Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - Episode 114: Young Americans in MLS season wrap-up with Matt Doyle

Episode Date: November 27, 2019

Who played, who played well, and who has a future with the USMNT? Freed from the constraints of things like “producers” and “brevity” and  “Andrew Wiebe,” MLSsoccer.com analyst Matt Doyle joins the pod to go long on the young American player pool in the domestic league. We look back at 2019 and look ahead to 2020.(Yo! We forgot to mention Gianluca Busio! Major omission. Interesting young player at Sporting KC. My mistake for not having him on the list. I’d put him in the “who knows” category, for what it’s worth.)0:30 Intro, etc.7:45 Reggie Cannon11:20 Jackson Yueill17:30 Brenden Aaronson21:40 Miles Robinson25:00 Paxton Pomykal32:55 can Ebobisse, Toye or Pepi be a top MLS striker in 2020?41:15 will any young wingers break through? Lewis? Saucedo?47:10 are either Hassani Dotson or Brandon Servania that motherf*ker of a 6?52:05 do any of Vines, Gasper or Gutman have a national team future at fullback?55:25 rapid fire on James Sands, David Ochoa, Mark McKenzie, Jonathan Gomez and Julian Araujo59:40 we revisit our spring list  and re-categorize a bunch of players (lots of names addressed) 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 Minneapolis. With me is Greg Velasquez in Des Moines. We talk about U.S. men's soccer. The 2019 MLS season ended a couple weeks ago, and we're going to wrap it up the way we started it by talking with Matt Doyle ofMLSSSoccur.com. You know who he is about young Americans in the league and how they did. Thank you so much for being here, Matt. Appreciate it. It is my genuine pleasure, my friend. Awesome. Awesome. You're, by the way, you're congratulations on the end of the the season. Are you, are you in Hawaii now or what are you doing? I am sitting in New York watching the Champions League and still still working in the content minds. Got a lot of a team of the decade stuff coming like that. I do my yearly tactical breakdown of what happened in MLS that Bobby kind of stole it from me. And then we're due for a year-long retrospective on the Greg Burhalter era. Oh yeah. Yeah, going to be busy.

in the early part of December. Then I'm going to the Bahamas. Great, great. Yeah, I feel for you in the dog days of August and September, covering all those games. Anyway, enough Doyle's sympathy for one episode. We worked through more than 50 names back in the spring and put everyone in one of four categories,

which was kind of fun, great expectations, hopes and dreams, reclamation projects, and a fourth category, which was just kind of out here, no expectations, but they were in the mix for first two minutes. I was really struck by how things change in a matter of months. It's so difficult to predict anything. Before we get into that, can you

give us a little context on the overall picture? Yeah, it was kind of a banner year in terms of young players of all backgrounds playing in MLS, but especially for young domestic players. In 20

in 2018 young domestic players, and I'm including Canadians here as well. Sure. Played for, like, young being 22 or under. 46,376 minutes, 46 goals, 48 assists. 2019, 69, 793 minutes, 89 goals, 62 assists. Just the year over, like, we have been seeing steady. improvement in the number of minutes, goals, assists from young domestic players over the previous four years.

This year it was like an increase in almost 50% in total minutes they played. That kind of blew me away, especially within the context of having sold Alfonso Davies and Tyler Adams. Because if they had held out to those players for one year more, which, obviously they should have that selling them was the right move but like you're talking about another 6,000 minutes and who knows how many goals and assists davies would have had so it was like it was really heartening i needed to see this um and i think that uh you know especially with teams like dallas philly and rsl having success and getting to the playoffs while leaning so hard on

those kids. It's just such a, it was a really positive data point. And I hope it sort of points to the future. Yeah, why do you think, I mean, Lucha Gonzalez and Dallas was obviously a big part of that. But why do you think it happened? Why do you think there was this 50% increase in minutes? I don't know. I think, you know, you look at it, like Almeida coming in and Bradley having, you know, more access to younger players.

this year and obviously Lucci, Curtin feeling, I think more confident in a lot of his guys just across the board. It seems like there were more situations where more coaches are more comfortable or even

beyond comfortable, enthusiastic about the idea of getting younger players onto the field. There's a there's a sort of a I made this sense to how a lot of these guys build their teams and build their players.

There certainly is with Bob, right? Bob loves taking players who he feels have talent and making them better, and he's really good at it. And I think that's Lucci. I think that's that's Curtin. I think that's, you know, obviously Almeida as well. And that kind of filtered down. And we're seeing it more and more throughout the league.

And on top of it, I mean, the white caps made $15 million last year. You know, the Red Bulls didn't make as much because, you know, they sold him within the family. But like Tyler Adams is a $20 million player at least if he can ever get healthy again. So seeing that every team is kind of sitting on, I mean, everybody's sitting on a gold mine. Literally every MLS team has enough local talent to create the types of players. that you could sell for $750,000 to a million dollars, probably won every two years on the low end. And that is real money.

And the people who run these teams, they know how to make money. There's a lot to be frustrated with in American soccer, but that is one thing, that development that you just described is one thing to be excited about. So, yeah, I think it's actually, I think it's actually the biggest thing to be excited about. You and I've had this conversation a lot about, like, what are the hurdles that young players have to overcome to become full national teamers? And I still maintain the biggest hurdle is going from 18-year-old or 19-year-old with lots of potential to 20-year-old who's playing 2,000 minutes for a professional team.

It was always the biggest hurdle. and it looks like there is a like maybe it's just been lowered a little bit in MLS maybe teams are finally willing to do this to get these guys out there and if that's the case if this year isn't a blip if it's the start of a more aggressive trend

which I think it's going to be that I mean it's what it's what we need as a soccer culture as a soccer country. Yeah, definitely So, so I want to go, I want to go back through the list, our list from the spring and recategorize everybody. But first, I thought we should talk about some of the biggest individual developments in the league, you know, in terms of the league producing national team caliber players, which is what this is all about, what this discussion is all about. Guys who weren't necessarily national team players 12 months ago who you could safely assume will be in or near the 23 man roster come the World Cup in 2022, you know.

assuming we qualify for the tournament. So I'm thinking of two guys. You know, this short list has sort of evolved in my mind over the last 48 hours, but I'm thinking of two in particular, Reggie Cannon and Jackson Ewell. And I'd love to hear your summary for each of them of how they developed this season and why and what went right. Well, we'll start with Cannon because he was on everybody's radar and I think a big way after 2018. he went from basically not playing at all in 2017 to locking down that right back job.

And he struggled at first. But then after about two months, he was one of the best right backs in the league. And, you know, very much a poster child for if you have a talented young player, you want to live with the early struggles because what you get afterwards is worth so much. And his progression, I thought year over year, was pretty linear. He went from a young, talented right. back who played really well in MLS in 2018 to getting a taste of national team camp, but being in over his head in January, used that to play.

By his own admission, right? Yeah. And that was, to be fair, that was back when Burrhalter had the system and he was asking Tyler Adams to pinch in and Nick Lehman to pinch in and become an ad hoc central midfield. And Reggie Cannon was like, I've never done that. I have no idea how to do that. which fair like credit to him for for being very honest about that but he played really well in the

first half of the mLS season got a lucky break to get onto the gold cup team played really well in the gold cup i thought um not like not great but pretty good very yeah pretty good pretty promising i mean he played he played against mexico in a gold cup final at age 20 that's something to be pretty excited about, I think. And in my opinion was one of the players in that game who didn't need to hang his head afterward, you know? Yeah, I would agree with that. You know, he certainly didn't dominate that side of the field, but he wasn't exposed

and he did well to move the ball a few times. He had an opportunity to do that. So he went from that second half of the season. This happens all the time with Gold Cup. He came back and he slumped a little bit. He just wasn't quite. as engaged. But you saw him pick it up at the end.

And he played well in the playoffs, playing as a as a winger, actually, because Lucci threw a little bit of a curveball at Seattle. It was just a good solid all around year. And giving where he is as a player and where he can be, because of his gifts, you know, physically and in terms of his brain, you know, he's a super smart kid and super professional about the game. He's, it's no surprise that there's a lot of reported interest in Europe for him. And I, I do suspect that he'll end up going.

I don't know if it'll be a Premier League team. That's, I think I saw, I think I saw the athletic report that. But it wouldn't shock me. It wouldn't shock me if it was. Okay. I think, I mean, I think he's better than DeAndre Yedlin right now. DeAndre Yedlin's a starter in the Premier League. So, like, if Yedlin can do that, then can't and certainly can't.

Yeah, I agree. He's better than Yedlin. I know there's a fair number of people who can't imagine that to be true, but I think the evidence with the national team, at least, over the last eight months is pretty clear. Yeah. How about Jackson Ewell? I know he's a big favorite of yours, and, you know, you've been talking about him for a while, but he's always been a good passer, and he played some.

I mean, no, he played more than some. He played regularly last season, the season before this last one. But he wasn't a, you know, a guaranteed starter. Now he's a, now he's, you know, he played basically every game for San Jose. So, so what happened? Matias Almeida. I think, you know, if you look at the previous regimes, because he came in when, when Dom Keneer was head coach, and then they changed everything up in 2017,

and that was his rookie year. He played about a thousand minutes, and he, he was, good as a number eight. The type of guy who is super brave about getting on the ball and as he said he could pass the hell out of it. He's the type of guy that you wanted to run

everything through but he was just a non-factor defensively. And part of that was athleticism because he's not, you know, he's an average athlete at best. But part of that was just inclination. And maybe it was schooling.

We see this all over U.S. soccer, not just U.S. soccer, but all over the world, central midfielders who are really good on the ball, who have that vision, who have that gift to open up the game, coaches defer to them too much. They say, oh, you're the next Javier, you're the next repalme, and they don't teach them how to move off the ball and get the ball. They don't teach them how to defend.

And I think that might have happened with Jackson Yule. And you don't play for Metteas Almeida if you don't defend. and I think there must have been a preseason come to Jesus moment for for Ewell and once he got that opportunity into to step into the lineup in April, he did not let it go. And he's looked apart for the U.S. And granted, it hasn't been the stiffest competition in the world. But he showed well against Uruguay. He was very, very good against Canada. Yeah, against Canada.

a thank you. And he kicks people. Look, like, if you're going to be a defensive midfielder, you have to inflict a little bit of pain. And that was never part of Jackson Yule's game. And it's not a huge part of it now, but it's getting there. Yeah, there was a little bit of shithousery in that Canada game from him. And I went back and watched the clips last night of his duels, you know, of his defensive actions.

And I agree, you know, you can't disagree that he's no Tyler Adams athletically. but in that game, I think we did see the fruit of Matias Almeda's labor in that he was locked in and he was intelligent about when he made tackles and he was totally committed to it. And I think if you're intelligent, committed, and locked in, that can cover over for a lot of athletic deficiencies as a defensive midfielder. As it did for Kyle Beckerman five years ago in the World Cup. Yeah, like, Beckerman was so good in those first three games, and he's not actually a better athlete than Jackson Ewell. He just is completely, he had clarity of vision, clarity of purpose,

and he executed it. And I think that that type of defensive presence is what Ewell has to aim for, because he's never going to be Tyler Adams, right? He's never going to be a game-changing, or even like a Pablo Master any type. He's never going to change the game with his defensive presence, but he can still add value. Do you think that he has surpassed Michael Bradley in the depth chart? I do. I do.

I mean, certainly if I was calling the shots and we had a game that really mattered tomorrow, and I have to choose between those two guys, I would choose Jackson Yule. Because Bradley still hasn't really accepted that he can't cover the same amount of ground. that he did two years ago. So if you watch him, even with Toronto, if you watch him, he comes up field and he makes these challenges and misses on way too many of them that really exposed his team.

And Ewell is, I think, much more responsible and much more aware of his limitations. So I would go with, I would absolutely go with Ewell. Yeah, just looking at that Canada match, the difference in the way we cover the midfield, which is not entirely attributed to Ewell, compared to the way we did against Canada way when Bradley started in that position.

It's a pretty significant difference. I agree. There's another thing. Like Michael Bradley's been a fantastic player. I think he gets way too much shit from the fan base. But his teams have a habit of deferring to him way too much. In terms of how they build up, you know, always try to find him with the ball. don't, you know, don't go too fast unless Michael wants to play fast.

And it also looks like there's a deference to him emotionally. And I don't, you know, I've heard this from various, you know, teammates and former teammates of him. And you look at the way the U.S. play when he's out there, it's so, it's been robotic. It's laconic. Yeah, yeah. And it might be, like, it's probably just time to move on. he's not adding the same amount of value as the younger guys in that spot. All right.

Hot take. Hot take coming from Doyle. No, it's not that hot of a tape. It's not, no. It's pretty lukewarm in the fan base to say it's time to move on from Michael Bradley. Well, so there are three more players who I would say raise their stock considerably this season. And you may think of others, but I'll just say the ones that I can think of. Brendan Aronson, Miles Robinson, and Paxon and Pomacall.

I don't think any of them is, I don't think we can say that they're in or near the 23 for the next World Cup yet. Pomacall maybe, but I still think it's a stretch. Let's take them one by one. What happened with Aronson this season? He got his chances pretty early and, you know, he took him and he took him, he got that early goal against Atlanta. And I think that that bought him a lot of time. So that was one. Two is just the club philosophy. Philadelphia, they want to be the Eastern Conference version of FC Dallas. They want to start selling players to Europe, to big teams in Europe. And that means Brendan Ernst

probably wasn't ready at the start of this year, but he was going to get chances anyway. And, you know, Jim Curtin believes in that. Ernst Tanner believes in that. And so if you have those two guys, you're going to get your chance. And the other thing with Aaron's saying is that he's very good on the ball. He can hit some passes that there aren't a lot of guys who can hit that assist he had to Mason Toy against Japan for the U23s, I think back in October. Yeah, that was like the one clip we saw from that game. Yeah.

It was a special play. But what he does off the ball is spectacular. I have a good friend who works in MLS, works in the other conference, works in the Western Conference. So he doesn't watch a lot of Eastern Conference teams. And he saw, he saw Aronson against Atlanta in the playoffs.

And like he blew up my phone with like 50 texts about how good this kid is. And so like if you, if you have, you know, that on the ball ability and especially that off the ball ability, It gave Curtin the chance to use Erinson as a 10 as an underneath striker on both wings. And Philadelphia needed that because they had Elsinio and Elsinio couldn't go more than 30 minutes. So you play Aronson 60, you get his feet wet.

Eventually he earned more than that. It was really promising. At the same time, there are two things with Brendan Aronson. He does not win his 50-50s. if he goes in to defensively for a challenge with a you know a grown-up because he still is built like a little kid he's not going to win the ball so it makes it tough to play him uh maybe that changes right because two years ago we would have said that about pomacomacom and the other thing is he doesn't finish plays in the in the attacking third we saw it for the u23s we saw it for philadelphia like as soon as As soon as Atlanta scored that goal in the playoffs, Aronson, like three minutes later, had a huge chance when he was in on Brad Guizan, and he didn't finish the play.

If you're going to be an attacking midfielder or an attacking winger for a good team, you have to finish plays. And I think beyond anything else, that's the next step for Brendan Aronson. It makes me think of watching him in the attacking third makes me think of that famous Nagby heat map, where what is it like in the middle 30s the best player in the world but then in zone 14 and things get a little dice here and then inside the box it's uh it's red alert like panic and yeah yeah i get a little bit of that of that vibe with erinson because i i agree i agree i think gregg velasquez said it well when he said he's busy you know he's just a busy player he's all

over the he's all over the place uh off the ball and you know even though he doesn't necessarily win all those 50-50s he's a he's a constant nuisance to the opponent he's brave right he knows where the game is happening and he wants to be a part of it and there are a lot of young players who are super talented um who don't who don't know how to do that and so that that is such a such an important fundamental building block that um you could see why people really really rate the kid uh and why he's going to play another 2,000, 22500 minutes next year. You just hope that he'll end up with more than three goals to assist. Right. Well, good luck to him, probably going to be part of the Olympic qualifying squad, and he'll have his chances with the national team for sure. Miles Robinson, what's the story with him? I think you said at the beginning of the year, you were saying, I think he's going to start. I think he's going to start for Atlanta. Yeah. Sure enough, he did.

Yeah, walked into the lineup on day one and didn't come out until he got that injury. you know the the you know the trope right what what would happen if our best for best athletes played soccer well yeah miles Robinson is what happens um he he's just and that's that's the that's the that's the foundation for him he he you know part michael parker's said it is like he's the best one v one defender i've ever been around he he just does not get beat um and that got him on the field and what kept him on the field was that you could see he reads the game a lot better than than most other young players he's still a beat slow compared to you know a guy like a matt beisler or nikopara right um but that's reps he's making the right reads and um i think he'll make

the right reads a split second faster next year so he won't even have to rely on that athleticism so much and then the other thing is he just so much more comfortable on the ball and so much better passing the ball than anybody, I think, realized. And maybe that was always there, and Tata Martino just never gave him the chance to show it. Or maybe that was something he needed to work on in training for two years. And to be, like, he's not going to be John Brooks with his passing.

But I think he can end up being better than Aaron Long or Walker of Zimmerman. And it's the, I think, the next eight, 10 months up to the up to the Olympics, which hopefully we will make. It's going to be a huge test for him to show that because he's pretty clearly

the best centerback in the pool at that age. If you're the best centerback, then you have to have a leadership role in the buildout. You have to be able to do those sorts of things. And I think that the U23s are going to ask him to do that. And if he can, then like this, I mean,

this guy might be starting. at the 2022 World Cup. Nobody would be surprised if that's the case because there isn't a more talented defender in the pool. The thing I like about him, one thing that you didn't mention that I do like about him is he has the ability to step past pressing opponent with the ball at his feet.

Like he can dribble a little bit. And he showed that against Club America. This wasn't just like, oh, you know, it's a midweek game against somebody's reserves in a, you know, on a Wednesday in Atlanta. Like this was in the Campionis Cup. It was Club America's first team. You know, it's Pioho Herrera, so you know they're playing Helmant for leather the entire time.

And Robinson was awesome in that game in sort of undoing Pioho's defensive scheme. I don't know if there's going to be a ton of that from him going forward, but the fact that he was able to do it at that level in his first year as a starter. pretty promising. Yeah. Well, we'll watch for progressive passing from him in Concaf Champions League and in the league next year. Let's see. Paxson Pomacall.

Let's talk about him. I want to hear you, yeah, I want to hear your thoughts on Paxson, Pamacall, first. So I really like him. I think he has, I think he does all the things Aronson does well. But he also wins his 50-50s, and he has a little more cutting edge. and he and he wins his 50-50s and he gets to more play. So I would say that outside of Tyler Adams,

we don't have a ground-covering midfielder like Pomacall. And I would like to think that he could be the eight for the men's national team pretty soon or maybe even the six as a backup for Adams or, you know, assuming Adams ever comes back, which he will, he will, he will come back. I guess the concern I have is is Burlhalter, is Burlhalter as high on him as I am or as we are? And then I was listening to Buzz Carrick's third degree podcast earlier today actually and he said he's not even sure Pomacall's a guaranteed starter for Dallas going into the 2020 season.

I generally listen to Buzz about Dallas. Like he knows what he's talking about. So I don't know. He faltered a little bit down the stretch in the 2019 season. I sort of attributed that to his, you know, his core muscle injury that he just was operated on in Philadelphia. But I don't know. So I have, I guess those are my little doubts, even though I'm super, super high on him. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't think Dallas paid him $700,000 a year to come off the bench. They are not the biggest spending team in the league by any stretch. So I think they fully intend for him to start. I would imagine they intend for him to start as a number 10 or in that free eight role. If you want to call it that, though it was actually much more of a number 10 role this past year. But the thing with Pomacol is he's probably better as a true eight. He's definitely really good as a free eight.

He has at times been excellent as a winger, which we saw in the playoffs. even like playing through that core muscle injury, go watch the final 30 minutes and an extra time against, against F.C. Dallas. He was a beast. He was the best player on the field. Played as a winger, which isn't his best spot. And then as you said, you know,

there's a world maybe where he gets turned into a number six. I think he, other than, again, final third stuff, he's not a good finisher at all and his his passing is pretty good not great in the final third. You don't think his passing in the final third is good? I feel like he was robbed of multiple assists. I can't remember how many, but quite a few.

So I think it's pretty good. I don't think it's great when he's in the final third. I think his passing is fantastic when he's pulling the strings from deeper, which is why I like him better as an eight than a ten. You know, if you look back at the best pass as anybody on FC Dallas hit this year, it's all Pomacall playing guys through or hitting these inch perfect switches or doing all this stuff that you would want, would want to see from a guy who I think is going to end up being something close to a world-class number eight. I think Pomacall is the single best player.

in the pool other than Polisic and Adams. And I'm not sure Adams is better than him. Hmm. Yeah. Wow. I mean, I hope that's right. I want him to be that good. Yeah.

And it's an amazing story because he was not good 12 months ago. So I totally disagree with that. You guys in our, in our dark web, talk about how he wasn't good in, you know, for Dallas, when he got on the field in 2018. He played 150 minutes. How are you going to make that judgment? I don't know. You got to make your judgments based on what you see, you know?

And he was, that's what we got. And he was excellent. He was always excellent at age group. He wasn't as dominant defensively, but he was always excellent at age group. And then, you know, with FC Dallas. And then he really did have that breakout as a two-way player with the U-20s in the Conca Cap Championship.

Yeah. So I think... You think we overstate how bad he was in 2017? Yeah, I think using the word bad at all. I think using the word bad at all is the wrong approach. He just looks like in his 150 minutes, he just looks soft and tentative and like not a player that was going to make that much of an impact, even in limited time.

But I'll grant you there's, you know, small sample size. Yeah. I think we might just end up disagreeing, agreeing to disagree about that. I'm okay with that. Yeah. Regardless, I mean, he's a different player now. Yeah, no doubt. The idea, the idea of, you know, him and Adams and it improved Weston McKenney,

which is what I think we're seeing so far this year with Shalka, in the same three man midfield, that's a buzzsaw. There's like every blade of grass is going to get covered. And I think like, look, I love Jackson Yule. He's not that same level of defensive presence and he's never going to be. And I think the ideal for for the U.S. in 2022 is that all three of Adams McKinney and pomacall stay healthy, settle into those. midfield roles and we become, you know, like just a nightmare to try to play through in central

midfield. And we end up becoming a real transition team because of it. That would be an interesting tactical evolution from Burrhalter too. But I guess we don't need to, we don't need to get into all that. So the first question, you put together some questions that you're sort of thinking about going into the season, this upcoming season. And the first one was can Pam McCall be a top 10 player in the league. Do you have anything more to say about that? It sounds like you think he can. I think he can be.

I'm not sure that he will be in 2019. More than anything, it's just the injury has me concerned because I believe it's similar to what Tyler Adams has and Tyler's six months now about playing. But Tyler never got surgery. So, you know, just a note for our listeners. I've been trying to get Dr. William Myers, the guy who does, who did Pomacall surgery on the podcast, not having any luck so far. But I've done a fair amount of reading on it. And this Myers guy has had incredible success.

Like everybody he's operated on has been better basically within six, seven weeks and never looked back. So I think the outlook for Pomacall is pretty bright. As for Adams, as for Adams, I don't know. I don't know. Because people struggle with that for years sometimes. Yeah, it's kind of terrifying. Okay, question number two we had, or you had, can I Bobesei, that's Jeremy Ababa Say,

Mason Toy or Ricardo Pepe be a 20 goal number nine in 2020? It's probably too soon. Yeah. For Pepe, it's probably too soon. I think he'll play, you know, he played about 100, minutes this past year as a 16-year-old. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he played a thousand minutes as a 17-year-old. That would be great.

You could see from what he did at USL and from the few minutes that he had on the field with the full team, the MLS team this past year, he knows what to do. He knows the runs to make. He's an instinctive striker. He's not a guy who's converted. He's not a guy who's staying there because he's bigger, stronger, and faster than the other kids, he's playing there because he's actually a striker. And if he's not a 20 goal score in 2020, which again, it's probably too soon for him,

I think he'll get the chance to be that in 2021, which would be dope. And, yes. And, you know, it's going to be part of Dallas's ethos to give him every chance to prove it. And like, there is a chance that he'll be good enough this year. Like maybe he comes to camp and beats out Zednik and Drossack. There is a part of the multiverse where that happens. Yeah. I mean, he's got the, Pepey's got the, you know, he makes the runs. His work rate is out of this world.

Yep. And he's pretty good in combination. We didn't get to see that with the 17s in Brazil. We didn't see anything worthwhile with the 17s in Brazil, man. Yeah, really nobody, nobody play well. Well, yeah, not nobody, but mostly nobody. and Peppy but Pepe can like he can he can do an intricate combination with with other attackers he doesn't he doesn't get to do that very often with some of the other players on that roster

but um but I think you we saw that with USL in USL League one we saw that sometimes with the 17s in the cycle so I think he's got he's a he's a complete package really if he you know if he gets to play a thousand minutes that would be awesome and I think at any point that Flip could switch and he could become like a legit MLS striker. Agreed. I think Obobacy already is a legit MLS striker, but I think there's very little chance he'll ever score 20 goals in Portland. For whatever reason, Gio Savarese is determined to play him as a winger.

He's not a winger. He's completely lost out there. I do think it says something about his talent that he managed to score. I think it was 13 goals in all competitions this year, despite playing more than half his time out on the wing. Not shabby at all. No, it was good. And it was big, you know, he scored big goals too. You know, the game winner against L.A.F.C. in the Open Cup, a couple of goals to break them out of their slump that they were in late.

You know, the game winner and their first win of the season, which they really needed at the time. So he's a gamer. I think he showed it with the, uh, with the, uh, with the, U-20s back in the day, and I honestly think he'll show it with the U-23s as well. But Portland's going to go out and they're going to buy some 30-year-old Argentinian center forward. They're going to stick above a sea on the wing again. And at that point... Pretty sure that's going to happen.

Yeah, everybody's pretty sure that's going to happen. So it makes no sense. It didn't work last year. It's not going to work this coming year. But, you know, that's... You're stuck with the team you're stuck with. If Merritt Paulson would just get back on Twitter, he could find this out. He could learn these things.

No comment. How about Toy? How about Toy? Ten goals. Two really nice goals at LAAFC in a kind of surprising two zero win for Minnesota United. That was kind of the high point of the season for him. But he kind of limped down the stretch. And I, you know, I watched some of him, not as much as you have.

He seems a little lost in the sort of general run of play. Is that fair? Yep. Yep. No, I think he's very good around the box. He sniffs out chances and he's two-footed. He's a spectacular athlete. Pretty good in the air, too.

Pretty good. Not as good as you would think, given his size. He's about six foot three. but he he can he can certainly do a little bit of work in the air

but he he doesn't seem to know how to be a center forward who makes things easier on his teammates you know he doesn't help in the build out he's usually in the wrong place defensively

his play with his back to goal is we'll call it rudimentary at best. And he just has a lot of work to do on that. Now, the good thing about Toy is that his attitude is apparently excellent. And he said he didn't play much in 2018 when he was a rookie. And they asked him, you know, once he broke out in 2019, there's a bunch of features on

him. They said, why didn't you play? And he said, it was my fault. I didn't have the right attitude. I didn't train hard enough. Everything bad that happened is because. because of me. And like I was like, oh, well, either he's serious and that's great or he's clever enough to fib about it, which is also pretty good. But having talked to a few of the

guys in the locker room with him, he, he was serious. Like, he did have kind of attitude problems in 2018 and they were completely gone in 2019, other than the spitting incident with Reggie Canon. Which was interesting because it's gross and it's disrespectful and you never want to see a player do that. But if you're looking for a forward, like the best forwards in the world have nothing but disdain for the defenders they're going up against. And the fact that Toy still has a little of that, you know, burning in him on some level,

I don't hate that. So the question now is how... Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was bad to get a red card and the suspension at the time. It was completely warranted. And I hope he never does it again.

But I also hope he never loses that, whatever that was in him. Speaking of which, well, go ahead, sorry. No, you go ahead. Well, I was just going to say, Pepe has a little bit of that too. He has that a little bit of a curl of the upper lip, the pottiness.

You know, kind of wants to show people up. And I love it, you know. Yeah, yeah. And you need that. And that's, you know, one of the questions about Obbasi is I don't really think he has that. So maybe that's one of the reasons that Savare has decided he's not a center forward. But, you know, if he keeps scoring, maybe you decide he doesn't necessarily need that to be a good center forward. But Toy has a lot to work on.

one of the things about playing for Adrian Heath, Adrian Heath was a forward. Adrian Heath has gotten a lot out of guys like Dom Dwyer, Kyle Lerrin in the past. And he sees, from what I understand, he sees Toy as a personal project. That's cool. Yeah, I'm hoping that that means we see a big leap from him. Of these three guys, he is the likeliest to score 20 goals next year. Hmm. Why? Because Minnesota is going to score a lot of goals? Because they don't have anybody else who can score goals,

and because the manager believes in him as a center forward. Okay. Let's go to the next one. I think we can handle this one pretty quickly. Will any of the young wingers break through? And the question has been raised, which young wingers? Because there aren't a ton of them. but I'm thinking of Jonathan Lewis and Sebastian Salcedo both played with the U-23s in their little tournament in Canary Islands a couple weeks ago. Yeah, I think Lewis is going to have a big year next year. You know, double-digit goals and assists wouldn't shock me from him. And I think if you look at his numbers from 2019, played about 1,100 minutes, 1,000 minutes maybe, five goals, four assists in that time.

eight goals, eight assists for his career in about 1,700 minutes. If he plays 2,500 minutes, this is one of the most productive wingers in the league. The question with him is twofold. Can he stay healthy, number one, because he's had a bunch of little injuries over the years. And number two, is he going to defend it all? Lewis, as, like, again, I think the world of him as an attacking player, he is as bad defensively. as he is good going forward. So that's, and look, if you're going to play for Robin Frazier, you're going to have to

defend. Well, my thing with Lewis is, you know, he could score 10 goals and get 10 assists next year. And I don't know that that would persuade me about him because, you know, at least this past season, Colorado was in a lot of high scoring games, just helter-skelter all over the place, tons of transitions. So there's, you know, opportunities for a player like him to score. But I want to see him, you know, break. break somebody down in, I don't know, half court offense, for lack of a better way of saying it,

and like make something happen in that kind of way. You see that in him, don't you? Not too. I don't think it's a strong suit, but I do think that he has much more of that than maybe you're giving him credit for here. You know, some of the turn, like, when Colorado had to play in pure possession, they often had him tuck inside into the half space because they don't have an actual number 10. He would tuck inside in the half space and he would be able to receive in traffic turn and make progressive passes at the very least and sometimes, you know, make defense breaking passes.

So I think that's there, but I do think he's, you know, much more of a, Jordan Morris type of winger. Yeah, that's a good comparison. Yeah, like you want him in transition running into space or running, you know, against a single, you know, a single stranded fullback. You don't want him, you know, in the half court, being the point guard. Right. Right.

Let's just, let's just do everything in basketball terms for the rest of the podcast. So, so Saucato, I thought, looked pretty good with the U-23s. He brought out sort of calm and, uh, progression on the ball that that we weren't seeing from the other wingers in that at least in that little small sample size of games but you're not and so that kind of got me excited about him again because I've you know I see the highlights throughout the season of him hitting those curlers from 20 yards that's a skill that we don't have a ton of in the pool um but you're not you're not so high on him yeah he's got really really good feet um and he hits maybe the best switch like a true cross

field switch in the entire pool. And he could do it with either foot. And he's brave about getting the ball. But he comes to the, in being brave about it, he comes to the ball way too often. So he makes the field smaller. Like, okay, well, if you can do that, then he's, you got to be a playmaker. And his vision isn't, isn't good enough to be a playmaker. He doesn't, you know, release the ball early right into stride or right into,

into space. He tends to just take a little bit too long to make his decisions. And then off the ball, like I said, he makes the field small. He doesn't stretch the field. So there is a specific, I'm sure there's a specific team out there, a specific way that Saucato can be the perfect fit, but it has to be a really specific set of circumstances because he doesn't do the off-the-ball stuff that the guy like Aronson does. does. And he doesn't do, you know, he's not as instinctive a playmaker, I don't think,

as a guy like Lewis is, and he doesn't have the same type of speed. And he's certainly not a defensive presence like, say, Pomacall. So it's, he's pretty good at a lot of things, but you have to be more than just pretty good to be a super influential player. Right. Yeah, we're talking about a 23-man roster, and there's going to be four, maybe five wingers on it. Yeah. So, where's he going to end up? Is he going to stay in RSL?

It looks like he's gone, but it's not clear where. It could be somewhere within MLS. I know there's still interest in him in the league. It wouldn't surprise me if it was somewhere in Mexico. It wouldn't surprise me if it was somewhere overseas either. So I'm sure there are options for him. And look, he has anybody who's that good with the ball, and he is very good with the ball has a chance to really become something.

So all the deficiencies I just pointed out, maybe that was just the nature of him being at RSL for too long. Maybe he goes somewhere else, finds the right coach in the right scheme, and becomes super valuable addition to the player pool. Again, he's got a great shot. He has good feet. That's something to build on.

Yeah. And if the last time we did this shows us anything, impossible. It literally is impossible to predict what's going to happen. Question number four, is Hassani Dotson that mother bleeper of a six that we need? Is Brandon Sarvania? Neither is yet. No, I would agree 100% with that. Dotson has it defensively.

He closes so quickly. He loves to win the ball. He's just miserable to play against, and you could see it, whether they play him as a fullback or defensive midfielder, guys just hate it when he's out there. And given that Ozzy Alonzo is 35 and has had his share of injuries over the years, I think there's a good chance we'll see, you know, 1,500 minutes of Dotson as a defensive midfielder this year for Minnesota United.

The question is, in those 1,500 minutes, will he show the ability to receive the ball in charge? traffic and pass it. I don't know. Yeah. Well, I would also say I went back and watched some of him versus Seattle and L.A.F.C. His last two appearances of the season. And, you know, he's definitely, he's definitely in the mix a lot. He did seem a little slow-footed. He got worked quite a few times in both of those games. And I don't know that, you know, that sort of, it's kind of hard to pinpoint exactly what it is, but there's just a certain, like, there's a certain locked-inness. That's the best way I have of saying it.

where a defensive midfielder, you just know that he knows what's going on and he is like anticipating everything and getting to that, getting that play. I did not see that with him. I mean, he's definitely around. He's definitely there. And you don't want to go into a 50-50 against him.

But he was, he didn't look. He's a rookie. He's a rookie coming off playing college soccer. So there's definitely a mulligan to be given there. But he didn't look like he was really, really like popping off the screen as a destroyer. So he gets dribbled past a lot. And I think it's because he over pursues.

He just wants the ball. And I'm not sure he has a framework for understanding how to defend within a team concept, which is hopefully just a rookie thing and not a this is who he is and who he'll always be thing. And we, you know, with the U-23s, he's apparently had some very good camps. I know he impressed a bunch of the kids who were on that team, but he's also had some pretty rough moments like we saw against Brazil. So it is up in the air, for sure. I would say it's also up in the air with Servania because, I mean,

I'm higher on him than on Dotson personally because he looks just more comfortable in his bones and a little bit more technical. But I don't know if he has the mean streak or the sense of responsibility, even that that Dotson does to hold down the fort at the six. What's your read on in Sarvania? So the mean streak is definitely lacking at this point. And that's something actually they're working. Dallas are working with him and Sario together to teach them how to sharpen their elbows,

which is what I like to hear about future potential defensive fishfielders in the pool. As for the sense of responsibility, I actually think that's there with Servania. I think that we saw it against France with the U-20s, and we saw it from time to time in the second half of the season with FC Dallas. He was overwhelmed the few games that he was played as like a solo number six. He's not there yet, but the number of guys who can play as a solo number six at age 20, it's not high. And I think Servenia's ceiling is a guy who can,

be a regular part of the 23-man roster. He's not like a Tyler Adams level potential prospect. He just doesn't read the game quite as well defensively, and obviously he just doesn't have that superhuman athleticism. He likes to get forward to, so I think he's, you know, because he can hit it, he can hit a shot from 20 yards, which kind of Tyler Adams hasn't shown as much ability to do. But I think that there's, I don't know that the mentality to be the stay at home. defensive midfielder is quite,

is quite there for Sarvania. I mean, yeah, go ahead. It is, like, the encouraging thing is, like, Dallas are working on developing that from him. So, like, if that's what his,

homework is for this offseason, like, that's pretty encouraging. We already covered, I think we already covered Ewell and Robinson in enough detail that we don't need to talk about them anymore. But Vines, Gasper, and Gutman, some full backs,

Does any of them have a U.S. men's national team future? Well, Gasper and Gutman have already been called in. And we're kind of cheating here, including them, because they're both 96s. So we're going over the young player limit. But it's worth mentioning them because they are youngish. And they have both showed pretty well at times. Gutman more going forward and struggled defensively. Gasper didn't do much going forward, but was largely ever.

excellent defensively. So, like, there's promise and there's potential. I would say the same thing about vines and vines. Well, Vines and Gaspher both have a bit of a bit of nastiness to them. I like it. Yeah, a bit of a bit of, I don't know, like, like, arrogance isn't the right word, but, like, you could see it from Gaspur in the playoffs. against Pauvon.

Minnesota United left him 1 v1 versus Christian Pavone, who's a $20 million Argentine national team attacker. And Gaspher, you could tell from how he played in his body language. He wanted that. And I like to see that.

And I saw the same thing from Vines when he had to go against Carlos Vela. And this was before Vela got hurt when he was scoring two goals a game. And it seemed like, Vines is like, I want that. So I think those are, it's very, like, that's a good, a good foundation for these guys.

I don't think any of them's a game breaker. I think if you, you know, ask me what's the, you know, what's the back line or what do the fullbacks look like in 2022? I would bet on Sergenio Dest at left back and Reggie Cannon at right back before I would bet on either of these guys left or any of these guys at left back and, and Dest at right back. but it's it's nice that we suddenly have three or four young true leftbacks who we might be able to pick from in a year's time yeah totally the more the merrier and you know depth is a wonderful thing but you were impressed by vines when you saw him live right yeah i was you know i was

impressed by his his athleticism and his his competitiveness not as impressed by his uh you know his ability on the ball and i i've sort of i've sort of have fallen into being on a soapbox about this, about how important it is to have fullbacks who can progress the ball. I don't see that from him so much. But definitely like competing, defending and being able to like to stay with a fast winger, which is sort of like baseline stuff for a left back. I see he's got that, I think.

Yeah. I think I agree with that. And I will say his vision, you know, pretty rudimentary this year, but he didn't give the ball away. Yeah, that's true. So that's, again, a good starting point for a young player. And Sands, or Sands, Vines is, what, like three years younger than the other guy. Vines is a 99. Let's do a few more questions, some that I came up with.

But can you give me like a one-sentence answer to them? Okay. What's going to happen with James Sands this next year? He's at Fortuna Dusseldorf on a training stint right now. Yeah, I think he'll be a starting centerback with the possibility that he gets sold in the summer window. Great. Can David Achoa, the 18-year-old who just won the USL championship championship with Real Monarchs, can he win the goalkeeper job at Rayalsall Lake?

Yeah, I think he's the most talented goalkeeper that they have. And, you know, Freddie Juarez knows him well. So I think he'll have a good chance to win that job coming into preseason, but he's going to have to go out there and earn it. Can Mark McKenzie be in every week starter for Philadelphia and hit another gear in his career? Yeah, I expect that to have it. Okay. I want to break my own rule here and say I'm still really high on McKenzie because unlike a lot of our centerback options or young centerbacks,

he does hit a line-splitting pass, and just like Robinson, he is comfortable stepping past somebody. What is, what are the downsides with him? Why, why couldn't, why couldn't he be a starter all year for Philadelphia? I know he ended the year on a strong note, but why did it take so long? He was hurt and sick at the, at the start of the year. And when he did get a chance to play for club and country, he was, he was bad because of it. And, um, yeah, and I think that set, him back. And then the other thing with McKenzie is like he's, he has a lot of talent. I think his defensive reads are slower than guys like Robinson and Glad and even Carter Vickers. So the other guys in that cohort, he's just not quite as instinctive a defensive presence.

Okay. This is a real long shot here, but how quickly will Jonathan Gomez, the left back at FC Dallas, progress in that system. You see him getting any first team minutes this year? Well, there's always a chance with Dallas, especially because nobody other than Seattle and I guess National now is deep at left back. So he could get some minutes, but I would expect you'll see him get, you know, a thousand minutes in USL with North Texas. Yeah.

How about Julian Arajo at the LA Galaxy? Is he ever going to play over? Is it Yorgon or Yergen? Yelvick. It's Yorgian, but Jorgon's a left back. Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, so it's Rolf Felcher who, who beat out Aarjo last year. And to be fair, Raho really struggled his last few appearances. I think he'll come into the season with, you know, more confidence and maybe a clearer picture of what it means to be a professional soccer player. And, you know how I feel about Aarjo. I think he's awesome. And I think he's eventually going to make it, whether eventually is

2020 or 2021. I don't know. And I will throw a plug for Doyle County FC left back, Danny Acosta, who got picked up by the galaxy yesterday in the waiver draft. So hopefully we'll have two young left backs to, or two young fullbacks to watch with the galaxy next year. Yeah. I mean, hope springs eternal for Danny Acosta. When you have that much talent, you get a lot of second chances. Right. Let's take a break real quick. And then when we come back, we'll go through our list from earlier this year. Got it.

Okay. Our first category in the spring was Great Expectations, Young Americans who've already made an impact in the league. And the question we had was whether they can become reliably dominant players in this league. Let's start with the first name on our list, Chris Durkin. Yeah. I'll give a couple of people. Basic Facts on loan at St. Truiden in the Belgian First Division, had a bit of a spotty showing at the U20 World Cup, and then didn't play a ton for D.C. United, then went on loan, and he hasn't played a single minute in the league in Belgium since he went on loan, I think, three months

ago. Yeah, disappointing. I think of the group that we really talked about a lot in preseason. Darken probably had the most disappointing year. he's a defensive midfielder who doesn't win the ball. I don't think you can be that in the modern game. So I think either he figures out how to do that and becomes a Jackson Ewell type, though he's not as good a passer as Ewell, or he gets converted to centerback. I think those are the pathways for Durkan. And bear in mind, he's still only 19.

That's the age Yule was when he was a rookie. So, you know, things can change a lot in two years. Absolutely. Yeah, I don't have too much to add to that. I think that pretty much sums it up. He's a good passer. Maybe not on Yule's level, but he's a good passer. But he's not Sergio Bousquet's and he's got to defend or play centerback.

Second name was Mark McKenzie. And I would say he's kind of in exactly the same spot again. can he become a reliably dominant player in this league? We don't know yet. Yep. I'm bullish on him. The first three months of the season are going to be big for him because if he shows that he can be that type of two-way player,

then he's probably going to the Olympics, assuming we qualify. And if he goes to the Olympics, then that opens up a lot of doors. I still think it's a cycle of way. I don't think we're going to see Mark McKenzie at all in the 22 cycle, but he's in a good position to be a real impact player for 2026. Okay. I should mention I unilaterally created four new tiers here.

Tier one, national team player, tier two potential national team player. Tier three, probably not going to be a national team player, although who knows? You never know. And then tier four is just kind of like, who knows? And I would say Durkin is in the tier three, probably not going to be a national team player unless something really dramatic happens. Mark McKenzie is just what you said, you know, still a potential national team player. Yep. Georgie Mihalovich attacking midfielder from Chicago Fire.

He's been, he was in some U.S. men's national team rosters at the beginning of the year. Score to goal. That's right. Score a goal. Still young, but kind of lost his spot in Chicago in the second half of the season. and now seems to be with the U-23s rather than the national team. What's the outlook for him? I don't.

So, I mean, he needs to work on it on the half turn? He does. He needs to work on the half turn. He needs to work on getting out of the field. He's a guy who understands the shape of the game and is in the right spots at the right time, but I'm not sure he has enough magic in him to, to make that meaningful as an attacking midfielder. And then the flip side is like he doesn't have enough speed

or to be a winger or defensive bite to be a deeper lying player. So he feels like a tweener. He feels like Emerson Heimann 2.0. Yeah, that's a good comparison. I'm going to say no. I mean, I'll put him in the who knows category, but it feels a little generous somewhere between who knows and probably not. in my opinion.

Austin trustee, centerback just bought by Colorado Rapids. Yep. Lost his starting job in Philly this year. Not because of injury, was it? It was just he lost it. Yep. Didn't perform well and then didn't win the job back.

Like McKenzie, when he lost his job, eventually won it back. So I think that says something mentally. Maybe trustee needed a fresh start and he's going to get it playing for Robin Frazier, who's one of the all-time great centerbacks in MLS. Of course, he was playing for Jim Curtin, who was a really good centerback as well.

Trustee doesn't have McKenzie's ability to break lines with his passing. So I don't think the upside is high. That said, trusty is 6'3, 210 pounds, and left-footed. And there aren't a lot of guys out there. with those types of measurables, and teams notice that, teams all around the world noticed that. So if he learns how to do, you know, Aaron Long level stuff in terms of, you know, distributing the ball, then he's got the world at his feet. Yeah, he'll get every chance in Colorado, right?

I think so. They spent a lot of money on him. They did. A lot of complicated MLS money was sent to Philadelphia. He's not as fast as long. Would you agree with that as Aaron Long? I think he's not as quick. I think straight line, he might be faster.

Okay. But pretty decent defensive instincts. He still has a growing into his body aspect about the way he moves. Yeah. I agree with that. I'm going to put him in the probably not category, but... Yeah, I think that's fair. Okay.

I'm protecting myself by saying probably not, you know? Our next name in this great expectations category, which is kind of, have a mixed bag. Mixed bag is maybe generous. Is Reggie Cannon, who is a full national team player, I think. He didn't have the best season for Dallas. We discussed him at length, but he was excellent, in my opinion, for the U.S. whenever he played.

Where would you like to see him end up this winter, assuming he gets sold? Boy, I don't have a strong feeling about it. Yeah, I'll tell you a fair fact. I know that Anderlecht know all about it. about him. So. Okay. Well, like Belgium is hard to watch on TV and I don't, I don't feel like I really understand that league at all. So sure. Go to, go to Anderlecht. Reggie. Anderlech's kind of a tire fire right now. So I would hope somewhere else. But there's, I think there are going to be a lot of options. And I do think he's going to be sold this winter.

You do? Okay. That's good. I mean, that's good news. It's good news sort of all, all the way around good news that the league is moving in that direction. Yeah. But the point is he's a, I think he's an automatic call-up at this point in a meaningful window for the national team. And I'm always excited to see him on the field. Beaufort Salcedo, we discussed him. He was in the, he was in this sort of add-endom to the great expectations category in that he's already a solid contributor. What category do you put him in?

I don't think he's a future national team player. I would be pretty surprised. Okay. I had him as a who knows, but I'll defer to you on that. Brooks Lennon, right back from Rail Salt Lake, got to play on the wing for Jason Christ with the U23s kind of mysteriously. Was a lock starter for RSL in 2018, but lost his job, basically, this year, right? Yeah, never.

adapted to being a right back. He was just a sieve. So I think I think the question for Brooks Lennon is can you become Paul Ariola? And if you're by Paul Ariela, I mean like a reasonably productive, hardworking

defensive winger. Because he's not going to, like he's not creative enough in the final third and he's not enough of a goal score to be just a winger that you throw out there to get goals and assists. Like he has to be a two-way winger. He has the engine for it.

He can cross the hell out of the ball. That's true. So, like, I think he's going to need to end up in a situation where somebody puts him on the right wing and says, okay, you just work. You just be a nightmare to play against. And if you get, you know, seven goals and six assists this season, that's good. Yeah. I'm going to say probably not on Lenin.

I think you probably agree, don't you? Yep. Aaron Herrera, left back slash right back for Rail Salt Lake. He sort of played Lenin to the bench, it seems like. And at minimum, looks to me like a solid depth option at fullback in the player pool. Maybe a step above the Gaspers and Vines right now. I think that's fair. Herrera, his calling card is that right foot of his

and progressive passing. He hits passes that Yedlin and Cannon don't hit. And he's a pretty good defender as well. He's not great, but he's improved a lot. And especially, he's on a small roster, which is what the Olympics are. I think it's 18 men for the Olympics. Because he could play left to right,

back and he's like equally adapted either. Right. He, he would make a lot of sense for that. Long range, I don't think he's like an A-plus right-back prospect for the full U.S. national team, but it wouldn't shock me at all if he was a guy who ended up with like 30 or 40 caps over the next 10 years. Right. I mean, that versatility is a key thing. He's a, he's been a good defender this year. Isn't that correct? Yeah, for the most part.

Yeah. So you could see him making his way into a roster if there's some injury or something or maybe even improving. I mean, I remember watching him at the U20 World Cup in 2017. He was atrocious. And he, you know, he's really picked it up. Yeah, I mean, those youth tournaments are a lot of fun, but I think they over-informed people's opinions about young players. I feel attacked. I feel like my entire break.

being attacked. No, I'm just kidding. No, I mean, it's, it's, I do it too, right? Yeah, we all do. And, and it's something that, that we have to be, we have to be wary of. Because again, the ultimate hurdle isn't how did you play against your peers in a youth tournament. It's how, how are you playing against grown adults, you know, in a first division soccer league

somewhere. Right. And Herrera has been a lot better by that measure than he was. in 2017 at the U20 World Cup. Yeah, I only mention how bad he was to praise him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not taking this personally. It's a message to Aaron himself, if he ever listens.

So that's the great expectations group, and I would say, you know, we have three, we have one player who's a national team player who kind of, who had already been capped at that point. That's Reggie Cannon and then, and then McKenzie and Herrera who have a, you know, have a shot. but neither is a lock by any stretch. So yeah. Great expectations. Shattered. The second category was maybe the most exciting one. It's the hopes and dreams bucket.

And we just wanted to know could they get regular minutes and make an impact despite not making much impact in 2018. Miles Robinson, we've already discussed him. He's definitely a potential national team player. Paxson, Palm a call. he is, I would say, close to a national team player now. I wasn't ready for you to say he's ready to be a world class number eight. If he was healthy, everybody in the pool is healthy,

and we had a game to win tomorrow, Pomacall would be starting for me. He absolutely would be starting for me. He wins the ball. And when he wins the ball, he's super secure on it. He doesn't turn the ball over in bad spots. And then with that left foot of his, he could immediately spread the field. And he's a great dribbler too.

So like he's the- He dribbles a little too much sometimes. That's fair. I agree with that. But he's a special, special player, man. Yeah. I'm really curious to know if how Burhalter, how Berhalter really sees Pomacall. But he called him into a national team camp and he capped him.

That's true. That's true. I don't think it's that ambiguous. I think there's a little question as to what position he sees him in. But I think you could talk me into him playing as the left-sided number 10 or number 8 with Polisic because when like the way Burrhalter has those two players play, they interchange a lot. They swap.

And if you have Pomacol suddenly going on the, going around Polisic to the outside, then Polisic's sort of slipping him through. You have Pomacol with the ball on his left foot with his head up, able to pick out his pass against a scrambling defense. That's pretty good. That said, when he plays on the right side, I think he's a little bit more involved defensively,

and he's a little bit more progressive in how he plays. So there are a lot, or he might just use him as a winner. So there's a lot to figure out in 2020 for Pomacol. Right. exciting i'm i'm i'm very excited about him too i don't want to um i want to be clear about that uh george bello the next player is was seen as a huge prospect and was maybe going to be the starting left back for atlanta he had a he had a pretty bad game in conca calf champions league as a 17 year old um in costa rica um and then he got hurt and then he basically played in us l the rest of the

season and like everybody else for the 17s didn't play well at the U-17 World Cup in Brazil. What's the outlook now? Is he in line to take over that Brexhay Memorial position again? I guess so. I've never seen it with Bella. I know a ton of people, you guys included, are all super high on him. And he certainly has individual skills and he has, I think, the speed to be.

and the physicality to be a really good player in a lot of ways. But he's just, he drifts out of games. He's sloppy defensively. He's pretty sloppy on the ball. And I don't know whether that's innate or if that's his environment. But given the early returns from Atlanta United's Academy Kids, it's maybe the environment, and that's worrying. Yeah.

I've been I've been quietly selling George Bellow stock for the past 10 months But I haven't given up hope I'm gonna put I'm gonna put him in the who knows category He's so young he's so young he does have a lot of he does have a lot of tools I mean he's he's physically gifted in a way that I don't think and not any of our other fullbacks are Yeah In terms of you know his quickness and his like just strength at that age not just at that age but against grown men And he has a good left foot and he's clever on the ball and everything.

He just, he always looks like he's playing a pickup game. Yeah, it's messy. Messy is the best word for both his on-ball work and off-ball work, to be honest. Keaton Parks, he broke into that Benfica first team in early 2018, very briefly and then broke out of it completely toward the end of the calendar year in 2018, then came on loan to NYCFC. took him a little while to work his way into the starting 11. But he ended the season on a high note. Did he not?

Pretty high. Well, he got hurt. So the last couple of games, he was hurt, and then he played in the playoffs, and he looked less than 100%. And now it looks like he's going back to Benfica, even though NYCFC want to keep him. He was really good as a ball-moving number eight, and he, you know, he's just, he's like the smoothest player in the play. pool. He just makes everything look so easy. And when he got into a flow like that in midseason,

you know, August, September, he was excellent. There are still questions about his defensive quickness and the ability to dig the ball out of a scrum. But you could see why he's on the books at a team like Benfica and why the, you know, why NYCFC wanted to bring him back. But he's also 22 now and there's it's not clear where or if he's going to play next year so that really does temper things yeah well surely he'll play somewhere but but um yeah i i kind of want to put him in the

who knows category after listening to that you could tell honestly you could tell me two years from now that keaton parks is a starter for the national team and i would believe you because he's that good on the ball and he's that smooth and uh it can be that influential. But you could tell me that he's also basically two years without professional soccer, and I would believe that too. Yeah. So I had him as a potential national team player. It's somewhere between that and who knows at this point, in my opinion. J.T. Markinkowski,

I don't even, I don't know that I've ever watched him play. I just know that he keeps getting call-ups. Do you play for Reno this year? Yeah, I played for Reno. Not a ton. I know that they like him there. I think that he has a good chance to be the starter for the U-23s. Really good feet. Not a big keeper, but not exactly small. But two years away at best from being a starter for San Jose, if he ever actually makes it to that level.

Yeah. Who knows? Next. Jonathan Lewis. We've talked about him a lot. He's going to be a starter for the, if he stays healthy, he'll be a starter for the Rapids. He'll be a starter for the U.S.

and Olympic qualifying. And then if they make it, then he'll probably be a starter at the Olympics. So he's going to have every chance to prove me right, which is what matters. Yeah, I'm more skeptical. I didn't think he looked so good in that Brazil game. Nobody looked really that good in the Brazil game, to be honest.

Yeah, we'll see. You want to put him in the potential national team category? I'm happy I'm happy leaving him with the 23s for now. That's the bigger ask over the next six, eight months. But he'll, you know, he should be in camp in January. It's not like we got a ton of other wingers. Okay, well, let's just categorize a few of these guys real quick. Ibobesei, is he a potential national team player?

Is he a who knows? He's a potential national team player. Okay. Jalen Lindsay, hurt all season, hoping for a good comeback year for him at Sporting KC in 2020. Yep, who knows? Justin Renix, New England Revolution. I love him. I wish that Bruce would use him as a destroying number 10 in the same way that Bob used Latif Blessing.

But if that happens, it's probably years away. Bruce doesn't play young players. Yeah, Renix is probably not in my book. Joe Scali, worth noting he was just sold to Barucham-Munch and Gladbach for a possible $7 million, which is incredible, in my opinion. NYCFC 16 year old I'm going to say who knows yeah I was shocked at that number

and I do think if he actually becomes a national team player it's more likely to be as a centerback yeah he's a tall tall kid good competitor didn't wasn't horrible at the World Cup I didn't think but maybe some people would disagree with that Sam vines Colorado Rapids I think he's better than Daniel Lovitz well guess that makes him a national

team player. Yeah. Okay. National team player. Put his name in blue. Jesus Ferreira, eight goals, five assists in MLS this season. Still has some FIFA eligibility issues.

Is he a national team player? I don't know because I don't, I still don't know what position he is. I know we just talked a while ago now about how Buzz thinks he's going to be a starting number 10, but he doesn't really have the vision for that. He played some center forward.

A lot of center forward. this year and he's good goal scorer but not great it's not a spot he does he have the speed in one v one ability to play as a as a goal scorer on the wing i'm not sure um like he he does a lot of stuff pretty well um and he's productive but i don't know where his long-term home is yeah worth worth noting he's still only 18 years old he's really young kid yep but yeah the the the structural limitations there are are pretty apparent uh Brandon Servania, national team player? Yeah, future national team player, I think.

James Sands, national team player? This is ridiculous what I'm doing right now. Yeah, it is, but it's fun to do. I don't know with Sands. NYCFC fans love him. Domaintero loves him. Yeah. He was really good.

He was really good. I need to see another 2,000 minutes. Okay. Daniel Lava, a favorite of mine, got a few first team minutes with the Sounders. I love his ability on the ball. Definitely needs to develop physically. Is he going to be a national team midfielder? Asked me in five years.

Okay. I'm worried about Lava because I don't like the way he moves. And by that I don't mean that he's slow. I just mean he looks awkward. Now maybe that's just he's a kid. Yeah, he's like still going through puberty. Yeah. So Thomas Roberts, the CM at FC Dallas, who can say?

I'll just answer that for the both of us. Who knows? Maybe Bayern Munich can say. Yeah, having a decent training stint over there, I can tell from the footage. So the hopes and dreams bucket, from that we come away with Paxson-Pomacall as a national team player, Miles Robinson, Brandon Servania, as potential national team. players and and Jeremy Ababa say and then kind of a lot of who knows. And Jonathan Lewis.

Okay. Yeah. Jonathan Lewis. Yeah. Third category was the reclamation projects. Yeah. Danny Acosta. He is risen.

He's risen indeed. Yeah. Let's see if he can keep his nose clean and win a starting job. He's got the talent for it. If he does, then that changes a lot of things about, the left back depth chart. I think he's the most talented left back

that we potentially have in the pool and also potentially in Hondurasas pool. Right. They can get the paperwork sorted out. Yeah. Justin Glad,

is he a probably not or is he a who knows? I think he's a probably. And I know this is weird because they keep benching him down the stretch, but he grew into his body a lot this year.

they were so much better with him on the field than off. He's a good pass. Not a great passer. He's a good passer. He's fast as hell. And he's like four years from now when we're kind of at the start of the 2026 cycle, he'll still be younger than Aaron Long is right now. Like we got to remember that with all these kids, like they're kids.

So I think that I still think that glad. has it in him. But one of the things he has to work on it is mentally. You know, from everything I've heard, he's a confidence-based player. And you don't get to be that if you're a centerback. If you're a centerback, you have to be a rock. So I think that's going to be the big step forward for Justin Glad, if and when it comes. Okay. Kyle Duncan, New York Red Bulls had a pretty strong end to the season. He plays right back. Yeah, he had a strong end right up until he got injured again. It looks like he had won that right back starting job, which, you know, he was a lot better than Murillo this year. And the thing with Duncan is he, like, he progresses the ball.

Yeah, for sure. He, like five or six dribbles a game. It's ridiculous. Like, anytime the ball swings to him, he's looking to beat that first line of defense, which is a distinct trait in the fullback pool. So there's, it's something to keep an eye on. I'm not as high on him as a few of the other right backs, but he has this one excellent trait that can be built upon. And I think he's going to be a starter in 2020 for the Red Bulls. Yeah, I really like his game, but I don't know. I don't know how he measures up to Reggie Cannon in the long term. To be clear, he was in the Reclamation Project category just because he had a really bad knee injury the year before.

The next guy was in the Reclamation Project category, not because of injury, but because of Tom Fulery. Andrew Carlton Yeah I mean he was better in USL this year than he was last year That's true And they didn't cut him But the fact that we kind of thought

that Atlanta was going to cut him Says a lot about The direction Andrew Carlton's career has gone He's you know he still hits His vision is spectacular He's he's still one of the most Inventive US players But

you know, three years into his professional career, it looks like that's all he is. He's not a soccer player in any other sense that is apparent. That's maybe not fair because there were times in the second half of this USL season where he was really working out there and being trying to be brave and get on the ball. But, you know, I would be surprised if it happened for him in Atlanta. Yeah. I'd be surprised if it happens for him at all at this point. and I rue all the time I spent watching Atlanta United Two games in 2019.

For him and Gosselin and Lagos Cunga. Yeah. Yeah, and Bello. No, Bello. Yeah. But, um, he's also, he's 19. You know, things happen at different rates for different players. And maybe there's a wake-up call coming.

And maybe if and when it comes, like we both agree. The kids got talent. He does. He does. And that earns you a lot of chances. Derek Jones, I know you maintain hope in him, a defensive mid for Nashville SC. They love him. And everything I heard about him in Philly was they loved him in Philly, but they felt he needed to get out.

He needed a different environment. And he's got that now. And he came in, he spent most of the year injured, but then he came in at the end of the year and was kind of a force for Nashville down the stretch. He's probably not a starter next year, but he'll get a lot of minutes because the two guys ahead of him are Godoy and Dax, and they're both in their 30s, and he'll have a chance to beat him out. And if he does, that's huge because he's a different type of defensive midfielder for us. He's a giant. He's a six-foot-two and a huge physical presence, which was really useful for the U-20s a couple years ago.

And it would be useful for the U-23. or the full national team, if it works out for him. But he's got to make it work out. Yeah. Okay. There are like, I don't know, 35 more names here,

but I think we should cut it off here. Do you have a problem with that? Let's mention anybody else you want to mention? We should mention Abu Bakar Qaeda. They were a lot better with him on the field in Columbus last year. Cole Bassett, it'll be interesting to see what happens with him. in 2020 because I think he's going to get a chance. And I guess that's about it, isn't it?

Yeah, there are other people that I could sort of gently criticize, but I don't want to do that. Yeah, we don't need to, we don't need to do that. Yeah. Doyle, much, much appreciated, a lot of fun. Yeah, this was an epic, but it was absolutely worth it. Yeah. Thanks, man.

Have a good Thanksgiving. Thanks everybody for listening. Cheers, brother. All right.