Espinoza hasn't been overseas to qualify for his own YA thread and I didn't realize until today that he has been a US citizen since 2008, so it makes sense to take credit for another Yank in the EPL. http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/11/26/sportings-espinoza-seems-set-winter-switch-wigan The deal's not final and he will need to go through the work permit process, but his appearances in the Olympics and World Cup should help seal the deal.
25 Honduras caps over the last 3 years - shouldn't he be an automatic? Anyway, with his athleticism, he should fit well as a wingback in Martinez's 3-5-2.
Work permit approved: www.wiganlatics.co.uk/news/article/12-12-17-espinoza-to-be-a-latic-549287.aspx Looks like he will be eligible to play starting with an FA Cup match on January 5th.
Could he ever play for the USA? I guess not. Is the reason because he is over 21? Sorry, I don't keep close track of these FIFA rules.
If you play a senior game that matters, then you can't switch. Espinoza has played in the Gold Cup and in CONCACAF qualifying.
He received his US citizenship in 2008 and didn't get his first cap until 2009, so he could have chosen the US if we had been interested at the time. But he has since played in the Gold Cup as mentioned above, which is a cap-tying competition. He was a rare dual citizen who didn't garner much speculation or resentment at the time. The FIFA rule no longer talks about age. You become tied to a federation only when you play in an "official competition" - WC, WCQ, Gold Cup or equivalent. If you played in an "official" youth competition (U17-U23), you can make a one-time switch provided you were a citizen of both countries when you made your first competitive appearance.
He's actually triple cap tied. He started two matches at the World Cup. Espinoza would have been useful for the US, moreso as a fullback than as a midfielder (which he plays now).
only if the US annexes Honduras (or, I suppose, if another country conquers and absorbs Honduras...pretty sure those Costa Ricans have just been biding their time...)
It's pretty rare to see someone like Espinoza move straight to that level from MLS without having earned any league wide recognition, like a Best XI or All-Star Appearance. Maybe I'm forgetting some names, but the only non-youth prospect I can think of who went straight from MLS to debuting in a top 4 league without that sort of recognition was Simon Elliot. (I guess he was his club's MVP, but Columbus were lousy that season.)
Does a friendly not provisionally cap tie you at all? For some reason I thought that when Yura Movsisyan played in a friendly for Armenia before being a US citizen he lost his ability to play for the US? [In the end he got cap-tied a month later in a WCQ]
Nope (at least that appears to be the consensus here), it has to be in a competition. If Yura had played in an official competition for Armenia at U21 level, then he would have been "provisionally tied" to Armenia and unable to ever switch to the US because he wasn't a citizen at the time. Friendlies never tie you to a country. Of course, these are FIFA rules and subject to lots of interpretation & misinterpretation.
Espinoza made his Wigan debut, starting in the FA Cup against Bournemouth. Went 90. Picked up a yellow card along the way.
I didn't watch closely & maybe only caught the last 15 minutes of regulation, but he had a couple of nice passes into the box as Wigan was trying to come back from 2 goals down. He did surrender the ball a bit too easily in the final minutes, either by bad pass or dispossession.
The Guardian, the broadsheet (i.e. non-tabloid) with the best football coverage has been raving about Espinoza's debut: "Roger Espinoza made an extraordinary Premier League debut at Stoke. It wasn't just that he had a hand in all four goals, one way or another, and also picked up a booking, it was that after no more than an hour the Wigan players were seeking him out with the ball. Espinoza always seemed to want possession, found space brilliantly, and almost always used the ball well. Roberto Martínez claimed to have discovered him at the 2010 World Cup, playing for Honduras in direct competition to Jean Beausejour of Chile. He now has them both at Wigan, and Espinoza seems capable of having even more of an impact on the business end of the season than Beausejour did this time last year. If Kansas City contains many more players of such quality available on free transfers, talent scouts will soon be relocating from Spain and France. " http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2013/jan/31/premier-league-10-talking-points
The Guardian, the broadsheet (i.e. non-tabloid) with the best football coverage has been raving about Espinoza's debut: "Roger Espinoza made an extraordinary Premier League debut at Stoke. It wasn't just that he had a hand in all four goals, one way or another, and also picked up a booking, it was that after no more than an hour the Wigan players were seeking him out with the ball. Espinoza always seemed to want possession, found space brilliantly, and almost always used the ball well. Roberto Martínez claimed to have discovered him at the 2010 World Cup, playing for Honduras in direct competition to Jean Beausejour of Chile. He now has them both at Wigan, and Espinoza seems capable of having even more of an impact on the business end of the season than Beausejour did this time last year. If Kansas City contains many more players of such quality available on free transfers, talent scouts will soon be relocating from Spain and France. " http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2013/jan/31/premier-league-10-talking-points
Wow. That's some endorsement. My take on MLSers moving to top leagues is that if a Euro club brings in players who are established as elite MLS players, that's smart business. However, buying MLSers based on potential is bad business (so far.) To me, Espinoza was a very good MLS player but not at the elite level. Not counting Henry and Keane and guys like that, my "count" of elite MLSers is gonna be under 10 in any given year, usually about a half dozen. And I never thought of Roger as being at that level. Here's my point. If Roger Espinoza can do this, and if others of the same quality in MLS can do similar things, then the whole equation has changed. It'll be interesting to see how it works out with Roger and Kei Kamara. EDIT: And Simon Dawkins.
I think the MLS and EPL play a similar style (athletic, direct, fast, strong, etc.), so, while there is a bit of a jump in quality to adjust to, the player doesn't really have to change how he plays the game. A move to Spain or Italy would be more difficult IMO.
Attitudes seem to be changing in England about the quality of players from MLS. They've seen players like Holden and Cameron step right into the premier league level and perform well. I think there was a time when MLS-based players were seen as projects that would take a while to adapt. I'm not sure that's the case any more.