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U23 Canadians in MLS


Obinna

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I am happy that Ouimette and Clarke can be added to the list of young Canadian that have played MLS minutes this season.

I know it is still very limited, but it is a sign of progress and I am excited about that. Off the top of my head, the following players under 23 have played in MLS this season:

Henry

Morgan

Stinson

Makumbuya

Tiebert

Clarke

Ouimette

Hopefully before the season ends we can add Cordon, Alderson, and James to that list as well. That would bring us to 10.

Next year, I hope that Lindsey can recover enough to get his career back on track, and I hope Cordon is not turning into a Gabe Gala. It is a shame because Cordon looked very promising a few years ago.

By the time the next Olympic cycle comes, I hope we will be able to field an entire team of players who have decent MLS experience.

What worries me is that we produce more Gabe Gala's than Ashtone Morgan's. Not a knock on Gala, but not every good player will keep his spot in his MLS Canadian club. If Gabe Gala held a USA passport he may still be in MLS, but then again where is Attakora now a days? Until an academy product moves to an American MLS club and has the same success as Johnson, Hainault, or Jakovic, I remain concerned that we will hit a ceiling, where we produce good players that simply can't break into the league and fall off the radar. Maybe some will have success in Europe, but it is too early to tell. Attakora is the only one who attempted this and he is still without a club.

Anyways, I think next year we should have a sticky thread of U23 Canadians in MLS!

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I am happy that Ouimette and Clarke can be added to the list of young Canadian that have played MLS minutes this season.

I know it is still very limited, but it is a sign of progress and I am excited about that. Off the top of my head, the following players under 23 have played in MLS this season:

Henry

Morgan

Stinson

Makumbuya

Tiebert

Clarke

Ouimette

Hopefully before the season ends we can add Cordon, Alderson, and James to that list as well. That would bring us to 10.

Next year, I hope that Lindsey can recover enough to get his career back on track, and I hope Cordon is not turning into a Gabe Gala. It is a shame because Cordon looked very promising a few years ago.

By the time the next Olympic cycle comes, I hope we will be able to field an entire team of players who have decent MLS experience.

What worries me is that we produce more Gabe Gala's than Ashtone Morgan's. Not a knock on Gala, but not every good player will keep his spot in his MLS Canadian club. If Gabe Gala held a USA passport he may still be in MLS, but then again where is Attakora now a days? Until an academy product moves to an American MLS club and has the same success as Johnson, Hainault, or Jakovic, I remain concerned that we will hit a ceiling, where we produce good players that simply can't break into the league and fall off the radar. Maybe some will have success in Europe, but it is too early to tell. Attakora is the only one who attempted this and he is still without a club.

Anyways, I think next year we should have a sticky thread of U23 Canadians in MLS!

I too would like these guys to succeed. If you were to honestly step back and analyze them, though (and to do that you would need to pretend they were american), nothing Cordon did really impressed that much, besides the applause he gets as a Canadian coming on to the pitch. That's not to say that all Canadians coming through the system will be only average players, below average, or whatever, we just can't expect ALL of them to be above average. There's bound to be some "Gabe Galas", right?

I don't think Cordon will necessarily be one of them...extremely young still, but I don't think he'll ever be a superstar. Out of that list of U-23's it's easy to point to Morgan and Henry...but then, unless we lived in a world where Lindsey didn't get injured, out of that list, those might be the only 2 that keep consistent starting jobs in MLS! Sky is the limit for Henry with that perfect build for CB, and despite how we said the same about Attakora, I am still of the hope that Attakora may not be done yet. Hopefully Henry learns from some of the choices that Nana made, as well, in regards to career and contracts, because both are talented boys, still.

I really have high hopes for Tiebert to become a major starter and factor some day, but some guys on that list may never be huge factors. We may have to wait for guys like Brody Huitema to finish coming through the system, if they stay in Canada, to see some real stars outside of defence having developed here from start to finish.

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