't have an answer to the question, does he have U.S. citizenship? But I think somebody at soccer house should get on that. Yeah, let's get into it. Let's get after it. I also do not have any insider information on that, but agree he definitely stood out. And that entire inner Miami midfield stood out to me, and they're all kind of interchangeable.

It looked like they were all able to play both the six and the eight. I think Devers was another player that kind of played the six and the eight. Another player on my list is Ben Premashi, who is also from the Academy mentioned Weston. he was a MLS next pro I think player of the tournament last year and then Inter Miami signed him and he also can play the six and the eight so there's a lot there's a lot of talent in that program all right let's do two more names each from you guys and then we'll do kind of a rapid fire round where we can mention a lot of people make mom and dad at home proud um so I'm going to go with Andre Gattow as my next pick

he's a left winger 06 who plays for Houston. He's actually a November of 06, which means that he's at the younger end of the spectrum, even when it comes to U-17 players. Just one of the most athletically gifted players at the whole event. He's training close to full-time with the Dynamo Pro teams, and it's easy to see why. He just has a deadly combination of pace and dribbling ability

that you just don't see all that much of at the U-Sexam. 17 level in this country. He hunts one-v-ones against defenders, almost more interested in making defenders look silly than putting the ball in the back of the net. If he can work on receiving the ball and getting more involved in team play, he's going to be a problem at the pro level.

He's already a problem in youth soccer, and he's probably going to be a part of the U-17 national team if going forward. He was bright in that friendly against Argentina as well. You know, not quite as bright as Medina, but. Yeah, he came on as a sub and was doing exactly what Matt was talking about, just hunting fullbacks and causing a lot of problems. You just, usually at this level, you see really athletically advanced players that are just

kind of blowing by people because they're faster and stronger, or you see people that are really, you know, kids that are really skilled. And he's kind of that rare combination of both. So, yeah, he's absolutely one of my favorite youth players to watch. The 2006 age level in general, I think, is maybe one of the strongest we've seen. They're pretty stacked. Can I get an amen from you, Hartman, after you threw so much cold water all over the 04s and 05s the last time you were on the podcast?

And they deserve it. The 05s and 04s aren't that good. The 06s are. I take nothing back. Okay. No, I'm not asking you to take it back. Just... Also, I want to mention before we move on, Leonel Gattow, Andre's Little Brother, one of the best 08s that we have.

I know how much we love Little Brothers. Love lineage. Yes. Little Brotherhood. What an honor. All right, your turn, Marcus. I'll also just say, I'm not as low on the 2005s, maybe as Matt. I think there's some talent there, and I think they just are probably a little bit behind because of the pandemic.

But I have hope yet for the 2005s. Good. But I'm not going to go there, this one. I'm going to go to one of my favorite 2007s. He played today for the U-15s against Belgium. His name is Luis Rivera. He plays a lot of positions, actually. He's a left-footed centerback, left-back, the match I watch at the generation.

Detus Cup. He played a six. So I think that sort of speaks to his, his football IQ. Smooth player, confident player. As a left centerback, not afraid to kind of attack space and push the game forward, has good range, varying accuracy on his long passing. But he just plays with the level of confidence that I love to see. He's not afraid to try things. He's not afraid to dribble out of the back. He's from the Real Salt Lake Academy, and he's the 2007 that has been kind of getting thrown into the fire in MLS NX Pro. Real seems to be just throwing a lot of young kids at that level, and he's one of the few

2007s that are getting a chance to play. Can one of you just quickly explain what MLS Next Pro is? Just, you know, there's going to be people who listen to this podcast who don't are not following this stuff at all. You want to take it, Matt? Yeah, sure. So MLS Next Pro is a professional league that is a basically a, you could think of it as a professional U23 league for MLS.

There are some teams in it that aren't MLS teams, but the basic reasoning for the league existing, and this is the 2022 season is the first season, is to kind of create a bridge between the academy and the first team by having a team similar to what people would be familiar with if they've been following the MLS two teams in USL for a little bit where you have a lot of academy presence on the team but also some guys who have played high-level college soccer

or occasionally even guys that are playing down from the first team roster. Yeah, there's a lot of fluidity in the rosters from both sides. And I think like two-thirds of MLS clubs have an MLS next pro team. If you still have USL teams. Yeah, why not just keep the USL framework and send players on loan to other USL clubs? How long do you want this podcast to be, though? Well, I mean, give me the three.

line answer to that, like, if possible? Control? Yeah, I guess would be the first thing. Tired to getting pasted by San Antonio FC? There may be some of that, yeah. You know, they're tired of just getting smacked around

by Louisville and Yeah. Louisville. San Antonio and stuff. But it's mostly control. USL is kind of expensive. There are actual legitimate roster rules in it.

In MLS Next Pro, MLS kind of gets to do whatever it wants and also it gets to schedule games so that players get to go on the same plane as the MLS team, the main team. I see. So they're kind of like double dipping. I mean, there's other reasons, but those are kind of like the major one. Well, logistics are important. Logistics are important.

Never let it be said that I said otherwise. Just real quick on Louis Rivera before we move on. I really like him. He's a little undersized for centerback, but has looked good at left back. when he's gotten to play there, when he has played there. One of the more impressive defenders on the ball and not too bad off of it. As Marcus had a little bit of a trial by fire in Next Pro so far. He had, I think, in his most recent game, one kind of bad giveaway that just ended up straightened

in his own goal. But an 07 centerback getting pro minutes is pretty wild, and a left-footed centerback that is that young getting minutes. don't they don't come around all too often yeah but there's another young centerback we got to talk about later but um why don't you give your next i guess your is this your final one uh give me two more bills okay okay okay of course of course it's your 10th anniversary right right exactly i'm gonna say uh Noah Santos for this one Noah Santos is a 07 striker with the Portland Timbers Academy um I'm mostly bringing up Noah not that he's not that he's

not a good player because he is, but just to talk about how outrageous a run the Portland Timbers U15s had in the GA tournament, heading into the tournament, the Portland Timbers were 1 and 7, 1 win, 7 losses in MLS next play. They then enter the GA Cup where you have all of those same MLS teams that they went 1 and 7 against. Plus Valencia and Man United and others, they happened to play Valencia and Man United and beat them on the way to this championship. I play pretty close attention to this stuff. If I were to rank the teams heading into the U-15 stuff, they might have been dead last on my rankings, and they ended up winning the whole thing.

What happened? Yeah, I mean, it's partially due to the crazy conditions at GA Cup. It's insanely hot. It was insanely windy. The games are only 60 minutes long. so you there are less time there's less time for the good teams to make stuff happen but it's also a lot because a lot because the there are several Portland timber players who just played out of their mind Eric Izoita and Mark and Max Eisenberg

deserve honorable mentions but Noah Santos was the goal machine for this team Portland didn't really have much of the ball in midfield the whole tournament, but whenever they found Santos' feet, he made something happen. His ability to drift around in the attacking third and keep himself available as an option and consistently make good decisions when the ball did find his feet was exceptional, very reminiscent of a similarly aged Matthew Hoppe, who also lit up these tournaments some years ago. Of course, there's technical talent to go along with that, but I think the thing that really stands out about him is the impact that he's been able to have on the game, even when his team isn't close to dominant

in the run of play. And what I heard coming out of this tournament is that there were foreign clubs looking at him, and he was in contact with both youth teams from the USSF and the Mexican Federation. It's a never-ending story. It's going to be happening a lot. I'm talking about the battle for Mexican-American dual nationals. he he scored a brace just since the tournament too right against against the sounders yeah yeah against the sounders you 17s right right i i can't couldn't tell you what's going on in

portland how this happened how they turned this team around but there are several players on that team who i wouldn't have a look twice at going into the tournament who looked like like real good legitimate potential youth national team players. Portland is not the first club we think of when we think about youth development, is it? So yeah, it was a pretty big shock. Some would say it's the last club we think about. I think most would say. What I'd add about Santos is that he's just a striker. We don't see a lot. I think in the American systems where he just a lot of skill and cleverness in the final third, I think, can create his own danger a lot of the time. And yeah, he was exceptional. He's kind of

a stocky kid, right? Not super tall, but stout physically. Is that, right? I think that's accurate. Yeah, a little bit of that also kind of wears a shirt that's like a size too big. So it has a little bit of a weird lookout on the field, but it's pretty good.

Maybe it's his evolutionary instincts, you know, wear a larger shirt to intimidate the opponent with your size. I'm sure it's that. Um, you're up, Marcus. Yeah, so I got to do a 2005 since I'm dead set on showing them love. So I'm going to do another inner Miami player who's, who's, again, from my perspective, kind of come out of nowhere and played both centerback and right back in the GA Cup.

His name's Izzy Boatwright. And he's an interesting profile. he's he's tall enough to play centerback at the level that he's at a U-17 level but he's he's athletic and I watched the first game that they played and he was playing centerback and was like okay this guy's got some nice skill he's he's he's breaking some lines with his passes he's getting out of trouble a little bit with his dribbling ability and then I think Tyler Hall one of their starting centerbacks went down Anyways, he popped out to right back, which I think is his most natural position.

And he just started doing some things with the ball that were really interesting, especially someone who was just playing centerback. So he's physically gifted. I thought he was excellent in their loss to Seattle in one-on-one defensive situations. he was just locking wingers down, had four or five one-on-one wins, and can get up and down the right side of the pitch pretty well. So he's a player I'm going to start to keep a closer eye on. He also made his debut for the Miami-2s last weekend,

and he made some mistakes, which is going to happen. But what another thing I look for as players start to go. up levels is do they generally try to do the same things that they were trying to do at their age range, where they might be, you know, clearly better than most of the people on the pitch? Are they still playing with that confidence when they go up a level? And I saw that from him. He was still taking players on one-on-one and playing physically defensively. So that was really an optimistic moment from my perspective.

So Israel, Boatwright. I think he goes by Izzy Boatwright. another inter-m Miami U-17 that I was really excited about. It's a sweet name. Is he Bo-Roe? Yeah, I mean, yeah, what's not to like? I think the position thing is a little up in the air. I like him bore when I've seen him at right back, then at centerback, but kids pretty

tall already, and he's young, so there might just be a forced position change there. Just an exceptional one-v-one defender. he does that thing that tall defenders do that is annoying for attackers where he just kind of like puts his foot behind the ball and just like well you can't ball can't go anywhere now so you're just going to like trip over me basically um just suit he's done that he did that like four or five times just in jia the jac cup um yeah like uh pretty good prospect. I think that the

I like him more at right back, but he tends to get a little head down dribbly sometimes where like he he does great to beat like, you know, two or three players, but then just ends up at the corner flag. Yeah. Because of it. But I mean, that's,

you'd rather a player be able to do that and then you could fix that problem than not be able to do it at all. So talent is definitely there. I'm always, I'm always excited to hear about like anybody who could play centerback. who is technical, you know? Because even our, even our, you know, our current crop of national team centerbacks

outside of maybe Chris Richards, I don't know that anybody would argue that they're very technical, even though they're all, you know, mostly solid defensively. It seems like that's a sort of, that could be sort of a benchmark for the player pool if we start to produce that. Let it be an Izzy Bo's boat, right? Um, your turn, Matt. Um, okay. So I'm going to take, I'm going to say with, um, my last selection is, uh, Kairom Lumsden is a, um, 07 center midfielder with the LA, uh, with LAFC. Um, the LA, as was

said earlier, the LA, um, FCU 15s were the best U15 lent to tournament. Um, they got pretty unlucky not to win and Lumsden was a pretty significant reason why. They got bounced by the timbers in the final four but won every other game in the tournament in the run of play which is pretty impressive given the 60 minute games.

Lumsden's not a finished product by any sense but he basically has everything that you look for in a midfield prospect. He's able to control the ball in tight spaces, checks his shoulder constantly, glides by players in the open field. He's not a super flashy passer, but he does a tremendous job of finding teammates running into space.

And he never really seems to break a jog, but still manages to be basically everywhere on the field. So I expect him to be in youth national team lineups for a long time coming, and that's before he scored a goal and two assists. I wrote this before. He scored a goal and had two assists against Belgium for U-15s this morning. Oh, did he? Yes.

Yeah, and in a sub-appearance. That was in like 20 minutes. What was the final score in that game? 3-2. 3-2. Nice. Yeah, we came back. We were down 2-0.

132. I'd love a couple of things about Lumsden that I just respect the hell out of. And he gets knocked down, I think, more than any player you ever see. And he's just, you know, he's, tough. I think he actually went into that tournament a little banged up already, which is easy to see because he's always on the ground. But he just, you know, never, never complaining, just gets right back up and keeps fighting. I just, something that caught my eye that he was, he just

had a great mentality about him. He reminds me, I'm just going to throw a comp out there. He's got a ton of Eunice Musa to him in that a lot of the things that Matt was talking about. about. He just, it never looks like he's sprinting. I don't even know if he ever does sprint, but he's always in control. He's got good kind of body positioning and he just, he's, he's good at carrying the ball forward. So, yeah, when I watch him, I immediately, uh, it, it brings me some unismosive vibes. Hmm. You want to do one more, Marcus? You don't have to. Uh, I'll, I'll do one quickly. I think a player that,

so he played up a level. His name's Christian McFarlane. He is a 2007 left back. He is on a homegrown for New York City FC. He was maybe at the time, the youngest homegrown. That keeps changing pretty frequently. But he was signed very young.

He was out for a long time with an injury. But he played up at the U-17 level, and he played left-back. He's another player that he's tall for a left for a fullback. So kind of like, is he boat right where it'll be interesting to see where he ends up? Because again, he's left footed. He's very smooth on the ball, a good two-way player. Just smooths the word that comes to mind when I watch him.

He's just really comfortable on the ball, a good passer. and looks totally comfortable at the U-17 level. So, so one, just good to see him healthy, and it would be interesting to see where New York City

feels like he could kind of elevate to this season. But yeah, he was really solid in the match that I watched, and there's a player that's impressed me any time I've watched him play. Okay. Matt, do you want, did you, have you used up your extra anniversary one or do you want another one? Do you want another one?

No, I'm good. I think we should go to just give me, let me name some like quick fire. Yeah, to do, yeah, let's do a little rapid fire around where each name as many as you want just quickly. So you can, you, dear listener can, you know, file this away. And then when you see a clip of them on Twitter, you'll have a vague memory that Matt or Marcus mentioned their name. Matt, Matt, you first. Cool. So I'm going to start off with Mika Burton, 06 attacking midfielder for Austin FC. Just one of my favorite players in the academies plays just about every attacking position and excels in large part just because he's got a better soccer brain than anybody else on the field.

Moves extremely well on and off the ball consistently place his teammates in the good spots. U-17s played him, the national team, played him as a striker even though he's like 5'4 just because of what he adds when he's on the field. I am here for it. Nate Worth is a 07 central midfielder for the New York Red Bulls. Academies have types in this country. The L.A. teams like guys that can move the ball at a high level. The Philly likes kids that play vertical soccer. Atlanta likes linebackers.

And the New York Red Bulls like kids that absolutely hate when the other team touches the soccer ball. And Nate Worth is one of those guys. and the Red Bulls Academy thinks the world of him. Two-way number eight with a tremendous motor, well-rounded game. He played up in this tournament, so he's a natural U-15, but he was playing with the U-7s. U-17s, kind of which we got to see him run games against his own age group, but the fact that he was one of those few U-15 eligible guys playing up,

says a lot about what they think about him. And the last personnel name is Dem C. E. Rish, who is a 07, forward with LAA with L.A.F.C. for the GA Cup. He actually plays for Beach Football Club in California. He played his first games with L.A.F.C. as a visiting player in March and has had something like 10 goals and 10 games since. He's played all over the front line, wreaked havoc wherever he went in the GA Cup with his offball movement and his awesome right foot.

Really hope L.A.F.C. manages to pick him up full time because he's a heck of a player. Okay. Ten goals and ten matches. Is that good? That's okay. Yeah, that's not bad. Okay, my rapid fire. Stryker Nelson Pierre for the Union, he's in 2005, speaks to that verticality that

Matt was talking about. He likes to get in behind defenders, strikes the ball really well with his right foot. It kind of reminds me of a D.K. kind of type. physical presence. A player apparently Matt and I don't see eye to eye on, but I'm going to call him out anyway, is centerback Tyler Hall. He's the youth national team, U-17 captain.

Little undersized. He's a 2006, Inter-M Miami, a little undersized at centerback, very athletic. I like his ball skills. I like his leadership. I like his defending. We'll see if he grows a bit. He might, if he doesn't,

he might have to swing out to fullback. I mentioned him earlier. Benjamin Kramashi caught my eye on MLS Next Pro for Miami, too. I think he can play both the six and the eight. Physical player also can drive the ball forward. Just toughness, smart. I think he's an Argentinian American, and Miami picked him up last year from Weston.

Another Miami player I like is a 2006 winger named Miles Perkovic, kind of a flashy, likes to embarrass defenders. Not the most consistent, but the highs are really high, and I think that's something to look out for at a young age. And then the last player I'll mention actually caught my eye rewatching. I rewatched the LAFC under 17s against Flamenco, and Tyler Bindon is a centerback, and he played really well against them,

and it wasn't immediately apparent in my first watch, but he was picking out a lot of people down the field and had some nice diagonal balls with both his right and weaker foot, his left foot, just had a really good game in a match where they shut out, you know, a super talented flamenco side. So I wanted to give him a little bit of love. And I think he was recently called to the U-19 camp.

So yeah, there's plenty of names we left out and we apologize for that, but yeah. Yeah, there's no way to cover it all unless we want to go three hours. And even then you don't cover it all. Before we get into some other stuff, most of the youth national teams, let me just say, scuffed is a patron-supported podcast. There are no ads.

And if you are able, please consider supporting us. The link is in the show notes. And if you become a patron, you can listen to the Monday review, which is about as different from this episode of the podcast, as you could imagine. Die-hards only. Yeah. These do well, though. These are people like the youth national team stuff.

That's my experience over the years. Let's talk about the them. So we've got off-year youth national teams now, or at least one, the Unitines. Maybe Matt start us. What does this mean? Why is this a good thing? having a U19 national team is pretty cool. I would like to have a U-16 national team as well.

But, I mean, that's maybe a little too much to ask right now, I guess. The idea behind these national teams, because they don't necessarily compete for trophies, right? The U-17s and the U-20s and the U-23s for the Olympics are competing for trophies. these teams are more so just like upkeep keeping guys in the programs, in the youth national team programs because some of these guys, if they're on the fringes of a U-17 team and then not quite old enough for a U-20 team, they can really go a long time without getting into a youth national team. And that's kind of the whole that these like a U-9 team is supposed to fill.

It's basically a reserve team for the U-20s? Is that a way to think about it? So, like, they kind of stay in age group. So, like, the U-19s right now are 2005s, right? And if you think about what the 2005s have gone through, they didn't have a U-17 cycle, and they are two years younger than the current U-20 cycle. So these guys, a lot of them,

even the best 2005s in the country, won't have played a youth national team game since U-15. And that's like the very best of them. So having a U-19 team to keep those guys active, because those guys will be the next U-20 cycle after the O-3s, it goes to the 0-5s. So it makes sense to keep these guys on board, have them called into camps,

have them getting coaching in the U.S. system. And, you know, if for no other reasons, reason and this isn't necessarily how you want to run things, but there's dual nationals to think about, right? Mexico has a U-18 team and a U-19 team. These guys are getting called into camps. If you don't want to lose this recruitment battle and start having some guys committing to other countries at youth national team level, having an in-between between U-17 and the U-20

makes a lot of sense. Do we have a U-18 team right now? We don't have a U-18 team right now. The U-18 team kind of won away before COVID, even, you know, like with the youth national team coach apocalypse that happened where nobody got rehired for like four years. Yeah, and the coach apocalypse is why I guess I sort of want to celebrate the fact that that Marco Mitrovich was hired. Is he a good hire, do you guys think? Do you feel good about him? He's the new U-19 coach.

and Jermaine Jones is helping him currently. Yeah, according to Jermaine Jones, because that was not an official statement. I got it. I got an official statement from U.S. soccer. It's true. Yeah. He's helping with this camp. Yeah.

Great. You know, anybody with, you know, if these people exist, I don't know too much about Marco Mitrovic, I'm like vaguely familiar with him from his time around MLS. but you'll take anybody at this point i'll take anybody basically he had a role on i believe the sylbian u20s that won the 2015 world cup i don't think he was i don't know if he was the manager but he was involved so we'll take that for what it's worth he was the assistant of the guy who was the fire coach who got fired before the coaches ago Oh, whose name I forget. The assistant to the assistant regional manager.

Right. Yeah, I don't know much else about him. And I did think it was funny in the Monday review that from anyone listening, you're like, oh, Jermaine is the head coach. Congrats to him. And I was like, was it Jermaine or is it? I thought it was Maintiff. It's not.

It's not Jermaine. Jermaine's not the head coach. The exact language from that, which I read out loud on the Monday review, is that Jermaine Jones is helping with the camp, the Un19 camp that is currently running. So it sounds like at this point, a fairly short-term project, but... Got to start somewhere.

That's right. Okay, what about Joshua Winder? He's in this, he's in this Un-19 camp. Like, we're talking about, we're talking about 08, centerbacks playing up in age group, but Winder is 16, and he's playing for Louisville, Louisville City FC you know one of the best clubs in the

USL so that seems like kind of a big deal I know you know you were talking about him on the Slack a few weeks ago Matt but shouldn't you be getting more hype um yeah I mean he he's a good player like uh like I guess

it kind of gets like what level of hype are we talking about here um he's good enough that he should be looking being looked at by MLS clubs uh I'm talking riots in the streets is what I'm talking about. Not quite riots in the streets.

I mean, if you go back a couple of years ago, like, you know, as a player that we've mentioned on this podcast, we had Hayden Sargis, right? Hayden Sargis was playing, starting in USL at centerback at not quite 16, but as a teenager. And looking pretty good doing it. and he's now at DC United, not playing all that much. I mean, he might be. I've not seen him play. He's a little undersized, though, right, Sargis is? Right.

Yeah, he's like 6'6 foot 6-1, but definitely not as tall as Josh Wander. It's definitely a better athletic profile there. But it's just a hard jump from USL to MLS. and it seems to like it's been more difficult, not just at centerback, but at every position for the guys that are coming from independent USL clubs. So I'm not holding out any hope for him as,

you know, like a blue chip centerback prospect for the national team. I think it's super cool that, you know, he's in the youth national team pitcher. You kind of got to get out a USL pretty quickly, even if you're only 16 and a centerback. So we're just going to have to hope something happens there. Because I think that you could hit your ceiling pretty quickly in that league if you're a good player.

Yeah, I think the fact that he isn't getting exploited for potentially like a lack of strength kind of speaks to the level of USL, because I think that would be the thing that he would struggle with the most in MLS or a higher level of competition is he's taller, but he definitely needs to get stronger. And so I think that would, and that's kind of the thing with all of these guys

is how will they develop in those three aspects of the game, but physically will they develop enough to be able to compete at that? level and that would be my question with Josh I think he's a good passer he has a great season at usl maybe he can he can get to a different level and and that'll only be positive for his development but playing you know playing centerback professionally at 16 is is definitely impressive so um i'm excited about that yeah we're talking about it on the money review how it's you know Louisville has a lot of older veterans on the team and

I think Vince said that he had to beat out somebody who had been the starting centerback for the last four years. But, you know, I agree. I do have to admit that the pathway from USL to another league is still full of question marks. I was watching Jonathan Gomez's clips for Rial Societad B, who is about to get relegated from the Segunda Division. And he looks, he looks to borrow a phrase from earlier, he looks like a willing to defend. defender, but not commanding, not commanding as a left back in the

Spanish second division. We'll see is the phrase always, right? It really is. We'll see. Anything else on the youth national teams? Big summer ahead. The U-20s are going to have to

try to qualify for the World Cup and that is the U-20 World Cup and the Olympics in the same tournament. You guys travel for that, either of you? I think it's in Honduras I got it's not I will not be traveling to Honduras

to watch youth soccer yeah I got a busy summer it's probably not going to happen but I will be watching every minute I can for sure I'm excited about that age group it'll be interesting

is there any possible chance peppy plays for that age group I'm going to say no but that would be fun I think not yeah yeah they could sure use them how we feel

maybe you guys could just to close here give me a sense of how you feel about youth development in the US now are we back on track after the the 0405 hiccup

Marcus you're not even sure that there necessarily was that big of a hiccup I'll agree on the 04 hiccup but I'm like I said cautiously optimistic about 05 and very excited about 06 and beyond. Come on, drag MLS, man.

COVID is, is like air quotes over, right? And that's a pretty big deal. I talked on this podcast before about how some MLS teams just basically could not find games for the better part of a year during COVID. that's not great for development. That's largely the reason for the 04s and 05s, maybe not being as good as we would have hoped that they would be.

The thing that I'm optimistic about has been, was the changeover from the DA to MLS Next, which started pretty catastrophically, basically because then this isn't to drag MLS because that was like the USSF's fault largely it took a little while but where we stand right now we're kind of back to where we were with the DA I'm still not thrilled about how some of youth soccer works in this country there are good soccer teams that just do not play high-level competition because of the way that the league is structured, which isn't great. But, you know, this is the situation that the USSF has made.

MLS is in charge of top-level youth soccer in this country. And it makes sense that they would optimize the league to promote their own talent and not necessarily care about. You know, not as much, I'm sure they care, but not as much about the independent teams that thrived in the DA. So that's a little bit of a bummer, but as a whole, the league is in a pretty good place. Margus? Yeah, I think just looking at the GA Cup, I thought it was encouraging. I think seeing MLS Academies play highly competitive international academies and play well

against them is a reason to be optimistic. I think the question for me now is can we develop stars? I think we're seeing that we're developing teams that can compete. But can they go from being a really good academy player to being a really good international player? I think more of those lottery tickets, more volume there, can clubs show that? that they can, we need more clubs in the Union, the Philadelphia Union model, having a path to from Academy to First Team to elsewhere. So I'm really looking at academies like San Jose and

Inter Miami and Austin and some of these emerging academies. Can they build that pathway all the way through and sort of optimize the talent that they have in their areas? So that's what I'm going to keep an eye out for is can we can we start to produce some some stars some more Gioranas yeah and I to me that my mind goes to the physicality question on on that I mean that's a big part of Giorina's eliteness um and I was struck by how much bigger speaking of the unions struck by how much bigger flamingu was than them their attackers were as bigger. I mean,

some of their attackers were bigger than the union centerbacks and faster, too. Which I know, I always chuckle at when I see that

because people are like, you know, it's only in America where the best, where we talk about having the best athletes to play soccer, and then the teams

from Brazil come in and they're like, all better athletes than us across the board. It's like, what are we talking about here? Manchester United too. I think that caught my eye

when they were playing, I think L.A. Galaxy is just, you know, one to 11, everybody looked, you know, there was a presence. And I just think that speaks to the youth sports landscape in the United States.

There's a lot of competition there, obviously. And then I also think it speaks to, you know, the construct that there's that the geographic constraints of these academies, right? Like Manchester United can go and get the best, the best, you know, the best, youth players from wherever and those constraints in the MLS don't allow a specific academy to go do that. They're sort of constrained to your area for the most part, right? Right. Another part of that is that teams like Flamingo and Manchester United have competitive youth teams at every age group, whereas here it's like only U15, U17, for the most part. it right now, which means that we get a lot more players playing up. Or any, like, U-17 team might have kids from three different birth years in it.

That's, like, exceptionally rare in European academies, just because their U-7tines are here, and then they have a U-16 team that is playing high-level games somewhere else that that younger kid would be on. Okay. Cool, guys. Tell me one last question. gun to your head, who's going to be the starting number nine for the U-20s in this tournament this summer? Oh, geez.

Right, you want to take a guess? Well, let me give a little context. There are a ton of good wingers and attacking midfielder's in this age group. People like Paxson-Earrensen, Kaden Clark, although he's kind of fallen. I mean, they're both kind of fallen off. No-9 is apparent. They've sort of given up on even trying to bring in nines. So I think we can safely say that it won't be a traditional nine

because they're not really calling them into camp either. Yeah. I'm honestly struggling to come up with a name. There's that the kid who was in camp, the German kid, Damien Downs. He's, he kind of plays as a striker. I've only seen highlights of him. but he has like, I think, six goals from 10 games or something like that in the U-19 Bundesliga. From Cologne.

Yeah, for Cologne. He's in 04. I mean, maybe he gets it. I think the most likely is that you get, still is that you get like one of those wingers. Playing that is a false nine, basically. Yeah. Yeah, I would have to guess it's going to be Cade Cow or Caden Clark deputizing as a nine. They won't be able to wrench Cal away from that right back position, though, in my opinion.

That ship seems to have sailed. It has, yes. You had, like, you had, like, ten days to gloat about that, Bells. You took full advantage of it. It's gone now, so. I only gloated about it privately, didn't I? Only privately, but you, you know. I don't, I don't even know what you're talking about it.

the ship's sailing. I just assume he's going to be right back for the rest of his life. Is that not the case? Well, he, it's sailed for now. I mean, he might end up there if he can't get the technical part together, but he's playing winger. I'm just messing with him. He still has, like, an outrageous, like, goals to minutes ratio

that kind of doesn't make sense as to why he doesn't play more. A little bit. I went to the Quakes game last weekend against the sound. and he didn't start, which is the main reason why I went. He's impressive physically. Yes. Well, there's never been any doubt about that. Yeah, yeah.

You know, there's one thing of watching on TV and one thing of seeing someone in person. That kid's 18. Hey, thanks, thanks guys. Thanks again. Much appreciated. And thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.