my formative years were spent watching thierry henry miss a chance that good nearly every match. he also happened to bury one just about every time out which is all anyone remembers now.
To back up the point of the press snub of Haji, here is another one about Adams, talking about the Bundesliga Boys. They forgot Haji. They even mention all the German-Americans when they are making a point about the community of ex-pats in Germany. Hmmm https://www.sbnation.com/2019/1/22/18163433/tyler-adams-usmnt-future-rb-leipzig-transfer
Haji just started to earn a few minutes and isn't as well thought of a prospect as some of the others. I don't think it's a conspiracy. If he keeps progressing he will get the recognition he deserves.
Honestly, this is an amazing time in US soccer. This is what is fascinating to me: Think back 10 years, maybe 20 years. If ANYONE was getting some minutes somewhere it was a big deal (at least to me), especially a young player. Today, Haji is getting some minutes at a CL team in the Bundesliga, has been at said team for several years working his way up, and is not really on the media radar because the bar has been raised so much. It is a good sign as a whole. No, I don't think there is a conspiracy theory. It speaks volumes about how far US soccer has come in getting players in top leagues.
This is why managers have to bring in young strikers slowly. All strikers have more misses than goals. But we tend to overhype the players that score on their first touch and dismiss the ones that don't. Right now, the important thing is that he made the right run.
fortunately none of these kids played in qualifying when we were terrible. take your negative nancy butt out of here
Well, if you put Jurgen Klinsmann in charge without a tactics expert in his, ahem "coaching" staff, what else do you expect?
Without derailing the thread TOO MUCH, a lot of why we were able to punch above our weight IMO had to do with Bradenton. When a good chunk of your national team has played together for years since being 14-16 AND when your pool is stagnant at the top the amount of synergy you have just can't be rivaled by most national teams. It's to a degree why I think you've seen Spain and Germany be so good recently (their top players end up playing on the same clubs pretty frequently). Our pool has gotten better and bigger so we have much more turnover which translates to us being a little bit more inconsistent. But I agree in general, just 2 years ago we were starving for Yanks Abroad after a pretty successful 2006-2014 period. Haji is certainly being given a chance and I do think it's in part a make or break situation. He's either being put in the shop window or given a chance to prove he can be a valuable rotation option. Tedesco is fascinating.
Although I'd love it if I thought Tedesco had a master plan in mind for Haji right now, I think the minutes and bench appearances recently have been born from "Holy crap look at these injuries to my offensive options - I have no better alternatives on this roster than to give Haji a chance and even play McKennie up front. Let's prepare them as well as we can and hope for the best." It's gone OK, and credit to everyone involved. As for a conspiracy against Haji coverage - without the recent results of the last few weeks, there was no data to support having him in the top 20 most exciting Yanks Abroad stories. He's had those starts and scored, so many more people are paying attention, but this stuff doesn't move the needle even among soccer fans, only YA obsessives and USMNT fans thinking about the future.
I agree with what you say here. I guess what I'm hitting at is that this would not happen in very many soccer countries, especially on a CL club. So it's nice that Schalke didn't go for an emergency cover and actually decided to trust Wright. It's in their OP though. They've always given young players chances.
There are the sexy names and then there are a bunch of other guys. As for Haji's media coverage, I have seen it both ways. He is included sometimes and sometimes not. I think that is right. The less in tune guys to the player pool (more into the big picture stuff) like Wahl started including Haji when listing Americans in the Bundesliga lately. But probably guys more tuned in have him still in the "dark horse" or "post-hype wait and see" category he belongs in. There are the obvious next guys like Ledezma and Mendez. But I expect we will get another Haji or two (or Haji is the next Novacovich); maybe Isiah Young or Akale.
Interview at Bundesliga.com: https://bundesliga.com/en/bundeslig...t-league-to-grow-young-talent-usmnt-3023-1706
Here we go! Our starting XI ready to go in Berlin 👇 #BSCS04 #s04 #SchalkeUS🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/rWTIlpAXWj— Schalke 04 USA🇺🇸 (@s04_us) January 25, 2019
With 2 first-half injury subs? 4 points in first 2 games after the break? Yeah, he'll take that this season.