For the hell of it? It's only a year and a half away, and we've got nuttin' else going on 'til then. ---------Sargent------------Jozy --------------------Pulisic Adams---McKennie---Cam-----Yedlin -------Besler----Brooks--Bradley Rest of roster: Morris, Dempsey Sascha, Nguyen, or Benny Rowe K. Acosta, Bedoya Jo.Gonzalez Miazga, CCV That leaves some spots open. I know it's older than people will want. But, its' only a year and a half away. And, it's 3 years from the WC. Anyway, y'all will have your opinions, which I'm more interested in seeing than expressing mine.
Certainly don't want to see Bradley working on the Zusi approach to hanging on to the USMNT. Phase him out. There's better options for the back 3/4 IMO, like a couple guys you have on the bench. And no offense to Besler but I'm hoping his days are past him too. The next GC should be another test to see who's ready to step up. Besler can be on the roster but I hope we're more young and athletic back there in '19. Like the midfield but hope someone comes out of nowhere to sit Jozy down permanently too. But it would be fun to watch the Concacaf shin busters attacking him and see his response after last weekend. What I hope to see is even more youth added to each roster with the new coaching staff in place. I want them to be as frustrated as I am with the level of ability and athleticism and keep searching.
Pulisic Sargent Weah McKennie Hyndman Gonzalez Robinson Brooks Miazga Yedlin Hamid Siebatchu (sp) H. Wright B. Lederman Del a Torre T. Adams M. Gaines K. Acosta CCV M. Fossey M. Olassunde Jesse Gonzalez Horvath
Ya, I was trying to do a "who will be there" rather than "who do I want to be there." But, I don't see Bradley being jettisoned from the team in the next year and a half. And, I don't see him as a MF on the team in a year and a half. I thought maybe he'd be a fit in a 3 man back line. He's good in the air, and (still) more mobile than a Miazga. I'd put EPB there, but I can't do that until I see him playing somewhere. I get that Bradley is not going to be a popular choice. But, I also highly doubt that he will be left off of the GC roster. I was posting as if you get a point for every correct guess you make as to the starting 11 for the Gold Cup. In fact, I'm making it a contest. Predict your staring 11 for the gold cup. 1 point per correct player. Extra point if you get them in the right position. And, a point for getting the right formation. I'll stick with the 10 that I put up. I didn't pick a keeper, so I'm going with Jesse Gonzalez. The contest closes after the Portugal match.
GK: Hamid, Guzan, Steffen Comments: I think there's only one spot open here. There's a need to look at younger options, but spot #1 isn't exactly open, it should go to Hamid. Guzan is fine as keeper #2 until someone else really emerges. The battle is for spot 3, which I think Steffen will lead by mid-2019. Horvath, Gonzalez, Bono all have a chance, but I'll take Steffen DF: Yedlin, Chandler, Besler, Brooks, Miazga, Palmer-Brown, D. Acosta, Adams Comments: RB is self explanatory, those are two of our best players right now and both are young enough. Besler is one of our older players but he's still one of our better players and should be in two years, Brooks should establish himself as one of our better players this cycle. So that leaves two spots, Miazga has the age and pro experience advantage over the three 97's, so that leaves one spot for the three, and I think thats EPB's to win for now, although I would not count out Glad or Carter-Vickers from taking a spot from someone. I'm going to put Adams at LB just because we have a need there, and he's versatile. I think he'll be on the team, and I think Acosta will establish himself as our best natural LB. Vincent could also be an option here. MF: Bradley, McKennie, K. Acosta, Durkin, Trapp, Pulisic, Carleton, Pomykal, Lletget Comments: Bradley's gonna be there, whether we like it or not. He's still relatively young, and he's the captain. Best we can hope for is a reduced role. Besides that, there's a lot of young depth at CM. I think McKennie is a certainty in CM, the rest is personal preference. I think the other three I chose gives a variety of games in there, I like the option of 5 CM's, especially with our depth there. Gonzalez, Roldan, Parks are some other options in there. Pulisic is self explanatory. I feel like Carleton and Pomykal will be on the NT quickly once they get MLS minutes, and we need a veteran in there, so I'll say Lletget earns that role. He is versatile and skilled. FW: Agudelo, Wright, Altidore Comments: This is where I see the biggest turnover for next cycle, but I'm not sure it'll happen right away. There needs to be turnover because the production from the strikers isn't there right now. I was debating putting Sargent instead of Altidore, but I think Sargent's timeline to first team playing time will see 2020/21 as a more realistic option than 2019. Weah's another option in there, he'd probably have more first team playing time by 2019, but I'm not sure he's one of the better options yet. Wood, Morris, Ramirez, Dwyer, Sapong, Johannsson are some of the older options, but I'm not exactly convinced any of them are good enough.
Ben Lederman is a back up in his Barcelona age group, and he plays in the lesser of the two teams for players his age.
In my opinion, Miazga is much quicker and faster than Bradley. He is tall and gangly but very fast chasing down balls in the channels (a long strider) and with decent to above average quickness. I recall in person watching him beat Giovinco and Villa to balls in the corner. While Miazga is an imperfect player, mobility is not one of his weaknesses.
He's one of the older players on Juvenil B, sure, but Juvenil A is filled primarily with players a year older than him or more. There are only 5 17 year olds on that Juvenil A side, and most are older than him by a few months. It's not lesser or greater, Barca does a good job of treating them like U-18/U-19 teams, keeping most separated based on year. The only one I remember playing up in recent years was Kubo from Japan. However, like Lederman, he lost a step in his development due to everything that happened a few years ago.
Yeah, I know, I posted this before the 'rules'. I'm 'hoping' a lot of those players I listed pan out and get 1st team minutes somewhere next year. There are others I didn't list like Gooch, & Kyle Scott who could come through. As a matter of fact, I'd love to see Gocch converted to a LB but that's a different subject.
According to transfermarkt, they have 13 00's playing between their Juvenil A and B teams (they also have Ruiz who's on the reserve side). 6 play for the Juvenil A team, so its a rather even split, half above Juvenil B, half on Juvenil B. Of the 7 that play for Juvenil B, 4 start regularly. The three who don't are two back up keepers and Lederman. Obviously 14 players from that one birth year will not make it at Barcelona. If Lederman is in the lower third/fourth of Barcelona 00's, its not looking good that he'll be there much longer or that he's highly rated at the club. Thats not to say he is a bad player, doesn't write off him having a good career, but I certainly would not put him anywhere near a NT roster until we see him show something. If we remember back to about a year or year and a half ago before he rejoined Barcelona, he was a fringe player with the U-17's who didn't even make the roster for big tournaments. He played in a couple scrimmages and trainings. If this guy was some Barcelona star, surely he'd have shown well against the best US U-17's a few years ago. While I don't think Hackworth is a great coach, I have no reason to doubt his decision there to not give Lederman any call ups for big U-17 tournaments.
Of the guys I listed beside Brooks, Pulisic & Yedlin, the only ones that might "deserve" a sniff are Miazga, CCV, & Mckennie but we only have what we have right now.
Of those 6 on Juvenil A, 1 is a keeper, 3 are defenders, and one is winger. The remaining kid is a CM, Spain U-17 international, who is injured and 4 months older than Lederman. That kid has been in La Masia his whole life. Also, I don't place much stock in him not being on the U-17 team or not being included in a lot of camps or tournaments. De La Fuente could have/should have been on that team, but wasn't. U.S. soccer looks for specific style players, and ostracize those who don't fit that mold. It's rare we have creative CM's, I wonder why....smh. I'm not saying dude is the second coming of Xavi, but I've watched him play a far amount, he has a little bit of class that is lacking at all levels from our CM's.
I think Chris Durkin will be one to watch for the future. I know everyone is all about Weah, and Sargent, and Carleton, but Durkin was the most impressive player on that team in my opinion. I think our 6/8 positions are going to be very strong for a long time. This crop under the age of 20 already looks much better than Kitchen, Trapp, and the host of others in that age range.
Possible tournaments on offer next cycle: 2019 GC 2019 CA 2020 Another joint CopaC-style tourney in the US 2021 GC 2021 Confederations 2022 WC Gold Cup should be MLS/LigaMX.
And don't forget the CONCACAF Nations League, which looks to start in September 2018. https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-s...-new-nations-league-plan-source-idUKKBN1D81FD
_________horvath_________ _____miazga___brooks_____ yedlin______________vincent ________gonzalez_________ _____acosta___roldan______ arriola______________pulisic __________wood__________
Got it. Not knowing who the brains of the operation will be (coach) I'll be optimistic and say no Jozy or Bradley starting. Fingers crossed. I like Bob's lineup without Weah (for now) and Wood in his place. I'd like to think we have a good LB in the pool somewhere but I can't name one I'm excited about, so Robinson works. And I go Horvath over Hamid but would be happy with either.
Ben Lederman? Really? I know failing to qualify has been hard on us all but come on now. We're not going to start calling in some kid playing for Barca's youth side B team as a backup.
---------Altidore----Wood------------ ----------------Pulisic------------------ -------Nagbe-----------Arriola-------- ----------------Bradley----------------- Villafana-Besler-Gonzalez-Yedlin ----------------Howard------------------
I can't believe a soothsayer thread in is N&A. What the hell is big soccer coming too. A f***ing tourney that is over a year and a half away and we are starting line-up prediction threads. This crap needs to be moved to US men where there is a lower standard. How can you have analysis when we don't even have a f***ing coach? No wonder this board is losing so many good posters...SMH
Moving it to US Men is a good idea. But, if the board is losing good posters it's more likely because of posters that are so tightly wound that the stroke out because they think a thread is posted in the incorrect forum, rather than because a thread was posted in the incorrect forum.