[washingtonismoney]

Ended up winning 5-0 with a hat-trick from Tim Weah and will face Japan/England in the semis.  For those who don't know, Tim's father, George Weah, was a Ballon d'Or/FIFA World Player of the Year back in the 90s.  Obviously U-17 performance doesn't guarantee anything for the senior team, but at least there's some reason for optimism.  A handful of these guys might be on the 2022 roster as they'll be 20-21 at that time.

Yeah, I view youth team performance as slightly analogous to recruiting rankings in college football/basketball. Obviously no guarantee but it's a solid indicator. As we've discussed elsewhere in the thread there was a real gap of players born from '90-'94 in the most recent US team -- which was to some degree foreshadowed by weak youth tournament performances in the corresponding age groups.

Meanwhile the best-performing youth team ever -- the '99 u-17 team -- produced a number of USMNT stalwarts (Donovan, Beasley, Onyewu, Beckerman...). So tbd of course, but it's a positive indicator.

It's also nice to think that the indicators on talent are pointing upwards, with a lot of easy fixes that could stimulate development even more.

[washingtonismoney]

Ended up winning 5-0 with a hat-trick from Tim Weah and will face Japan/England in the semis.  For those who don't know, Tim's father, George Weah, was a Ballon d'Or/FIFA World Player of the Year back in the 90s.  Obviously U-17 performance doesn't guarantee anything for the senior team, but at least there's some reason for optimism.  A handful of these guys might be on the 2022 roster as they'll be 20-21 at that time.

Yeah, I view youth team performance as slightly analogous to recruiting rankings in college football/basketball. Obviously no guarantee but it's a solid indicator. As we've discussed elsewhere in the thread there was a real gap of players born from '90-'94 in the most recent US team -- which was to some degree foreshadowed by weak youth tournament performances in the corresponding age groups.

Meanwhile the best-performing youth team ever -- the '99 u-17 team -- produced a number of USMNT stalwarts (Donovan, Beasley, Onyewu, Beckerman...). So tbd of course, but it's a positive indicator.

It's also nice to think that the indicators on talent are pointing upwards, with a lot of easy fixes that could stimulate development even more.