I was thinking of Reynolds, didn't know the others were also in the first team. For some reason Reynolds had been highlighted previously, maybe I read something about him.
My apologies - thought you were speaking of Ferreira. I believe that Reynolds is currently in camp with the U17 YNT, which could be a reason for his exclusion, but I am not sure that he has played any matches with the U18's this year.
This is somewhat tangential to this thread, but what are your thoughts on FCD's academy setup? Do they just have a good group of kids coming through, or simply a very large geographical advantage (catchment area, in UK term; about 5MM people), or are they doing a good work in their academy, and if so why are they different than the other MLS clubs and top academies?
Interesting question, and I will give you an answer to the best of my ability.
First, Dallas is a extremely talent rich area that also has a very large pool of players to choose from. As players with professional potential become older, they seem to find their way over to FC Dallas as that is the only pathway to MLS in the Dallas area without having to go to college and enter the MLS draft. From a pure player production standpoint, the Dallas area (along with Southern California) easily produces the most MLS players as well as Internationals.
FC Dallas is very well run and has a great staff from top to bottom. However, many of the FC Dallas players have spent the majority of their youth career with other local clubs that don't have a MLS affiliation. The academy set up in the US is quite odd given the fact that a player can play from age 5-17 for another club and then decide to move to FC Dallas for 1 year before college. When you look at FC Dallas's U16-U18 teams, they are essentially the best collection of players in the entire North Texas area, with some even from out of state.
I don't want to take away from what FC Dallas has done in developing players, but for many of the players, their development really happened at other clubs. However, FC Dallas is providing a platform for talented players to take that next step later on in their youth career - and they do a great job at getting kids to that next level.
You are right, this is probably a topic for another thread, but the system employed in the US is nothing like what you see in Europe. When the easiest pathway to MLS is to play for one of the MLS academies in important years from 16-18, it is natural that players tend to move to the club.
