Underdog Soccer Podcast had a Draft between Matty Knips (@UnderdogSP), Marcus O’Malley (@chasingacup), Justin Moran (@kickswish), Vince Maduri (@usmnt_thoughts) and Chris Kerr (@kerrc17) selecting USMNT players.

We did a snake draft 1-2-3, 3-2-1. The person who picked last in the former round is first in the following round. The assumption is all players are healthy at the time of the draft.

Justin won first pick overall, followed by Matty, Vince, Chris & Marcus on the turn. The full draft is at the bottom of the page by round.

Below are our final XI:

Justin Moran:

Matt Knips:

Vince Maduri:

Chris Kerr:

Marcus O’Malley:

The Complete Draft:

David Kerr’s Top 50 Spring 2021 edition of the best U20 players is here. This was an extremely challenging year for YNT players due to covid disrupting seasons and transfers around the world.

Many YNT players in Europe only played 3-4 games in the youth ranks, while MLS was impacted with both the tournament and modified season that impacted many young players opportunities to break in and/or transfer due to the window and global financial disruption.

David Kerr (@dkerr0118) & Matty Knips (@underdogsp) joined Marcus O’Malley (@chasingacup) to discuss his list.

You can find the Podcast on Underdog Soccer Podcast on Apple or Soundcloud or view below on Knocking it Around on Youtube:

The Top 50 u20 Eligible Prospects (Spring 2021 Update)

1. Gio Reyna – Winger, Borussia Dortumund, 2002
2. Yunus Musah – Winger, Valencia, 2002
3. Folarin Balogun – Striker, Arsenal, 2001
4. Malick Sanogo – Stiker, Union Berlin, 2004
5. Caden Clark – Attacking Mid, New York Red Bulls, 2003
6. Bryan Okoh – Center Back, Red Bull Salzburg, 2003
7. Alex Mighten – Winger, Nottingham Forrest, 2003
8. Malik Tilmann – Center Mid, Bayern, 2002
9. Moses Nyeman – Center Mid, DC United, 2003
10. Jonathan Gomez – Left Back, Louisville City FC, 2003
11. Ricardo Pepi – Striker, FC Dallas, 2003
12. Gianluca Busio – Defensive Mid, Sporting Kansas City, 2002
13. Hassan Ayari – Attacking Mid, Sheffield United, 2002
14. Konrad De La Fuente – Winger, FC Barcelona, 2001
15. Bryan Reynolds – Right Back, Roma, 2001
16. Uly Llanez – Winger, Wolfsburg, 2001
17. Tanner Tessmann – Center Mid, FC Dallas, 2001
18. Justin Che – Center Back, Bayern, 2003
19. Aidan Morris, Center Mid, Columbus Crew, 2001
20. Julian Araujo – Right Back, LA Galaxy, 2001
21. Reed Baker-Whiting – Defensive Mid, Seattle Sounders, 2005
22. Owen Otasowie – Center Back, Wolverhampton, 2001
23. Bryang Kayo – Center Mid, Wolfsburg, 2002
24. George Bello – Left Back, Atlanta United, 2002
25. Paxten Aaronson – Attacking Mid, Philadelphia Union, 2003
26. Brooklyn Raines – Center Mid, Barca AZ, 2005
27. Felipe Valencia – Winger, Inter Miami, 2005
28. Cade Cowell – Winger, San Jose Earthquakes, 2003
29. Efrain Alvarez – Attacking Midfielder, LA Galaxy, 2002
30. Diego Lopez – Center Mid, Philadelphia Union, 2005
31. Taylor Booth – Defensive Mid, Bayern Munich, 2001
32. Zach Booth – Center Mid, Leicester City, 2004
33. Evan Rotundo – Attacking Mid, Schalke 04, 2004
34. Kobe Hernandez-Foster – Left Back, Wolfsburg, 2001
35. Brandan Craig – Center Back, Philadelphia Union, 2004
36. Mauricio Cuevas – Right Back, LA Galaxy, 2003
37. Matt Hoppe – Striker, Schalke 04, 2001
38. Nati Clarke – Center Back, Sporting Kansas City, 2005
39. Cole Bassett – Center Mid, Colorado Rapids, 2001
40. Santiago Munoz – Striker, Santos Lugano, 2002
41. Kevin Paredes – Winger, DC United, 2003
42. Fede Oliva – Winger, Athletico Madrid, 2004
43. Marcos Zambrano – Striker, Philadelphia Union, 2005
44. Sebastian Carbajal – Striker, San Jose Earthquake, 2005
45. Antonio Leone – Center Back, LAFC, 2004
46. Jose Gallegos – Attacking Mid, San Antonio FC, 2001
47. Julio Benetiz – Center Mid, Real Salt Lake, 2005
48. Dante Sealy – Winger, FC Dallas, 2003
49. Cam Harper – Winger, New York Red Bulls, 2001
50. Jack McGlynn – Center Mid, Philadelphia Union

Honorary mentions

1. Jonathan Perez – Attacking Mid, LA Galaxy, 2003
2. Johnny Cardoso – Defensive Mid, Internacionale, 2001
3. Leon Flach – Center mid, Philadelphia Union, 2001
4. Nico Carerra – Center Back, Holstein Kiel, 2002
5. Aethan Yohannes – Center Mid, AZ Alkmaar, 2004
6. Joseph Scally – Right Back, Mönchengladbach, 2002
7. Matko Milijevic – Winger, Argentinos Juniors, 2001
8. Kenan Hot – Defensive Mid, New York Red Bulls, 2004
9. Daniel Leyva – Defensive Mid, Seattle Sounders, 2003

Previous rankings

Fall 2020

April 2020

Underdog Soccer Podcast on Olympic Qualifying and March USMNT Roster

Underdog Soccer Podcast was back talking through the first two Olympic Qualifying games which saw the US through the group stage to the knock stage. They have one more game tonight at 9:30pm EST against Mexico. Both teams are through so the game offers little meaningful to the tournament, but certainly means a lot to these rivals. They will play Sunday night in the semi-final, both finalists will be through to the Olympics. 

Game 1 Olympic Qualifying US 1 vs Costa Rica 0 | March 18, 2021

My notes

David Ochoa had a monster game with 9 saves, he was fantastic and active. Jesus Ferreira was very active at the other end, putting away the game winner in the 35^th minute. He also hit the post in the 2nd minute and had a heavy touched what could have been a breakaway to put the game away in the second half.

We lacked creativity and that was obvious from the on-set of the match, tons of sloppy turn overs out the back. Hasani Dotson had some nice moments in the first half and looked solid. Bofo Saucedo brought some good energy when he came on, looked like a solid addition

Game 2 Olympic Qualifying US 4 vs Dominican Republic 0 |  March 21, 2021

First half was tough to watch, no one really looked good. The defense seemed to make less obvious mistakes, but also less tested. No issues for JT Marcinkowski, which made it tough on how to rate him.

Johnny Cardoso and three 6s in the middle didn’t seem to have a plan or a rhythm to what they were doing. There was little activity moving forward early, Andrés Perea was very active defensively and looked like a strong future #6 candidate to watch.

Bofo Saucedo was the only positive spark in the first half – he missed two good chances when he took on defenders (the only one to do so) dribbled past and sailed two crosses. Johnny Cardoso missed a header from inside the box on a nice cross from Sam Vines. Vines looked to have  set piece opportunity which would have been a fantastic goal – sail wide left of the net.

Second half adjustments – something we haven’t really seen much of for the US in a few years seemed to work. Bofo was active once again and put across in after Johnny Cardoso hit the cross bar. Jackson Yueill got on the end of it in running through. Interesting goal, but we take it.

That goal seemed to take the pressure valve off. Hasani Dotson and Djordge Mihailovic came on for Bofo and Johnny, which while they were somewhat ineffective seemed like an odd sub as they had been the most active. That worked magically though as Djordge, admittedly someone I’ve not been high on really changed the energy of the game.

Dotson was also fantastic, two solid cool finishes, before Djordje got to capture the end of one himself from Benji Michel who up to that point had looked awful.

USMNT March Roster

Matty Knips, Chris Kerr and Marcus O’Malley were all really excited about the March roster, only snubs called out were: DeAndre Yedlin, Mark McKenzie, Julian Greene, and Konrad de la Fuente. Listen to the pod to hear more!

Underdog Soccer Podcast #75 Olympic Qualifying & March USMNT Roster