2023 U20 CONCACAF Championship and U23 Olympic Qualification to be merged in a tournament in Summer 2022

[Footyeh]

2 hours ago, Club Linesman said:

Last time I looked we were better than the US.  Maybe he has no chance of making our team and goes South.  Many of us have been guilty of it, including me certainly, but we need to lose the inferiority complex.  We just bossed qualifying which is the most important and significant Concacaf soccer. Maybe we are on the cusp of having dual nationals choose other nations because they don’t feel they will crack our roster for significant minutes.

We are talking about U20 football, not seniors.  When was the last time you saw this U20 roster even play?  Literally no one saw the costa rica friendlies so how would you even know the level?  The US has played teams like Brazil and Mexico.  All the players that will be called to the US U20's are playing professional football, at top levels.  The pool of options for them is so much bigger and competitive, they even split camps into U19 & U20.  It's not a slight against us, it's just the truth of how deep they are.

[Footyeh]

3 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Why does a player on the reserve team of a La Liga team have "no chance" of getting on the US roster?

In the last camp there was only one other player in the academy of a top 5 league in Europe. Over recent months, another 3-4 have been called in from reserves or youth of German clubs. That is it. The rest are based in the States. 

Luca is amongst the 3-4 highest in terms of club ranking.

I think people are either biased or ignorant, and then, with this club in particular, whose youth I have watched for literally 30 years: they just made the final of the Spanish u-19 cup and lost late to Real Madrid. They also happen to be a club whose first team is full of academy players, it has one of the best academies in Spain and the first team is active promoting them. 

I count 9 current players on the first team roster who came through the Espanyol academy system, and more have gotten minutes.

 

The last camp your referencing was literally a camp of U19 players brought in to assess the larger pool, maybe 1-2 of those names will work their way into the US U20 squad for qualifying.  That's a luxury they have that we don't.  Literally every selection in Luca's position is playing professionally at either MLS level or higher.  

It's fantastic he's at Espanyol, I'm not sure about this "3-4 highest in terms of club ranking", but playing in the U19 of Espanyol isn't better than playing 1st team football in MLS.  They even have Bundesliga 1st team kids like Paredes in these positions.  

If he progresses to the 1st team great, we can have a different conversation.  It's perfectly ok to say he's good for us but probably not first choice for the US squad.  I'm pretty sure apart from you and me, 95% on this forum haven't even seen him play to know how he fairs against the competition.  

Edited May 20, 2022 by Footyeh

[Tyler55]

11 hours ago, toontownman said:

Maybe they told him the u20 tournament is "just a camp".

"Wait what.. I'm cap tied now?"

Another possibility is that Zouhir plays for us in the u20 qualifying tournament knowing that he can file a one time switch later on. He's not that close to making either senior team, so he would still have both options available a few years down the line (if he's good enough). If Canada qualifies to the u20 world cup it's also a great opportunity to be scouted etc.

[Unnamed Trialist]

10 minutes ago, Footyeh said:

The last camp your referencing was literally a camp of U19 players brought in to assess the larger pool, maybe 1-2 of those names will work their way into the US U20 squad for qualifying.  That's a luxury they have that we don't.  Literally every selection in Luca's position is playing professionally at either MLS level or higher.  

It's fantastic he's at Espanyol, I'm not sure about this "3-4 highest in terms of club ranking", but playing in the U19 of Espanyol isn't better than playing 1st team football in MLS.  They even have Bundesliga 1st team kids like Paredes in these positions.  

If he progresses to the 1st team great, we can have a different conversation.  It's perfectly ok to say he's good for us but probably not first choice for the US squad.  I'm pretty sure apart from you and me, 95% on this forum haven't even seen him play to know how he fairs against the competition.  

That's fair, I admit I wasn't rating the u-20s getting MLS minutes.

If he's playing B team next year in Spain third tier, that is good,  and more so since Spain 3rd is much stronger now, but not at the MLS level, you are right.

I guess my insistence was overstated, but I still think he could get Espanyol minutes next season, because they constantly bring up youth to the first team. And some of the first to appear are the tricky attackers, like Melamed this season and Puado and Melendo in previous, oddly enough.

[Footyeh]

I don't think we will get any nice surprises for the qualifying, most of the roster will come from that sole camp.  If I had to take a stab at the roster:

GK: Max Anchor, Dino Bontis

FB: Tyler Crawford, Keesan Ferdinand, Kosi Thompson

CB: Jefferson Alphonse, Mateo Campagna, Loic Cloutier, Jaimie Knight-Lebel

CM: Justin Smith, Mael Henry, Matt Catavolo, Rida Zouhir, Jay Herdman

FW: Kamron Habibullah, Jean Aniel-Assi, Jakeele Marshall-Rutty, Luca Koleosho, Lowell Wright, Mataeo Bunbury

[Approve My Account Pls]

53 minutes ago, Footyeh said:

I don't think we will get any nice surprises for the qualifying, most of the roster will come from that sole camp.  If I had to take a stab at the roster:

GK: Max Anchor, Dino Bontis

FB: Tyler Crawford, Keesan Ferdinand, Kosi Thompson

CB: Jefferson Alphonse, Mateo Campagna, Loic Cloutier, Jaimie Knight-Lebel

CM: Justin Smith, Mael Henry, Matt Catavolo, Rida Zouhir, Jay Herdman

FW: Kamron Habibullah, Jean Aniel-Assi, Jakeele Marshall-Rutty, Luca Koleosho, Lowell Wright, Mataeo Bunbury

Don't really have a ton to argue, but what's the rationale with not bringing Goodman in?

[VinceA]

One thing to note is this team will probably run some sort of 3-4-3/4-4-2 to mimic the senior team. Maybe a 3-5-2 but we have too many wingers to run that formation.

[blueseeka]

1 hour ago, Approve My Account Pls said:

Don't really have a ton to argue, but what's the rationale with not bringing Goodman in?

Yep...i completely think Goodman is the starting GK

[SpecialK]

2 hours ago, Footyeh said:

I don't think we will get any nice surprises for the qualifying, most of the roster will come from that sole camp.  If I had to take a stab at the roster:

GK: Max Anchor, Dino Bontis

FB: Tyler Crawford, Keesan Ferdinand, Kosi Thompson

CB: Jefferson Alphonse, Mateo Campagna, Loic Cloutier, Jaimie Knight-Lebel

CM: Justin Smith, Mael Henry, Matt Catavolo, Rida Zouhir, Jay Herdman

FW: Kamron Habibullah, Jean Aniel-Assi, Jakeele Marshall-Rutty, Luca Koleosho, Lowell Wright, Mataeo Bunbury

Isn’t Smith more of CB ? 

[Obinna]

2 minutes ago, SpecialK said:

Isn’t Smith more of CB ? 

Can play both positions.

[Footyeh]

40 minutes ago, blueseeka said:

Yep...i completely think Goodman is the starting GK

Based on what..?  
 

Has anyone actually seen him play?  
 

Besides that, don’t think he’s a citizen yet to play in official matches.  Anchor likely to be #1

[Footyeh]

20 minutes ago, SpecialK said:

Isn’t Smith more of CB ? 

They used him in both matches against CR as a #6 so I imagine that’s where they’d use him at qualifying.  

[Unnamed Trialist]

2 hours ago, Footyeh said:

I don't think we will get any nice surprises for the qualifying, most of the roster will come from that sole camp.  If I had to take a stab at the roster:

GK: Max Anchor, Dino Bontis

FB: Tyler Crawford, Keesan Ferdinand, Kosi Thompson

CB: Jefferson Alphonse, Mateo Campagna, Loic Cloutier, Jaimie Knight-Lebel

CM: Justin Smith, Mael Henry, Matt Catavolo, Rida Zouhir, Jay Herdman

FW: Kamron Habibullah, Jean Aniel-Assi, Jakeele Marshall-Rutty, Luca Koleosho, Lowell Wright, Mataeo Bunbury

Just curious. No Jordan Alvarez, no Tiago Coimbra at Palmeiras, no Jesse Costa who was scoring and starring for us last camp, no Tavares, no Vislaint, and especially no Lucas Dias ffs? 

[JamesF]

I remember hearing on the northern futbol pod that the standouts where Owen Goodman, Justin smith and Jesse costa so I expect all three of those guys to be in the final roster

 

[Xavier.]

8 minutes ago, Footyeh said:

Based on what..?  
 

Has anyone actually seen him play?  
 

Besides that, don’t think he’s a citizen yet to play in official matches.  Anchor likely to be #1

He's been good at the u18 level, he frequently trains with the Crystal Palace first team, he is likely to be #1. 

"don’t think he’s a citizen yet to play in official matches." What???

8 minutes ago, Footyeh said:

They used him in both matches against CR as a #6 so I imagine that’s where they’d use him at qualifying.  

Not true. They used him as a CB in the first game, and a #6 in the second game.

[N1ckbr0wn]

18 minutes ago, Footyeh said:

They used him in both matches against CR as a #6 so I imagine that’s where they’d use him at qualifying.  

That’s not true. He played CB in the first match and CDM in the 2nd. They wanted to experiment both ways

[Buchta]

Atanassov called up (May 18th) by the Bulgarian U19 squad to face Bosnia and Herzegovina on June 4th and 7th.

https://rodopi24.blogspot.com/2022/05/1924_18.html

[Atlantic]

2 hours ago, Footyeh said:

Based on what..?  
 

Has anyone actually seen him play?  
 

Besides that, don’t think he’s a citizen yet to play in official matches.  Anchor likely to be #1

He was born in Canada 

[Kadenge]

what's the strike count up to now? 😃

[sonic_fcpf]

6 hours ago, Footyeh said:

I don't think we will get any nice surprises for the qualifying, most of the roster will come from that sole camp.  If I had to take a stab at the roster:

GK: Max Anchor, Dino Bontis

FB: Tyler Crawford, Keesan Ferdinand, Kosi Thompson

CB: Jefferson Alphonse, Mateo Campagna, Loic Cloutier, Jaimie Knight-Lebel

CM: Justin Smith, Mael Henry, Matt Catavolo, Rida Zouhir, Jay Herdman

FW: Kamron Habibullah, Jean Aniel-Assi, Jakeele Marshall-Rutty, Luca Koleosho, Lowell Wright, Mataeo Bunbury

4 CB when Justin S. can play there also? More likely to be 3 CB and 6 CM

[Club Linesman]

22 hours ago, Footyeh said:

We are talking about U20 football, not seniors.  When was the last time you saw this U20 roster even play?  Literally no one saw the costa rica friendlies so how would you even know the level?  The US has played teams like Brazil and Mexico.  All the players that will be called to the US U20's are playing professional football, at top levels.  The pool of options for them is so much bigger and competitive, they even split camps into U19 & U20.  It's not a slight against us, it's just the truth of how deep they are.

I was referring to our men’s national team. I doubt to many youngsters are worried about where they are playing youth international football.  Most of them have to play for other nations anyways as we have been so poorly organized in that respect.  
Our men’s team is in great form and we do have great prospects going forward.  If I am not convinced that I will be a surefire starter for our team, I would consider playing for another country.

[Ivan]

On 5/20/2022 at 9:38 AM, Dominic94 said:

Tbh it’s murky, this is the best U-20 squad we’ve ever seen and the reality is that it doesn’t even include 2 big names that would be on it. We’re leaving a lot of good players at home.

2 big names?  Jebbison and ....... who am I forgetting?

[Ivan]

23 hours ago, Footyeh said:

I don't think we will get any nice surprises for the qualifying, most of the roster will come from that sole camp.  If I had to take a stab at the roster:

GK: Max Anchor, Dino Bontis

FB: Tyler Crawford, Keesan Ferdinand, Kosi Thompson

CB: Jefferson Alphonse, Mateo Campagna, Loic Cloutier, Jaimie Knight-Lebel

CM: Justin Smith, Mael Henry, Matt Catavolo, Rida Zouhir, Jay Herdman

FW: Kamron Habibullah, Jean Aniel-Assi, Jakeele Marshall-Rutty, Luca Koleosho, Lowell Wright, Mataeo Bunbury

You seem pretty "plugged in" @Footyeh so who am I to argue, but I'm surprised you're not including Goodman, Abatneh, Pellegrino, Dias (assuming he wants to play).  And isn't Ben Alexander ahead of Max Anchor in the Whitecaps depth chart?

[Footyeh]

23 hours ago, Xavier. said:

He's been good at the u18 level, he frequently trains with the Crystal Palace first team, he is likely to be #1. 

"don’t think he’s a citizen yet to play in official matches." What???

Not true. They used him as a CB in the first game, and a #6 in the second game.

Is this something you hear or actually know?  Not going to argue, lets re-visit later.

Regarding Smith, lets wait and see I guess.  Started CDM in both matches.

[Footyeh]

23 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Just curious. No Jordan Alvarez, no Tiago Coimbra at Palmeiras, no Jesse Costa who was scoring and starring for us last camp, no Tavares, no Vislaint, and especially no Lucas Dias ffs? 

Are you saying this because you've actually seen these players?  Or just because the clubs they are at.  

It's not that I don't rate guys like Costa, but there were several players who were actually supposed to be in that camp that were not released and younger guys like Costa got in.  Same reason I left out Abatneh.  Guys like Ferdinand, Aniel-Assi will come back in the fold.

Lucas Dias almost certainly will not play in qualifiers.