Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - Episode 91: An early look at the player pool for the *next* U20 World Cup cycle

Episode Date: July 31, 2019

A deep dive into the pool of players born in 2001 or later, and thus eligible for the 2021 U20 World Cup. Joey Anthone (@USAprospects) and Matt Hartman (@MattSHartman) join to give us an early look at the players who have a chance of playing in the next U20 World Cup. Disclaimers apply (the kids are young and the tournament is two years away) and the show notes are detailed. Use them! We talk about who we think is already a lock, who’s in the next tier down, and who has an outside chance of breaking in, position by position, answering listener questions as we go. Then we names way too early rosters. 0:30 Intro, the big picture and our locks for the 2021 U20 World Cup 29:00 Discussion of who the next cycle's U20 coach should be, and a list of dual nationals eligible for this future roster 43:40 More listener questions THANK YOU TO TODAY'S SPONSOR, Soccer 101, the new show from the Total Soccer Show guys. We are fans of both the idea and the execution. Apple Podcasts link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/soccer-101/id1473757537 Links to all the other ways to subscribe: https://www.totalsoccershow.com/soccer101 51:05 Goalkeepers 55:30 Left backs (whatever happened to George Bello? will Kobe Hernandez get to play LB for the U17s?) 1:08:40 Right backs 1:16:20 Centerbacks 1:31:50 Central midfielders 1:51:50 Wingers 2:02:50 Strikers 2:08:05 Our way too early rosters for the 2021 U20 World Cup: Belz, Hartman, then Anthone Scuffed is on Patreon. It only costs $2 per month to support the podcast at the base level. Please consider it: https://patreon.com/scuffed 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. Today we're going to dive into the pool of players born in 2001 or later and thus eligible for the 2021 U20 World Cup. We'll have other podcasts ahead of the U17 World Cup. And yes, there's going to be quite a lot of overlap between that group and this one. But the summer U20 pool review is something I want to make a habit of on this podcast. We just had a U20 World Cup. Whoever is coaching this age group in 2021. For now, it's still Tabramos, has to reload and start to build a core group of players. Joining me to try to get a handle on all this are huge friends of the podcast, Joey Anton and Matt Hartman. Joey and I did an episode similar to this a summer ago, and the three of us did a U-17 pool review in November ahead of the 2018 Nike Friendlies. We're trying to hone our craft here. Guys, what's up?

Thank you for your time. gentlemen i am honored as always to be here for this i've been looking forward to this for weeks i'm excited to dive deep into this pool i think there's as adam said a lot of overlap between the u-17s but as we saw at the last world cup cycle um players come out of nowhere and i think it's important we get a good jump on uh on what this pool is going to look like in a couple years absolutely well first first off is it and i'll turn this over to matt is it too early to do this the last u20s included only four players from the previous U-17 cycle, as Joey alluded to. We have no idea, right?

Well, you're talking to two guys with spreadsheets on the 20-25 U-20 cycle bells, so it's never too early to start thinking about it. You just have to be careful not to carve too much into stone because this far out there's going to be a significant margin of error predicting any roster, let alone one consisting of teenagers. Right, right. Okay, Joey, back to you. Is this cycle, sort of a big picture question,

is this cycle going to be as talented as the most recent one was? Yeah, it's a good question. I think from like a 30,000 feet perspective, I never viewed the 2001s as talented as the 99s. I think the top level of talent in those age groups, I always favored the 99s over the 01s. Some of the 01s really haven't, some of the most talented prospects in that class

have never really come to fruition and are still kind of trying to find their feeding in the professional game, whereas some of the 99s kind of got an early jump on it. With that said, as you mentioned, the core of this last iteration of the U-20s were made mostly of 2000s, and many of those were not even with the U-17s at the World Cup. So I do like the idea of players kind of rising out of nowhere, and that seemed to be a trend in our pool, almost as if being snubbed or overlooked, lights of fire under some players, which is exciting. I think this will be the first time the U-17s will have to integrate into the U-20s without having been involved in Bradenton. And so I think that'll be an interesting kind of aspect

to how this pool comes together. I'm not sure what it really means. Outside of most players in the pool haven't integrated with their respective clubs and have not been under Federation control specifically. I don't think there's any Tyler Adams or Nick Tateguay is in this group. But I can see a multiple Paxton Pomicle type players. Not saying they're going to make waves within the first couple of years, but players that have that technical ability that can push for minutes at a professional spot. And so it's exciting with the continued to develop in development of USL that these young players are going to continue to get looks. Can you, you know, you mentioned Bradenton and, you know, that's shorthand for something.

Can you just give a quick primer on what that is for our millions and millions. millions of listeners. Yeah, so Bradenton was the residency set up down in Florida in which the Federation would select, oh, Matt can help me 20, 30 players, a cycle to kind of bring down to Florida, have them integrate on a regular basis, live in dormitories, play in select tournaments throughout the world. And it was a good idea in theory, but in practice, it really did kind of strangle the pool off. And I do feel like there was players that were overlooked or really never got the opportunities

because of that setup. And I think that that bears fruit when he started to look at the last cycle, which still had some definite Bradenton ties and the residency ties. And guys like Alex Mendez or Ullianez or Richie Ledezma, those guys weren't involved in Bradenton or Chris Richards. And they had to kind of come up through the DA system. And some of those guys got USL minutes. Some of them didn't. but the fact that that is now shut down really has the Federation having to turn over more stones, which I think is a definite good thing. Okay, cool. Hartman, why don't you take a crack at whether this crop is going to be as good as the U-20s were that just played in the World Cup?

Yeah, I think it's going to depend a lot on the current U-17 cycle, who are about to play in the World Cup this year. like Joey said, I don't think the 0-1s were as good as the 99s were, but they do provide a solid core of wide players. But the 0-2s and 0-3s are going to need to fill in the spine. And I think that they're in a good position to do that. Like the amount that the U-17 group has progressed over these last few months is sort of unprecedented in the history of U.S. soccer. And some of that might be because of the closing of Bradenton. You have players like Griffin Yow and Ricardo Pepe getting pro minutes, whereas if Bradenton was still open, they'd just be sitting at Bradenton playing against their group of 25 friends or whatever it was. Yeah, and we've had some new entrance, like most notably Danny Lava into the U-17 cycle.

I think he made his first official appearance in Concaf qualifying, right, with that age group. and immediately made himself pretty much indispensable. Okay, so I'm going to repeat the margin of error disclaimer, and I'm sure it'll come up a few more times, but just to be very clear. At this point in the last cycle, we did not know who Ledesma or Richards was. Paxon Pommackal still had 18 months of struggle ahead of him at FC Dallas. Alex Mendes and Ullianas had just been left off. John Hackworth's U-17 World Cup roster, and Serginio Dest had only made a cameo

with youth national teams up to that point. So a lot will change and we'll be wrong about a lot of stuff. But I like to think you can get a rough picture of what's going on with the pool if you stick with us. So I ask that you do. Let's start by identifying who we're very confident will be on the U20 World Cup roster in 2021. Let's do this part draft style. You get to pick one player. You feel strongly we'll make that roster, justify your pick, and then turn it over to the next guy.

Joey first, then Matt, then me, until we get to the point where nobody feels confident enough to pick another player. So Joey, fire away. Yeah, I think it's a pretty easy choice. I think the player I feel most strongly will contribute to this group, or be our core aspect, is Julian Oroho. I think if you haven't already listened to, if you're listening to this and haven't listened to Adams' podcast with Julian last week, I don't know what you're doing. but it was an excellent interview and insight as to kind of what goes into being a legit prospect in this country over the last two years and just kind of the landscape and how Julian had to navigate that. And having said that, I think he definitely landed on his feet. He kind of worked the

system to his best benefit. He got to train abroad and then kind of look at what teams could offer him from a professional standpoint early on in his career and has really parlayed that into a lot of success. It was incredibly interesting to listen to him talk about his U-20 World Cup experience this last year, how frustrated he was. And I just hope whoever the next coach is does a good job of integrating him as one of the key pieces to this group because athletically, technically, and almost from a leadership standpoint, I don't think there's a better player to kind of to build this pool or this roster around. I like it.

He's a right back, right? But he's, yeah, some people talk about how, I mean, he's a classic right back. But he, but some people talk about he can maybe be a six at some point. I don't know what you think of that. Yeah, I remember when he was in Santa Barbara and I was first kind of hearing about him, I remember people tell me he's a defensive-minded midfielder just because he was so good with the ball and so athletic at that U-14 level, you can really just dominate a game from a deep-lying position. You know, I've been on this podcast talking about him as a center back in the past,

just mainly because people had told me he liked kind of being in the middle of things. But I think as I watch him with the Galaxy, it's pretty clear. He's the prototypical right back in today's game. And so especially with how the U.S. wants to integrate that position in the national team, if they're going to start to emulate that at the World at the U-20 level, I think he'd be an excellent, like I said, cornerstone to build this team around. So he's easily a lock. I don't think anybody would have a problem saying that, even at this point. Probably the only question would be, is he still going to be available for a youth national team in 2021? Right. The way things are looking right now, it's kind of looks like he might even, if he

progresses at the rate that he has thus far, he might get a look in something like a January camp this early in the cycle if you're getting cold into a January camp and you may not have a future at the next U-20 World Cup just because, you know, two years away is so far for a player that, you know, he could easily be in the men's national team pitcher by then. Yeah, that's exciting. Yeah, that's a good problem to have. He turns 18 in August, so next month, very soon.

Matt, you want to make your pick? Yeah, so I'm going to take Ulyanas. His talent on the ball is unmissable, it looks like he's taken steps to address the biggest question mark I had about his game, which was his ability to play against grown men by adding, he added a significant amount of muscle this summer. Yeah, can we just talk about that real quick? He is so big.

I know I'm jumping on your toes, Matt, but I mean, the amount of social media stuff he was putting out over the last couple weeks is just incredible. He looks like a different guy, honestly. Homi was getting swole, man. He spent all of the last six months just getting yoked. Yeah, he looks like he ate another Ulyana's. It really is, it really is wild. So with all that muscle and with the ability that he,

that he has shown outside of that, I don't think that I'd be surprised if he doesn't have a couple Bundesliga games under his belt two years from now. And then we get into the, into the ARAHO and thing, you know, is he even playing at the U-20 World Cup at that point? But, again, a good problem to have. I have, it's hard to, I don't see how anybody could not have him listed as the first or second winger on this team.

He's super talented. Yeah, I love his game. He's a great passer. Beats people on the dribble. So speaking of people who look like they ate a younger version of themselves, my pick is Giovanni Raina. as everyone knows he's now at BVB Dortmund I've been training with their first team toured the United States with their first team

likely to be playing with their U19s to start the fall but who knows he he is huge he's like 6-1 probably pushing 6-2 at this point 16 years old will be 17 in the late fall and he

he is on at the U-17 level right now where he is, you know, the most dangerous player for the U.S., he is essentially unstoppable on the dribble and it's just a huge problem from the wing. So I see he, I put him right there with Arojo in terms of like maybe he's not even going to be available for the U20s in 2021, but if he is available, he's going to be, he's going to be on the roster. Should we read anything into the fact that he was at the U-23 camp a few months ago, that he, I think there was a U-20 camp around the same time, and I know that they wanted, you know,

I know they want to set up this Olympic qualifying team, so I'm not sure if they have a different trajectory for him, but I always thought that was interesting that he and a few others really got kind of streamlined straight up to the U-23 group. Do you guys have any insight on that? So with GEO in particular, it's kind of hard to say because he was, for a little while there, he was just looking for any camp he could get into because he wasn't playing any minutes. So it might just have been U.S. soccer doing him a favor and giving him a call up so he could get some training under his belt. But it wouldn't be surprising in the least if he's a player that's being looked at for Olympic qualifying.

Because if you look at that roster, it's maybe a little light on the wings after players like Jonathan Lewis and Beaufort Sosato. So if you could get a player like Raina in there, I mean, You got to do it, I guess. Yeah, I exhaust myself trying to read into stuff like inclusions on the U-23 roster, but I guess I would just agree with everything Matt said. There's not exactly a high bar to clear to be a winger in that age group. Right. Yeah.

Do you guys feel, and I know this is kind of outside the U-20 pool, but do you feel like there's any player in our youth national teams that has as high of a ceiling as Giorina? Well, I'm always going to say Richie Ledesma has the highest ceiling. But I guess I would say Rain is right up there. I mean, it would be hard to argue

he's not at the top or near the top. Yeah. Yeah, the only concern I still have about Raina is that if he gets even a little bigger and a little has to carry a little bit more mass around and he maybe can't play

the wing at the highest level, that is, do they move him inside where, you know, he hasn't necessarily looked as good? So that's the only real cap that I think there is on his ceiling. Yeah, I would add, I don't, and I've said this before, I don't think he's a very good passer of the ball. I don't think he sees passes and then certainly doesn't execute them. And I think at a, at the level that Dortmund plays at, you know, with players like Marco Royce and go to next day. him who are very much pass and move, you know, flowing soccer

kinds of players, that is not going to work. And he's going to have to learn that. He's still going to be, even if he doesn't learn it, and he's still going to be a dangerous winger for the United States. Sure. Yeah. It does, without being able to play a killer sea or play a killer

ball, I think that that lowers his ceiling too. Fair. Yeah. You really can't under understate how unstoppable He is at U-17 level, though. The poor Canadian right back in that second Canada game just had no idea.

Like, he was looking around looking for somebody to... Can we put another player on the field? Yeah, man among boys is what it looks like out there. Joey, Joey, you take the fourth pick, please. So a little bit controversial in our Google deck, but I think we should talk about Taylor Booth. Taylor Booth is a central midfielder. He can play really anywhere in the 10, 8, or 6,

role. He's been a part of the U.S. setup since a U-14 level. I think he's played at U-14, U-15, U-15, 16, 17, 18. And so he's been really a staple with the group. And then he's, he and a few others are the last, have ties to Bradenton. So he's over at Bayern Munich this year. He'll play with their U-19 squad. He's been with them for a few months, made a move over there in January. and I really think that if there's one area or a couple areas of weakness of this roster, it's our centerback pool and then somebody in our midfield and I think Booth has got the leadership

and the technical skills to kind of traverse qualifying and really give the team what it needs in the middle. Okay. Hartman, next pick, please. Yeah, so my next pick is going to be Danny Laiva. I don't want to sell any players short, but in my opinion, the introduction of Lava to the U-17 team during World Cup qualifying

completely changed the way that the team played. Agreed. Especially when you compare what the team look like at the Nike Friendlies. Judging by what he's done with Seattle and Tacoma thus far, and remembering that for the majority of the time he's been with those two teams, thus far, he was 15 years old. it's scary to think about what he'll be capable of in two years. He's already one of the most technical and physical youth national team midfielders

and the whole pool under U23 that we have. It's funny because he doesn't look like a good athlete when you watch him run. And maybe he's not. He might not be a great athlete, but he doesn't seem to miss tackles and he covers a lot of ground and he moves a ton off the ball. and then when he gets on the ball, he's a very nice passer. My next pick will be Kobe Hernandez Foster, the left back slash centerback for the LA Galaxy. His club situation is a little confusing, but he's played a couple times in USL.

He's clearly one of the leaders in the USU-17 side. He can hit the ball on a rope 40 yards with his left foot, and he's very assured in possession. he's a pretty smart defender and a good athlete. He's only 5-6, so he's not going to be a centerback long-term. He's going to be a left-back or maybe potentially a midfielder or something like that. But for me, he's the top left-back under 20 that we have, and he's going to be a lock in this roster. Absolutely.

Yeah, agreed. It's unfortunate that we're probably – that he's going to have to keep playing centerback for the remainder of the U-17 cycle and maybe a little bit past that just because we lack talent in that area. I was kind of, oh, go ahead, Adam. Oh, I was just going to say it's a credit to him that he's made himself so indispensable at a position that's not his natural position, too, you know. I mean, I know it's frustrating.

It may be even frustrating to him that he can't play left back where he, I think, would probably shine even more. But look, he's probably the best left back and the best left centerback in the pool, both. Right. Yeah, I've been a little discouraged by his lack of USL minutes. I was really hoping he would get some more run this summer with Los Dose.

And so when I was kind of researching the pot, I kind of assumed he was playing more for them, but he really hasn't played a ton. And I know that he was a part of some of the Galaxy teams and the DA, but, you know, I was really, I hope that he continues to progress and get those minutes in USL because we've seen time and time again that, you know, playing,

at that level as a 16, 17-year-old really does pay dividends for both the club and the national team. Some people who know who listen to the podcast know this, but Kobe is repped by the Clyburn brothers, Gary and Brian, and

that's probably the explanation for why he's not playing in USL much, or at least maybe contributes to it. Clivens and Dennis DeClosa, the technical director for the Galaxy, are as is well documented, not on the warmest of terms.

And so Kobe's probably looking for a probably looking to go to Europe as soon as he can. But that's, that's ways out. He's still in under 17 and he's got to be 18 before he can go. Yeah, they just, they just dropped Mike Munoz, the coach of formerly the coach of the Galaxy Academy teams and now, then was promoted to the USL side. Still, I just, I really think the pathway, and again, this is nothing that Kobe can really handle, but the pathway to get to Europe when you, when you navigate through USL, I just that has proven successful for some players.

So I was hoping he could have ridden that wave too, but it doesn't look like that'll be the case. Right. Yeah, you can't, I don't know if we could really blame Toclosa and the Galaxy for saying, you know, you're probably the best player in our academy and we want you to sign a contract if you're going to use our USL team for a couple of years. But yeah, it's an unfortunate situation all around. And I hope that he is able to find minutes. don't have another Taylor Booth, Gio Raina situation where a player is sitting on the sidelines

for a year, year and a half while they wait to turn 18. Yeah. Well, he'll certainly get to showcase himself at the World Cup in October for the U-17s. Joey, why don't you give us your pick? This would be the seventh lock for the 2021 U-20 World Cup roster. Yeah, kind of crazy. Another player that will show out in the World Cup this fall will be Ricardo Pepe, the FC Dallas, North Texas front man.

Kind of crazy that we consider 2003 a guy that we'd be playing up two years as a lock for this cycle, but I think we're pretty much unanimous that somebody like Pepe is probably the starting nine on this team as he's the starting nine for the U-17s coming up here. He's just so good at that role. He works hard. He's really good with his feet. And he just continues to grow.

And as he grows and puts some more meat on the frame, I think he'll be kind of an essential player for not only the youth national teams, but FC Dallas as well. Yeah, he seems like he's got all the tools. Matt, you want to take the eighth pick? Yeah, so my next pick is going to be David Ochoa. I think Ochoa is in a great position to be the starting keeper next cycle. He was Tab Ramos's trademark underagekeeper at this year's U-20 World Cup and easily has the best club. situation of the top goalkeepers in this age bracket.

So it sounds like he might be able to stake a claim to an MLS job next season. And I think he has the size and shot-stopping ability to do it. But worst case scenario really is that he plays 2,000 minutes in USL next year. You know, it's a great spot he's in. Right. He came up really big for the USU20s against Qatar with essentially a game-s saving save. You can't understate the fact that when you watch the U20 World Cup, it was obvious on TV that the team just felt more comfortable, especially the defense when Ochoa was in goal over Brady Scott. And that's no slight on Scott, but it just seemed a little bit more, everybody seemed a little bit more panicky back there.

And with Ochoa, it just seemed, you know, a lot more comfortable. I'm not sure if he pulled, you know, he emulated that, you know, that kind of sensation back there. But it just seemed like everything worked a little bit better when he was in goal. So it'll be exciting to kind of see how he progresses. I think Matt's right. I think he's got a good shot of, you know, working his way up into the RSL first team. But if not, USL is more than a good spot for a 18, 19-year-old keeper to play for a year or two.

Yeah, just one quick note by way of context. Nick Romando is a starting goalkeeper at RSL, Real Salt Lake. Ramando is retiring at the end of this year. So it's either going to be a Choa or like a new signing, essentially. And I think a Choa. Yeah, Choa had to be a Choa. Sorry, Adam. Ochoa had opportunities to go abroad. He would have to do the Taylor Booth Giorana set out thing.

But RSL convinced him to stay on board. And I have to imagine if they convinced him to standboard, there was some kind of not guarantee playing time, but some opportunity that he couldn't turn down that he thinks he can make that role his. Okay, okay. The next pick comes to me, and I'm going to pass. I don't see anybody else as a lock.

I think we got eight locks. I pretty much agree with all of those. except for one, which we will talk about. But you guys, either of you have another one? Nope. I don't either. Okay, let's get into if anybody thinks anybody else's lock isn't a lock. And yeah, I'm just not sure about Booth.

That's my only one, Joey. Clearly a talented player who's comfortable on the ball, but what does he specialize in? What is he special at? It doesn't look like a big defensive asset to me. It didn't seem overly dangerous in the attacking third when I saw him with the Byron U-19s this spring. Admittedly, he was coming off.

I can't remember if it was an injury or some other kind of long layoff. But I just don't see the plus factor there. Persuasion. Yeah, I'd agree with you, Bell, that I think he's a solid connector, and that makes him a lock for a U-20 team in 2015. I'm not so sure about 2021.

The player pool has evolved to the point where being able to receive and deliver a pass at a high level, isn't that rare a treat anymore. And you said Joey that he could play either the six to eight or the ten earlier. And I'm just not sure that he can play the six or the ten. It's because he's not a good enough defender. And while he is a fantastic pass there over short range, I don't necessarily think he has the vision to really break lines.

Yeah, you know, I do think he's an underrated defender. So I'm going to disagree with you guys there. Okay. The O1 pool has not had a six. And to be honest, we're reaching past even the O2s to grab the six for this pool in Lava, you know, when we talk about locks. So the O-1s have been really, really, you know, there's been no real dominant number six in the pool. And Booth had to play that for a large majority of the time. And that's definitely not his role.

I would agree with you, he's not a six. I agree with you, he's not a 10. I definitely think he's an eight. I think he can do some of those roles. I think he's done the six role admirably. I don't think he's the kind of number six that's going to fly around or kind of be the crunching. tackler that maybe some other players are. But I think he positions himself well. I think my favorite part about Booth is he'll do the simple things really well. He'll do a pass in one touch versus

some other players three touches. And that really does set up other players, more creative players to be in the best spots available. The concern is if Booth's the eight in this group, I don't know who the player that he gets the ball to create will be. I'm not sure he's the the most creative player, the kind of magic in his boots type guy that they can run the number 10 show for this group, but I'm not sure who is. So to me, somebody who can kind of fill some of those roles, you know, is kind of a pen-pended starter for me. Okay.

Well, he does have a full year with the Byron Unitines to sort of hone his game and prove himself. And he's certainly in the conversation, in my opinion. I'm not 100% disagreeing with you, Joey. That's all I stand. No, sure. And it's a fair criticism. He's been injured and he's had layoffs. So I would understand that there'd be some criticism, just or, you know, some not sure that he's a lock type player. But I think he's got that quality in a healthy year, hopefully, in that setup at Byron, should do wonders for him. Okay. So we're going to do some questions from patrons on Patrione. You can support the podcast on Patreon if you want. And one of the perks is if you, if you, give me a question, I'll probably try to ask it. So I solicited questions, and we're going to try to answer a lot of those.

But first, but first, let me ask you guys a question of my own. Who would you like the next cycle's U20 coach to be? Hartman, I think you're kind of chomping at the bit here. Yeah, so I think it's time for Tab to move on to bigger and better things. If Tab does leave, I wouldn't have a problem with Wiki moving up with the U-17. crop to lead the U-20 cycle. I really enjoyed how the U-17s played and progressed under him over the course of U-17 qualifying.

If that isn't in the cards, I'd go with Matt Pilkington, who's the current NYCFC U-19 coach. I was super impressed by how he led NYCFC to the U-19 title in the DA playoffs this season, beating what I thought were some better teams along the way. The win over FC Dallas in particular was a special one to me because he basically just out-tacted an FC Dallas team that was able, is able to beat most teams into submission by just overloading the midfields with fullbacks.

And he lined up his team in a specific way to pin the fullbacks back. And it was really impressive. So I think Pilkington's a great coach. Wiki would be, is a great coach as well. And that'd be the preferred option if Tab does move. Okay. Joe, you got any thoughts on this? Yeah, I think it's got to be Wiki.

I think that his, you know, hiring as the U-17 coach seemed a little off at the time. And I think it's because U.S. soccer knew the tab would probably be moving on and Wiki would probably be elevated to that spot. Is he the guy that I would want? You know, he's looked pretty, his teams have looked pretty good. So far, he's only been in the job for a little while. But, you know, let's say he has a terrible World Cup with the U-17s, you know, you might have to open up to some of the better days.

DA coaches like Matt was saying. So I think it's got to be wiki at this point. I think the way his teams came on and the U-17 woke up qualifying really was impressive. And so giving him a kind of a wider net and better pool players would be good for the Federation. Okay. I guess I'm just not sure Ramos is leaving, you know. With each passing day, I'm like, well, maybe he's, maybe I just assumed made an ass out

of you and an ass out of me, you know? Is there any chance that he sticks around? I mean, it seems like it would be in his interest to try to get an MLS job and prove himself at the pro level. But maybe he's making the money he wants. Maybe he likes the way his life is sort of organized. There's more things than just soccer. Sure.

Yeah, I think you guys might know better at me about the structural setup with inside U.S. soccer. And I know TAB and Ernie Stewart, I would assume good friends or talk on a regular basis. but it just seemed like, you know, and I really like Tab, but it just always seemed like he was the Black Sheep of the Federation, kind of did his things his own way, which I appreciated. But if they're really going to start integrating Burhalter's ideas,

you would think that that higher, or the U20 coach would be critical in implementing some of those things at a younger age, and I'm not sure if Tab's willing to start integrating some of those ideas into his philosophy. So I'm not saying he would be pushed out, because I don't think a guy with his repertoire could be pushed out, from this role. But my thought is that if Tab were to be looking else, where I don't think it would break Ernie Stewart's heart. A conscious uncoupling, you might say. I would say that, yeah, very, very well spoken. Okay, we can move on from Tab. Here's a question

from Kevin Chan, a long time listener. When you do your roster view, can you call out potential roster selections who are also dual nationals of other countries? Thanks, and I'm going to turn this one right over to you, Joey. And then Matt can tack on some at the end. Yeah, Matt, can I get your help for some of these guys, actually? Sure. I think the first one we need to talk about is this Matt Co. Milagelop, how do you say his last name, you guys?

I think it's Milgevich. Milgevich. He's a Croatian, Serbian, Argentinian background was born in Miami. He plays for Argentino juniors down in Argentina, obviously. He was involved in a U.S. 16 camp that was in France. Is a central attacking midfielder. It can play out wide on the left some.

Really a creative player. Somebody I think this pool could really use, he's been involved with the Argentina U-20s over the last couple of camps that they have had. I don't think he's there starting, one of the starters for that group, but it seems like he's pretty integrated into that roster right now. It's very much a lot easier to incorporate him

into an Argentina youth camp since he lives down there, then maybe fly up and down for a couple weeks for the U.S. but I think the U.S. will probably make pretty good effort to get him on within the pool. So that's one to watch. He's been involved in some of the first team action for that club. So the highlight reels on Mijelovich are super impressive. He's pretty big and has a ton of flare.

It'll be interesting to see if he remains in the Argentina setup as the cycle progresses just because some of those big South American countries generally start out with a big youth player base and weed players out as the cycle progresses. So that's something to keep an eye on. You want me to take Baligan? Yeah, can you? Sure. So Balagan is an Arsenal youth player.

Give us a first name. Give us a first name. Or Flourin Balagan. He's supremely talented. He's a terrific athlete with a great first touch. reminds me a little bit of the promise of a young Josie Altadour. He makes wonderful runs and always seems to be in the right spot in and around the box. He scored buckets of goals for Arsenal's U19s last season.

I think it was somewhere in the mid-20s and just had a six-minute hat trick with the Arsenal U-23s in the last couple of weeks in the last week or so. So I think that he's one of the most talented players in the American pool, in the American pool if he were to be in it. I think he's the White Whale dual national of the age group in that we're probably not going to get to see him ever play for a U.S. youth national team. But definitely want to keep an eye on down the road because if he doesn't, if the opportunities dry up for England, as they often do for England youth national team players, we should be ready to pass. ounce. Yeah, well, speaking of white whales, there's one down there in Los Angeles, too, right? Yeah, I don't know if we could really say anything we haven't already said on this podcast,

but F for Alvarez for the Galaxy, but, I mean, he plays a position of need in my eyes for this pool. I mean, it's been well chronicled. He hasn't been involved with the U.S. for a couple years, lastly with the U-15s. There was obviously some kind of falling out. And while he said everything right in the media, about not closing the door to opportunities to play for the United States. Over the last couple of days, it does seem like there's some traction that Tata Martino has been in communication with the galaxy about calling FRA up for Nations League,

which would cap time. And if Tata Martinez is giving you regular calls and the USU20 coach, whoever it might be, is on the fence about bringing you into a pool, I think that the choice is fairly easy if you're FRA. And, you know, it just will be, it would be interesting to see him paired next to a Giovanni Raina or a Ullianez, who he has a really good chemistry with having played with him for years. But it doesn't look like that'll be happening, I don't think. Yeah. I've sort of stopped hoping for that, to be frank. Joe, you've got a Tillman in here.

Which Tillman is this? Yeah, this is Malik Tillman. It's Timothy Tillman's younger brother. Malik is a 2002. He's been with Byron since his brother made a move. high profile move to their academy a few years ago. And initially, Timothy was the better of the two brothers, but really, Malik has really come into his own.

He started off with the Byron U-17s last year and really was clear from the beginning that he was really too good for that age group. I think he really averaged about a goal a game for them at the U-17 level. So then he was promoted to the U-19s. And toward the end of the year, really was one of the main players or COGS in that Byron U-19. squad. I mean, we're going to run to this problem with any player that we have over at Byron, but the ability to play professional games or get minutes in cup matches is going to be difficult

for a player like this. Malik is well established in the German U-16, U-17 setup. I have reached out to him, and he has said that he would be interested in, you know, continuing to represent the United States if they would call. I ask him if he has talked to the United States and he says they haven't called for a while. So I'm not sure if the U.S. is kind of given up on him for the time being until they see kind of where he falls with Germany. You know, he too can play multiple positions in the midfield, really sees himself more as a 10. But he's got a good frame and he's got good technique. And like Booth, he'll be one of the driving forces of the midfield for the Byron U19s this year.

Must see TV, those Byron U19s this year. Yeah. Who you got next? I got a couple kids over in Europe. Ota Otisoui is a defensive the midfielder from Wolverhampton. He was kind of a revelation, had been kind of a surprise call up to a couple of U-16 camps a few years ago, a few of the ones that were held over in Europe.

He's a big kid. I think he was like 6'1 at the time a year ago and really kind of came out of nowhere. His problem with Wolverhampton in the United States has been injuries. He has a dual citizen with England as well, but it doesn't seem like they're really courting him at all. He can play the center

back role as well. So there's some value for the U.S. there because that pool is not deep. But he's been often injured for Wolverhampton. So if he can stay healthy, I do think he's somebody that the coach and the pool will look at. So he's one to kind of keep an eye on. And then Max Gogol is a defensive midfielder centerback for Stuttgart. He too has been involved like Tillman in some Germany youth camps, never to the level of actually playing in the competition, cat-tine competition. But Gogol is from the San Francisco area, played in the DA for a few years,

and they made a move abroad because he has an EU passport. But he got some run in the Nike Friendlies a few years ago. Definitely kind of a deep-lying midfielder, center-back type player. I don't think his position is definitely set in stone for Stuttgart. So it would be interesting to kind of watch him play. He's at 2002. I believe he'll be with the U-19s for Stuttgart this year,

so to kind of see where they'll be playing and we'll be kind of, you know, make the difference on where the U.S. kind of sees where their needs are. Let me jump in real quick on Otisoe and say, or Otisoi, I'm not sure how you pronounce it. But he was with the U-18s for a couple of friendlies last, I guess it would have been early 2018, and we played centerback. He and Arajo were both playing centerback for that team. And they both looked really good.

I thought he looked excellent at that position. And he's well over six feet tall, right? I mean, he's a big kid. Yeah. So if he can get fit and sort of establish himself in Wolverhampton, we might like have a centerback on our hands. And that's, as we'll talk about later, definitely a position of need. So that's end of my interjection.

Back to you, Joey. Or actually next up is Matt, who you got? Yeah, so I have a couple of players I'll talk about. Nick DeFritas Hansen is a 0-1 goalkeeper at Everton who, recently decided to represent Denmark at the youth international level. I haven't seen him often enough to say how big a loss that is, but it doesn't sound like the door is shut on a U.S. return, and it's hard to get too excited about a player as far away from the first,

as far away from first team minutes as he is. But he seems to be highly rated in the Everton Academy, so want to keep an eye on. another player in England is Eunice Munza. He's a 2002-way midfielder who recently left the Arsenal Academy. I'm not sure if he's landed anywhere yet, but the presumption was that he was going to, he was going to trial in Spain.

It doesn't seem like he has all that strong a connection to the U.S. despite being born here and has only represented England at youth national team level, but he's one another one to keep an eye on if the England youth national team caps dry up. From the highlights I've seen of him, he looks like an incredible athlete, a real two-way player who can win a ball and then play a nice pass. So definitely want to keep an eye on. One interesting one is, you want to interject Joey?

No, no, no, go ahead. Okay. Another interesting player is Ushin McKenty. He's centerback at Newcastle, who is, considered one of the better players in that academy from what I've read. He's American-born but has represented Ireland thus far at international level. It's probably hard to see a situation in which he's playing with us just because the U.S. and Ireland are just pretty close to each other in terms of

international stature and Ireland happens to be right there. So why come all the way over here? But you never know. And then the last player I'll mention is Leon Flatch. He's a German American who played with St. Pauli's U-19's last season. He's been called into a couple German youth national team camps in the last few years, but he actually just suffered a knee injury training with St. Pauli's first team, and it seems like you might miss a good chunk of the upcoming season.

So that's not, you don't like to hear that. But from what I've seen, he's a good pacey dribbler who can play in a central midfield or out on the wing. Okay. We got to keep moving here. So let's go to another question. This is from Ben Harold, half-spaces guy on Twitter. Good follow if you're not already following him. What are the chances that our starting defensive midfielder for this cycle will buck the trend and have some defensive prowess in addition to being a good passer. Throwing some real shade at Michael Bradley and Will Trap there. I would say it was a very good chance of that. I think I think Lava has near Tyler Adams level energy as a defender slash disruptor,

if not Adams' athleticism range and quickness. I also think Adam Saldania, who is definitely not a lock for the 2021 U20 roster, in my opinion, is another very smart, tough, good defensive midfielder, though not very big or fast. So I think there's a decent chance. Go ahead. Yeah, I'm not sure there's too much of a trend to buck when it comes to the U20s specifically. If I recall correctly, we lined up with one of EPB or Eric Palmer Brown that is Kellan Acosta or Tyler Adams at the six in the two cycles before the last one. But regardless, I think that this cycle will have a number six that can, that will have some defensive prowess.

Looking at the options that we have at that position, they're all fairly, whether it's a, they're all. fairly good defensively, whether it be Adam Sedana or a player like Danny Lava. The only player that would really concern me would be Boothed, but we've hit on that already. Yeah, we can all agree to disagree, Joey, don't be mad. Don't be mad. John Roche has another question. Who are the three players in this group not named Gio Raina, who are most likely to be senior U.S. men's national team contributors? You're up, Joey.

Yeah, like we talked about a little while ago, it's tough not to see Julian Oroho as one of the fast-tracked guys to the U.S. men's national team, if that's the way he goes. Again, he's an excellent athlete, a good defender, and as he said time and time again on the podcast the other week, he loves the physicality of the professional game,

and I guess that's a worrisome aspect for some young defenders, is, you know, are they going to get stuck in? Are they going to be physically unmatched? and Oroho is not that kind of player. So I can very easily see him, you know, making that leap to the U.S. men's national team. I think the only thing standing in his way is the players in front of him, namely maybe the guy that played in front of him at the World Cup,

the U-20 World Cup just a few months ago in Serginio Dest, who looks poised to make an impact with the national team here soon. And that's not adding Nick Lima or Reggie Cannon, DeAndre Edlin. So there's some players in front that he'd have to hop, but I could see him. a guy like Ricardo Pepi, again, his trajectory has been amazing. And if he continues on that and stays healthy, you know, the sky's the limit for him.

And as you said earlier, Adam, I think another player I would kind of earmark as Kobe Hernandez Foster. I mean, this kid a year ago really wasn't a player that we would talk about with the U-17 national team. And he's had an unbelievable year for the national teams. If he can get a good club situation sorted out, I think he can really, you know, you can really progress. Yeah, it's hard to disagree with any of those, that trio for me. Matt, what do you, what do you got? So I almost want to pick two fullbacks just because there's just so little in front of them. Right now, if Gloucester doesn't hit, then it's pretty easy to see two of the, two of the current U-17 leftbacks being called into national team camps for, you know, the next decade, I guess, until a younger player,

usurps them. But I'll hold off on that, and I think I'd take the same trio. The only change I might make would be to take a player like Colbassett maybe over Pepey just because it's easier to get minutes in a midfield than it is up top for a national team, just more spots, less roster crunch. You don't say. Yeah. Incredible roster crunch these days at Stryker.

I want to put Lava in the mix there, partly because of what you said about the midfield being easier to break into. And I also think all indications are his mentality is elite. You know, that's why Seattle signed him when he was 15. He's got that combination of confidence and humility that is so valuable and elusive. and he works, he works hard, he plays hard for 90 minutes. I think that it's hard to underrate that. Everything in this podcast has taken longer than it. We thought it would, which is kind of how these things go.

But now is the time for us, so we hope to do this earlier, but now is the time for us to recognize today's sponsor, a new podcast called Soccer 101. A lot of you will have heard of it, because the overlap between us and these guys is pretty large. But this is a new show from the Total Soccer Show guys, Daryl Grove and Taylor Rockwell, and it's a very cool idea.

A series of soccer explainers that go deep on each topic. They drop several episodes right out of the gate. I've listened to the shows on numbered positions, derbies, and how to watch soccer for tactics. And even though I spend a large portion of my day thinking about soccer, I found them interesting. I'd almost point my friends and family who don't really get into scuffed to soccer 101

because I think it would help them find our podcast less confusing. Probably isn't going to be enough, though, let's be honest. The number of positions episode as in what's a six, what's an eight, what's a ten, what's a nine, and where did that all come from? I thought was particularly interesting. Matt, have you checked it out? Yeah, I listened to the episode on Offsides Yesterday and really enjoyed it. I thought I understood the off-sides, the off-side rule really well going in, but turns out

I knew almost nothing about its history. So it was fun to hear how the rule has evolved to where it is today. And let's just say I have no idea how any goals were scored in the 1860s. Well, a specific thing I liked was the recommendation in the How to Watch Soccer for Tactics episode, the recommendation to turn off the commentator when you watch a game. They are insistent that any commentator will distract you from understanding the action on the field. I like that. And so you may have to shelve that devastating tweet you were going to fire off at Stu Holden,

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Go there and look it up. Please thank you to Soccer 101, to Darrell and Taylor, for sponsoring the show. Now back to the U20 player pool. So we've covered the high-end talent, at least as it stands right now, and that was eight players. There can only be 21 on the roster in 2021,

including three goalkeepers. So we've got 13 slots left, two of them for goalkeepers, Let's start at goalkeeper. Who's behind David Ochoa in the depth chart, and why should we pay attention to these guys? Matt. Yeah, so before I get to the main names,

I'll shout out some fringe guys who could work their way into the conversation over the next two years. Chris Shakes of the Philadelphia Union and Atlanta United's Mark Marzuk-Puckerin have impressed me at various points in the DA. Aaron Cervantes, Abraham Rodriguez, and Brooks Thompson are all.

O2s who have played in the USL this season. I've watched some of each and think that they are just too raw to be seriously considered at this stage, but that, you know, that could change in two years. Brian Dowd and Seth Wilson have been, were called up to the most recent U-17 camp. I haven't seen much of Dowd, but Wilson is a fantastic shot stopper. He plays for FC Dallas's U-17s. The problem with Wilson is that he plays for FC Dallas's U-17s so that you don't We get to see his shot-stopping ability all too much or how he'll react to adversity.

So despite all those names, I think the clear two favorites to back up Ochoa are the U-17 holdovers. That is Damien Loss and Chaturu Oduunze. Okay, Joey, any agreements, disagreements? Yeah, I think those are some great names that he covered, guys that I would definitely earmarked to kind of watch. But it's got to be loss. You know, we've been on here before kind of shouting his praises. He looks like a man for the U-17s in Nets, and I think if he continues on his current path,

he'll be a lock to be on this roster. I think it'll be interesting to kind of watch to see where he falls. We're already kind of starting to see some of the Chicago Fire Academy kids bail on the academy because it doesn't seem like they're very interested in having that continue for much longer. So he's never really been totally integrated to the DA, lost that is, but he'll play in some showcase events. But all indications are that he's heading to Europe, which will greatly improve his overall stock.

But there was, in my mind, some debate as to even if I think that in a couple of years, he would be somebody that would be above Ochoa. And I just don't see it right now. I think Ochoa's got such a firm pathway to some first team minutes that Loss doesn't at this point. But talent-wise, I think loss might be the most talented goalkeeper we've had. So he's definitely there for me. I just shout out real quick that sometimes in these, well, usually in these things, TAB or whoever the U20 coaches will bring an underage goalkeeper.

So I just pulled a couple of names, a couple of O3s who would be eligible for the next U20 cycle. Andre Zuluaga Silva, Elliot Jones, and Gavin Kureneki are the players, are the 03s that have been getting call-ups to the U.S.U16 national team. I cannot claim to be an expert on any of them, though. I've seen Krenneke play a few times. He moved from Sacramento where he was playing as an 03 at times with the U-19s for Sacramento. And then he made the move to Sporting Kansas City, which is crazy because Sporting Kansas City has really been gobbling up a lot of young goalkeeper talent. They have John Pulse Camp, who was over at Bournemouth and previously with Galaxy. Brooks Thompson, you mentioned.

Max Trejo is also an 01 that's been playing for the USL. and now they got Krenicki, who's in 03, he played specifically with U-17s for them. I think you're locked on, that they'll bring an underage keeper. Just makes sense to do that. And I think out of that pool of the 2003s, Krenniki's the guy, the best player in that pool.

So, spoiler alert, he's one of the guys I'm bringing to the World Cup. Wow. Okay. Big, big moves for Gavin. When he moved from California to the Midwest, you already have it in with me. That's my move. That is the move.

You know, get off the coast and come inward. That's the way to do it. Come to the corn belt, guys. All right. It's so humid here. It's very humid in the cornfields. Okay, another question from Patriol, which will lead us nicely into the left back discussion.

This is from Ben Williams, and it's a good question, I think. A year ago, we all thought George Bello was the heir apparent for the left back spot. Now we rarely hear of him. and Gloucester and Kobe get most of the hype. Why? Now, I will say we did a draft at the end of 2018

where we drafted any uncapped player in the whole pool. And who was the number one pick of all these players, including Richie Ledesma, Paxon, Pommacall, Sergenio Des, the number one pick overall was who? I don't remember. Yeah, it was George Bell. I mean, that's still a fair, that's still a fair assessment. Even today, I think that he's still right up there.

I will, you know, I'll let you talk, Matt, but I don't think that that was a bad pick. I still think that'd probably be the pick if we were to redo this right now. No, it wouldn't be the pick if we did it right now. Harmon, you can't tell a lie. You wouldn't pick Bello first if you had to do it over again. I probably wouldn't, no. But I don't hate the pick. I'm not upset at myself for making the pick when I made the pick.

He's just been plagued by injuries over the last year. It's hard to get excited about a player that you can't watch play. Additionally, since, like, none of the Atlanta homegrowns have progressed in the last year, there are some serious questions as to how good of a developmental environment Atlanta is. And that's concerning. Like, even when Bello comes back, I'm a little bit concerned about that. But the club situation, I don't think is bad from a sporting perspective. As soon as he does get healthy, he should be.

into the 18 for Atlanta United maybe makes a short stopover at Atlanta United too. But yeah, I understand why his stock has fallen a little bit. I've especially given the fact that the last game Bellow did play didn't go great. Yeah, I want to hear you out though, Joey, on it. Like, what's the case? Yeah. Well, yeah, you know, I mean, we could talk about the, I did watch that Concacaf Champions League game. I think it was it was in Costa Rica where he got that start.

Wherever it was, he did look a little out of his depths at the, that time. But I mean, he got on the field in a Conca Calf Champions League game as a 16-year-old. I mean, the guy's got the tools. If he can stay healthy, and he's playing under a coach that likes to use his fullbacks, his wingbacks, I just think he's in a good situation if he can stay healthy. Now, to your guys' point, we've watched multiple talented players come through Atlanta and just not, not, and kind of putter out. So there's definite concern with that whole academy system right now in my eyes. And so it'll be interesting. to see once he gets back to full fitness what he can do but it seems like he's been

injured near back training by himself injured training by himself for for months and i i just hope that he can get back to some kind of fitness or they're not going to rush him back too soon because he's still so young but the tools are there you know and he plays a position of need for us and so um you know yeah i still i still think if he can get healthy he's probably the starting left back for this team the u20 iteration in 2021 yeah i guess i would say It's probably unfair to put too much, to take too much from that Concaf Champions League performance. It was Frank DeBore's first match, I think. And Atlanta has certainly gotten more solid and improved since then.

I also am optimistic that Bello can work his way back into actual MLS minutes before the end of the season if he can get healthy. But the point about the Atlanta Academy, I think, is worth reiterating. saw another article just the other day come across the transom about Tony Annan saying, you know, we're fixing the system. I didn't even click on the headline because I'm tired of hearing about Tony Anon fixing the system. Like he did like an MLS at GA Cup. He gave a talk.

I think I watched that whole thing. It was like 30 minutes long. And it seemed like it seemed really good. But man, Tony, you and Carlos, you're on notice. You're on scuffed notice and you will be served. notice if you continue to screw up prospects. Yeah, because they not only have prospects in the area, but they're actively recruiting some of the best talent.

And if they can't get it right, it's not only going to harm their club, but it could harm the national team as well, the youth national team for sure. Yeah, and they've spent a lot of money. I mean, to be fair, they've spent a lot of money. They put a lot into it, but it has yet to yield fruit, I guess, is one way to put it.

And Andrew Carlton, of course, is the big example of a talented player who hasn't really hasn't progressed. I mean, Chris Goslin was right there two years ago with him. It's true. It's true. Strike two. Andrew Riley's question is

Kobe Hernandez Foster looked great at left centerback. However, he had several strikes in the ball toward goal that made me want to see him at left back. If both he and Bella are healthy, who should get the start at left back? I don't feel like we should spend too much time on this question.

So let me just, can I just take it, guys? Absolutely. I don't think Kobe's going to play left back at the World Cup. My interview with Rafah Wiki earlier this week indicated that that's at best an outside chance of happening. He's just too valuable to Wiki as a centerback. So if Bellow's healthy and shows himself to be fit, I think he has a good chance of taking that left back job.

If he's not or for some of the reason isn't available, it's going to be. Adam Armour or John Tolkien with the U-17s. I feel like that answers a question, right? Okay, let's talk about some other leftbacks because I just mentioned Tolkien. Armour, I think he won me over a little bit at Concaf Championship. Jonathan Gomez at FC Dallas is another, like,

very talented left-back. Are we coming into a golden generation of left-backs? Yeah, there's almost too many players to name here, and that's certainly new when we're talking about left backs at youth national team level. Let's start out on Johnny Gomez. In my opinion, Gomez is the best FC Dallas prospect that isn't already on a homegrown contract. You could probably mistake him for a player like Sergio Dest in possession. He needs to develop physically, and hopefully that helps offset some of his defensive deficiencies. but we're talking about a super high-ceiling player here.

He's better on the ball than the vast majority of DA forwards. No doubt. And he's with the Mexico U-16s right now, too, by the way. Side note. Yeah, I've caught a couple of his matches for the North Texas team, and he has looked very impressive. It doesn't look out of place as a 2003, so playing up a number of years against some of those players.

So definitely an interesting player to watch. Yeah, so the next player would be John Tolkien, who is just a workman, like, technically solid left back, who he's not going to make your eyes open wide by anything he does, but he does have an eye for the final ball. And I just really love the effort and attitude that he brings to every team that he's in. And I think that you can never understate situations when talking about. players this young and being with the new york red bulls academy and with their second team now is just such a good spot for a player like him to develop for sure yeah throw me a couple more names sure so a couple more names are stewart ritchie who uh recently transferred to hanover uh where he will likely take over the un 19 left back duties from chris gloucester uh i thought ritchie was a great

prospect back when he was playing attacking mid in the DA a couple of years ago. So as long as he can do the dirty work required of a defender, he should be a more than capable two-way player. And another player I've liked recently is Nathan Harrell. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that name right, but he's a Philadelphia Union slash Bethlehem Steel player who can play both full-back positions and already has hundreds of minutes in the USL. He hasn't been all that impressive in the games I've watched,

but he was playing right back when he's maybe a little bit better, or he's certainly a little bit better at left back. And that flexibility and the opportunity he has in the USL means that he might be in this pool because that's half the battle with player development. Okay. I want to make one note about Richie, which is he transferred to Hanover from FC Groningen, right? Right.

in Holland. He's an interesting player to watch because I agree with you. He's a problem solver on the ball and I like that. Joey, you got a lot to say about left backs, right? So let's get into that. Yeah. Let me just kind of breeze through him real quick. There's a number of pretty talented solid left backs heading to college amongst them are Julian Hinojosa. He's the FC Dallas left back. He was the left back for the U-14s and 15s for a while, had a stint in the Mexico set up too, but he's off to UNC. He's been a fine left back for FC Dallas over the years.

I think he's grown up a little bit physically, and I don't think he's grown up into his body at this point, but I think UNC will be a good spot for him. Likewise, Adam R. Moore, we talked about him with the U-17s. A little skeptical of his play prior to some of those matches in Concordcaf qualifying

for the World Cup for the U-17s, but I think he's a very solid player. He should be headed to Duke. There's some rumblings. He might be joining the Atlanta Academy, and we've already spoken about that aspect of development. Another interesting player I really do like is Nico Belakhanazar. He's the left back, left center back for NYFC. He's off to Wake Forest. I can really think of no better place for a soccer player to develop in college than Wake Forest. And so it'll be interesting

to kind of see where he's deployed, but I do think he's a guy that can start off from his freshman year, Trevi and Sousa is from, again, the Bay Area. He recently moved over to Hamburg. He had been playing abroad, had multiple trials in Scotland and England. He's got a Portuguese passport, but he is in 01. He's been deployed as a defensive midfielder for Ballistics United in Sacramento United, but I think he's going to settle as left back as his position. So he'll be playing for the Hamburg U19s this year.

Then just a few more, Andre Reynolds recently got his first start for Chicago Fire. He's a homegrown out of the fire academy. He looks pretty good, according to reports for the fire. And then again, we'll talk about him maybe a little bit later, but Cameron Duke, the Sporting Kansas City homegrown player, just signed a few weeks ago. He, like Hinojosa, were the left backs of this pool early on in the cycles. But Duke has kind of migrated into the midfield.

Still, for me, unclear where his best position is. I don't see him projecting as a midfielder long term. Leftback is a position that he knows. as well. And so that might be something that if he can get on the field for Can City, maybe it is as a left back, and then he joins the pool at that position. So the number of names. Yeah, go ahead. Is Duke left-footed? I think he is. I think he's, he can play with both feet, but I think he's predominantly a left-footed player. Okay. Yeah, I've liked what I've seen from him. And can I say one

thing about Armour? I alluded to this earlier, but he looked kind of bad in the Nike friendlies and maybe even kind of bad early in the in the Conca Calf Championship. But, you know, some of those highlights that were widely disseminated on Twitter of the U-17s playing like Iaxe, you know, tapping the ball, cutting up opponents like Mexico and Canada

late in the tournament. He played a key role in some of those highlights, and he was actually pretty good at Tiki-Tak eyeing up the field. So I, so that's why not only is he a good athlete, like sort of a traditional American, good athlete at fullback, but he showed an ability to play with the ball at his feet as a tournament went on. I'm not ready to sell my house and buy a bunch of Adamar Morstock, but I'm just saying

he, I'm just saying he moved the needle with me a little bit. All right, studiously avoiding central defense. Let's go to right back, Arraho is a clear starter. If he's still around for this age group by 2021, I also like Maricio Cuevas at that position. been talking about Joe Scali moving to centerback on this podcast for decades, it feels like, but it still hasn't happened. So maybe he'll still be a right back in two years. Hartman, where do you see the right back depth chart? Yeah, I'm considerably lower on Scali than I was this time last year, but he still has a ton of talent to go along with all that size. His 1v1 defending was a real red flag at qualifying, though,

and that's kind of always been the knock on him. So it's not great to see that he's, He still has these lapses where he just lets a player get by him. And now with the size that he has, he may not have the quickness to the recovery speed to let that happen as much anymore. Maricio Quivas is, I like to think of him a bit as like a right-sided Chris Gloucester. He's very well-rounded for his age. Nice. Nice analogy. Thanks. He's really well-rounded for his age.

And it'll be interesting to see what happens to his club situation over the next few years because he already has. a really good young right back in front of him on the Galaxy Debt chart. Yeah, for me, the name to watch is Ian Hoffman. Person reports in the last few camps that the 2001s have been involved in. Hoffman's been one of the better players in the camp and kind of developed himself into a leader of the bunch. He plays central midfielder for his club in Germany right now, kind of an 8, 10 player for them. But the U.S. setup really does seem to want him to play as a wingback and see him as a as a number two. Again, if they're going to start integrating Burrhalter's system at this level,

does seem like they're going to want a player who can get on the ball and kind of move into midfield at some points. So I think he's definitely somebody to kind of watch in that role. It's no surprise, but I'm a big Shushu Hilton fan here. There's been lots made out of him, and the fact that he turned 18 about a month ago, still hasn't lashed onto a club. It's very concerning to me,

but I just can't shake the videos that I was sent with him playing as a 13, year old, 14 year old for the U.S. in some of the tournaments and how good he was and how other teams would have to game plan against him. I mean, obviously he's probably lost some of that juice, having not played in a competitive match or a real competitive match at a high level

for his age in a number of years, but I'm not letting that fire go out here, so I'm going to continue to ride that wave. I love it. I love your commitment. And I actually have, I don't have a negative opinion of Hilton. So I don't, I'm not going to

disagree with that. I like Hoffman. I like Hoffman the way he solves problems as a right-back. He played some right-back for Carl's Rue last season. I watched a couple of those games. And he's a nice player. He's really good in possession. He moves the ball forward. He's a good passer. I worry a little bit about his athleticism against an elite winger. But I don't worry that much about it. Let me ask this. Sebastian Anderson, the right back for the Colorado Rapids has made a debut. I think he started a couple games, scored a goal a week or so ago. Why is he not the first name on the list here? You know, MLS Minutes.

Yeah, the thing with Anderson is just that he's come out of nowhere, really. I mean, I knew his name and there were rumors that he was pretty good, but that Colorado Rapids Academy, I mean, nobody just seems to have a good, a good foothold on who's coming out and when. They just, we don't get their games too often. So I'm kind of seeing him for the first time as he plays in MLS. And I think that he's looked good. It'll be interesting to see if he could replace one of Scali or Quavos on the U17 roster, on the U17 World Cup roster. I don't think his ceiling is as high as any one of, as either of those players.

But, and he doesn't, he certainly doesn't have. of their dribbling or interplayability, but he might be more ready for the, for the level of competition at a World Cup, just on account of his MLS Minutes. And you can't, it's when you're getting MLS Minutes, even if,

even if you're not a super high-end player, you know, that could be the boost that you need to, to make a career of it. Yeah. Yeah, I'm going to contradict myself here in a few minutes when we talk about another Rapids player,

but there's a certain bar when I, you know, and I agree, MLS Minutes or MLS minutes are almost, less minutes no matter what club you're at. There's definitely a Colorado Rapids bar that has to be talked about and the fact that they just, there's, there's not as much talent on that roster. And so he has bumped up ahead of, you know, some players who, like, I do think that if, you know, maybe if a player like Kovas or Hoffman, if they were in that academy, I think that they would be putting

in similar type of work. I don't think, you know, his situation definitely lends him to be added to the depth, but I just don't see him as the kind of player that could give him. give this pool what it needs over some of the players we've talked about already. The Rapids discount, I think, is what we're talking about. Just a little bit of a discount, yeah. It's like Aldi. It's like going to Aldi. Right.

Yeah, let me just mention a couple more right backs real quick. Brian Reynolds was initially a forward that signed a homegrown deal with Dallas a couple years ago, and he's playing right back now and looks okay. he's a great athlete but incredibly raw at the position and it's hard to see him making an impact at this level by the time the U-20 World Cup rolls around just because there are better options I think Kevin Benia is like is a player I really like he's playing for North Texas SC mostly he's a 2001 and he plays fullback the way that Dallas fullback play fullback, which is mostly as a center midfielder.

He'll move up and down the right side and he'll move into the middle. But he'll basically play everywhere on the field, but where a traditional right back will play just because they play with such a with the fullback so high. And I think he has the skill set of a center midfielder. So he can pass into into the midfield and have giving goes with a player like Tanner Testman and he looks really good doing it. I'd be surprised if he doesn't get a contract with FC Dallas at some point. And then the last player I'll mention is Jacob Ackin-Yearage, who is also a homegrown player

with this time with the San Jose earthquakes. I never really saw it with him. I was surprised when they signed him to a homegrown contract. He saw a lot. Yeah, again, a good athlete. Not really sure what his position is. He's been listed as a right winger. He's been listed as a right back as a centerback.

I think if he's going to make it, it'd have to be at right back. I watched him play. He played a USL game with Reno, I think, two or three weeks ago when I watched that game. And he seemed fine, but it wasn't nothing that jumps off the screen at you. But he is a homegrown player and maybe something, maybe San Jose can make it work. Any more right backs? Joey? No, I think we've pretty much covered them all. That's a pretty deep list, honestly. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks, guys. So centerback, a position that's probably the most confusing, for me at least. I love to hear who you guys think the frontrunners are at that position for 2021. And Joey Anthon will take the lead on this one.

Yeah, I have a couple names that I really do like, and I think are going to be the starting centerback pairing. Blake Malone, he's a Seattle Sounders product, was dominant for them at the U-17 level and had a pretty good year at the 19th level. He's off to UNC this fall. He's dominant in the air. He'll get plaudits for his ability to dominate the headers on the offensive end because of some of the goals he can score.

But he's incredibly tough to beat in the air 1V1 in his defensive box. And I think that's an important aspect to what we need from this position moving forward. He knows when to step to an attacking player. He possesses that last-ditch effort trait that all good defenders have. He's very vocal from the position and kind of knows when to shift. He's not the best on the ground 1v1 defender, but he very rarely gets beaten. So like I said, he's off to UNC this fall.

I think that's an excellent spot for a centerback to go. If you can get minutes in the ACC as a freshman playing at that spot, I think he'll be just fine in terms of maybe not. not playing at the USL level. And he hasn't really logged a ton of USL minutes for Tacoma. So I do wonder kind of where Seattle sees him in their homegrown trajectory. But he's been involved in the last couple of one camps. Definitely a player, I think, will be one to watch for this group.

Another one I'll talk on quickly is Leo Sopoveda. Sapovita was with the LA Galaxy and Chivasiosay. He's one of the Clybin kids. He's a 2001 left-footed centerback. was actually involved in that epic zero-zero U-19 final last year between NYCFC and the Galaxy.

I kind of pulled up the rosters from that and there's about 10 players of the 22 that are already playing professional or have gotten professional minutes not including him because I don't think he's gotten, maybe got a spot started in Los Dose

last year but just the quality on the field that night was unbelievable and I remember thinking as an 01 playing against 99's, Sapovita stood out. He's calm on the ball, left foot dominant. He's kind of slow and not a huge kind of physical presence. But again, kind of like Malone doesn't seem to get beat a whole lot. Really does

like to quarterback things from the centerback spot. And I've been talking to people who know him or see him pretty well. He left the Galaxy Academy kind of surprisingly early in the DA season last year kind of before Clybin, the whole Clybin mess went down with the Galaxy. And he's been training by himself. And all reports are that he will sign with Club America in Mexico and play for their sub-20 team this upcoming season.

He's still working out some kinks in that roster. But he's been to Tigris and Atlas down there. But he'll sign somewhere in Mexico here. He was, I think, about to turn 18. So I'm not sure what the holdup will be. but definitely a player that's been well established in this pool for the U16s and the 2001s has been the captain of this group for a number of camps. So if he can get regular playing time down in Mexico, I think he's definitely somebody

will call up. Lastly, I just want to talk about Antino Lopez, the Shattuck St. Mary, kind of dominant centerback. He played with the U-17s for Shattuck and the D.A. playoffs. Shattuck kind of went all in on the 17s, so they really didn't have Lopez playing up at all. season. He formed a pretty formidable partnership with Diego Ochoa Gomez, kind of a revelation of the playoffs this year. But as Matt and I were talking about earlier, Lopez really does need to play at a higher level if we're going to really consider him for a centerback role playing at the 17 level last year, was kind of disappointed just because he was

so much bigger physically and stronger than a lot of the forwards at that age group. He did look like a man amongst boys. He is off to Seattle and we'll play with the D.E. and presumably maybe get some USL minutes next season. So there's a couple names I'm watching for. Matt, what do you got? Yeah, so I think a player in a similar situation to Lopez would be Axel Alejandro, who has, despite being in numerous U-17 national team camps now, just won't be moved up by his club, FC United, to play with their U-19.

So he's a national team talent playing at the level, at his age level, which is not something that you want to see at this point. I still think that he's that he's a decent player. But unless his situation improves quickly, I think that we're looking at him as a depth piece for a roster like this. A couple other centerbacks I like. Nico Carrera, I think, is the best U-17 centerback in the country right now. he's big fasts reads the game like a player 10 years older than he is and he's just the complete package maybe like you know the thing that you'd like to see from him is is maybe become a little bit more two-footed and pass the ball they get a little bit more comfortable passing the ball but he's a he's a

real talent and I think that as long as we could keep him away from Mexico he's going to be in this group. I look at big, Matt, I look at big soccer sometimes, and not everybody there is convinced that Carrera is good. So, so defend your position that he's the best U-17 centerback in the country. Well, I mean, it's half that he's just, I don't see how he could be much better of a prospect. Like, I called out that he's, that he could definitely improve on the ball with, or just with the ball at his feet in general.

But he does all of the other stuff right. And the way that FC Dowell is play is just so it's so important for those centerbacks to be able to cover a lot of ground and not let the ball, not let the opposition teams hold the ball in the middle of the field. Because the full backs are usually pushed so high, whenever the ball comes into the middle of the field, the centerbacks, you usually want to make that ball go backwards so that the winger's, the opposition team wingers don't have time to run in behind

to fullbacks. And he just does that incredibly well. He reads the game better than basically any centerback. I've scouted at this level. And of course, on top of that, there's also the fact that this isn't a super strong centerback class. So it's not going too much out on a limb to say that he's the best U-17 centerback in the country.

Okay. Okay. All right. I'm satisfied. I think the small caveat. that he's playing with an all-star team at that level. And so he's not being asked to do a whole lot because he's got Jonathan Gomez on one side, Justin Che.

There's just so many talented players around him that maybe he looks better than he is. Maybe he's an argument. I haven't read the arguments, but I do think that he'll be continually be pushed up. I think he's got a few, has he gotten some reps with, I think he got a cameo with North Texas.

Yes. And it's clear that Dallas is going to continue to push him and they're going to give him opportunities and I agree with you. He's got all the tools to become, you know, one of the better youth national team centerbacks. And I think he'll definitely be in the mix here moving forward. Well, he's going to get a look from Wiki in the camp that starts today in Carson, California, two more camps before the U-17 World Cup.

So he may be involved in the U-17 World Cup. It's possible. And so will Jonathan Tompkinson and Joshua Rand, Macy, two other new arrivals will get a look from Wiki in this camp as well. Matt, do you want to take a couple more here? Sure. So Mason Judge is a player that anybody who watched Nike Friendly's last year will be familiar with. I didn't think he had a great showing at that tournament, but it seems like he's really

highly rated in Germany at his club, and where he plays, I think, mostly right back. But I think he definitely projects as a senderback. Lapses in judgment or attention are the things that he has to work on. But if he's able to put it together, he's a player that could definitely be on the U20 team, just because a player that can play two positions on the back line like that is super valuable. Tavon Gray is a player that I've liked for a while now. and it seems like he's he's settling in on the on the backline even though he might himself think of it think of himself more of a six but he's played right back for the for nycFC and the india playoffs um where he was where he helped n ycfcc win the the u 19 title and it looks like for the time being he's going to play centerback for for the u s youth national teams uh just a very very good athlete who um who was a good enough passer.

I thought that he showed himself to be a better passer than anybody thought he was in constantly qualifying. Absolutely agree. And yeah. And defensively, he's just a hard guy to get past. His lateral quickness is high end for a player of his age. So I'm not sure he's a centerback long term still. you know, if not only because I think that he could be, he's a player that could play the six

just because of his club situation where NYCFC has two players, two young players that, you know, project as centerbacks in front of him in Justin Hock and James Sands. Yeah. I sorry, just real quick, I hate to muddy the waters, but I really liked him as the right back for NYCFC. and I know that Pilkington was, you know, really scheming to really cut off what, what Dallas wanted to do on the left wing and putting gray there. But, you know, I was less than, I was pretty skeptical of him playing in the middle for the U-17s. And he did play a lot better than I thought he was during qualifying. But when I saw him play at the right back, I did see him, you know, that's a position he can make money playing, honestly.

You know, I know he was playing at the U-19 level, but, you know, Dallas had some kids that are, definitely playing pro minutes and it's it's really a shame that NYC doesn't have NYC doesn't have a team in the USL because getting him reps at some of these positions really I think would help kind of help us and help them figure out kind of what's his best position because I agree whenever he kind of is in a position that he's placed in he does he does play well there and so I just think he needs to nail down on what he wants to be and just make that his own honestly yeah absolutely the problem that I have with him with the projection of him at a right back is that he just doesn't he he's just after he crack passes the the midfield line he's just kind of like oh god

what do i do with this ball and that's something that that he can certainly work on but i just think it it's it'd be easier on everybody to let him play either centerback or the six and let let him nail down that position and learn it let me mention one player before we move on from centerbacks joshua tensio at seattle i think he's the second most promising prospect in that Academy. He's looked the second best of all of them in USL, at least up until Alfonso Accompos Chavez had a brace and an assist earlier this week. But for me, it was Lava, then Attencio. And he's got some physical limitations. He's not the quickest or the strongest, most athletic player, but he's very comfortable on the ball. He can pass out of the back. If he can

become a centerback at the USL level, and he's played a lot of minutes at, centerback for Tacoma. I think he still does have a good chance of breaking into this U-20 roster. You know, if he can nail down the defensive responsibilities and, you know, sort of get stronger and faster to not to put too fine a point on it. Yeah, more professional minutes than anybody else in this pool combining USL and MLS. By my count, he's played almost 1100 minutes for Tacoma. And there's maybe some Tacoma defiance discount of them playing all their young kids.

but the kids played 1100 minutes mainly at that position, that should result in some ability to play at the U20 level moving forward here. So definitely a good shout. Let me just read off a couple more names. Eric McHugh is a Houston Dynamo homegrown player who has never looked particularly good to me. I mean, he looks like a centerback, but he doesn't necessarily always play like one just because he's such a shaky defender from what I've seen whenever he's, He hasn't been, he's looked good against players at his own level, but whenever he's moved up in age group, it's always been a little hit or miss.

So I'm not super high on him, but, you know, again, a player who can, who might be something in two years. And then I'll read through a couple of younger players, O3 centerbacks who I think might be able to join this conversation. Or Justin Che, who was mentioned a little earlier, he's Nico Carrera's centerback partner, was Niko. Carrera's centerback partner for most of this past DA season. And he's a physical freak who they move, who Dallas moved from striker or the left wing not too long ago. And he's really taken to the centerback position well. So I think that he's a pretty good prospect to watch out for.

And then a couple more names, Joe Zelensky is a right back slash centerback for New York Red Bulls. They rate him pretty highly there. He was added to their New York Red Bull 2 roster not too long ago, despite being in 03. And then Nicholas Dossmann, or Nicholas Dostman, as he'll be called for the next year, because he's moved from the Dianza force to Mainz recently. And he was pretty close to a lights out player for Dianza, but again, caveat that he was only playing at U-17 level.

We're moving into the central midfield. I'm thinking Lava is an obvious starter. How do we sort of structure the midfield around him is kind of my thinking on this. Joey, what do you think? Yeah, I do think that it'll depend on what coach we're going to talk about. But, yeah, I mean, just looking at the pool, I don't think there's a 10. I mean, we could talk about Thomas Roberts if you want to, but I just think that it would just be better if we talk about more of the eight-type players, honestly. So I don't know.

There's a lot of stuff to cover, but. I'm totally cool. There is a lot of stuff to cover. I'm totally cool with a six and two eights, right? Yeah, let's do that. Let's do that. That's, especially if we have Lava, I'm not, I'm sorry, not Lava, Raina and Yanez and Pepe leading the line.

That's a lot of dangerous attacking creativity. It's okay. Yeah, that was my point. Yeah, sorry to interrupt, but just like, you don't really need an EFRA in there if you're going to be able to just say, get the ball, connect to a rena or uli outwai or delafonte and give them space to do what they do you know what i mean so i don't know do you is a question from uh blisios on patrione do you guys see cole bassett getting into the mix yeah i i think cole bassett has showed himself to be a pretty good player um he's not

flashy and uh he's not he's not a player that's going that has the passing ability of or anywhere near the passing ability of a player like alex mendes but he has a phenomenal work rate and can beat players off the dribble and is pretty two-footed as well. So that's a pretty good combination, already playing MLS minutes with the Colorado Rapids. So it puts himself at the top of the pool, just based on that alone, I think, MLS minutes for a central midfielder.

Yeah. What do you think, what do you think, Joey? Yeah, hard not to see him getting involved in this team. As Matt mentioned, he's played plenty of minutes. And I think he would work well in combination with a player like Booth and Leva, they were the midfield triumvir. I think that would work pretty well.

I thought about the same thing when we were talking about looking at Bassett as kind of like a Mendez 2.0. He's definitely better, you know, than the Mendez all around, but he does possess kind of some of that midfield type play as Mendez. So it's an interesting one to watch for sure.

Okay. All right. So we got Leva. Bassett is in the main. Let's go down the list a little bit. What about Brian Keo and Moses Nyman? Why don't you take those? Which one of you wants to take those?

I could take them. Both are with DC United and are getting USL minutes with Loudoun United, their USL team. Slightly different players in that Keo is a more rangy eight who can really dominate a game physically if the opposition lets him.

Does all the technical stuff pretty well, not going to blow the doors off anything, or anything like that, but just a super solid two-way midfielder that at his age, getting minutes in USL is great. And then Moses Nyman is more of a deep lying. I mean, he's athletic enough to do the dirty work and stuff like that, but he wants to have the field in front of him

and pick out passes. And from what I've seen of him in U.S.L so far, he's looked great. I mean, the problem with him was that he had trouble staying healthy for a little while there. And if he can stay healthy, gets a couple or a year or so of U.S.L under his belt. He might be a scary player. Yeah, he's looked really good. Yeah, for me, he's the game breaker. He's the one that he can unlock the defenses.

He'll be young at this stage. But, you know, if you can surround him by players that are doing, you know, able to do a little bit more of the work, Nyman can unlock a defense with his play. So he has. He's looked great in his minutes with USL thus far with Loaded United. Okay. Well, we've talked about Taylor Booth already. What about Tanner Tessman and Thomas Roberts, another pair of teammates?

Yeah, let's take those two because they're a little more similar than David Rodriguez. Sure. What distinguishes them from each other? And do you expect them to be in contention for a roster spot? Yeah, I really do like Testament. I think he's got an unbelievable frame. And when you look at him, you think of him as maybe just a brooding centerback with how tall and big he is.

But he's really good on the ball. He has good vision. And he can really strike the ball, too, when he's in the offensive third. He's been able to get some minutes for North Texas, kind of plays throughout the midfield there. and I think he works well with Roberts in particular, and that'll be interesting for the U.S. because those are two guys that have the talent to play at the U-20 level

for the United States in this iteration of the World Cup. But they definitely have holes in their games. There's some rumors that Tessman's going to Clemson, which is a great spot, but if he plays football for the football team, you have to wonder about what his long-term career is as a soccer player. I don't really love the fact that he's sharing practice time with the football team.

team. So it'll be interesting to see if he starts to hone in on soccer. And Roberts, too, Roberts was impressive throughout the DA this year and obviously has gotten about 300 minutes with the FC Dallas first team. And he's a player that like Nyman can unlock a defense with his balls. He's got excellent vision. He's very technical, but he doesn't do a lot of the work. So if you're going to put him in the midfield, you're going to have to surround him with some players that are going to do a little bit more of the work. We mentioned on our Slack that he's definitely, where he's gotten time at the 6th, and he was less than impressive there for North Texas at the 6th. And I just don't think he possesses the physical ability to kind of either shuttle around the midfield

or really crunching on a tackle all too well. And when he does go in hard on a tackle, he looks a little bit clumsy doing it. So I don't think that that's a position that the U.S. can afford to put him in, especially with Lava there. I don't think that that's his spot. I think it's definitely higher up the field. So two to watch, but definitely question marks behind their. game.

Yeah, both Roberts and Tessman kind of fit into that, my sort of general critique of Taylor Booth, which is, I know Roberts had a nice goal against the Richmond kickers a couple weeks ago, but is either of them like a killer in the attacking third or a killer in the defensive third? And I don't, I'm not sure I see it there. Maybe with Tessman in the defensive third, but, you know, they're still young. We'll see. How about Adam Saldania?

He gets no love, right? Yeah, Saldania, and I'll lump him in with another player in, shoot, what's the name of the kid at West Ham? Peter Stroud. Yeah, Peter Stroud. Both of them just do the dirty work. Midfielder is just run around and make the opposition's job. of progressing the ball miserable. Saldane is probably a better passer

than Stroud is from what I've seen thus far. And you'd think it is funny how little those two Saldania in particular are talked about given how much love a player like Tyler Adams gets when, I mean nobody's calling Adam Saldania Tyler Adams but similar type of play style. Very similar, yeah. Yeah.

And he and he and Leva really formed what I would consider an outstanding partnership in the midfield at the Conca Calf Championship. So I wouldn't count, I guess I would just say I wouldn't count out Saldania going forward. He doesn't jump off the screen at any level, but he does a lot of good stuff. Keep your eye on him. Other midfielers, and the more attacking midfield, area. Let's, let's throw,

I'll throw four names at E. Hartman and you just, you know, handle them however you want. Jose Gallegos at San Antonio, Gianluca Busio, the SKC, first team player, who everybody knows,

Jack Imperato, and David Rodriguez at FC Dallas. What are your thoughts? Yeah, so I haven't seen a ton of Gallegos so far. He looks like a good player, you know, good technical skill.

I do quite, question what his, if he's going, if he's, would be able to play the 10 at a level like the U-20 World Cup is just, to me, so thus far it doesn't look like he has, um, a super high level of a super high upside with his passing range or vision or anything like that. But he's come into that team and he's kind of cemented a spot in a way that Ethan Bryant, who's been there for a little while now, who's more, I mean an attacking midfielder, I guess. more of an eight, still kind of hasn't. I'd say he, Brian's still a little raw, more raw than Gallego says, even though he's been in that team for a little while now. Ucio is the enigma of the youth national team pool. I can't, you can't question his stat lines, but it doesn't match his minute-to-minute performance,

and maybe that's okay. Maybe he can keep getting by by just showing up a couple of times a game, by doing the basic stuff okay and showing up a couple of times a game in the right place to put a ball away. But I just find it so hard to put him into 11s when I'm projecting into the future just because I don't know how Buccio's game could stall at any level because really all it takes is somebody to stay within the vicinity of him, a defender to stay in the vicinity of him. and you think that he could probably mark himself out of a game pretty easily. Well, sad. Yeah. Jack and Perado, I haven't seen too much of as well.

I think we got a, in the Slack, in our Slack chat a little while ago, we got a highlight video of him and he looked pretty good. He's bigger. He's certainly bigger now than the last time I saw him. Don't know if he's an attacking midfielder or a winger long term. don't know what his situation is in terms of how close is he to getting more senior minutes. But he had a ton of technical talent, one to keep an eye on. And who was the last player who gave me?

David Rodriguez, yeah, at FC Dallas. So he's the O2 attacking mid for North Texas slash FC Dallas. He plays mostly with North Texas where he's been good, not great, I'd say. Yeah. still adjusting to playing against grown men, needs to be a little less wasteful in possession. But if he can get to the level that he was at in the DA in USL2, I think that he's a player that can make an impact at this level. He has the tools.

Okay. A lot more names here, a lot more names. We've already covered Cameron Duke to some extent and Owen Otisoui. I'll take Luis Ariaga. He's looked, I think, good, not great is a good way to put it. In USL for Real Monarchs, he's a competent player, but he looks a little tentative. So we'll see if he gets a little more confidence and starts to break games open. That's a good, that's a good USL team.

The Monarchs are a good team, so he's surrounded by, you know, solid USL players and they win a lot of games. If he can be a difference maker there, I think that quickly sort of elevates his stock, much as it did for Richie Ledesma over the course of five games last year. Ian Hoffman, we talked about as a right-back, but he could end up being a midfielder,

like Joey said. Justin Hock, there were some rumors he was going to go play in college, and now he's going to stay with NYCFCFC. right? Yep. What's your take on him? Does he have a chance? Yeah, he has a chance.

I don't think it's in midfield. I think that he's going to get moved back to centerback. He's just not a good enough passer to play in central midfield. You look at the best game that I think that most people would agree he's played was that the DA final

last year. Then even in that game, he wasn't connecting passes over any sort of distance. So a player to look at at centerback, if he gets moved back there, is a similar situation to James Sands. And it's kind of a bummer that Sands Hock

and what's his name? Gray. Gray, yeah, are all on the same team. Yeah, but one or two of them, or maybe all three are going to fall off. I mean, I'm not trying to be depressing, but it's the reality. Just the numbers.

Yeah. Anybody else here in here we have to, I have one more that I really want to mention, and then I'll open it up to you guys. Gil Fuentes, Gilbert Fuentes. Another good, not great, maybe not even quite good in USL performance level from him. He plays for Reno.

He's a San Jose Earthquakes player. But he shows these flashes that are just so tantal. to me. He's because he's a good passer. He's got some trickiness and cleverness on the ball. He doesn't hold on to the ball too long. He's looking to play teammates into space. I'm holding out hope that he can put it together.

So I'll keep tracking him, watch one of his USL games every now and then to see how he's doing. I have hope. I have hope in Gilbert Fuentes. Anybody else do you guys want to mention here? Yeah, let me mention quickly. Mateo Rataccio, he's the BW Gachi kid that moved over to Liverpool

last year. Started in 10 out of 22 games for the Liverpool U-18s. Saw action about 18 of the 22 matches. Started primarily as the number six over there, but was definitely the second choice number six in the Liverpool setup. He was more of a number 10

in the DA, but Liverpool definitely sees more of a destroyer. It'd be really interesting to see what kind of minutes he gets for the U-18s this year at Liverpool. saw spot action in some cup games. But a talented player, just kind of in a log jam with Liverpool's talented academy right now. But one to watch.

Another player that we should talk about is Will Vint. Vinta made headlines as he moved from Colorado over to Manchester United. I played in their academy for a year. Then was forced to come back. Signed with Atlanta's Academy and has gotten lots of minutes with ATL2. Been somewhat of a yellow card magnet

when I've watched him play. He's definitely a creative midfielder. but likes to drop deep and kind of quarterback the game from deep, kind of pick the ball off the centerback's foot type thing. He isn't afraid to get into a challenge, as evidenced by his five yellow cards, but he's a little sloppy on the ball. He does have good vision and is a very good passer, but he just needs some more reps, I think,

and I think that he will not be with Atlanta 2 moving forward. I think he's going to go back to Europe. So another kind of name to watch if he can kind of start to make waves because he's got the talent. And lastly, Marcello Palomino, he's the kid from Houston Dynamo's Academy, has really been the number 10 of this group for years. He's excellent on the ball. He's a dynamo, and he's tricky, you know, has all the tricks in his arsenal.

But his club situation has just been a mess. You know, I'd heard he was really getting mooks and he was going to go sign with the Porto Academy. That has kind of fallen through because of some of the requirements, and they can't have many nationals in their academy. but he's over in Europe right now. He's doing some trials over in Germany. So definitely one to watch,

but that guy's got to get his club situation out. I think the last thing I had read about him is he was playing some spot minutes for a USL2 side, which is just really low competition for anybody that we're going to include in this kind of roster breakdown is Palomino needs to play at a higher level and consistently to be back on this radar. USL2 being actually USL3. Yes, exactly. Yeah, which is really low in the peak.

herein, so. Yeah. Hartman, you got anybody you absolutely have to mention here? Yeah, I'll run through a list real quick. Indiana Vasselov is a player over in England at Aston Villa. Some question as to what position he plays.

He plays on the right wing, attacking midfield sometimes. I think if he's going to make it, like Paxton, he's Pamukal, who had kind of the same questions, he's going to have to move into central midfield. Elton Chifamba is 03 number 8 at the Columbus Crew. Might be

too young to be on this team and I don't love the development pipeline but he's got the mix of technical quality and athleticism you just don't see too often. Oliver Laraz is an 01 number 10 who

was with the Colorado Rapids where he had a great preseason I thought but he left the team to trial in Europe and nobody's heard from him since so keep an eye on him. Keep an ear out for him. He reminds me a little bit of Georgia Costa, who youth national team fans will remember

from the 2017 U-17 World Cup. And then the last one I'll mention is Ben Redzick, who is 10, will have to be a 10 to make it, I think. The comp is Pamicle, just because he plays on the same team and looks a lot like him, but he doesn't have his vision.

But although he can, you know, he can play a good pass. Not many players in the DA I'd rather have on the ball in the final third. He could shoot from range. A player I think I'd consider bringing into the current U-17 cycle. The question here is, can he adjust to a central role where he'd have a higher ceiling? Okay. All right.

A question from Patrione. This is from Fritz Junker. The 2019 World Cup squad was unusually young with more 2000s than 20,000s than. 1999s, should we expect that for 2021, more 02s than 01s? Matt, take that one. Yeah, I think this cycle will be similarly young just because the reasons why the previous roster was so young or systematic. As U-S. youth soccer progresses, the U-20 coach will be less and less likely to pick

college players, which is where the majority of the O1 pool will be in 2021. A bunch of 0-1s who aren't in college will have a hard time getting into camps because they'll be trying to make it in Europe. And the fact is that the individual birth years aren't super deep with high-end talent yet in the U.S. So while a country like Spain or France can build a full team of 0-1s without sacrificing on quality, we're going to continue to need to dip into the younger birth years to find international players. Okay. Next up, the attackers. We've got Rainaim pressing with Dortmund, Yannis.

showing up at Wolfsburg looking fit, Conrad Dela Fuente, establishing himself under Ramos in Poland at the World Cup, and Griffin Yow basically earning a lock starter role with the U-17s. Who else we got on the wing, and what's the situation in this position after Rana and after Yanez? Joey. Yeah, a few players I think we should talk about. I think Delafonte's initiative is one to start off with. Definitely didn't have the World Cup that we were hoping he would have.

Kind of just looked pedestrian in a lot of the games. But again, he was one of the younger players in the tournament. So I think it might have been a hard bar. And maybe if he didn't have the Barcelona moniker attached to his name, we wouldn't have been so hard on him. There haven't been many huge success stories about players returning for another cycle of the U-20s. Typically, if you play up into the U-20s, you seem to progress into the national team. And that might be the case for a guy like De La Fuente.

again, he probably needs to be playing near first team football or at least reserve side at Barcelona or at some level like that to be in the conversation for the men's national team. But our winger depth, as we've spoken about, is very limited. And so if a guy like Yanez or De La Fuente kind of sniff around first team action, I can see them, you know, jumping the U-20 pool since they've already been there and then moving on to the national team at that rate. So, I mean, De La Fuente, everybody saw him play. He's tricky. fast, but he can have, you know, lapses and the ability to cover back. You know, there was tons of time where Cgenio Des would push high up. And then De La Fuente would not only get in his way, but really just draw defenders to death at the time. So Dele Fuente definitely has areas that he's got to improve

on his game. But if he's around, I think he's an automatic, you know, kind of starter on this team moving forward, not starter, but definitely a player to kind of watch for. A few other players we mentioned Cameron Dunbar of the LA Galaxy. He came out like gangbusters after moving from Albion and San Diego to the galaxy. His production is good at the U-17 level, had gotten some time at the U-19s for the galaxy, but hasn't really played as much as I would have hoped at the USL level. So definitely a guy that's kind of fallen off the radar for the U-17s even. Cameron Harper moved from Paddi Adoras to Celtic last year.

I believe he scored, gosh, 15, 20 goals for the U-19s, or for the U-18s at Celtic last year. Seems to be poised to kind of make the jump from the U-18s to the reserve side. And then maybe even get some bench minutes or some bench cup games for Celtic because I think they really rate him over there. It's been tough to find video, but he's a right-sided winger, can pinch inside and definitely has a nose for the goal. So definitely an area where, you know, with Yanez and Delafonte and Raina, there's not a ton of winger minutes to be to be had.

But if a guy like Harper continues to play well, he'll have the opportunity to play the UEFA Youth League too with Celtic if they progressed to the Champions League. And so there's good minutes and good matches for him over there. Bailey Sparks is a player who really has impressed me almost over the last

eight months for Solor RSC. His team won, the U-17 title in the DA and he was kind of the talisman for that group. I think, you know, he's kind of a wily winger. Again, kind of like Harper, kind of likes to pinch inside and play interiorly as well.

He's got a lot of good players around him at Solar, but he needs to play in a professional environment. So I wouldn't be surprised to see him move to another DA Academy or to USL side. There's been some rumblings where some of the Solar kids

are going to play for San Antonio, and so I think that'd be a good spot for him to kind of get some matches if he can kind of latch on to their USL side. but he's definitely a player that I'm starting to watch, maybe get some minutes for the U-17s. I know he wasn't called up in the camp,

but he's kind of slight, but he's definitely got lots of tricks. And lastly, I'll just touch on Tyler Freeman, the sporting Kansas City, Spock Park Rangers winger, I guess we could say. Again, he's still really young, has a large frame that he's not grown into. He scored a pretty good goal the other week,

but still pretty clumsy with the ball. It just doesn't seem locked in all the time when I watch him play. I consider him a fringe player for the U-17s for this upcoming World Cup. And I think that he's not even a French player, maybe for the U-20s. But the fact that he has Swolpark minutes available to him, I think he'll definitely be given the opportunity to kind of continue to progress his game. Yep, yep.

Okay. Let me go take a couple of these, Matt. Sure. I'll start with the name that a lot of people ask me about on Twitter, and that's Joshua Pinnadath. He's at IACs. He is not in this camp, and he was not in the World Cup qualifying roster for the U-17s, not in this current U-17 camp. I think it's because he's just not physically up to snuff.

He's a very slight kid. He's tricky, but he's not yet sort of grown up physically. That just leaves him at a severe disadvantage, both for the IAC youth teams and at the national team level. And I think until he either figures out how to play in a way that, allows for that, or, you know, gets a lot stronger and faster, he's going to have trouble breaking into any youth national team. That's my take on Pinnadath. Ray Serrano is another one who I don't think probably is going to be breaking into this U-20 squad, even though he's well-known. He's at Seattle. He's been kind of in and out of the Tacoma Defiance lineup. He did have a pretty

good game earlier this week, but he's just so wasteful on the ball, and he's got a lot of lot of work to do to be a more consistent, high-impact player. Over to you, Matt. Yeah, so talk a little bit about Griffin Yao, who I was worried a little bit about as a pro level winger, just because I didn't think he was good enough in the final third and might eventually get moved to fullback. But I think he's shown over the last couple of months that he can be a difference maker and goal score and USL. So while I'm still not really sure what to make of him as a full national team prospect. I think that he'll be good enough to get the job done at this level,

and I think I'm going to end up bringing him on my right wing just because there aren't too many players that play on that side specifically. Agreed. Andres Jason is a 2-winger from NYCFC. He had a really good showing at the DA playoffs was maybe the winner of the whole event when it comes to prospect. uping their stock. He's a nightmare for opposition-wide players to play against.

He doesn't stop pressing and is decent at taking on players himself. His sealing is probably a better in the final third, Paul Ariola. I don't know if he quite has Ariel's speed, but think more highly of him than I thought a couple months ago. I think he's really putting it together, and that's exciting. Dante Sealy, O3 Winger for FC Dallas, hasn't had the best last six months. When he's at his best, he's a player that's equally comfortable beating a fullback to the end line and cutting in to strike the ball with power. I love that he's consistently at the back post, which isn't something you see enough of in watching as many DA games as I do.

His first touch can let him down at speed, and he's probably an average passer and definitely inconsistent, but his game at DA level should translate up, and he's a young 2003. So when it does click, we're talking about a high potential player. Eric Quill, his coach at North Texas is very high on him too. Says he's right up, he's like after Pepey, he's probably the, they see him as the next highest potential prospect. I'm paraphrasing, so don't, you know, don't quote me on that. Something like that. That generally lines up with what I've heard come out of Dallas.

A couple of players that I'll touch on really quickly who are all in kind of a similar situation are Jack DeVries, Marlon Vargas and Cade Cowell, in that they're all players who are assigned to USL teams or alone to MSL teams from their MLS team. And they all have are good prospects but just don't have everything put together yet. Jack DeVries just it doesn't impact a game enough yet when you watch him in USL

he just could kind of let the game happen around him Morland Vargas is in the sea yeah in the sea of

Seattle Sounders prospects he just he doesn't stand out like at all sometimes when you watch him play and then Kate Cowell is he has the physical tools

and he has some technical tools, but hasn't been put together yet. He's still a young player who looks like he's rated highly by San Jose, but he needs to have the technical aspects of his game match up to what he's capable of physically. And he's in 03, so he's got plenty of time to develop, and we'll be eligible for the next cycle as well. But I agree, he does have the tools that he could just kind of step right in. He's so fast. He kind of reminds me of a young Jordan Morris.

Thomas type has got the body. I was just going to say that. Yeah. I was going to say he's, Morris is a corollary for Cowell, and then, you know, the default corollary for any of these kids would be Paul Areola. It's Griffin, Yow, Andrus Jassen. I guess that's where it ends. But, you know, Dante Sealy's also an 03 worth mentioning.

So let's, let's, I'll mention Jonathan, Johnny Perez, who's also, I think he's also in the Mexican U-16 camp right now. He's at the LA Galaxy, a very tricky, left-footed right winger who cuts in on his left foot and is a great passer and can beat people on the dribble. He's just not

quite dynamic enough to blow past people at a higher level yet, but he's also an 03, right? So he's got time. So hopefully we'll have one of these 03 wingers, a couple of these

old three wingers emerge over the next couple years, and that's not unlikely. Can we move on to Forward? Yeah. Yep, let's do it. At Forward, it's, you know, Ricardo Pepe, I think we're all in agreement is kind of like the top name. Let's identify, let's not go through the whole pool because we really are running out of time. But let's identify four more strikers who we think are actually in contention. Is that okay with you guys?

Absolutely. Okay, Matt, you give two. So I'll name Matt Hope and Alfonso Ocampo Chavez. I think Matt Hope might be the best centerback in this pool right now, just because his game is so developed. Center forward. Yeah, center forward, sorry. He recently moved from Barstah Academy to Shalka,

where I think he's been scoring a goal of game from what I've seen thus far. He reminds me of Sebastian Soto, but in a bigger frame. He doesn't have the killer instinct that a player like Joss Sargent has in the box, and he could be a little too unselfish at times. But in the last DA game, I watched him play. He put in a few crosses in situations where you'd want a striker to beat his man and take a shot, get a shot off. But he does everything from that position at a really high level and really gets, really likes to get in behind, like in a similar way.

to how Sebastian Soto does. Really good with his feet as well. He scored, is it Hope or Hoppe? I think it's Hope. I think it's Hope, yeah. Okay. He scored two goals in a Shalka

U-19 friendly last week, too. Right, it's worth noting. Yeah, he's scoring. One of them was a screamer. Yeah, he's been scoring a bunch for them from what I've seen. And then Alfonso Ocampo Chavez, is inconsistent, I'd say.

But I love his movement. He's always kind of moving off the ball when he gets played up top. He has times where he looks like one of the best players on the field for whatever team he's playing for. He needs to lock in mentally, I think. And if he could lock in mentally and really do what he does best on a regular basis, I think that he can continue to progress and make this team. Okay, Joey, you're up. Yeah, so I'll do a couple more.

Charlie Kelman, he's a striker listed over with South End. Got his debut earlier this calendar year with them. I think, what was it, the goal of the year in their division? When he came in for a substitute appearance, he picked up the ball just in his midfield part of the circle and chipped the keeper from there, which was an amazing strike and just the ability, an audacity to try something like that as a 17-year-old or 18-year-old was pretty,

crazy. He's actually listed with the South End first team this year. He's on their website as one of the first team players. He scored about 80 goals with their U-18 side over the last year and a half. It's the third tier of the English division, but he's a pretty high prospect for them, and they've had prospects come through their ranks before. He's only 5'7 at this point, but he does project as a 9 in their system from people I talk to. So definitely an undersized. player, but he's kind of tricky and wily kind of, you know, as a pest for centerbacks. He's not going to go ahead and win any aerial battles at his height, but definitely a player with the ability to really bang in the goals.

So I think he was first called into the U.S. camp or set up last year he came down to a camp down in Kansas City and really impressed down there. So definitely something I could see if he continues to get some minutes with South End. We'll definitely be in the running for some roster call-ups moving forward. Last player I want to talk about is Roberto Hatzigan. He was with Sacramento United and is going to finalize a move to the Nuremberg Academy later this week.

He's a player that sees himself as more of a number 10 creative player has played there with the DA in Sacramento for a number of years. But for the U.S., again, has played more as the number nine. He's played there in a couple camps, consecutive camps as the number nine. He too is not your traditional Matt Hope, Josh Sargent, kind of bigger frame type player. He's well built, but he's only about five foot eight, five foot nine at this point.

And definitely more of a drop back into midfield kind of creative number nine who can connect versus the guy that you lump the ball up to and have him hold on to it. So I think, you know, one of those two guys would give some diversity because I agree that Pepe and Hopper are the front runners for this spot, but those guys can add something more, you know, in a game. I think the ability to kind of give the team like what Justin Renix gave this last cycle, a guy who is definitely more of a forward, but not necessarily the kind of guy that you would think of as your traditional nine. Those guys both remind me of somebody like Renix.

Okay. I really like Hodigan, too. I like what I've seen of him, that tricky left foot and elusiveness. But yeah, we'll see how it goes for him. He is very, very, very, very left-footed. So that could be something he could work on too. So, all right. Let's see. Let's close it out here by each giving our 21-man roster. And how about we go like this? I'll go first, then Hartman, and then Joey. Perfect. Just in order of seniority here.

Backwards order of seniority. Me being the junior, you know, you know what I mean? Okay. I'm going to take Echoa, Loss, and Oduenze as my goalkeepers. I know there's like the underage goalkeeper thing, so I'll leave that to you guys. And then across the back line, my starting four will be Kobe at left back, Carrera, and Gray as the centerbacks, and then Julian Araujo as the right back. And then my backup centerbacks will be Atencio, Joshua Tencio, and Mason Judge. judge because he provides cover at right back where we I don't I'm not bringing a dedicated

backup right back and the backup left back will be George Bellow in the midfield it's going to be Lava and Bassett I think I really feel bad about leaving Saldania out of this but Lava and Bassett and then Booth will back up Lava and then I'll have Brian Kyo as sort of the more advanced midfielder. He's not a 10, but he can do what I need him to do at that position. And then Gilbert Fuentes come in as a change of pace off the bench as like more of a true 10. And then Kyle could slide back into Bassett's spot or whatever.

And then my starting wingers are Ullianez and Giovanni Raina with Griffine Yao and Conrad Della Fuente backing them up. definitely open for somebody to overtake Yao and Conrad over the next couple years, but I don't see it yet. And then my striker is Ricardo Pepey, of course, and he's backed up by Matthew Hope.

You guys convinced me to replace Ocampos Chavez with Hope over the course of the last five minutes. So that's my roster. Okay, I'm going to have a pretty similar one, starting at the back, Ochoa Las and O'Dunze. I know there's normally 03, but I don't feel calm. I haven't seen enough of any of them to say which would be the one. So I'm going to keep O'Dunze there.

My back line is from left to right. Bello, Kobe, who I'm playing at centerback out of necessity. In 2021? Yeah. I just don't like the, like, I don't think the centerback pool is deep enough. And I love the left backs. So I'm going to, I'm fitting as many left backs as I can humanly possible. possibly as I could fit as humanly possible.

Yeah. So when do you be able think we'd say that? Right. So Bello, Kobe Carrera and Julian Arajo on the right, their backup, the backup left back will be Johnny Gomez. I'm bringing one backup center back who will be Tavon Gray, and the backup right back will be Kevin Benia. The midfield will be, the starting midfield will be Brian Kehoe, Cole Bassett, and

Danny Leva, with Taylor Booth and. Moses Nyman backing them up. And then my wingers will be, starting wingers will be Giovanni Arena and Ulyanez with Yao and Conrad backing them up and the same center forwards as you, Bells in Pepe and Hope. Okay.

I feel like Joey's the one who's going to have all the wild cards. I got some wild cards. All right, we'll start up with the, I think it's easily Ochilla and loss, but I'm going to bring the O3. I'm going to bring Kreneki from sporting. in Kent City. I think there's a, like I said, there's a depth of talent in the Swoop Parks, SKC Academy, you know, region, but I think they brought in Karnacki to fast track him. So I really like his potential. Along the back line, I'm going to go Bello. I'm going to go

Blake Malone and Leo Sopoveda as my centerbacks and then Juliana Rojo is my right back. I'm going to bring a couple extra defenders in Kobe Hernandez Foster, obviously. Ian Hoffman will be my backup right back, who can slide into the midfield if we need to, and then Nico Carrera, too. I like the potential we discussed about him earlier. My midfield, I'm going to play a six and two-eighths. I'm going to go Taylor Booth and Cole Bassett as the eights and Danny Lava as my six. I'm also going to bring Moses Nyman and Thomas Roberts. I feel like both of them possess the qualities that neither Bassett or Booth possess. So if we need kind of some late game creativity, one of those guys can maybe enter the fray and give that to me. I'm also going to bring

Tevon Gray and Justin Hawk, both possibly, you know, down the road, defenders, but I still think that they possess something at the 6th that would be beneficial in a World Cup setting. Yanez and Raina are my starting wingers. I'm just bringing De La Fuente as a backup because I'm bringing a couple of nines. I'm going to bring Pepe as my starter. And then Matthew Hope as a backup. And then Charlie Kelman, the South End player, who can play out on the wings if we need to.

I think he's just got too good of a trajectory at this point. Definitely somebody I'm going to keep an eye on throughout the next couple months. Okay. Yeah, I'm glad you, I'm glad you have such a different lineup. I promise, Matt, I didn't look at your lineup before I made mine. Uh-huh. I promise. I do have a little bit of buyers regret in my midfield outside of Lava.

It's just too confusing for me, you know, outside of Lava. I don't know what's going to happen over the next year and a half. Byers, yeah, go ahead. Buyers regret, but no solution, you know. Like I, well, what's, what's the template we're working toward? You know, there's not, not even a definitive coach. If we knew Tab was going to be the coach, it may be a little easier to pick from the pool. But if Wiki's the coach, how does, how do things shake out?

And then the pool is what it is, you know, there's only so many, you know, so much talent there. You really, you know, pure tens of an Ariaga or a La Raz, they're, you know, they're just, they're just probably not going to cut it, uh, talent-wise going forward here. So it's, it's tough to shoehorn those guys in. if you're trying to get the midfield, you know, straightened out to where we usually would. Yeah, it's true. And sometimes this stuff comes down to, like, just personal preference and personal allegiance to a certain extent.

Like, I don't think Fuentes is ready, but I hope he will be because I like the kind of player he could be. You know what I mean? Sure. All right. Where can people find you guys? Do you guys have SoundClouds? No, I'll put your Twitter handles in the show notes.

Anywhere else people can find you? I think that's basically it, right? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, that's the only place I want people finding me. Yeah. All right. Joey, Matt, thank you very much for doing this. We've gone over two hours, so I think we've accomplished our goal.

It wouldn't be a World Cup preview or pool preview without the two hour mark, so I'm glad we made it. Yeah. A pool review that doesn't go two hours is not worth. Who does that? All right, guys. Thank you. Have a good weekend. You too, Adam.

Take it easy.