I think you kinda missed the point there buddy. My post encapsulated: It's pointless to rank players based on merit when none of them have accomplished anything yet.
We had 6 players, Beckerman, Corona, Parkhurst and Wondolowski, plus the two gk's who barely played in the recent "tournament". In addition, Boyd and Cameron played little following the Scotland match. Useful options such as Lichaj, Beasley, Feilhaber and even Adu were left out. I am hoping the "style at the expense of substance" theme changes. Poor results will continue to be the outcome.
*Raising hand* Which is why young players' projections are rarely to be taken with any degree of seriousness.
What does this have to do with "Exciting young forwards coming through the pipeline"? Do we really need another "rag on Klinsmann thread"
Any consideration, yourself, about any of these young forwards in the pipeline? Or, maybe if you prefer, we could discuss getting a look at Sascha Klejstan against Canada at the 6 instead of Maurice Edu, and what that might have provided. Regardless, thanks for the heads up, sometimes I read a post and respond without considering the context of the thread. My apologies.
People do the projection game because it's fun............but most of us are wrong at an astonishingly high rate. And the younger the prospect, the more wrong you're going to be. The forwards on our 2009 U20 World Cup team were Peri Marosevic (now out of MLS I believe), Brek Shea (now a winger), Jorge Flores (now a winger/fullback), and Tony Taylor (barely plays in the Portuguese 2nd division). The forwards on our 2007 U20 World Cup team were the now-infamous Preston Zimmerman, Gabe Ferrari (who the hell knows where he is), Andre Akpan, and Jozy (Hooray!!!) The forwards on our 2005 U20 World Cup team were Chad Barrett (eek), Jacob Peterson (ak), & Sammy Ochoa (shrug). We had forwards on our 2003 U20 team like Knox Cameron and Santino Quaranta. I can assure all of the younger posters on this forum..............that at the time we thought all of those U20 forward groups had something worth being excited about. Those of us who've been following the sport for a long time realize that predicting the futures of U17's, U20's (like Wooten, Kiesewetter, etc.) before they've ever done anything is essentially a colossal waste of time. Fun...........but a waste of time nonetheless. You're going to be wrong. I assure you................... For all we know Jack McBean will be on the 2014 World Cup squad, and Omar Salgado will be working at Home Depot with Felix Garcia.
Thanks for your wisdom and insight. I know you have been around for a while, here on Big Soccer. At what point, would you offer that, it might be appropriate to start getting excited about a young forward? Boyd, for example, has already received four caps for the full men's team and reviews have been mixed. He has just signed a contract with the 16th best professional league in the world. If he scores 10 goals for the Austrian team, how does that compare with a 10 goal MLS scorer?
Just pulling your leg. Given that Edu came in for LD the last 17 minutes v Canada when the US switched into a 4-3-3 look I suspect Kljestan at the #6 would have resulted in a 2 - 0 win for Canada.
The fact that a guy MIGHT get playing time in Austria does nothing for me. Nada. Let's see him do something there first. [I'd say the same thing if he was moving to a BundII team or any other team.] Just because you're there doesn't mean anything. Gale Agbossoumonde was at Braga. So what? He didn't do anything there. If Boyd scores 10 goals...........I'd basically think of it as the exact same as an MLS guy scoring 10 goals. Let's take a look at him.............. Right now Terrence is in Marc Heider territory. Do people remember Marc Heider? He was a Sacramento-born forward banging in goals for Bremen II. We had a thread on this board of a whole host of people demanding the call-up of Marc Heider. They called him some exciting young prospect that we must get included into our squad as soon as possible. Well........................banging in goals for Bremen II is basically the height of his career. Right now he's still in the lower German divisions, and has faded from memory. I actually dont' consider Terrence Boyd a "young prospect." I consider a "young prospect" a guy that can play for our US Youth national teams. Boyd has just graduated from that. He's 3 years older than Omar Salgado.
Depends what kind of goals, and on the strength of his team. I would say scoring ten goals in the Austrian BL is as unimpressive as scoring ten in MLS.
Well...............how many USMNT-eligible players scored 10 or more goals in MLS in 2011? I believe the answer is Wondolowski, Donovan, Davies, and Shea. That's it. And the strength of those seasons put Wondo and Shea into the USMNT pool. Donovan was already there. If Davies hadn't disappeared back into the French abyss, he may have as well. Boyd is already in Klinsi's pool. Clearly. If he scores 10 goals in Austria he'll stay there. If he's a bench player (which for all we know he could be).................then he may fall out of the running for a while. We'll see. Hard to predict.
Austria is currently ranked as the 15th best league in Europe alone. Their world ranking would be significantly lower IMO. http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/country/index.html
So, MLS is the 16th best league in the world? If that is the case, then I expect Boyd to hit double digits in his first season.
huh? Were are you guys coming up with these league rankings? Neither MLS nor the Austrian first division are the 16th best in the world.
Sigh. I'm getting so tired of all these rankings. Where did I imply MLS is the 16th strongest in the world? Nowhere.
If Boyd scores 10 goals he moves up the ladder and reaches level of Sapong/Bruin. Meanwhile he isn't even there. He isn't a some kind of a hidden gem, everybody in Germany has seen him dozens times, he worth what he has been sold for, in the range of $250K-$500K. Reaching Sapong/Bruin level at age of 22 is not bad, but nothing to write home about, probably none of them will ever be as good as Jozy is today. Reaching Ching's level would be a major achievement for them. Salgado and Bijev might fail and end up in fourth Estonian division, but at least there is a remote chance of them becoming really good strikers. In Salgado case, actually, fourth Estonian division is doubtful, he is arguably as good as Boyd/Sapong/Bruin already.
The Austrian league on any given day is better or worse than MLS. The lower half of the table are worse than all but the most dreadful MLS teams. The top half of the table are equal to or in the case of the top 2 or 3 on any given year, better than. Boyd will be playing for one of the best two teams in the country, so the competition level won't be very high. I say this as a former supporter of Rapid Wien.
when you put a quote like this...."I would say scoring ten goals in the Austrian BL is as unimpressive as scoring ten in MLS."
And where did I mention MLS, or the Austrian BL for that matter, being the 16th strongest league in the world? Nowhere.
How many WC caliber players has the Austrian league recently produced? A lot less than MLS. Boyd going to Rapid is a good move because he basically gets to play... hopefully. But, it in no way makes him a national team caliber player.
It's kind of like being an American on Rangers. It means you play elite competition against Celtic and in Europe (if you make it very far). But the rest of your games are against a pretty poor level of competition. Scoring a bunch of goals against FC Magna Wr. Neustadt and FC Wacker Triol doesn't really do much to move the needle. I mean, I looked at the 2011-2012 Austrian Bundeliga table...........and Rapid finished just ahead of FC Trenkwalder Admira in the league table. I'm a pretty nutso soccer fan, and that's a club I truly have never heard of. I went to look at what the players that had come thru FC Trenkwalder Admira recently................and it was a bleak list. Erwin Hoffer (recently of Napoli) and Marc Janko (Porto) stood out. So each Austrian team probably has a few really good players, but other than that it's probably pretty average. [By the way, the Austrian national team has been doing better of late. With many of the players that eliminated the Jozy,Freddy, Bradley team from the 2007 U20 World Cup. There's talent coming thru the Austrian Bundesliga.........just not enough of it.]