Nations League A, Camp 1, Cuba/Canada, Oct. 11/15

That might work out as Americans will be on the same footing as everyone else. Most likely, the EFA would get 10 Downing to loosen WP rules or the league will crumble.

 

A case in point is going to be Kayo vs Nyeman. Both were with DCU. One signed with a USL team and will be looking to move to Europe when he turns 18. The other signed an HG contract with DCU.

No reason both can't make it. But they basically started in the same place and chose two different paths.

 

To be frank, the protests about MLS ineptitude seem a little overblown. In the last two years we've seen Adams reach and arguably go beyond McKennie. Pomykal was nowhere near the elite and now has blown past the rest of his age group even though most of them are in Europe. Steffen suffered in his first European stint and then blossomed in Columbus. Yes, there are counterexamples. Yes, there are many MLS clubs are terrible. Yes, Ajax and BVB are better than any club in MLS. However, we should celebrate that we have had success stories in MLS since 90% of our prospects will go through there.

 

….on a different team because the manager is different and the lineup is different.

 

The new nation's league format FIFA gave us was supposed to generate increased interest because games would count in FIFA windows but it doesn't seem that way to me. Clicked on this thread a few pages back and nobody has mentioned the word Cuba or Canada once.

 

It is and it does.....for non-Hex teams. NL is meant to give more meaningful games to the rest of CONCACAF, for that it meets those goals.

But i hear ya... the tourney is a dud but is still better than 4 worthless friendlies in Oct/Nov.

 

Adams and Sargent are in Pomykal's age group. So is Dest.

As soon as Ledezma, Mendez, Llanez, or Richards step on the field for their first team, they will instantly vault past him. That is just the reality. Just like Dest vaulted past him with two appearances for Ajax.

MLS and the DA are doing a good job, finally, of getting professional ready 17 yo's. You saw it with Sargent, Soto, and now Hoppe. Guys that score in the DA, can score in the U19 Bund with barely an adjustment. That is a big deal. This is the best thing MLS has done.

Pomykal is going the Morris route. Whether that is good or bad, it is less exciting than the Pulisic route (which is what Ledezma, Mendez, and Llanez are attempting). Nobody has followed Adams (except maybe Durkin). The Adams route should be what MLS is striving for. That Adams will have left and two windows go by and not one more U20 American is sold by MLS is less than ideal.

 

It's been months since the Pulisic route has looked exciting, to be honest.

Also, what's with the projections to the future? A manager has to choose his players right now, based on how they are performing today, not how they performed 3 years ago or how they might perform in 3 years.

 

4 worthless friendlies v. Brazil, Colombia, England and Italy?

 

My sense was that Pomykal should go to Rbulls NY but hearing that he has a hip flexor issue, it would have been best to get to Germany (my hunch) because they appear to have better treatment and rehab.

 

It is actually more replacing the semi-final round of WCQing. So, we would have been playing T&T or St. Kitts, or Guatemala. Cuba and Canada are really not that different.

 

you're missing my point. holmes, CCV, robinson, etc., UK passport, no problem in england any set of rules. however, pulisic is there as a dual croatian, yedlin as a latvian, de la torre as a spaniard, miazga as a pole, hyndman was there as a portuguese, etc.

you're also not grasping why brexit is happening, which was primarily immigrant xenophobia. ireland poses a problem with that, but if brexit ever gets carried forward, one of the few things they probably want to clamp down on for sure would be immigration from the rest of europe. in a roundabout way a lot of our people got in as europeans (second passport).

maybe they get grandfathered, maybe not. but there may be a clampdown, for either everyone, or for new players. if a new player needs a uk passport or work permit then your sales pitch of "go to england and develop" no longer works. the reality of the work permit is you basically have to already be the Real Deal to even get one.

last thought, not quite related, but be real, dude. this is probably a high water mark for us having americans play abroad. a lot of people buy your theory. the reality is a lot of them sit. check out any sort of weekly summary of yanks abroad. that is like a "written in text" disproof of your own little argument. don't believe it this week? read the summary next week. and the next. you're like a marine recruiter during a war who ignores whether the people he signs up go get shot and killed.

but then your argument is not based on statistics and big picture trends from actual human beings aggregated for real outcomes, it's theoretical, "if you sign it will help." you might actually look at who plays or doesn't and how careers turn out before selling counter factual stuff.

 

adams is kind of a special case. he went from red bull to red bull. the parent company likes him, and he did wait to build a CV before going over. i actually think that is one of the smart scenarios to going there, is be a NT hot prospect with some caps, have MLS success/playoffs, be able to sell yourself more as a select first team transfer than another U19 fodder to roll the dice on. this is not the sexy, big $ approach where you get the money on your first contract. but i think it's how to establish yourself and command more consistent money longer term. landon, dempsey, you go over established and you can pick your landing spot, and command respect.

 

i like the point re carleton because it underlines MLS is no longer some safe space. personally, i think that's bad for the NT because we have fewer domestic starters from whom to pick. i think we are better off if MLS is a mostly domestic league and you can choose abroad for risk. i think that increases the pool to develop, assess, and pick from. i think it assures us of a certain pool depth than in turn makes it more likely we have some good players in that pool to work with. but if the reality is we aren't a guarantee to some touted U20, it basically fundamentally undercuts the idea this is your fallback school. it is simply not true that MLS is unchallenging. ask the actual people coming up what they think. e. alvarez is a stud. e. alvarez played maybe half the games and about 500 minutes.

like i said the other day, i think the argument is about a half decade stale. it's a hackneyed trope from the people who won't be happy until MLS is a xerox of england (salaries, pro/rel, etc.) right down to every problem they have.

 

steffen and landon and stu are actually good examples of players going back and forth until they take off and are treated right. if europe was perfect they don't get run off the first time. if MLS was perfect we have more money and a little bit better quality. neither is perfect and the smart player finds what he needs at the moment.

 

do you think that buzzsaw helped us one bit???

one thing GB overlooks is it's not like they had bedded down into some system and tactics and got to know each other in the year before he arrived, to build upon that chemistry. Sarachan selected well but then i very much agree that he didn't organize them for sh*t. and it still shows. except GB has had more than a half year to leave his imprint, but seems more concerned with "system" than with "chemistry."

i also think there is more than a hint of arrogance in a team that can't qualify whose fans continue to run their mouth like we are above it all.

i also think fans don't seem to realize this is an "A" league group where the other teams won to join us. we have the same 'tude about GC. the "minnows" in GC usually got there being the best of central america or the caribbean in some tournament. we are not playing montserrat even if in your heads it feels like it. we are playing teams that placed high in qualifying to get here.

i also think if we reach the semis the tune on this will change.

i do think that if we're going to call this a "league" it would make more sense to have larger divisions we play once instead of small groups we play twice. that would likely get you the mexico or CR or honduras game you want. it would also increase the risk we don't even advance fwiw. if we had mexico in our group and one spot out.....consider this while we mock cuba and canada.

 

Read the post. I specifically worded it to avoid these straw-man issues. I specifically admitted that there are clubs like Ajax better than all of MLS. Second, there are examples and counterexamples all over Europe. The whole point of the post is that there at least some prospects where MLS did a decent job. Even more so, the best MLS clubs are better at development than the worst European clubs.

 

i think until we play a NL game it's premature to say whether a game that counts against anyone is lackluster and not what we need.

i am sure for the lower tier teams this is useful to them.

and i think for the top tier teams, you're talking about it at the beginning rather than the end. some of our value would be the knockout rounds and trying to win it. there are not endless scads of great concacaf teams where you can have both THE GROUP OF DEATH and tough knockouts.

my suggestion would be groups of 6 and 2 advance. one more group game to play everyone once. same amount of "A" league teams but shuffled better and you play more of a cross section.

i've said this several times lately but right now mexico is a forgone negative conclusion and we actually need games with teams falling in between that level and jamaica to sort out what we even have. i would love a game with CR or Honduras because it would be pretty well put up or shut up about whether this has accomplished anything. but i suspect USSF would run from that and prefer to risk repeating 2018 from ignorance, than test the product before we put it on the freeway. if they play the level of teams that would tip their hand on what we really have, they would lose some control of the process.

a lot of you want those brazil england type friendlies out of ego but right now what we really need is a notch or two down and see if we can even beat that level. or specifically CR/Honduras. i find the brazil england talk amusing when we can't beat mexico and actually looked bad the second game. people are very confused what our level is. it is down from where you are pointing. it is we can work past curacao or jamaica.

i wouldn't mind tougher games also, but it's not because i am on some ego trip where what we are doing is beneath us. it would be to prove that we can do any better so we can fire the coach now, if we can't. and i think some of you are getting ahead of yourselves on canada.

 

never thought id experience a soccer lenny bruce...

 

My XI for tomorrow

GK Steffen
RB Yedlin (Cannon) 80
CB Robinson
CB Miazga
LB Lima
M6 Yuiell
M8 McKennie (CPT)
10 Lletget (Aaronson) 70
RW Boyd (Morris) 70
FW Sargent
LW Pulisic

 

My lineup:

Steffen; Yedlin, Long, Miazga, Lima; Trapp, McKennie, Pulisic; Boyd, Sargent, Morris

Basically, play a combination of the best players with a few backups (such as Trapp) who can afford to be risked in a competition like Nations League. I prefer Pulisic on the outside, but I expect he'll be in the middle with this group of callups.

 

If Egg doesn't play the guys he made cross the ocean in both games, for enough minutes, there's going to be some anger around here. And the players won't be happy either.