I decided to compare the lineup to my USMNT Hopefuls. First I eliminated all over-aged playesr. This was a little more difficult than I originally thought because I wasn't quite sure where to draw the line. The oldest chosen competitor is Ike Opara with a birthday on February 21st, who is over 23 years old.
Second I added all the players' projected rating to their current rating to get an overall score. I threw Brek Shea, Freddy Adu, and Juan Agudelo back in the mix accordingly as they all have more than nine caps, thus not qualifying them for the Hopeful USMNTers. I sorted the list and the top twenty names were:
(bolded names were chosen for the U23s)
1. Bill Hamid - 147
2. Bobby Wood - 146
3. Brek Shea - 145.5
4. Juan Agudelo - 145
5. Dilly Duka - 145
6. Timothy Chandler - 145
7. Sean Johnson - 144.5
8. Mikkel Diskerud - 144
9. Josh Gatt - 144
10. Kelyn Rowe - 144
11. Danny Williams - 144
12. Corey Hertzog - 143.5
13. Joseph Gyau - 143.5
14. Fredy Adu - 142.5
15. Joe Corona - 142.5
16. Perry Kitchen - 142.5
17. Jack McInerney - 142.5
18. Terrence Boyd - 141.5
19. Amobi Okugo - 141.5
20. Greg Garza - 141.5
12 out of 20, not too shabby, I suppose. Especially considering a lot of factors. Obviously I don't have the luxury of the inside scoop on every player that Porter does. Also, Wood and Duka are dealing with injuries right now, making them a wasted spot on the team. Porter also hinted at the trouble of getting players released for qualifying games, which would apply to Chandler and Williams, I would think. (It's a long interview but look under the " On how he keeps in contact with age-eligible players in Europe who are not in this camp" reply.)
Kelyn Rowe seems like an interested omission as he has been highly rated for years and been involved with the youth program for some time. The other three (Hertzog, McInerney, and Garza) I heard no news about on expectations to make the team but all have been involved with the youth program as well. At the end of the day, I think it's safe to say that Porter had a hard job in only picking twenty.
My top twenty list only has four defenders in it and the next two defenders on the list were Morales and Valentin. Valentin made the the cut and Morales was a likely candidate to fill the twentieth slot but perhaps he had trouble getting released from his club. A lot of speculation, to say the least.
Here are the next 30, which includes the other eight that were not listed above. (The eight are in bold.):
21. Daniel Potts - 141
22. Teal Bunbury - 140.5
23. Sebastian Lletget - 140.5
24. Luis Gil - 140.5
25. Alfredo Morales - 140
26. Zarek Valentin - 139.5
27. Andrew Oliver - 139.5
28. Tony Taylor - 139
29. Eder Arreola - 139
30. Omar Salgado - 139
31. Jared Jeffrey - 138.5
32. Villyan Bijev - 138.5
33. Marc Pelosi - 138.5
34. Ben Speas - 138
35. Danny Mwanga - 138
36. Zac MacMath - 138
37. Michael Stephens - 137.5
38. Jorge Villafana - 137.5
39. Billy Schuler - 137.5
40. Andrew Wenger - 137.5
41. Esteban Rodriguez - 137.5
42. Alejandro Guido - 137.5
43. Ike Opara - 137
44. Will Bruin - 137
45. Sheanon Williams - 137
46. Gale Agbossoumonde - 137
47. Raul Mendiola - 137
48. DeAndre Robinson - 137
49. Tristan Bowen - 136.5
50. Kofi Sarkodie - 136.5
The 30-50 list is much less impressive.
- For starters, Arreola is currently unemployed from the looks of it, despite getting drafted by the Dynamo in the first round of the Supplemental Draft. While BigSoccer's forums aren't 100% reliable, there was an interesting and quite negative review written about him which could explain his absence.
- Several of the players were still in their teenage years: Oliver (17), Salgado (18.5), Pelosi (17.8), Rodriguez (18.1), Guido (18), Robinson (16-17). Pretty hard to field a player who is 5-7 years younger than a competitor
- Some of the players have not been cleared to play by FIFA. (Mwanga, Mendiola, that I know of.)
Lastly, this is awesome:
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