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U20 101

Written by clashfan

On the eve of our country's first appearance in the semi finals in 10 real life years, we wanted to make sure that everyone in the USA knows how they can support the development of the next generations of U20 teams.

Since our county has lost many good managers, we are in need of new farms to train players. But U20 comes with its own set of lingo and specialized knowledge we wanted to make sure everyone knows.

Did you know it cost $84.4 million to purchase the 46 players that have played in this World Cup so far, and that's with 15 of them being homegrown players. As bidding on quality u20 talent can attract buyers from around the globe, prices on the best studs is often 4 to 5 times transfer compare value or more, with many players being bought for $2 million or more, so we need teams with $ ready to invest.

U20 development starts in the youth academy, so first I'll explain how you'll know you have a possible u20 star to develop.

Have you ever gotten a USA flag assigned to one of your players in hattrick youthclub and wondered what it meant? If you get a flag, max out this player's training. It means this player has a good combo of max skills, spec, and age for u20. W wanted to explain what you might see when we assign your player a flag.

Skills: For U20 there is only three seasons to train players before competition starts for that generation, so starting skills and secondary skills are very important. Try to max out all the skills, because in U20 training there is usually only enough time to train 1 or 2 skills to needed levels so your player will be more desirable if all skills have been maxed out. If you have extra time, even max out the Set Pieces and get all skills up to the highest sub-level possible.

Spec: You never know when a spec will be revealed, so sometimes U17 scouts will flag your player before a spec is known. Once a spec, or a lack of a spec, is revealed, you might see the flag disappear because specs matching the position are very important in the National Team game. If a spec is revealed that matches the skills, you can start dreaming of diving in piles of money.

Age:
-HTYC now has a great feature to tell you when you player will age out in relation to U20 generation. Or other sites, like HattrickPortal.pro have a U20 age chart that can tell you when your player will age out based on what age they are today. Getting to know the following terms will help you understand what players are most important to train and which will give you the best value to sell or train for U20.

-Q14 is what's referred to as a player who will age out (turn 21.000) after being able to play in all fourteen qualification matches (weeks 3 to 16 every other season). Q13 is someone who will age out after week 15 (the 13th qualification match). Players that are closest to Q14 in age are the most valuable. Players that are older than Q14 (Q13 or younger) are most valuable when they are also Nasty so that the U20 Manager can drop the player without too much of a hit on team spirit

-Finals Eligible is a player that ages out just after the Finals match of the World Cup (week 16 every other season) The world cup has five stages after Qualification Round: Round II, Round III, Round IV, Semi-Finals, and Finals. If the team is able to Qualify (be the top two of eight in the qualification round), then we move on to Round II. There is slightly more flexibility in ages here. For example in the current World Cup campaign of the U20 team, several players were used during Round II, III, and IV that aged during or after that round. But the preference is still for players that age out after Finals so that the team doesn't have to drop them and lose team spirit or keep them on the team and use up a spot. On the other hand, there's a benefit to players that age out earlier so we can have some stronger players during early rounds. Often these players are referred to as RII.2, RIII.3, or RIV.1 or whatever, with the first part telling you which Round (2, 3, or 4 obviously) and the second part telling which game in that round they will age out after. There are three games in each of those rounds. SF is sometimes referred to for someone aging out after the Semi-Finals game. Finals eligible is used to describe someone who ages out after the Finals game, but this is a broad label that could mean they age out weeks later. The same can be said about Q14.

Flag Names
When scouts flag your player, they will label it using one or more of the following:

Positions:
-Keeper: max out Keeper, Defense, and Set Pieces. Ignore the rest and max those three to highest sub-skill.
-Central Defender: max out defense, passing, and playmaking. then max winger and then any other skills. If no spec, sometimes a defender will still be flagged as a possible set piece taker and you'll want to max that too.
-Wing Back: max out defense, winger, passing, and then all others. If no spec, sometimes a defender will still be flagged as a possible set piece taker and you'll want to max that too.
-Inner Midfielder: max out PM, then everything else related to IM, then all. Head is best, then Powerful.
-Winger: max winger and playmaking and then defense and passing and then all others. Head and quick are best, then unpredictable. A non-spec'd winger won't be used.
-Forward: max scoring, passing, winger, and playmaking depending on what kind of forward you’re building. Many specs can be useful here.

Other Labels:
-messaged owner: this means a u17 scout sent you a message asking what your plans are for the player. Please be sure to respond to the HT Mail so the U17 scout can pass along whether your player will be for sale or you'll be keeping them to train for U20.
-owner keeping: this means you'll be keeping the player to train for U20. Be sure to max everything you can while training this player and play them in every match even after they are maxed so that they get the highest experience rating too
-for sale: this means you'll be selling the player. For the good the U20 team, please still max all skills on the player to their highest subskill and send an HT mail to the U17 scout who contacted you when you list the player. Promote the player as soon as possible and be sure they get training the first week. This means either sell them so that they can be bought and played in the midweek game at least or wait to sell them until after you can play and train them in a match and keep them through your training update.
-for sale if buyer: some managers would rather keep their home grown player for themselves unless there is a verified u20 buyer ready to train them for u20. Let the scout know if this is the case for you.
-To Post / Posted in HT Fed: This is how U17 scouts coordinate to each other which players that are confirmed for sale have already been posted in a Federation where U20 trainers learn about which players to buy.

Why Should You Use HTYC?

Hattrick-youthclub.org is a wonderful tool for the development of your youth club and future players. Using it not only benefits you, but it is how U17 scouts can see your players, let you know which ones to max for the biggest U20 payouts, and arrange a U20 training buyer.

If you don't use HTYC, your greatest players have a chance of not being noticed by U20 managers and will miss out on the U20 training needed to be a star for the USA. The most likely scenario here is that if you don't use HTYC, U20 trainers will buy other players and no longer have the money or training spots to buy your player even if he is better. So use HTYC! We hope you pull a stud and get a huge payday! Many U20 players sell for 1 to 2 million and sometimes much more than that. (I've seen $6 million to $17 million sales of the greatest U20 studs).

Also, HTYC only works if you log into it weekly or at least every few weeks. If you don't log into it, the data is not updated for the scouts. If you don't log into it for a long time, the data for your players disappears from scouts' view. So log into HTYC weekly and sync it to HT.

Are you Interested in Being a U17 Scout?
We need a Forward scout at least, so message me if you're interested. It's not a lot of work and can be pretty cool when you see players you scouted make the U20 team and do well for our country.

How Do U20 Scouts Track Your Players on Your Senior Team?
LA-jashaz, Elcasar, and their eam of scouts use hattrickportal.pro to track players, so if you want your players noticed for U20 consideration, please log in and give permission for USA scouts to see your players.

Stamina
Training your U20 hopefuls with the right stamina is very crucial. You're aiming for excellent by their first u20 match (usually just after age 20.000), so you'll want to follow one of two plans: either set your stamina to 15% and never dhange it or start off at 5%, increase to 23% at 19, and then lower to 15 when they hit excellent.

So now that you know how to develop U20 players, don't forget to join the fun and watch the USA in the semi finals on Friday at 20:00 HT.