Mexico’s #19 in their match in Brazil against Holland yesterday should look familiar to those who have been keeping tabs of the U.S. youth national teams through the years or the college game. Yes, that’s Teresa Noyola, the creative midfield general that was pulling the strings for Stanford’s high powered attack this year (let’s ignore the ill-timed right winger experiment in the 2010 NCAA Final). The very same Noyola who featured at the U20 World Cup this year for the U.S. and who would have likely been on the winning 2008 team had she not pulled out for school concerns (leading then U20 coach Tony DiCicco to infamously question Noyola’s integrity).

Needless to say this is a massive, but understandable blow for the U.S. Noyola will likely slot right in with Stanford teammate Alina Garciamendez on Mexico’s 2011 Women’s World Cup side which seems to be hitting a rich vein of new talent in recent years. The odds of Noyola breaking into the full national team for the United States in the next few years looked bleak, especially given Pia Sundhage’s reticence in blooding youngsters with the senior side. Nobody knows what the future ultimately entails, and Noyola (born in Mexico), was likely more than eager to make the jump and get a chance to play in her first World Cup.

But from the U.S.’ perspective this is nothing short of a disastrous development. Noyola has been one of the bright stars of the States’ youth international programs in recent years and had become a key cog in one of college soccer’s most exciting sides. And for a national side that has had to tear their hair out at the continued partnership in central midfield of the extremely functional Shannon Boxx and the maddeningly inconsistent Carli Lloyd, Noyola was seemingly the tantalizing hope of what could be in the next generation of U.S. Soccer.

Now that future looks a little less certain. The number of midfield conductors who look to be able to step up to the next level looks to be less than fans would hope for. In the short term, this year’s WPS draft class doesn’t look too promising. Sinead Farrelly could make an impact, but is more of a Trequartista than playmaker. Amanda DaCosta may be a touch too functional. Rose Augustin burst to life in 2010 but is entirely untested with the national setup at any level and is also more attack oriented like Farrelly. Further down the line, Katy Frierson has potential but has stagnated playing with a mediocre Auburn side, while Ingrid Wells has blossomed at Georgetown but is quite undersized. Christine Nairn hasn’t quite lived up to her billing at Penn State, while Florida’s Erika Tymrak has been puzzlingly frozen out of the youth national sides for a while now.

I suppose now isn’t a good time to bring up that Sydney Leroux hasn’t been capped at full international level for the U.S., is it?

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