16-year-old Julian Hall levels things for the Red Bulls in the final moments of the match! ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/Uj5qBOEUkW— Major League Soccer (@MLS) September 8, 2024
LAFC locks in two USYNTers. [They also promoted former USYNTer David Ochoa to their first team from LAFC. Ochoa is no longer US-eligible, though.] Luca Bombino and Adrian Wibowo are Black & Gold.📝 #LAFC signs defender Luca Bombino and forward Adrian Wibowo to Homegrown Contracts with options through 2027.Luca and Adrian are the sixth and seventh Homegrown players in club history.— LAFC (@LAFC) September 13, 2024
Andrew Rick was fantastic for the Union tonight. He made seven saves (career high), and earned his first MLS win of his career.The 18-year old has a bright, bright future!#Doop pic.twitter.com/gGX0stTq5d— Todd Lewis (@ItsAToddLife) September 19, 2024
DANUHNUH DANUHNUHPickle Rick pawed his way into @espn TOP 10!!!#DOOP pic.twitter.com/h20x02m6Is— Philadelphia Union (@PhilaUnion) September 19, 2024
U20 World Cup dates announced. September 27th until October 19th, 2025. Just about the absolute worst time for it to occur. Europe and Mexico in season. MLS in playoff push portion of the season. Releases are going to be quite a challenge. Three tournament dates for 2025 were also confirmed, including for the first ever FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/6tm7BKCWha— FIFA (@FIFAcom) October 3, 2024
I know we talked about it in other threads/forums...........but here's the U20 roster for this window. We're still a full calendar year from the World Cup and are running both U19 and U20 camps in this window. Lots of players being evaluated. [And of course had a different group of U18s get together in September for a trip to Japan.] This roster is really strong. Probably even stronger than the one we took to the CONCACAF Championships. We have some key dual-national additons like Duru and Dausch. The positions seem all over the place in this roster. Not sure why Baker-Whiting and Miller are listed as forwards. But whatever. There are some notable ommisions of players who seem to have been dropped to the U19s. Cruz Medina of San Jose. Nimfa Berchimas of Charlotte. Keyrol Figueroa of Liverpool. We're keeping them in the pool, but also they've got work to do.] Goalkeepers (2): Gavin Beavers (Real Salt Lake; Henderson, Nev.), Julian Eyestone (Brentford/ENG; Dallas, Texas) Defenders (7): Noahkai Banks (Augsburg/GER; Dietmannsried, Germany), Noah Cobb (Atlanta United FC; Chattanooga, Tenn.), Leo Duru (Blackburn Rovers/ENG; Manchester, England), Ethan Kohler (Werder Bremen/GER; Campbell, Calif.), Nolan Norris (FC Dallas; Fort Worth, Texas), Oscar Verhoeven (San Jose Earthquakes; Pleasant Hill, Calif.), Joshua Wynder (Benfica/POR; Louisville, Ky.) Midfielders (7): Benjamin Cremaschi (Inter Miami CF; Key Biscayne, Fla.), Taha Habroune (Columbus Crew; Columbus, Ohio), Bryan Moyado (Los Angeles FC; La Puente, Calif.), Sergio Oregel Jr. (Chicago Fire FC; Chicago, Ill.), Brooklyn Raines (Houston Dynamo FC; Chicago, Ill.), Pedro Soma (Barcelona/ESP; Coconut Creek, Fla.), Niko Tsakiris (San Jose Earthquakes; Saratoga, Calif.) Forwards (6): Reed Baker-Whiting (Seattle Sounders FC; Seattle, Wash.), Luke Brennan (Atlanta United FC; Atlanta, Ga.), Aidan Dausch (Coventry City/ENG; London, England), Peyton Miller (New England Revolution; Unionville, Conn.), Ruben Ramos Jr. (LA Galaxy; La Puente, Calif.), Marcos Zambrano (Vitoria Guimaraes/POR; Gladwyne, Penn.)
Weather in Chile I think. The summer months are actually the winter there (though never having been to Chile I have no idea what the climate is like in June/July). But only reason I can think of.
Partly. I mean, we talk about the U20 World Cup a lot on these boards. But is this a competition actually valued by the really powerful organizations in the soccer world. Does the European Club Association care about it? No. We'll have to see who we can get released. It very likely overlaps partially with a FIFA window. Partly. But we know we have trouble getting even players from reserve teams in Europe released outside of FIFA windows. Soma and Kochen from Barcelona would be a problem. A notable absence from the U20 roster above is Cole Campbell. We could have potentially gotten him in say.............June. But I find it hard to believe we'll get him in September. Maybe this time next year he'll be in the full USMNT. Noahkai Banks and others too. So any player from Europe that actually has matches to play during that month will be a problem. We'll do OK with MLS-based players. But this time of year is really the playoff push and even the start of the playoffs. So will an important contributor for a team in the playoffs be released? A Ben Cremaschi? I don't know. But really...............this time of year is about as bad as it can be for us. September is the one time of year when we have all of Europe, Mexico, MLS, and USL matches. Even MLSNP and the NCAAs. Its the most crowded time of our calendar. We talk about this all the time. Build and build and build and build our depth. Have as many U18, U19, and U20 camps and competitions in every window to keep building the depth. In the grand scheme of things, the U20 level is a means to an end. Not an end unto itself. If we can't get our top 25 U20 players released because they're deemed too important to release by their clubs...................that's ultimately a good thing. Its like the realization that most of our top 10 U23 players weren't at the Olympics. That's OK.
Noticeably weak in the middle of the field, right back continues to be a weakness, and center forward is still a question mark. On the other hand, goalkeeper and center back are improved. Miller is a bump at left back. Attacking mids/wings, I’m undecided yet on my opinion. Some good and some meh.
The thing is there a league in the world that doesn’t play in September/October? The timing doesn’t seem to be convenient for anyone. My speculation is has to do with the seasons being flipped in Chile but open to other explanations.