I looked at the roster of about half of the MLS clubs and it appears most of the forward positions are filled with foreign players. Mexico complains that most of the club forwards are foreign players and that is one reason their national team is weak at scoring.
I don't know if his name has been mentioned but perhaps Adrian Ruelas 1991 is one of those prospects. Ruelas is a forward who plays for Monterrey in Mexico and I think he is gonna be better than Herculez especially when it comes to finishing. He is at the U20 camp in San Francisco right now.
It may have already been mentioned, but we need to cap Danny Mwanga ASAP! He has all the tools to be better than Altidore, but we need to cap him before the DRC does.
I think you are wrong about that. I think Bowen will be teamed with Buddle up top a lot. Not to mention that between the US Open Cup, Concacaf Champs League and MLS, LA has a lot of matches to play. Bowen will see plenty of time. Hopefully he continues to contribute and develop enough that he will be in consideration for a 2014 spot. Both USMNT and LA need that.
He's not yet a citizen. And I think it's highly unlikely he'd play for DRC. 1) They have no shot at making a World Cup, and 2) the junta there murdered his father.
When he becomes eligible...........he will be looked at. Another intruiging possibility is Teal Bunbury. Everybody assumed that since his father was a Canadian international, and he's played for Canada's youth teams...........that he'd represent them at the full international level. But he recently waffled when asked about his international status. Players will develop. They always have. Plus, we'll have Jozy. He's only 20, and he's being linked with some big clubs right now. The next USMNT will figure out how to best use the available American talent. And if we don't have depth at forward, we'll figure out a formation to make it work. From a depth point of view this cycle, our strength appears to be in the midfield. So a 4-5-1 wouldn't be crazy. There's no reason to panic right now about what happens 4 years from now. We just need to keep improving the development infrastructure in this country. And that's happening right now as MLS clubs ramp up their development activities. 4 years ago how many people had Jozy Altidore (a 16 year old at the time), Edson Buddle, Herculez Gomez, and Robbie Findley as our forward pool for a team making the knockout stages? Nobody. It's almost impossible to predict.
I should have amended it to: "The State Department needs to naturalize Mwanga, and then we need to cap him"
mwanga dad's was a big wig in the oppostion which lost in congo... last friday he was on tv for daily news live, and he did say playing in the world cup was IMPORTANT to him...otherwise he was NOT in their mix, as he wasn't a u-17.. nowak pushed bigtime to get the kid into the generation adidas fold... he was getting feelers from france to play there... i've seen him play about 5 times, and he has a real good feel for the attack... 3 shots on goal and a goal versus kasey keller... has a knack for finishing too, something many americans... HE HAS 6 SHOTS on GOAL, and 4 GOALS... i'll take that rate any day
Schiliwaski is a nice player. He reminds me a lot of a young Pat Noonan, though his feet aren't quite as good. Like Noonan, I think he's a cut below WC quality, though it's certainly possible he could be an asset in qualifying. I'm also hesistant to put too much faith in any of the really young unknowns to be big time contributors in 2014. Jozy's probably the best forward prospect the US has produced in a decade, has been in professional setups for years, but even he lacked the polish we needed in the WC. I'm hoping a guy like Tracy can make the leap over the next few years. Someone DM Freddy on Twitter and tell him he has 2 years, starting now, to become a reliable NT player.
It's a tough situation in MLS. The job of an MLS coach is to win games, not develop young players. They're not mutually exclusive goals, but the main objective is to win games. It used to be that just about every club in MLS made the playoffs, but with each successive year there's less wiggle room in that regard. Last year multiple clubs missed the playoffs by less than 3 points. So you need to play your best available lineup in as many games as possible. Let's just consider one club, shall we......... Let's consider FC Dallas. They have at forward an aging US international in Jeff Cunningham, and a Colombian forward/playmaker in David Ferreira. These two get the majority of the minutes up front. Schellas needs to win games to keep his job, so he's not experimenting with inexperienced players at the moment. They have three young American forwards in Peri Marosevic, Andrew Wiedeman, and Jason Yeisley. (plus Brek Shea who played as a forward on occasion in recent years) None of them see much playing time at all, and most of that is in sub appearances. Peri, Brek, and Andrew are all GenAd by the way. They also have a rising star in their youth ranks in Ruben Luna. (This kid is the "real deal." I saw him score a golazo against Chelsea at the Dallas Cup) For whatever reason, FCD hasn't been able to sign him as a home-grown player yet. He's not eligible for the USMNT right now, but like Mwanga..........there are indications that he'd like to become eligible. The fans were getting antsy all off-season, pre-season, and first couple of months of the season. They demanded a playoff team this year, and they feel that experienced depth in the forward line was a needed upgrade. The Dallas FO clearly agreed. So they went out and acquired the Uruguayan Milton Rodriguez. This inevitably means even less playing time for the the young Americans. I believe Peri Marosevic, a 2009 U20WC member, is actually going to be loaned to the Austin Aztex. FCDs forward situation right now is example #56736285943 of why we need a reserve league. These young American forwards aren't getting a chance to get games. You can train all you want, but that's just training. And we see in the Luna situation how MLS roster rules can sometimes hinder the development of a player. There are those in the FCD forums who believe Luna is actually the second best forward currently in their organization. And he's only getting games against youth teams. That kid is to the point where he needs to be challenging himself against players like Omar Gonzalez and Chad Marshall.....not 16 year old high schoolers. I know I'm preaching to the choir here, and every year MLS development programs grow. But we still have a long way to go.
I agree with you that there is no need to panic. I also agree that there is a good chance that Altidore develops into the type of forward that can be successful alone up top. But I thought it was funny that you are trying to calm people down by stating the above about Gomez, Buddle, Findley, and Altidore coming out of nowhere. I think the reason people are worried is that we could find ourselves in a similar situation in 2014 where we have to bring 3 non WC quality forwards because we have nothing else. Pointing out that we had to go with these guys does not help your argument.
If you haven't made this point in the "Klinsi tearing apart the US Soccer infrastructure" thread go over there and do that as quickly as you can.
How many "WC quality forwards" has the USMNT ever had? McBride........ok? Wynalda.......? It's not like he played that much in "big-time" club football. Joe-Max Moore on a good day? Earnie Stewart? There was a time people tought Jovan Kirovski would turn into one, but he never quite did. You get the point. We can't just snap our fingers and have the American version of Zlatan Ibrahimovic appear. England, a nation that lives and breathes soccer more than any other..............has almost zero depth at forward. We just saw the underwhelming Rooney at this cup, the inconsistent Defoe, Peter Crouch-who looks great against Jamaica, but crap against good teams, etc. And England has full-blown high-level pro academies for player development. If you talk to English fans all they do is lament the fact that there's no young English talent coming thru......and that's in a nation that spends inoordinate amounts of money on just that. This isn't as easy as some people make it out to be. We can throw as much money as we want to at the problem, and that won't cut it. We just have to keep working on developing young players the right way, and take them as they come. It's up to the USMNT coaching staff to utilize the talents of the players in the most effective manner. Plus, this isn't as bleak of a story as people are making it out to be. Chances are that at least one of the forwards for the World Cup in 2014 is 16-17 years old right now. He could even be in the NCAAs, and we're not even mentioning him. Just roll with it and see where things go. Football fans of every nation worry about this things. Everybody always thinks the picture is bleaker than it really is. And that's because you can't predict the future.
Keep an eye on Schilawski as well as Tracy and Davies. Lenhart is a bruiser and we may need someone to play that role as well. I thought Wondolowski should be in, but he's already 27 ... too bad.
Hmmm, i wonder why? Maybe people should continue to believe that US Soccer does not need the Lower-income American communities help.
Okay, and...? The poster above said that: And I asked who said that. No one does. Klinnsman describes a state of affiars that EVERYONE knows is true and that US Soccer under Gulatti has been targeting through Hispanic outreach and support for programs like Soccer in the Street. Find me a pundit who argues we don't want greater involvment from 'lower income communities' in the sport. It's an absurd statement.