Sorry Maryland football fans - Here's the real Poppage

[TMAN]

Sasho snares the horse and you can't saddle this kid. Christiano Francoise up in New Jersey committed to Maryland as he's generally regarded as one of the top 3 strikers in the country. Big surprises in small packages to describe this 5-6 blur who has the ball on a string when he's dribbling to the opposing goalie. This was the missing piece IMO for Sasho for the 2012 classs. HUGE HUGE PICKUP. Francoise struck a friendship with fellow Hatian Wydner Saint Cyr on his visit to Maryland though Maryland sweated things out in this recruiting race with Saint Johns and Connecticut. Maryland thought a early committment was coming in early November from Francoise but the Johnnies and the Huskies coaches talked to the kid into visiting their schools before he made up his mind. So Sasho and the staff works their magic and snared a 39 goal scorer. Not too shappy Not too shappy.

So the ? I posed to one long time beat writer that covers Maryland soccer was "is Sasho done with the 2012 class"? The long time observer said "watch the internationl scene" ...so stay tune.

Still going forward IMO the 2013 class (with 4 highly regarded kids) looks like a big class and I expect Sasho to land a big time Midfielder in the Matt Cassell , Dominic Mediaste mold. Stay tune.

Tman

 

[Fekula]

Hmmm.....interesting about how he is ranked

I don't mean to nitpick, but you said Francois is a consensus Top 3 striker. I checked College Soccer News and Francois is #9 among forwards and #46 at all positions in his class; TopDrawer is currently updating their Top 100 list and only list a Top 15, which includes five forwards and Francois is not among them either. I think somebody at Maryland is spinning this beyond reality. No doubt Francois is a good pickup though, especially with Casey Townsend gone. More depth can't hurt.

btw, the top 2012 kid in the country, according to TopDrawer is Raul Mendiola, a California kid who recently had a six week trial with Manchester City and is expected to sign with them at some point.

 

[TMAN]

Re: Hmmm.....interesting about how he is ranked

Two things that some people have pinged the kid on. A) he plays with the Hernandez kid (turning pro, Sasho recruited very hard and drew TONS of attention from opposing defenses). B) he's 5-6 so how does he do against bigger stronger players. With that said, one set of eyes that I converse with all the time and who sees all these kids in the Academy's tourny's and national camps (as much as the coaches), says he's going to be electric at Maryland. Very very good speed and quickness. Something u can't teach. The set of eyes have told me he's the best striker on the east coast. 39 goals this past year. That number will make anybody take notice. One thing on those lists,.... don't read too much in them. Rodney Wallace wasn't listed on many lists coming out of hs. We know how that worked to Md's bennie.

Also another aspect with this recruitment,.... Sasho is really dominating the state of New Jersey lately with recruiting. His staff will go anywhere across the country but the way he's been mining these kids out of the toll state makes me think (thanks to Polly reminding me) to the days that Bruce Arena (x-UVA coach)use to get every top NJ kid going. Sasho has been dominant up there the last 4 years.
This post was edited on 1/6 9:05 AM by TMAN

 

[POLY1967]

Good info as usual TMAN. If you look back to my post on December 10 I ventured his name as a guess. I have my peeps also, however not to the extent as " THE TMAN " .

 

[TMAN]

Yea I played coy on this as I was told by sources not to let on. When you put the name out there (correctly) I knew you had your sources as you were spot on.

Anyhow Sasho simply reloads and reloads. If Maryland doesn't lose any kids to the pros, this squad has terrific depth for next year. The back 4 needs to settle in but lord knows Sasho has a number of kids to fill those spots for next year. The big ? is who fills Casey Townsend's shoes (goals that is). It could be by comittee next year.

t.

 

[TMAN]

More Color on Francois - Early Pro?

Here's article on Francoise. Some folks are saying he's one and done at Maryland. If So then we better enjoy this kid. See article below...

Player of the year: St. Benedict’s Prep has had many prolific scorers in its illustrious history.

Christiano Francois can now be counted among them. The 5-foot-6, 130-pound senior forward dominated the scoring column for St. Benedict’s this fall, collecting 43 goals and 22 assists in helping the Newark school to a 24-0 mark and the No. 1 ranking in the country.

Francois, who is the first St. Benedict’s player to reach the 40-goal plateau since Jose Angulo registered 41 times in 2005, had a goal and an assist in a 4-1 victory over Pennington in his school’s final game of the year in the state Prep A final on Nov. 6.

Second-year coach Jim Wandling was extremely impressed by Francois’ campaign.

“Christiano has to be one of the most dangerous attacking players in the country because of his athleticism and his abilities when on the ball,” Wandling said. “He has the ability to change a game at any moment, and we have been fortunate to have seen him do it many times this season for us.”

Francois registered at least a goal in all but two contests this year and recorded 11 multi-goal games, including seven hat tricks and one five-goal outburst in an 8-0 victory over Walt Whitman on Oct. 21.

“Christiano puts forth a relentless effort every time he steps on the field,” Wandling said. “He is nearly impossible to defend in one-on-one situations over the course of a whole match.”

 

[Fekula]

OK, some points on the ratings, etc.....

I am usually more confident of the people in the Top 20-30 because they are the ones who have been most carefully scrutinized, whereas the people from say 31-100 how the hell do you know? What exactly is going to be the difference between #70 and #80? Beyond the first couple dozen it is more a number crunch by however many people managed to see them play and some of those may have only seen YouTube clips. I tend to believe more the eye-witness reports that come out of summer camps, U16 & U17 games, residencies, state select teams, etc etc. That said, if you tell me that Francois is supposed to be among the top three strikers in the country, then I do expect to see him at or near the top of lists like CSN and TopDrawer. Very few really good ones are going to slip through the cracks there. I mean, we are talking guys who are being checked out by European clubs in some cases. Kinda hard to hide that.

I do hope you are right about the kid because in the past two years we have lost Herrick and Townsend to graduation -- I never expected we would have both of them that long -- and anybody who can contribute goals right away is a huge help. Jane, Mullins, and Stertzer are a good cadre but they can't do it all by themselves.

This post was edited on 1/7 12:54 AM by Fekula