I was going to wait for this until after the Cup was done, but Ives has gone ahead and done it already. Here's what he's projecting: GOALKEEPER- Tim Howard, Brad Guzan, Chris Seitz DEFENDERS- Oguchi Onyewu, Jonathan Spector, Jonathan Bornstein, Tim Ream, Omar Gonzalez, Ike Opara, Kevin Alston, Kofi Sarkodie MIDFIELDERS- Landon Donovan, Michael Bradley, Stuart Holden, Maurice Edu, Benny Feilhaber, Jose Francisco Torres, Alejandro Bedoya, Sacha Kljestan FORWARDS- Jozy Altidore, Clint Dempsey, Charlie Davies, Yura Movsisyan Its four years out, so any number of people could emerge between now and then. Going back to four years ago, seven guys from this year's side had not been capped, if you count Bradley who won his first in the warm-up matches. The established guys from this year that Ives listed are pretty safe bets to make it, baring injuries. The interesting one for me is Yura Movsisyan who is playing for Randers in Denmark and is not an American citizen or resident, yet is working towards his citizenship with hopes of representing the United States over Armenia. He had 7 goals in 13 matches with Randers. To summarize, Yura Movsisyan is Armenia for Herculez Gomez as he scored 20 in 71 MLS matches, then tore up Denmark.
Without googling everyone on there, I believe Tim Howard, Dempsey, Onyewu, and Donovan will be over 30 by then. I also wouldn't bet against Howard still starting by then. He'll be 35 and keepers tend to age pretty well.
Agreed. Are there no other young players coming up? I thought I read a thread about some US youngsters a couple of months ago.
Most of those guys were 15 or 16. I think one was even 14. The list above seems limited to people who have played professionally already. A lot of the defenders are in their first couple of years in MLS. Not so much with the midfielders and forwards, but that's where the prospects we have haven't made the step up into the pro game yet. Plus, the central midfielders we had at the World Cup were all pretty young to begin with.
Its very true. I think a lot of those guys are in though, baring injury or catching the Beasleyitis where you just forget how to play soccer. I think a guy I'd keep an eye on would be Marlon Duran. I haven't heard much about him since the U-17 Championship, but he was terrific in defensive midfield there. He'll probably be enrolling in college this year, so I hope to catch a few articles about him, but we'll see what happens. The problem is that he's 5'3", so I'm not sure if anyone in the US will take him seriously in that role. And from the guys in the first post, I should mention that Kofi Sarkodie is still in college at Akron, while the rest are playing professionally. Of those 23, seven are playing in MLS, five of whom are defenders.
10 MLS players to watch for in 2014 from SI.com A pretty good list. I'm not too familiar with Stevens, but the most of the others I have heard very solid things about. Najar came up through the DC United youth academy, but he is not currently an American citizen and might stick with his native Honduras. His recent MLS performances probably have him up fairly high in the Honduran player pool. I'm also wondering where Ike Opara is. He's simply a better player than Kyle Davies at the same position. And Dax McCarty is terrible.
Some more on this topic. Leander Schaerlaeckens offers up this bit about five young players to watch in MLS. Not really on topic directly, but it provides more info about Omar Gonzalez, Bill Hamid, and Danny Mwanga. Mwanga doesn't have US citizenship yet, but the Congolese forward has expressed that he's more likely to play for the US if given the chance. The other two, Roger Torres and Andy Najar, don't appear to be on the radar as they don't have citizenship and haven't expressed an interest in representing the US. Najar has actually said that he'd prefer Honduras. And Greg Seltzer of MLSsoccer.com and the No Short Corners blog has his 23 man roster for 2014. GK - Tim Howard, Brad Guzan, Bill Hamid DF - Oguchi Onyewu, Jonathan Spector, Omar Gonzalez, Ike Opara, Eric Lichaj, Marvell Wynne, Heath Pearce, Edgar Castillo MF - Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, Maurice Edu, Freddy Adu, Alejandro Bedoya, Stuart Holden, Sacha Kljestan FW - Jozy Altidore, Charlie Davies, Tony Taylor, Brek Shea That's seven current MLSers and 16 in Europe. Of the 16, nine have MLS experience. No college kids on this team. Its worth noting that these two projections seem to be based on a 4-4-2 formation. If Bradley returns as coach, I think we'll stick with that formation throughout the next four years, but I could see another coach try to emphasize our strength in midfield and trust Altidore up top by himself.
Latest on Yura Movsisyan shows him holding the Armenian jersey. Perhaps not the loss that others would be considering that he's a ways away from citizenship and, while skilled, not necessarily a significant upgrade (or an upgrade at all) over current US forwards or youth players. Altidore and Gomez already have the market cornered for multi-national US forwards, and Omar Salgado and others are coming through the ranks.
I doubt it. Apparently Frank Simek came up through the Arsenal system and ended up as captain of the reserves, but he's moved on to Carlisle United since departing.
