Matt Lichtenstadter
Youth tournaments in soccer are about hope, for both club and country.
For clubs, it’s a chance to scout new players and see who the next stars might be or a chance to sell players while their values are highest.
For country, it’s about hope that the next generation is better than the last, especially when things aren’t going well, or the chance to assure fans the transition from one era to the next will be smooth and worry free.
Most often at U-20 and U-17 World Cups, it’s the hope that kills.
For many of these players, they won’t develop much beyond this stage. That’s the nature of this cutthroat sport. With that comes the realization that results here do not become the difference between a golden generation and a fallow period, as only a select few traditionally rise above the fray to become stars at all levels.
In American soccer culture, there is heightened importance on these tournaments, not just in terms of qualifying for them but in terms of an urgency to earn results and perhaps with it, coveted respect. The importance of youth World Cup results seems especially heightened after the US failure to qualify for a World Cup for the first time in 32 years, as fans needed an injection of hope to wash those memories away. Failures to qualify for the past two Olympic games only further deepen the probing need for youth tournament validation, the types of results or stylistic performance where American fans can point to the world and say: “See, we know what we’re doing” or “Hey, we’re figuring it out now.”
With the latest incarnation of the U20s, Americans certainly have what they are looking for when looking at the clubs represented by members of this squad: Barcelona, Bayern Munich, PSG, Benfica, Ajax and more. It’s a giant leap from even two years ago, where the biggest club represented was Spurs. This time around, credible arguments could be made for another 11-15 players who didn’t make this team that should have, which few other U-20 World Cup squads can claim.
But with the hype and hope comes an inevitable truth, no matter the pedigree or path for the players and team: very few will make it to the full national team, and perhaps even fewer will have a sizeable impact. This is the nature of the sport, and especially this tournament, for which the last six champions have failed to qualify for the next U-20 World Cup. Development for even the biggest stars of this tournament is never linear, because the hardest stage of development is often this one; transitioning to the professional ranks full time.
Take the last few Golden Ball winners at the U-20 World Cup, for example.
In 2017, Dominic Solanke, then of Liverpool won the trophy. He moved for £19 million this past January to Bournemouth and has yet to really blossom. Four years ago, it was Mali’s Adama Traore, who made next to no impact at Monaco and has spent time on loan since in Belgium and Portugal. Sometimes you get Paul Pogba’s, like in 2013, but other times you get Henrique, the Brazilian striker in 2011 who won the Golden Ball but has since played for nine different clubs.
Older American fans will remember how Freddy Adu shined at the U20 World Cup, scoring a hat trick against Poland in the group stage in 2007 and dominating Brazil in a 2-1 American victory that helped the US win their group. We all know the way Adu’s story has turned out.
Aside from just Adu, in the United States’ history at this tournament, some of the lesser performing teams ended up producing some of the best talent. The 1999 group, while going out in the Round of 16, gave the US Steve Cherundolo, Tim Howard and Taylor Twellman, while outside of Clint Dempsey, the best player the 2003 quarterfinalists produced was probably Ricardo Clark, at least from the perspective of who made the largest purely national team impact.The rosters don’t exactly match up with who would end up playing in critical Gold Cup, qualifier, or World Cup matches.
So long as each group of 21 can produce a handful of impact players, no matter how deep they are or touted they were, their journey can be considered a success. If the biggest impact players from the quarterfinalists four years ago are Steffen, Miazga, Acosta and Arriola, the truth is, that team will have been a substantial success. The 2013 team, which started players like Juan Pablo Ocegueda and Javan Torre, has produced Wil Trapp and more pivotally, DeAndre Yedlin, two important pieces to the team today, even though, for example, at the U20 World Cup they were crushed by a France team with Pogba, Zouma and Umtiti.. For the best soccer nations, transitioning players from prospects to pros is the most difficult part of development, and the US is no different.
While this group has some incredible talent laboring at terrific clubs trying to cultivate that talent, the dynamic is still the same as it has been since when the American contingent all came from scattered colleges: just a handful will do. This is the case with any country- not just the United States.
While this team may have more lottery tickets than previous groups, it’s likely the same number, or maybe only one or two more, will cash out. What is different about recent U-20 World Cup teams compared to those from the 2000’s is how many more high-end players at this level that there are, but that is still no guarantee of success for the future. If three or four of this squad end up being starters or impact subs for the 2026 World Cup team, then Tab Ramos and the US development apparatus will have done a spectacular job for this U20 cycle.
Development of young players is never linear. It’s simply too hard to project even two years down the road. Remember when the Daily Mail tried to predict in 2007 what England’s 2014 World Cup team would look like? Think I’m wrong about two years being too far into the future? England’s starting goalkeeper for the World Cup winning U-17 team from 2017 is now starting for Charlotte Independence. Nemanja Maksimovic, who hit the winning penalty against the US in that heartbreaking 2015 U20 quarterfinal is now a solid player for Getafe, but nothing more. He’s certainly not the giant he was projected to be four years ago, at least not yet. Nothing in this sport is ever cut and dry.
Hope is a wonderful emotion, especially for those still burdened by the past. US Soccer is nowhere near fully healed from the scars of Couva, so buying into the hype of Alex Mendez, Chris Richards and Konrad De La Fuente is a great tonic for that pain. If only three or four of the 12 players in this group that may have the highest ceiling end up breaking through that ceiling, while the other nine don’t, that is still a success no matter how far this group does or doesn’t go.
How many of these names lighting up the jaded US soccer sphere at this tournament remains to be seen, but the number doesn’t have to be big for it to be a success, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Matt Lichtenstadter is a freelance journalist who has been a guest writer at TYAC. He is based in Pennsylvania. Follow him on Twitter @MattsMusings1.