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Concacaf u20 championship


Alex

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Thought I'd start a thread on this as all the teams have now qualified.

Jamaica are hosts.

USA, Mexico and Canada qualified automatically.

Panama, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador qualified from Central America.

Haiti, Cuba, T&t and Aruba qualified from caribbean qualification although they play the finals tomorrow.

It's two groups of six, first place in each group qualify directly and the second and third place teams in each group get reseeded and have a playoff. So 1v4 and 2v3 and the two winners qualify.

I like this format and I think we've got a good shot here.

Forgot to mention it all starts in January

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We should have a decent team for this too what with an attack force made up of Larin, Hamilton, Boakai, Huitema, Petrasso, Aird, Carreiro, Bustos and Froese and a defence with Gagnon-Lapare, Gasparotto, Comsia, Farmer, Adekugbe and Carducci.

 

I always get excited for our U20 teams, but this one seems special.

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^ I haven't done a direct comparison, but I would think the number of guys in this cohort with a Sr. team contract, who are factoring into a game day 18 for a Sr. team (be it USL Pro, MLS, League 1, , Scottish 2nd Div, etc) is probably higher this cohort than the last one.

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I wonder are any of those defensive midfielders aside from Jérémy?

Louis Béland-Goyette wouldn't be a bad choice also. I just wonder who else could play at DM, since I want to know who else can play there. Perhaps Carreiro could play there, no?

I liked Jordan Haynes in this role with the U17s.  He seems to play more advanced with the Whitecaps though.

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^ I haven't done a direct comparison, but I would think the number of guys in this cohort with a Sr. team contract, who are factoring into a game day 18 for a Sr. team (be it USL Pro, MLS, League 1, , Scottish 2nd Div, etc) is probably higher this cohort than the last one.

U20 Hondurans and Costa Ricans regularly playing at a NASL -USL PRO type level in their home countries will have a lot more teeth than our boys sitting on the bench for mls teams or playing in the ussda.

Being in a game day 18 doesn't mean anything to me. It's about how many minutes these guys get.

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U20 Hondurans and Costa Ricans regularly playing at a NASL -USL PRO type level in their home countries will have a lot more teeth than our boys sitting on the bench for mls teams or playing in the ussda.

Being in a game day 18 doesn't mean anything to me. It's about how many minutes these guys get.

 

I'd say you are right for the most part but there are many more factors that go into it.  For instance Doneil Henry was the only player from the last U20 team who was playing regular first team footy in MLS.. he was also our WORST player last qualifying.  Our best player was arguably Dylan Carreiro who will be on this team but he was only playing academy footy in England. 

 

2013 qualifying players receiving first team minutes/men's team caps (extremely weak):

- Doneil Henry (3 MNT Caps)

- Caleb Clarke (2 games <90 minutes)

- Maybe 2 kids in the Portuguese 4th division?

 

Mind you the 2013 team wasn't bad at all in my opinion.  But if you compare it to the 2015 roster we are in a much better spot... I think this is the most talented generation since 2007 (Begovic, Edgar, Peters, Johnson, Jackson, Ricketts).

 

2015 (potential) qualifying players with first team minutes/men's team caps:

- Petrasso

- Gasparotto

- Aird

- Aparicio

- JGL (4 Men's Caps)

- Hamilton

- Boakai

- Jalali

- Larin (2 caps)

- Farmer (1 cap)

- Adekugbe

- Carreiro

- Carducci

- Froese

- Bustos (I know, I know)

- Béland-Goyette

 

Sixteen u20 Canadian players with first team minutes this year.  Unheard of for us.  And just because those listed have first team minutes this year (or a first team cap in the case of Larin) doesn't mean they're necessarily better than those who haven't.  There are a ton of great talents in the NCAA and playing for Academies in Europe and at home who will contend to be on this squad as well (Huitema, Ferguson, Nanco, Awuah etc.)

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I'd say you are right for the most part but there are many more factors that go into it.  For instance Doneil Henry was the only player from the last U20 team who was playing regular first team footy in MLS.. he was also our WORST player last qualifying.  Our best player was arguably Dylan Carreiro who will be on this team but he was only playing academy footy in England. 

I'm not sure I'd call him our "worst" player last time out.  The organization was complete shit and the backline wasn't given much in the way of cover.  We played like a 1980's south american side with a bunch of cagy guys with ball skills who never tracked back or passed to anyone else.  It wasn't an un-talented group but we did absolutely nothing to get them to play as a team. 

 

I'm inclined to agree with Soccerpro on the professional experience side of things.  I still remember Jose Villareal and a few other guys on the american team being dominant in those games.  They were all the players who had already logged serious MLS minutes and were competing at a level most of the other players weren't used to.  

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I wonder if we're that bad on the U-20 level. I'm going to take Panama as an example. They've finished first in UNCAF, so I'll consider them the best team in Central America, by using socccerway. I'm taking league and CCL. I'm going club-by-club because it's easier for me that way.

Tauro

GK de Gracia : 1 start, 6 times unused sub (90 minutes)

D: Araya: 1 start, 5 times unused sub (90 minutes)

MF Zorilla: 8 games, 1 start, and 6 times unused sub (192 minutes)

FW Barrow 7 games, 2 starts (240 minutes)

FW Diaz 1 start (46 minutes)

Sporting San Miguelito

D Escobar 36 games 34 starts (3066 minutes)

D Galvan: nothing

MF Gonzalez: nothing

MF Salcedo: nothing

FW Small 19 games 12 starts (1214 minutes)

Chorillo FC

MF Rodriguez 27 games 18 starts (1657 minutes)

MF Velarde 23 games 6 starts (958 minutes)

Arabe Unido

D Hormechea 18 games 17 starts (1413 minutes)

M Lewis nothing

San Francisco

GK Melendez 5 times unused sub

Rio Abajo FC

D Diaz 2 starts (180 minutes) Although he's at a second division club now and soccerway doesn't have stats at that level so I can't say for sure if he got more starts.

Queretaro (Mexico)

M Samms nothing

Shattuck St Mary (USSDA)

M Narbon (I'll just mention that he was an all USSDA player, won't mention the starts because that's the debate.)

So looking at that team. You have only 6 players with more than 300 minutes, but they've got 900 and more minutes played in LPF play. I do see where we fall behind there. And that's 11 players with top flight experience.

We have some interesting players, but who do we have on our U20 with at least MLS Reserve/USL Pro experience? From those owned by our clubs. (So no Petrasso, Carreiro, Gasparotto, Aird)

Edmonton:

Hanson Boakai (600 minutes, but wow he has played more in the V's Cup in his career than in NASL. Colin Miller is clearly not wearing handsome bowties on weekends)

Marko Aleksic (134 minutes)

Sadi Jalali (531 minutes)

Vancouver

The one that shall not be named on this board, because nobody's made a mistake at 18 years old 361 minutes including 64 in V's Cup

Carducci 210 minutes

Farmer 451 minutes (All USL Pro)

Froese 325 minutes including 77 with first team

Adekugbe 676 minutes including 226 with first team

Toronto

Hamilton 774 minutes (I've included his totals from Portugal)

Aparicio 1396 minutes (All in USL Pro

Montreal

Gagnon-Laparé 881 minutes (212 with the first team)

Béland-Goyette 199 minutes (14 with the first team)

I don't think we look bad depth wise compared to Panama, but I see that Panama has those 6 young veterans that we lack. So I get that point, but I would think that we are better than we were 2 years ago.

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I liked Jordan Haynes in this role with the U17s.  He seems to play more advanced with the Whitecaps though.

 

I was told Haynes plays left back for Whitecaps most of the time.  Also plays cm/dm.  Noticed on their website it lists him as a forward, but told he never plays there.  He did well with the U17's as a defensive midfielder, first time competitively in this position.

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Does the Panamanian league have reserve teams? Might be worth looking into if we want a fair comparison. 

 

I don't know the level of play of the Panamanian First Division, but I feel as though that any league their Reserves would play in would be too low that it wouldn't really factor into the equation. It would be like counting minutes for TFC guys in League1 Ontario.

 

The ones that are playing in USL Pro are at least still considered to be playing in a Pro league

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I don't know the level of play of the Panamanian First Division, but I feel as though that any league their Reserves would play in would be too low that it wouldn't really factor into the equation. It would be like counting minutes for TFC guys in League1 Ontario.

 

The ones that are playing in USL Pro are at least still considered to be playing in a Pro league

That is probably a fair assumption. It is hard to gauge these leagues because we don't see them, but historically it seems that the leagues in Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador (probably in that order) are all stronger. It makes sense that the Panamanian league is the weakling of the 5 when you consider the influence of Baseball in that country. 

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@blackdude... thanks for compiling the numbers! I actually think we stack up pretty well against Panama, which might not have been the case in previous cycles.

 

Add to that list:

 

Henry - starts regularly in MLS

Aird - ~50 games for Rangers (granted mostly at a lower level)

Petrasso - ~25 League 1 (or higher) games since last year

Adekube - 4 games, 226min in MLS

Gasparotto - 4 games in Scottish League 1 (again not sure if we should count that level)

 

 

To put all of this in perspective, if all three MLS teams come through and field USL Pro teams next year, the next time the U20's roles around we won't even be having this debate... which IMO is a lot of progress.

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@blackdude... thanks for compiling the numbers! I actually think we stack up pretty well against Panama, which might not have been the case in previous cycles.

 

Add to that list:

 

Henry - starts regularly in MLS

Aird - ~50 games for Rangers (granted mostly at a lower level)

Petrasso - ~25 League 1 (or higher) games since last year

Adekube - 4 games, 226min in MLS

 

 

To put all of this in perspective, if all three MLS teams come through and field USL Pro teams next year, the next time the U20's roles around we won't even be having this debate... which IMO is a lot of progress.

 

Henry is a 93 so too old for this cycle.  But as a consolation prize Aird actually should have around 70 games for Rangers by the time qualifying rolls around, and I don't care if most were at a lower level that is an amazing experience playing for that club alongside internationals and in front of 50,000 each weekend.

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Henry is a 93 so too old for this cycle.  But as a consolation prize Aird actually should have around 70 games for Rangers by the time qualifying rolls around, and I don't care if most were at a lower level that is an amazing experience playing for that club alongside internationals and in front of 50,000 each weekend.

At any rate, the lower leagues in Scotland probably stack up well against the Panamanian league in terms of quality. So you're right for not caring that those are low level minutes he's played!

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Just to add onto Blackdude's list, I added a few more players eligible for U20 and put it in order of professional minutes to date (including MLS reserve minutes) that were tabulated from Soccerway.com

 

Fraser Aird
RANGERS
3792 minutes
 
Michael Petrasso
LEYTON ORIENT/QPR/COVENTRY CITY/OLDHAM ATHLETIC
1715 minutes
 
Manuel Aparicio
WILMINGTON HAMMERHEADS/TORONTO FC II
1396 minutes
 
Jérémy Gagnon-Laparé 
MONTREAL IMPACT/MONTREAL IMPACT II
881 minutes
 
Jordan Hamilton
TROFENSE/WILMINGTON HAMMERHEADS/TORONTO FC II
774 minutes
 
Sam Adekugbe
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS/VANCOUVER WHITECAPS II
676 minutes
 
Hanson Boakai
FC EDMONTON
600 minutes
 
Sadi Jalali
FC EDMONTON
531 minutes
 
Luca Gasparotto
AIRDRIEONIANS/STIRLING ALNION/RANGERS
525 minutes
 
Jackson Farmer
CHARLESTON BATTERY/VANCOUVER WHITECAPS II
451 minutes
 
Marco Bustos
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS/VANCOUVER WHITECAPS II
361 minutes
 
Elias Roubos
TORONTO FC II
360 minutes
 
Kianz Froese
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS/VANCOUVER WHITECAPS II
325 minutes
 
Marco Carducci 
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS
210 minutes
 
Dylan Sacramento
TORONTO FC II
203 minutes
 
Louis Béland-Goyette
MONTREAL IMPACT/MONTREAL IMPACT II
199 minutes
 
Eric Davies
FC DALLAS II
180 minutes
 
Janouk Charbonneau 
MONTREAL IMPACT II
178 minutes
 
Marko Aleksic
FC EDMONTON
134 minutes
 
Charles Joly 
MONTREAL IMPACT II
105 minutes
 
Yacine Ait-Slimane
MONTREAL IMPACT II
88 minutes
 
Alain Sargeant
TORONTO FC II
58 minutes
 
Dylan Carreiro 
ARBROATH
44 minutes
 
Daniel Jodah
TORONTO FC II
44 minutes
 
Luca Uccello
TORONTO FC II
26 minutes
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... And here are the minutes for players in the last cycle (these minutes include time played after the tournament ended so its a bit skewed). Also note, the second most experienced player at the time, Alderson, was injured. So far in terms of minutes we are looking MUCH better this time around.

 

With FC Montreal starting next year and hopefully teams for TFC and Vancouver, its only going to go up!

 

Doneil Henry
TORONTO FC/TORONTO FC II
4743 minutes
 
Bryce Alderson
CHARLESTON BATTERY/VANCOUVER WHITECAPS II
815 minutes
 
Ben Fisk
CHARLESTON BATTERY
283 minutes
 
Maxime Crepeau
MONTREAL IMPACT II
275 minutes
 
Caleb Clarke
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS/VANCOUVER WHITECAPS II
65 minutes
 
Samuel Piette
FORTUNA DUSSELDORF II
64 minutes
 
Anthony Jackson-Hamel
MONTREAL IMPACT II
44 minutes
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