News: German-Americans in USA National Team

Discussion in 'USA Men: News & Analysis' started by LouisZ, Oct 31, 2012.

  1. LouisZ

    LouisZ Member+

    Oct 14, 2010
    Southern California-USA
    Club:
    FC Barcelona
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    SamsArmySam repped this.
  2. az2004

    az2004 Member

    Jun 5, 2012
    yes very good,
    oddly, in the 1990s dooley and wagner, who are white were the first germans i recollect playing for the usa

    for 1998 qual. the maso twins whose dad is black and mom is white, STAED in germanmy when the dad retired, and spoke next to NO english

    i don't know if they were the first afrcican american germans, but somehow i think the coache is a major reason for some chooosing usa
     
  3. nowherenova

    nowherenova Member+

    Jul 20, 2003
    Formerly Terminus
    Nice segment. Wish it would have been a bit longer and mentioned some of the other players...
     
  4. az2004

    az2004 Member

    Jun 5, 2012
    the did show chander as one of the guys
     
  5. braun

    braun Red Card

    Feb 22, 2001
    metro Boston
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Why call them German-Americans rather than American Germans?
     
  6. Real Corona

    Real Corona Member+

    Jan 19, 2008
    Colorado
    Club:
    FC Metalist Kharkiv
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    They are called German Americans because it is commonly practiced to denote ethnicity first and citizenship second. To my knowledge we don't, or it is not common practice to denote citizenship first and ethnicity second anywhere in this country.
     
  7. Lascho

    Lascho Member+

    Sep 1, 2008
    Hannover, Germany
    Club:
    Borussia Mönchengladbach
    [​IMG]
    Erwin Kostedde in 74/75.[​IMG]
    Jimmy Hartwig in 79.

    A major reason for "choosing" the US is probably that Germany never asked them, or stopped asking (Jones).
     
  8. Emperor_Norton

    Jun 14, 2007
    But you could argue that all of them are German citizens (as well as US citizen) even after switching federations, which sets them apart from 99.9% of the German-Americans living in the US.
     
  9. comoesa

    comoesa Member+

    Aug 13, 2010
    Christen Press's armpit
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This is pretty awesome.
     
  10. Real Corona

    Real Corona Member+

    Jan 19, 2008
    Colorado
    Club:
    FC Metalist Kharkiv
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    There's nothing to argue. They are all German citizens to my knowledge that isn't question. That doesn't matter to the linguistic norm of describing Americans of different ethnic background. When you use an ethnic modifier to describe a person, you put the answer to the inherent ethnic question first and the already assumed knowledge of citizenship second. Danny Williams is an American, so is Edgar Castillo. What is their ethnic back ground? Danny Williams is a German-American. Edgar Castillo is a Mexican-American. The American part is not that question, it is the assumption and it goes second.

    What they'd be called in Germany is a whole different bag of worms. Often times rotten worms.
     
  11. SamsArmySam

    SamsArmySam Member+

    Apr 13, 2001
    Minneapolis, MN
    Awesome. Thanks to the OP for linking it here.
     
  12. Scotty

    Scotty Member+

    Dec 15, 1999
    Toscana
    How the U.S. Military Shaped American Soccer
    http://www.psmag.com/navigation/politics-and-law/u-s-military-shaped-american-soccer-82915/
     
  13. keller4president

    Jan 5, 2006
    I would just like to point out that without the German Americans, we would have likely finished last place in our group. Jones, Johnson, Brooks and Green were crucial to our quality of play.
     
  14. USvsIRELAND

    USvsIRELAND Member+

    Jul 19, 2004
    ATL
    Thats a bit of a jump.

    Jones and Johnson were brilliant. Brooks scored a great winning goal. Green scored a consolation.

    Who knows what would have happened without them?
     
  15. dcole

    dcole Member+

    May 27, 2005
    Green contributed literally nothing to our advancement from the group. Fabian was proven to be replaceable by Yedlin in the Belgium game. Brooks played 45 minutes and scored a goal after being on the field and involved in the play in which Ghana equalized, but it's impossible to know how that would have changed with Gonzo in the game (who proved quite capable in his minutes as well).

    I'll give you Jones, but the rest of your premise is somewhere between completely made up and highly speculative.
     
  16. ceezmad

    ceezmad Member+

    Mar 4, 2010
    Chicago
    Club:
    Chicago Red Stars
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    True that, with out Green we lose perhaps 2-0, with him we lost 2-1; Not sure how crucial to our quality of play that is.
     
  17. sweethome_bama

    Jul 21, 2013
    Orange County
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I laugh when fans call out our squad for the German/Americans but I've never known Germans to have last names like Jones, Green, Brooks, Johnson, Boyd.
     
  18. 50/50 Ball

    50/50 Ball Member+

    Sep 6, 2006
    USA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'm glad to have any eligible player on the squad but I can't assume we are in last place without the GA guys.

    Maybe we get same results from different tactics/ formations. JJ was good but without him, maybe MB is withdrawn a but and a better AM is on the field.

    Without FJ perhaps we see Geoff where he played all year.

    Goodson or Ream probably could have given us the same 45 we got from Brooks.

    All these guys are good pros that make the team better but none provided transcendent performances.
     
  19. USvsIRELAND

    USvsIRELAND Member+

    Jul 19, 2004
    ATL
    That and my more general point was that it's not like without those guys we'd be playing men down.

    Maybe without Jones, JK thinks he needs Donovan's veteran ability and Donovan has a great WC. Maybe Mix goes nuts, etc. Maybe Yedlin plays instead of Fabian and has an even greater WC than he did. Maybe Omar comes on instead of Brooks and scores.

    2 of those guys had a great WC, and the other 2 had great flashes, but we can't say what would have happened without them.
     
  20. Real Corona

    Real Corona Member+

    Jan 19, 2008
    Colorado
    Club:
    FC Metalist Kharkiv
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    o_O
     
  21. Real Corona

    Real Corona Member+

    Jan 19, 2008
    Colorado
    Club:
    FC Metalist Kharkiv
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Brooks and Green combined for 60 minutes.
     
  22. keller4president

    Jan 5, 2006
    Well by nature the analysis is speculative.

    But without the German-Americans, the roster would have been weaker. Here were the likely alternatives for each German-American:
    Jermaine Jones - Maurice Edu
    Fabian Johnson - Brad Evans
    Timothy Chandler - Michael Parkhurst
    Julian Green - Landon Donovan
    John Anthony Brooks - Clarence Goodson

    In that scenario, our line-up is probably something like this against Ghana:

    -----------Altidore--------
    Bedoya----Dempsey--Zusi---
    ------Bradley--Beckerman--
    Beasley-Besler--Gonzalez--Cameron
    -----------Howard------------

    I'd expect little offense out of that group, and we would have had only 2-3 good options off the bench:
    Offensive subs would have been:
    -Donovan, Johannson, Yedlin, Diskerud, Davis, Wondo

    Defensive subs:
    -Edu, Goodson, Parkhurst, Evans, Yedlin

    I just think Jones was crucial to our success (his goal against Portugal changed the tournament for us), and so did Brooks (brilliant header), and Fabian (his offensive runs down the sideline provided a good deal of our attacking threat in 3.2 games.)

    Would Parkhurst, Cameron and Evans had been able to make maurauding runs down the sideline? (Maybe Yedlin, but he also might have been burned defensively.)

    Would Edu really had been able to score the goal that Jones did, plus put in all that extra physical work?

    Would Donovan had more of an impact than Green? (Yes.)

    Would Goodson have scored the goal that Brooks made? (I don't think so.)

    Without Green, we would have lost 2-0 and the last 15 minutes of the Belgium game are painful indeed.

    Frankly, I think Jurgen would have been fired without all the input from the German-American players.
     
  23. keller4president

    Jan 5, 2006
    We could have used these guys in the seventies and eighties - might have qualified for a World Cup before 1990.
     
  24. RalleeMonkey

    RalleeMonkey Member+

    Aug 30, 2004
    here
    I'd like to point out that they were all born American citizens. Not nationalized.

    And, there were in fact nationalized guys that played for other teams in the WC.
     
  25. SUDano

    SUDano Member+

    Jan 18, 2003
    Rochester, NY
    Same goes for the Mexican Americans, and the Native Americans, and the Italian Americans, and the Latvian Americans, and the African Americans, and the Hungro Americans........
     

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