Nice pull.
I don't know anything about Kunga, but I hope he really is that good because he made the team over some legit prospects.
Nice pull.
@Titans Bastard :The U20 World Cup roster is out.
tl:dr one of our best CMs wasn't released, Tab made bizarre decisions with the attacking end of the roster, and left our best LB at home.
GK
Jonathan Klinsmann (California)
J.T. Marcinkowski (Georgetown)
Brady Scott (De Anza Force)
DF
Marlon Fossey (Fulham)
Aaron Herrera (New Mexico)
Cameron Carter-Vickers (Tottenham Hotspur)
Erik Palmer-Brown (Sporting Kansas City)
Justen Glad (Real Salt Lake)
Tommy Redding (Orlando City)
Danny Acosta (Real Salt Lake)
MF
Tyler Adams (New York Red Bulls)
Derrick Jones (Philadelphia Union)
Gedion Zelalem (Arsenal)
Eryk Williamson (Maryland)
Luca de la Torre (Fulham)
FW
Jeremy Ebobisse (Portland Timbers)
Lagos Kunga (Atlanta United)
Brooks Lennon (Real Salt Lake)
Emmanuel Sabbi (unattached)
Josh Sargent (Scott Gallagher Missouri)
Sebastian Saucedo (Real Salt Lake)
Unavailabilities and strange cuts have made this roster to be a disappointment.
GKs
Except for a few early camps, Ramos has stuck with these three + Fortuna Düsseldorf's Justin Vom Steeg the whole cycle. I think last cycle's GKs (Steffen and Horvath) are better prospects. However, it's not obvious that we have anyone better this time around that Ramos is missing. Klinsmann will start. Brady Scott is probably the #3, but he's a 1999 playing up a cycle who will enter the next U20 team with a good shot at starting. He is rumored to be heading overseas this summer.
DFs
CCV, EPB, Glad, and Redding are our best four CBs. Glad hasn't played since getting injured in qualifiers, but he is supposedly close to a full return to health. CCV was thought to be likely to miss the WC with injury. I still would not be surprised if he withdraws if he doesn't improve fast enough.
Fossey would be the starting RB but he is in the same boat as CCV with regard to injury. Herrera is the backup RB and he's nothing special, but Ramos likes him over some other professional options for whatever reason. Danny Acosta at LB is another longtime mainstay for the team; Portland's Marco Farfan would have been a better choice. Acosta was not very impressive in qualifiers, while Farfan has done well in MLS opportunities this year. Dumping longtime U20 players for guys who surpass them late in the cycle has always been a blind spot for Ramos.
CMs
Tyler Adams is another guy playing up a cycle, but despite his youth he's already been starting for NYRB. He generally plays as a DM, but also played as a box-to-box in qualifying with EPB at DM. He will probably start this cycle and be a central piece next cycle. Derrick Jones is a late addition to the pool; he gained US citizenship a while ago but needed FIFA to process his paperwork and approve an eligibility waiver. Jones is a huge physical presence who has decent feet for a big man, but may be a bit raw.
Zelalem and Williamson are candidates to play a box-to-box role if it is not occupied by Adams. The best player for this spot is Schalke's Weston McKennie, but reportedly they would not release him, which is a shame. It's also possible that Tab could use Zelalem as a #10...for better or for worse.
Luca de la Torre is more of an attack-minded midfielder who can be used centrally or out wide. I see him as a well-rounded player who will be a solid pro, but I'm still not sure if he has any one attribute that will make him a game-changer.
FWs / wingers
This is where it gets weird. Ebobisse and Sabbi didn't have a great qualifying tournament, so they are joined by Josh Sargent, a rare instance of a U17 player moving up to the U20s. On the wings, Lennon is a solid player, Saucedo I think may turn out to be decent but was absolutely awful in qualifiers. Kunga is an out-of-the-blue pick. He was called up to his first camp last month and it's a huge surprise he made the team.
Ramos cut:
- FW Haji Wright, who has 11g and 11a in 24 games for Schalke U19
- FW Kai Koreniuk, who has 10g and 2a in 19 games for Vitesse's reserves in the Dutch third division
- winger Josh Perez, who has 10g and 7a in 25 games for Fiorentina Primavera
- winger Mukwelle Akale, who has done well in Villarreal's system
- winger McKinze Gaines, who has 7g and 9a in 22 games for Wolfsburg U19
Simply existing in a Euro academy doesn't mean you are actually good, but these guys have all shown some real promise. I'm not sure why mediocrities like Sabbi were included over Wright or why a guy playing U18 DA games in Georgia was included over Perez or Akale. Ramos never even bothered to call up Wright, Koreniuk, or Gaines the entire cycle.
Schalke's attacking midfielder Nick Taitague is another player who supposedly was not released. Like Adams and Scott, he is a 1999 who will likely feature prominently next time around.
NB: Christian Pulisic is eligible for this team, too.
This has seemed to be the natural solution all along, but every time they try it or think about it, seems like someone gets hurt and GC is needed on the back line again. We've always been able to scrounge up capable center backs so I hope they can find a way to make this happen.Geoff Cameron started at DM today for Stoke, and looked one of the best players on the field. Created several chances and took a hell of a shot late in the 2nd half that required a full-extension save from Cech.
Maybe we already have Bradley's replacement (or JJ's) in the starting lineup, and what we actually need is another CB we can trust alongside Brooks.
Nice pull.
I don't know anything about Kunga, but I hope he really is that good because he made the team over some legit prospects.
I'm sold. Tell me where the pitchforks and torches are handed out before the rally.He doesn't seem to have much of a platform yet, though.
- Zelalem injury is to his left knee - it got stuck in the turf as he was planting on it to pass the ball with his right. Looks like an ACL - they just took him right off with no ability to support any weight.
Nobody blew out their ACL today, so that's good.
Yeah, nice turn & finish.Wow. Poor defense, but those are two classy touches from Sargent.
CCV was very good. He has always been dominant at the U20 level.Yeah, nice turn & finish.
TB, how did CCV look (either from reports or your own eyes if you watched)?
Klinsmann has shown some shot-stopping skills but overall has looked fairly shaky for the U20s. I don't think he's a very good prospect, but at the same time there isn't anybody being brutally snubbed. This U20 cycle just doesn't have any obvious higher-end GK prospects. It's worth noting that since the Howard/Rimando U20 team in 1999, we have had a fairly long streak of our U20 GKs getting surpassed by others in their age cohort. Hopefully that changes with the 2015 duo of Horvath and Steffen, who seem to be on the right track.Is Jonathan Klinsmann... any good? Are they just sticking with whoever's been getting all the first-team reps?
As for the senior team, I didn't know Tim Howard was healthy enough to even be listed on a roster. Nor Dempsey. Good to see Nagbe back on the list, though his competition has grown in his absence. I did think that his breakout Gold Cup play was more as a DM/CM though.
GOAL!!
Lagos Kunga gets in on the action with a goal in the third minute of stoppage time. 6-0 US now and NZ's defense is just standing around at this point.
Agree with all of this. I've read a few articles recently that are connecting the dots between a few parallel observations/developments:I haven't seen enough of him to develop a strong opinion, but Mukwelle Akale at Villarreal has his fans as well.
McKennie, Wright, Gaines, and Taitague aren't even the only U-19 Bundesliga starters not on the roster. There's also Toni Suddoth (Stuttgart), Isaiah Young (Werder Bremen), and Corey Anton (Kaiserslautern, moving to Hoffenheim). Kevin Lankford (Heidenheim) started the year as a U19 starter in a league below the U19 Bundesliga, but has since graduated to the senior team in the 2.Bundesliga. (Young is the only member of that additional quartet who is not a Germerican, FYI.)
What's encouraging is the strength in numbers and the fact that so many of the top guys are US-developed. We need a few more years of data, but it's starting to look like a real possibility that US youth development has turned a corner. Even though European clubs are snatching up ever-increasing numbers of top US prospects, there are still a decent number of interesting players coming through MLS, too. Adams, Pomykal, Ferreira, Farfan, Lennon, Carleton, Durkin, et al. I don't think there's reason to believe we will crank out a Pulisic every year, but there seems to be growth in numbers among the next best echelon of prospect. I am feeling bullish about 2022 and 2026.
It is possible that by 2020 the USMNT's biggest weakness will, weirdly, be at GK.