YA Squads: Then & Now

One of the most interesting developments in US soccer over this World Cup cycle is the migration of American talent to Europe. The number of yanks abroad has been steadily increasing, as are the contributions to their teams: World Cup Squad Breakdowns MLS YA 1998 16 6 2002 11 12 2006 11 12 Even though the breakdown was the same for 2002 and 2006, it's clear that the amount of YA talent increased dramatically. That's continued to happen, and now as the 2010 World Cup approaches, it's possible that only five or fewer MLS players could make the roster. Quite a reversal from 1998. I wonder when the high point will be, since I'm sure most of us believe MLS will continue to increase in quality and therefore bring the numbers back down eventually. We should probably still have a clear YA advantage in 2014 as well. I'd really like to see how a foreign coach would handle things. Below is what a 23 man top YA squad looked like before the 2002/2006 cups and today. I posted on this four years ago, and I thought it was time to revisit it to pick the 2010 team. I'm picking players mostly based on their status with the national team, and I'm not taking injuries into account. I'll also pick players like Brad Friedel who are retired from the USA, but are still YA's. 2002 YA Squad Starters: Friedel, Regis, Vanney, Berhalter, Sanneh, Lewis, O'Brien, Reyna, Stewart, Kirovski, Moore Bench: Keller, Walker, Hejduk, Cherundolo, Gibson, Thorrington, Palomares, Lawson, Enochs, J.Beasley, Mason, Casey Very little to choose from, and virtually no depth. It's a real stretch to even get to 23 players, not to mention that many of the first xi barely played for their clubs. 2006 YA Squad Starters: Friedel, Bocanegra, Gibbs, Onyewu, Cherundolo, Lewis, O'Brien, Reyna, Beasley, Casey, McBride Bench: Keller, Howard, Berhalter, Califf, Pearce, Spector, Bradley, Corrales, Feilhaber, Convey, J. Johnson, Nguyen Much better. Solid defensively, but weak up top. Maybe a 4-5-1 with Convey starting in place of Casey would've been more realistic at the time. 2010 YA Squad Starters: Howard, Bocanegra, DeMerit, Onyewu, Spector, Bradley, Clark, Dempsey, Holden, Davies, Altidore Bench: Friedel, Guzan, Goodson, Cherundolo, Edu, Torres, Beasley, Feilhaber, Adu, Cooper, Johnson, Gomez No doubt an improvement in attacking talent, though there may be a depth issue on defense. I was pretty generous in picking Adu for the final spot (I still believe!) over Bedoya, but I don't think there's much arguing against the rest of the spots. You could possibly argue for another defender (Castillo/Parkhurst/Simek) over Cooper or Johnson, but those two have been a bigger part of the USMNT in the past year. Aside from those three and Friedel, this could be the World Cup squad. I've also decided to leave off Jermaine Jones, since he's done nothing since his announcement.