Youth Competitions
- Thread starter YNWA14
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cgf
FireBednarsSuccessor
Yeah, Redan has gotten a lot of love from what I've read...especially from folks that are mad that we didn't bring Makanda & instead are playing Dajaku up front...as he's more in the false-9 / wide-forward / AM-turned-shadow-striker mold that some folks hate seeing play over a more traditional striker.
...that said, I'm pretty sure that Makanda wasn't picked because he's transferring clubs this summer (from Nurnberg to Frankfurt) and IIRC Eintracht haven't given him permission to participate. So, like often happens with german youth fans that have more archaic football-philosophies, their cries of anguish have more to do with not knowing the circumstances that would render a lot of their longwinded complaints about our youth NTs' recent struggles to get results...the U19s missed out on the elite round of EM qualis, which we important for getting into the U20 WM, because resting Havertz (like Leverkusen requested for that match) cost us the game against Norway; the previous generation was built around the weak 97ers and 98ers; and now our U17 losing decisively in this opener (against the team the beat comfortably earlier in the season), in the group of death...moo, like a cow's opinion.
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Pavel Buchnevich
Drury and Laviolette Must Go
How is Unbehaun playing? How tall is he now? Height is one of the main concerns about his game, from what I've read.
cgf
FireBednarsSuccessor
I haven't watched the game yet, so can't say. Plus you know my policy on goalie prospects; I don't know how to judge them well & so generally don't pay much attention to them.
Pavel Buchnevich
Drury and Laviolette Must Go
Dortmund is in the semi-finals of the Youth Championship in Germany.
Sancho, Isak and Zagadou are all eligible to play. If they do, we might be the favorites. Unbehaun probably won't play, as he's away on international duty. Not a very talented team though from what I've read. Wanner is the only player who was given an extension, the rest will go to the second team or leave the club. Wanner probably won't be good enough either. Unbehaun is likely the only player on the team with a serious chance of playing for Dortmund. Next season could be very interesting with Unbehaun, Moukoko, Knoop, Pherai and Bakir. The 2001 class returns could look similar for Dortmund to the 1998 class, and then if Moukoko has another great season, I don't know how you don't promote him to the first team when he turns 16. He'd have nothing left to prove in youth football.
Sancho, Isak and Zagadou are all eligible to play. If they do, we might be the favorites. Unbehaun probably won't play, as he's away on international duty. Not a very talented team though from what I've read. Wanner is the only player who was given an extension, the rest will go to the second team or leave the club. Wanner probably won't be good enough either. Unbehaun is likely the only player on the team with a serious chance of playing for Dortmund. Next season could be very interesting with Unbehaun, Moukoko, Knoop, Pherai and Bakir. The 2001 class returns could look similar for Dortmund to the 1998 class, and then if Moukoko has another great season, I don't know how you don't promote him to the first team when he turns 16. He'd have nothing left to prove in youth football.
cgf
FireBednarsSuccessor
After dropping the opener 0-3 to the dutch, we beat the serbs 3-0 heading into this matchday three meeting with Spain...who lost to the Dutch 0-2, but only scored 1 against Serbia. Whoever advances will face Belgium in the QFs.
YNWA14
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The Spain game was a tough one but once again Redan was the standout. He looks like an absolute star in the making, and this Dutch team in general is actually quite talented. van Gelderen, Burger, Gravenberg, Goudmijn and Brobbey are all guys I've mentioned before as being pretty highly regarded. As with any knockout tournament there's an element of luck, but they have a decent chance of winning this tournament I think.
cgf
FireBednarsSuccessor
Yeah you guys, seem to have a really good group there around the obvious star, Redan, with big talents at every level...especially the midfield. We've got OBM, and some of our next level talents like Aidonis, Dajaku, Hartmann and Bukunsu. But none of the bigger talents that were brought to this tourney are midfielders...other than Papela, who I still need to see more of.
I like the younger Brandt quite a bit as an EL level prospect, who could follow a very Rudy-esque trajectory, but don't think he's at all special like his brother was. Lockl I've never seen before and doubt I'll see much of again since he doesn't seem to have anything to provide the NT. Plus Krauß has never impressed and I'm pretty sure he only made it because the guys picking the team saw him feeding all of the RB attackers so many times that they just forgot that they could pick other players for deeper midfield roles...like what happened with Majetschak & the 2000ers...
While both Bozdogan & Agha give me some Saglam / Ozcan / Serdar / Timothy Tillman vibes, as creative midfielders at the youth levels who just aren't special enough to get those kinds of roles the further they progress, and so will either muddle through on lower-to-midtable sides, or have to move deeper, or both. Speaking of, I'm curious to see if any of these types end up being converted to Wingbacks/Fullbacks as they move forward. Arnold was another youth team #10 in this tier, and he was briefly used as a LB for VFL to great effect. So I'd be curious to see how others in that Tillman / Serdar / Ozcan tier would handle it.
YNWA14
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Brobbey stepped in nicely while Redan missed the final group match. He's another incredible talent in the same sort of mold as Redan anyway.
Always like reading your contributions to the youth discussions @cgf I don't know too much about those players. Spain was a solid team against the Dutch too and created a bunch of good chances, but they're losing right now 2-1 to Belgium. Who do you think Germany really missed the most at this tournament? Or is this just a down age group for them? I know you have really high hopes for OBM.
I think the Netherlands/Ireland match later today should be pretty straightforward for the Dutch but you never know in these tournaments.
Always like reading your contributions to the youth discussions @cgf I don't know too much about those players. Spain was a solid team against the Dutch too and created a bunch of good chances, but they're losing right now 2-1 to Belgium. Who do you think Germany really missed the most at this tournament? Or is this just a down age group for them? I know you have really high hopes for OBM.
I think the Netherlands/Ireland match later today should be pretty straightforward for the Dutch but you never know in these tournaments.
cgf
FireBednarsSuccessor
Well, I haven't seen too much of this generation yet since I generally don't see much of these kids before the U17s that many of them just started playing for this season.
But, atm, the 2001ers look to be really deep in attackers, with some exciting CBs, but the MFers aren't very deep and a lot of the very best talents in the age group other than OBM weren't on this team...from the top 6 there was no Makanda (FW), Schneider (MF), Kurt (MF), or Eyibil (MF/FW). So conceding early was death for these kids, as they didn't have the personnel to dominate the ball.
It also doesn't help that we have some poor coaches atm, i.e. the 99ers, who are much stronger than the 97ers or 98ers, failed earlier in EM qualifying than either of those age groups because the coach was trash and they were clueless in the game that Havertz sat out against Norway.
cgf
FireBednarsSuccessor
Yeah, I’m ironically the highest I’ve been on our next wave of young talent since the 95ers & 96ers; but I’m also the lowest I’ve been on the coaches we have running some of our youth teams that I can remember being 
So I feel like our youth teams before the U21s are going to underachieve for a bit; despite the better talent they have to select from.
For now I’m going with the “what matters in youth football is the development and how they play, not the results they get” rationale to keep how the 99ers and now 2001ers have underachieved this year from irking me. Because the kids still made great progress with their clubs, which is what’s really important for development. And because those areas of weakness are areas where we’ve got a ton of great young talent already.
It does make it easier to shrug off because the 2001ers seem to be a very disbalanced age group...as the vast majority of the kids on my list atm are FWs, Wingers or Shadow Strikers like Dajaku...even when you get into the third tier talents.
So I feel like our youth teams before the U21s are going to underachieve for a bit; despite the better talent they have to select from.For now I’m going with the “what matters in youth football is the development and how they play, not the results they get” rationale to keep how the 99ers and now 2001ers have underachieved this year from irking me. Because the kids still made great progress with their clubs, which is what’s really important for development. And because those areas of weakness are areas where we’ve got a ton of great young talent already.
It does make it easier to shrug off because the 2001ers seem to be a very disbalanced age group...as the vast majority of the kids on my list atm are FWs, Wingers or Shadow Strikers like Dajaku...even when you get into the third tier talents.
YNWA14
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Yeah of course, and that's always been a big tenet of the Dutch philosophy: the play is more important than the result, especially at youth level.
Although we just got one from a corner so now Ireland will have to open up a little bit!!! Get in!
EDIT: lol...and they get one back almost immediately because we decide to drop and invite pressure. So dumb.
Although we just got one from a corner so now Ireland will have to open up a little bit!!! Get in!
EDIT: lol...and they get one back almost immediately because we decide to drop and invite pressure. So dumb.
East Coast Bias
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Paulie Gualtieri
R.I.P. Tony Sirico
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Nice to see Troy Parrot doing well at least. He is head and shoulders over anybody in his age group at Spurs academy.
YNWA14
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I'm not exactly sure what is going on here. The call was for the keeper coming off his line are they mad about that or the yellow card? What is the yellow card for?
Duchene2MacKinnon
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It looks like the keeper was sent off for getting off his line before the kick was taken. LOL.
YNWA14
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Yeah it was his second yellow. I'm just confused about why he got the card... had to be something else? I mean I don't think he would have stopped two in a row anyway (and I guess the first one wasn't legit anyway) but that was weird.
Duchene2MacKinnon
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Doesn't really matter if he could stop 2 in a row or not. It's better to have a keeper in there as opposed to a defender. Ref is Pejorative Slured.
YNWA14
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I don't disagree. It's just a weird way for it to end. I don't feel overly bad for them though. They were incredibly negative all game.
cgf
FireBednarsSuccessor
Yeah, although it irks some of the traditionalists that believe that our success last century came solely from mental toughness & a winning mentality, I've always agreed with that. The experience of going to these kinds of tourneys can be very helpful, even if these kids crashed out early this time. It's similar to why I tend to prefer my favorite prospects to play on weaker teams where they will be thrust into a massive role rapidly...i.e. why I was happy that Makar upheld his commitment to UMass instead of switching to a powerhouse like BU or Harvard who wouldn't have needed him to put the team on his back.
Ultimately we were in a tough spot at this tourney because of the midfielders we had & because we were in the group of death, with all of our defeats tracing back to sloppily conceding early, so I'm not too bothered...at least not like I am that the 99ers failed to make the elite round of Euro qualifiers. Still annoys me that they now can't qualify for the U20 world cup just because their coach was a moron & the possession game fell apart when he rested Havertz against the Norway team that took our spot in the next round
