At the end of the day....The US lost all three of these games. The Euro heavy lineup lost, and the MLS heavy lineup lost. The biggest issue is that this latest generation of players has not had to work as hard as previous generations. Soccer is way more popular in the US today than it was back in the early 2000's. Players are coddled and pampered at earlier ages than previous generations of players were. The last few generations as well as the current generation just doesn't have that chip on their shoulders, and dogged competitiveness that made previous USMNT's a real pain in the ass to play against. They also don't seem to have that sense of team/camaraderie that previous USMNT's had. The 2010 team had Clint from Nagodoces whose parents drove hours in both directions so he could play at a higher level, who was doubted every step of his career. It had Jay Demerit who went to England with a backup and a pocket full of change and made it all the way to the Premiere League. Landon Donovan was viewed as a Euro washout taking the money to play close to home. Jozy & Bradley were teen stars who leapt to Europe and worked their ways up the club ladder. Tim Howard overcame turrets and awful treatment from Man United Supporters to have a long and great career with Everton. Who out of the current crop of players has that chip, that edge? The lost generation and current generation lacks leaders. Hopefully now that some of the golden generations members are in leadership roles in the Club game (Bocanegra, Donovan, Howard, Marsch, Reyna, etc.), and at USSF (Stewart, Ramos) things will begin to change.
These were bad losses but there's a big difference between losing to Mexico and Costa Rica (both still terrible) and not getting a point off of an already eliminated TnT who was fielding an experimental C team. The point of this is just to get people to acknowledge that Arena had an axe to grind and it cost us. I'm not bsky22 who thinks that MLS players can't play - far from it - but let's just point out bias when it exists.
Busts of the Lost Generation 1. Freddy Adu The “Roy Munson” of soccer. It’s hard to believe because it’s been so long ago that Adu should have been at his peak in 2018. 2. Juan Agudelo When Agudelo scored against South Africa at 17 years old, we all thought we had found the next big thing... He was supposed to be Neymar-lite. There’s some posters who are still holding out hope for Agudelo, but the truth is that his potential never materialized. Part of it was because of injures, a lot of it was that he couldn’t find a good club situation, and most of it seemed like his personality and work ethic. 3. Brek Shea Shea killed it at the youth level. He is honestly one of our all time most dominant youth players, but the problem started with Shea that he couldn’t find his best position. In his mind, he wanted to be Cristiano Ronaldo. But, he was best suited to be a Left or Center Back. Combine that with poor work ethic and personality issues and a club in Europe that didn’t want to play him, and Shea will go down as the forgotten man from Texas. 4. Joe Gyau Man, oh man.. Gyau was about to be big time. Unlike the other guys, his problems came all down to that injury in the October game. Fortunately, for USMNT fans, Pulisic quickly filled that void at Borussia Dortmund but Gyau never really recovered. And the US missed out on one of its all time most talented wingers. 5. Mikkel Diskerud What the hell happened? I have no clue, but Mix went from spraying balls around the field like he was Pirlo and weaving in and out of defenses like he was Iniesta to ultimately not even able to get on the field at NYCFC. After years of not making an impact, he made his best Legends of the Fall impersonation out somewhere in South Korea. 6. Aron Johannsson The John O’Brien of this era who never scored in a World Cup. At one point, he was supposed to be the solution to all the US problems. Fate had a different path. As the Ice Man was made out of glass. 7. Julian Green “Julian Green, the boy who could be king.” To be fair to him, I believe there was always too much pressure and expectation on him, and he still has performed well when in a USMNT shirt. Nonetheless, Julian Green would not become the King of US Soccer has everyone had hoped. 8. Luis Gil Former youth Captain America was supposed to be the second coming of Claudio Reyna. I can’t really put my finger on it, but as dominate as he was in his youth, he really didn’t take that next step at the adult level. 9. Dom Dwyer He got married. Once upon a time, Dwyer was consistently one of the best strikers in MLS and we all salivated until he got his citizenship. But what happened? He disappeared in Orlando. 10. Terrence Boyd Boyd was the target striker we all hoped for. And then, he had that damn knee injury that he never recovered from. 11. Josh Gatt Gatt was a freak athlete and everyone thought he was going to burn past everyone in US shirt. Instead, injuries killed his career. 12. Rubio Rubin Rubin was a stud. He had so much hype around him, but he had a foot injury and he never rebounded. Now, he’s apparently playing in the second tier in Mexico. 13. Danny Williams, Sebastian Lletget, Ike Opara Okay, I’m cheating a bit... But, I do so because these guys had their moments and even Lletget might still have a chance. But injuries really impacted their ability to put their stamp on the field. 14. Darlington Nagbe Like the aforementioned, he’s found success in MLS. But for as dominant as he is for Atlanta United, that never translated for the national team. For Nagbe, the issues were more related to his personality than injuries. 15. Teal Bunbury, CJ Sapong, Kellyn Acosta, Kelyn Rowe While I’m cheating, let me add the guys who were youth prodigies but got stuck in mediocrity in MLS. They probably should have tried their luck abroad, but never did. 16. Shane O’Neil, Perry Kitchen, Bill Hamid The group who tried their luck abroad, and their careers took a huge step back as a result. 17. Gale Agbossoumonde “Boss” got stuck in the neatherworld of traffic sports and never recovered from it. 18. Jack McInerney JackMac was a lighting rod in his youth. Now, who knows what Jack McInerney is doing. 19. Anthony Wallace, Kofi Sarkodie, Sheanon Williams, Greg Garza, Kevin Alston There was a time when it seemed we had an abundance of youth fullbacks. Unfortunately, none of these guys planned out. Some because of injury, some because of illness, and some for reasons I don’t really know. 20. Amobi Okugo I really don’t know what happened to Okugo. But he went from being Edu and Onyewu love child, to not being much of anything. 21. Dillon Powers Kind of like Okugo, Powers was the guy who was supposed to be so good that he was going to replace Bradley when he was in his prime. Well, after a good start, Powers just didn’t have in him to do much else. 22. Cody Cropper, Chris Seitz Both of these guys were supposed to be world class keepers. I remember a buddy of mine who played FIFA, asked me who this Cropper guy was because his rating in the game jumped to a 92. Whatever happened, he was simply not good enough. And, things were pretty much the same for Seitz, who despite his hype, never really made it. 23. Omar Salgado, Nik Besagno. Speaking of guys who never really made it in MLS despite their hype... 24. Austin Berry And while some were hyped, Berry did excellent in his first season for Chicago. And then, he just disappeared. 25. Jose Villarreal, Jack McBean, Bradford Jamison, ad the failed class of LA Galaxy While speaking about MLS, are we all supposed to ignore that the Galaxy has still not really produced a solid youth academy? For a target rich environment, the Galaxy are more known for the failures than their successes. Meanwhile, FC Dallas has left them behind. 26. Jared Jeffrey & Preston Zimmerman Remember these guys? Remember the hype? They were going to tear up the Bundesliga. Well, that certainly didn’t happen. 27. Jerome Kiesewetter and Johann Smith And let’s not forget these two former speedsters. 28. The Honorable Mentions: Duka, Arguez, Marosevic, Kirk, Sturgis, Ward, Zizzo, Rogers, Szetela It’s been so long that it’s hard to remember that these guys use to be overly hyped and should have been primed for 2018. Nonetheless, none of them made it, and that’s quite disappointing for such a formerly promising class. 28. Wil Trapp and Gyasi Zardes Two guys that “made it” and while Trapp was not quite yet the 2018 fixture, his partner in crime was. And both of them have shown that they’re not quite good enough. 30. Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore finishing off, what the hell happened with these two? Their legacy should have been parallel to Donovan, Dempsey, Howard, Beasley, and company. Rather, their legacy now will be tarnished as the two leaders who failed to make the World Cup.
lets not say it and tell the truth instead of trying to push a lie because you have an axe to grind for no apparent reason other then it clearly makes you happy to complain about mls.
This part is simply not true. Mark Hughes was the manager at Stoke when they acquired Brek Shea. Shea was injured in a preseason friendly against the Philadelphia Union. Prior to that injury he was in line for playing time and a spot in the 18. That injury derailed his European aspirations. He never recovered and his spot was taken by other players who Shea could not unseat, and with Stoke in the throws of a relegation fight Hughes couldn't afford to take risks with a player that was unproven in the EPL. Shea has shown well at times with the USMNT. He's also scored big goals for them as well.
Excluding 2026 (as one of the hosts), expect the USA to never qualify again. Yes, it is the end for the men's program. Forever. It will be permanently doomed by poor leadership.
One thing on leadership, the coach should call in, at least some of the time, the players who are injured. Obviously, they’re not there to play, but this group needs continuity and connection. They need to be reminded that even off the field they fight for each other. So, even if they’re not 100% nor if they play. I want to see: Tyler Adams, John Brooks, Fredo Morales, and Tim Weah. Especially, Adams and Brooks... unless, it’s likely to hurt their club standing, I want those two there at every camp they can be at. Injuries be damn. These two can sit their broken asses on the bench and provide this team some leadership.
It might be less a "Lost Generation" and more what came before it was a "Golden Generation," which due to a rather nascent soccer culture everybody assumed was just normal and this "Lost Generation" is more of what should be normal. It think this is part of it. They other part is likely more luck than anything else as a lot of producing high-end transformative talent is more due to chance than anything structural. Donovan/Dempsey were born in 1982/82. I don't think both would be a mediocre USMNT player if they were born in 1992/93. They more likely to be better if they were born in 92/93 because the structure is better now than it was then even if it still isn't very good. At some point the luck piece should change a bit.
I've said this before in other threads--I think our youth soccer culture picks the "elite" players WAY too early in the process. It's almost a truism that we end up focusing too much on kids who are more athletic at a young age to the detriment of long-term development, but it also leads to the problem you're describing. In my years as a "soccer Dad" I observed that the kids who got picked early on to be starters, get more chances, go on to play in college, etc. all too often lack real grit. They know how to compete ON the field, but from a very early age they never had to compete to get on the field in the first place. They never had to fight for a spot, never experienced what it's like NOT to be considered one of the "elite" players. They were always validated.
I don't disagree that focusing on elite athletes was an issue in the past and likely is still an issue, but think this has been an issue across generations where it would expains the "Lost Generation." This is why it is hard to find a cause because a lot of the intrinsic problems that were around during the "Lost Generation" were also around during the period that produced much better talent. If their isn't a area of development that changed for the worse than it could only be luck in both directions. Great luck that produced Donovan/Dempsey/Beasley in in a span of less than 2 years and bad luck that nobody even remotely pushing very good was produced during the Lost Generation.
Based on potential and talent, I would start this combo of players. --------------------------Weah------------------- --------------------Pulisic-----Sarg-------------- ------Boyd-------McK------Adams-----Yedlin----- --------------Brooks----Miazga----Long/MLS whatever And I press. I press the ball everywhere and brooks and miazga better bloody well track those runners out of the back. I'm making Boyd my LB/Wingback because I think he has some pretty boy nasty in him. I think these players have talents or are talented. Weah plays the Auba role he played in Dortmund. Puli is a wild card. Sarg is my setup / hold up man. Yedlin will run 20km per match. McK and Adam strangle the central midfield. Miazga is my captain.
That's a great post. Lot's of talented youths who looked liked they could have been a guy. Almost none of them made it.
It might just be me. But I think the structure that we've built sucks. It breeds softness and entitlement. It puts kids on tracks too early. Some kids are put on a track of success/stardom, which leads to entitlement. Other guys navigate their way through club and college ranks. Just create opportunity and allow the cream to rise. The coaching is hodgepodge of good, bad, ugly, trying to be the next Euro wannabe. Maybe it's the wealth and the lack of desperation in soccer. But all I know is that our guys are soft. That's a culture issue that percolates from within this structure.
I'm not sure it matters as long as we're soft AF. The only thing that is clear about how the US should organize is we need to run, defend hard, force errors, and then strike hard and fast. This Bradley, collect the ball so you can take its air out, is best left in Barcelona.
What people will also notice about that generation is that they were busts whether they were in Europe or MLS or Mexico. It didn't matter. Bradley and Altidore are not part of the "lost generation." The lost generation is the players that are about 26 years old right now. Their problem is that when it came time for the next generation to replace them, those alternatives weren't there. Same reason why players like Beckerman and Beasley and others hung around so long. So people think they're trash when they clearly weren't in the primes of their careers. Watch the 2010 and 2014 World Cup performances again. If Michael Bradley's career had stopped in 2016 as a a hot shot 26 year old replaced him, then we'd view him very differently now. This is what would happen in France or Argentina. But that 26 year old didn't exist. We tried. Klinsmann tried a bunch of options. Hell, he played Mix Diskerud as a #6. But nobody emerged. Nobody. People demanded we call up player X and player Y and player Z. We did so, and those players didn't develop. Maybe there's a whole bunch of young people on this board who don't remember the young Jozy Altidore. He was the youngest starting forward for any nation at the 2010 World Cup. We've ridden him hard for a decade now. He's broken down and people want to discard him. OK. Fine. But you have Gyasi Zardes to replace him with. Bobby Wood, who Hamburg couldn't give away this offseason. And kids like Sargent. Kids are inconsistent.
Morris hasn't been inconsistent. And yes, he can play striker. There are 3-4 players who could replace Bradley now.
This long list seems like a coded message to us, that we are too quick to declare “the Chosen One”, far too early in their development. When they rise up, we need to push them to push themselves harder. We have to accept that some have peaked, and won’t develop any more. Others can, but they need to push themselves (think Reyna). There’s always more to learn, but we seem to praise them into complacency.
ahem, what sea did Arriola cross to get to DC United from Tijuana? I get the distinction, but for my money an American playing in Liga MX should basically count as an MLSer. Which isn't meant as a slur. It's just playing for Pachuca is a step down from playing for PSV (Lozano). Virtually any MLSer we've called in from Liga MX (with the exception of Beasley) fits the profile of top of the creme MLS player that is either too old or not talented enough to get a European team interested in buying. Think Gomez, Bornstein, Gonzalez, etc.
Thoughts on a few of these... The weird thing about Agudelo's European career is: he kept holding out for England or nothing, even though he couldn't get a work permit and had multiple offers from Bundesliga and Eredivisie clubs. It wasn't necessarily a work ethic thing. He was bizarrely going on trials in England even after being denied a work permit twice. Just a minor disagreement: I don't think he was ever really suited to be a center back, despite his height. If I remember correctly, he played center back for the U-23s at Toulon and was a disaster. He was always a flank player and should have been a left back, period. He was developing nicely as a part-time starter at RSL. His development stalled when he went to Mexico and got stuck playing in the reserves. Sapong is an interesting case. I've followed his MLS career, and he's shown tremendous resilience. Almost every single season he's played in MLS (all but one or two), his club signed someone to replace him in the lineup. Every time, he fought his way back into the lineup by June, usually displacing the player who was signed to replace him. I don't think he was stuck in mediocrity in MLS; he lost a lot of playing time because he was stuck with multiple coaches who had no confidence in his ability. Injury. He was a starter in his first two MLS seasons with the Fire, then suffered a hamstring injury in his second game with Philadelphia and spent the rest of his career in lower-league obscurity, first in Korea and then back in the USL. Villarreal was actually a really good supersub in his first two MLS seasons. And then he went to Mexico, didn't play for a year, and was a shadow of his former self when he returned to LA.
Sapong has played for three coaches during his MLS career: Vermes, Curtin, and Paunovic. Curtin had complete confidence in his ability, even despite him losing form and the ability to finish his last season with the Union. Austin Berry played alongside German National Team Vet Arne Friedrich his first season in MLS, and won the rookie of the year award....Friedrich left, Berry's form dropped.....coincidence? Despite what many would like to believe, MLS has rapidly improved in terms of quality of play and players. Because of this, many players who would have been MLS lifers just 6 years ago have been pushed down to USL.
Spot on. I mentioned in another thread that MLS has been the ideal tonic for the rest of CONCACAF (save Mexico) in growing their youth talent, giving the Caribbean, Canuck and Central American youth player a stable, rough and ready type of league in our Hemisphere for them to play and progress in. While this is going on, our own American players are receiving the same benefits and yet finding ways to not come together at the National Teams scene. These three really were high talked and got their chance, but just faded outta the U.S. National Team pool. Szetela got damn near Freddy Adu "future of the sport" type hype. Shame.
True. There is Gringo Torres, who played midfield for us at SouthAfrica2010, has done well for himself in Liga MX for years now, earning his corn season after season. I do not know if he ever got an offer from European teams. He, like Dempsey, comes from East Texas and slid under the radar as a youth talent, well save for Liga MX scouts who find players like this.
I think this is a very good point, but at the same time it was inevitable given our previous set up. In the past, our "elite" training for young players was very limited (Bradenton). As a result, decisions had to be made far earlier than they should have been made. Now that there are more high level academies that go down to lower age groups (mostly but not only MLS), there isn't the same need to discard/cut players at the same age. It still gets done but now we are taking the projected top few out of a region rather than out of the whole country.