Quick reminder, this is the same club that Emre Mor came to Dortmund from. (And Amon has been more productive there at the same age) Also while this is a friendly, it's against a club that is in the Danish superliga too and got 3rd last year.
brief Shaq Moore interview where he is getting a few appearances at Levante https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-s...-experience-lands-him-u-s-debut-idUKKBN1FK17Y
Also we finally get an update on EPB. Headed to KV Kortrijk in the Belgian Jupiler league. Great spot for him imo
New one https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/5369911/wolves-owen-otasowie-everton-juventus-ajax-schalke/
Also Parks scores against his old club that tried to fuck him over. Crowded midfield on the A team, but he is dominating on Benefica B.
Possibly another youngster at Schalke. Or he's at least in that area trialing with one of the many clubs. Richards is probably our best '00 CB prospect (but never got looks for the U17 WC team). Joined the FC Dallas academy this season and was on last season's U18 USSDA champion Houston Texans. He's originally from Alabama.
Ugh. I guess Brad Evans is training with SKC. Haven’t seen anything about a contract yet but if they sign him there goes all of Lindsey’s minutes this year. I’m sure he’ll be sent to SPR with Busio.
De la Fuente is one of the youngest players on Juvenil B and is reportedly flirting with being bumped up to A. People say he's improved tremendously in a really short time. Speaking of De la Fuente, new top 10 most exciting prospects list for funsies. Don't want to name anyone younger than 16, otherwise Pynadath would be on here. Keaton Parks Sargent De la Fuente. Jonathan Amon Tim Weah Tim Tillman Taitague Carleton George Bello EPB Just missing the cut: Sergino Dest, Taylor Booth, Jalen Hawkins, Uly Llanez
I was just naming other guys off the top of my head and didn't want to put any more effort into it tbh
Got the U-18 team at UCF this week, they hang out at our shop a lot. So Konrad is the star of that group?
Konrad, Taylor Booth, Ian Hoffman, Bryan Reynolds, and Uly Llanez are the headliners for the current U18 team.
May have to add Busio for Sporting Kc next year. He was playing with U18 when he just turned 16 and scored vs Dallas U-18 team as 15 yr old. He is the best prospect in their system.
He’s scored in the preseason already. Played 75 mins so far. Running with the 2s. They’ve been playing him at the 10 though, I think he was 9 with the u18s.
He's still 15 actually. Probably right there with Gio Reyna as the 3rd-4th best '02 prospects behind Pynadath and George Bello. That cycle looks quite loaded.
CCV has been in really good form again after the move to Ipswich. Seems like he might just be much better suited to a back 4 than a back 3.
It seems a bit of a hot take to me on Akinola versus Llanez. We also took Jocobo Reyes and Bryan Reynolds Jr over Llanez. Llanez did go to India as the last man on the roster in case of India, so it wasn't like he was neglected. He is also apart of the U18 Team that just played the double header against Costa Rica. Akinola had been red hot and scored a lot of goals leading up to the tournament, so it would have been pretty surprising if he was left off the squad. Llanez could just as easy been picked over Reyes for example. Nor is it a certainty that Llanez would have fared better in India that Akinola. Akinoka is a raw athlete, but he does seem to a have knack for scoring which is important as a forward. Nor can power and athleticism be discounted. The Galaxy signed a lot of Academy products and pretty much all of them flamed out because despite all being technical none were athletic enough to translate. Pulisic is a great technically, but also extremely athletic. Carelton is not nearly as athletic, although very capable technically so it will be interesting to see how he fares. Sargent is a both technical and atheletic although probably not to the level of Pulisic and I think he will be a success. Same with McKennie. Technical, but also athletic. Development is in the hands of the academies at this point anyway. Gone are the days of moving to Bradenton being the main driver for U17 call-ups. Now the onus on developing the players isn't on the Federation, but the Academy system, which should be a better arbiter of talent anyway.
Kyle Scott debuted for Chelsea today and played very well. If England comes calling (not sure if they will) it's probably a done deal. If not, the US and Ireland will probably be fighting for him.
The Bundesliga is figuring out that they can get some pretty good prospects from MLS academies and even better, get them for free.
I am not big on Zyen Jones as a prospect. He is basically a worse version of Ayo Akinola. He isn't near good enough to play for Atlanta. Carleton is a way better prospect and can barely see the field. I think Kunga is a better prospect as well as Okunkwo. They also have Brandon Vazquez that is another younger American player ahead of him on the depth chart and they just bought Deigo Lopez from the USL team out of FC Golden State. They are pretty crowded for minutes at both ATL and ATL2 and might also loan players to Charleston Battery to alleviate some of the minute crunch. I think a case could be made that Atlanta can make more off Jones by having him go over and play for a strong academy set-up with options to get him minutes in Germany. Then if he flames out, which is the high probability with any 2nd Tier prospect from the US, then he can come back to Atlanta United will hold his rights. He will likely be further along at that point than had he stayed in the US and played college or USL.
I think that's harsh. Akinola went on trial in Europe too and didn't get any offers of substance. Also worth noting that Jones went over with Chris Gloster and he left with an offer and Gloster didn't.
This is from the Bundesliga website and press release on signing his contract With Sargent eligible to play for the Bremen first team as of the 2018/19 campaign
Really intrigued to follow him this summer. See if he gets a chance during preseason with the first team, or hovers between first team/u23s(which is my guess)
It's worth noting that Johannes Eggenstein, one of the top German striker prospects (98 born) hasn't fully broken into the Bremen first team yet. I think overall American expectations are too high for this kid, which is of course partially because of Pulisic's rapid rise.
He's already bouncing between the U23's and the first team in training tbh. Getting a look during preseason doesn't really mean he'll get any minutes in games that matter anyway. I think people are just hoping to see what he looks like and the preseason is probably going to be the only opportunity for a while. That said, Americans having too high of expectations for prospects is certainly not rare.
I mean, yea expectations are high. But speaking strictly on Sargent, like miles said, he’s been training with the first team. I don’t expect him to start, but I’d love to see him be a squad player for the first team and get bench time during preseason. Then play full time with youth squad to gain match time/experience.
Busio (15) started for sporting today in preseason. Unfortunately he slipped which led to a real bad giveaway and a goal, but still- starting.
It was actually Sportings second team but Vermes wanted them to go up against NE’s 1s so they started. He’ll spend the entire year with the USL squad and with the Brad Evans signing Lindsay will as well. I bet Lindsay gets some open cup minutes though.