Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - Episode 128: A deep dive on the U20 player pool

Episode Date: May 13, 2020

Matt Hartman and I recorded almost 80 minutes on the U20 player pool. The bad news is we had this conversation in early March. The good news? It’s up to date, since almost no soccer has been played since then.0:30 preamble, etc.4:10 Hartman on how this U20 age group stacks up to its predecessors8:00 the last U20 roster, from January13:55 goalkeepers (David Ochoa, Chituru Odunze, Damian Las, Patrick Schulte, John Pulskamp)18:12 right backs (Julian Araujo, Ian Hoffmann, Nathan Harriel and Mauricio Cuevas, Joe Scally, Kevin Bonilla)25:25 centerbacks (Owen Otasowie, Leo Sepulveda, Jacob Akanyirge and George Campbell, Tayvon Gray, Nico Benalcazar, Nico Slonina, Blake Malone, Kurowskybob Pierre)36:58 left backs (Kobe Hernandez-Foster, Travian Sousa and Jonathan Gomez, Stuart Ritchie, John Tolkin, Adam Armour)42:30 central midfield (Taylor Booth, Tanner Tessmann, Jose Gallegos, Cole Bassett, Johnny Cardoso, Matteo Ritaccio, Leon Flach, Thomas Roberts and Gianluca Busio, Marcelo Palomino, Aiden Morris, Chris Hegardt, Moses Nyeman, Danny Leyva, Bryang Kayo)1:05:00 wingers (Konrad de la Fuente, Uly Llanez, Cameron Harper, Cameron Dunbar, Cade Cowell, Matko Miljevic, Dante Sealy, Giovanni Reyna)1:10:16 strikers (Ricardo Pepi, Indiana Vassilev, Matthew Hoppe, Charlie Kelman, Johan Gomez)1:16:30 a quick recap of our respective preferred lineups 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. Hey, everyone. Thanks for downloading this episode of Scuff. We're back briefly from hiatus with an evergreen episode about the U-20s. We've gotten some messages from people asking us if we're going to start back up again after this weekend's Bundesliga matches. And the answer is, we're not sure. We're going to play it by year. If we see a good opening next week or the week after that to record, we'll take it. But we're still not guarantee. a weekly podcast and we're still not charging any of our patrons each month. Bear with us. It's been a busy time for us, as I'm sure it has for you. Meanwhile, Matt Hartman and I recorded almost 80 minutes on the U20 player pool. The bad news is we had this conversation in early March. The good news is it's up to date since almost no soccer has been played since then. So here's the U20 player pool in detail from goalkeeper to striker plus our preferred rosters and 11s for a U-20 Cockatac Championship

that does not appear to be happening anytime soon. Thanks for downloading this episode of Skuffed. Thank you to all our Patreon supporters. We are extremely grateful for your generosity. We'd ask again that if you're a regular listener, please leave us a rating and review at whatever platform you listen to us on. So, the U-20s.

The U-20s have been a quiet age group lately. That's players born in 2001 or later who will be eligible for the U-20 World Cup in 2021. They had a camp in January, but it was overshadowed by the youth contingent at the senior team's January camp, and a lot of attention has rightly been paid to the U23s who head to Guadalajara for the Olympic qualifying tournament this week. Again, the U20s are overshadowed by that because that roster came out last night, a little bit ahead of schedule. But the U20s have to qualify for the 2021 World Cup in a mere three months, and new coach Anthony Hudson is going to have to select his squad figure out who will be released by their club and then settle on a final roster.

They have a camp in Portugal later this month, so we'll have another roster to look at then, but we want to get a jump on things. So here to help me figure all of this out is regular scuff contributor. He who was, and I quote, 100% sure that Sergenio Des would choose to play for the Netherlands. Matthew Hartman. Matt, how are you? I'm doing well, Bells. The best decision was a glitch in the Matrix.

I stand by my math. Never back down. Never back down. Right. So Hudson will get, so we're here to talk about the U-20s again. I gave quite a preamble there. But Hudson will get to bring 20 players to the Concaf Championship in June, two of them goalkeepers.

We're going to work our way from front to back and figure out who we want to call up. Matt and I will differ somewhat here. We'll also talk about who is eligible and worthy, but unlikely to participate. And I can't even. imagine who that might be and who is who is close to a call-up but not quite going to make the cut first matt what's your overall take on this age group is it good is it better than the last cycle the same what do you think i think um to be determined is probably the smart answer one thing we saw last cycle was a huge influence of uh younger players on the age group

15 of the 21 players on our World Cup roster, our U20 World Cup roster, that is, were born after 1999. In comparison, Portugal only sent one player to the tournament that wasn't born in 1999. So the 2001s, which are this cycles, 1999s, are probably going to need similar levels of help from the younger birth years to make noise at the World Cup. But for the purposes of qualifying, there's depth in the 2001s that wasn't here at this point last cycle in the 99s. We pulled four players out of college for qualifying two years ago, and I'd be shocked if we had more than one or two college players sneak into this roster. But the issue with this group looking past qualifying is going to be that the 2002s are shaping up to be a pretty weak year, especially if you rule out Giorina, which I think we're going to have to. do at this point. Even the consensus, second-best 2002 field player in Kobe Foster Hernandez isn't necessarily a plug-in play at the U-20 level. I think there's some real questions about his ability

to play with more athletic players. So to summarize, I don't feel comfortable saying... Matt, we're going to disagree there. No, I'm just kidding. I think I think I agree. Go ahead. Sorry. It's okay. So to summarize, I don't think I feel comfortable saying this group is at the level of the group that the group was at last cycle, but there's a real chance that it gets there if the 2003s grow up quickly. Yeah, yeah. I mean, so we talk about the 2002 being kind of a week, a weak birth year. Who is not quite getting it done in that age group right now, do you think?

Who maybe we thought would have like two years ago or a year and a half ago or something? Yeah, so there was. There was a point in time where I liked the center-back depth into 2002s, and a lot of those players have really fallen off a little, mostly via their performances in the U-17 World Cup, thinking about like Nico Carrera, a player like Tavon Gray. Stock has maybe fallen a little. You look at a player like George Bellow, who, you know, a couple of years ago we viewed as a blue-chip prospect. I mean, I'm not sure. The blue-chip prospect, really. We did, didn't we?

Yeah, some bum took him first overall in a draft that some podcast did. Yeah, poor guy, poor podcast. So, yeah, I mean, there's just weakness all over the field in the 2002s right now, I think, with the exception of goalkeeper. I'd say Buccio is another one in that class because really, really rain of Buccio and Bello were the kind of the can't miss kids from this age group. maybe two years ago. And I think clearly Rana is the top of the class, but I'm not sure Busio and Bello are on a trajectory to be national team players at this point.

Right. But anyway, I like this age group overall. I'm an optimist. I really like the midfield options that are emerging, and I like some of the fullbacks, and I think the centerbacks can be good enough, and we have some great wingers. So I don't know.

I'm not going to say it's better than 2019 World Cup roster, but I do like it. I do like it. It makes me excited to think about and kind of try to put a roster together. One actual roster was assembled in January without Ullianez, Julian Oroho, Conrad Dalla Fuente, and Raina, because they were all unavailable. And also Owen O'Dosoe, these are names we're going to get into in more detail later,

but Owen Otisoui, Travian Sousa, Mateo Ritaccio, Taylor Booth, and Ricardo Pepew were probably also unavailable for one reason or another. So the only obvious snubs on this roster that Hudson called, or I don't know that he was even Hudson, Hudson who called it. Was it Hudson? I don't believe it was. Yeah, I'm not sure who made that decision, though. Probably Jay Berhalter.

I don't know, but somebody. So the only obvious snubs. I mean, we know it wasn't Hudson because he was hired like a day before the roster was announced or something. Like literally a day or two before the roster was announced. So the snubs were, for me, Kobe Hernandez Foster, I think you won him in a camp like this, especially given he has nothing else going on. And Jose Gallegos, who we will talk about in a lot more detail later. Yeah.

In hindsight, the testament was probably a snub as well. well, but he was pretty easy to overlook back in January when it looked like he was heading to Clemson to kick in American football. So I can't really blame the Federation there. Right. Yeah, I mean, I think I tweeted in December when he, when his signing with Clemson was announced, we're talking about Tanner Testman. Well, you can take him off your U20 depth chart.

Right. Bam! I was wrong. We should list who was at that camp as a starting point. whoever made the decisions brought in goalkeepers David Achoa, Chituru Oduenzai from Leicester City, John Pulsecamp from Sporting KC and Patrick Schulte from St. Louis University.

Do you want to do the defenders, or do you want me to just keep talking? I'll do the defenders. The defenders were Jacob Ackin-Yarge from the San Jose earthquakes, Nico Benal-Kazar from Wake Forest and NYCFCFC, Kevin Benia of FC Dallas, Nathan Harrell of the Philadelphia Union, Ian Hoffman from Carl Zruhe, Blake Malone who's playing at, is he still, he's not playing at UNC, right? He's with Orange County, is that right? I actually don't know.

He was listed with UNC in January. Right, yeah, I think he left UNC and is on a USL deal. I forget what USL team he's with, though. Bobby Pierre of Real Salt Lake, who's a centerback, Andre Reynolds of the Chicago Fire, Stuart Ritchie from Hanover, and Leo Sepulveda, who's in the Spanish third tier with Salamanga.

Okay, yeah, you were right. Malone's with Orange County, I see. One of the handful of USL clubs that seem like they're trying to do something interesting, trying to do something interesting with their, professional pathway. And then midfielders were Cole Bassett, former protege of Hudson's at Colorado Rapids. Leon Flack, St. Polly in German's second tier. Aidan Morris at the Columbus crew seems to have been surpassed by Sebastian Burhalter in the meantime at Columbus. And then

Marcelo Palomino from the Houston Dynamo hasn't made an 18 yet this season. Thomas Roberts from FC Dallas. That's right, isn't it? Palomino hasn't made an 18, has he? Not that I'm aware of, no. He hasn't even been with Rio Grande, which is interesting. Yeah, there's always like surprises, both positive and negative at the beginning of every season. Wouldn't you agree?

Yes. Forward's word Gianluca Busio, Cameron Harper from Celtic FC, Mako Milievich from Argentinos, juniors Dante Seeley from FC Dallas and Marlin Vargas from the Tacoma Defiance. How many of those names do you think will be in the qualifying roster in June? Percentage wise off the top of your head. Well, we established in the intro that I'm not great with percentages, but I'm going to say somewhere around. You're probably really good with them, though.

Let's say somewhere around 70%. It all depends on who gets released, really. So I think we could both agree it's probably pretty easy to come up with a starting 11 of U-20 eligible players that weren't at that January camp that is competitive, if not flat out better than the players that are there. But, you know, this is the reality of American youth soccer national teams in 2020. You just don't know and you can't count on our best players getting released. So you, yeah, no, that's true. That's a good problem to have. I think the general consensus is when clubs value their players so much they don't want to release them for these camps, which they don't have to release them for.

But 70% out of that list, do you think? Really? Yeah. Are you saying that that's a high number? I do. I do think that's high. But maybe I'm not very good at percentages. I mean, it seems to me like Bonilla, Bonacazar, Malone, Pierre.

Reynolds probably Richie aren't going to make it. Right. Well, that, well, that was, that camp had more than 20 players in it, right? So we can miss a couple of players from that and still, still hit the number. Okay. Okay. Yeah, let's not get too much into semantics there. So let's start.

Let's start with goalkeeper. All right. So David Ochoa is my, is the easy number. one selection for me. I'm going to take him over Loss in Adunzei to start, and I'm going to take a loss over Adunzei as my second keeper, just because it seems like he's progressed a little more during his time in England. Loss is the starter for one of the two best teams in the U-18 Premier League when he's not playing up with Fulham's U-23s. Oduenzee hasn't started a lead game for Lester City in 2020 yet, and that that's at U-18.

Premier League level, he's been the backup keeper for them. That said, it might mean that Oduenze is the more likely player to get released. Interesting. I didn't realize that about those two. Yeah. I mean, we were also very high on loss. You know, higher, I would say, 12 months ago than we are now. Would you agree with that?

His performance of the U-17 World Cup was dropped to stock a little bit? Yeah, totally. I'd agree with that. And one thing that it's worth mentioning about him, is that in preparation for this podcast, I kind of went and seeked out a sought out, I should say, probably a Fulham U-18 game. And I found a game.

I think it was Versunderland that I just scrubbed through really quickly. And he got pulled in the 60th minute for some reason. I think it was just to get another goalkeeper minutes. But in that time, I only saw him face one shot. Like, Fulham is the best team in the division, the division that they play in. And he faces very, very few shots on that. So I don't know how much work he's even getting with them.

Well, maybe that means he's working on his, you know, coming out of the box to claim the ball or play with the ball at his feet a little bit. Did you see any of that? Yeah, a little bit. And in that game, he did make a very nice, he tipped the ball over the bar. It was a pretty nice save. But, you know, it's just something to keep in mind. I don't, you know, in this tournament, it's not like he's,

going to face a ton of shots either. Yeah, right. I mean, I think we both agree Achoa is the number one. If he's available, which it kind of seems like he's going to be from Reailles-Sault-Late's perspective because they've given the starting job to Vancouver Whitecaps backup, Zach McMath, and Achoa is likely going to be in and out of Utah because he's going to be with the U-23s in Guadalajara. So it's possible like he's going to spend the first six months of the season just not really

playing with RSL and getting his minutes. and with the monarchs. Anyway, all that said, I think he's, he's the best goalkeeper in the age group and should hopefully start at this tournament. If he's not available, you okay with Oduenze-Las pairing? Yeah, I'm okay with that.

Yeah, it's probably fine. Let's just, let's just move on then. I mean, the others are Pulse Gamp and Shulte, I don't know, does anybody else come to mind? Not really. I mean, it's Pulse Camp Schulte and Chris Shakes of the Philadelphia Union are the next best O-1s behind Ochoa. Don't feel particularly strongly about any of them, but they'd all probably get the job done. It's worth noting that Pulse Camp started the second Mexico game in the U20 January camp over O'Dunzee.

So that might be a little bit of a spoiler that we see. Maybe Pulse Camp gets brought as the second keeper. I'll mention Seth Wilson, who I think is the next best. 2002. He played for the Dallas Academy. I think he's currently committed to Clemson and but on trial at Austria Vine or some team in Austria. He's a big athletic kid that has the tools to be a great pro if he could clean up his feet and decision making some. But yeah, that's that's really it. It's a relatively safe bet that a 2003 or 2004 will be on the U20 World Cup roster. If we qualify, it's always, is kind of a thing that happens.

We bring a goalkeeper for next cycle, but it feels too early to even name one of those right now. Gabe's Lenina, probably. Yeah, I mean, that's probably the name I would pull if I had to. Okay. Defenders, let's do defenders. You probably get six, maybe seven in a 20-man roster, and there are a lot of choices to make.

Right. Lots of hard choices to make at fullback because there are a good amount of decent options, but the same can't be said for centerback, right? I'm kind of okay with what we have I mean I agree The centerback options are not as good as the full back options But I think I'm kind of okay with what the with the centerback

Things that we've arrived at Collectively and individually I'm gonna start with Julian Arajo at right back Because he can cover it centerback if need be And it looks like he may be available He's not gonna be on the Olympic qualifying roster I don't know if that signals like he's gonna be with the U-20s or he wasn't released I don't know

What's your gut on that? Yeah, I'm not sure. The Galaxy have played hardball a little bit at times in the past, but he's young and the national teams typically skew older in tournaments like Olympic qualifying, so it's not a tremendous surprise to me. Yeah. Yeah, so he's physical athletic, has some experience in Major League Soccer, and has been,

he's been pretty good for the Galaxy when he's played. Hasn't played a ton lately and hasn't played yet this season for a what appears to be quite bad LA Galaxy team. And then I'm going to take, I'm not going to die on this hill or anything, but I think I'm going to take, as my backup right back, Ian Hoffman,

because he's a resourceful player who can cover at midfield and at left back if absolutely needed. That said, you heard rumblings? Well, go ahead. Why don't you just go ahead? Yeah, so I like Ian Hoffman. I'm not bringing him to the tournament,

but I agree with him being resourceful. That's probably a good word to describe his game. He plays all over the field for his club team. So there's that. But I'm going to bring a Raho as well. I agree with everything you said about him. and then instead of Hoffman, I'm going to bring Nathan Harriol. So there had been some rumblings that Harriol was going to be in the Olympic qualifying camp.

It sounds like he still might be there as a camp body or something. But yeah, that only really made sense to me if a bunch of MLS teams didn't release their defenders. And it seems like they have. So he's not going to be there. But I do like what Harial brings to a limited roster situation, like these Concaf Tourabreiber. that only let you bring 20 players because he's most comfortable at right back, but he could play basically anywhere along the back line. He played right centerback, some for Bethlehem, the artist formerly known as Bethlehem Steel

last season. And he's played left back for U.S. national teams in the past. So talking about a player that could play anywhere along the back line, offers very little going forward, I think. but and I watched him play for Philly Union 2 over the weekend and didn't think he looked good. He had some problems with his positioning, but it might just be early season jitters. I think he's a good one-v-one defender with 2000 and 2,000 USL minutes under his belt. And what I've heard, and I've heard he was very good in the, the second January camp game against Mexico that we had for the U20s.

So we could do worse than him. I'll bring him over Hoffman, who, and basically because Hoffman has, like, played on the left wing basically every time I've seen him. So don't know too much about him at their right back position. And, again, Araho is a no-brainer if he gets released. Yeah, yeah. Right. So, yeah, I haven't seen much Harriol myself, which is a little bit of a discredit to me because those games are available. Right.

But, yeah. I mean, you kind of see how pragmatism comes in with a choice like this because that versatility is really, does really matter, even though it doesn't necessarily, you know, a player who doesn't look good in a USL game over the weekend. It doesn't, you know, satisfy ideals as fans. He, you do need that versatility. I love Mauricio Cuevas. Apparently he did look good. I still haven't watched this game, but I saw the compilation video put together by Waki. in their, what, 4-1, 5-1 win over...

5-1, yeah. RGV. Vos last night, that'd be the Los Angeles Galaxy 2. Quavis and a bunch of other young Americans and young Mexican national team players ran riot down in South Texas. I like Quavis because he's a fullback who can pass the ball. And, you know, I think there's a chance that he gets in on this qualifying roster. I think there's a chance he breaks in later on and maybe makes the World Cup roster. but just a chance.

Yeah, I really like Quayvus' game. I watched that LA Galaxy game last night, and I thought he was one of the best players on the field. It's just a real bummer that he's on the same team that Julian Arraho is because it probably means that he's not going to get many MLS chances this season, but I think his upside at right back is probably as high as anybody, any of the fullback's ceilings that we're going to talk about today. Yeah, one of the players who got taken to the U-17 World Cup ahead of him was Joe Scali of

NYCFC, big money transfer to Barusha Mugin Gladok. Why not mention him in this conversation? Because I know you've been a big Scali guy in the past, probably still are. Yeah, to an extent. I watched a little bit of him with NYCFC in preseason, thought he looked. okay. He's kind of like right on the edge of the NYCFC 18 right now. There were a couple of games where he made the 18 and then a couple of games where he got replaced in the 18 by Zalalam. So the Scali is just so raw as a right back still. I think that's that's the word

I'd like to use. I like the skill set on paper and you know even watching the film when he's on the ball, but he just has some things to work out mostly on the defensive side of his game that I think are, his positioning and stuff like that are things that he could work on. And, you know, I'm looking forward to watching him play for gladback, but I just don't feel comfortable with him as, you know, one of the two right backs that you get to bring to a tournament like this. Yeah. I don't feel strongly about him.

Yeah. but it's good to hear your perspective because, you know, you're a New Yorker. Centerback. Let's move to centerback. I think we're going to be very similar here in the players that we bring. I'm going to bring to this tournament, Jacob, Ack and Yeridge, Owen Otisawi and Leo Sepulveda. Is that in line with what you're thinking? Yeah, pretty much.

I mean, the big question is, will Otisoui, Otisoui be? released because I think he's the he's clearly the best central defender in the age group if healthy and released hasn't been healthy a lot over the last couple of years but seems to be in a nice little run of health do you want to talk about him or should I why don't you go ahead all right yeah I think he's the top centerback prospect in the class hands down as you said the only question is going to be his if his knees hold up and if he's going to be released. Yeah, I really like his game.

He's super physical, which is something we don't really get that combination of physicality and ability to play on the ball very often out of the DA. And you could probably tell by watching Otisawi that he didn't come from the DA. Yeah, I'm really hoping that he gets the call up and that he and that his club team Wolverhampton releases him because I do think he'd be like a game-changing talent for us on the field. Yeah.

So he came up as a central midfielder. I think that's the position he played most as a youth player and still does actually play some midfield. If midfield is where he played when he made his Europa League debut for Wolves. Who are? Wolves are one of the better teams in the Premier League this year. I mean, their top half of the table. Right.

He also, he's, I think he's like six three, maybe six, four even. But very quick, very quick. And because of his midfield pedigree, he's, he's very comfortable on the ball. So he's out there like winning, winning balls in the air, like kind of like John Brooks style. But then he can like take the ball and move with it at his feet like a midfielder can and find a pass. I mean, he's still a little raw. He's a young player. but there's a lot, a lot of tools there that make him sort of a prototype modern centerback.

Yeah, absolutely. I agree with all of that. It's not like he's going to be a Sergenio Dest level coup if he ends up committing to the U.S., but it could be like not that different if everything breaks the right way for him, especially given how weak we are at centerback at the senior level, in my opinion. Mm-hmm. Right. So, so there was a lot of good reports about layout, Sepulveda from the January camp, and he's a player who kind of wasn't on my radar lately.

What, what do you got on him? Yeah, so Sepulveda is an interesting player. He broke into the Galaxy's USL team a couple of years ago when he was, you know, 17 or whatever. And I watched him a lot back. then because I thought he was an interesting prospect coming out of the DA and he just did not have a good time of it in USL. I had a couple of bad moments, a pretty high profile goal, you know, moments that led to goals in the USL that really dropped him off my radar. And I guess the galaxy's radar as well because they let him walk and to try to find a living elsewhere. and he landed with Salamanca in the Spanish third division,

and he's been playing as a fullback there, right? Is that right? Yeah, according to transfer market, he's been playing a lot of left back. Yeah, transfer market's never wrong, so we'll take that as gospel. I mean, it is usually right to be right to it. Okay.

He's 6-1, though, so he's got the size, you know, he's borderline, but he has the size to be a centerback. Yeah, he moves well for, he moves well for, centerback. I don't know about playing him at left back. I think you're probably, he's probably going to be a little stiff there, but I do like how he moves as a centerback. He has some pretty good feet. The thing to worry about is just his defending. Yeah, he just the type of player where the decision making just wasn't there when I was able to see him, which admittedly has been a little wild now. But it's some pretty bad decisions coming out to try to close down a defender.

He would just get giving goat around stuff like that. Yeah. Well, if he in fact has improved a lot, which it kind of sounds like he has, because Hudson named dropped him as fantastic in an interview with, I think, Brian Shoretta. Then that's really good news for the pool because centerback is always dicey with these youth national team camps, tournaments. Right. Yeah, that's exciting. I just don't know how much I trust Hudson's reviews.

There are reasons to doubt Anthony Hudson's judgment. As any Colorado Rapids fan will tell you. Right. The third centerback for both of us is Kenya Riggi. I'm not sure that's how you pronounce it, but probably going to be the third centerback, and that's fine. Good defender, okay on the ball. played as a right back exclusively for Reno FC last season in his four appearances.

Never went more than 45 minutes. I'm not sure if that was a fitness thing or what kind of what's going on there with San Jose's U.S.L affiliate. But his ability to play both right back and centerback makes him an efficient call-up, and centerback is so thin. Who knows? Yeah, so this is the – I'm going to bring him as well. I thought it was Ackin Uriage, but I could be totally wrong. We don't get to say these player names out loud too often.

Yeah, they don't say them. We don't get to hear him on SportsCenter. Right. So, yeah, I was surprised when San Jose gave him a homegrown contract a few years back now, big stuff on what I saw of him out of the DA. You know, he's an athlete, and that's what he was in the DA. He was kind of just kind of rumble around, just knock people off the ball, and Garrett just pass it up.

Nothing too much going on with the ball at his feet. So based on what I've seen, even of him in USL, he did miss a lot of the last couple of years with, I think, a concussion or something like that. But based on what I've seen of him thus far in USL, I'm not sure that he's an MLS caliber prospect, but it's hard to argue against him as the third centerback based on the call-ups for January camp. And I just don't think the rest of the pool is very good behind him. Yeah, one name we should mention, should mention that Kenya Reggie was not in the 18 for Reno FC. I don't think he was in the 18 for San Jose either, was he? No, I don't know where he is, yeah.

Yeah, so, I mean, Atlanta United centerback, George Campbell is eligible and did play 50 minutes on Saturday in Major League Soccer because of a, I think it was a head injury to somebody in the back line for Atlanta, played on the right side of a three-man back line, and I thought he looked okay. It wasn't super technical or anything, but it was a big physical kid, good competitor, certainly good enough to play against Concaf Championship at centerback, but it sounds like Atlanta United's not releasing anybody for sort of these off-brand tournaments. Like they're just like only on FIFA international windows.

Are we going to release somebody? So Campbell, we kind of have to plan without Campbell, I'm thinking. Yeah, I think Campbell might be the case in which we see how strongly Atlanta is going to hold on to that not release players for FIFA tournaments that aren't in Windows thing. Because I think that it'd do something for his stock if he were if he were called up to this tournament. But, you know, being on the edge of the Atlanta roster, is an accomplishment, you know, like there are some pretty good prospects in that Atlanta system that haven't gotten on the field for them at all. So for him to get on the field this past weekend is a pretty nice thing for him. Another player likes a Pulvera that based on his USL tape, you know, I have some

pretty serious questions. But, yeah, we're just going to have to hope. Hope, yes. Love. Right. A couple of other names. We'll mention here as potential centerback options. A couple of kids from NYCFC and Tevon Gray and Nico Benal Khazar. I really like Tevon Gray. If you brought him to this tournament, you know, you'd get the, you'd get an option at the six in addition and at right back, really, in addition to playing him at centerback. But he's playing DA ball still and it just doesn't feel like a high enough level for him to get called into this tournament.

Nicco Bonalcazar, I thought, was one of the better freshmen in the NCAA last season. I think it was in the first round or the second round of the NCAA tournament that I thought he had a very, very good game. I forget who exactly they were playing against. But again, I don't know if playing at a high level in the NCAA necessarily gets you into a tournament like this at this point. Um, Nico Sloanina, the older brother of previously mentioned, yeah, Chicago Fire, homegrown goalkeeper, Gabriel Sloanina. Uh, I don't think Nico Sloanina is good enough to make this tournament, but he's been on the edge of the roster for the Chicago Fire. So worth mentioning. We talked about Blake Malone a little bit. Um, again, I don't think I'd feel comfortable with him at the back in his tournament. But, uh, we've had heard some things about, what he went through

what he's gone through over the last couple of years with that might have affected his gameplay on the field. So he's one to keep an eye and maybe he could bounce back because a couple of years ago he was regarded as one of the better prospects

in this age group. And then Bobby Pierre who was with Real Salt Lake, who is with Real Salt Lake who interestingly enough played at the U-17 Concaf tournament with Haiti.

He's a, he's, Haitian as well. And yeah, he's an interesting prospect, not much more than that. Just a big physical kid needs to work on his game, but like Cheritou O'Donzei, raw talent,

an athleticism situation, a player worth keeping an eye on and involved in our youth national teams. Yeah. I mean, Pierre's at Realt Salt Lake, right? Yeah. Not doing Rayle Salt Lake, not doing a lot of favors to

our prospects these days. I will note Blake Malone did make the 18 for Orange County, but didn't play over the weekend. Let's move to left back and try to just go quickly here. I mean, we already sort of expressed our disagreements about Kobe Hernandez-Foster. I just think he's the, for me, he's the left back. It's impossible to leave him off because he's just so good, so good with the ball at his feet. I think his defending as a centerback was mostly fine at the U-17 World Cup. I mean, he had a couple problems.

He has problems dealing with crosses that are high because he's, I don't know, is he about five, six? Is he even that tall? Yeah, let's call in five-six. But he's got that sweet left foot. He's a great in combination. I really want to see him as a left back for a youth national team. and I think, you know, Hoffman can cover for him probably in a pinch. Sapulveda could cover for him at left back.

So he's my left back and he's my only one. Yeah, I mean, he's fantastic prospect, but to me doesn't feel like the safest choice for this tournament just because of the questions about his ability to defend older, faster players and, you know, just fitness issues because he hasn't played team soccer. what, since the U-17 World Cup, right? Yeah, that's a concern. And it's a concern. I mean, we had, people had the concern about Richel dezma and Olianez going into,

going into the U-20 World Cup. And those turned out to be pretty justified in terms of, like, fitness and how ready they were to compete at a high level. So that, that's a, although I will, we have to acknowledge that this is not as high of a level as the U-20 World Cup was. This is the Concaf Championship. Yeah, the U-17 World Cup. Yep.

Um, so instead of, uh, Kobe Foster Hernandez, I'm going to bring as my only left back, uh, Trevi and Sousa. Um, he's playing left back at Hamburg in Germany, uh, mostly for their U-19s. Um, he has an overwhelming combination of size, speed and strength for a fullback. Love is pushing the ball down the wing. Uh, he's not looking to play intricate combinations with midfielders or anything like that, but no, he's, probably a small improvement on the defensive side of his game from getting into that Hamburg side who play in the two Bundesliga. Do you know if they're expected to? I haven't looked at that table in a little while.

Are they making their way up? I haven't, but as you continue to talk about Susan, I will, and then I will let you know. Okay. Yeah, so he played on the left wing, and I think even at the nine when he was playing in the Sacramento Republic Academy. So he has comfort on the ball to go along with all of his great physical traits. And yeah, I just think a really exciting prospect for us that I think has flown a little bit under the radar. And I think the main concern here for me is going to be if they let him go to this tournament, if Hamburg does. Yeah, I agree he's been under the radar.

So Hamburg is second in the two Bundesliga, so they're chasing promotion. And that upbringing as a striker combined with that athleticism is a nice combination for a left back. And if Susa gets called up over Hernandez-Faster, I'm not going to be mad about it. I thought he looked pretty good. Had a little bit of sauce in a friendly last fall that was available to watch. Reed's angles well, physical, pretty good in the air. It pains me to leave off Jonathan Gomez. Yeah.

It's kind of a similar situation at Kobe, and he's a year younger. He's at Louisville City as of, what, four days ago? Right. But it didn't make the 18 over the weekend. Stuart Ritchie was going 90 every weekend for Hanover 96, but I don't think there's room for him, and he may have come off Sunday with an injury because he was subbed off in, like, the 18th minute or something.

Yeah, I agree on Gomez and Ritchie. You know, Gomez, I think the world of him as a prospect, it just feels like if he were six months older or playing regularly, it'd be an easier decision, but it's probably just not going to happen for him. This tournament, he might be one of those players that sneaks his way into the World Cup roster. Then a couple other left backs of the name quickly, you'll be familiar with John Tolkien and Adam Armour from the U-17 cycle. Armour is playing in the Development Academy right now, and Tolkien apparently didn't have the best of pre-season for the Red Bulls, even though he's been in the 18 in both of their MLS games. So interesting to keep an eye on. Don't think they're going to be brought to this tournament.

And last one would be Andre Reynolds, who got on the field for the Chicago Fire last year some in MLS. and I think it'll even I think more so in the in the open cup where I thought he looked pretty good but he's just kind of been mysteriously absent from their teams so far this season so yeah got got that interesting opening open cup appearance but no information available since pretty much yep let's move so let's move on to central midfield you've got you've got suza I've got Kobe Hernandez foster I left back central midfield why don't you Yeah, how about we start

by talking about the players we both agree on which is that we both agree should be starting, right? And Taylor Booth, Tanner Tessman, and Jose Gallegos. Yeah.

Yeah, I think this is a really exciting midfield. Yep. Kind of checks all the boxes that you're looking for from a, just from a soccer midfield. They got, we got defense,

distribution, and attacking impetus. So, Booth, Taylor Booth has not been spectacular, but he has been very competent. And for an American in 2001, he's playing at a high level. The UFa Youth League and the Byron U19s. And he's played very much, from the games that I've watched, played very much as the six for that team. Right in front of a back for kind of in the Jackson Yule, Michael Bradley mold,

which I'm not saying I love that system or that way of doing it, but that is a way to do. it and Booth fits that bill. He reads the game, crucially, he reads the game well defensively. He's a technical player, makes quick decisions, and is very efficient with the ball. And he's putting in the work defensively. And I like the way he's just calm with the ball. Like he doesn't care. Kind of has a languid sort of casual affect that I appreciate as a viewer.

right um i did say he kind of reminds me of michael bradley i should say yeah and and bradley's not a not a bad comp uh i don't think he necessarily has the athletic gifts or tenacity that a young michael bradley had but there's certainly a similarity in passing range and play style i know somebody that follows the byron munich youth teams pretty closely and he told me that booth is great at making the correct pass which is a wonderfully german way of saying that he had that booth has the eye and talent to be a distributor for a team like Bayern Munich. That said it's pretty easy to look good on the Bayern Munich New Unitines, who kind of just steamroll the bottom half of that league.

And I do wonder how well his game transfers up. The U.S. youth national teams have a long history of metronomy, slight number sixes, who read the game decently that end up not having the grit to play there at the next level. So it's something to keep in mind, but he's one of the players I'm most excited to see in this tournament if he gets released. Yeah, it'll be really interesting to see what he's like because that concern is real. Yeah. It is, I think, partly solved by bringing Tanner Testman along with him. A new entrant here, but I think he'd be a great option as a destroying sort of six, eight hybrid.

You could call it a double pivot with him in Booth, or you could just call it a Burrhalter. midfield have him beat up higher. He's calm. He makes calm sound decisions with the ball in the last two weeks for FC Dallas. Made his debut on opening day. He played quite well. Got an assist, arguably man of the match in their

win over Philadelphia, who then went on to draw at LAFC, so by the transitive property, Montreal Impact are the best team in the league. He got yanked in the league. the 62nd minute in that 2-2 draw with Montreal on Saturday. But man, he does a lot of dirty work and he's big physical wins battles.

I mean, I'm all, I'm sort of increasingly all about that battle. Yeah. In the box. And I don't mean the 18-yard box. I mean the box that like in the cage between two men on the field. Who can like, who can make it make that their territory and win that individual battle. Right. He's not easy to play against. No, he's not. I mean, Giovani Raina is really good at this. This is the thing that has really impressed me about the way he's played in Brusha Dorman.

He wins those individual battles. Some way, somehow he wins. And Testman is doing that at the MLS level too. That's really important to me. And I think he and Booth together would be a nice sort of foundation. Yeah, I think he's, Testman's probably been the most exciting thing about this young MLS season so far. You know, some of us rated him highly in this little youth national team sphere that we have, but I don't think anybody expected him to be playing,

to be starting for FC Dallas, you know, two weeks into that MLS season. But yeah, I love his game as well. It's far too rare in American soccer that we get a player who is comfortable doing the dirty work of a six, who is also technical enough to be an asset in possession.

And I think you could probably count on one hand the number of players that we've had like that since like Darlington Nagby. Who doesn't do much dirty work? Right. Yeah, that's fair too. So Testman is that. And he's quickly made himself a starter in Dallas. And if I were making the Dallas 11s once Pomackel is healthy, I'd probably be benching Jesus Ferreira before I sit Testament. And I like Ferreira, so I think that says a lot. Yeah, I would agree.

Although Pomacall is totally a side note, which we have had too many of already, but Pomacall didn't look that great on Saturday. Did you think in his 40-minute cameo or whatever it was? No, but it was kind of a weird game. Montereau plays weird soccer. Like it's kind of hard to describe. I forget what Matt Doyle said that described it as like smash and grab or something like that. It's like a 6-3-1 or something.

Yeah, they totally sit back in a line of six and just have a bunch of players buzz in front of that line to just make things awkward and then they'll just, they'll basically leave that line of six intact as they go forward with the exception of Bogriard on the right-hand side who just kind of like flies up and down the pitch. But you're basically complete, like, you have to break down that defense every time you want to do anything.

And if I have, you know, something, I thought it's something that Dallas could have done better in that game was just move the ball faster in transition because they just didn't move it fast enough. And every time, every time they got down the field, they had to start over with completely, you know, prying that defensive line apart. So it was a hard game to do much in. But I do think that the danger that Pomackel provided centrally, at least the threat of danger might have opened that game up a little bit for the two goals. that they did score after he came on. Okay, okay. All right, so Testman and Booth is starting midfielders,

and then the third one is one who, anybody who follows me on Twitter is not going to be surprised by. I probably have annoyed you by talking about him too much. Jose Gallegos, San Antonio FC, recent signing, attacking midfielder. So it's interesting, he only played 778 minutes in USL last year, and only, or that's how many minutes he played, only scored a goal and one assist. And he looked fine, right?

He looked fine, decent prospect in, but not, not, I would never have expected the start to 2020 that he's had based on the early, at least his early minutes last year. Yeah, I mean, I would say he was better than fine. I thought he was, if you go back and watch the highlight videos, he was creating quite a bit of danger,

um, even though he wasn't getting on the score sheet. But I, but I, But I guess I more or less agree with your point. Like he wasn't amazing last year. He was pretty good. And there's just a lot of weakness in the attacking midfield options that we have in this age group outside of Giovanni Raina.

Like we talked about Gianluca Busio has not, his trajectory is not as high as maybe we would have thought. So what I like about Gallegos is he likes to pick up the ball in the middle of the field, play on the half turn. and go out of defense. He's also a physical handful in defense like a wrecking ball, or at least did in 2019. I see a little less of that in 2020, to be honest, but he does like to press. Anyway, on the ball, he's really turned it up a notch in 2020.

He ate that FC Dallas first team for lunch in a preseason friendly a couple weeks ago, got a lovely goal, then went on and won his high school state championship in Texas. But he was a menace against FC Dallas. I mean, if you haven't, go check out the highlight video from that. He was really, really impressive. And then he started and went 90 on Saturday as San Antonio defeated Real Monarchs

in their USL season opener. A few days after San Antonio signed him to a pro deal, he set up a golden chance with a really, really, really nasty through ball and created all of San Antonio's danger outside of the goal they scored on a set piece. So I'm especially high on Gallegos. I think him picking up the ball from Booth and Testament is going to be, I mean, he's just going to destroy Conca Caff U-20 opposition, I think.

Yeah, I'm not going to add too much to that. Bell's all in on Gallegos as well. He's a ball of purposeful energy, and San Antonio is a must-watch TV when he's on the field as far as I'm concerned. I do think it's fair to worry a little bit about the level of competition and that he might fall into some bad.

I have to do it all myself sort of habits in the USL, but that's only more of a reason for him to get called into every youth national team camp that he has an opportunity to be in as far as I'm concerned. I'll also say win for different pathways in American soccer, right? Because Gallegos, as far as I know, hasn't played a minute of DA ball. I never saw him play in the DA if he was playing local soccer and for his high school team. So interesting for a player like him to make it this far.

Yeah. I didn't realize that he didn't play any DA ball. I'm not positive about that, but I never saw him play. So he didn't play a lot if he did. He wasn't a regular for them. Well, yeah, he's really, he's really turned it on. And I agree with you that there might be some, I have to do it all myself sort of habits developed.

I kind of wish there would be a little bit more of that from him, like just demand the ball because, man, there's, you're right about the level of competition. Right. And also the level of his teammates. I'm not trying to be mean, but there are players on, like, on the wings for San Antonio who just can't play soccer with somebody like Gallegos, you know? Right. And when I say level of competition, I mean, you know, I mean like the league as a whole.

I'm primarily concerned about his teammates because some of them are not, not very good soccer players. Did you see the dude he played that through ball to Dorenzo? Oh, yes. Yeah, like he was a, he was a hot mess out there. Um, uh, for an Argentine player, you know, so not like, you know, he didn't just fall up off the turnip truck from Wichita. He's, uh, he's a international soccer player. Yeah. I mean, and surprised he's not on a, not on a Tam deal in MLS.

He's on that passport. Right. So I kind of don't know who else I want in the midfield after those three. Johnny Cardoso, Tavon Gray, Danny Lava. Cole Bassett, Thomas Roberts, Mateo Retaccio. I like Retachio, so I'd go with him, but Yeah, what do you got?

Let's talk about Bassett because I think we're both going to end up taking him, right? He was reportedly one of the big winners from Hudson's first camp, so what's your concern with bringing him to a tournament like this? I just don't know what he does well, you know? Okay.

I mean, no, I don't have, so I don't have a concern about bringing him. I do want to bring him. But it's kind of just a default choice. He's like, he's a player who has significant, uh, major league soccer experience.

And I don't know who else to bring. That's kind of why I'm doing it. You know what I'm saying? Like, he, he, he's not a dual winner, really.

He's not a creative force. You know, that, how we're talking about test men wins those battles in the, in the cage. Bassett does not. And he's not, uh,

like a creative attacking midfrey. fielder. He hasn't gotten off the bench for Colorado either of the first two games of the season. But, you know, he hits a pretty good cross. He provides some goal danger and works hard, right? Is that basically what we would say about him? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't really disagree with any of the knocks that you listed against him.

I don't think he has any tremendous standout traits on the ball. But I do think he's very good at making himself an option for teammates. I think he's one of the better midfielder that we have in his age group off the ball. And as long as you aren't relying on him to do much more than help protect the back line with the six and shuttle the ball forward to the 10 and attacking line,

I think he's going to be a perfectly useful player. He covers a lot of ground and can take a player on the dribble if he finds himself in wide spaces. And I do think that a lot of the stats that get thrown at him, like that he didn't provide many top line stats last season or that, you know, he didn't win a tremendous amount of his physical battles were a little misleading just because he played

for a Rapids team that didn't do very much well. And it's not too surprising that he didn't set up a ton of shots or anything like that or that he only had a couple of goals when the team as a whole was pretty miserable. Yeah, I'm not really knocking him for not scoring goals. Because I did, I mean, when he did get a chance to tee something up, he, you know, he put a decent shot on frame. It's just like, what is he, it's the two other things. It's the lack of dual winning and the lack of sort of incisiveness with his passing.

But all that said, I agree with most of what you said, and I, and I'm happy to bring him along. Okay. There's a, we'll leave a light on for you, Cole. Next one is Johnny, Johnny Cardoso. Plays as a six for international in Brazil. Brazil, Syria, got called up to a U-23 camp in the fall and drew rave reviews from Richel dezma, Chris Durkin,

and others on that team. I haven't seen a ton of him, but he did make his debut for International and made the bench four other times in the fall, didn't look out of place. I think he's played a couple of, got to start a couple weeks ago. Yep. So if he's released, I suspect he'll be on this roster as either the starting six or the backup to booth, just don't know enough about him to say much more.

Yeah, I'm pretty much equally ignorant of Johnny Cardoso as well. The reviews are exciting, right? But I just haven't seen a ton of tape of him at the six. I think almost all of the clips of him on Wise Scout at least a month or two ago were like him playing on the wing and stuff. Yeah, he's fairly... It's hard to draw much from that. He's fairly new to the position.

And I think when it just comes down to it, he's unlikely to be released. So it's not worth going into him too much. Yeah. Okay. So my next one, this is where we're going to, I guess I don't remember if you have Cardoso in your. I don't, I don't have Cardoso or Retacio in my team. Okay. So I'll give my Ratatio pitch.

He's been hurt since September. So he, you know, who knows? And his last performance for the liver. Liverpool U-18s before the injury. He looked very good. Scored in a 4-3 win and was generally a creative force in a left-central midfield role, kind of a tucked-in, left-central midfield, left-footed, clever passer, can evade tacklers, sweet can strike the ball pretty well, definitely more of an attack-minded

midfielder, almost a winger for Liverpool's academy, and good in combination. And interestingly, signed a pro deal with Liverpool in November. So I suspect if he's healthy, he's good enough to make this qualifying roster. Don't know if he's healthy. Yeah, I don't know if he's healthy as well. But, yeah, I love Retachio. He's one of my favorite players in the pool to watch. Has been ever since I saw him playing at B.W. Gachi back in the DA,

where he had some of the most dominant DA performances I've ever seen. So I love his movement off the ball. In possession, he floats around to wherever he could find space and is super direct like a winger once he once the ball finds its way to him. I think I'd take him to the tournament and play him on the wing and give him and Gallegos the freedom to interchange if I thought he'd be released, but the release issue is a problem and I have no idea what his health situation is. So for for the sake of diversity, I'm just going to leave him off. Yeah, fair enough. So you have, so I've got Ratatio and Cardoso in my midfield and otherwise we're the same. Who do you have

instead of Retachio and Cardozo? So I'm going to bring Leon Flack as my first player. He's kind of a more conservative version of Rattacio. He plays on the left wing and at the 8th for San Paoli's youth teams. But he started at left back for us in that January camp under Hudson. So a little bit of versatility there where he might end up being the starting the left back for us. He might end up being a starting midfielder for us and also provides a little bit of depth on that left wing where I think that's kind of where he plays the majority of

his minutes for his club team. He has a great work rate and one of the better left feet in the pool. Just the player that will buzz around and maybe doesn't do anything at a super high level, but, you know, maybe a Retachio-like player where you take a little bit of that offensive capability and trade it for some defensive solidity. He did just accept a German youth national team call-up too, didn't he? Yeah, he did. He's one of those players that is basically, from what I've heard, is just going to accept every call-up that any national team throws at him.

And I don't think Sound Pauly is in a position where they're, going to stop call-ups from happening. So if we want them, I think we'll get him. Okay. Cool. And he apparently did play quite well in the camp. So who's your last midfielder? So it's going to be Thomas Roberts, who I think his stock has fallen a little bit over the last few

months with the rise of Tessman. But I think he's still going to be a solid MLS player. And if you're bringing him to this tournament, it's going to be as the backup number 10. And I wouldn't expect him to play too much with Gallegos in front of him. but he has sparks of magic on the ball and should thrive in games where we're going to have the lion's share of possession. So he's a solid option and really this choice came down to him and Buccio. And I just can't defend that Buccio call up at this point.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't particularly rate either of them at the moment. I don't want to get into too much detail here, but you have a few other names that you've got to mention. Yeah. Go for it, please. Sure. So Buccio, we just mentioned.

He actually started on the left wing in our two-nothing winning against New Mexico in the first game of the January camp. So something to keep an eye on, he might end up coming as a winger instead of a midfielder. Then Marcello Palomino, we mentioned a little bit earlier, kind of in no man's land with the Houston Dynamo. Aidan Morris, who reportedly had a decent preseason with the colonel. Columbus crew, but just hasn't appeared for them yet. A couple of players. Hasn't even been in an 18, right? Oh, I didn't, yeah, I didn't realize that that was the case.

Okay. And then a couple of players that are probably just a little too young, Moses Nyman, who I think the world of as a prospect, but, you know, as a 2003, it's going to be pretty hard to bring him into this roster. Same deal with Danny Leva, who has a little bit, has that MLS experience, but, you know, you still just worry about his athleticism being so young. I don't know where Brian Keo is at the moment. You have to have some concerns with him, with his work rate,

not his work rate, but his fitness. Fitness, right, bringing him to a tournament like that. And just this, and just one player to give a shout out to Chris Haygart, who started for the Tacoma Defiance in midfield over the weekend. I thought that he was one of the better players on the field, started next to Josh Atensio and something looking that looked a little bit like a double pivot

and I thought that he was Tacoma's best player a 2002 central midfielder kind of an eight where he's just gonna do a lot of running for you and connect so I want to keep a goal too yeah late arriving in the box sort of thing

yeah I love I love Nyman I'm not even sure he's a citizen yet do we know that but yeah I'm not sure but bring him anyway way. I love how he plays. I agree with you though. He's probably a little too young and maybe he breaks in for the Eutoni World Cup roster in, which is quite a ways out still. Let's do the forwards really quickly, please. We both have to get started with our days. We're doing a morning recording instead

of a night recording, which is unusual for us. Yeah, so let me just list off the forwards I'm bringing and let's see what you think of them. I'm going to bring. I'm going to bring. I'm going to bring Conrad de la Fuente Ulysses Janice, Jannes, Cameron Harper, Ricardo Pepey, Indiana Vassalev, and Cameron Dunbar. I love that Cameron Dunbar shout. Had a banger of a left-footed goal

last night for LA Galaxy 2. Yeah, I mean, Yonnas, it seems to me if he's released, he's the sort of attacking centerpiece of this team. He's another one who wins that battle in the cage. I hate to beat a dead horse there, but he does at this point.

in his career. Yep. And he's just like, he's a really exciting player who tore up this tournament a couple years ago, so maybe that means he doesn't want to do it again.

I don't know. But yeah, Yanis would be the sort of top winger for me. I disagree a little bit on Conrad. I mean, I don't know if he's going to be released. He's having some health issues right now. So I don't know if he'll be released. And I don't,

I just don't love the way he plays, you know? I know everybody's like all a flutter about the Barcelona, the Barcelona pedigree, and I know that that's a good development. Obviously, that's a good development place. Yeah, it's not the worst place you could be. But he was not a dangerous attacking player for the U.S. in the U20 World Cup. A little predictable, right? Yeah.

And so I'm, I don't know, I guess I got Yanez, Cameron Harper, like you do. No idea how he plays, but the reports of the last camp were positive about him on the wing. Do you have a scouting report? Yeah, totally. He's very pacey, right-footed, a lot like Conrad, actually, with perhaps a little more ability to wrong foot a defender. From what I've seen, he, and again, this is a very Conrad trait. He tries to walk the ball into the net. He's not going to cut in and shoot with his left foot.

He's going to come down that right wing and try to get to the end line. And once he gets to the end line, he's going to run at the near post. then take a shot or put the ball on the penalty spot for a teammate. But he's a player who Hudson recommended to Burrhalter to join practice with the full men's national team in January camp. So clearly he's highly regarded. And, yeah, a player to keep an eye on who I think I'm going to be interested in getting a little bit more tape on if he gets released for this tournament. Yeah, does he typically play on the left wing or the right wing? He typically plays on the right.

Okay. So that's good. That's a good thing. So our difference here is you're taking Conrad and I'm taking Makomilyevich. I don't know. He's getting first-tier minutes in Argentina. Will he be released? I don't know.

But, you know, he's a kid who's comfortable with the ball at his feet. That's about all I'll say about him. And then Kate Cowell, I'm taking Kate Cowell instead of Cameron Dunbar. I don't feel strongly about that. I just know that Cowell looked pacey and dangerous in his MLS. appearance over the weekend. And, yeah, let me talk a little bit about the, about taking Dunbarro for Cowell. I think that Cowell had that, he had that one really nice run in his MLS appearance over

the weekend where he came off the right wing and just kind of ran straight through the defense and almost had it, got a one-on-one with the goalkeeper for San Jose. The question I have about a player like Cowell is, if you're thinking, you know, strategically for a tournament like this. I'm not sure that U20 qualifying really suits his game. That's a good point. There's going to be a lot of teams that it's going to be mostly teams that sit in a very compact block.

And Cowell was at his best in the DA when he could pick up ahead of steam and get defenders retreating. And I'm not sure how often that's going to be the situation in this tournament. Where is a player like Cameron Dunbar, who was a very late inclusion onto my roster after the way he played last night, was just, better at unlocking a defense a little bit more technical quality in his

passing and crossing as well. I mean, but fundamentally he's a similar kind of player though, right? He's running at a defense. Right. You know, they're both right-winger's. Cowell's more of a straight-line, you know, direct sort of situation

where he's, cowl's not going to score if it's not six yards from goal and Dunbar has a little bit more of, you know, Ulyssesianas type situation to him where you have to worry about him cutting in or and that sort of thing where, and he, a little bit better one on one view one with a defender coming off the wing. Okay. Yeah, yeah.

Is he, that left-footed goal was so nice. Is he, is left foot his dominant foot? Or I thought I don't. I thought it was right. Yeah, I'm pretty sure he's right-footed. You know, something like that makes you hesitate when you see. it'd say that he's right-footed. But yeah, one wonderful left-footed strike.

Yeah. So that's even more impressive. And then we got, I think we got to move into strikers here. I'm saying Ricardo Pepi is my starting striker. I think he's the, you know, he scored a goal over the weekend for FC Dallas. We've had to be a little bit patient with Pepe because he didn't play super well in the U-20 World Cup. I'm sorry, the U-17 World Cup. He also also didn't always play well at U-17 Conccaf qualifying, but he just keeps coming.

He's relentless, and I think the position is weak enough that it's his for the moment. Yeah, you've hit on my concerns that he hasn't always looked good for the U.S. youth national teams, but he's the most well-rounded nine in this class, and I don't know that it's all that close, which is pretty remarkable given the fact that he's an O3, but it probably says just as much about the state of the rest of the U-20 pool up top as what it says about Pepe. So, yeah, Pepi's my starter as well. And then behind Pepe, I'm going to bring Indiana Vassilov, who I think it's probably been slightly overblown given his high-profile appearances for Ashton Villa in the Premier League.

But he's a player that could play in multiple spots. He's played at the 9, at the 10, on the wing for the... for Ashtonville and the academy. And I love the work rate that he brings to the game. You know, decent passing ability, do you get much more than that out of him? I'm not sure. Where is he long term?

I'm not sure. Yeah, I don't know what, I don't even really know what decent passing ability means. Like, can he, he can hit a 10, he can connect a 10-yard pass? Yeah, I mean, he's decent in combination. Like, his first touch isn't bad. Like, you're not going to pass the ball into him

and it's going to go flying. You know, he's going to, he has a decent, he's decent at receiving the ball and laying it off the teammates from the nine position, you know, better than, better, in my opinion, than some of the other players that we'd be considering here, thinking about like Charlie Kelman, Matthew Hoppe, and maybe a player like Johann Gomez. I think of those players, he's probably the one that's able to combine the best.

But, yeah, I'm not, it's, Maybe. It's kind of, I mean, I have no window into Matthew Hopi. Like, I haven't seen any of his minutes. Why Scout doesn't allow us to watch those Unite Team Bundesliga matches. Yeah, Hopi's kind of a similar player to Sebastian Soto, both in play style and the fact that he's a player that just kind of lit up the DA and then, you know, he goes overseas. And it's maybe struggling a little bit with the German. in game.

Just not putting up the numbers. I don't get to see those you 19 Buddhist League games either, but there's been a little bit of frustration there with with at Shalki with his lack of production up top. Okay. Yeah, so the so the only other option is Kelman who I think is a pretty similar player to Vasilev. Right. Shorter, you know, not so not as physically dominant. Right. But like very, kind of reminds you of Wayne Rooney the way he runs around the film because he's pretty short.

So I don't know. I don't have a strong feeling about the two of them, Vassilev or Kelman. But I guess I'll take Vasselov too. Hard to argue with a Premier League debut. He's doing something, he's doing something right. He did, like you said, he did not look super impressive. And he hasn't looked super impressive in any of his minutes for Aston Villa. because they're like chasing a game late or or holding onto a lead late and they're just

like bashing it up top and he's running around like a madman trying to make life difficult for the opponent right i mean he'd be axed to almost play a different sport if he played for our u20s then what he's axed to do for ashtonville yeah bring him in i mean i think bring him in as peppy's backup if it's kelman it's fine with me frankly if it's hopi it's fine with me i don't i don't have any strong feelings yeah that's fair um that's it That's our lineups. I think, do you want to sing Dante Sili's praises a little bit? Oh, yes.

At every opportunity, I will praise Dante Sili. Yeah, I mean, too young to be a part of this as an O3. He was in the U20 camp in January. Heard, you know, some good things coming out of that camp about him. But he's had a weird offseason where he's been trialing overseas and then, you know, came back to North Texas. he's had a pretty good preseason for North Texas. I think he had like three goals in their three preseason games,

but just feels a little too soon for him. Chris Garcia, it's a player I think we both really like coming out of the RSL Academy. He's just, you know, like a wrecking ball. He just flies around the left wing and, you know, a very direct kind of cowl-esque, but offers, I think, a little bit more just in the, yeah, exactly. but, you know, didn't play for Monarchs, right, over the weekend.

It wasn't even in the 18, like what WTF? Yeah, I have no idea. I have no idea how he doesn't make the 18 for that team. And then I touched on him briefly, but some people really like Johann Gomez, who's the older brother of Johnny Gomez, currently at Porto. One of those, one of those. Yeah, it's Porto. Yeah, it's Porto.

So I've never really rated him. He, another player who lit up the DA, But he was the beneficiary of being on some of the best teams that have ever played in the DA up top for FC Dallas. And I don't like, you know, decent Fox in the Box kind of instincts, but not much more to his game, in my opinion. Well, I trust you. I mean, I think in the power rankings of people who have watched FC Dallas Academy games, you're probably second only to Buzz Carrick.

Right. Yeah, maybe. Maybe you're ahead of him. know. I don't want to be smir- No, definitely not. So to recap, I'll just recap both of our teams, if you don't mind. I've got Achoa and Oduenze and Goal.

You have Achoa and Lass. Our defenders are Arawo, Otisoui, Sepulveda, Akanyi Rigi. We have those in common. And then you have Travi and Sousa at Left Back, and I have Kobe Hernandez-Foster,

and I have Ian Hoffman as my backup right back, and you have Nathan Harriol. And then midfield, we both agree, Booth and Tessman and Gallagos should be the starters. Cardoso, we both think Bassett should be there as a backup. I have Cardoso and Ratacio as the fifth and six midfielder's. You have Flack and Thomas Roberts. And then at Forward, we both have Yanez and Kenos. Cameron Harper and Ricardo, Ricardo Pepe. Would you say those would be the starters?

I mean, it would depend on Conrad being there. So, Yana is definitely on the left wing, Pepey up top, and then the right wing would be one of Conrad or Harper for me. Okay. And then I didn't bring Conrad. I brought Cowl and Milievich, and you brought Dunbar and Conrad. Right.

And then we both brought Vasslev as our backup striker. Thanks for listening, everybody. Thank you, Matt. Do you have any closing thoughts? No, I mean, it's going to be an interesting U-20 cycle. And, you know, the major thing to watch would be how many of these 0-3s that we mentioned, like the top-level O-3s, the Johnny Gomes, the Moses Niamens, the Dante Cilis are able to break into this roster over the course of the cycle. Yeah, because they have plenty of time to do it, really. Plenty of time.

The tournament's not until probably May 2021, so we're talking, you know, what is it, 15 months, 16 months out. Yeah, a little over a year. They have a whole season to make a name for themselves, maybe break in at their MLS teams. Don't keep your fingers crossed, but. All right, thanks again for listening. We'll see you.