ADVERTISEMENT

Official Roster Up

Hard to get too good of a feel for the international newcomers, but in years past, “the lower the jersey number, the more likely they are to play” has seemed to be a decent initial gauge.
Probaly article on newcomers up soon along with updated bios on the transfers.
 
5 Brazilians and 4 French players. This will be interesting for sure.

one little nugget…Josh Luchini had been added as a post graduate player. He dominated locally at NA and scored 25 goals at Lehigh in his career. It will be interesting to see if he’s able to carve out a role with all of the players that Jay brings in internationally because the local kids don’t fit his profile.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gary2
5 Brazilians and 4 French players. This will be interesting for sure.
Let me ask you this, if they are from those countries, are they lesser players? I mean if they are good, wouldn't they already be scooped up by pro teams? Even the best American kids skip college soccer now.
 
Let me ask you this, if they are from those countries, are they lesser players? I mean if they are good, wouldn't they already be scooped up by pro teams? Even the best American kids skip college soccer now.
Yeah. To be clear, I’m not saying that this automatically is a wonderful thing. Im just saying that it’s interesting. That’s all. We probably have more foreigners than domestic players. These are all guys who aren’t at club academies for a reason.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pitt79
Let me ask you this, if they are from those countries, are they lesser players? I mean if they are good, wouldn't they already be scooped up by pro teams? Even the best American kids skip college soccer now.
Probably. Those more tuned in can correct me, but it seems that the really elite are going pro. Otherwise, it is trade off of better athletic development gained by playing on a U23/ lower league teams vs better fall back options by playing in college.
 
At the same time, though, the results have kind of spoken for themselves. Even if the international kids are second or third level prospects in their home countries, a whole lot of them have ended up being all-conference level players at the college level here.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gary2 and Pitt79
At the same time, though, the results have kind of spoken for themselves. Even if the international kids are second or third level prospects in their home countries, a whole lot of them have ended up being all-conference level players at the college level here.
True, it's the same with American basketball players, almost any US college player can go to a foreign country and play pro basketball somewhere, I knew a guy who played for Southeast Louisiana who was a basketball coach and teacher at my daughters school, he had a 20 year career in the Cyprus pro league and is like a hall of famer there.
 
Let me ask you this, if they are from those countries, are they lesser players? I mean if they are good, wouldn't they already be scooped up by pro teams? Even the best American kids skip college soccer now.
Uh yea, Pitt isnt out-recruiting Real Madrid and Manchester City for players. The foreign players who come over to play D1 soccer are the ones who couldn't break into the first teams or maybe the reserve teams. So they come to the US get a free education and maybe make MLS or go back overseas as an improved player and give it another go.

But as we know, getting a European or South American who wasnt ready for pro soccer is often times much better than getting an American HS player. Pitt does a great job with this.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gary2
Looks like freshman Noah Hall, the defender from Cincinnati who came up through the Columbus Crew Academy, was on the United States U16 team in a tournament in 2019. Doesn’t seem like he was on the team after that, but it’s never a bad thing to be a part of the national team at any level.
 
ADVERTISEMENT