Zadeva: USA U-17 Team

Took one for the team in the Yule Parr auction...other bidder had OK facilities and crappy staff. I've also added Drake Jean from Popes to preserve him. He's the only viable 16 YO LB I can find right now.

Quick update: big win today in the World Cup group stage. 6-0 over Macedonia. Had a tough 1-0 loss to Brazil in our first match, so this sets up a winner-take-all match with Latvia (who is REALLY good) to move on to the knockouts. Fingers crossed, but anything at this point is gravy

I'm looking forward to next season's U17 team. It will be much more well rounded. I think we can do some damage in qualifiers, and I may make a run at the PPM Challenge Cup this time.

Thanks for everyone's support this season. You have done a nice job developing the current team - otherwise we wouldn't have made the World Cup!

We earned a hard fought 1-1 draw with a strong Latvian team, but it's not enough to advance as Brazil beats Macedonia 2-0. We had the best GD in the group by far, but it wasn't enough. Onto next season!

I think it was a good effort, and you did a good job!

We’ve had a great season so far in qualifying...too good in some respects. Our ranking is up to 14th, which puts us in the top PPM Challenge group, where we face 3 really tough nations. My plan was to make a run in the challenge cup (I thought we’d be in group B), but the flip side is next season is the World Cup, and I can use the 3 games to build chemistry and experience for the 16 YO crop. Any concerns if I go this route?

None here Brad.

Well I decided to go ahead and go for it with my regular starting lineup and 16 YOs as backups in case we get eliminated. We earned (somewhat luckily) a draw against #5 ranked Bulgaria, so I'll definitely have a go at this PPM Challenge Cup.

I feel like we should win our next match against Hungary, which would set up a final match against Poland, needing a draw or better to advance.

The upside is that any positive results should help our ranking even more, helping us when we are seeded for the World Cup.

Well we made it all the way to the finals, beating #2 Italy and #3 Germany along the way, losing in PKs to Latvia...so close Our ranking is now top 10!

Good work this season! I appreciated the play at the round of 16.

I have a player who is talented and I won't be able to train up to full potential Errol Parker . I plan on putting him on the market tomorrow for a week; would anyone be interested in developing him? He probably started out too low to be on the national team, but I honestly don't know the maxed capability of I.1 training facilities with this guy.

He's a 15-year-old goalkeeper. Here are his att/qual:

61 [93]
25 [81]
27 [86]
27 [82]
32 [63]
38 [83]
38 [91]
38 [89]
34 [64]

Would anyone be interested in keeping this guy in America?

In my case, I would go higher than 100K. This is a shame because your guy has very high quality but his OR is simply too low. I recommend you to keep him and give him the most exp you can. That way he could be better than my average 15 yr goalie I just pick up in the long run (we are talking about real years).

I mean I would NOT go higher than 100K!

Thanks for the advice! I may well keep him, then.