ASN: Segares expresses optimism over the U.S. U-17 workforce participant pool

The U.S. U-17 workforce is about to have a January camp and for brand spanking new head coach Gonzalo Segares, it is going to be his second camp in cost. ASN’s Brian Sciaretta spoke with the previous Chicago Hearth and Costa Rican nationwide workforce defender about main the workforce and the way he views the participant pool at this early level within the cycle. 

BY

Brian Sciaretta

Posted
January 11, 2022
6:55 PM

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The US U-17 workforce is about to carry its second camp of the cycle this month and for head coach Gonzalo Segares, it is going to be yet one more essential alternative for him to construct up his roster for World Cup qualifying later within the cycle.

A local of Costa Rica, Segares moved to the US to play faculty soccer and was an All-American and Herman Trophy finalist with Virginia Commonwealth College. As a participant, was most identified for his time as a defender for the Chicago Hearth from 2005-2009 and from 2010-2014. Throughout that point, he additionally was capped 19 instances by the Costa Rican nationwide workforce.

Employed in October to steer the U.S. U-17 workforce, ASN’s Brian Sciaretta spoke with Segares concerning the standing of the workforce at this early interval of the cycle.

Brian Sciaretta for ASN: When do you know you wished to change into a coach? And and and what had been your first steps to maneuver from participant to educate?

Segares: I feel one of many hardest issues as a participant is attempting to determine what are you going to do after. For thus a few years you will have put in a lot proper and sacrificed a lot into following that dream. However when it ends, it is tough to determine what you need to do. Later in my profession, I began to get ready. I began going via my teaching licenses and I began teaching slightly bit and I loved it.

As soon as I joined the Chicago Hearth Academy and we had Larry Sunderland, Stan Anderson and Charlie Trout. I actually loved not solely clearly serving to the gamers develop and constructing relationships however I nonetheless was within the locker room with nice guys. I spotted that I loved what I used to be doing and that this could be an important alternative for me to transition to maintain doing what I like.

ASN: You had one camp this cycle in November and I and you are going to have one other one this month. What was your first impressions of the of the primary camp and versus your expectations going into it? Did the gamers meet your expectations? Did you get out of what you wished to get out of that camp? Did it go away you feeling optimistic concerning the workforce’s place to begin of the cycle?

Segares: Sure, undoubtedly. Throughout this COVID interval, I have been at lots of the ID facilities. It may need been about 13 or 14. I used to be capable of go to the vast majority of them and get an thought of the highest expertise that’s across the nation. We had our scouts for every area that helped us set them up. It wasn’t a shock coming into the primary camp as a result of I already had seen many of the gamers and we had a scouted them additionally within the MLS Subsequent event. I used to be very excited to enter that first camp as a result of I do know the standard that there’s across the nation. They undoubtedly met my expectations. It was very exhausting to get the 36 gamers that we introduced in into the primary camp and it was even tougher to choose 26 for this upcoming camp. That simply exhibits the extent that there’s and the standard of the gamers.

ASN: In some unspecified time in the future throughout the youth cycle, you go from participant identification the place you are attempting to determine what you will have within the pool in contrast with taking what you will have and constructing a workforce. You at all times can add gamers in all through the cycle however sooner or later, it turns into extra about constructing the workforce. For the upcoming camp what are your goals and when do you assume that transition will happen?

Segares: Even for the primary time we wished to introduce to the gamers our tradition, the mission to get them prepared to start out constructing our group – regardless that, such as you stated, perhaps the primary two to a few camps are extra to guage slightly than simply to construct a workforce straight away as a result of it’ll take time. It’s important to get to actually know the gamers. However on the similar time, we need to begin to introduce them with our values and we need to begin constructing that group from the start.

There are going to be moments that gamers are going to be a part of and there are going to be different moments the place participant is perhaps out of camp. Should you have a look at the primary workforce, you see there are going to be accidents or groups will not be going to permit gamers to return for a number of causes. We’ve to organize everybody the identical manner and we now have to introduce everybody to the identical ideas of play… not solely give attention to 20 or 18 which will finally be a part of the qualifiers. As we undergo, it is going to be exhausting, however that would be the enjoyable half. Will probably be as much as the gamers to make it tough for the employees to decide on who could be taking a part of the qualifiers and all of the completely different tournaments. However that is a part of the job

ASN: Assessing what you see from the expertise pool, have you ever discovered what you assume this workforce’s strengths are, what their weaknesses are by way of what areas of the sphere?

Segares: We really feel very, very robust about this group. Like every other age group, some choices are going to be stronger than different ones. But it surely provides us the chance to look much more in depth and to go deeper right into a participant pool. That is what’s thrilling for me – simply to see how a lot expertise there may be within the states. I feel that speaks volumes to what the developmental academy was again within the day, the funding, and the advance in teaching, schooling and the event of coaches. All of that has helped to develop higher and higher gamers. Like I stated, we now have a lot high quality that regardless that we is perhaps searching for extra depth in our positions, we’ll be capable to discover that even with this age group or perhaps with a youthful age.

ASN: Can you share which positions really feel you be ok with and which of them you already know you are still wanting slightly bit tougher at?

Segares: I feel that we’ll see much more on this camp. Hopefully after this camp, we will speak slightly bit extra in depth about that. I am very excited with what we now have seen from the primary camp and simply very wanting ahead into attending to do second camp, however preserve pushing the fellows on and to get to see this on new faces that we’re bringing in as properly.

We do not solely consider what a participant is doing with us, but additionally we consider them once we go to look at them play with their very own groups and lots of gamers who did rather well within the MLS Subsequent event that caught our eye and we felt that it was a great time to deliver them in and measure them with our degree

ASN: An enormous purpose now could be to have a method of play on the youth groups just like the 17s within the 20s that mirror the primary workforce so that they are in union. But it surely’s at all times slightly bit completely different based mostly on the participant swimming pools. What’s the fashion of play you need to play with this group and what do you assume is feasible based mostly on the participant pool

Segares: We labored for the previous two years alongside with the U.S. nationwide workforce coaches on the ladies’s aspect and on the boys’s aspect particularly to create a method of play. The thought behind it’s to create that unison.

Clearly, we appeared loads into the ladies’s and the boys’s nationwide workforce’s fashion is a possession-based fashion. We need to dominate the opponent with our possession. After we’re out of possession, we need to be aggressive and to dominate as properly to have the ability to regain the ball. That is the primary thought behind our fashion.

We labored loads into attempting to construct that the previous couple of years. It took us a couple of yr or extra to actually construct it from scratch. It was an important expertise to work alongside the ladies’s coaches and all of the coaches as properly on the youth nationwide workforce degree.

ASN: This has been a really powerful period for younger gamers. COVID has shut down youth nationwide groups for awhile video games have tougher to return by. How large of a priority is that for you? Do you assume these gamers is perhaps behind and lack chemistry of earlier eras because of the lack of routine of being collectively and understanding one another.

Segares: It could be exhausting for me to say as a result of I wasn’t a part of every other era. My fundamental focus is getting these gamers prepared and assist them via to our plan and our goals for not just for these camps, however to develop them to have the ability to progress via the youth nationwide workforce system. I imagine within the expertise that there’s via all these age teams.

I would not be capable to let you know in the event that they regressed or not. These are powerful instances. I feel that it has been tough for everybody, for the boys, not solely of their private lives, however a lacking college and never having the ability to be at instances on the sphere as a lot. However now the primary focus for us is to attempt to push them to create an surroundings the place we will speed up their growth.

Once I have a look at this [first team] camp, Gregg has Gaga Slonina, the goalkeeper for the Chicago Hearth. A yr in the past, I used to be chatting with him concerning the U-17s and his function. And now, so rapidly, he’s getting expertise with Gregg. He simply exhibits that ladder and that is what I am attempting to give attention to them. I am attempting to assist them change into higher ready as they go into the 20s with Mikey after which hopefully in a pair extra months, they may very well be able to carry out with Gregg.

ASN: I can perceive how scouting MLS Subsequent is now simpler however what’s the scouting community for the European guys and likewise the home guys exterior of MLS Subsequent?

Segares: We’ve a community of scouts based mostly in Europe that we can ship to look at among the gamers. That helps loads. For instance, we have got two guys which are we calling for the primary time at this camp. One which performs in Barcelona and one other one which can be in in Catalonia in an academy over there that we heard about from our community of scouts. They went and watched them and clearly they’re taking part in at a excessive degree. So we need to assess them with the group. It is at all times tough with what number of gamers there are around the globe.

Right here at dwelling, we now have the MLS Subsequent, ECNL. We ship scouts to each weekend video games. We attempt to keep updated with how everyone seems to be doing. It is at all times tough with a rustic that it is so large. There are going to be instances that we would miss one thing. Issues will not be going to be excellent. I feel that Tony Lepore and his division with our scouts and everybody do an excellent job, they usually put in lots of effort to attempt to cowl as a lot floor as potential.

ASN: It is fairly a bit completely different than while you first got here to this nation to play, proper?

Segares: It undoubtedly has improved when it began to being centralized and the developmental academy, for me, was a giant, large step. Once I got here into this nation, the MLS draft was the primary manner for golf equipment to get gamers. Since all of the academies have began, and MLS groups began to put money into the youth ranges – you see Pepi was simply bought for $20 million. It speaks volumes with how essential that has been for the event of those younger gamers.

Even for me, being a part of that growth academy once I first began teaching and seeing the extent of these gamers and the teaching that there’s now, the infrastructure and the funding in infrastructure, it is unimaginable to see how rather more it has superior in these couple of years. It’s totally thrilling instances simply to be a part of the federation and be a part of how this sport retains rising and creating within the nation.