Trends, snubs, and surprises!
December 13, 2024 by Keith Raynor in Opinion with 0 comments
With the college season around the corner, the selections for the U24 US National Team make for compelling hype-building. Although the sixth-year extensions mean more big-name college players than usual are ineligible, the selection pool was still laden with college stars of both today and tomorrow. Some names have already built a great reputation, but for other lesser known players, including those from schools that compete outside of the limelight, this will be the wider fan’s first introduction. It all adds up to an exciting announcement with its share of surprises.
Charlie Eisenhood and I published and discussed our picks for subscribers on Deep Look, and shared our full lists (as well as that of Senior Staff Writer Edward Stephens) in the Discord. That can give us some sort of baseline to work from.
What wasn’t surprising was the number of returners: 13 players are back from 2023’s delegation that swept gold in England. Only one returner who was invited to tryouts wasn’t selected: Rachel Chang, who reportedly withdrew their name from consideration. Of those, nine return to the same squad. Erica Birdsong and Chloe Hakimi are going from the women’s division team to the mixed division, while Paul Krenik and Declan Miller both go from the mixed division to the open division.
Among the returners, a few were statistical standouts in 2023’s event. Erica Birdsong was one of three players on the women’s division team to crack double-digit goals. Trout Weybright was tied for third in overall scores with 191; Clil Phillips earned the same tally, a nearly even split of goals and assists. And Miller, despite being one of the team’s youngest players, led the mixed division team in assists.
A number that may be inaccurately low as its been indicated Weybright wore another player’s number for two games. ↩
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