Olympic Soccer Teams in KC

[HuffyCane]

It would appear that the Final Four of the tourney to qualify for the Olympics for Men's soccer will be played in KC in March.

Its a good chance to see the next wave of talent for the USMNT, since they are restricted to 3 overage players. After you pencil in Howard or Guzan and Donovan if he wants to do it again, the field players are almost all going to be U23.

I saw a couple of games in 2000. I didnt know it at the time, but it turned into a who's who of US soccer from 2000 to 2010. Guys you never heard of like Landon Donovan, Conor Casey, Brian Ching, DeMarcus Beasley, John O'Brien. It was a coming out party for the core group of young players that propelled the US so far in the 2002 WC. 2008 was pretty much the same story with names like Altidore, Holden and others emerging in South Africa, if you didnt follow the MLS closely.

So with Luis Gil, Omar Salgado, Juan Agudelo, Josh Gatt, Junior Flores and others waiting in the wings, its a good opportunity to go and enjoy some spring soccer.

I would go up there for those games, before I would drop a couple of hundred on a Sporting KC weekend, but that's just me.

 

[Novocaine]

It's a great facility. Wish we had something similar here.

It's easy to get to, lots of hotels in the area. 4 hrs, 20 minutes, tops from downtown Tulsa up 169.

I saw us play in the Gold Cup game there this summer (where we missed about 11 wide open goals).

 

[Chris Harmon]

Originally posted by HuffyCane:
So with Luis Gil, Omar Salgado, Juan Agudelo, Josh Gatt, Junior Flores and others waiting in the wings, its a good opportunity to go and enjoy some spring soccer.

I only recognize Agudelo and Flores. I need to brush up obviously.

 

[HuffyCane]

Luis Gil plays for Salt Lake. He is 16 years old. He is a playmaker in the center midfield. He doesnt score a lot.

He turned down a youth contract with Arensal. At the time it was offered, and they assumed he would accept it, Arsenal billed him as the heir apparent to Cesc Fabragas. They were very upset when he turned them down.

He decided to stay in the USA because his parents are illegal aliens and if they ever left the US to see him play in England, its unclear whether they could return. I would imagine the club that can straighten out their immigration status and pay him enough so that neither parent has to work again will be his new club eventually.

He's played a few games for the senior side at SLC, with some glimpses of his genius. But he's very very young and it shows.

Omar Salgado was the first player selected in last year's draft. He went to expansion Vancouver. He's a big tall striker with great range. I think he just turned 19.

Other emerging names: Conor Doyle plays striker for Derby County.

Josh Gatt had some really, really impressive flashes of brilliance playing in Norway, but at 5'10" and 165, he's not the big fast striker that the USA prefers.

Kofie Sarkodie and Perry Kitchen are the next generation of the backline and they are both playing well in MLS despite being under 20. Gale Agbossoumonde already has some senior caps under Bradley. He needs to emerge as a legit star in Sweden though and play consistently for his club.

If Guzan or Howard are not part of the team, look for Cody Cropper between the posts. He's impressed the staff at Ipswich Town. He's probably the best U23 keeper we've got.

All the bigsoccer.com morons keep typing away that we've got no talent behind Jozy, Donovan, Boca, and Howard. They are so wrong. We are LOADED!

Now if we could just get these players into leagues and teams that dont have NCAA practice limits or shortened seasons like MLS, they can develop and keep the edge we enjoy at the youth level. Few people realize how feared the USA is at the U18 and U20 level. We frequently crush teams like Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, etc. But then the NCAA take over and our kids cant practice or play against developed competition. Its senseless. Players miss three entire seasons of practice and games that they lose because of NCAA restrictions by the time they graduate.

 

[Chris Harmon]

Thanks for that breakdown. I haven't read bigsoccer.com in years...never liked it.

If Arsenal thought Gil was the next Fabragas, that's pretty awesome. I need to check him out.

The one guy that kind of broke my heart recently was Giuseppe Rossi. I was so upset when he chose Italy over the US. For some reason, I had this feeling he would stay with his birth nation....but I understand the draw of playing for Italy.

I agree with you about getting our young guys over into good foreign leagues for development. I thought it was great when Fulham had four US players on the squad, and they were actually difference makers and regulars in the first 11.