Here's a question... Whatever happened to Sal Zizzo? Shouldn't he be somewhere in the top 20? I thought I read he signed with Hanover 86 and was loaned but suffered some sort of injury setback??... I remember seeing him in a friendly I think a couple years ago and thought he looked halfway decent??? Someone refresh my spotty memory or tell me if I'm off my rocker...
Between the list of forwards here and the depth in midfield, looks like we want might to try some 4-5-1 next cycle.
He was too much of a tweener, and has gradually been moved to right back. He suffered a bunch of injuries along the way, so it remains to be seen if he'll ever be an effective pro.
Only if Jozy gets injured. Jozy did all the Brian Ching things (hold the ball, killer passes in the box, knock-down headers, draw free kicks) this past World Cup. I doubt he's just going to quit doing that now that the Cup is over.
Freddy is having trouble finding quality playing time. It looks like Aris may not want him anymore either, which means it's back to Benfica to ride the pine. Adu's best move right now is to find his way back to MLS where he will get some quality minutes. There are certainly teams that that could use him....plenty of them. On the other note, I do think, as I did before this WC that Pontius would be a much better addition than Findley or Buddle.
After searching around a bit and coming up empty, I'll ask: Is there a reason Joseph-Claude Gyau isn't on this list?
Good thing we're so loaded with quality talent at striker that we can just ignore him because he may be immature and/or still has roots in Ghana. All we know is this: The chances of Jozy and Charlie continuing to develop and being healthy for the 2014 World Cup is very small four years out. We need some other options to develop, and this crop, for now, looks very thin. Paging Claudio, we have your development project for the next four years.
juan agudelo (RBNY) is still very raw, but he's only 17. he'll get some more playing time if RBNY keeps advancing in the US Open cup, but he's gotten barely any / no playing time with the senior team. he's represented the US at various youth national team levels already...if he progresses nicely, he could make a push to be on the team next time around
Tris Bowen is starting to show some promise for the Galaxy, and it looks like he will play along side Buddle when Edson and Landon come back. I'm not saying he'll improve enough to make the squad in four years, but he's on the right track. Omar Gonzalez is also on track to be a centerback in four years. The kid has the size and the smarts and he just needs some experience. I am certain he'll start getting called up very soon.
Well, hopefully we'll have a manager with enough brains to play 4-2-3-1 anyway, so we won't need that many #9's. Anyway: 1. Altidore 2. Davies (if recovery goes well) 3. Dempsey 4. Donovan (if you want) ============================= Throw in guys like Buddle, Johnson, and Adu and hope for some younger players to develop.
Seriously, if this is all we have then we are in trouble. I hope there is some surprise player that comes along.
Renken, Lletget, Gyau, Diskerud, Lichaj, McInerney come on guys. We do have a lot of talent going through.
It would help if we can get a good coach like a Chile's Bielsa who can get the maximum out of a player.
4 years before this world cup we had also not heard of several of the current team's players (Davies,Findley). And if we had heard of them (Gomez, Buddle, Holden) we probably thought we were in trouble. That is what I like about the future, it is so freaking unpredictable and that is exciting.
The serious issue is that this is the first time in a long time the question isn't about who are the other 10 guys we use to build the team around Landon Donovan. Donovan will be 32 and while I expect him to age relatively well, by 2014 you'd have to expect he'd be a little bit below his abilities at his peak. Landon Donovan has been the the future or current star of US Soccer since 1999. Life where neither is the case might prove quite difficult. So we're going to have a shortfall there that we need to make up and the prospects for making up that ground don't look real appetizing right now. Much as folks like to bash him, getting Freddy straightened out would be a huge plus for us if we could somehow get it down. The problem gets even worse thinking about 2018.
I think the next 4 years are going to be a great adventure. We will see current young players improve and become international players. We will see players that aren't on the radar become important parts of the picture. I look forward with great anticipation to the show.
Gulley is on there. I considered Jerome, but in terms of making decisions I place a lot of weight on the player's current club situation and there are other players Jerome's age who simply are in a better spot in terms of club. If the Traffic folks can get him into a club that's a decent club and one where he gets minutes and succeeds, that all changes of course. Let's wait and see. Right now he's coming on as a sub for Miami FC. The folks at Traffic are very much a wild card here in the future of American player development. They've taken a little heat and some of it is deserved, but they deserve the chance to see how a different approach might work for us.