Biggest Underachievers/Disappointments in USMNT history

Ted Eck

 

Remember Zak Whitbread, out of Liverpool. He kept looking like he was going to break out and always just right before would get horribly injured. Like clockwork.

Robbie Russell and Heath Pearce both seemed to have rocketing careers out of Scandanavia.

Daniel Hernandez, might have been the first MLS American to make it in Mexico.

Will Packwood.

Gus Kartes, who at one point was hyped almost as much as Kirovski.

Jemal Johnson and Johann Smith.

Derk Droze

Vincenzo Bernardo

Preston Zimmerman, just because he got attacked by his coach in Austria and also kind esconced himself in the German-American controversy.

Steve Shak. Those brothers at Barcelona and of course the winner...

FIFA certified Jordan Older.

 

Also Twellman. How did he never make it to a WC?

 

PP was just a hype created by his bro. He achieved exactly what he should have.

 

I was on the Jeff Cunningham train. I think I was the only passenger.

 

Not really, we all were looking to "Jeffro becoming a citizen". Desperation was running high.
Almost as high as today. And then all of a sudden he was a disappointment, but the NT thrived without him.

 

Would disagree with "golden boy" as his club career was hectic to say the least. While (for whatever reason) USYNT wouldn't try other gks in their number one spot, EPL clubs were less enamored.

But I do think the previous generations of players lacked the care and resources to lengthen their careers as much as possible, especially those playing before or in the early MLS years.

 

On phone based modems.

 

Chris Albright. All the hype and he scores on his first touch with the NT. Fizzled out, became a MLS level defender yet found himself on the 06 roster.

 

No, sorry, Cropper was THE U20 and Olympic starter for his "class." That is like, we think you are The One. Keeper is a one man starts position and he picked the wrong places clubwise. As a result despite being The Supposed One he has not progressed into the NT and Horvath and other young keepers have slid into the prospect slot.

My point is if you go and apprentice in England and never start then who cares. People mention Cervi (Scotland, I know, but same difference) and others. If you never see the field no one cares if you used to be the U20 future guy. They move on to the ones who can see a field.

 

Uh, well I guess he either had a poor track record of picking the right clubs and them prematurely dismissing him... or he was never an elite goalkeeper in the first place and lost his job to an undrafted college player when he returned to MLS.

I wouldn't put too much stock in the USYNT's decision to name someone the number one for their class. Outside of the obvious ones, there doesn't seem to be much correlation with earning that spot and being successful afterward.

 

Yank Kid at Torino?

 

You mean Grand Torino..........? He's a hot rod prospect for sure.

 

I always thought Herc Gomez could have done a lot more with the NT, especially when he was tearing it up in Mexico. He had a nose for goal, good touch, and a high soccer IQ for an American forward. I do not think the US coaches played him nearly enough.

 

But that's not really "underachieving" is it? And Bradley played him, he's the one who brought him into the national team. The problem was Klinsmann not "US coaches"... Klinsmann took forever to call in Herc, by the time he did so he was already towards the tail end of his peak.

But in any case, back to the underachiever part:
Dude won multiple trophies including MLS Cup, then went to Liga MX where he was joint top scorer alongside Chicharito, then won the league over there, too. Oh and he killed MLS teams in CCL. And made the 2010 World Cup roster where he played in 3 of 4 games. I doubt you could find a single person who believed Herc Gomez would have such a successful career.

 

Herc was never the type of player for the cowardly style we played under Klinsmann.

 

Klinsmann was named coach in Aug '11 and called Herc in May '12 so 8+ months into JK's tenure?

Note BB gave Herc 2 caps in '07 and 6 caps in '10, thats it. Bob did not call Herc in '11. Gomez had 16 caps for Klinsmann in '12 and '13 before a serious knee injury derailed his career and chance to make WC2014.

After his retirement when asked about Klinsmann, Herc said in an interview that Klinsmann's best asset was that he gave his players so much confidence, he made the players feel that they could do anything and could beat anybody. When asked about JK sometimes playing him at AML out of Herc's normal striker slot, Gomez laugh and said he did not care as long as he got on the field. Herc said that Klinsmann wanted him on the field for his high work-rate and 2-way intensity. Herc said that Klinsmann told him to play like a wide defender on defense but cut in like a striker on offense similar to role Podolski played for germany.

 

Herc to me is a soccer IQ guy with a high work rate in the manner of Twellman or Wondo. A hustler. Solid club starter though not your star, and I think NTs need a bench workhorse like him, a scrappy player for close leads at the NT level, but god forbid you're depending on that for regular goals. Had a long club career after emerging from a slow obscure start. I think he did pretty well internationally for where he came from -- like, say, Geoff Cameron, not a pedigree Bradenton type from the pipeline -- and I think he was productive enough (and made appearances in big games) to say he didn't disappoint, and definitely not on some all time list level.

 

FWIW saying it was disappointing the coach didn't use him more is the opposite of where the prompt was headed and actually an argument on its face he shouldn't even be brought up. How did an over-achiever who played a fair amount disappoint? Nah, you're really saying you're disappointed in the coaches for the selection decisions.

 

Exactly.

 

Found the thread just now.

If you have a couple hours to kill...

https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/yank-kid-at-torino.121864/#post-1741695

 

Jordan Morris.

 

Spector''s Mom reference in 3...2...1...

 

Totally forgot about him. Wasn't it 3 or 4 years ago when the whole "will he choose Werder Bremen or MLS" was happening?