U.S. under-15 boys national team head coach Tom Heinemann selected 24 players (born on or after Jan. 1, 2009) for a six-day camp that ends Wednesday at Kennesaw State University in Georgia.
The roster features five from the New York Red Bulls, four from the Columbus Crew and three from the Chicago Fire.
Eleven players return from the team that beat host Portugal and Italy at a UEFA Development Tournament last November.
U.S. Roster:
Goalkeepers (3): Keller Abbott (Columbus Crew), James Donaldson (Atlanta United), Tobias Szewczyk (NY Red Bulls).
Defenders (9): Hugo Berg (Chicago Fire), Edward Chadwick (LA Galaxy), Nash Dearmin (Inter Miami), Liam Devan (Nashville SC), Gianmarco Di Noto (Columbus Crew), Tyson Espy (LAFC), Prince Forfor (Columbus Crew), Alex Gomez (NY Red Bulls), Astin Mbaye (NY Red Bulls).
Midfielders (6): Christopher Cook (FC Dallas), Adri Mehmeti (NY Red Bulls), Xander Newstead (Ajax/NED), Roko Pehar (Chicago Fire), Paul Sokoloff (NY Red Bulls), Kaedren Spivey (San Jose Earthquakes).
Forwards (6): Zidane Cadet (Inter Miami), Ivory Covington (Atlanta United), Immanuel Ewing (Columbus Crew), Omar Hassan (Seattle Sounders), Darris Hyte (Chicago Fire), William Ostrander (San Jose Earthquakes).
Hummm.??? Interesting… Only (1) Noticeably Hispanic Name.. Gomez.???
I expect that the selection criteria favored early bloomers, i.e., “big”.
The problem I have is this is not “a” camp, it is “the” camp and it only includes 24 children. The net cast is too small.
Not sure on this Bob. In my area, 2nd largest state, many of the latino kids are the early bloomers. Look at the people doing the selecting – and remember – with pay-to-play covering 99% of youth soccer in USA – soccer is still a country club sport here – no matter how hard they try and tell us different. MLS after losing the money from USSF for DA – which was north of $10M per year – most of their academies actually dropped teams and coaches – switched to U15, U17, U19 from U14, U15, U16, U17, U19. No A level Academy in Uruguay has less than 5 teams. Each team has a coach. They also let the coaches go. My estimate – this is me – have not read this anywhere – is that of the 30 MLS teams at least 20 are in this model – so 40 teams cut – 25 players per team – 500 players – and 40 coaches. Yeah MLS Next has 130 teams – but the non-MLS team academies are pay-to-play. So, yeah, youth soccer here, looong way to go – and – look at who’s picking the players – latinos actually develop earlier in my experience.
clever how MLS teams did this – they let players and coaches go – but they created context MLS Next – where coaches could find work – and players – they iterated – the cut – like this – over 1 -2 years – first the U14 team – eliminated – then the U16 team cut. So the player graduating from U15 had to make the U17 team – where there were fewer slots – but it was presented like this – sorry – you did not make the team. This went over the heads of so many – but – facts. Just the facts.
I would add this – for anyone that cares – USSF – failing the youth in our top level academies – letting MLS run their own Academy league. Uruguay – AUF runs the A academy league – and the B. They decide what clubs are in – based on standards – one of them being – teams in every age category – another – one team per coach. My son trained with Rentista – 2005 age group couple summers ago – and with their U14 coach privately – Rentista were relegated from 1st to 2nd Division last year – their Academy teams stayed in A. Why? They meet the Academy standards of the academy league – run by the national federation. The national federation does not tell clubs how to develop players – as we did with DA – what they do is simple and not expensive – the run the league and set the standards. If Rentista eliminated their U14 and U16 teams and let the coaches go – they’d be removed from A Academy league and would not be eligible for B either. This simple. Here – there is zero oversight of our Academy system – USSF – lets MLS – a for profit business – run their own Academy league. What you get is what you see. Coming on 20 years and half the national team starters developed at foreign clubs – while we have the largest youth system – in the world. Madness.
Frank… At least we got One Kid from Ajax.!!!
See what you can find out.!?!?!?
Santi, all I know is that he’s an attacking midfielder ,who is an American citizen ,but could also play for the Philipines…
Except the the Ajax youth, this appears to be an MLS operation. Limiting yourself to MLS players makes identification and selection a breeze. Moreover, only one youth from Sounders, one from Dallas, and none from Real Salt Lake. Sounds like an MLS promotion typical for USSF.
It is not that at all – it is that before 18 – you are youth – and there are many more restrictions. Natural that the younger you go – the fewer foreign based kids you get in your group. Also – budget – you have to fly the kid over – he just started HS. This is not like the our clown p2p clubs – congrats – you are selected for the ‘elite’ tournament – but – you have to pay air, lodging, meals to participate. Not like that. Good day.