Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #514: The men's U20 roster with Marcus Chairez

Episode Date: July 18, 2024

Marcus Chairez joins Belz to ID the players on this Concacaf tourney roster who have the best chance of one day helping the national team, and the long list of age-eligible players who are NOT on this roster. U20 World Cup qualification is the prize, and the games kick off for us Friday vs Jamaica. 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 SCuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer. Okay, the U-S. U-20s are kicking off the Conca Calf Championship on Friday in Mexico versus Jamaica at 10 p.m. Eastern time. This tournament serves as U-20 World Cup qualification. We've got Jamaica, Costa Rica, and Cuba in our group. Helping us think through this roster is Marcus Cherez. A longtime friend of the podcast has been on several times. How you doing, Marcus? I'm good, Bells.

Thanks for having me. It's been a bit, and I'm excited to talk youth soccer with you. Yeah. You did an article a couple days ago, a few days ago, how the 2022 team compares to the 2024 team. I think you've got to give the edge to the 22s in most positions. We'll talk a little bit about why. I think that this team is the 2024 version is dealing with more

release challenges than the 2022 team did and that can be taken as a positive because those players are thought of as important to their clubs or starting to make first team inroads even in Europe but yeah I think in terms of just who's on the talent that's on the roster I think you would have

to give a pretty good edge to the 2022 team okay all right well let's I guess let's start by just running through the roster. I'll do that. And then you can kind of help us ID the players on the roster who might actually help the senior national team in the future, in your opinion. Does that sound all right? Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good. So goalkeepers are Adam, Adam Bodry from the Colorado Rapids. Julian Icestone from Brentford FC, originally from Dallas. And then Duran Ferry, who is from Orange County SC. The defenders are Luca Bambino from Las Vegas. Noah Cobb from Atlanta United, Aiden Harangi from Eintrach Frankfurt, Stuart Hawkins from the Sounders,

Ethan Kohler from Verde Bremen, and then Nolan Norris from FC Dallas. The midfielder's are Taha Bruin. Anybody watching the U-17s will definitely remember him, I think, from the Columbus crew. Cruz Medina, of course, from the San Jose Earthquakes. Sergio O'Rehell Jr. from the Chicago, Chicago Fire, Brooklyn Reigns from the Houston Dynamo, Pedro Soma from U.E.

Cornea. Is that how you say that? Is it Cornea? Cornella. Cornea, I think that sounds right. And then Nico Shakiris from San Jose. And then the four words are, I'm almost done. Nymphasha Berkimos from Charlotte FC, Cairoa from Liverpool, the son of minor

Figueroa. and then Xavier Gozo from Real Salt Lake, Ruben Ramos Jr., from the L.A. Galaxy, David Vasquez from the Philadelphia Union, and Marcos Zambrano from Victoria, Guamerej, and also from Florida. So, thank you. So, Marcus, let's talk about the players you think actually project with a high ceiling.

I guess. Yeah, yeah. Interestingly enough, I think when you're going through it, I started to realize how many of the U-17 World Cup guys are on this roster. I think there's like eight, eight, which it seems like just yesterday, they were playing in that, and now we're talking about a U-20 tournament. So showing how time flies. And also I think how young this roster is.

There's not a ton of 2005s. And if you look at the rosters of all the other teams, they're pretty 2005 heavy. So pretty young team. I'll talk a little bit about that. But I think the biggest name on the roster is also the youngest player, and he's playing, I guess, three age groups up. He was also the youngest player on the U-17 World Cup team, and that's Nympha Bercumas from Charlotte U.C.

He's a winger. I think one of the most talented players in our youth pool. and exciting to see him playing up so many age groups, I think, had we had our full suite of winger options, so there's guys like Esmere Bajrakhtarvich, who I guess you could say is promoted beyond this level because he was competing for an Olympic spot but was not selected.

and then Christian Fletcher who's injured and then Cole Campbell from Brucea Dortmund who also wasn't released because he's in first team training with Dortmund. So a lot of winger's not available, but I think it's safe. Can you just tell us what Fletcher's injury is and how long?

It's like an ankle injury? Is that right? Yeah, it's strange. It's been one that just seems to be lingering. it's it it's kind of like you read the injury report and it seems like it's one of those like keeps showing up as like week to week but he keeps you know not not coming back so not sure what's going on there but um it would have been nice to see him here just because he wasn't playing a ton for DC so you would have thought he would have been released but uh so yeah back to nympha I guess

um he probably still had a chance to to to make it as maybe like a fourth winger attacker, but now I think he's going to play a pretty featured role. So it's a great challenge for him to see how he performs against, you know, older competition. I think for a lot of these younger, you know, higher rated players, they're kind of seem to always be playing many years up. So we'll see that again. He's, I would say not had the most dynamic season this year, but he's been kind of like playing all different kinds of levels. So he played some academy ball this year. And then at the beginning of the year when Charlotte was pretty thin and attack, he was

playing with the first team and getting some sub-minutes. And then as they signed some players, he got moved to the second team and kind of got off to a slow start. I think he looked dangerous. but the issue I saw with him is he was getting into really good spots but just was not having a lot of success getting clean shots off. So getting a lot of shots deflected, blocked, and I think that is just a matter of getting more experience

and being a little bit more unpredictable with his timing, a little bit cleaner with his touches. But yeah, I think still super dynamic player like loves to attack one-on-one can strike the ball really well with both feet i think there's there's still lots of reasons to be really excited about him and um it'll be really fun to watch him in this tournament so he's 16 right and he's he doesn't turn 17 until february so yeah very very young yeah and i i think i think maybe um you know next year might be a year where he starts to have a bigger role with Charlotte's first team.

He's also just played a ton of soccer in the last year and a half between international like he's been, he's not been held back from any international camps or tournaments. He's been playing through those three levels of kind of academy,

first team, second team. So, Charlotte's not been starting him over the last month and I wonder, or, excuse me, Crown Legacy, which is their second team, hasn't been starting in the last couple months and I just wonder if they're doing a bit of like

load balancing and just kind of protecting a young body but I think they're very very excited about him and nothing I think to be too worried about but you know he's still a little bit raw and I think

we'll probably see that in his game I think what I am expecting similar to the U-17 World Cup the highs are going to be really high and exciting and then there's There's going to be some lows, and it's just going to be a little bit of a roller coaster ride. But he should provide some fun moments and some backflips, some celebrations. Yeah, he'll do the backflips.

He scored three goals at the U-17 World Cup. He was easily our most dangerous player. Yeah. And tournament that ended just inside the knockout rounds. What, we lost three-two to Germany. Yeah, I thought he showed really well there And was probably our most dangerous attacker And I think, you know, one of the youngest players at the tournament

So, you know, when he's When he's playing against kids more close to his age, You know, he looks pretty tough to handle So yeah, he's to me by far the most exciting player And a type of winger we don't We just don't see a lot of in our senior pool. We're going to talk about another winger that's, I guess, similar in that regard. But, you know, guys that just want to turn, face and attack and are not afraid to do that over and over and over again.

And he definitely falls into that category. Yeah. May he never lose that spirit, you know, the desire to go. All right. Yeah, a lot of people will know Nympho. and I guess the only thing I'll add is scored a brace off the bench on June 20th for Crown Legacy.

Like you mentioned, he has not started the last few games for them, but there could be many reasons for that. He's just a baby. Yeah, I don't think, not a reason to worry too much. Yeah. So who's the next one?

You think it has a real ceiling. I'm going to start with, I'm going to go with another winger. So like the two of the, the youngest players in the team are wingers and the other is Xavier Gozo from RSL. I think probably doesn't make the roster with those other guys available,

but gets a chance now. So he's playing a couple, he's eligible for the next U20 cycle. So if you remember in our last U20 cycle, there's basically three guys who would play up. It was Nico. Securis, who we're going to talk about Ovid Vargas, who's now switched over to Mexico, and then Josh Winder, who's gone through some injury issues.

So we've got a new batch of kind of one cycle down players playing up and goes and falls into that category. I think he's had a really, like a resurgent year, both like in the academy and second team. He was injured a lot last year. He's always been kind of one of the top players in his. class, the 2007 class. I think somewhat similar to NIMPA, he's got a really exciting physical profile, so he's a little bit bigger than NIMFA, but equally as explosive, he's really just a very functional athlete, like moves side to side and has good balance and just knows how to kind of use his

body in different ways. But he's been, it's weirdly. Honestly, RSL's been playing him as a nine for their second team, which I don't quite get because I think his strength is to float out wide and triple out players and use his kind of pace to be direct and kind of run behind back lines. And what he's been doing a lot of in Next Pro is like dropping in and like connecting play. And he's just not a back to the gold player. and I think maybe not the most technically clean player, but can do some exciting things when he's dribbling at Defender. So I think that Michael Enstein, the coach, is going to play him at Winger, and we'll see the best of him doing that

because that's, I think, what he's most comfortable doing. That's interesting, because I looked him up and watched some footage from some games, and it's all him playing as a nine. And I'm like, yeah, he's not like really that good at this. So I'm glad you said that about he's like more natural as a winger. Yeah, and just based on the roster construction, you've got two like very obvious nines,

which is, you know, something we don't typically see with U.S. youth teams. They sometimes are hesitant to play with more traditional nines. But we've got Zambrano and Figueroa are nines. And so I can't see. goes of playing as a nine and I I can't really wrap my head around why real are playing him there. But I think we'll see him as a winger and I think hopefully that will also mean we'll see him. We'll see why I think he's an exciting player. And so again, as we watch this tournament, remember that he's age eligible for the next cycle.

So again, another really young player that kind of steps in because there's a lot of players not available. Cool. Let's talk about the next one. Yeah, the next guy I'm always excited to see because I don't get to see him play much for club, and that's Carol Figueroa, as you said, Hunter and Legend Manor Figueroa's son, who's been a key player for the U-17s

and plays at Liverpool's Academy may just signed an extension to keep playing at Liverpool. You know, exciting talent, again, don't get to see a ton of him, but what he can do is get behind backlines. He's an explosive player. Can score in a lot of different ways. Moves pretty well off the ball. You can score in the air.

has an electric right foot. So he's just a player that I think a lot of people who followed the U.S. youth game got to know in the U-17 Conco-Cath tournament a couple years ago where he scored a bunch of goals in a bunch of different ways. And yeah, good to see him here.

He's just going to be, I think, another fun dynamic player to watch. And, yeah, Lots of talent has struggled to stay healthy, but yeah. It is tough to track a player in one of the youth teams for Liverpool. It's basically impossible to watch them play. And I mean, even if you could watch them play, how much could you learn from it, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. So this, I mean, and again, this is also a tough, this is a tough venue to learn a lot about these players, because they're going to be playing a lot of not very good teams, right? So a lot of these guys are going to look great for a lot of these games. And, you know, it's important not to get too excited because, you know, playing Cuba's U-20 team isn't going to tell us a whole lot about Carol Figueroa.

One thing I'll add about Figueroa is from what I've seen, he does, he has a quick release on his shot. Yeah. Like he can get the shot off before it gets. blocked and then all the other stuff he said scores in many different ways ball does explode off his right foot

yeah he's got he's got some stuff where you know if he can put it together like he's still a little bit raw with the you know connecting play dropping in you know his touches may not always be the cleanest but there's stuff he can do that you just there's not a lot of people can do

and so he's one that maybe doesn't figure it out until a little bit later. But I think he's, you know, we don't have a ton of nines in the youth pool that, you know, you could say that that guy has, you know, potential senior team potential. And I think he's still won your mark there because of those tools.

How do you interpret his resigning with Liverpool? Is that? Yeah, I think that's good. I mean, he, yeah, I think so. I think he will now play. at the U-21 level, which is kind of the second team, I guess, level

in the Premier League. And I think it'll be a little bit better indicator of kind of where he's at. If he produces and I think plays a lot for that team, I think that's going to be a pretty good sign. But again, like, it goes U-18, U-21, in English as England's, youth system, excuse me, and you just don't get any film on the U-18s outside of when they're

playing like the UAFA youth cup. And so it's just hard to know how he's performing there, but I take it as a good sign. Okay. All right, who's next? Yeah, so the veteran of the team who played in this tournament in 2022 played at the U-20 World Cup, Nico Shakuris from San Jose. I think it's somewhat surprising that he's playing this level again, but I think definitely this team's going to need his experience and his ability.

So, yeah, I think he's, you know, if you had to name somebody who's maybe the most important player to this team's success, it's probably Nico. And he should have a big tournament. I mean, he's experienced. He's got a lot of, you know, professional. experience and he's a player that can do some damage in the final third. So I think the team is really going to benefit from him being here given the lack of experience elsewhere. Yeah, 14 starts for San Jose this season.

Hasn't been in the squad the last two games, I assume, because he's away at U-20 camp. But he's picking the ball up from the centerback. a fair amount in San Jose. I mean, their team is not doing well. Dead last in the Western Conference, but he does seem to have a pretty key role when he's out there, which I'm happy about. And you don't see, you know, they're losing every game,

but you do see flashes of quality from him now and then. And like a little something on the half turn, you know, a good pass up to Espinoza on the wing. You have him below these other guys. in terms of likelihood. Is that how you feel about likelihood to impact the senior national team? I think part of that is just the position, though, too. That role he plays, it's kind of, I mean, you're right.

For San Jose, he is kind of playing like a deep-lying playmaker. I think he's probably better served receiving the ball between the lines and maybe playing a little bit higher because we have seen that he's pretty comfortable making good decisions in the final third, which I think is a trait that we don't produce a lot of. So yeah, I think like with Nico, I'm maybe not totally clear on like what is his ceiling

because he does do a lot of important things well, like you mentioned. But it's also kind of tough to evaluate him in what is like a really poor team in San Jose. And then I think just that role is going to be for the next few years, you know, three, four, five years for the U.S. men's national team.

It's going to be a tough position to break through. And so we have less depth that wing, maybe some uncertainty at nine. I mean, there's still a lot of good, you know, solid nine options with the first team. But, you know, center mid or, you know, more like an attacking mid. Yeah. But I mean, Nico's a good player and I think he probably doesn't need to be with San Jose for too many more years and hopefully can make him move somewhere else.

Well, I mean, hopefully he can be the guy for San Jose that he is, like play the key role that he's playing, and help them do better. That's what we want. That's what we want from our players, right? Yeah. But maybe, I don't know, maybe it's impossible. Who knows? So I've always liked, I've always liked Shakiris,

hope he shows out in this tournament. Next up, Marcus. Yeah, next up, the guy I've always been really high on. and it's been one of the better players for the last U-17 cycle, which is Pedro Soma. I think it's a really interesting time for him in this tournament. He's going to be moving on from Cornea this summer. He's got a lot of options in Europe, you know, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, England. I was talking to some people close to him.

I think there's a lot of interest in him. him. He started playing first team minutes for Crona this year. So he's waiting to make that decision, I think, until after this tournament. So, you know, he's banking on a big tournament to help his case. If I had to guess, I think he lands in Spain. A lot of, like, mid to traditionally top third clubs in Spain, I think, are interested in him. What I've been hearing from some of the games that haven't been broadcasted from this team is that in the last set of friendlies in South America,

where we went down and beat Uruguay and Argentina down in South America, which are pretty solid results. Soma, Brooklyn Raines, and Shakuris were the standouts. That that trio in midfield really played well. and we're kind of the keys to us having success against those teams. And so I think there's a good chemistry with those three. I think that we're going to rely heavily on those three to perform well. And so, yeah, I think Soma once again will be kind of a key part of the midfield

in, again, picking the ball up from centerbacks, disrupting defensively, progressing the ball. I think a lot of people maybe cooled on him a little bit just because maybe the physical profile hasn't progressed maybe as much as you'd like to see. But he still does a ton of things really well. He's really clean on the ball. He's really intelligent. He's got good passing range. So, you know, he looked pretty good playing against adults, albeit in the third tier.

in the Spanish leagues this past year. So I still think there's something there with him. And I think this will be another good opportunity to show what he's got. Awesome. Yeah, he does do a lot of things well, I feel like. What is it about the physical profile that hasn't developed in the way people? Like he's just not getting as big as people thought he was going to? Yeah, I think he just, yeah, he hasn't really grown much, you know, in the last few years.

And like, he's never been, you know, the most explosive, you know, short area kind of quickness guy. But he's functional, you know, he's, he's like moves well. I think he's like fluid, but, you know, he's not going to be like a, you know, a Tyler Adams who's just covering every, blade of grass and, you know, breaking things up. In that way, he's got to rely a little bit more on anticipation and, you know, reading things 100% correct to be in the spaces that he needs to be in. So there's just, you know, there's, there's, there's,

he's got a smaller margin of air maybe because of that. Okay. All right. I think you got one more from, from this roster who, you know, stands out. Yeah, this one's a little bit more of a sleeper, but I think, like, could end up having a big tournament. And that's the goalkeeper Julian Icestone. So he's got everything. He's got all the tools. He's like, he's a legit 6-6, and he's not a goofy, stiff 6-6.

He's a fluid, really good athlete that can, like, get to low shots. pretty comfortably with good flexibility. So he as a keeper, and he's comfortable in distribution. So he's got all the tools. He's like for a long time, Dallas was super, super excited about him. His problem has just been kind of consistency,

whether that's like, and I'm no goalkeeping expert, but from what I view, just maybe not always in the right spot, maybe not always making the right decisions in terms of, you know, going out and punching a ball versus staying home. So, like, decision-making maybe is still work in progress, but in terms of just ability, he's got everything you want.

And so, you know, given, again, a lot of uncertainty at goalkeeper, I think the youth movement at goalkeeper is going to happen over the next three, four, five years. So there's a lot of talent coming through. And he's in there. He's got as much talent as anybody in the youth system. And I don't know. It's a little unclear who's going to be the starting keeper because Bodry and Furi were part of the U17 cycle.

But I think NCN has made up for a lot of the U17 coaches since. and has been bringing in a lot of the players that I think were snubbed in the last cycle. And I think in that first camp where it was more of a, the first U20 camp that was more of kind of a team that went and beat England, it was Diego Cochin, Gavin Beavers, who I think would be the preferred keepers here or not available, and Ice Stone. So he was selected before Bodry and Furi the first couple camps. So it's possible, yeah, so I guess I'm just doing a little bit of projecting and saying maybe he will be the preferred. I think he's definitely more talented than the other two, but maybe, you know, maybe not quite as reliable as like a bodry. So I hope he gets a run of starts because I think, you know, we don't see a lot of guys like him who can do it, he can do it.

at 6'6. Yeah, we probably need a goalkeeper renaissance in general, too. Yeah. Yeah, and so he moved to Brentford this summer. So he had kind of an interesting path where he finished, he graduated early, went to Duke for freshman year, just one year, and then Dallas offered him a homegrown. He said, nah, and his name. now I think in Brentford's second team.

So it'll be lost in the English youth system for however long. Cool. I mean, not cool about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But good to know about him and excited to see him in this tournament. Let's take a little break. We'll come back in a minute and talk about some long list, actually, of deserving age-eligible players who won't be there for various reasons.

be back in a second. Okay, we're back. Let's run through that list of players who are age eligible and deserving of being on this roster, but it won't be there either because they weren't released or they're injured or they weren't called up for some other reason. I guess I'll make that the third basket. Yeah, you go ahead. It's a long list. It's a long list.

definitely longer than the last cycle and I take that as good news I think if you look if you look at if you look at the bigger soccer countries in the world they usually don't have all of their best

players at their youth tournaments because they have important roles elsewhere and so of course we'd love to see the best possible team out there I think more important that we get closer to that for the World Cup we should be able to do fine in this tournament without them.

But it is a long list and tons of talent on the list. I'm like really compelling talent. Like you said, the only player that I think is really not there because of injury is Christian Fletcher from DC United. We lost Obed Vargas to Mexico recently. He was obviously part of the U-20 cycle last time. Any lessons to be learned from that? Like it just is what it is or what?

Yeah, I mean, I place him in the category of like, I think he, I think Mexico slept on him early. So he made a business decision. We offered to play him up a cycle. He did the smart thing and did that. he then was trying to see if he could make the Olympic team when Mexico didn't have an Olympic team but I think he probably always wanted to play for Mexico

and as soon as kind of the it didn't make sense to keep playing for the USA I think then he was always going to kind of switch so I don't think this is one where you know the Fed made a big mistake I think we did everything you'd want to do for a player like him, maybe even more in terms of playing him up age groups. So sometimes you're just not the choice, and I think that's okay.

So I don't think there's anything to be to reflect on and say, oh, we should have done something different. That is not the case for Fidel Barajas, but I think we still have a chance to get him back. And he's another guy that obviously played, is provisionally tied to Mexico, played in the U-17 World Cup and U-17 Conquicat tournament for Mexico.

He's not playing for either team in this tournament. He just moved to Chivas. But there's rumors. There's a little bit of smoke around him maybe being in the January camp and that he's pretty open to switching back to the United States. So we'll keep an eye on that. Okay, cool.

Cool, cool, cool. So those three won't be. there, Fletcher, Barajas, and Obed. Yeah, and Obed, of course. Yeah. And Obed. Who else isn't going to be there regardless of reason, I suppose? Yeah, the rest I'm almost certain are all release issues.

So Diego Cochin, the goalkeeper for Barcelona, he is in first team preseason. I had gotten word a few months ago from his representation that he wasn't get released. Hopefully he is going to be the second team starter this year for Barcelona. He kind of had a weird season last year where he was like the third keeper, but also wasn't playing that much for the second team. So it would be nice for him to get some games.

But he's a, he is, I think, without a doubt, an elite goalkeeping prospect. than I think one of the top prospects we have and would have been, without a doubt, the number one for this team if available. So we are still, we've been attempting to provisionally cap-tie this guy for like three tournaments and we've had some bad luck with that.

He got injured for both right before the U-17 Conca Cap Tournament and the U-17 World Cup. So we haven't seen him in a big tournament for the U.S., which is unfortunate because people should get to watch him play because he's fantastic. So we will not see him again. Maybe we'll get another chance at the U20 World Cup.

So that's a bummer. And then Vince's favorite guy, No Key Banks from Augsburg, probably our top center back prospect in the youth pool has also not been released. and he, you know, he might make a Bundesliga debut this year, in all honesty. I think he got, he's been fast-tracked with Augsburg.

He was playing for the second team in the back half of last season. He's training with the first team. He signed a professional contract with them this year. I think he is going to get a chance to have a role. And that's pretty exciting for a player who is actually like, I think a December birthday. He's almost in 2007. So he's only 17 years old still.

And in a senior team that's really struggling at the centerback position, he's the guy to keep an eye on. Yeah. So if he's in 06, but right at the end of 06. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Yeah. So like a week or something from being eligible for the next World Cup.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. pretty crazy. Yeah, he's impressive. He's impressive when you watch him because, like, just his basic technical ability and his marriage

of technical ability and athleticism, I think, is pretty rare for a cent of. Yeah, definitely. It's not something we see a lot of. So, yeah, again, probably better for him to be trying to earn a role with Augsburg than playing in a Concaath tournament, so I'm not

I'm not upset about it at all. Maybe, you know, maybe we see him if we qualify for the U-20 World Cup. But again, I'd rather him be having a role in the Bundesliga at 17-18, which would be pretty sweet. So centerback is kind of the position that got slammed the hardest here. So I would actually say that the top four centerback options for this age group are not here. So the second is Mattai Akamboni, plays for DC United. I think the biggest U-17 snub, which I've talked about a lot. But left-footed centerback, really good on the ball, big, big, like, debuted for DC at like 16.

He's been kind of, you know, plays here and there for DC United. They're banged up. So I think he's not like starting right now, but playing occasionally. and it's probably an injury away from being the starter. So again, can understand why he wasn't released. Banks and Accomboni, so there was the first time this team got together. They played England and Morocco,

and Banks and Akamboni were the centerback pairing and they looked really good together. So it would be fun to see these two play together, but we will not this time around. And yeah. Give us the other two centerbodies. Yeah. Give us the other two of the top.

You said all of our four best ones are. Yeah, the other is Josh Weinder, who played in the U20 World Cup last time around. He went to Benfica last year, had a really difficult season with injuries. But he's in Benfica B preseason playing. Super important for him to solidify a role with that team this year. We know Benfica is a beast and a grind to work through. So, yeah, he's the other. He'd be another, obviously, great option to have here.

And then the fourth is probably a lesser-known name, but I think a really talented player. His name is Drew Murray. He plays for Freiburg. He's from the San Jose Academy. Went to Freiburg at 18. Another big mobile kid that can pass has been in camps with this team.

I don't know for sure that he wasn't released, but I have a feeling given he was selected early in this cycle with more of the A team that he would have been nice to have him. But he's another player that I think actually has a decent future, but I don't think was released. Okay. So that's four centerbacks. I think all would have been preferences over really only the two,

maybe the strangest thing about the roster construction is there's really only two true centerbacks on the roster that's Noah Cobb and Stuart Hawkins. There's a couple guys who could do it in a pinch, but it's really not their natural position. So, yeah, you can see that position group has hit pretty hard. Okay. All right.

I think you got three more, right? Yeah, there's three more guys that I think would have been, like, starting probably starters for this team if they're available so reed baker whiting from seattle was not released uh from from from seattle who can play both right back and left back um so he's not going to be there Gavin beavers who's getting spot starts for rsl goalkeeper um would have been the preference uh outside of coachin so he's not going to be there and then the last guy is Cole Campbell who plays for Dortmund, just resigned with Dortmund in first team training. Kind of surprisingly filed a one-time switch from Iceland.

Not really sure what's happened there. It's kind of strange when youth players file one-time switches. But he did. And ironically enough, about right after he did that, He just went on an absolute tear for Dortmund, U-19s, and was just scoring a load of goals and assists on their way to their playoff run and looked really good in the U-20 friendlies against England and Morocco. So he's a left-footed winger that plays on the right side,

so can invert and really clever and tidy on the ball. And he's a fun player. So he would have been nice to have too, but again, I don't think he was released. Does he have like a real chance of, you know, breaking into the first team at Dorman, you think, this season? I would say not this season. I mean, you just look at like,

they seem to be playing younger players a little bit less than they used to. The Bundesliga in general, I think, is actually playing young players less than they ever have before. And they've got some, like, pretty big name, aspects that are struggling to get on the field. I mean, Gio Rain has struggled to get on the field for them. So I don't see it happening this year, and it may never happen, but it doesn't mean, I think, that he doesn't have a Bundesliga future.

It just might be starting, you know, in more the bottom half of that league. But it was nice to see him switch. It was surprising, but I think he adds something to the pool for sure. Okay. Well, I mean, the real question underneath all of this is where is Kevin Sullivan? Why is he not on this U-20 roster? No. You're joking, but there are some guys where I'm like, well, I'd prefer to have him.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, I think I did watch a little bit of some of his latest performances in MLS Next Pro. And he looks good. He looks really good. He does not look like a 14-year-old kid out there. He had two goals and two games. And then, of course, tonight, earlier tonight, had his debut.

MLS debut, right? Did you watch? Were you able to watch it? I did, yeah. It was pretty cool. I don't know if you had seen or read anything about it. But Quinn came in, like, 20 minutes before his brother,

who, you know, was a U-20 player himself for U.S. hit a beautiful shot and went and celebrated with him in the corner, which was awesome. And then about, I think, right after that, cabin subbed in. So it was a cool little sequence.

And then his first pass, he did a little bit of like one-toeing with his brother on the left channel. So his first ever professional, pass was to his brother and uh yeah i mean he he played like he plays which is what and the first thing i always look for when i watched these young players play up it's you know do you just keep doing what you've been doing at the youth level and he was attacking and he even had a nice uh um carry up the channel and and a pretty nice shot with his left foot it just went right at the keeper so yeah i mean

about as well as you can expect in garbage time for a 14-year-old. But, yeah, he was starting to figure it out in X-Pro, too. Because initially, at the beginning of the season, I don't think the couple of games I checked in on, he didn't look that good, like right away. Yeah, I think a lot of times what I see with, especially with players, you're always playing up, And then playing kind of in this kind of chaotic, like U-15, U-17 level in academy, it's like,

it just can be chaos sometimes out there. And so when you get these really talented players who finally are kind of in a situation where the game is a bit more organized and players or, you know, even the team you're playing against isn't doing a bunch of weird stuff. You tend to like calm down. Right. And your talent could actually like almost show more. Be on display a bit more.

And I think he's just starting to slow down. He plays fast and almost like he's very energetic. He's very just how everything he does is very high tempo. So what I noticed in the last few next pro games, I think he was just starting to slow down, not trying to do everything and pick his spot. a bit better and he's just looked a lot more effective. So, you know, he's 14.

He's got so much time. It's hard not to get excited, though. It's really hard not to because he is doing all the things you'd want to see from a player with his level of hype. And so, yeah, you just keep hoping for that. Keep hoping for health. He seems like he's got a lot of dog in him, too, you know? Like the way he plays hard, he plays tough.

And, yeah. And I think that's the, I think that's like why I bought in early is because, like, of course he has all the talent. But it doesn't matter what level he's playing at. Like, he is, he's going to get stuck in. He is going to be challenging. he's going to be tracking back. Like you said, he plays 100 miles an hour all the time. Sometimes that gets him in trouble.

But yeah, he loves it. He loves contact. I mean, what you see is, like, guys are obviously trying to muscle him and beat him up, but gets right back up. And, yeah, I think he's a tough kid. and that's what you want to see from, like, you know, player with as much talent as he has. Like, obviously he's not going to be on this,

playing on this U-20 team and this Conquer Calf Championship, but, like, is there a chance he makes the U-20 World Cup squad? I wouldn't, I would not say it's impossible. You know, Bertramas or Burmast or Birkimos is in 2008. Sullivan's in 2009. Granted, he's, I think, like,

maybe, uh, like 18, 19 months younger. Um, but, you know, if he's playing a little bit in the first team and starting to perform pretty well,

uh, in next pro, by next August, you know, like he, he's still like been, probably have a pretty significant growth spurt, you would hope,

because he's still so young and you look you look at Quinn and you actually look at some of his brothers and cousins. They're all pretty good size. They're all around. Right. He's like the shortest one for sure. Yeah. Yeah.

And so, you know, if he hits a little bit of a growth spurt, he's already built pretty strong for a kid his age. The physical part won't be a problem anymore. And then I think, at least, especially for at a U-20 level, yeah, I don't, I could see it happening for sure. The question becomes, I think that from what I've heard, from people that kind of know his plan a bit better, they're not too focused on youth national team soccer right now. He hasn't been in a lot of the last U-17 camps. So like there's a U-17 cycle coming up. He's always played up in age group, but he hasn't been going to some of the last camps.

And so, you know, this in general, as much fun as it would be to see him, I think they're locked in on his kind of club plan. And so it's also possible that that's just not in the plans right now. And he's going to focus on trying to integrate into the first team. Which would be totally wise. Yeah. It is much more than. Right.

Yeah, this is superfluous fun for us. not all that important in the grand scheme of things. But yeah, I don't think it's the original question. I don't think it's impossible that he ends up on the U-20 World Cup squad. If we make it, I think it could happen. Okay. Well, I'll have to pull up his, what was it, like a nine-minute cameo, nine, 12 minutes.

Yeah, there was like three events, and two of them were pretty fun. and maybe we'll see it again this weekend. But yeah, it's going to be a fun journey to track for sure. Yeah. Okay. I think our work here is done, don't you? Yeah, yeah. First game, we didn't really run through the count, like the schedule of games,

but the first game is on Friday against Jamaica. And then I think we've got Cuba on the 22nd, which is, what, Monday, and then Costa Rica on the 25th, which would be Thursday. day and top two teams make it through to a quarterfinal, I believe. And then that's the knockout game, right? I mean, or that's the game you got to win. Yep, that's the one you got to win to get to the World Cup. And yeah, I think we should be the favorites.

It's not our strongest team, but if you kind of look around, like, you know, Mexico is usually the, the competition and while I don't know their squad intimately, you know, they only have a few guys that are getting first team minutes. You know, some first team minutes. I think we've got more players getting first team minutes. And they've got some MLS Academy guys that, you know, I don't think would make, would be a consideration for our team. So it tells me a little bit, I guess, about the level.

and so yeah I think we're the most talented team in the group we should expect to win we should definitely expect to qualify but it may not be as smooth sailing as the last version of this tournament we'll see okay all right

10 p.m. Eastern time what is that 7 Pacific on Friday versus Jamaica to kick it off and where do people find you, Marcus. Where do they find your work in your Twitter account? Yeah, I'll take the plug. Yeah, Twitter, I mean, I don't even know the handle off the top of my head. What is it? At Chai underscore ASC, but if you look up Marcus Cherez or you look up U.S. Soccer Collective, I'm sure you'll find me. And then I got a website, ussockercorcollective. So I cover the U.S. Youth National Team. and kind of the best of the best youth players in the United States

or U.S. eligible around the world. So, yeah, come hang out, chat, sign up for scuff if you don't already. It's awesome. And I'm a huge fan. Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, thanks for having me. Thanks for doing it.

Appreciate it so much. And thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.