Wilmer Cabrera announced the US roster for the U-17 World Cup starting one week from today. GOALKEEPERS (3): Keith Cardona, Earl Edwards, Spencer Richey DEFENDERS (6): Zachary Herold, Perry Kitchen, Boyd Okwuonu, Tyler Polak, Jared Watts, Eriq Zavaleta MIDFIELDERS (6): Marlon Duran, Luis Gil, Carlos Martinez, William Packwood, Nick Palodichuk, Alex Shinsky FORWARDS (6): Juan Agudelo, Victor Chavez, Andrew Craven, Stefan Jerome, Jack McInerney, Dominick Sarle Gil, Martinez, Jerome, McInerney, and Edwards are the players to watch for this team. Luis Gil is leaving the academy in Bradenton, FL after this tournament to join Arsenal. Edwards, at 6-3, 199 lbs is massive in goal. Martinez will pull the strings from an attacking midfield position. Jerome provides astounding pace and respectable strength up front. McInerny has provided the goals and a target up top for Jerome to play off of. These selections aren't without some controversy however. Cabrera has passed over Charles Renken, Joseph Gyau, and Sebastian Lletget. Ives is reporting that they've been left off because of their decisions to leave the U-17 residency before the World Cup. Lletget is with West Ham, while Renken and Gyau are with Hoffenheim. I worry that Lletget (Argentina/Italy) and Renken (Zambia) could go the way of Subotic and Rossi, which would be a huge blow for the future of the USMNT. More updates to follow as the US approach group play with Spain, Malwai, and the United Arab Emirates.
I might have overstated the points with Gyau and Renken. Renken has been injured for the last 8 months or so after a second ACL tear in as many years. Cabrera has said that Gyau and Lletget have just slipped down the depth chart. Some US fans aren't buying that as I have seen discussion on other boards of Gyau being a junior Eddie Johnson, in that he has the speed to run by people but can only use it in a straight line and doesn't take people on and is a poor finisher. For Lletget, its not as clear. I haven't seen the links, but there is speculation that he'd rather play for Italy than the US.
And now three articles, posted over three days, on two sites from Brent Latham. In this Soccernet piece, Latham discusses the 21 players who are in Nigeria for the competition. The main emphasis, Wilmer Cabrera's team will be attacking. Not counter attacking like a typical US team, but attacking in waves from all over the pitch. Highlights on the roster are Edwards, who should dominate in goal and is looking to follow the career of Tim Howard. The defense has been playing together for the last three years, lead by Jared Watts and Eriq Zavaleta towering over the opposition in the middle, while Perry Kitchen and Tyler Polak are on the left and right respectively. In midfield, even without Renken, Gyau, and Lletget, there is a great deal of strength for the US. Marlon Duran and Luis Gil are starting in the middle and are developing into complete midfielders who attack and defend (Gil is linked with Arsenal and other unidentified European teams according to Ives). Alex Shinsky and Nick Palodichuk are likely to start on the wings, while Carlos Martinez provides attacking flair in a five midfield or diamond set up. Up top, Stefan Jerome is in the mold of Charlie Davies, while Jack McInerney works hard and can pull out the astounding goal without warning. Latham focused on the exclusions for Yanks Abroad. Renken mostly related to his knee injuries. Gyau is out partially because he felt his time with the Hoffenheim/Vancouver Whitecaps residency was more important than the U-17 cup, and Will Packwood was the only non-residency player included. I say partially, because the other part to consider is that he seems to be the second coming of Eddie Johnson. He'll run past you if given the chance to do so in a straight line, but he won't get fancy and take you off the dribble. Lletget is the more troubling case. He seems to be a free agent internationally now that he is with West Ham's academy. He's waiting on Argentina and Italy to make a move. And in this article for Yanks Abroad, Latham discusses the future for this team. It seems that many are planning on going pro after this tournament, led by Luis Gil who has an agreement to join Arsenal, but seems to be shopping around (see above). There was a pretty solid preview of the training matches for the tournament. They defeated the Chelsea U-18 and African champions The Gambia, while losing close matches with Uruguay and Spain. They also lost 3-0 to Kansas City...the full, adult, professional MLS club, which is a pretty solid effort for a bunch of 17 year old kids.
Do you actually write these out? If you do, you're pretty good at it -- You should become a sports journalist, or something. Do you have your own blog? Apologies for taking this off-topic.
I do write them out. As for my own blog, there are others out there who do what I do way better than I do. For sharing links, duNord is the gold standard for soccer blogs in the US. And I thought about journalism, but I have never been able to ask follow-up questions, which would greatly limit my career. And watching my brother struggle as a journalist makes me think I made the right choice. He's better at it than I ever would hope to be. I'll have to post some of his stuff around, once I find it.
Yeah, well there will always be people who are better... I was thinking about journalism but it's a damn hard profession to master so I decided to swing towards the IT field, heh. Does your brother focus on soccer or is it for other sports as well?
He does high school sports for local papers in the Boston area, but he covers La Liga for World Soccer Reader. I haven't read these articles, but the ones about his match day experiences in Europe tend to be his best work. Check out the one on Barcelona and Betis.
I think I am going to start squashing my excitement for this team just a bit. I was watching a few minutes of the Japan-Brazil match and the commentator said the odds were on Germany, Brazil, and Nigeria to win. I think I might also need to scale back my expectations for the future of McInerney, Edwards, Jerome, Gil, and Martinez. Here are the current and former National Team players from past rosters: 1991 - None 1993 - John O'Brien 1995 - Tim Howard 1997 - Dan Califf, Taylor Twellman 1999 - DaMarcus Beasley, Bobby Convey, Landon Donovan, Oguchi Onyewu, Kyle Beckerman 2001 - Justin Mapp, Eddie Johnson, Santino Quaranta, Chad Marshall 2003 - Jonathan Spector, Eddie Gaven, Danny Szetela, Freddy Adu 2005 - Jozy Altidore Its too early to tell what the 2007 team will yield. The 05 team also had Neven Subotic (whoops). The above would indicate that from this group of 21, at most three will become USMNT regulars and one or two others will have a shot at a fringe spot. Those numbers are based on the 1999 team, which had the US highest ever finish in this tournament. I'm still looking forward to see what this team has to offer, but I'm going to start calming my expectations a bit.
None recently. If Benelenses doesn't work out for him, a return to MLS might be his next step. As of now, South Africa is a huge long shot, but I would still expect to see him get a call in November.
The US had a shocking loss to Spain, 2-1 in their opener. Spain had a man sent off in the second and Jack McInerney scored in the fourth to put the US a man and a goal up. Spain pulled two back as Borja and Pablo Sarabia hit in the 22nd and 30th. The US dominated possession (59 to 41%) and had 9 shots on goal, but only found the back of the net once. I haven't watched the whole match yet, but the reports I have seen indicate that the US defense was pretty slow to react to the Spanish counter attack. It appears that no one played particularly well for the US, except leftback Tyler Polak....maybe he can start for the seniors against Denmark. The match also featured 14 minutes of stoppage time as two separate power outages shut off the stadium lights. Match report from FIFA Match summary from FIFA Coach quotes from FIFA Brent Latham for SoccerNet Commentary from Ives
I'm watching the Spain match now, its been a busy week and I'm just getting to it. Very disappointing first half. The red card was a very clear call as McInerney was well in on goal. McInerney's goal in the fourth was just solid work, and very similar to Conor Casey's vs. Honduras. Spain adopted a very clear counter attacking formation focusing on going at the US right back. There just wasn't a lot of speed out there for the US. Perry Kitchen was starting at right back and captain and got burned on both. As for the attack, there's some good ideas out there, but the execution is lacking. Stefan Jerome has done his best Eddie Johnson, while McInerney hasn't done much since the goal. All of the attack is coming down the left side where Tyler Polak and Alex Shinsky are. Marlon Duran is a pint sized defensive midfielder (listed at 5-4), but has done well when given the ball. Most of the distribution from the back has gone to Polak, but Duran has shown some flashes when he has been on the ball. More to come after I watch the second half, which I hear has better attack and defense, but more frustrations at the end.
Just finished the Spain match. It would have been a terrific showing...were Spain playing with a full 11 for 90 minutes. The second half was much better as the US dominated the ball and spent a great deal of time in the attack. The US went into an all-out attack for the second half with only Jared Watts and substitute Eriq Zavaleta playing defense. Duran was in a defensive midfield role, but was removed for a substitute with about 30 minutes to go. The attack wasn't very well structured however. Zach Herald and Tyler Polak were playing as wingers, while the rest stayed mostly central. McInerney was all over the pitch and was alongside Duran a few times, which is not a good place for him to be as it appears he doesn't know what he's doing with life once he leaves the attacking third. Gil was also all over the place, but was productive and looked great on the ball. However, you could tell that Spain was focused on eliminating him from the attack and regularly had two or three defenders going at him. Despite the defense, Gil still created most of the dangerous moments for the US. Overall, there were some solid efforts in this match. Gil, Herald, and Polak look like future NT players. Gil and Polak I have typed about enough, while Herald was terrific attacking as a right back in the second half and was strong in central defense in the first half. Edwards had strong distribution, but was burned by his own defenders on the two goals. McInerney will be a solid pro and could be a late growth spurt away from Brian McBride. He gets it and gets in the right places, but doesn't have the physical tools to dominate. Marlon Duran looks like he could be a factor in the future, but I have a sneaking feeling he would never play at the NT level if the coach is an American as he is just so small.
Just finished watching the US v. Malawi. A match that required as much effort to watch as it must have to play. The US had 11 corners, but were able to score just one goal, despite an astounding height advantage. Malawi's 14-year-old captain was roughly as tall as the young Nigerian child who lead out the team and the rest weren't too far behind. Its really tough to single out who played well for the US. Polak and Herold were solid throughout in attack. Defensively, it was all Polak, Herold, Arnet, and Navarro who just dominated the Malawi attack. Arnet and Navarro were the two assistants who called Malawi off-side 18 times. Yes...18 times. In the attack, most the US just drifted in and out of play and in and out of positions. Alex Shinsky scored a fluke goal that the keeper had saved, until he dropped it and it slid behind him into goal. Luis Gil didn't show any of the flair that he exhibited in the second half against Spain. Jack McInerney was close to getting a shot on goal twice, but missed both. Overall, this was a very poor performance. The biggest thing that I was able to notice was a surprising lack of structure from the US. The formation was listed as a 4-4-2, but didn't play like it at all. There was one particularly notable offside call where Shinsky came back from the left-midfield position and was the last defender, even though there was no real reason for him to be back there. The US really needs to get their act together as they need to defeat the UAE to move on. Anything less would be a major disappointment for a team that should have been a real threat in this tournament. Match Report from FIFA Match Summary from FIFA Coach Quotes from FIFA Brent Latham for SoccerNet Commentary from Ives
I haven't really gotten back to this thread. The tournament was a pretty big disappointment for the US and leaves me wondering what would have been different if Gyau and Lletget were called in and Renken wasn't injured. As for the players that did catch some attention, SoccerByIves filed this update. Manchester City and Real Madrid join Arsenal in pursuit of Luis Gil. Hertha Berlin and Vitesse Arnheim are after Jack McInerney. John Agudelo is on the brink of joining Red Bull New York as an academy player. Personally, I'm wondering where Zachary Herold, Tyler Polak, and Marlon Duran will end up. I think those three earned serious looks from Europe with their performances.
And some more news from Ives at the bottom of this post. MLS is in the chase for McInerney and Gil. McInenery would be making a decent choice. Gil, however, needs to go to Europe to develop his skills, whether its Arsenal or elsewhere.
