The All-Encompassing Akronism Thread

Come and get em.

Bunbury
Kitchen
Sarkodie
Valentin

Which of the above are the real beneficiaries of favoritism, and how far will Caleb Porter go to advance their careers?

Sarkodie only played 7 games for Houston last season some of which he only came off the bench. In the games I saw of him looked less then impressive. Sheanon Williams on the other hand played every minute(2825) for a Union team that made it all the way to the play offs

Favoritism is not the word to use here but when you hire a college coach for the U23 Olympic team you should not expect less than this. This has to be a joke. I can't wait to read more on this thread.

People just looking for something to bitch about as usual. The only player that doesn't "deserve" to be their would be Sarkodie. And if Porter is looking for a great attacking player, SW really isn't that.

I also love the train of thought that "Sarkodie hasn't played enough professionally" yet those same people write in Gyau/Boyd, hell even Morales.

I'm not one of those people, but you have to admit that generally, the Bundesliga reserve teams are far better than MLS reserve teams. And training with each of their respective teams likely puts those three at a higher level than Sarkodie. I'm not saying its true in every case that the team pedigree trumps player pedigree, but in most cases its correct.
In this case, I haven't seen enough of any of them, but from what I've read, they are better options than Sarkodie (irrespective of positions of course).
I also agree that the other three have done enough to warrant a callup to this camp. Let's see what they do in camp to see who deserves to go to qualifying.

I find it hard to believe Sarkodie and Bunbury will make the 20 man qualifying roster. If Chandler, D. Williams, and Altidore make the team, forget about it.

Well get used to it.

Akron's recruiting class this year was sick.

Alfred Koroma, Fernando Pina, Andrew Souders, Dillon Serna, etc.
And they've got a whole group of possible future nats on their current roster. Will Trapp is going to be a really good one, who'll probably be signed as a Crew homegrown in a year or two. Bryan Gallego, from the RBNY academy, is a good one. DeAndre Yedlin from the Sounders academy is gonna be really good. It goes on and on.

The only player you can make a case for as "Akronism" is Sarkodie. But Sarkodie is a former U17 and U20 youth nat, that many people think highly of. Williams may have gotten more chances last season, but Sarkodie could easily end up being better. How the hell should I know? It's not like Porter called in some fringe guy we'd never heard of.

Will Sarkodie make the qualifying roster? Maybe. If we qualify, will he make the Olympic roster? Probably not if Chandler and the full contingent of Euros are available.

With Kofi Sarkodie vs. S. Williams, I don't think it is a big deal because neither projects to be the starter. Also, both were in the last camp, and maybe the staff OBJECTIVELY saw something that they preferred with Sarkodie. Playing time in MLS from their rook seasons is not the ultimate criterion for inclusion on to the roster.

I think if you really want to make a case for "Akronism," Bunbury fits the bill better. Not only is Andrew Wooten lighting it up over in Germany right now, but even beyond that, why bring in 4 strikers and so few central defenders?

Truly, there is no favoritism being played here. It's a U-23 team - while we are beginning to have more youth players develop overseas or in MLS academies, we still have a lot of guys that come through college. That being the case, it makes sense that we tend to have a few players from the most successful college program on our roster.

Caleb's certainly made it more interesting to watch K. Sarkodie and S. Williams in MLS this season.

I'll officially be worried when Porter takes Michael Nanchoff as an overage player and leaves Brek Shea off the roster.

Haha I think all of the USMNT fan base would have a heart attack.

FWIW, some of the Akron guys who have gone to camps where Porter has been coaching have basically said he goes out of his way to NOT play favorites. When you're in Nat camp it's all nat camp, when you're at Akron it's all Akron.

Question #1: Have you seen Bunbury play? Question #2 Have you seen Wooten play?

The conflict of interest is rather troubling. I'm sure this will help Akron recruit though. If you want to have a good shot to make the 2016 Olympic team, go to Akron.

Really? We should not expect less than almost every US-eligible player taken with an early draft pick out of Akron in the last four years to make Olympic team camp? You're not even defending this based on merit, you're saying we should expect coaches to make roster decisions that are not necessarily in the best interests of the team?

Unfortunately for Bunbury most US fans HAVE seen him play at this point, for both the national team and SKC, and they are not impressed. Wooten all we have to go buy are the numbers, and that he's reportedly close to breaking in with the first team.

Complain about everything.

LOLOL like Akron needs help recruiting. It sure hurt the US when Coach K was only concerned about making his Duke program look good instead of winning the Olympics in 2008.....

lol @ this thread.

#1: yes (for KC and US, before you ask that)
#2: no

But in terms of raw production and being in season, I know that Wooten is in form. That's not always the selection criterion, and I'm OK with that. The more relevant point from my post is that 4 strikers and 3 CBs seems a bit unbalanced. The EVEN more relevant point from my post was the part where I stated that there was no "Akronism" going on (at least it's not wholly evident yet).

It's the typical Big Soccer "The player you've barely seen is always better than the player you know well" mantra.

It's tiresome.................

Has Porter indicated how he plans to use Alfredo Morales? I'm inclined to think that Morales is the fourth center back option, to go along with Valentin, Kitchen, and Opara.

With lots of new faces in our defensive group, we need them to come together quickly. That's an advantage for Valentin and Kitchen who've played together before, and with Sarkodie. But if things were to go badly with any of them, the homerism talk would really get ratcheted up.

Another interesting personal tie for Porter is the choice of Wisconsin head coach John Trask as his assistant. 12 years ago, Trask left IU for a job in MLS, and Porter replaced him as an assistant there.

fyi your inbox is full.

With players like Wooten who we have not seen compare to player we have seen I have a simple rule. Trust the coaches. I know it's hard, it can be scary at times but they have seen the both play. They know the personalities, and qualities each possess so I defer to their judgement in such situations.

Cool, but you did single-out Bunbury as less deserving than Wooten when you haven't seen him play. While I think it makes sense to critique Bunbury's game, I don't think it makes any sense to promote a player that you haven't seen. Especially when that player is playing against lesser competition that than the player you are critiquing.

That's exactly right. Porter has had camps to compare/contrast his forward options. If Wooten didn't win that competition in his view, then so be it. Five years from now could Porter look like a moron? Of course. Just the nature of the gig............ask Rongen.

With USYNT players strewn across the planet, the only real way to judge them is to get them together and see it with your own eyes. Just because Wooten plays for the reserve team at Kaiserslautern doesn't mean he's better than Teal Bunbury. It doesn't mean..................well anything. We can get in long discussions about the quality of MLS versus the German 3rd division, but it's all meaningless.

I didn't really single Teal out. I basically said a case could be made that he was selected because Porter is more familiar with his strengths. In terms of the lower competition, we did take Boyd who is playing at the same level of Wooten. Teal might end up being better than Wooten, and it might also be that he is a better fit for Porter's system. Neither of these guys is destined to start for the U-23s, so I think that debating which 4th striker got snubbed is sort of pointless.

Let the speculation begin!!! It's all good. I haven't seen Boyd or Wooten play, but I do know something about the reserve leagues in Europe. For now, I will go with the people I have seen at the mls level.

The best news is that it seems that we have at least 3-4 young strikers that we are confident in for the Olympics. Hopefully they all progress successfully - it'd be something if at some point we had multiple (strong) starting options for the full nats.