US U17 Youth vs Brazil. Soccer
 

We won for the first time. 2 to 0. Real nice match.

I only caught the very end of it, but nice to see them finally pull that off.

It did not seem like Brazil was handling the loss very well at the end, got pretty nasty.

Brazil didn't handle losing in group play at the last U20 tournament very well, either. I think they have a mindset where they'll be clearly superior to us, outclass us, maybe not win easily but get the win, and they don't take it very well when they find that we're almost as good as they are.

There are some very interesting prospects on the U.S. team. Renken is playing up a couple of years.

Interesting that Renken is panning out. Even 3-4 years ago he was touted as an 11-12 year old (which I believe is younger than when Freddy was talked about).

I think 11-12 was about the age where Freddy started being talked about... if I remember right, that was when he got the six-figure offer from Serie A (Inter, was it?).

Yep, some factual errors in my post.

He just turned 14, and was "discovered" only a couple years ago.

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=221499

The best player at this age group is not even playing on this team. I believe he is already at the West Ham academy or will be going very shortly. His name escapes me at the moment.

I think Edwards is a very solid keeper prospect. He is tall, athletic, reads the game well, and has a big pair of balls. He is not afraid of any contact. His positioning is also impressive for someone his age. The keeper pool is littered with young, incredible talent. Seitz, McMath, and Edwards are all very intriguing prospects.

Sebastian Ll_____

Lletget is how I've seen it spelled on BigSoccer. I don't recall if I've seen any relative evaluations of his game compared to Renken, Jerome, Gyau, etc.

I haven't heard of the last two guys on that list; what's their story?

I think the thing with Lleget is that he's very technical. So, if he doesn't get the growth spurt we're assuming he will it'll be tough for him to really dominate. Renken seems to be more of a man-child with great athletic ability already (in addition to being skilled) so he's more likely to not fall off the face of the earth.

Gyau's father had about 10 caps for the US after immigrating iirc. We looked very good overall, but I would say Coutinho looked like the best player out there.

In other youth soccer news, I just found out a kid I used to babysit for (William Packwod) is on the U15? team and training with Birmingham City.

I can't wait for the Olympics and the next couple WC cycles when all of this talent has matured and we have some legit world class field players.

Stefan Jerome was #9, he scored in both of the first two games and is drawing comparisons to Altidore (partly because of his heritage).

Gyau was #13, he seemed to hold the ball very well in traffic but there have been some concerns expressed in BS about his team play. He's had a big club overseas interested, I want to say Bayern Munich.

The players on this team should be starting to break into the senior team around the 2014 WC, which will still have veterans like Dempsey and Donovan in the pool and should also see players like Altidore, Adu, and Bradley in their prime. It could be one of our best teams ever.

Could be? There's not exactly a lot of competition for that. ;) 2002 and then what, 1994? Maybe go back to the 1930's?